"You need to go back."
The words hung in the air.
For a moment, Wick simply stared at Prishka.
The spirit stared too.
Neither understood what she meant.
Then the creature moved.
The black ocean exploded upward.
A wall of dark water surged toward them.
Wick reacted instantly.
He shoved Prishka backward and stepped forward.
The kada around his wrist flashed.
The impact shook the ruins.
Dark water burst apart.
The spirit emerged from it immediately.
Faster.
Angrier.
More violent than before.
Its claws tore through the air.
Wick ducked beneath the first strike.
Pivoted.
Countered.
The kada smashed into its ribs.
A scream echoed across the shoreline.
The creature staggered.
For a second.
Only a second.
Then it attacked again.
Wick barely avoided the next blow.
Stone shattered behind him.
The ruins trembled.
The spirit wasn't playing anymore.
Neither was he.
Wick stared at Prishka.
"You need to explain that sentence immediately."
---
Prishka ignored him.
Her attention remained fixed on the necklace hanging around her neck.
The more she looked at it, the clearer everything became.
All the pieces.
All the clues.
All the things they'd missed.
"The necklace never failed. Somehow it held back the spirit."
The spirit took a step backward.
That was all the confirmation she needed.
"Wick..."
Prishka slowly turned toward him.
"The spirit couldn't break its protection."
His eyes narrowed.
"It removed it. At first do you remember Shristi was fighting back."
Silence.
The words hit harder than either of them expected.
Images flashed through Prishka's mind.
Shristi finding the pendant.
The nightmares beginning.
The spirit growing stronger.
The necklace repeatedly ending up removed.
Lost.
Separated.
Disconnected.
Not destroyed.
Never destroyed.
Because it couldn't destroy it.
The spirit roared.
The ruins shook violently.
Ancient pillars cracked.
The black ocean surged upward like a living thing.
The spirit stopped pretending.
Its body dissolved into black water before reforming behind Wick.
Too late.
The claws swept toward his neck.
Wick twisted on instinct.
The attack grazed his shoulder instead.
Pain shot through his arm.
He answered immediately.
A spinning backfist.
The iron kada slammed into the creature's jaw.
The impact echoed across the ruins.
Dark cracks spread through its shifting face.
The spirit staggered.
Not because of the punch.
Because of the kada.
Its countless eyes locked onto the iron band around Wick's wrist.
Recognition.
Hatred.
It lunged again.
This time faster.
Wick slipped inside its reach.
A sharp elbow to the ribs.
A knee to the abdomen.
The spirit folded forward.
Another strike.
The kada crashed into its shoulder.
Dark energy burst outward like shattered glass.
For a brief moment...
The creature actually retreated.
Breathing heavily, Wick lowered his hands.
"Well..."
He wiped blood from the corner of his mouth.
"You definitely hate this thing."
The spirit answered by tearing an entire stone pillar from the ruins.
It hurled it at him.
Wick barely rolled aside before the pillar exploded against the platform.
The shockwave threw him across the stones.
He skidded to a stop.
His breathing had become noticeably heavier.
The Other Side was wearing him down.
Every strike.
Every movement.
Every breath.
The realm itself was resisting him.
The spirit realized it.
Slowly...
It smiled.
And suddenly the answer became obvious.
She was right.
Back in the abandoned house, Deep was beginning to hate every second of this situation.
The storm still battered the building.
The others were exhausted.
Nobody knew what was happening.
And the three people lying unconscious in the next room weren't exactly helping.
Aryan sat against a wall.
Unusually quiet.
Which somehow worried Deep more than the talking.
Kritika looked toward him.
"You're thinking."
Aryan nodded.
"That's dangerous."
Dev answered immediately.
"Agreed."
For once, Aryan didn't argue.
Because even he could feel it.
Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
Near the doorway, Sonal sat motionless.
Her eyes fixed somewhere beyond the room.
Beyond the walls.
Beyond the storm.
Listening.
Waiting.
Back on the Other Side, Wick finally understood.
For days he'd blamed himself.
Blamed the necklace he gave.
Blamed his inability to protect Shristi.
But the protection had worked.
It had worked the entire time.
The spirit simply found a way around it.
Prishka pointed toward the necklace.
"That's why you have to go back."
Wick frowned.
"And leave you here?"
"Temporarily."
"Still counts."
Prishka rolled her eyes.
"You're impossible."
"I've been told."
The spirit attacked again.
Dark water erupted around them.
The ruins shook.
Ancient stone exploded into fragments.
This time both of them were ready.
Wick intercepted the attack.
Prishka moved around the creature.
For a few moments they actually managed to push it back.
Not because they were stronger.
Because they finally understood what they were fighting.
And the spirit hated that.
Every attack became more desperate.
More violent.
More reckless.
Then Prishka saw it.
A faint silver thread.
Connecting the spirit to somewhere beyond the ruins.
Beyond the darkness.
Beyond this realm.
Her eyes widened.
"Wick."
He immediately looked over.
"What?"
"She's there."
The thread pulsed.
"That's Shristi."
Hope surged through him.
Then Prishka pointed toward the necklace.
"And that's why you need to go."
The spirit lunged toward her.
