"I've got only two organ regeneration potions." Vivikta sighed weakly as soon as we entered Bhairava's Space barrier, where she and Sickle Man were.

Pratyusha and I exchanged glances, finalizing our decision.

"Take one for yourself, Vivikta. For the final one... Let's give Jevin since he needs to regenerate two limbs instead of four." Pratyusha decided in a heartbeat after glancing once at Aditi.

The fight with the caterpillar chimera had already started.

When the faces of the beast started contorting, hellish chanting sounds overlapped, generating a cacophony of chaotic mantras.

I re-experienced one of the busiest railway stations I've often visited to travel across states for eye checkups.

It felt even weirder through my half-healed, half-busted eardrums, like thousands of couples fighting behind closed doors.

Wait—my eye.

I fed it some Kundalini to start it up, but the organ stayed dormant, fulfilling its usual boring functionalities.

Is this not one of those Event Intersections, then? Reviving the Saraswati River is supposed to be a significant event in the fight against Kali's corruption and should be present in all the Brahmands.

Bhairava disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing beside Jevin. Standing on the phantom platform created by Aditi's translucent water-ice rectangular barrier—a skill attached to her Makara Armor, he waved his Trident and created a ball of pure violet cosmic energy overhead.

To be able to summon a barrier at an exact spot under Jevin, surely must have required Aditi loads of practice.

She might seem aloof most of the time, but she's surprisingly diligent.

Bhairava pointed his Trident down at the caterpillar chimera, and the ethereal ball descended, picking up speed.

The voices coming from the caterpillar's hollow faces panicked and changed their tones of incantation, converting their magic midway and summoning hundreds of square barriers horizontally.

It separated the mountain dome into upper and lower halves at a measured elevation where the purple ball stopped short of picking up terminal velocity.

The cave rumbled from the enormous explosion, shrouding the upper level in a purplish smoke. Purple energy born from the interaction started consuming the barrier, disintegrating it at an atomic level.

In response, a whiny roar appeared from all the hollow mouths on the caterpillar as it chanted to create additional layers of barrier over it.

Unable to see anything through the foggy purple shroud, the Yeti Caterpillar took precautions by covering itself in detachable blood-red barriers made from its outer cloak, expecting the purple energy to spill over and attack it next.

The shields floated around the caterpillar, tethered to its body through thin strings of blood. They spread out and voluntarily made contact with the incoming purple smoke, letting it devour them before disappearing along with the destructive energy.

A flash of light appeared behind Pratyusha, distracting us from the ongoing fight.

We found Aditi and Jevin without their limbs, lying sideways on the ground, within the safety of our barrier.

"Light Kundalini is crazy." Jevin retched out green bile from Bhairava's teleportation spell's backlash.

"Arghh. It feels as though all my organs have shifted places." Aditi drew in multiple short gasps to stabilize herself.

"Aditi, Jevin." Pratyusha didn't even allow them to rest, "Bhairava doesn't have a drop of Divine Energy left within him right now."

"I figured," Aditi nodded at us while crawling towards us like a leech, "I've read that it takes some time to mix up all the different energies required for manufacturing Divine Energy inside one's body."

"Exactly. It all comes down to how we support him." Vivikta joined in while she leaned against the cave wall, staring at the otherworldly fight going on between Bhairava and the evolved Yeti caterpillar, "We can't let Bhairava use up his precious energy to only get rid of the Yeti's defensive blood cloak."

A ring of twenty fireballs surrounded Bhairava, lighting up our faces with a yellow-orange hue. Born from his split-second incantations, they traveled like projectiles and created the image of a spider's legs embracing their prey before devouring it.

The Yeti caterpillar rolled out of the way, narrowly missing a few of the fireballs—a gruesome sight with all its arms and legs sticking out of the massive wiggling body, cloaked inside a translucent cocoon of blood.

It simply tanked the rest of the fireballs and detached the burning parts of the blood barrier.

