Bose walked over towards one of the writhing pairs of impaled bodies. The man had been pierced through his stomach and the spike had passed through his spine, severing it. His lower half had been paralyzed and he had lost control of his bowels.

The stench of his voided bowels had joined the copper tang of blood that permeated the room.

The woman beneath him, on the other hand had been spiked through a lung and every one of her breaths was painfully laboured and she frequently coughed blood even as she struggled to get the man off her, only aggravating his wound in the process as the serrated edges of the spike shredded the edges of his wound further.

When Sushil and Ravi had come in, they had found some semblance of hope.

When they had punched Bose into the wall, they had dared to grasp that optimistic thought.

But now, as they heard the man’s slow footsteps as he walked over to them, they felt nothing but desperation and fear. Their hearts pumped harder from their fear and their wounds spurted blood under its increased vigour.

They turned their pleading gazes to Sushil and Ravi, begging them with their eyes for salvation from the approaching devil.

Sushil clenched his teeth and stamped his foot down hard on the ground to rein in its shivering.

“Stop right there!” he exclaimed as he took a step forward.

Bose shot him a disdainful glance without even slowing his tread.

“Damn it!” he cursed as he pulled the trigger repeatedly.

*Bam*

*Bam*

*Bam*

*Bam*

*Bam*

*Bam*

The smoking gun fell out of his lax grip as he watched the unharmed monster slowly turn to face him.

This time Sushil hadn’t bothered to shoot at his legs.

All six were headshots.

Bose’s head was bent at ninety degrees, his neck clearly broken from the force of the shots.

But there wasn’t a single scratch on him.

In his soul sight, Sushil had seen the bullets be rebounded by a sort of glimmering vortex that surrounded the man. The barrier had blocked the bullets from shattering his skull and even negated a large part of the impact but the part that had gotten through had been enough to snap his neck.

With a grin that made Sushil take an involuntary step back, Bose reached up to his head and with a sickening crack, set it straight.

He shrugged his shoulders and turned his head from side to side to test the range of motion.

“Don’t get so impatient. I’ll play with you soon enough once I’m done with them.”

Then ignoring Sushil, he continued over to the impaled couple.

Sushil knew that whatever Bose wanted to do wouldn't bode well for either them or the rest of the unfortunate occupants of the sealed chamber but he couldn't bring himself to snap out of his fear-paralysis in time to stop what happened next.

Reaching the unfortunate souls, Bose knocked them out with two sharp strikes to the backs of their heads, then dislocated his jaws to open his mouth wide and chomped down on the head of the man.

***

Aman gagged and vomited out the contents of his stomach as he saw what was happening in the bunker using his Divine Vision.

There was currently pandemonium on the streets.

Just as Bose had triggered the explosion that had collapsed the tunnels, the streets above the tunnels had also lost the support of the earth beneath them and the asphalt had cracked and sunk along the line of the tunnel.

In the crowded square, that had disastrous effects.

The vibrations of the explosions and the sinking streets had sparked panic among the crowd. Fearful of an earthquake, they had just wanted to escape the area as soon as possible, triggering a mass stampede.

The police were trying their best to restore order but they were hopelessly short staffed and in the few moments of the stampede, several lives had been already been lost.

In the eyes of Aman, their fear and panic had risen like dark clouds from them, the miasma getting sucked into the bunker and then into Bose’s body like water through the drain port of a sink.

‘What the FUCK is he doing!? He is EATING them!’

He bent down to vomit again.

[Uhh… I am not very clear as to the purpose of this random act of cannibalism but I am sure that you have realized as well that he isn’t human anymore. I’m sure you’d agree that he has been taken over by the soul of Mahishasura that he summoned from the Dreamland. And I believe that according to myth, the demon ate humans… This probably has something to do with that.]

“Are you alright?” asked Ananya, concerned as she continued to dial Ravi’s number, worried about his safety after the tunnels collapsed.

“Fine… just squeamish after seeing the stampede… people dying and all…”

“Oh… well, I guess I just can't believe that its all real. From this height, they all look like ants and I can’t really picture them. Just… how the hell did you know about what was happening in the bunker? You said something about Bose killing people there then the tunnels collapsed. Can you see inside? How!? Actually, forget about that… what’s happening now?”

‘Nama’

[Well… this could go both ways… You tell her and trust her to keep it a secret. Or, you tell everyone that it’s a special ability you developed after coming into contact with the Dreamland and hope that the mysterious organization doesn’t link you to me and the Indian Institute of Eugenics doesn’t dissect you. The first option, if she breaks your trust, you’re totally screwed… The second option is too risky. The third option… toss her over the railing and then blame her death on the stampede. Sushil and Ravi won't be leaving that bunker alive if Bose has truly fused with Mahishasura. That vortex of nano-photons protecting him implies that the effect of the lore still holds true for him.]

[He is invulnerable to the attacks of men and the last time I checked, the both of them still had dicks in their pants.]