The mountain-sized crimson guillotine tore downward through the upper cloud layer, shrieking with the friction of burning atmospheric qi.
The air before the falling blade compressed into a white-hot pressure wave, flattening the pine forests on the outer ridges to splintered kindling before the weapon even touched them.
High in the sky, Shaurya didn't retreat.
He didn't take an aerial step.
His pitch-black pupils contracted, and then—
IGNITE.
The natural black vanished, replaced by an incandescent, blinding gold that burned like two miniature suns behind his eyelids. Right in the center of his forehead, between his furrowed brows, lines of sacred celestial geometry flared to life in brilliant saffron-gold light, knitting together into the revolving crest of the Sudarshan Chakra.
His Divine Form awakened.