"He's indeed chipping off the Armor bit by bit. But that needs to be taken care of by us." Vivikta sighed.

She seemed to have already given up trying to control the situation, having surrendered to its flow.

"He afraid of destroying the Goddess' Remains the Yeti devoured. Otherwise, he might have ended things long ago." Aditi added. "We don't know where exactly the Peeth is hidden, but Pratyusha and I can come up with something with Dhruva's help to solve that problem."

"Let's ask him to stop wasting his energy and start conserving it to end the monster in one fell swoop." I said, "After the blood barrier is lifted, my blooming arrows can tear it apart to pieces anyway—revealing the Peeth that 'thing' is hiding inside. Once that is secured, Bhairava can pull out all his stops. So it's better you two focus on how to get rid of the blood barrier instead."

"You're pretty confident about what you can do. I like that. But your arrows can also harm the Peeth. They are not as weak as you think." Vivikta grinned through her dry, blood-caked lips. "Still, I feel proud as a mentor to finally see you participating in group activities."

"Wait till you return to the village. The handiwork Pratyusha and I left there will blow your minds."

"We will surely return. Thanks for adding your optimistic viewpoint, Dhruva. But can we not stray from the topic and focus right now? Aditi and I have a prototype idea ready. Since your weapons are risky for sensitive operations, it's better you use them to augment ours." Pratyusha ended her orders with a slight smile. "Jevin and Vivikta can reduce Bhairava's load while we are at it."

She had this hint of friendly playfulness in her expression, alongside her commanding nature. It was hard to feel like we were being ordered. And even harder to say no to her.

The fight between Bhairava and the caterpillar kept intensifying.

Blasts of fire, air, and small black holes from the Yogi-God kept chipping away at the blood barrier.

As if trying to imitate the attack that took her out, the white half of the caterpillar's main body—The Mage Yeti, who was in control of the chimera, kept shooting small arrows, thousands in number, made from the blood barrier.

They impaled Bhairava's seven-layered Kavach, present both over him and our immediate surroundings, and bloomed into fist-sized urchins, trying to forcibly breach the only thing separating them and us.

Behind its safety, Pratyusha picked up the potions Vivikta released from her dimensional storage and popped open one of the vials after struggling a bit with her loose gloves.

"Sorry, Aditi, but you'll have to manage using your Skill without your limbs." Pratyusha apologized to Aditi sincerely before moving over to Vivikta.

"You gave her your Armor?" Aditi asked in a faint whisper after she crawled next to me. "Your courting techniques are too obvious, you know."

I felt a bit offended.

"Stop assuming all our actions are to get something in return for it. Had it been Jevin, I would have also shared it in a heartbeat." I pointed out. "People can often do things for others without expectations. In my case, I hate it when people around me feel down or get wounded. It rubs off negatively on my mental peace."

She snorted and stared at the ceiling high above after turning to lie on her back. "I apologize. This painless state after hours of torment is messing up my head. I shouldn't have said that. I guess it's true that people are a product of their genetics and environment. To have a skewed mentality like that, it seems I pulled the shorter end of the stick on both fronts."

Her voice was empty, without her usual fiery color.

"How long were you hanging?" I asked, feeling unexpected empathy for the way she delivered those words.

"Who knows? Felt like an eternity." She chuckled like one of those drunk uncles back in the village.

Bhairava's battle cries reached us, interrupting our conversation.

He summoned an earth ribcage, trapping the worm inside. The cage started getting smaller, making dents over the blood barrier before breaking away, unable to fulfill its role.

Bhairava looked frustrated for a second. He pulled back his Trident and chucked it like a javelin thrower from the Olympics.

The weapon surrounded itself in a blue space aura before crashing into the blood barrier.

Pop! It reminded me of fireworks creating a commotion during Diwali.

The bluish aura expanded in an instant, removing a significant portion of the barrier and spilling it onto the dry land where the blood lake once was.

