The white crane touched down. Anand swung a leg over and dropped to the ground light.

  For a second, everything was still.

  Then the whispers started.

  "Oh my gods, look at him." A soft-faced girl clutched her friend's arm. "He's so cute. I just want to pinch his cheeks. Like, just just squish them a little. Is that weird?"

  "Not weird at all." Another girl fuller figure, older maybe.

  The group of boys standing nearby heard this and exchanged looks. The kind of looks that said *did she really just say that out loud about the Deva putra*?

  Anand heard it too.

  And for the first time since he'd opened his eyes in this life, he felt something close to genuine panic.

  Not the scary kind of panic. The other kind. The Divya Deha came with all sorts of upgrades. But he was still eleven years old. Eleven. He had exactly zero interest in pulling any kind of cart he wasn't ready for.

  He kept walking. Eyes forward. Don't make eye contact. Don't encourage them.

  It didn't work.

  "Look at how he carries himself," one of the boys muttered. He was trying to sound unimpressed but failing. "How does he look more refined than us? We've been training since we could walk. He's been at this for a year."

  The boy's body trembled slightly as he said it. Not from fear exactly. More from the weight of what Anand represented.

  Eleven years ago, when he was born, the ancestors themselves had stirred. Not metaphorically actually stirred. Ancient beings who hadn't moved in centuries had opened their eyes and looked toward the Brahmapuri. That kind of thing gets noticed.

  He was the clan head's grandson. The Pitamaha's own blood. He opened Muladhara in a year. A year. While everyone else took four or five.

  The crowd seemed to realize this at the same moment.

  "Greetings to the Deva Putra!"

  As one, all the Chandravanshi children in the fighting arena bowed. Dozens of them. Young kids, older teens, even some adults who'd been watching from the edges. All bowing to an eleven-year-old.

  Anand stopped walking.

  *Well,* he thought. *This is awkward.*

  Kavya stood among the crowd. Her golden hair caught the light as she bowed just a slight inclination, graceful, practiced. But her eyes? They weren't lowered like everyone else's. They were watching him. Curious. Measuring.

  Neela was beside her, bowing so low her forehead nearly touched her knees. For all her big talk about Dhananjay, she knew her place when it came to someone like Anand. Outsiders didn't disrespect the Deva Putra. Not if they wanted to keep breathing.

  The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

  Anand looked at all these people bowing to him and felt... nothing much, actually. Just a faint sense of disappointment.

  He clicked his tongue silently.

  *This isn't right. what the hell. shouldn't someone step forward right now? Like in those novels. Some arrogant guy who doesn't recognize me? Someone who challenges my status? Then I could slap him down. Establish myself. Show everyone what I can do.*

  He scanned the crowd, looking for a candidate.

  Everyone was still bowing.

  *Come on. Anyone? Just one person?*

  Nothing.

  *I can't even get a decent challenger?*

  He felt like he was punching cotton. All that force, nowhere to go. He'd actually been looking forward to this his first real public appearance. The chance to test himself against someone. To see what this body could really do. Just like in those novels

  But these people? They weren't going to give him that. They respected him too much. Or feared him. Same thing, really.

  So he'd have to test himself another way.

  Anand turned toward the Himavan Shila. The ancient stone sat there, massive and patient, covered in the marks of countless Chandravanshi fists.

  He began to mobilize his prana. Flowing from his first chakra gate.

  Deep inside him, something stirred.

  The Divya Deha. The ancient sacred body. They said it was the most suitable physique for refining the physical form. Made cultivating Prana twice as effective with half the effort. But knowing something and feeling it were completely different.

  Right now, he felt it.

  Rumble.

  A tiny particle somewhere in his body burst open. Then another. Then another.

  The power built and built.

  Anand's hands moved forming the Gajasura Mudra.

  Behind him, a golden specter flickered into existence. An elephant. Massive. Divine. Its form was barely visible, just a shimmer in the air, but everyone felt it.

  "What... what is that?" someone whispered.

  "His prana. It's so powerful I can feel it from here."

  "Is that Gajasura Mudra!?"

  Whispers spread through the crowd like fire through dry grass. The boys who'd been trying to look unimpressed weren't trying anymore. Their mouths hung open.

  Kavya straightened slightly. Her eyes narrowed not with suspicion, but with focus.

  *So,* she thought. *This is the unknown body.*

  Anand wasn't paying attention to any of them. He was focused entirely on the stone in front of him.

  He raised his fist.

  No technique. No flourish. Just a punch. Simple and direct.

  But behind that punch, a thousand divine elephants stampeded through his body. Every muscle, every fiber, every particle all of it channeled into that single point. His knuckles.

  He threw it.

  Boom.

  The golden elephant behind him charged forward at the same moment, trunk raised, silent roar shaking the air.

  His fist connected with the Himavan Shila.

  For one breathless second, nothing happened.

  The entire slab shook violently. Cracks of light spread across its surface before fading.

  And then the number appeared.

  Five hundred thousand Tula.

  The arena went absolutely silent.

  Anand lowered his fist. His breathing was fast. Like he'd just done something big.

  The shockwave of his punch swept across the fighting arena, rustling clothes and hair. People blinked. Stared. Blinked again.

  No one spoke.

  Finally, a boy near the front found his voice. It came out cracked and high.

  "Five... five hundred thousand? He's eleven. He's been training for one year."

  "That's impossible."

  "The number's right there. Look at it."

  "But Dhananjay's record is fifty million. Fifty million! This kid's not even close."

  Another voice cut through older, wiser, from somewhere in the back.

  "Dhananjay is twenty-six. At eleven years old, Dhananjay hadn't even reached fifty thousand. This boy is already ten times that. Ten times..but look at his posture, while he has greater strength his technique isnt that good. I would say around equal to kavya which is honestly huge in itself."

  More silence.

  Someone else whispered, "If he's transformed a prana into divine elephants... then his power would be exactly five hundred thousand. That means he's actually done it. He's actually awakened that many."

  "The first chakra gate," another voice added. "So the rumours are true! He opened Muladhara a year ago. That's why he can do this. Kavya opened it just a week ago!Which was already a huge shock even though she started training young at 7. Dhananjay had not opened it till 14!"

  Anand heard all of this and filed it away for later. Right now, he was thinking about what came next.

  *First chakra gate open. That'll make everything easier going forward. And with this body, I can coat my punches with Prana without even thinking about it. The power multiplier is going to be ridiculous.*

  He glanced at his fist.

  From somewhere in the crowd, a soft voice spoke.

  "That's not just talent."

  Kavya looked at him and whispered. Her purple-tinged lips curved into something that wasn't quite a smile.

  "There is something else," she said quietly. "Moving through him."

  Neela, still bowed nearby, heard this and felt something twist in her stomach. Because Kavya didn't compliment people. Kavya didn't even look at people most of the time.

  Anand turned. His eyes met Kavya's.

  For a moment, neither of them looked away.

  Then Anand shrugged.

  "It's just a punch," he said. "I've got six more chakras to open. Ask me again in a few years."

  And just like that, he walked past her.

  Kavya watched him go.

  "Lets see who reaches first," she murmured, so quiet only she could hear, "Whether you can survive for long enough to reach the peak at all.

  Meanwhile far far away in the void a pair of eyes was looking at him

  "Completely dependent on raw power and his divya deha. No technique. Nothing. Even though the boy has opened the first chakra gate, he has not even understood the basics of chakra and prana. Unless he goes through a tremendous shock that forces him to truly understand, he will die from sheer prana overload and misflow."

  The man who spoke this

  Was Anand's father.