Shruti said, "Yes, what else can we do?"
After some time, everyone was standing in the temple with folded hands, offering prayers. At that moment, Abhimanyu began to walk towards the pond because he saw Jhalkari going in that direction. Seeing Abhimanyu head towards the pond, the others started following him.
When Abhimanyu reached the pond, he saw Jhalkari descend the steps, glance back at him with a smile, and then go into the water. Abhimanyu also went down the steps and, with a leap, entered the pond.
Seeing this, Deeljeet remarked, "Why does he feel like swimming now? He just took a bath."
Vaibhav added, "But why isn't he coming back up?"
Hearing this, everyone became tense and moved to the edge of the pond to look.
On the other hand, Abhimanyu had already gone underwater and saw Jhalkari swimming away. He kept following her, swimming deeper. Suddenly, he saw her vanish. He looked around but couldn't see anything. Then, his eyes turned golden, and he began to see things more clearly. He saw a cave where Jhalkari had gone and swam into it.
Abhimanyu thought to himself, according to the book, a significant part of the temple was not visible. He reached a place where Jhalkari was not present, but he saw a Shivalingam. He offered his respects and looked around but saw nothing else. Then, he approached the Shivalingam and saw a mantra inscribed on it, glowing faintly.
Abhimanyu sat in a meditative posture and chanted the mantra underwater. After reciting it twelve times, a door in the sidewall opened. Abhimanyu entered through the door and reached a basement where a golden key was floating in the water, neither rising to the surface nor sinking. It seemed to be hovering in mid-air. When Abhimanyu touched the key, it shone brightly for a moment and then became a normal key.
Abhimanyu looked around and saw a picture of a temple on the wall. He scanned it thoroughly and the surrounding area as well. After investigating for a while, he started heading back. When he emerged, he saw Jhalkari sitting in meditation near the Shivalingam. Abhimanyu went and sat beside her.
Jhalkari said, "Your work here is done; you can leave now."
Abhimanyu asked, "Who are you?"
Jhalkari replied, "I told you, I'm Jhalkari."
Abhimanyu said, "Yes, but earlier you seemed like a human, and now you appear like a holy spirit."
Jhalkari smiled and said, "I stayed here only to guide you to your destination. After that, I will attain moksha (liberation)."
Abhimanyu thanked her, "Thank you very much for being my guide."
Jhalkari said, "Other protectors will soon walk this path. The Holy Palace has appeared before the world. The time has come for the protectors to return."
Abhimanyu asked, "Do you mean those beasts? But what are these protectors, and what are we supposed to do? Why were we supposed to return?"
Jhalkari explained, "The protectors' duty was to protect the earth."
Abhimanyu asked, "From whom, and how are you connected to all this?"
Jhalkari said, "The protectors' duty was to protect the earth from all external forces. That was the duty of the five protectors."
Abhimanyu said, "But there were no protectors before."
Jhalkari replied, "There were no demons or deities either, nor were there humans. But one by one, everything came into existence. Similarly, when humans on earth could not protect themselves from external forces, some humans with supernatural powers emerged among them, possessing the strength of beasts. The power you have now is probably only 20% of the real beast's strength. External forces are once again stepping onto the earth, and so the protectors are returning. To use this power fully, you five must reach the Holy Palace. If someone else reaches it first, they will destroy it, preventing the protectors from regaining their powers, which will weaken them."
Abhimanyu asked, "But hasn't the Holy Palace already appeared before the world?"
Jhalkari said, "No, it has only emerged from its aquatic slumber, but nature has still hidden it. To enter that palace, you need five keys, one of which you have. You will have to find the other four. Your enemies also need the keys to destroy the thrones."
Abhimanyu asked, "You haven't told me how you are connected to all this."
Jhalkari said, "I am from the family of the temple's guardians. Everyone in my family has been guiding others here and stayed until a new family member took their place. I was the last sacred member of my family, and no one has come after me. Now that you have arrived, no one will come either." Saying this, she gradually dissolved and disappeared.
Abhimanyu said, "Perhaps I also didn't understand some things." With that, he offered his respects to Mahadev once more and came out of the pond.
