Arjun gasped awake. Concrete dust clogged his mouth.
His right shoulder bled, sliced by rebar. His left ear rang from the pressure shock. But he was alive.
The Police Headquarters — gone.
Only the skeleton of the structure remained, a husk of shattered pride and bent steel. Walls glowed with weird, flickering radiation. Radios? Dead. Phones? Silent.
He stumbled through the cracked command desk, eyes catching on a faint, floating blue screen.
It hovered in front of him. No source. No projector.
Just floating… like truth that refused to be ignored.
[System Mission Activated]
MISSION: ESCAPE DELHI POLICE HQTime Limit: 45 MinutesRavager Activity Detected: 2 Lifeforms
- Completion Reward: +1 Apocalypse Coin- Bonus Reward: Basic Tactical Kit (if no injury taken)
Warning: Divine Territory not yet discovered.Sanctum Level: 0
"What the hell… is this?" Arjun whispered.
The word 'Apocalypse Coin' made no sense.
But something inside him tightened — like the moment before drawing a gun in an alley, or raiding a gangster's den. That feeling only a cop knows.
He trusted it.
Even if it was madness.
He limped toward the armory vault, half-buried beneath a collapsed wall. A strange copper ash floated in the air, almost alive.
His fingers found a reinforced baton under a locker door.
Not a sword. Not a gun. But real.
He took it.
His father's words came back: "You don't need to understand God to listen to Him."
Suddenly, a howl echoed from the corridor.
Something not human. Something wearing the uniform of his colleague… with a twisted neck and no jaw.
Its eyes glowed like LEDs soaked in blood.
Ravager.
It sprinted toward him.
Arjun braced.
The baton cracked across the thing's skull — and again — and again. Bloodless. Bone dry. It collapsed, and turned to ash mixed with shadow.
In its place floated a single silver-black coin.
Ravager Neutralized.+1 Apocalypse Coin AcquiredSkill Unlocked: Improvised Combat (Tier I)System Status: Stabilized
He grabbed the coin.
And the moment it touched his hand—heat surged through his chest, like being blessed and branded at the same time.
Adrenal Response (Tier 0.5)- Temporary speed, clarity, and strength increase during high-stress situations.- Passive Skill Activated.
He didn't understand.
But he felt it was true.
The building groaned. The second Ravager was close.
His eyes caught the emergency exit shaft.
"Move, Rathore," he whispered to himself.
He dashed through broken walls, slipped down the service ladder, kicked open the fallen shutter—
And emerged.
Out into a city that was no longer Delhi.
No traffic.
No voices.
Just ruins, glowing sanctuaries in the distance, and the faintest toll of a temple bell somewhere far, far away.
And from deep inside, something stirred in his blood.
A whisper:
"Dharma is not lost. It sleeps in those who bleed for others."
He turned his eyes toward the north — toward Ayodhya.
Toward home.Toward family.
And the longest walk of his life began.