NOVEL WEB Chapter 22: Chapter 22 — Claws in the Fog
Location: South Boundary, Ashtashram Watchpost
Date: October 13, 2029
Time: 2:42 AM
The fog had returned.
Thicker.
Heavier.
Like something was breathing through the city itself.
No wind. No night sounds.
Only stillness.
And silence.
Until the scratching began.
It wasn't loud.
But it repeated.
A claw dragging slowly across concrete.
Not attacking.
Marking.
The watchpost sent a flare.
Ankita responded.
Yash followed.
They reached the wall.
Saw deep gouges carved into the outer barricade.
Three claws.
Each over two feet long.
Too precise to be a mindless beast.
Then came the smell.
Burned incense… mixed with rot.
It wasn't human.
It wasn't demonic.
It was in between.
They waited in silence.
Mira checked her sensors.
Static.
Rishav arrived, holding only a kitchen knife.
"I don't know why," he said,
"but it smells like memory."
Then they saw it.
A creature — seven feet tall — half-flesh, half-ash.
Not fully formed.
Its eyes were mirrors.
Its hands were claws.
Its chest… had writing carved into it.
Words in ancient Sanskrit.
Yash stepped forward.
"Who sent you?"
The creature tilted its head.
Its claws stopped twitching.
And then it spoke.
But not with its mouth.
The words echoed in Yash's head:
"Ash-Bearer…
You killed me."
"Or what I used to be."
"And now I remember."
Yash's back burned.
His divine mark flickered — reacting to recognition.
This thing wasn't random.
It was once human.
A survivor.
A man who had once entered the Ashtashram gates —
and died during the first attack weeks ago.
His body never found.
Something had reformed him.
Something dark.
A Rakshasa god?
A corrupted shard?
Yash didn't draw a weapon.
He only whispered—
"Do you want revenge?"
The creature paused.
"No."
"I want to see… if your fire is real."
And it vanished into the fog.
The wall remained scarred.
No one slept that night.
And deep inside the shattered temple ruins beneath the shelter…
a crack widened.
A divine duel was coming.