Seeing Abhimanyu, his friends approached and asked, "Brother, what were you doing underwater, and how did you hold your breath for so long?"
Abhimanyu replied, "Nothing, there was a tunnel underwater, and I went to the other side. The water was shallower there, so I took a breath and then looked around. After exploring for a while, I jumped back into the pond and came out."
Deeljeet said, "Brother, you scared us. But how come your clothes aren't wet?"
Abhimanyu said, "These are waterproof clothes. Now let's go."
Everyone said goodbye to Shruti and left.
Abhimanyu and his friends wanted to stay out for another day, so they headed towards a nearby waterfall.
On one hand, Abhimanyu was heading to a waterfall for a picnic. On the other hand, in Naaglok (the serpent kingdom), King Samar was on a tour of his realm. Although the people showed him respect, it seemed more superficial. As his chariot passed, a girl who had her head bowed lifted it and ran back to her shop, and the other children resumed playing.
King Samar told a soldier, "Bring those children here. They do not know how to respect their king."
The soldier replied, "Let it be, Maharaj. Your fear among the people has almost vanished. If you do something like this, it might incite rebellion against you."
Samar said, "I have been searching for that new Naagraj (serpent king) for a long time, but he has not been found yet. His powers haven't awakened."
Another soldier, Samar's confidant, said, "Maharaj, just ensure no one reaches that Naagmani (serpent gem). If you have it, no one can defeat you."
When King Samar reached his palace, Hinsa appeared and said, "Naagraj Samar, Indraansh was seen streaming games again. Should I invite him to the throne competition?"
Naagraj said, "Tell him there's a throne waiting for him here. He shouldn't suspect that he would have to fight anyone. His greed for power and the throne will bring him here quickly."
Hinsa thought to herself, "Naagraj isn't interested in power."
She then said to Samar, "Yes, Maharaj," and disappeared.
On the other side, Abhimanyu was meditating under the waterfall when Saily spoke in his mind, "Shrikant is calling."
Abhimanyu replied mentally, "Connect the call."
Shrikant's voice came through, "Naagraj."
Abhimanyu said, "It's better if you call me Abhimanyu."
Shrikant said, "Yes, your plan succeeded. People's faith in the new Naagraj has increased so much that Samar's fear has vanished. According to the plan, Hinsa incited him to defeat you publicly so that no one would have any hope. Until you get the Naagmani, your powers won't return, which is why he wants to kill you as soon as possible."
Abhimanyu said, "Announce to the people that on Naagpanchami, Naagraj will bring light into their lives."
Shrikant said, "But you need the Naagmani first because your powers will only return through it. The Naagmani is heavily guarded by the thirteen most powerful serpents. Stealing it is impossible."
Abhimanyu replied, "I don't need the Naagmani now. I will claim it only after ending Samar."
Shrikant said, "Yes, Naagraj," and disconnected the call.
Abhimanyu thought to himself, "I don't know why this Naagraj looks like me. I mean, I got the power to transform into a serpent from one of the five protectors, and apart from that, I don't have any of Naagraj's powers. But if they need help, I have no problem giving some time."
By night, Abhimanyu had returned home, where everyone was having dinner. Besides Abhimanyu's family, Commissioner Khanna, his wife, and Karishma were also present.
Seeing Abhimanyu, his grandfather asked, "Where have you been disappearing without telling anyone? First, you went to Deeljeet's engagement, and now you are coming back after a long time."
Abhimanyu said, "Grandfather..."
Grandfather interrupted, "Alright, come and have dinner."
Abhimanyu sat next to Karishma, as the seat was empty.
He quietly asked Karishma, "How come you are here?"
Karishma whispered back, "I came to meet you, but you were nowhere to be found."
Abhimanyu said, "Tell me the truth."
Karishma replied, "I have no idea. Dad brought me here, maybe he had some work with Uncle Lalit."
Grandfather, looking at Abhimanyu, asked, "By the way, Abhimanyu, where do you get that Amritjal (elixir) from, or who makes it?"
