The cab carrying Kiara had barely vanished from sight when the air around Yuvaan grew cold. His smirk faded, replaced by an expression of icy impatience. He turned his head slowly, his gaze piercing the dense bush where the pair of red eyes had glowed earlier.
"But until then," he murmured, "let me pay a visit to a friend."
He didn't walk. One moment he was by his car, the next he landed with preternatural grace directly in front of the thicket. The creature hidden within was forced to reveal itself. It was a monstrous being—the upper body of a muscular, dark-skinned man, with curling horns protruding from its forehead, and the powerful, hoofed lower half of a massive buffalo. Its eyes burned with the same malevolent red.
The beast, a Bhainsasur, let out a low, guttural growl that promised violence.
"You have been following me for quite some time," Yuvaan stated, his voice calm, almost bored. "Care to explain why?"
The Bhainsasur answered with action, not words. It lowered its head and charged, its hooves tearing up the earth, a force of pure brute strength.
Yuvaan didn't move. He merely flicked his wrist. A concentrated blast of black energy shot from his fingertips, striking the creature square in the chest and sending it flying backward to crash against a tree.
"Yuvaan, one. Bhainsasur, zero," he announced coolly.
The beast staggered to its feet, enraged. It charged again, this time with even greater fury.
Yuvaan sighed. With effortless grace, he gently stomped his foot on the ground. A visible shockwave of dark energy rippled out, slamming into the Bhainsasur and knocking it off its feet once more.
"Yuvaan, two. Bhainsasur, zero."
Roaring in frustration, the Bhainsasur stood again. This time, it conjured a ball of crackling dark magic between its horns and hurled it at Yuvaan.
Yuvaan didn't dodge. He raised a hand, and the ball of destructive energy dissolved into his palm, absorbed without a trace. He then closed his fist and thrust it forward. The absorbed energy, now magnified and refined, shot back out, striking the Bhainsasur with devastating force. The creature cried out, falling to its knees, defeated.
"K.O.," Yuvaan said flatly. "If you are done making a mockery of yourself and wasting my time, perhaps you should speak."
The fight had gone out of the beast. The red glow in its eyes dimmed to a subdued flicker. It bowed its horned head. "I... apologize for my defiance, my lord," it grunted, its voice a gravelly rumble. "I am from the Kaal Vansh. I could not believe the whispers... that the Warlock King, Kaal, had truly taken rebirth. I have been following you, sensing the old magic around her. I attacked you... to test your power." It looked up, its expression now one of awe and fear. "I see now. You are indeed his reincarnation."
Yuvaan looked down at the kneeling creature, a flicker of amusement in his eyes. "You are such a fool," he said, not with anger, but with pity. "You could have simply asked me." He widened his arms slightly, a gesture of supreme confidence. "And I would have told you. That I am the First Evil. I am the King and Father of all Evil. The Great Warlock... Kaal."
The name hung in the air, a declaration of sovereignty. He had found his first subject. The court of the Warlock King was beginning to reassemble.
---
Bhainsasur, still on his knees, bowed his horned head until it nearly touched the ground. The raw, effortless power Yuvaan had displayed had erased all doubt and replaced it with fervent devotion.
"My Lord Kaal," the beast rumbled, his voice thick with newfound reverence. "Allow me to serve at your side. Let me be your right hand, your blade in the coming war!"
Yuvaan looked down at the prostrate creature, a faint, almost pitying smile on his lips. "Oops," he said, the modern slang sounding alien and dismissive coming from the ancient king. "I prefer to be a lone man. It's very soothing... and it draws less attention."
Confusion clouded the Bhainsasur's red eyes. This was not the reaction of a conquering monarch. "But... my Lord," he persisted, daring to look up. "Why have you not returned to the Kaal Vansh? Your throne awaits you! Our legions lie dormant, waiting for your command to rise!"
Yuvaan's smile faded, replaced by a look of profound, unsettling clarity. "Because," he stated, his voice low and deliberate, "I am not just the devil anymore." He placed a hand over his own heart, where the sigil was hidden beneath his clothes. "I am now a son."
The answer was so simple, so human, that the Bhainsasur could only stare in bewildered silence. The fate of empires and the resurgence of dark legions were being put on hold... for a mortal woman?
"Now," Yuvaan said, cutting short the beast's spiraling thoughts with a wide, theatrical yawn. "If you are done playing journalist with your endless questions, I have to go home and take a nap."
Without another word, he turned and strode away, his form disappearing into the morning mist as silently as he had arrived, leaving the powerful demon kneeling alone in the torn-up field.
The Bhainsasur slowly rose to his hooves, watching the empty space where his king had vanished. A deep, troubled frown settled on his bestial features.
"His power... it is far beyond any other demonic force I have witnessed," he muttered to himself, a shiver of awe and fear running through his massive frame. The ease with which Yuvaan had defeated him was terrifying. "But I fear... I fear he might get too attached to these human emotions."
The great Warlock King had returned, but he was changed. And in that change, the Bhainsasur sensed not just unparalleled power, but a potentially catastrophic weakness.