The sun was setting over the Ganges, painting the sky in shades of orange and purple. Arjun stood at the edge of Manikarnika Ghat, staring at the abandoned temple ahead. Even from here, he could feel the cold emanating from it—a wrongness that made his skin crawl.
Vidyut and Tara materialized beside him, their bodies shimmering with protective magic.
“The Void Gate is almost complete,” Vidyut said grimly, his eyes fixed on the temple. “I can feel it pulling at the fabric of reality. We have perhaps an hour before it opens fully.”
“What’s the plan?” Arjun asked, trying to keep his voice steady.
“Tara and I will handle the shadow creatures and create a barrier to contain the battle. We can’t let civilians get caught in the crossfire,” Vidyut explained. “Your job is to reach the center of the temple and destroy the Void Gate with the Eternal Flame.”
“And the traitor?”
“Leave them to me,” Tara said, her voice cold as ice. “I’ve been hunting traitors for fifty years. Whoever they are, they’ll answer for their crimes.”
They approached the temple carefully. The moment they crossed the threshold, shadow creatures emerged from every corner—dozens of them, larger and more solid than any Arjun had seen before.
“Now!” Vidyut shouted.
Tara raised her hands, and a dome of silver light enclosed the entire temple complex. “The barrier is up! No one gets in or out until this is finished!”
Vidyut’s hands blazed with blue fire as he launched himself at the shadow creatures. His movements were graceful and deadly, each strike dissolving multiple creatures at once.
Arjun ran deeper into the temple, following the pull of the Void. The Eternal Flame burned bright in his chest, lighting his way through the darkness. Shadow creatures lunged at him from the walls, but he was ready. Golden fire erupted from his hands, cleansing them before they could touch him.
He burst into the main chamber and stopped dead.
The Void Gate hung in the air like a wound in reality—a massive tear through which he could see… nothing. Not darkness, but the complete absence of everything. And standing before it, arms raised in ritual, was Mr. Sharma.
But he looked different. His eyes glowed with an unnatural red light, and shadows writhed around him like living snakes.
“Arjun,” Mr. Sharma said, his voice echoing strangely. “I knew you’d come. The Roopdarshi, the prophesied child. You’re even younger than I expected.”
“Mr. Sharma, why?” Arjun asked, his heart breaking. “Why would you help the Darkness?”
“Help it?” Mr. Sharma laughed bitterly. “I’m trying to save us! You don’t understand what the Void really is. It’s not evil—it’s peace. An end to all suffering, all pain, all struggle. The world is broken, Arjun. People hurt each other every day. But in the Void, there is no pain because there is nothing. Perfect peace.”
“That’s not peace—that’s death!” Arjun shouted. “You’re talking about destroying everything!”
“Everything that deserves to be destroyed,” Mr. Sharma countered. “I lost my daughter five years ago. Cancer. She was only eight years old. I prayed to every god, tried every medicine, but nothing worked. She suffered so much before the end.” His voice cracked. “What kind of world allows that? What kind of gods let innocent children suffer?”
Arjun felt a pang of sympathy, but he pushed it aside. “I’m sorry about your daughter. But destroying the world won’t bring her back. It will just cause more suffering.”
“You’re just a child. You don’t understand loss yet.” Mr. Sharma’s hands moved in complex patterns, and the Void Gate pulsed, growing larger. “But you will. Everyone does, eventually. That’s why the Void is mercy.”
“No,” Arjun said firmly, the Eternal Flame blazing brighter. “Loss is part of life. Pain is part of life. But so is joy, love, hope, and friendship. You can’t have one without the other. That’s what makes life worth living!”
He thrust his hands forward, and golden fire streamed toward the Void Gate. But Mr. Sharma was ready. He summoned a wall of shadow that absorbed the flames.
“Impressive,” Mr. Sharma said. “But you’re too late. The Gate is nearly complete. In minutes, it will open fully, and not even the Eternal Flame can stop it.”
They circled each other, magic crackling in the air between them.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” Arjun said desperately. “Please, Mr. Sharma. It’s not too late to stop this.”
“But I want to hurt you,” Mr. Sharma replied coldly. “Because you represent everything I’ve lost—youth, hope, innocence. And I will take it all away.”
He attacked with a barrage of shadow spears. Arjun dodged and countered with bursts of flame. The chamber became a war zone of light and darkness, each trying to overwhelm the other.
Arjun realized he was stronger than Mr. Sharma in raw power—the Eternal Flame was the purest magic, after all. But Mr. Sharma had decades of experience. He knew tricks and techniques that Arjun had never seen.
A shadow tendril wrapped around Arjun’s ankle and yanked him off his feet. He hit the ground hard, the breath knocked out of him. Mr. Sharma loomed over him, shadows gathering in his hands for a killing blow.
“Goodbye, Roopdarshi. May you find in death the peace I seek for all.”
But Arjun remembered Vidyut’s words: “Heroes are people who never give up.”
He rolled aside just as the shadow strike hit the ground where his head had been. In one fluid motion, he jumped to his feet and placed both hands on Mr. Sharma’s chest.
“I’m sorry,” Arjun whispered, and released the Eternal Flame.
But he didn’t use it to destroy. Instead, he used it to cleanse—to burn away the Darkness that had consumed Mr. Sharma’s heart without harming the man himself.
Mr. Sharma screamed as golden light poured through him. The shadows writhed and dissolved, and the red glow faded from his eyes. He collapsed, and Arjun caught him.
“What… what have I done?” Mr. Sharma whispered, tears streaming down his face. “Oh god, what have I done?”
“You were in pain,” Arjun said gently. “The Darkness used that pain. But you’re free now.”
“The Gate,” Mr. Sharma gasped. “You have to close it. Only the one who opened it can seal it, or…” He coughed. “Or someone with the Eternal Flame can burn it closed. But Arjun, it will take everything you have. You might not survive.”
Arjun looked at the Void Gate, now fully open and growing larger by the second. Through it, he could see shadow creatures massing, ready to pour into the world.
He thought of his grandmother, of Ravi, of Meera and her little brother, of all the people in Banaras who deserved to live and love and hope.
“Then I’ll give everything I have,” Arjun said.
He stood and walked toward the Gate, the Eternal Flame burning brighter than ever before. Behind him, he heard Vidyut and Tara burst into the chamber.
“Arjun, no!” Vidyut shouted. “You’re not strong enough yet!”
“I have to try,” Arjun called back. “It’s what heroes do.”
He placed his hands on the edges of the Void Gate and released the Eternal Flame with everything he had. Golden fire poured into the emptiness, filling the void with light. The Gate screamed—an awful sound like reality itself tearing—and began to shrink.
But it was fighting back. Arjun could feel the Void trying to pull him in, to consume him along with his flame. His strength was fading fast. His vision blurred. He couldn’t hold on much longer.
Then he felt other hands on his shoulders. Vidyut on his left, Tara on his right, pouring their own magic into him.
“You’re not alone,” Vidyut said. “You never were.”
With their combined strength, the Eternal Flame blazed like a sun. The Void Gate shrieked one final time and collapsed, sealing shut with a sound like thunder.
Arjun fell backward, completely drained. The last thing he saw before darkness took him was the golden light of dawn breaking through the temple windows.
They had won.
Arjun has closed the Void Gate, but at what cost? What happens to Mr. Sharma? And is the Darkness truly defeated? Find out in the next chapter of “The Magic of Banaras”!