Abhimanyu was slightly startled, as no one had asked him this question before.
He said, "Grandfather, the person who makes that Amritjal wants to keep it a secret because his life could be in danger. So, I have secret dealings with him, and no one else knows about it."
Grandfather asked, "Can he supply us with 100,000 original bottles?"
Abhimanyu replied, "Yes, he can. How soon do you need those bottles?"
Grandfather said, "We are thinking of giving them to our family guards because these days, stronger opponents are emerging. To fight them, we need to increase our strength. So, if we get 100,000 bottles, it would be good."
Abhimanyu said, "Okay, I will arrange those bottles for you."
Commissioner Khanna remarked, "It's amazing, isn't it? At just 20 years old, he has already become a trillionaire with his own company."
Vineet added, "Yes, after all, he is my talented nephew."
Abhimanyu said, "I am not talented. It's the result of Grandfather's training and a bit of luck with the Amritjal business. Moreover, I found capable people who took my business to great heights."
Grandfather said, "Your daughter is also very talented. She manages Abhimanyu's company and runs her own fashion company. We must acknowledge her talent."
After dinner, Lalit and Commissioner Khanna went aside to discuss something in private, but Abhimanyu did not disturb them. Instead, he went to his sisters' room, where he and Karishma were joking around. Praachi was complimenting Karishma on her figure and asking about her diet plan.
Karishma said, "Why are you all bothering me?"
Praachi replied, "Well, won't a sister-in-law tease her sister-in-law?" and started laughing.
Abhimanyu didn't feel it was appropriate to stay there, as he didn't want to be made fun of by the girls. So, he quietly left without them noticing.
He then overheard Commissioner Khanna and his father discussing that Commissioner Khanna and Chief Minister Vineet were going to Delhi, probably for a meeting. There was a threat to Vineet's life because a few days ago, during a police operation, some people were arrested. One of them had said he was hired to kill Vineet, instructed over the phone by a mysterious man, and was paid 2 crore rupees in advance, with a promise of 10 crores after the job was done.
Lalit said, "This is a serious matter. Though he is always under threat, we need to be extra vigilant this time."
Abhimanyu then went back to his room.
Saily asked, "So, what are you going to do now?"
Abhimanyu replied, "What can I do?"
Saily said, "He is your uncle; you should do something."
Abhimanyu said, "There are many capable soldiers and people here who can protect him."
Saily said, "Yes, maybe you're right."
Abhimanyu then called Jasmine.
When Jasmine answered, she said, "Hello, boss! What's up? It's been a while since you called."
Abhimanyu asked, "Where are you?"
Jasmine replied, "In Patna, why?"
Abhimanyu said, "My uncle is going to Delhi. Try to protect him secretly. If anything seems wrong, call me immediately and protect him, but only if the situation gets out of hand."
Jasmine said, "Alright, boss."
Abhimanyu said, "Okay, I'll be at the Singh Empire office soon," and hung up.
Abhimanyu then went to his room, jumped out of the window, climbed over the wall, and avoided the security to leave. He didn't fly because his grandfather had keen eyesight, and he didn't want the secret about his wings and demonic powers to get out. His family wouldn't react much to him sneaking out, but they might send someone to follow him.
Abhimanyu went straight to the Singh Empire building and immediately took out 20 lakh bottles of Amritjal from his ring because he now had free workers and had set up a production factory inside his ring.
A while later, Jasmine arrived.
Abhimanyu handed her the bottles and said, "Here are the bottles so far."
Jasmine took them to the godown.
Abhimanyu then picked up a truck with one lakh bottles of Amritjal, drove it to his house, and took it to the family training ground, where his grandfather, Lalit, and Vineet were already present.
After getting out of the truck, Abhimanyu said, "Here are your one lakh bottles of Amritjal, grandfather."
Grandfather said, "Wow, son! I had already discussed this with you, but it took us a while to figure out that this company was yours. We didn't want to disturb you during training, so we managed with whatever we could order. By the way, how much will these one lakh bottles cost us? Will you give us a discount or not?"