"After we take care of this, Bhairava will regenerate your limbs. He already has his hands full with protecting us and chipping away at the monster's barrier." I consoled her.

A symphony of singing voices started vibrating the dome itself, stealing our attention.

"What's happening now??" Pratyusha glanced up with the half-fed potion still in her grasp, and a few curses spilled out of her lips.

"Whoa, manners!! You shou..." We could only hear half of Vivikta's sentence; her cheeks bulged with the regeneration potion before calamity struck.

A dark brown layer of clotted blood around the caterpillar peeled off like an exoskeleton, exposing another bright crimson layer underneath.

Before it could touch the ground, the blood clot exploded like a sudden cloud burst, summoning a massive storm of blood needles that spread out in all directions.

The whole environment outside Bhairava's barrier turned brown as it wore down the cavern walls with its intense barrage of unending high-speed blood daggers.

I watched the needles sticking into our barrier halfway in, and an ominous feeling struck my heart.

I grabbed Jevin and Aditi and threw them toward Sickle Man, Pratyusha, and Vivikta.

"Utility. Barrier!" I summoned three barrier fogs from my dimensional box and wrapped them around us, just in time to find the needles changing their shapes into worms, slithering inside through the holes they made, and approaching my barrier inside Bhairava's.

They jumped, trying to gain enough momentum to pierce through my barrier, but, fortunately for us, were unable to breach it. Pratyusha aimed her palm at the little critters and summoned a gushing fire like a flame thrower, burning all of them to ashes.

Even though it worked for only five seconds before sizzling out—powered by only 2 points of Kundalini, it was enough to take care of all the worms inside Bhairava's barrier.

Cracks on the cavern walls resulting from the blood needles bombardment started spreading next, making their way down from above to meet the floor below, eliciting another round of curses.

This time, it was Vivikta herself.

"Grab on." She warned in a panicking voice, higher in pitch than usual.

"Wait, why??" Jevin asked, perplexed at her panicking voice.

It didn't take long for us to know why.

My PTSD kicked in as soon as the ground underneath gave away.

The free-falling sensation in my chest and the sinking feeling in my stomach reminded me of the moment I had lost my first life. But I was ready this time.

Swallowing the erupting bile in my mouth back into the esophagus, I Willed the three barrier fogs around us to change materials, transforming into a sponge with loads of air bubbles trapped inside to provide cushioning.

Luckily, the descent didn't go on for long.

The reaction force from hitting the new muddy ground almost broke my legs, and a huge weight from above started pressing down on us.

Even though a few of us bumped into each other inside the spherical barrier while descending, the damage was not life-threatening. But, my knees kept throbbing, imitating the beats of my heart.

"Pratyusha!" Aditi called out her name.

"On it." Pratyusha's voice was a weak whimper, making me wonder whether she was grimacing in pain.

It wasn't helping in the dark.

This is the second time we were trapped under tonnes of rubble. Last time, it was the ravine wall, and now, the cavern walls.

But we already knew how to get out of this, thanks to Pratyusha.

Her barrier opened up an upward path above us in the shape of a cylinder, shifting away loose soil and even boulders from its path of expansion.

Several of the side walls in the previous chamber seemed to have peeled off, falling right on top of us and our immediate surroundings, creating mounds of dirt under the hole in the ceiling of the current cavern we were in.

I clawed my way out right after Pratyusha, my barriers now converted into ropes and wrapped around all of us. One wouldn't believe Pratyusha's strength after watching her slim build.

Reaching the top first, she pulled us up, one after another, resting only after the job was done.

We stood there—some crawling or lying because of missing legs, our mouths agape, from witnessing a scene made out of dreams.

"Are those bubbles floating?" Jevin gasped, his jaw already threatening to detach itself from his skull.

"Bubbles do float, you know..." Aditi sighed at first but the palpable excitement in her voice returned soon enough, "But bubbles of that size—I haven't seen before. They are hanging pretty high up in the air instead of coming down gradually!"

