Ravan was duly enraged. He was enraged because Akampana had been killed. He was enraged because Angad, the crown prince of the monkeys had slighted him again. He was enraged because no one had been able to defeat the two brothers for more than a few hours. Ravan stood up from his throne, his eyes dark red and bloodshot, lingering on the two empty thrones in the room, and snarling, his gleaming fangs showing.

"We have to end this war between mere monkeys and ourselves. We have to prove our prowess in the battlefield! So what if they have somehow killed Dhumraksh, Vajradamshtra, that they have managed to end Akampana's siege? It was luck, pure unadulterated luck! This Sita is proving to be more costly than I could have thought, but all good things come at a price, don't they? By the end of this, all her protectors and her husband and brother shall be dead, and she will consent to being my queen!"
Ravan rubbed his beard, his anger calming down at these thoughts. 'Yes, yes, good. We should issue someone at the head of the army and slay all of the vanar chiefs. This will weaken them greatly. Haven't you noticed? It's either that Hanuman, or their Yuvraj, or one of their chiefs that are causing all of our losses. If we kill even one of them-" Ravan grinned. "Yes, that's a great idea indeed. One of the best I've come up with these past few days."

Ravan cleared his throat. "Myself, Kumbhkaran, Meghnad, Nikumbh, or you, Prahast, should lead this ontake. We shall counter their generals with our own, stronger ones. You know what we can do?" Ravan grinned, and his lip curved up into a malicious smirk. "We'll weaken them so much, we'll kill so many of their generals, that brought down with their heavy sobs, they'll leave. They'll leave, or they'll waste away on our lands."

Indrajit looked very ready to volunteer himself for this task, and almost stood up, because Prahast got up from his throne. Ravan eyed him beadily. "I wish to volunteer myself to lead this legion. Raja Ravan, they are not unskilled brutes, or uncultured pieces of swine. Things have happened that we've foreseen. Things have happened that I knew would happen, but nonetheless, we charged on with our army."

"I recommended to you, weeks ago, to return Sita to her husband. But now it has become a matter of your pride, and I am your humble subject, follower, and army general. I would sacrifice myself, my family, everything I own, every essence of me for your sake, Lankesh. I bind myself to obey you, because I consider you my King and my God. If it is to your liking, I am going to lead this legion, and I will kill these vanar generals."

-----O-----

"I've never seen this legion before." Neel whispered, leaning back into the chair. "I've never seen this legion that's coming out of the Western gates of Lanka." Nal looked up with a frown. "It's an enormous army, isn't it? An enormous, highly capable collection of rakshasas. Come on, let's appreciate the silence before anyone else notices them as they invade the battlefield, and ruin the innocent dirt with their mucky footsteps."

But it wasn't long before the monkey army noticed them, and they all roared simultaneously, beating their chests and preparing for the new day's battle. Ram blinked his eyes open, because he had leaned on the pillar and dozed off for a moment. In seconds, he had rushed towards the opening of the long tent, and stared the large army in the eye, his own wide, and his breath torn from his throat.

Even without asking Vibhishan, Ram knew who the enormous rakshas leading the legion was. Prahast, the army general of Ravan's strongest legion. This was Prahast, who had been the reason Ravan won so many battles. This was Prahast, who would lose to absolutely no one. This was Prahast, who would serve Ravan till his last breath. This was Prahast, Ravan's mightiest fighter. And though he followed adharma and bound himself to the man who had captured his wife, Ram felt, for a moment, respect for this rakshas who used no illusions, no maya, nothing but raw power and hard-gained might to fight.

------O------

The sun felt as if it shouldn't have risen that day, for only in minutes, the warm dust of the battlefield which it lighted was soaked with red blood, flowing out of bodies and worse, out of under boulders which no one dared lift. The vanars had not magically gained any new weapons in the night; they fought with trees and stones and boulders. In the night, Angad and Nal and Neel, and sometimes even Lakshman went off in search of a new forest or something to bring back materials from, and last night, they had struck gold; a cave full of boulders and stones.

The rakshas under Prahast's legion, however, were mightier. And they mirrored Prahast's fighting style, using axes and swords and bows, but not a single astra in sight. Ram noticed, in a fleeting second, that only Prahast's legion, with the same crest proudly on their chest, occupied the field. Ravan had not sent any back-up, and thank goodness for that, because ten thousand Prahast-like fighters were enough to deal with.

As soon as some rakshas escaped the monkeys' grips, an arrow would be shot into them, by either Ram, or Lakshman, who stood right outside of the tent, but still kept their sharp eyes on anyone seeming to cause more danger. Despite this challenge from two of the best fighters in the world, both sides fought fiercely. Necks were held in death grips, and vanars and rakshasas both watched their comrades' backs.

