Amravathi, Devloka...

The fate of war was decided in a day, just as Indra had predicted. He had decided not to use his most deadly astra in his possession, Vajra. It was not used for decades but it is said that it had power to bring thunderbolts from the skies. Like any other astra Vajra also had to be invoked using specific mantras that were designed to initiate them. Brihaspati and Sachi had advised him to invoke it just in case but it fell into his deaf ears.

It was Mahishi who had astonished everyone with her tactical skills. Having women in her army meant a moment of hesitation for Deva army. This is what she hoped for her women soldiers to use this confusion to attack the enemy. The archers were placed at the end of the formation. Their task was to shoot arrows in the middle lines of the Deva army.

The first five lines mainly comprised the Urumi group led by Kaal. Other soldiers of this group were scattered throughout the formation. These soldiers had to inflict multiple cuts to their enemies. This would ensure slow yet painful deaths. Mahishi knew that once the Deva soldiers in the middle lines witnessed their comrades writhing in pain, they would be scared. Even for a moment, it would cloud their judgement and make mistakes. That's exactly what she hoped for.

The Varma adi and Silambam groups had to work together. They had to travel to the back lines of the Deva army. In the midst of this, if the Asura groups were attacked, the Silambam group had to distract the enemies while the Varma adi escaped.

Just like she had strategized, during the war, the army of Gods broke their formations. Kaal, his Urumi group and Mahishi broke the front lines. The archers split the middle lines.

When some of the middle line soldiers reached the front, they stopped moving on tracks as soon as they saw others screaming in pain. This was the moment Mahishi was waiting for. Her troops slashed the limbs of the incoming soldiers. She knew this would have more serious psychological damage on other soldiers.

The Varma adi and Silambam groups were fighting like normal soldiers. The plan was to slowly reach the last lines without causing much suspicion. They did exactly that. The archers were raining arrows continuously so that Devas didn't notice Asuras sneakily reaching for the last line.

When the Devas first saw the Asuras wearing metal helmets painted with red colour, they laughed. They couldn't believe that Asuras had to wear their holy colour, red, to win this war. It was designed that way as a mark for archers to not shoot their soldiers.

As war progressed, few of the Deva soldiers took the martyred Asuras helmets and wore them. Mahishi had instructed her army to keep an eye on such soldiers so naturally the Asuras were prepared.

The Silambam group disarmed their opponents making it easier for the Varma adi group to attack a few joints or muscles. This was done so those Devas could be 'useless' until the war was over. Once the war ended, these soldiers would be left with the guilt of survival.

Within a few hours, the latter part of Devas formation was dispersed. Many left the battlefield and fled for their lives. As she saw the success of her strategies, her mind wandered to the situation they were in five years ago.

The manufacturing unit of Asuras had reported that they had very few quantities of iron left in their possession. Anjan's negligence had caused them another trouble. With a small group of soldiers, they had dug a way to one of the rarely used hills in Kudremukh to get small quantities of iron ore. Slowly and stealthily, they procured enough quantities to manufacture the weapons.

As she looked at King Indra and smiled. Looks like we don't have to steal iron ore right under Devas' noses. Indra glared at the Queen of Asuras as she smiled at him. Seated on his elephant, Airavat, he watched the war unfolding. The previous day, he had decided not to use Deva elephantry but the way things stood for them, he had summoned them.

The Asura archers soon saw Deva elephants approaching them. They had already received instructions from their Queen to shoot mahouts. Minister Nilakukshi had reported to Mahishi about the war elephants maintained by Devas.

The Asuras had gathered some of the weaknesses of having elephants in the army. One of them being the war elephants were closely attached to their mahouts. Their death would mean the mighty beasts might trample Deva soldiers.

Yet judging by the number of elephants that were coming, it had to be around a quarter of their elephantry. We have to finish this before Indra gets a chance to call rest of these beasts. Otherwise the tide will turn over and we will lose. She took out two red coloured arrows and shooted it in the air.

She was not the best archer but her main goal was for her army to see it. After a few minutes, she fired two arrows again. Using sound arrows would have been better. But Devas would get alerted. She repeated this until she had exhausted the arrows in her possession.

Meanwhile, Indra had signalled Brihaspati to start the invocation of Vajra. This task needed time and it can't be done in haste. Indra looked around at his retreating soldiers. I have brought Gurudev some time using these elephants. I hope it is enough.

His eyes caught the last two red arrows that Mahishi shooted in the air. As expected, she is a lousy archer. It took a few minutes to realise that it was a signal. By the time he could take any action, he saw some clumps of fire running furiously towards his army.

