The school roof was strictly off-limits. Naturally, the lock had been picked with professional precision.
I pushed the heavy metal door open and stepped out into the wind. The sun was setting, painting the sky in bruised purples and oranges—the same colors as the Rift I saw yesterday.
Riya was sitting on the edge of the water tank, swinging her legs. She wasn't looking at the view. She was looking at a holographic tablet projecting from her glasses.
"You're late," she said, not looking up.
"I had to dodge Vikram," I panted, closing the door. "He thinks I'm some sort of secret agent. Riya, he knows. He literally touched my arm."
Riya hopped down. "He suspects. He doesn't know. If he knew, you'd already be in a black van heading to an Astra-Tech lab."
She walked toward me. The air around her felt... sharp.
"So," she said, cracking her knuckles. "You caught a Mach-1 dodgeball. Congratulations on not dying. But that was sloppy. You used raw stat-boosting without activating a form. That burns through your Prana twice as fast."
"I didn't mean to!" I argued. "It just reacted!"
"Exactly. It reacted to your fear."
She reached behind her back. I expected her to pull out a textbook. Instead, she pulled out a wooden training sword (bokken).
"Reaction test," she announced.
"Wait, wha—"
WHOOSH.
She swung the wooden sword at my head. She didn't hold back. My brain didn't even have time to process the threat. But the bracelet did.
HUMMM.
My left arm jerked up automatically. CLACK. The wooden sword hit my forearm. It felt like getting hit with a baseball bat, but my bone didn't break. The bracelet absorbed the impact, flashing a soft gold.
"Ow!" I yelped, shaking my arm. "Are you crazy? That hurts!"
"Good," Riya said, spinning the sword. "Pain helps memory retention. Block this."
She swung low. I jumped. She swung high. I ducked. She thrust forward. I twisted.
"Stop! Time out!" I scrambled back near the ventilation units. "I get it! I have reflexes! Can we stop the violence?"
Riya lowered the sword, looking slightly impressed. "Your body is adapting. The Astra-Chakra is rewriting your nervous system. But you're fighting like a frightened rabbit. You need to fight like a God."
She tapped her wrist, and a projection appeared between
us.
It showed a rotating diagram of the device on my wrist, but expanded. Ten slots. One was lit up (Agni). Nine were dark.
"Do you even know what you're wearing, Aryan?" she asked.
"A super-watch?"
Riya sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "You failed History, didn't you? This isn't tech. It's Divinity."
She pointed to the holographic slots.
"Thousands of years ago, the barrier between our world and the 'Patala' (the Underworld) was weak. The Asuras tried to invade. To stop them, the Rishis created a vessel. A key. They couldn't bring the Gods down to earth—their power would destroy the planet. So, they trapped Aspects of the Gods into a conduit."
She pointed at my wrist.
"That is the Astra-Link. It contains the conceptual essences of ten Deities. It's not just a weapon, Aryan. It's a library."
She tapped the glowing red icon—AGNI.
"You unlocked Agni first. Do you know why?"
"Because... I'm hot stuff?"
She whacked my shin with the wooden sword. "Ow! Okay! Why?"
"Because you were angry," Riya explained. "And you wanted to destroy the thing scaring you. Agni isn't just fire. It represents Purification through Destruction. It fueled your rage."
She pointed to a greyed-out icon that looked like a swirling cloud (Vayu).
"This is Vayu. The Wind. Speed. Flight. But you can't unlock it yet."
"Why not? I just press the button, right?"
"No," she said firmly. "To unlock Vayu, you need to understand its Dharma—its nature. Vayu is about Freedom and Detachment. Right now, you are heavy. You are weighed down by fear, by what Vikram thinks, by your grades, by your mom's dinner plans. You can't be the Wind while you're anchored to the ground by anxiety."
I stared at the grey icon. "So... to get superpowers, I need... therapy?"
"Essentially," Riya smirked. "You have to grow up, Aryan. Each form requires you to mature as a person. That's the safety lock. A child with the power of Indra (Lightning) would destroy the city because he threw a tantrum."
She tossed the wooden sword to me. I fumbled and caught it.
"Lesson over," she said. "Now, let's see if you can hit me."
"Wait, you said lesson over!"
"The theory lesson is over," she grinned, pulling out a second wooden sword from nowhere. "Now comes the practical. If you can't land one hit on me in ten minutes, you're buying dinner."