...

  With the sound of one final gunshot, a heavy silence descended upon the fifth floor of Kaalminar. No one knew how the sudden, frantic race of monsters scaling the walls had ended so abruptly.

  The corpses of Low and Mid-tier monsters lay scattered here and there, silent witnesses to how grave the situation had been, and a grim warning of how much worse it could become.

  Most of the soldiers didn't even try to push their exhausted minds any further. For them, this was a rare moment to let the stiffness leave their aching bodies. But for others, this wasn't an end.

  It felt like the suffocating calm before a much larger storm...

  "Anirudh? Is everything alright here?"

  Anirudh, who stood observing the aftermath, hadn't expected to hear that voice here.

  "Ma'am?! What are you doing here? This place is still crawling with danger. You should leave."

  "I know. That's exactly why I'm here."

  Pranali signaled to Ketaki, who in turn signaled the staff standing behind them.

  Blue stripes on a white background...

  All the employees wearing the same uniforms placed boxes filled with all the necessary items there one by one.

  "The first contains everything from food to medicinal herbs meant to boost Fighter energy. The second is filled with electric rounds, repaired machine guns, assault rifles, and sniper units. The third has armor and essential medical supplies."

  Anirudh nodded, taking a steaming glass of tea from a staff member.

  "And here... a little bit of warmth."

  A small smile spread across the tired faces of the soldiers. In this bone-chilling cold, the slight heat from the tea was more than enough.

  Like a drowning man catching a straw, this small gesture gave them life.

  "Ma'am! A message."

  Ketaki stepped forward, handing Pranali a phone. A notification glowed on the screen like a beacon. As she read it, a look of immense relief washed over her face.

  ? Hold onto your seats. The Tigers are on the hunt.

  ?°?°?°?°?

  The same blue-golden light...

  Which used to comfort Raghav,

  Give him a sense of peace,was currently sending his heart rate into overdrive.

  If the Mountain Tigers were hunting in the snow, a butterfly was hunting in the lab.

  A curved arc of blue-gold energy erupted from the butterfly's eyes, sweeping 180 degrees across the lab just above Raghav's head. Everyone...Tushar, Trisha, and Randheer, immediately hit the floor in terror.

  No one expected a tiny creature to possess such a scorching temperature of rage.

  The butterfly's wings fluttered violently as it locked its gaze on Tushar. Raghav could feel that fury vibrating inside his own chest. He didn't know how or why, but their emotions were synchronized.

  Tushar immediately got up and ran towards Raghav. The burning energy beam from the butterfly followed him, moving at twice the speed of Tushar's panicked sprint.

  The "speed-break" only happened when the boy with the chocolate eyes stepped directly into the butterfly's line of sight.

  Their eyes met and it seemed as if that anger had suddenly disappeared somewhere...

  The butterfly diverted its energy at the last millisecond to avoid hitting Raghav. The beam slammed into the far wall, causing the entire structure to crumble into dust.

  Everyone stood frozen, their minds numb. Not even the High-tier Millipede had managed to do what this tiny creature had done with a single glance.

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  The butterfly fluttered down and perched gently on Raghav's shoulder. and Raghav couldn't help but smile. Stroking its soft blue wings felt different this time.

  "Butterfly Ma'am... you've grown quite a bit, haven't you?"

  There was no verbal reply, but Raghav didn't need one. The tiny creature's eyes bore all the words that could not be called speechless. And Raghav knew how to read eyes very well...

  His chocolate eyes shifted to Randheer and Tushar, who was currently being held up by Trisha. Their distance was justified; who would want to stand near a creature that had almost obliterated them?

  "Oh, come on! You can come closer. My companion isn't that bad."

  Raghav grinned, stroking the wings as if the creature were the most docile pet in the world. Still, the three of them approached it, taking one step at a time, slowly and cautiously.

  They were amazed that this butterfly really did not do anything, didn't even acknowledge their presence.

  "Raghav-ji, are you absolutely sure you're okay?"

  "Completely, Sir Randheer!"

  After comforting Randheer, who was worried about the boy, Raghav once again headed towards the vault. His steps were in that direction, but his mind returned to the events he was investigating.