Jevin suddenly twisted around without his legs, his fingers pressing different points on his head as he looked around frantically for something.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Did Aditi's common sense deal a mental attack on him?

"What's up with him?" Aditi became perplexed.

"It's like a water fountain show... Without physics." Vivikta nodded, clearly ignoring Jevin's plight and gawking at the serpentine tubes of blue, glowing water rising from multiple points of the lake, creating an arc to meet a massive lotus several hundred feet away from us.

Its silvery color was pulsing in regular intervals like a quasar, lighting up the whole cavern with its radiance.

"One thing right after another." Pratyusha was frustrated yet awed at the beauty of the scene before us. "Atleast we found our objective. The thousand-petalled Lotus."

I glanced again to study the ceiling—so vast and grand that the floor of the previous cavern we were in was just a small hole.

"The scale of this is crazy." I muttered.

The boundary walls of this vast space were shrouded behind a floating silvery fog, which was reflecting the thousand-petalled lotus' rays. Like a fog shrouding the horizon during a sunrise on the beach.

From one of the hill-sized mounds of dirt on the shallow silver Lake that evidently trapped the caterpillar underneath, the monster burst out and started looking around until finally setting its sights on the lotus.

"Shit!! It's heading directly for the Lotus!" I heard Aditi's panicking voice and felt a subconscious jerk in my body, anticipating all our efforts till now going down the drain.

Bhairava appeared using his teleportation, like a ray of light being reflected across multiple mirrors, between the lotus and the charging caterpillar, obstructing its way and summoning several violet bullets of annihilation around him.

They shot forward, eating through the blood barrier, before losing energy and dissipating—their tunnels only to be covered up by the surrounding crimson liquid.

Bhairava without wasting a second, raised both arms and summoned a huge silver wave made from the lake's water in front of him.

It picked up speed and gradually traveled towards the caterpillar—crashing into it and taking it along on a ride of a few hundred meters.

"Bhairava, don't waste your energy on that. Concentrate on luring it away from the lotus for now. We are coming up with something to get rid of its blood barrier." I tried to establish a telepathic channel with him, using the same mental imagery I experienced while contacting Panna or Kalpa.

"We only need to stall for time and protect ourselves whenever the outer shell collapses and bursts after clotting to its limit." His message registered in my brain successfully. "The blood in contact with the outside is getting harder with every passing second. It'll take a while until it gets thinner, like peeling an onion gradually."

"Dhruva, in case you missed it," Aditi suggested while lying without limbs on the mound a few of us were standing upon, "The blood, no longer in contact with the main body, also lost its connectivity to the Mage Yeti. She might not be able to control it remotely like you."

"But what about the needles that transformed into worms?" Jevin asked with the potion in his hands. He was clearly hesitating.

Why didn't he drink it yet?

"It's actually easy to do that. You need to put in the worm's movement commands during the creation process with a condition to activate after the connection disrupts." I explained, "It will keep following the command till all its potential energy dissipates."

"I don't know how you got the idea that it's easy." Jevin sighed. "First of all, it's crazy how you're even creating items like that with only two points of Kundalini. Did you match your Kundalini filtering rate with your Release rate?"

It was incredibly difficult to achieve what he suggested, having already tried multiple times.

"It takes a lot of time to make them." I said, "My Aksharas consist of multiple components made out of 2-point Kundalini."

"Mages sure do come up with ways to handle Kundalini." Jevin watched Bhairava's battle with intense eyes. "They feel exponentially powerful at the beginning, but ultimately get overtaken by the Higher Rathis who have trained in Kundalini augmented physical skills all their lives."

That was some food for thought. I need to verify his sources, though.

All throughout our history, the most powerful people have always been Dhanurdhars, capable of employing long-range Divine Missile bombardments.

Once Divine Missiles are launched, in most cases, they never miss their targets and can only be countered by another Missile with the same or higher grade.