Under Prahast were three mighty fighters; Narantak, Mahanada, and Kumbhahanu. Dwivida, one of Ram's army generals, soon noticed that they were killing more of the younger, less armored monkeys instead of matching someone of their own level, and quickly called Durmukh and Jambavan to match against them. Dwivida ran into Narantak's chest and clawed at it, and in return, Narantak threw him many feet into the air.

Used to this, however, Dwivida landed on both feet nimbly, and again charged towards Narantak, who was caught unawares, and jumped aside too late. Dwivida almost clawed out his stomach, but Narantak managed to escape just. Keeping both eyes on Dwivida, he picked up his mace, and waited a few seconds, hoping to surprise Dwivida. But in all of that waiting, Dwivida had already swung, and in seconds, Narantak was thrown across the battlefield, straight onto a sword, where his chest was cut.

Mahanada matched against Durmukh. Both were tall, clever fighters with a knowledge of the art, but Mahanada fought with his fists, and Durmukh preferred the mace. As Durmukh swung, Mahanada prevented it with his fists. But Mahanada only had two fists, and Durmukh still had that mace. Durmukh matched Mahanada's fists with his own, and curled his tail around the handle of the mace, and swung it at Mahanada's head. The rakshas paused for a second, letting go and touching the crack ranging across his forehead, before he collapsed.

Jambavan and Kumbhahanu lasted, perhaps, the least amount of time. With one leap, Jambavan shredded the army general's body to little pieces, and calmly stepped off, brushing his hands off. Narantak, Mahanada, and Mubhahanu were dead. Dead, dead, dead. But the single problem was that Prahast was still very much alive, and very much still the lethal legion leader he was before. Alive, kicking, and most importantly, killing.

And then, Neel inhaled a deep breath and paced towards the legion leader as he speared another monkey. With one great throw of the fist, he impacted skin, and Prahast flew back a few feet, landing still, steady, but having found a new opponent in Neel, he snarled and threw his spear. Neel dodged it, stepping aside as soon as he saw the silvery point rushing towards him. "Aw, lost your aim have you?" he asked, stepping aside again as another spear approached him. "Feeling a little weak? Need some more competition?"
The next spear, he caught. "Well, you'll get it." he growled, before sending this one straight towards Prahast's chest. The demon ducked just in time, and it speared one of his warriors instead. Prahast didn't seem to care, however, as he paced towards Neel, and they began to wrestle. But this wasn't like Hanuman and anyone else wrestling. It was a perfectly evened out match-up.

For one moment, it seemed as if Prahast had won, because he kicked Neel's stomach, and the vanar fell back on the ground. But just as Prahast was about to kill him for good, lifting his spear, Neel jumped back up and punched the rakshasa's chest hard enough to make him step back for a second and balance himself on the ground as Neel shook out his hands and took Prahast in a choke-hold.

They were both still upright, and this was no such playful dangal. Prahast wouldn't be able to tap Neel's arm twice before he passed out. He would die from loss of air if he didn't do anything soon. His face started to turn blue, but one moment, Prahast dug his long nails into the vanar's arm and stepped on his bare foot at the same time with his smoked golden shoe, and Neel released subconsciously, hissing with pain.

Prahast stepped back a few feet, still gasping for air, before picking up his iron mace while Neel still stood unprepared, shaking his arm and wincing, and holding it beside him for a fleeting second. Then he ran, he ran for his life, towards Neel, his hair whipping in the wind, and his army generals' crown falling off, and it was in that moment that Prahast looked like the army general of Ravan of Lanka.

His black hair whipped in the wind as his long strides towards Neel only increased in length. The crown toppled in the air and rolled around in the ground, mixing in the dirt, its golden sheen gone. His muscles rippled and his body heaved for breath, and the air was sucked out of the area five feet in radius from him, such was the great power of Prahast. The iron mace must have weighed a hundred pounds, but Prahast wielded it with ease, his fangs bared as he swung it at Neel's body.

And then he was hit. Neel looked up just as the mace brought a whoosh of air near him, and in half a second picked up a boulder and hit it at Prahast's head when his guard was down, when he thought that he had won. The entire army stared as Prahast paused for a second. The wind stopped blowing, and his hair stopped billowing as he dropped his mace, all of the superhuman strength he had previously possessed disappearing. The entire army stared as Prahast fell back on the dust which rushed away on his graceful approach to the ground. The entire army stared as blood flowed out of his mouth and his head cracked into two, and everyone stared as Prahast breathed his last.

