The river didn't roar.
It collapsed inward—like it was being inhaled by something that shouldn't breathe.
The entity drew the dark water into its body, its shape growing sharper, taller, more defined. Where water had once flowed loosely, now it folded into translucent armor plates—like ribs of liquid crystal, glowing from inside with violent white root-light.
Every new ripple in its form rang like a distant bell.
Wrong. Ancient. Awake.
Azhar pulled Zoya and Manraj backward, breath sawing through his lungs.
"Zoya—keep him awake," Azhar rasped. "If he slips again—if he falls unconscious—the entity will re-bind him."
Zoya nodded, voice shaking as she held Manraj's face between her palms.
"Manraj—hey—LOOK at me—stay here—don't drift—don't fade—"
He opened his eyes.
Barely.
The tri-light burned low now—thin veins of silver-white-amber flickering beneath his skin like they too were fighting the pull.
Manraj swallowed hard.
"I'm… I'm still here."
The entity took one massive step forward.
The riverbed dented under the weight.
Not physically.
Existentially.
The guardian stumbled backward, as if overwhelmed even by its own master's true shape.
The entity's three-layered face rippled like a storm reflection.
"YOU DESTROY WHAT YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND," it hissed. "THE ROOT-SHELL WAS YOUR RESTORATION. YOU HAVE CAST IT AWAY."
Manraj leaned against Zoya, exhausted.
"I'm not a thing that needs restoring," he muttered.
The entity replied—
"YOU ARE A PIECE THAT NEEDS COMPLETION."
Zoya stepped in front of Manraj, fury crawling up her throat.
"He's not a puzzle," she spat. "And you don't get to decide what completes him."
The air fractured around the entity.
Three weapons spun in orbit around its torso:
A spear of crystallized current. A whip of compressed black water. A crown of pointed liquid shards floating like a halo.
Azhar whispered, horror creeping into his voice:
"It's entering Root-War form."
Zoya's stomach dropped.
"WHAT?"
"No more testing. No more pulling. This is execution."
The entity lifted one arm—
and the crown of water-shards fired toward them like breaking stars.
Azhar reacted first.
He slammed his palms to the ground—shadows erupting upward in a spiraling wall.
The shards struck.
Exploded.
His shadow-wall shattered instantly.
Azhar flew backward—slammed into a half-buried stone—collapsed to one knee, coughing blood.
"AZHAR!" Zoya screamed.
He waved her off, even while shaking.
"I'm alive—focus—on HIM—" he said, pointing at Manraj.
Manraj was trying to stand.
Failing.
His legs trembled beneath him, the tri-light flickering violently.
"Zoya…" he whispered. "I need… to fight."
She shook her head, eyes flooding.
"No. Not like this. You'll break."
"I'll break if I don't."
The entity pointed one finger at Manraj.
A tremor pulsed across the river.
And a second figure began forming beside it.
Another silhouette.
Another shape.
Another attempt.
Zoya gasped.
"No—NO—he destroyed the Root-Shell—IT CAN'T—"
Azhar's eyes widened.
"It's not making a shell this time."
The silhouette grew taller.
Thinner.
Bones of water—jagged like cracked ice—forming outward.
Its torso hollow.
Its limbs too long.
Its core empty.
A puppet.
Azhar whispered:
"It's making a hollow ROOT-GATEWAY. It doesn't need Manraj's shape. It needs a vessel."
Zoya felt her blood freeze.
"A vessel for what?"
Azhar swallowed hard.
"For the part of Manraj it's still holding onto."
Manraj stiffened.
The symbols across his chest pulsed—
Once.
Twice.
A third time—
harder, brighter, unstable.
The entity's voice rumbled:
"YOU REFUSED THE SHELL. THE VESSEL WILL TAKE WHAT YOU DENY."
The hollow Root-Gateway opened its chest—
a gaping, circular fissure of white water spinning like a vortex.
And from inside Manraj's chest—
A thin line of light pulled outward.
Zoya screamed.
"NO—NO—NO—STOP—STOP—!"
She grabbed him, pressing her palms against his chest, Silence erupting from her throat—
But the tether didn't break.
The entity whispered:
"HE IS ROOT-BORN. YOU CANNOT CHANGE HIS ORIGIN."
Manraj groaned in agony, falling to one knee.
"It's—pulling—my first memory—"
Azhar limped forward, shadows sparking at his fingertips.
"Zoya—Zoya look at the gateway—IT'S TRYING TO TAKE HIS BIRTH."
Zoya's eyes widened in horror.
"It's trying to erase his humanity…"
The tether grew thicker.
Brighter.
Pulling.
Manraj choked, sweat dripping down his temple—
"I… I'm slipping—Zoya—Zoya I—can't—hold—"
She held his face in both hands.
"No. NO. You listen to me—Manraj, listen—YOU choose YOU— Not root. Not light. Not entity. Not memory. YOU!"
The tether flickered.
Once.
Azhar roared:
"MANRAJ—ANCHOR YOURSELF—NOW!!!"
The tether pulsed—
then snapped back violently—
slamming into Manraj's chest.
He screamed.
But—
the hollow Root-Gateway jerked backward, destabilizing, its body glitching like corrupted water.
The entity froze.
"YOU—RESIST—ROOT-PULL—?"
Manraj staggered to his feet— barely— but standing.
His tri-light spiraled upward like a twisting flame, casting a halo of violent white-amber-silver around him.
He spoke through ragged breaths:
"I'm not resisting Root-Pull."
He stepped forward.
Zoya held him steady.
Azhar's shadows rose behind him.
Manraj finished
:
"I'm rejecting you."
The river entity roared—its form distorting in fury, liquid armor shattering outward.
The hollow gateway dissolved in a burst of broken water.
And the guardian took a step back.
For the first time—
the entity looked afraid.