In the endgame, all other battle classes will just be sitting ducks in fights centering primarily around archers.

Vivikta had already regenerated her limbs.

Only Jevin was left.

"I think it's better for Aditi to take it instead." He handed the potion vial back to Pratyusha, garnering our confused stares.

On second thought, we had totally forgotten about Sickle Man. What was he up to?

He gave a weak smile after meeting my eyes.

Guess he decided to let things play out. Or he knew he couldn't help us much in this situation.

"Another blood eruption is going to take place soon!" Bhairava warned through the telepathic channel. "Keep your friends safe. I'm counting on you."

"Ofcourse. I'll try my best."

He must have started conserving his energy for later use.

We can't postpone our plan any longer.

"Aditi, drink it." I commanded, "We can't force someone to do things he doesn't want to. After the blood-burst, we'll proceed with our plan. Huddle together, I'll put up my barrier."

"That's better. Considering my Prana will definitely get wasted from the upcoming experimentation, it's better not to use it on these things. My Kundalini barrier might be of help, though. Let me know if I need to deploy it." Pratyusha agreed.

The water in the shallow lake swirled and gathered around the silver lotus, rising to protect it inside a bluish-glowing dome.

"Don't dismiss me like that. I have my own role to play in this battle. The flower... It's calling out to me. She wants me for something." He kept staring at the lotus, leaving me wondering whether he was still communicating with it, "We need to free her child."

"Things got even more complicated then. But we don't have time. Figure it out yourself, Jevin, since you're the only one she's willing to talk to for some reason." Pratyusha gave him a suspicious stare before feeding Aditi the final potion.

Another layer of brown crust collapsed from the caterpillar's barrier, thinning it further.

It burst and released thousands of needles just before touching the ground, the explosive sound echoing against the far-off cavern walls.

I instinctively knew that my barrier won't hold.

"Aditi, Pratyusha, apply your Kundalini barriers. Reduce their speed!"

The storm of needles approached us like a rainshower, filling our vision with its crimson shades.

One after another, the girls' barriers collapsed under the needles' onslaught, fulfilling their roles before those projectiles stuck themselves on mine.

The needles that had dropped all around us—both on the mound and the silver-blue Lake, started wiggling around in search of living targets near them.

So did the ones on my shield.

Eight separate Serpentine pillars of water rose like dragons encircling us.

They coiled, swirled, merged horizontally, and met overhead, then rushed down as a dome-shaped overhead shower, washing away all the blood needles before they could invade the space inside my barrier.

"Jevin. Was that you?" Aditi gasped and stared at Jevin, who was suddenly emanating a sparkling silvery aura, while he sat without his legs but with his arms raised as if trying to summon rain.

"Technically, it was the Lotus. She's sharing her energy with me since I am the only one with Water-based Kundalini around here." He answered, inspecting his glowing arms.

"Being a sage, Vivikta also has Water Kundalini." Pratyusha countered immediately.

"It's just my theory." Jevin defended, looking emotionally hurt.

"Guys, this is not the time for infighting." Vivikta scolded Pratyusha, trying to end the blame game she almost started.

"It works in our favor that we can utilize such power—considering all the water we have here. What's wrong with it?" Aditi added, clearly growing impatient from all the bickering.

"You don't get it, Aditi." Pratyusha protested, "This whole business... Seems fishy. I've been thinking for a while now. Why now? Why us? Why here... Questions like these. Something I can't put a finger on is going on behind the scenes."

I glanced at Vivikta. "Were you the one who decided the team distribution?"

She looked away, solidifying Pratyusha's suspicions.

"The mentors were supposed to choose whoever they wanted to take." Vivikta looked down without meeting our eyes, "I fought hard with the other sages to bring you guys together... But I don't remember why."

"What the hell do you mean by 'not remembering why'?" Aditi, previously acting calm, now jumped in after hearing Vivikta's excuse.

