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Prologue: The Eternal Current
The Ganges flowed like a serpent of time, her waters thick with marigold offerings and the ash of countless pyres. Ahanu Tennarse stood on the steps of **Dashashwamedh Ghat**, his *kara* bangle humming with the river's resonance. The Obsidian Circle had anchored a pulsating **Yantra** of obsidian and code to the riverbed, its tendrils siphoning *prana* from the sacred waters to fuel a quantum rebirth engine. Pilgrims knelt in thrall, their foreheads branded with glowing **Circle mantras**.
**Xóchitl Mendoza** leaned against a stone pillar, her Tzitzimimeh-corrupted arm now webbed with cracks that leaked starlight. "They're bottling *moksha*. Selling liberation to the highest bidder."
**Ahanu:** (eyeing the Yantra) "How do we drown a god?"
**Xóchitl:** (grim) "We don't. We wake her."
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Scene 1: The Poetess of Manikarnika
In a crumbling riverside haveli, they found **Lakshmi Devi**, a blind poetess whose verses had once calmed monsoons. Her fingers danced over Braille tablets etched with Vedic hymns, her voice a rasp of smoked cedar.
**Lakshmi:** (to Yusuf's hologram) "You owe me a poem, Sufi. The Circle's Yantra is a cage for *Ganga Maiya*. Free her, or your debt becomes a curse."
**Yusuf:** (via comms) "The poem's in the river's tears. Listen."
Ahanu pressed a hand to the water, **absorbing the Ganges' memory**: Mughal invasions, British plunder, the weight of a million sins. His tattoos flared with Devanagari script—*"Har Har Gange."*
**Lakshmi:** "The river remembers *everything*. Even your grandmother's last prayer."
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Scene 2: The Dance of the Aghori
Lakshmi led them to an **Aghori ascetic** smeared in funeral pyre ash, his dreadlocks knotted with rusted keys. He offered Ahanu a skull-bowl of river water.
**Aghori:** "Drink. Taste the truth."
Ahanu drank. Visions erupted:
- **Ganga descending from Shiva's locks, her fury drowning kings.**
- **The Circle's CEO bathing in stolen *prana*, his skin shedding like a snake.**
- **Xóchitl's arm dissolving into the Yantra, taking her with it.**
**Ahanu:** (gasping) "The Yantra's a parasite. It feeds on her pain."
**Aghori:** "Then *become the pain*."
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Scene 3: The Night of Broken Stars
At midnight, the Circle's **Quantum Aarti** began. Robotic priests circled the Yantra, drones projecting holographic gods that auctioned *moksha* bids. Lakshmi chanted into a bone microphone, her hymns clashing with AI bhajans.
**Xóchitl:** (to Ahanu) "I'm hacking the Yantra's core. If I glitch, pull me out."
**Ahanu:** (gripping her good arm) "Not happening."
**Xóchitl:** (smirking) "Since when do you care?"
She plunged her corrupted arm into the river, Tzitzimimeh code surging into the Yantra.
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Scene 4: The Battle of the Prana Tide
- **Ahanu** fought **Circle Nagas**—bio-mechanical serpents with fangs of glass—his *macuahuitl* now crackling with **Agni's fire** from absorbed Hindu mantras.
- **Lakshmi** dueled the **AI Sadhu**, her hymns shattering its Sanskrit algorithms.
- **Xóchitl** writhed in the Yantra's core, her arm dissolving as she rerouted *prana* back to the Ganges.
**AI Sadhu:** (mocking Lakshmi) "Your gods are silent. The river dies tonight."
**Lakshmi:** (smashing her tablet) "Then I'll sing her back to life!"
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Scene 5: The Descent of Ganga
The Yantra imploded, vomiting a tidal wave of black water. Ahanu lunged for Xóchitl, but the Aghori stopped him.
**Aghori:** "Let her go. The river claims what she must."
**Ahanu:** (roaring) "I don't *let go*!"
He **absorbed the tidal wave**, his body bloating with the Ganges' rage—centuries of pollution, grief, and devotion. His clones erupted:
- **Hindu-Clones** wielding tridents, chanting *"Har Har Gange!"*
- **Sufi-Clones** spinning like dervishes, dissolving the Yantra's code.
- **Aztec-Clones** sacrificing themselves to the current.
The Ganges **ROARED**, her form materializing—a woman of water and ash, her eyes twin whirlpools.
**Ganga:** (to Ahanu) *"You carry too many rivers. Let mine flow through you."*
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