Chapter 50 – Kalinaya Spreads
"The gods' silence is not mercy. It is shame."
It started with a hum beneath the ground.
Barely audible. Just a vibration.
But Mira felt it — through her makeshift radio array, through the bones of the building, through her skin.
"Yash," she said quietly, "it's spreading."
Deep under Ashtashram, the floor cracked.
It wasn't an earthquake. There were no tremors, no wind, no monster.
Just a slow fissure forming under the stone — and from it, a faint purple glow began to leak out.
Yash stood over it.
No divine form. No weapon drawn.
Just his hand hovering inches above the light.
He felt it in his chest — not pain, not power, but a pull.
Something ancient. Something... older than even Kali.
Mira brought the readings.
"It's not a god mark," she said. "It's a pattern. A signal. It matches the one from the river breach."
"Same as the Rakshasa mirror field," she continued.
"Same as the signal that made Rishav forget his name."
"Same as the dream where you saw your parents with no eyes."
Yash didn't answer. He was staring at the crack.
The word carved into its deepest point was "Kalinaya."
Outside, the sky flickered.
A soft red haze moved across the clouds like veins pulsing through heaven.
Animals screamed. Electronics failed. The survivors inside Ashtashram looked to the gods — and received no sign.
The divine fracture wasn't staying buried anymore.
Khushi was the first to ask:
"Will it come through the floor?"
Mira answered, softly:
"No, sweetie. It already has."
Yash touched the edge of the crack.
And instantly — he saw everything.
The first Kalinaya.
The second fracture under the river.
The failed gods, frozen in silence.
The mirror version of himself, still watching from beyond.
He saw the world not breaking, but remembering its flaw.
This wasn't a new event.
This was the wound finally reopening.
And the gods still did nothing.
Yash stood, eyes white with divine flicker, and whispered:
"Then I'll be the one who acts."
Behind him, the shelter members waited. Scared. Trusting.
The Ash-Bearer had seen the gods' failure.
And he still chose to protect.
Even if Kalinaya kept spreading…
He would not run.