"See. I told you! If anybody other than us had been here, they wouldn't have survived." Pratyusha concluded. "It's as if they knew the future."

"Actually, a lot of Beings can already do that. It's not a big deal." Vivikta mentioned with a sigh, "I've been trying to remember what happened two or three weeks ago during the member selection meeting, but it's all blank. I must have been forced to use 'it' for some reason. Or maybe something happened at the meeting itself."

What is she even talking about?

"No time. We'll talk about this later." Vivikta changed the subject and stood up, "I'm already done with my preparations. You guys get ready to do whatever you're planning to remove the blood barrier."

"Vivikta, wait!" Pratyusha tried to stop her, seeming to have a lot more questions for our fleeing mentor, but I knew we won't be getting those answers anytime soon.

Vivikta left my barrier and stepped down into the shin-high water, followed by a few parade-like motions."What now?" Aditi's half-regenerated limbs looked absolutely horrendous.

No matter how many times I watched this process, it didn't get any better.

"Jevin, as we saw already, your water skills borrowed from the Lotus can counter the Yeti chimera's attacks. Stay with Vivikta and protect her until we destroy the blood barrier." I figured Pratyusha won't be saying anything unless she stopped glaring at Vivikta's back, who was now coordinating with Bhairava, summoning fire spells at the caterpillar.

"Okay." He nodded and crawled out on his thighs.

The water surrounding him got wild.

Two thick water pipes rose like hooded cobras and wrapped themselves around Jevin's thighs.

Their tails ended up hanging from his missing knees until they expanded and started releasing a high-pressure jet stream of water provided by the pipes originating from the lake itself.

Two more streams gushed out of his hands using the same mechanism.

"I. Am. Water-Man..." Jevin snorted, and using one of his hands to balance his position, he snapped his fingers.

Pratyusha made a dirt ball using the muddy soil of the lake and threw it at him, square in his back. "More like Lotus-man!"

"I'm going, I'm going. No need to hit me like that! Every guy dreams of doing it atleast once. Ask Dhruva!" He protested and, spraying water at our barrier, swished towards Vivikta.

His tech reminded me of those videos of water jet packs before I finally focused on Pratyusha's barrier transportation plan.

"You guys can be so silly at times." Pratyusha ran her dirt-caked fingers through her hair, leaving them standing in multi-directional spikes.

I tried not to laugh.

"Especially during serious times." Aditi agreed.

"That's how we cope. Nothing's better than a laugh and a silly joke when everybody is shitting their pants under pressure." I shrugged.

"We are as calm as always. Maybe you're talking about yourself." Pratyusha smirked while summoning a pearl-sized barrier over one of my arrowheads that could transform itself into a drill earthworm.

Next time, when I will create my next batch of earthworms, I'll combine both my signatures into a single weapon.

It will enter the body of my enemies as a drill earthworm, carrying the payload that will bloom into urchin spikes. Right inside their bodies.

They won't have to force through all the muscles trying to reach the nearest beating organ.

Now, if I can learn some kind of an accurate throwing technique that can transport my earthworms to weak spots on the monsters' bodies, my whole strategy will be completed.

After my worms failed to invade through Bhairava's Divine Skin, I've been thinking of what to do...

Is there some way I can breach even the Kundalini barriers of powerful beings?

How much energy do I need to provide the drill heads of my earthworms with to be able to achieve a feat like that?

"Dhruva, try moving this one." She handed me back one of my earthworms, which now had a small and thick, almost spherical belly.

Like a snake struggling to digest its food. I knew what it was called from a recent life science class.

"Clitellum! My little critters are finally completed!!" I was overjoyed.

"Once the cylinder expands from its belly, the earthworm too will be destroyed. I hope you won't mind." Pratyusha was feeling unnecessary guilt.

"I don't think they are living beings, robots, maybe? So you don't need to feel bad." I said, glancing at Aditi, who now had all four of her limbs regenerated.

