Light swallowed the cavern—
not warm
not gentle
but violent, like two eras slamming into each other.
Zoya threw an arm over her face as the shockwave hit.
Azhar's shadows folded around them instinctively, blunting the blast.
But even his shadows trembled.
"…Manraj—!" Zoya shouted into the blinding white.
No answer.
Only the grinding howl of The Hunt, its bone-mask splitting wider from the force of the collision, white cracks crawling across its skull like lightning veins.
When the light finally thinned—
Manraj was still standing.
Barely.
His feet carved trenches into the stone.
His shirt was torn.
Silver-amber light burned across his chest like a fractured star.
But he had stopped the creature's strike.
His hands—shaking, bleeding—held back The Hunt's massive claws by sheer force of the new energy burning through him.
Zoya's breath caught.
Azhar swore under his breath.
"…That shouldn't be possible."
The Hunt pushed harder, its four eyes blazing.
"ERYTH. RETURN."
Manraj's lips curled into a snarl, voice shaking with fury:
"I'm not—
your—
anything."
The new light burst from him—
silver
white
amber—
a tri-flare that knocked The Hunt back several feet.
The creature skidded across the cavern floor, claws gouging trenches as it steadied itself.
Its chest cracked open further, revealing more of that trapped white lantern-light inside it.
Azhar exhaled sharply.
"It's destabilizing."
Zoya stepped forward, pulling Manraj behind her with one arm despite the shaking in her legs.
"You're okay," she whispered. "Look at me. You're okay."
Manraj wasn't sure if he was.
His vision swam.
His heartbeat felt doubled—one human, one ancient.
Zoya gripped his jaw, forcing his eyes to lock on hers.
"Stay here. Stay with me."
Manraj nodded, barely.
Azhar moved to their side, voice low:
"We need a plan."
Zoya hissed, "We don't have time for a plan!"
The Hunt rose again.
Its bone-mask fully split now—
no longer resembling a face at all,
but a cage.
A cage that had once held something powerful.
A cage it clearly expected Manraj to step back into.
The creature crouched.
Azhar recognized the stance instantly.
"Oh no— it's preparing a capture strike."
Zoya's head snapped toward him.
"Meaning what?"
"Meaning if it hits him once—just once—it doesn't take him physically."
He pointed upward.
"It takes him out of this plane entirely."
Zoya's stomach dropped.
Manraj steadied himself despite the tremor running through him.
"Azhar," he breathed, "help me pin it."
Azhar blinked.
"…You want to attack it?"
Manraj's new dual-colored eyes sharpened.
"No."
He lifted his hands, silver-amber energy rising around them like smoke.
"I want to trap it."
Before Azhar could argue—
before Zoya could drag him away—
Manraj stepped forward.
Zoya grabbed him, voice cracking:
"MANRAJ—DON'T DO THIS ALONE!"
"I'm not," he whispered.
He turned to Azhar.
"Shadow."
He turned to Zoya.
"Silence."
He turned toward The Hunt.
"And whatever this new thing is—"
He clenched his fists.
"—we use all three."
Azhar stared for half a second—then shadows erupted behind him in a towering wave.
Zoya's eyes widened—then Silence surged around her like a circular shield, warping the air.
The Hunt lunged.
Manraj moved.
Not in panic.
With purpose.
He slammed his palm to the stone floor, and the new tri-light erupted outward in a ripple, carving a circular boundary around the creature.
Azhar's shadows crashed in from the left—
binding the creature's limbs in thick tendrils.
Zoya's Silence collapsed from above—
forming a dome of muted reality that muffled even The Hunt's roars.
The Hunt thrashed—
cracking stone, bending pillars—
but the three forces together dragged it downward, pinning it to the cavern floor.
It screamed—
a sound that flickered between worlds.
Zoya held the dome, teeth gritted.
Azhar drove shadows deeper, blood dripping from his nose.
Manraj stepped toward the trapped creature, chest blazing with that impossible silver-amber-white.
The Hunt shrieked—
"ERYTH—
YOU CANNOT—
BIND—ME—!"
Manraj's voice boomed back, layered now with something ancient:
"I'm not binding you."
He pressed his palm to the creature's cracked chest.
The cavern shook.
The runes across the walls blazed awake.
Even the river above trembled.
Manraj whispered—
"I'm locking the door you came from."
A burst of tri-light detonated—
Silent
Shadowed
Blinding.
The Hunt's body jerked once—
twice—
four eyes dimming—
and its form collapsed inward—
not dying,
but folding out of reality
like it had been erased from this plane.
The cavern went dead quiet.
Zoya collapsed to one knee, gasping.
Azhar leaned on a cracked pillar, chest heaving.
Manraj swayed.
The new light in him flickered dangerously.
Zoya scrambled toward him.
"Manraj—!"
He caught her wrist weakly, eyes dimming.
"I'm here," he whispered.
Then he collapsed forward into her arms.
Unconscious.
But breathing.
Azhar sank beside them, shadows calming.
"…You locked the Hunt out," he murmured. "I don't know how you're still alive."
Zoya held Manraj tighter.
Her voice small.
"He can't keep doing this."
Azhar didn't argue.
His eyes drifted to the now-empty space where the Hunt had vanished.
"Because next time," he whispered,
"it won't come alone."