She reacted instinctively.
For the first time, her awakening ability fully responded.
The world seemed to bend around her.
The air trembled.
The spirit stopped.
Not thrown away.
Not destroyed.
Stopped.
As if an invisible force had grabbed hold of it. A protective shield.
Wick stared.
"What did you just do?"
Prishka stared too.
"Honestly?"
A pause.
"No idea."
Even now she somehow sounded annoyed about it.
The spirit screamed and broke free.
But the moment had already given them something valuable.
Time.
Ancient symbols spiraled into existence around her wrists, rotating slowly like celestial rings.
One became three.
Three became dozens.
The air shimmered.
Reality itself bent around her.
The spirit crashed into an invisible barrier.
BOOM!
A shockwave exploded across the ruins.
Dark water rose hundreds of feet into the air.
The shield never moved.
Prishka turned toward Wick.
"You have to leave."
"No."
"Wick."
"No."
"You are unbelievably stubborn."
"And you're not staying here alone."
"I'm not staying."
A pause.
Then Prishka smiled.
A very Prishka smile.
"Mildly relocating."
Despite everything, Wick almost laughed.
Almost.
Then she became serious.
For the first time in a long while.
The jokes disappeared.
And suddenly she looked older.
More certain.
More powerful.
The spirit roared.
It attacked again.
Harder.
Dark spears erupted from the ocean, raining toward her from every direction.
Without thinking—
Prishka swept her hand sideways.
The single barrier unfolded into dozens of glowing circular shields.
Each one intercepted a spear.
Golden sparks lit the dead sky.
One after another.
One after another.
One after another.
The spirit screamed in frustration.
Entire stone pillars tore themselves free from the ruins.
Broken statues.
Massive slabs of black rock.
Everything launched toward her at once.
Prishka's eyes widened.
"Oh..."
"...that's rude."
She instinctively extended both hands.
Every object stopped.
Midair.
Completely motionless.
Even she blinked.
"...I definitely wasn't expecting that."
Wick couldn't hide the smile forming on his face.
"You're getting the hang of it."
"I would've preferred a user manual."
With a sharp motion of both arms—
Every floating pillar shot back toward the spirit.
The creature shattered most of them.
But several slammed into its body.
The entire platform trembled.
The black ocean erupted into towering waves.
For the first time since entering the Other Side—
The spirit was forced backward.
Not by Wick.
Not by the necklace.
By Prishka.
Another impact struck the barrier.
Then another.
Hairline cracks raced across the golden shield.
Prishka's breathing faltered.
The glowing symbols around her wrists flickered.
"No..."
She instinctively poured more strength into it.
For one heartbeat...
The shield stabilized.
Then the light suddenly collapsed.
The golden barrier shattered into thousands of glowing fragments that dissolved into the dead sky.
Prishka's eyes widened.
"What?"
She stared at her empty hands.
"I... I didn't do that."
The spirit smiled.
It wasn't stronger.
She was simply exhausted.
She had awakened the power.
She hadn't learned to control it.
The creature lunged immediately.
Prishka barely managed to throw herself aside as black claws tore through the space where she had been standing.
She hit the ground hard, rolled, and looked at her trembling hands.
"Okay..."
She let out a shaky breath.
"...definitely still in the tutorial phase."
The creature stared at her.
Almost...
Confused.
Prishka noticed.
"What?"
She folded her arms.
"Were you expecting an easier fight?"
The spirit answered with another deafening roar.
Prishka sighed dramatically.
"Yeah..."
"I liked you better when you weren't talking."
Prishka looked back at the spirit.
A new shield formed in front of her.
The creature attacked again.
This time with everything it had.
The shield cracked.
Golden light spilled through the fractures.
Prishka staggered a single step.
Blood trickled from her nose.
Her breathing became uneven.
Still...
She smiled.
Without looking away from the spirit, she spoke quietly.
---
"Wick."
He met her gaze.
"If you don't go now, we lose her."
The words hit harder than any attack.
Because deep down...
He knew she was right.
The spirit knew it too.
That's why it attacked.
Again.
And again.
And again.
---
Trying to stop him.
Trying to keep him trapped here.
Because the moment he returned...
The plan would begin.
Finally Wick nodded.
One reluctant movement.
One impossible decision.
"Fine."
Prishka smiled.
"See? Growth."
"Don't ruin the moment."
"No promises."
The spirit charged.
Prishka stepped forward.
Her shield power surged.
The darkness itself seemed to react.
And as the spirit collided with her power, she shouted one final thing.
"GO!"
Darkness swallowed Wick.
He disappeared.
The Other Side shattered around Wick.
Darkness swallowed everything.
The ruins vanished.
The ocean vanished.
The spirit vanished.
And suddenly—
He opened his eyes.
Back inside the abandoned house.
Back in the storm.
Back in reality.
Just in time to discover that reality had become its own nightmare.
Because the moment he sat up—
The door exploded inward.
The instant he was gone, the barrier flickered.
The spirit smiled.
Prishka slowly rolled her shoulders.
Exhaled once.
Then looked directly at the towering nightmare.
"Okay..."
A faint golden shield formed around her once again.
"It's just you and me now."
To be continued…