Booma's life, post-Sealing Spell, settled into a strange, exhilarating rhythm. She was back in the Mundane Realm, attending St. Augustine's Academy, but the world was anything but ordinary. She was the Guardian of the Barrier, and her school uniform concealed a powerful secret—the Locket of Whispered Wishes, permanently attuned to her soul.
Her friendship with Chinnappa had evolved into a shared, powerful secret. They maintained a public distance, a polite coolness to protect him from the Shadow King's remaining spies, but in stolen moments, usually during a secluded walk home near the Metro Train line, they discussed Aethel, magic, and the latest fiction theories Rishi was obsessing over. Chinnappa, armed with Booma's sketchbook, had become her intelligence analyst, searching for historical parallels to the Shadow King's movements.
"The Sealing Spell worked, Booma," Chinnappa whispered one afternoon, hunched over her magical flower sketch. "But the Shadow King left footprints. The recent spike in urban discontent—the sudden increase in greed, anger, and petty betrayal in the city—it all started right after you destroyed the Sorrow Amulet. He's not trying to merge the worlds anymore; he's trying to corrupt ours from within."
Bujji, ever-present and demanding, confirmed this telepathically. "The Shadow King is now relying on passive corruption, Booma. He's feeding on the raw negative energy of the city itself. The competition for power, wealth, and status is his new feeding ground."
Booma felt the subtle shift. The weather in the city seemed gloomier, the rain more persistent. People were quicker to anger, and the general atmosphere was thick with resentment. Even the quality of the cat food seemed to have deteriorated, much to Bujji's extreme distress.
One day, while working on a new design for an upcoming Urban Design Challenge—a mini-Fashion Show—Booma felt a strong pulse from the locket. It was registering a surge of negative power concentrated miles away, near the city's largest, most exclusive mall.
"The Locket is vibrating," Booma murmured, pulling the artifact out of her jacket. It glowed a dull, warning crimson. "The source is strong. It's not a spy this time; it feels like an artifact."
"An anchor, Booma! He must have left a remnant artifact to harvest the massive amounts of wishes and greed generated by human consumerism!" Bujji warned. "We must investigate. Tonight."
The target was the Emerald Galleria, a seven-story behemoth of high-end fashion, technology, and wealth—a perfect magnet for human desire and jealousy.
Under the cover of a typical city night, Booma and Bujji headed towards the mall. Booma was dressed in normal clothes, but she wore the locket openly beneath her jacket, ready to channel the power she had mastered on the mountain.
They found the mall closed, but the Shadow King's influence was palpable. The security guards looked exhausted and overly aggressive. Booma could feel the residual dark energy clinging to the glass walls and marble floors.
Using a simple, low-level Illusion Spell taught by Bujji, Booma convinced the security cameras that she and her "cute pet" were just shadows. They slipped inside.
The source of the energy led them to the mall's pinnacle: a newly opened, exclusive boutique showcasing a single, heavily guarded object—a massive, antique hand mirror framed in dark obsidian. The mirror was radiating a cold, alluring energy that made Booma's skin crawl.
"That's it," Booma whispered. "The Mirror of Covetousness."
"It amplifies every passing thought of greed, envy, and one-sided love, converting it into dark mana for the Shadow King," Bujji explained, her voice sharp with ancient hatred. "Its effect is insidious. We must destroy it, but its defenses will be formidable."
As if on cue, the floor tiles near the mirror began to shift. The opulent mannequins in the shop window seemed to move. They weren't just plastic figures; they were animated by the mirror's dark magic, their forms twisted into gaunt, aggressive sentinels.
"Guess we're having another anime-style fight," Booma sighed, pulling out her locket.
The mannequins attacked, their plastic limbs snapping with unnerving force. Booma used her agility, channeling Wind energy to increase her speed, dodging the clumsy but powerful blows. She had to conserve her strength for the final attack on the mirror itself.
During the chaotic battle, Booma suddenly heard a voice—not Bujji's, but a familiar one, amplified by the locket's temporary telepathy:
"Booma, I'm at the lower level, by the Metro Train exit! The Dark Energy spikes every time someone looks into the mirror! You need to focus on its center!"
It was Chinnappa. He hadn't been content to wait; he had tracked her movements and followed her. He was risking his life to provide intelligence.
The confirmation of his loyalty—his true friendship—gave Booma the focus she needed. No longer a confused girl wrestling with one-sided love, she was a Guardian fighting for her city.
Booma raised her locket, focusing every ounce of the pure, stabilizing power gained from the Sealing Spell. She pictured the Mirror of Covetousness shattering, its dark energy dissipating like dust.
"Pure Intent: Reality Over Desire!"
A brilliant, focusing beam of golden light shot out from the locket, striking the obsidian mirror dead center. The mirror cracked with a sound like tearing metal, and the dark energy immediately recoiled. The mannequin sentinels froze, collapsing into lifeless plastic piles. The surrounding light of the mall seemed to brighten instantly, as if a layer of perpetual gloom had been scrubbed away.
Booma, utterly drained, collapsed, but the victory was sweet. The artifact was destroyed.
"We need to leave, Booma. The security guards will be here any second," Bujji urgently commanded.
As they slipped out the back, near the dark, empty platform of the Metro Train, Booma saw a figure darting away into the shadows—too fast and too fluid for an ordinary human. She didn't get a clear look, but she felt a familiar coldness.
Leena.
The Shadow King's agent was still in the city. The urban warfare had just begun.