Ashes of Deva : Rise of the White Flame

Night fell like a wound.

Not slow. Not peaceful.

But sudden—cut into the sky like a divine blade had torn the stars away.

Astha stood still, eyes locked on Vaidehi. Her body trembled. Her skin had gone pale—not from exhaustion, but from something deeper, more corrupted. The black veins that crawled across her collarbone pulsed with rhythm that didn't match her heartbeat.

"She's not fading," Luv muttered beside him. "She's being… rewritten."

Astha clenched his fists.

Smritidhaara, coiled along his arm, responded with a soft flicker of flame—uncertain, alert.

"Then we sever whatever is writing her."

---

The Sky Shatters

The clouds above the forest warped—forming concentric rings, like a divine pupil blinking.

And then…

It descended.

A being too elegant to be called a monster, but too wrong to be a god. Cloaked in garments made of glass, its head wore a crown of spinning script-wheels, each one radiating an aura of divine denial. Its eyes were hollow circles—empty, but seeing everything.

"I am the Herald of Hollow," it spoke. The voice wasn't loud. It was surgical. Precise. "Bearer of the Divine Verdict."

"Vaidehi has tasted knowledge reserved for deities. Her sentence is corrosion."

Astha stepped forward.

"Then erase me instead."

The Herald tilted its head.

"You are marked for execution. She is marked for corruption. There is no trade."

---

Astha's Defiance

Astha summoned Ashvaanta, the blade flashing with ethereal fire. His eyes narrowed. His outfit shifted again—this time becoming darker, more combat-focused. Black with flaming red trim, mantra-laced across the shoulders.

Luv summoned his vajra-lance, lightning dancing in spirals up his arm.

The Herald didn't react.

"We'll fight," Luv said.

"Yes," the Herald replied. "And lose."

Then it raised its hand.

Reality twisted.

The air itself began to crack like glass.

From the fractures emerged Hollow Knights—warriors made of nothing but absence. Their bodies were voids in the world. Swords that severed memory, shields that deflected identity.

---

The Battle – Hollow Beings vs Memory & Thunder

Astha charged in first, Smritidhaara wrapping his waist and launching him forward.

Each strike he landed with Ashvaanta burned through the void—his flame devouring erasure itself.

But with every clash, part of him was dimmed. A memory flickered: his mother's voice, gone. His favorite lullaby—vanished. They were eating him in reverse.

"Damn it… not again!"

Luv exploded into the fray with thunder—slamming three Hollow Knights into a crater with his storm-wrapped fists.

But for every one they struck down, another emerged.

"We can't win this like this!" Luv shouted.

---

Vaidehi's Breaking Point

Vaidehi rose slowly, her blade glowing red.

But her eyes… were dark now.

"Let me go," she whispered. "Let me finish this."

"No," Astha growled. "Don't let them take you."

She turned to him—tears forming, then dissolving into ink on her cheeks.

"I already saw what happens. I don't survive this arc."

And with a broken scream, she thrust her blade into her own stomach—not in suicide, but to awaken the cursed core within her.

She unleashed a lotus-shaped explosion of divine backlash—sending the Herald staggering for the first time.

---

The Hollow Breaks

Astha and Luv didn't waste the chance.

Ashvaanta became a twin-edged memory saber, dragging flame from history itself.

Luv hurled a thunder net laced with ancient mantra.

Together, they struck the Herald.

And for one second… it bled.

But only for a second.

---

The Herald retreated. Its wounds closing without healing—as if rewritten.

"You delay the inevitable," it said, voice distorted now. "She will fall. You will forget. The Hollow does not forgive."

And it vanished, leaving only dust.

---

Aftermath

Vaidehi lay collapsed, her body cracked with divine backlash. Astha knelt beside her, gripping her hand.

"I'll find a cure," he whispered.

She barely nodded.

Luv stood nearby, lightning crackling faintly over his shoulder, silent.

Above them, a single mantra sparked in the air—left behind by the Herald.

"Next comes the Shatter God."