Underground arena, 00:30:00 on the countdown
The ground opened and swallowed Madhu whole.
Thirteen storeys of free-fall.
Kūrma's golden shell flared instinctively.
He hit the bottom like a meteor wrapped in temple bells.
The impact cratered the floor, but he stood up breathing.
A woman's voice drifted from hidden speakers, clinical and delighted.
"Subject survives forty-metre vertical drop.
Durability confirmed.
Welcome, Madhusūdana."
White tile. Surgical steel. Blinding spotlights.
In the centre: five steel chairs.
Shabonti and four other schoolgirls, unconscious, wrists and ankles locked in glowing restraints.
Above them, a red digital countdown:
00:29:59
00:29:58…
"Defeat the following products before detonation," the voice purred.
"Product designation: Vītra-sūta Version 1.56.
Sixty percent human volunteer, forty percent recovered Asura marrow.
Enhanced speed, strength, paralytic venom spray.
Opponent count: ten.
Commence test."
Ten panels slid open.
Ten scaled figures stepped out (once human, now something else).
Black-green iridescent armour on their skin, forked tongues tasting the air, eyes vertical slits.
Madhu called Kūrma again.
Golden shell blazed. Invincible.
But slow.
They danced around him like shadows with claws.
Fists hammered the shell.
Venom hissed against gold and evaporated.
He swung and missed by kilometres.
One lucky punch finally landed.
His knuckles shattered against scales harder than steel.
They beat him like a drum.
00:18:12…
Shabonti's eyes fluttered open.
She saw her brother on his knees, shell cracked, blood pouring from his nose.
Her scream tore through the arena like a knife.
"DON'T HURT MY BHAIYA!"
Something ancient and furious answered from inside Madhu's chest.
Kūrma shattered outward in golden shards.
A new name ripped from his throat, raw, primal, unstoppable.
"VĀRAHA!"
The air split.
A colossal golden boar exploded into existence around him (massive, radiant, tusks like curved swords forged from sunrise).
The world slowed.
Madhu charged.
Ten became seven.
Seven became three.
Three became none.
He skidded to a halt in front of the chairs, steam rising from the golden construct, tusks dripping black blood.
Shabonti stared, tears cutting clean lines through the dirt on her cheeks.
"Bhaiya…?"
Every wall became a screen.
Dr. Anahita Saha's face filled them, smiling like a proud, murderous mother.
"Third manifestation confirmed.
Vāraha avatar – full offensive deployment.
Beautiful."
00:07:43
Anahita leaned toward the microphone.
"Deploy wave two. Vītra-sūta V 2.0. Lethal venom, acid blood, full—"
The facility answered instead.
A sound like the planet cracking its knuckles.
The entire complex shuddered.
Ceiling lights exploded in showers of sparks.
Walls split.
The floor buckled upward as if something enormous had punched straight through thirteen storeys of concrete and steel.
00:07:41
A column of pure golden light speared down from the new hole in the sky.
Mitra landed in the centre of the arena with a boom that turned the remaining Vītra-sūta into red mist before they could blink.
Robotic turrets spun, fired, and melted mid-shot.
Cyborg enforcers raised plasma rifles—then folded like cheap origami when an invisible shockwave of raw friendship-fueled rage rippled outward.
He stood in the smoking crater he'd made, chest heaving, eyes blazing white-gold.
Every screen in the facility flickered, died, and went black.
Dr. Saha's voice cut to static.
Mitra looked around at the carnage, scratched his cheek, and gave a sheepish laugh that still shook the walls.
"…Oops. Might've overdone it a bit."
He glanced at the frozen countdown, then at the five terrified schoolgirls and one half-dead boar-god.
"Yeah, definitely time to leave."
Madhu, still inside the fading Vāraha construct, scooped Shabonti into his arms.
Mitra gently lifted the other four girls (one under each arm, two cradled against his chest like feathers).
They ran.
Corridors collapsed behind them.
Emergency klaxons screamed and died.
The whole underground labyrinth groaned like a beast taking its last breath.
They burst out through the entrance shaft just as the final supports gave way.
The night sky opened above them, cool and indifferent.
Then the earth swallowed the Institute whole.
A perfect circular crater two hundred metres wide steamed quietly where a multi-billion-rupee black-site had stood moments earlier.
Madhu took one step on solid ground,
looked down at Shabonti's wide, tear-streaked face,
managed half a smile—
And collapsed.
Vāraha dissolved completely.
Blood poured from cracks in his skin.
Left arm bent at an angle arms don't bend.
Ribs caved.
Face unrecognisable.
Shabonti screamed his name.
Mitra caught him before he hit the dirt, slung the broken boy over one shoulder, still carrying four unconscious children in the other arm like they weighed nothing.
"Hospital. Now."
Sirens wailed in the distance—too late for the Institute, too early for answers.
Mitra looked at the crater, then at the crying little sister and the boy who had just become a god to save her.
He whispered to the night, soft enough only the stars heard.
"I really, really overdid it this time."
Then he ran toward the city lights,
six children and one dying Preserver on his shoulders,
golden footprints burning behind him for minutes before finally fading.
Epilogue:
Somewhere deeper than the crater
Black glass chamber.
Twelve floating thrones.
Eleven silhouettes that hurt to perceive.
Dr. Anahita Saha's hologram bowed.
She was questioned.
She answered with data, with footage, with the promise of a live Vishnu on her table.
The council spared her.
When the holograms vanished, she was alone with her reflection.
Her pupils narrowed to vertical slits.
A forked tongue tasted the air.
She caressed the frozen image of Madhu's broken face.
"Grow a little more for me, darling," she whispered, voice layered with something far older than human.
"Just a few more names.
Then I'll tuck you in forever."
She kissed the hologram.
The black glass rippled like water.
Far above, in a hospital room smelling of antiseptic and marigolds,
Madhu slept fitfully,
dreaming of oceans rising
and a woman with snake eyes smiling from the abyss.
Institute of Eternal Progress Arc finished