"Why are you sweating like you did all the work here?" I asked, eyeing her.

"Because I actually did." Aditi gave Pratyusha a side-eye, asking her to explain.

"My Blessing works in a relative coordinate space." Pratyusha explained with a calm demeanor, "Its point of origin remains stagnant within the same dimension, say Satya, in the usual case. I can only manipulate the size of the barrier, not its origin."

"But if it was summoned inside a closed-off sub-dimension," Aditi added, "And if the sub-dimension itself moved around within another..."

"We'll be able to transport the origin point of Pratyusha's Blessing inside Satya from one point to another by simply moving the sub-dimension itself!" I completed.

"Yeah," Aditi mumbled, flexing her regenerated fingers with a frown, "I can create a sub-dimension the size of a pea. Space Kundalini is quite mind-boggling, and I've never been good at using it. I wonder why I even awakened it as my first chakra."

It makes sense, considering how she never shies away from speaking her mind. The throat chakra awakens when you learn how to express yourself properly, honestly, and without reservations.

If you want harsh and honest feedback, those are the people you need to look for.

In my case, it will be a while before I'm able to do that. I could have made up with Anik otherwise. But he also had his Throat Chakra awakened.

I wonder what went wrong with him.

"But your Space based Kundalini certainly helps you summon your barrier anywhere you want." I focused back on our conversation, ignoring the blasting sounds coming from the battlefield to our left.

Bhairava, Jevin and Vivikta were using all they had to keep the monster away from the Lotus.

I remembered her feat of spawning a platform right under Jevin while they were hanging.

They were trying to cook up a plan before we arrived. After Bhairava's appearance, it must have gotten swept under the rug.

"Skills have a predetermined function and methodology. If you follow a particular set of instructions, you'll be able to summon a barrier, no matter the kind of Kundalini you possess." Aditi explained, "But the barrier's properties might be augmented by the nature of your energy. My Space Kundalini only helps me manifest a barrier anywhere within a few dozen feet. With more points, maybe I can increase both the range and duration."

"If you take the Surakshak lectures like Aditi and me," Pratyusha added, "You might be able to conjure even stronger barriers than the ones you can create right now."

"Yeah, your Kavach can somehow hold on, considering the amount of Kundalini it was created with, but it can be made more efficient." Aditi and Pratyusha kept working their hands, creating small indigo-colored pearls and using the tail of the earthworm as a needle to pierce it.

While they threaded pearls, I kept experimenting and finalized the commands I needed to give my drill worms.

"Before, we were thinking of a different plan... But a lot of our options opened up when Jevin decided to give Aditi the potion instead." Pratyusha examined the earthworms one last time and handed them over to Aditi. "It's now up to you. Dhruva's commands will kick in after they enter the caterpillar's blood barrier. I'll take care of the rest once he gets it to where we want. Best of luck, Aditi. We'll replenish our Kundalini and start helping you out soon."

Aditi, now with all her limbs regenerated, nodded and sprinted away, leaving Pratyusha, me, and Sickle-Man behind.

"How long have you guys been working together on this plan?" I asked while absorbing Shakti flowing throughout the cavern, filtering it and feeding it to my 24-point storage gem.

Having a Peeth so close to us was a Blessing. The only problem was that the enemy could also utilize the same.

"After you went off somewhere, leaving us behind." Her tone was slightly accusatory.

"I told Vivikta I was going to replenish my energy reserves and that I would be back by evening. I thought you all would be waiting at the village instead of raiding the hornet's nest."

"Vivikta remembers the conversation differently though."

"Why do you guys keep fighting among yourselves for no reason?" Sickle-Uncle pursed his lips and gave a sarcastic nod.

Both of us sighed and gave him a tired look.

"From next time, make sure to use KalpaYaal. I have no idea why you don't use it properly!" Pratyusha demanded.

The yellow aura around her body had significantly strengthened from absorbing Shakti, dyeing her light brown eyes and dark brown hair with its shades.