Abhimanyu, laughing, said, "Alright, I'll give you a 50% discount."
Grandfather laughed and said, "I thought you would say to take them for free."
Abhimanyu laughed and said, "It's because of your training that I am like this."
Grandfather said, "Yes, yes. Check your phone."
When Abhimanyu checked his phone, he saw the full payment without any discount.
Abhimanyu said, "It seems your math has weakened with age."
Grandfather said, "Now you're going to get a beating."
Abhimanyu smiled and walked away.
Vineet, smiling, said, "He really considers us his family."
Grandfather said, "Stop your nonsense. I have told you many times that he should never find out the truth. Even though he is not our blood, he is more than that to us."
Lalit said, "Emotions aside, I still don't understand why we treated him differently when we have given many orphan boys a place in our family and our name. But they know their background; why treat him differently?"
Grandfather said, "Because I made a promise to someone. Leave it at that. No one else should know this besides the three of us."
Lalit nodded and said, "Even Kiran doesn't know that Abhimanyu is not her son."
Abhimanyu spent one more day with his family and then caught an army train to Bangalore, as he had to travel like a regular soldier.
On the other hand, Sidharth Shukla, also known as Black Dragon, was at Bangalore station, looking at the location on his phone map.
Sidharth thought to himself, "According to the location, it should be 2015 km from Bangalore towards the direction of the arrow of the Shivpura temple. But it's unclear exactly where it is. It must be pointing towards some temple or ruins."
Just as Sidharth was contemplating this, he received a notification.
Sidharth checked and saw that he had received a message.
When Sidharth read the message, he was stunned. A girl he knew well was tied up, and there was a message below her picture: "Black Dragon, if you do not reach the given address, we will kill this girl."
Seeing the message, Sidharth became very angry. He thought to himself, "I had erased all evidence of our relationship, but somehow they found out everything. This is why I stayed away from her, but now her life is in danger because of me."
Sidharth then left the station and caught a flight to Delhi.
Meanwhile, Abhimanyu was on the train. Through Saily, he was comfortably lying on his seat in virtual reality, streaming his gameplay. When he finished a game and returned to the homepage, he saw some notifications below. He checked and found it was some news. Reading the news content, he was stunned for a moment.
Abhimanyu started watching the news, which reported that Kashmira Mathur had been kidnapped from her house overnight. The incident was caught on CCTV, but no one could be identified. The police were searching for her, but it had been 24 hours, and there was no sign of her.
Seeing this, Abhimanyu immediately grabbed his small backup bag, put on his shoes, and went to the train gate. When he saw no one was watching, he jumped out of the gate, spread his dark wings, and flew towards Delhi. Gradually, his speed increased, and his wings turned red from the outer edge and black in the middle, then red inside and black outside, and finally entirely red. His hair was half black and half red, his pupils were red, his fangs protruded, and his horns emerged.
Saily asked, "What are you doing?"
Abhimanyu replied, "I want to reach Delhi quickly."
Saily said, "Have you forgotten? You have a dragon whose speed is as fast as yours."
Abhimanyu suddenly stopped, and as he did, there was a storm, and it felt like the wind hit Abhimanyu, making a loud noise.
Saily said, "What happened to you? You always think calmly. Is Arjun taking over you?"
Abhimanyu said, "Maybe," and called out his dragon. He then placed the ring on a spiky part of the dragon's back and went inside, where he began practicing. Ammy had taught him all kinds of angel techniques. Now, he just needed time to learn and improve himself. After merging with the Demon Lord, such supernatural practices had become quite easy for him, allowing him to master angel techniques as if he were a real angel. At this time, he was practicing angel techniques because after merging with the Demon Lord, he could fully utilize the Demon Lord's powers. He just needed to make his body strong enough to withstand that power. With the help of Amritjal, he had made his body very powerful and had eaten two Amrit fruits, making him as powerful as the current Demon Lord.
After half an hour, Abhimanyu reached Delhi and went straight to Kashmira's house, where many police officers were investigating, and Kashmira's family members were also present.
The police stopped Abhimanyu at the door, not allowing him inside.