The Journey Beyond Bhuloka

by Krutant Iyer

  Murari looked around. He couldn’t help but feel a sense of uneasiness settling in as he thought about his Tata.

  I hope Tata is fine. I will save him no matter what happens. He resolved silently.

  Everyone got off the shore and made their way through the land. Their feet dug into the hot sand that seemed to spread for miles. As the sun beat down on them, the pirates found it increasingly difficult to keep up with the pace of Vajra and the boys, who would often have to slow down for the pirates to catch up to them.

  They did not even stop for food. The pirates had brought along a netload of fruits from the ship. But the group continued marching ahead with stopping to rest or eat as Vajra insisted, they had to reach Tamisra before the sun descended from the sky.

  Just as the sun began setting in the horizon, they could see a vague outline of some structure, far off in the distance. As Vajra led them in that direction, the group followed with a renewed vigour, knowing they would soon get to rest their tired bodies.

  The structure revealed itself to be a line-up of stone pillars. While some stones were mammoth in size, comparable to a banyan tree, rest of the stones were just about as tall as the boys. They couldn’t see what lay beyond the closely stacked pillars.

  As they came close to the pillars, something felt off. There was a weird energy in the air, but the boys weren’t able to pinpoint what it was exactly. The pirates were blissfully unaware of the sudden heaviness in the atmosphere.

  They were only a few metres away from the stone pillars now when Vajra saw a hint of movement from behind one of the pillars. He signalled everyone to stop. They came to an abrupt halt. Though no word was exchanged, the boys had sensed the tension in the air, while the pirates knew better than to question Vajra’s decision.

  “What’s the point in hiding, if you are incapable of staying still?” Vajra said, looking in the direction of the pillar.

  There was no response at first, then a huge figure emerged from behind the pillar.

  He stood as tall as Vajra – no – he was even taller than him. The setting sun cast his massive shadow over them, even though they stood several metres away. A deep scar ran from the top of his head, through his right eye, down to the side of his neck. His shiny scalp reflected the fading rays of the setting sun. Much like them, he too was donning a dhoti, but unlike them, the dreadful scars covering his bare chest told them that this hulk of a man had seen his fair share of battles.

  The mysterious warrior’s appearance seemed to have unnerved Vajra, who was unwittingly holding his lathi up in a defensive stance as if warding off an attack that hadn’t been made yet.

  “Welcome, Siddhari! We meet again.” The warrior’s voiced boomed.

  “What are you doing here?” Vajra thundered, stiffening his posture.

  “What’s with the attitude? Aren’t you forgetting something?” The warrior sniggered. “Don’t you owe something to our King?”

  As he said those words, six more warriors emerged from behind the deceiving stone pillars.

  While a couple of them perched themselves atop the stone pillars, others fanned out behind the warrior who had come out first. He was their leader, that much was clear.

  All the warriors had a blood-red dhoti wrapped tightly around their waist. Like their leader, the rest of the warriors sported deep gashes and scars all over their body as well, which they flaunted with pride.

  While four of them were brandishing a toothed mace each. Two of them were holding a modified form of double-edged Parashu, that had a drawn-out haft. The boys and the pirates shuddered upon seeing the warriors in front of them.

  “That coward!” Vajra bellowed. “He dares to send his minions again.”

  “Enough!” The leader of the warriors shouted with equal vehemence. “You will not denigrate our King in front of us.”

  The silence that followed as the two of them glared at each other was deafening. The pressure they were exuding was not for weak-hearted.

  “I am prepared to leave you with your pitiful life if you hand over the map to us.” The warrior said.

  “Hah – you think you can take me on with your pathetic strength?” Vajra responded. “Let me see you try.”

  A vein popped up on the warrior’s forehead as he frowned at Vajra’s remark.

  “Very well. You had your chance.” He thundered, as he lifted and spun his mace in his hand menacingly. “Now, I am not just going to take what I came for. I will also behead you and these frail manavas behind you.”

  Saying so, he hurled his mace at Vajra.

  Vajra circumvented the attack by sidestepping and deftly struck the mace with his lathi, deflecting it to the ground.

  But the warrior was prepared for it. His mace was secured at its hilt with a metal chain that was clasped around his hand. He skilfully pulled it back into his grip.

  “Run!” Vajra shouted at the boys and the pirates, pointing in the direction from which they had come.

  Even before the boys and the pirate could react, the warriors who had been sitting languidly on the stone pillar, took an enormous leap and landed behind the group, cutting off their retreat.

  “Who permitted you to leave?” the warrior’s leader sniggered.

  Soon the other warriors had the group surrounded. They circled the group menacingly, jeering at them as they did.

  “Don’t be intimidated by them. The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Vajra said, running his eyes over the circling warriors. “Or, have I taught you nothing?”

  “Teacher – they seem much stronger than us. How are we supposed to take them on?” Ballu asked, his tone betraying his uneasiness.