Around half an hour ago, in the Asura camp, some of the soldiers were tugging wheeled crates towards the battlefields. These crates were covered with huge sheets of cloth. Next to them were some soldiers carrying pots of coconut oil with them. The soldiers carried them to the middle of the battlefield. Once the crates stopped, grunting noises were heard.

As Mahishi had calculated, the war noises were loud enough to keep these grunting noises to minimum. A bunch of soldiers opened the cloth of crates one after the other. The grunting wild pigs were doused in coconut oil. These pigs were split into groups and taken to different spots of war.

While the Asura army knew that the Deva army would find it odd that the former is walking with pigs and be alerted. This is where timing was crucial. Once the groups of wild pigs were away at considerable distance from each other, they were set aflame. Nilakukshi of the Asura army, screamed, "Incoming fireballs."

The Deva army had no time to react as the war elephants were scared by the squealing sparkling animals running towards them. The soldiers near him again started shooting red coloured arrows. The Asura soldiers were prepared to be at a safer place. They started moving out of line of sight of the wild pigs. Once they judged that they were safer, they started moving towards the Deva army. Their aim was to sneak a surprise attack in case the Devas tried to retreat.

Meanwhile, the blazing pigs crashed against some soldiers, horses and elephants. The mahouts were unable to control the scared elephants as it continued trampling its own soldiers. Kaal had calculated that Airavat, the personal elephant of Indra, would be stationed a little further away from the main army. Their plan of war pigs might not cover enough distance to threaten Indra. So they had thought of a remedy to this.

In the midst of this confusion, archers from the Asura army aimed for Airavat's legs and trunks. Some of their shots hit its trunk. Bellowing in pain, the beast tried running helter-skelter. It's mahout was unable to control it. Indra was saved when the mahout was able to make it sit, albeit momentarily. The Deva King and his army tried retreating when the Asura soldiers had sneaked behind them. These soldiers mainly consisted of Urumi soldiers. Some of them were successful in disarming their opponents. Their urumi allowed them to keep considerable distance from their opponents in case of surprise attack but also within range of the sword.

The queen of Asuras, rode on her horse and looked down at Indra. "Accept your defeat and your life shall be spared," she threatened, pointing her sword at her opponent. With his head hung down, he said, "We accept the defeat."

From the palace terrace, Sachi saw the brutality of the war and gasped. Numerous soldiers, consisting of men and women, were crushed, some were beaten blue black while others lay, mercilessly sliced. She quickly made an announcement through the palace guards, "Start evacuation from the palace. Tell everyone to hurry."

If we don't hurry, we will meet the same fate.

The sun had started setting. Kaal looked at the surrendered Deva soldiers and asked, "Your Highness, shall I take some soldiers and kill the people inside the palace?"

Mahishi shook her head. "Don't forget that King Indra gave us a place to stay, the reason doesn't matter. We will wait until everyone leaves. We cannot kill the people inside, they are innocent."

Looking at the corpses of the Deva soldiers, she added, "These soldiers met this fate because they killed my brother."

Sumali tried to argue, "Your Highness, those who killed King Mahishasura were soldiers of Goddess Durga. These are soldiers of King Indra."

"The fact that they're Devas is enough," she declared.

Most of the Asura soldiers were in the Deva palace, making merry, a soldier was walking near the corpses. Half of his face was covered by a cloth. Amongst the corpses, he thought he saw a familiar face. Making sure no one was looking around, he took out a small pouch made of camel skin. Opening the cork, he poured a little water on the corpse's face. Though the water cleared the dust and blood settled on it's face, he wanted to be sure. Please let it not be her. Taking another glance around, he gently rubbed the rest of grime on her face.

Tears streamed down on his face as kept removing the grime. Why did she also had to die? She can't die. She shouldn't have. He stood up, running away from the battleground as his ears picked up approaching footsteps. This is the fault of the Queen. I will make sure Mahishi will pay for it. Moving stealthily, he reached towards the maids and soldiers of Devas who were moving out from the palace. Throwing away his Asura soldier gears, he mixed up with the Deva crowd.

By night, the palace was vacated by the Devas and the Asuras slowly started occupying it. The following day, Mahishi's coronation took place under the vigilance of Guru Vaayakaal. She had become the queen of the Devloka.

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By far one of the longest chapters I wrote for this story. Initially I thought of splitting into two chapters, but that would have break the momentum of the war. Hence, comparatively one longer chapter.

Thank you for reading.