  Trisha opened the Vault once more, and the four of them stepped inside. Meanwhile, Raghav once again looked around the vault.

  "Sir Randheer! Take pictures of everything."

  And Randheer did the same.

  He started taking pictures of everything from every angle he could, and Raghav extended his diary to Trisha, along with a pen.

  "Ma'am, please write down the entire sequence of events, line by line. Try not to leave out a single detail."

  Trisha looked at her younger brother and he also did not refuse, there was no reason to refuse.

  "Okay.."

  Trisha wrote down everything she could remember, one by one. Her younger brother, however, also offered suggestions, and together they finished the story.

  She handed the diary back to Raghav and Raghav took it.

  Now, it wasn't just one pair of eyes reading the notes. It was two...

  Raghav and the butterfly on his shoulder.

  As Raghav reached the final line, a sudden, crushing weight settled on his head. It was heavy...unbearably heavy.

  The boy thought that closing his eyes tightly and then opening them again would provide some relief.

  He did so, but nothing happened...

  Instead, a faint blue tinge spread across the chocolate eyes and the actual colours began to blend with the blue tinge in the eyes.

  Raghav's vision began to flicker. One moment he saw the real world; the next, everything turned a translucent, glowing blue.

  "Raghav-ji?"

  Randheer, seeing his sudden silence and strange behavior, shook Raghav slightly, but it seemed as if he was not feeling anything.

  As soon as Raghav's eyes fell on the vault, a blueness spread across his vision again. But what he saw in that blueness was completely different. So much so that Raghav couldn't believe whether he was seeing it with his eyes or with a scanning machine...

  He could see the structure of the doors, the framework of the lab outside,which in no way deserved to be called a lab anymore. The wiring of the circuits, and the internal mechanisms of the locks.

  Everything was in Blueprint Mode....

  His steps faltered. He looked at his own hand and saw the veins, the bones, the flow of blood.

  『What... what is happening to me?』

  "Raghav-ji?"

  "Mr. Raghav? Are you okay?"

  When he looked at the others, he saw only the skeletons and muscular structures of their bodies. He could feel the energy humming within the glass cases, the hidden light of the gems that was invisible to the naked eye.

  "Raghav-ji?! Hello?! Are you listening?"

  Raghav was clueless. It was as if he were flying, his legs were lifeless, or more accurately, he couldn't feel any life in his legs, no strength.

  【We entered the Vault to ensure everything was secure.】

  Trisha's words began to echo in his mind. Suddenly, ghostly shadows of Tushar and Trisha appeared behind their real selves. They began to move, mimicking the exact actions Trisha had described.

  The mixture of reality and the "shadow-past" was too complex, too intense for Raghav's brain to handle. He backed away until he hit the wall.

  【Suddenly, the circuits outside began to crackle.】

  He saw the spectral spark in the circuit. He saw the shadows of the siblings run toward the door.

  And then, he saw it. A third shadow...

  A dark, shifting silhouette entering the Vault at the exact same moment...

  『What is this? What am I seeing? Prabhu (God), I don't understand—』

  "RAGHAV-JI!!!"

  The blue butterfly on his shoulder suddenly fluttered its wings right in front of his eyes. The blue tint of his eyes faded as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile Randheer was holding both his shoulders and shaking him vigorously.

  For a moment, Raghav felt like he had just returned from a nightmare he never wanted to revisit.

  "Stop! Stop, Sir Randheer!"

  Randheer stopped as soon as Raghav said this.. Raghav was drenched in sweat, his heart hammering against his ribs as if his soul had just been slammed back into his body.

  "I'm... I'm okay. I just... I feel a bit weak."

  Randheer, seeing Raghav's condition, realized something was really wrong. He immediately supported him, leading him out of the Vault.

  The butterfly sitting on Raghav's shoulder may not have given any reaction yet, but it definitely made a small effort to wipe his sweat with its wings.

  The blue was gone from his eyes, leaving only the trembling, chocolate-colored gaze of a boy who had just seen the invisible.

  That tiny butterfly was shining in the blue-golden light as always.

  To be continued...