  “Have you not trained in Kalari? Though they may tower over you in size, you stand on equal footing when it comes to power.” Vajra said. “You mustn’t use the power of Siddhi right now, but you should be able to hold your ground just fine even without it.”

  The leader of the warriors was irked by Vajra’s words.

  “Let me show you the difference in our strengths, you fool!” he bellowed.

  Saying so, the leader of the warriors lunged forward, with his mace lifted over his head, closing the distance between him and Vajra in a flash and brought down his mace with full force. Vajra couldn’t get out of the way in time. Instead, he took on the attack and blocked it swiftly with his lathi. The clash of their weapons resounded through the deserted land.

  As soon as the two of them clashed, the rest of the warriors bellowed loudly and charged in, towards the group. The pirates were huddled together, and the boys had formed a protective layer around them, with their weapons drawn out.

  Ballu swung his mace frantically as one of the warriors came charging at him. The warrior easily deflected it with his own toothed mace expertly, and head-butted Ballu in the face, breaking his nose. Ballu staggered back a few steps, as blood dripped from his nose, disoriented from the attack. But he quickly regained balance as he stood up and wiped the blood off his nose with the back of his hand. The warrior scoffed at him, derisively inviting him to try taking another swing at him.

  Anger surged through his body, as Ballu gripped his mace firmly. Taking one step forward, he swung it at the warrior’s chin with such intensity that the warrior had no time to react or block his attack. He went flying up several feet before landing with a thud on his back.

  Raaka did not wait for warriors to charge at him. Instead, he crouched low and lunged to grab hold of a warrior’s leg, and brought him crashing down. The warrior could not react in time, as he had not anticipated him to open the attack. Once he was down, Raaka did not give him time to recover. He sprang on top of him and firmly pressed his Parashu’s handle against the warrior’s throat using both hands.

  Mitra knew he couldn’t take on the warriors in hand-to-hand combat. Being a long-range fighter, he was struggling to fend off the attacks from two of the warriors simultaneously. He had the weakest build in comparison to the others, but he was agile and surviving each attack by a hair’s breadth
by dodging skillfully, then quickly rolling over behind them each time.

  Like Mitra, Murari was also duelling two warriors at his end. Even with his lean build, he had somehow managed to take engage the two warriors. Not just that, he was taunting them to attack him instead, and as soon as they would swing their Parashu, he jumped up out of the weapon’s range, as he had done many times during his duels with the pirates, and swing his sword at the warriors’ outstretched hands. Unfortunately, his sword wasn’t sharp enough to cause any deep cuts and would only manage to make minor slashes.

  When he had picked the sword as his weapon of choice, its blade couldn’t even peel the skin off the fruits. Over time, he had sharpened the sword and restored its ability to slash. Till date, his opponents had only been the pirates, with the lone exception of the Tiger he had managed to kill in Dvaitavana. But his sword was not sharp enough for a real battle.

  Though a sword is supposed to be one of the deadliest weapons in a battle, Murari’s sword was nothing more than a flat stick with blunt edges. His constant taunts, followed by slashes, frustrated the warriors to such an extent that they charged at him in a mad rage. Knowing better than to take them head-on, Murari once again tried to jump out of the way, but by this time, the warriors had already seen him do so several times and were anticipating the move. One of the warriors grabbed him by the neck. Murari wriggled angrily and swung his sword wildly, but to no avail. The warrior lifted him off the ground, tightening the grip around his neck as he did.

  Murari could smell the stench emitted from the warrior’s sweat and breath, as he tried to wriggle himself free from the warrior’s grip.

  “Where’s your arrogance now?” The warrior sniggered at him.

  The other warrior dropped his Parashu to the ground and brought out a small dagger from the scabbard secured around his waist. The warrior waved the dagger in front of Murari’s terrified eyes, daring him to mock again. Then bringing the dagger lower, he slowly carved a deep, long slash across Murari’s chest.

  Murari’s senses went limp, as he felt an excruciating pain coursing through his body. He screamed in agony, as blood spurted out of his chest.

  Hearing Murari howl in pain, the captain of the pirates looked at him horrified. He decided that the pirates would no longer just sit idle and let the boys face the gruesome warriors alone. After all, they were in this together.

  He divvied his men into two groups and commanded one group to help free Murari, while the other group, led by him would distract the warriors. Unsheathing their swords and pulling out their knives, the first group of pirates charged at the two giant warriors holding Murari.

  While some of the pirates from the first group attacked the first warrior’s leg to try and make him fall on his knees, a few ran around his back and grappled him from behind, dragging him down. With their collective efforts, they somehow managed to upset his balance, and he came crashing down to the ground. As his grip loosened on Murari, who could hardly maintain his consciousness, the remaining pirates carried him away to a safe distance.

  Seeing his comrade fall to the ground, the other warrior roared furiously. He swung his Parashu at the pirates, who managed to block it with their swords, but were sent flying off the ground due to its impact.

  The other group of pirates were also struggling against the fallen warrior, who was mercilessly swinging his Parashu at them.

