NOVEL WEB Chapter 24: Chapter 24 — A Temple of Ruin
Location: Beneath Ashtashram (Collapsed metro tunnel)
Date: October 16, 2029
Time: 5:13 AM
It started with a dream.
Yash stood in water up to his chest.
Not drowning. Not floating.
Above him — stars.
Below — bones.
And a voice whispered:
"The temple is beneath you.
And I am still waiting."
He woke up covered in ash.
More than usual.
Ankita reported tremors in the eastern wall.
A sinkhole had opened where the rubble store used to be.
No one wanted to go down.
But Yash did.
He and Mira descended the hole, flashlights flickering.
Stairs.
Old stone.
Symbols carved in walls — not Sanskrit. Older.
The air was cold.
But the dust wasn't choking. It was still.
Like the place had been sealed.
At the end of the descent:
A temple.
Shattered pillars.
A cracked idol — the upper half gone.
But the lower half was unmistakable:
Kali.
Foot stepping on a demon.
Tongue out.
Chains held in broken hands.
And behind the idol…
A mural—of eight figures standing in fire.
Each holding something different:
A skull
A trident
A scythe
A broken clock
A mirror
A flame
A chain
A dying star
Yash reached out.
His ashmark burned again.
And the temple… reacted.
Not with light.
With a heartbeat.
Boom. Boom.
Stone shook.
Mira screamed — her earpiece overloaded with static.
Yash collapsed — eyes glowing white.
And then…
Whispers.
"We waited.
You bled.
We remember.
Do you?"
Yash saw visions:
A battlefield of gods.
A woman with black skin and eyes like galaxies.
A man laughing while his own shadow strangled him.
Then it stopped.
He woke up at the top of the hole.
Ankita was slapping his face.
Rishav held water.
The temple was gone.
Collapsed.
Sealed again — like it had never been opened.
But on Yash's hand…
a new sigil had appeared.
One he'd seen in the mural — the broken clock.
That night, he sat by the fire, silent.
And when Khushi asked what happened, he whispered:
"I think… one of them finally saw me."