The chamber lights dimmed as Project Veda entered its scheduled sleep cycle. The low hum faded into an almost sacred stillness. Betal withdrew into the shadows, sensing Dilli needed solitude—
the kind that touches the deepest fractures of a man's heart.
Dilli stood alone.
Just him… and the weight of a decision that could alter the world.
For a long moment, he didn't move.
He just breathed—slow, trembling breaths—like a man carrying mountains on his shoulders.
He placed his hand on the cold surface of Veda's containment shell, and the memory hit him like a tidal wave.
This was not the life he wanted.
Not this secrecy.
Not this burden.
Not this endless vigilance.
He had wanted something simple—so painfully simple that it almost shattered him thinking about it.
A life his parents never got.
A life he dreamed of in his childhood, in the little room where his mother folded clothes and his father returned late, weary yet hopeful.
A life where struggle did not choke every sunrise.
He wanted to fix everything they had suffered.
To show the world he was not a failure.
To succeed once—just once.
To marry Shakthi, the girl whose laughter stitched broken parts of his soul.
To travel the world with her, hand in hand, free from judgment, free from fear.
He wanted freedom, not greatness.
Happiness, not power.
And yet…
Here he was, standing above secrets that could destroy nations, carrying responsibilities that should belong to gods, not to a man who once dreamed of a quiet home and a simple wedding.
A sound escaped him—a breath that cracked like glass.
He looked up, eyes burning.
"Why, Shiva?"
His voice trembled.
"Why did You give me everything except the one thing I ever wanted?
Why must every step I take be watched?
Why must every victory turn into another cage?"
He laughed—a hollow, broken laugh.
"Is this success?
Is this what I came back to live?"
His past life flashed before him—the failures, the humiliation, the helplessness.
He had promised himself that this life would be different.
That he would carve a new destiny where no one could hurt him or his family again.
Yet even at the peak of unimaginable achievement, the world still tried to chain him.
Fear still circled him.
Powerful forces still pressed their shadows onto his freedom.
His dreams of living peacefully with Shakthi still felt like a distant horizon he could see but never reach.
His fingers curled slowly into a fist.
Tight.
Tighter.
Tighter.
Knuckles whitening.
Veins rising.
Heart pounding with a storm's fury.
"No."
The word echoed across the chamber.
Dilli raised his head, eyes fierce, glistening with both anger and determination.
"No more chains."
He stepped back from Veda, fire surging through him—the kind of fire that comes not from ambition, but from a soul denied happiness for too long.
He whispered through clenched teeth:
"I will not be controlled.
Not by nations.
Not by fear.
Not by destiny."
A tear fell—but it did not weaken him.
It baptized his resolve.
"Shiva… You showed me this path."
His voice steadied.
"Then I will walk it.
With every breath, every wound, every fight—
I will walk it."**
He touched his chest.
"For my parents."
He clenched his fist again.
"For Shakthi."
He closed his eyes, letting the fire settle into purpose.
"For the freedom that has always been denied to me."
And finally, he opened them with a calm, unshakable glow:
"No matter what obstructs me…
I. Will. Break. Through."
In that moment, the weight on his shoulders did not vanish—
but he learned to carry it like a warrior carries a weapon.
Not as a burden.
But as a vow.