City Beneath the Mirage

Night had fallen over Suranagar, but the desert did not sleep.

Veer and Agniya sat in silence on a rooftop overlooking the village, sharing a fire and the sound of wind whispering through the dunes.

Agniya broke the quiet first. "You moved like someone who's fought beside me before."

"I did," Veer said, looking at the stars. "In the echo… in the shrine."

She turned toward him, her expression unreadable in the low firelight. "Then maybe this isn't the first time we've met. Just the first time we remember."

Veer looked at his palm.

The system had been quiet since the trial, but he could feel something building—like a string being pulled tighter inside his chest.

Suddenly—

> [System Notification: Memory Link Activated – Spiritual Synchronization Detected]

[Shared Echo Vision: Initiating]

Veer and Agniya gasped at once. The fire bent sideways, flaring blue.

Then—the world vanished.

They stood in the middle of a great golden city.

Towering sandstone buildings glowed beneath twin suns. Giant statues of forgotten gods loomed over streets paved in sapphire tiles. Silk banners waved in the breeze, and strange creatures slithered across rooftops—part bird, part shadow.

But the city was empty.

No people. No voices.

Only the scent of dust and incense.

"Where are we?" Agniya asked, her voice echoing strangely.

The system responded—not in text, but in voice, deep and ancient:

> "You stand in Svar Lok, the City of Crowns. Lost to greed. Swallowed by silence."

Veer walked forward slowly. "It feels... too real."

"It is real," Agniya whispered. "It's memory. Echoed so long, it became a place."

A low rumble shook the streets.

They turned—seeing something rise at the city's edge.

A massive temple of obsidian, twisted and wrong, growing out of the ground like a wound. Its gates pulsed with red light, and inside… something stirred.

Suddenly, a voice boomed across the sky:

"The crown will return to the one with no name."

Veer stumbled back.

Agniya grabbed his arm. "We have to go."

"Wait—look!" he pointed.

In the temple doorway, a figure appeared—shrouded in rags, face hidden beneath a black veil, and eyes glowing with silver fire. It held a staff made of bones and ash, and where it walked, the gold of the city turned to black glass.

"That's him," Veer whispered. "The Seeker."

Agniya's voice shook. "We're not ready for this."

> [System Alert: Shared Memory Ending – Safety Threshold Breached]

[Time Remaining: 10 seconds]

The Seeker turned toward them.

And even across the space between worlds, his voice was clear:

"You carry my future. And I... will take it back."

The world cracked like glass and Veer and Agniya jolted awake on the rooftop.

Their fire was out. The stars were dim.

Only the wind moved.

And still, the voice echoed faintly in Veer's mind.

> [System Update: Next Fragment Location – Hidden beneath the Crownless City]

[New Objective: Travel to the Ruins of Svar Lok]

[Warning: The Seeker Watches]

Agniya stood, wrapping her cloak tighter.

"So," she said, voice steady but eyes wide, "we're heading into a dead city haunted by a spirit king made of bones and shadow."

Veer stood too, nodding. "We've come this far."

Agniya gave him a small smirk. "Then let's keep walking, king of ashes."

And far off in the distance, beneath layers of earth and time, the gates of Svar Lok began to hum.