I remember all of us having colorful eyes and hair when we first awakened our chakras.

The colors have dissipated with time as our control over Kundalini gradually increased, but many of the Rakshaks still have a few streaks of colored hair even now.

Thankfully, those physical features don't transfer over to Alik. Otherwise, our teachers there would be giving us hell under suspicion of becoming a delinquent.

Even though the Chakras are currently under control, the colors can sometimes flare up under pressure or over-exertion.

"You're our leader. Supposed to give commands that make the best of our abilities. It's never good to micro-manage your subordinates. But, if you want me to send you updates every minute of the day, don't complain if I send some while taking a shit." I said while shrugging.

Pratyusha gulped down a few cooked pieces of meat after chewing them thrice. Her Lakshman Rekha Dimension Manipulation is going to take a lot of Prana.

"Your jokes need a bit more variety; They somehow always end up getting related to that. I'm talking about those cases when we get separated for some reason. You could've just messaged, 'bringing Bhairava' or something."

I didn't mention that I also had information about the Yetis' presence and their traits from Bhairava.

She won't let me go scot-free if she ever came to know.

I thought they would be in the village protecting it. Who knew they would take this drastic step? I was planning on strategizing first and then counterattacking with Bhairava's input in this whole matter.

Let's keep it buried for now. Hopefully, Bhairava won't snitch me out accidentally while talking about how we met.

A painful roar of the caterpillar arrived from the battlefield, interrupting our conversation.

"They are somehow holding on. We'll need to go help them." Pratyusha analyzed the situation before us. "Still, I am glad you were here. Given a choice between any of the powerful seven and you as a party member, I would take you any day."

"Just a few days ago, you were rebuking me for not contributing enough." I gave her a side-eye.

"Well, my commands are supposed to make the best of your 'abilities,' just as you said a couple of seconds ago. I'm supposed to rebuke you as the leader to make sure you're working according to your potential." She grinned.

It was fun talking to her. She hardly took any offense to teasing and can even augment conversations with her own comebacks.

"Thanks for saying that, though. But shouldn't it be a natural choice made from common sense? I currently hold the first rank in our class, after all, in terms of levels."

She bumped against my shoulder playfully. "Don't you have the Muladhara Chakra? How come you're getting cockier instead? People with that chakra are supposed to be humble and down-to-earth."

She jumped down the mound and splashed around in the shin-deep silvery water, training herself to be familiar with the effort she needed to put in to walk around in this flooded environment.

"I'm not sure about the principles. Maybe I needed to be humble to awaken the chakra. I can be whatever I want after that." I followed her into the lake.

Its cold water sent a shiver up my spine, rattling my teeth.

"It's crazy how we are holding that off with only four people." I stretched out my arms and cracked my knuckles.

"Don't forget we have a God on our side. Moreover, Jevin too, got a significant power boost." Pratyusha mumbled her thoughts, staring at Jevin, who glowed like a silver star.

Jevin moved his hands, imitating graceful gestures, manipulating the Lake to his whims. A water sphere took birth in front of his palms and shot forward, splashing against the blood barrier of the caterpillar.

Water from the lake seems to wash away the caterpillar's blood effectively.

Jevin followed an underarm bowling motion, creating more such spheres and shooting them forward.

Their immense force dragged the caterpillar away from the silver lotus currently being defended by Aditi, Bhairava, Jevin, and Vivikta.

They were the only ones standing between the two.

"Jealous?" I asked.

"Yeah." She chuckled, but I knew she was being serious.

The way she's being this straightforward made me suspect whether she was trying to awaken her Throat Chakra next.

With that, she wouldn't need Aditi's help to create sub-dimensions to contain her Lakshman Rekha beads anymore.

"Not everyone can have everything. We, too, are jealous of your blessing." I said and sprinted towards the Thousand Petal Lotus.

Pratyusha ran by my side, matching my speed.

It was our turn to join the battle.