And then Neel grinned as the rakshasas of Ravan's best legion scattered, and he stepped back, into the welcoming embrace of his best friend. Neel grinned as he was patted on the back and punched playfully in the arm, and handed Prahast's crown as a spoil of war, and led towards the tents which he had thought, as he first started fighting Prahast, that he may never return to again.

"You have done better than any of us could!" Ram declared grandly as Neel took his blessings. "Neel, you've killed Prahast, the army general of Ravan, the rakshas whom everyone in this world feared for his might and steady loyalty towards Ravan. Don;t you know what you've done? You've changed the entire pace of the war for us! Neel, you'll forever be remembered as a hero in the scriptures and the tales."

"It was a good fight." Lakshman admitted without difficulty. "You made absolutely no mistakes. Prahast was the mightiest warrior on Ravan's side, or at least the mightiest one who used fair means. And we all know he would have killed so many more. You've saved thousands of us, thousands of the monkey and bear populations with your act today. Prahast lies dead on the battlefield, and his corpse will not be touched until the evening. That's a sight I'd never thought I'd see."

And Neel kept the golden crown right on the wooden table placed at the end of the tents, in high sight of all the monkeys injured in that day's battle, all the monkeys who healed, and everyone who walked in. The sparkling golden crown would catch anyone's eye if they came in with news, good or bad. It would forever serve as a reminder that Prahast, the army general of Lanka, had lost to the ever-lasting battle of death.

-----O-----

"Order rituals done!" Ravan commanded. "Order rituals done to ensure the victory of my army general! Now!" The priest who was the ambassador to all of Lanka's guardian goddesses nodded, bowing low before rushing away. Ravan then turned around to Prahast, who stood there in all of his battle armor, staring at him. "The gods and the goddesses of Lanka have always granted us victory, Prahast. But it shall only work if you ask her for it. "

Prahast bowed low to Ravan, before walking up to the idol of Lanka Devi, the main guardian Goddess of Lanka, who stood tall and proud, eyes wide and daring in the golden temple of Lanka, the dome that so many of their enemies saw. "I pray, oh Lanka Devi, to you, if I have been ever loyal and unwavering to Lankesh's command and orders, if I have supported his every venture, grant me victory today, grant me victory."

And then, as Ravan walked away to conduct the rest of the rituals and sacrifices, Prahast walked up to his wife, who smiled at him. "Prahast, why do you stare at me like that? We all know that you have always been loyal to Ravan, and that you're the mightiest warrior on the battlefield. You'll win today, and you'll gain thousands of gold coins from Lankesh. Why-w-why are you staring at me like that?"

Prahast stared her in the eyes. "I've been ever loyal to Lankesh, and have supported his every venture. I asked Lanka Devi for victory today, but not on the battlefield. It is up to her what victory I shall gain today. Will I gain victory for Lankesh? Will I gain victory against my enemies? Or will I finally win against the adharma which has been poisoning my life? I followed Ravan, and I followed his beliefs. I still think that the monkeys are terrible warriors, and those two hermits are useless, but upon the death of my son, and my fellow generals, Akampana, even, I cannot help but worry. And so I ask for victory, just victory."

-----O------

Prahast's widow sobbed over his body, her hair flying in the wind as Ravan lit the pyre to cremate his loyalest general himself. Meghnad removed his crown and bowed his head low to the ground in respect for the general who had taught him everything he knew. Atikaya, Devantak, all of the courtiers Ravan had left fell to their knees in front of the burning body of the demon who had led them to victory every time. And in the background stood Lanka Devi, her large eyes watching, and her body still splattered with the blood of Ravan's many sacrifices.

A/N-This book is killing me from the inside. What kind of a chapter was this? I just planned for it to be about Prahast dying and everyone celebrating! Instead it became this deep thing about Lanka Devi and victory! T-T This is like-really depressing. *hides face*

First of all, I just wanna specify that I am NOT defending Prahast. I hate all demons. I hate Sulochana and Indrajit and everyone-I don't even know why I go into their personal lives. They're evil. Periodt. 

But, on a lighter note, I made a piece of fanart for @Ramayana_lover

It's a masterpiece. No take backsies. 

JK. 

It's supposed to be from the "Kabandha" chapter, you know? When Lakshman's all like "YOU SAID THAT YOU SHOULD NEVER HAVE TRUSTED ME!" I tried to follow what you said when you talked about their characters in the character sketch chapter. Muscular, long hair, petal shaped eyes, symmetrical lips, etc.

Is it okay?