The next morning, the campus was alive with students hustling to classes, laughter echoing across the quad. Amrit felt out of place wearing his normal clothes; the inner adventure made daily life feel shallow. But he forced a normal stride as he approached their scheduled meeting – a secluded garden tucked away behind the engineering building. It was their chosen spot for focused meditation and training away from prying eyes.
But when he arrived, the garden was deserted. The morning light shone through the leaves, dancing on an old stone bench where they used to gather. He waited – a humming tension threading his shoulders. Minutes later, Maya arrived, followed by Ashwin. But Radhika did not come, and Satish was nowhere to be seen. Ashwin frowned. "She's late," he said, scanning the bushes. "Maybe Satish can't come?"
Ashwin's confidence unsettled Amrit. He looked at Maya, who shrugged. "I had a weird feeling, but I thought maybe I was paranoid."
They decided to begin without the others. They formed a circle and began the meditation exercise from last time, focusing on balancing their energies. Amrit went into a quiet, focused trance, counting breaths. Slowly, he felt earth and water gently ground him, air lifting his spirit, fire awakening his will. The connection felt stronger today, as if the elements themselves recognized him.
Suddenly, a sharp rustle of leaves to the side made Amrit's heart leap. He opened his eyes, alert. From the shadows stepped a figure – not Radhika, but a tall senior student whom none of them knew well. He wore the brown uniform of a higher-year discipline committee member; a faint emblem of a snake twined around a lotus on his shoulder caught the light. His eyes glowed with a cold darkness.
Without warning, he sprang into action, hands crackling with unfamiliar dark energy. Before anyone could react, he hurled a bolt that knocked Maya off her feet. Fire flared in Ashwin's hands, Maya's face turned ashen, and Amrit spun back. The intruder's voice was calm, but chilling: "Stand down, or this girl dies."
Instinctively, Amrit's eyes widened at the threat to Maya, but he held himself. This man is strong… something is wrong. The intruder unleashed a pulse of shadowy force that carried a malicious laughter in its echo. It tore at the ground as Maya scrambled to her feet, injured but defiant.
Ashwin's shout was a mixture of rage and fear. "Why are you doing this? Who are you?"
The man smirked, tossing back a strand of hair. His face was familiar – it was Satish. Only, not the Satish Amrit knew. Satish's eyes were black voids, his posture hunched with power hunger. On his forehead shimmered a foreign symbol in glowing silver, and his aura flickered like a dying flame.
"Satish?" Amrit murmured, incredulous.
"Satish Kumar is... no more," the impostor said in a voice not entirely his own. "The Dharma calls for change, and I am the harbinger." He lunged forward.
Amrit felt a rush of emotions: betrayal, horror, disbelief. He flew forward, blocking another blast the corrupted Satish threw at Maya. The air crackled with tension as Amrit matched power with the man who used to be his friend. Elements whirled around Amrit – earth forming a shield, wind slicing towards the attacker.
For a moment, Amrit and the corrupted Satish locked eyes. "Why?" Amrit gasped as he parried. "You're one of us!"
Satish's laughter was cold. "Not anymore. I've found truth beyond your mortal coil." He unleashed a massive dark current that sent Amrit crashing through the stone walls of the garden.
Ashwin cried out and charged, flames bursting wildly, but Satish snapped his fingers and Ashwin froze in place, his fire sputtering out. Maya stumbled to her feet behind them, tears in her eyes. Amrit climbed painfully to his knees.
"Amrit!" Maya whispered. Amrit saw Radhika's face flash behind her, but Radhika was nowhere there. They were truly alone against this threat. Ashwin, still trapped, glared helplessly.
Rage and grief surged in Amrit. He rose fully, eyes closed for a second to center himself. The grief tempered into clarity: This was Satish, but transformed by something dark. Whatever mercy had been in him was gone. Amrit knew he had no choice – he had to stop Satish, even if it meant fighting a friend.
He focused, calling back the elements. The earth beneath the corrupted Satish's feet cracked open in a deep chasm. Sand and stones whipped at him. The wind lashed around Amrit's fist as he charged, channeling all his power. Satish staggered, an edge of panic flickering in his void-like eyes.
"Dharma... dharma demands balance!" Amrit cried out, unleashing a torrent of flaming wind. It enveloped Satish, blue and white fire dancing with hot air. The ground shook and a blast of water burst from Amrit's gathered force, extinguishing the flames as he had learned, to trap Satish in a pillar of swirling storm.
Satish wailed, a sound of agony, as the elemental storms rose around him. Something fractured within him, and for a fraction of a second, Amrit saw the real Satish's eyes – lost, pleading. "Amrit…" the voice broke, for an instant human again.
But it was gone as quickly as it came. Satish howled, then vanished into a vortex of shadow that sucked the storm clouds away. Amrit was hurled backward, colliding with the broken stone wall. Silence fell suddenly.
As dust settled and the calm returned, Ashwin stumbled free of the magic trapping him. Maya rushed to Amrit's side. "Are you all right?" she asked, relief and fear mingling in her voice. "That was... Satish!"
Amrit held his head, panting. His body ached. Radhika, who had appeared now at the garden's broken entrance, knelt beside the limp form of Satish's badge, no Satish in sight. She looked up at Amrit with tears in her eyes. "He's gone," she whispered. "He left his body behind or something."
He shook his head, shock swirling. "No." The word felt distant. It hadn't sunk in. He gently closed Satish's notebook that lay open on the grass, hidden behind a bush. The last page had a sketch of a lotus snake symbol, the same as the patch on the corrupted Satish's shirt.
A heavy silence settled. Amrit rose slowly to his feet, carrying a turmoil inside him. He stared at the empty space where his friend – his ally – had just been corrupted by some unknown force.
Maya looked at him. "Amrit… What do we do now?"
He met her eyes, voice trembling but resolute. "We get stronger. We protect each other. We find out what this was." He took a deep breath, memories and grief swirling. "And no one else falls."
They left the garden behind, haunted by the first true fracture in their bond. Amrit felt broken inside, like the Shiva temple stone lying in pieces around him. Betrayed by one he had trusted. But beneath the betrayal, something else flickered: a fierce determination. He would walk this path alone if he must.