  Vajra knew he couldn’t let this go on for long or the boys and the pirates would end up losing their lives. They weren’t prepared to fight Shalva’s warriors yet.

  But the leader of these warriors was proving to be tougher than he had anticipated. The limp in his leg was also making it difficult to find sure footing. He could have easily taken them on if he could use the power of his Siddhi. But being so close to the portal to Narakaloka, he ran the risk of alerting the Nisacharas who could be monitoring the area near the portal.

  Since the time the warriors had shown up, Vajra had become increasingly concerned about Veera’s fate.

  He knew that Shalva’s warriors wouldn’t have shown up if they had already killed Veera. In which case it could only mean one of two things. Veera had either managed to somehow get away from Shalva’s warriors and was in hiding somewhere, or was captured by Shalva’s warrior and taken to Balaloka.

  He had to find a way to defeat these warriors relying only on Kalari, and he had to do it soon.

  As the leader of the warriors came charging at him, he stepped out of the way in the nick of time and using his already accelerated pace of attack, smacked his lathi with as much force as he could muster on the warrior’s back. The leader of the warriors went flying and collided with his comrade who had been knocked down by Ballu earlier and had just managed to get up. They went tumbling to the ground several meters away.

  “Quick – grab hold of Murari and come through here,” Vajra said, directing Ballu and the pirates to cross the stone pillar and get behind him. Ballu lifted the unconscious Murari on his back, and picking up his sword from the ground, dashed towards the pillars. The pirates shielded him, even as one of the warriors charged towards Ballu. The warrior swung his mace madly, sending the pirates flying all over the place. He leapt high up in the air with his toothed-mace lifted over his head, ready to bludgeon Ballu’s head in. But before he could land the hit, Vajra hurled his lathi at the warrior, bringing him crashing down to the ground, allowing Ballu to escape with Murari on his back.

  Taking refuge behind the stone pillars, Ballu gently put Murari down and tried to wake him up, but Murari didn’t respond. He replaced Murari’s sword in its sheath that was tied around his dhoti.

  Looking behind him, he saw a massive pit with stones defining its borders. His attention was drawn back to the field when he heard Mitra’s scream. As he turned around, he saw a warrior lift his younger brother over his head like a log, and hurl him in the direction of the stone pillar.

  Ballu immediately stepped out from behind the pillar and dove at an angle so that his body could cushion Mitra’s fall. The force of Mitra’s flight sent both of them crashing into the stone pillar, rendering them unconscious.

  The only ones left standing on the field were Raaka and Vajra. The pirates had no strength or energy left to continue fighting as they recovered from the warrior’s blow. Even a strong gust of wind would have been enough to drop them to the ground.

  While their numbers had reduced drastically, the warriors had hardly lost any strength.

  Vajra looked at Ballu and Mitra lying by the stone pillar. He guessed that Murari was likely on the other side of the stone column.

  “Raaka, listen carefully,” Vajra said. “Gather the boys and the pirates, and head towards the stone-well that’s located a little distance from these pillars. That’s the portal to Narakaloka.”

  “Sir, what about you?” Raaka asked.

  “I will follow you as soon as I take care of these warriors,” Vajra said. “One more thing. The stone-well is full of quicksand. It will drag you within it. Do not resist. It opens up into Narakaloka. Enter it, and hide yourselves until I get there.”

  Raaka gave a terse nod and dashed towards Ballu and Mitra, securing his Parashu on the ring attached to his sash. Along the way, he called out to the pirates to follow him. They were only just recovering from the hit they had received while covering Ballu and Murari.

  Raaka picked up Ballu, while one of the pirates helped carry Mitra. Seeing them move so, the warriors caught wind of their intentions. They charged in their direction but were cut off by Vajra. While he was able to hold them back, the warriors weren’t giving up either.

  Though his blood boiled on running away from these uncouth warriors, Raaka was smart enough to not endanger the lives of his friends when a clear win wasn’t guaranteed. Without wasting another moment, he made a run for the stone-well. Standing on its edge he peeped in to see the pit full of the liquid sand.

  He wasn’t sure about the depth of the well and only hoped that Vajra was right about the portal. He
set Ballu down on the ledge of the well, and gently placed him into the quicksand, jumping in after him. The pirates hesitated for a moment when they saw the quicksand but jumped in as soon as they heard the clash of weapons behind them, and the warriors’ howling curses.

  Using his Touch of Indriya, Vajra sensed all traces of movement fade as soon as the last member of the pirate had entered the portal. After making sure they were gone, Vajra lifted his lathi in the air and brought it crashing down on the ground.

  “Jvala!”

  No sooner had he uttered the mantra, fire came roaring up from the earth and engulfed the warriors in its fiery flames.

  But something wasn’t right! The fire was not burning their bodies as it should. Instead, it only cloaked around their frame.

  The flaming eyes of the leader of the warriors held a glint of something more than contempt, but his lips twisted in a mocking smile.

  “Siddhari – did you seriously think we weren’t prepared for this?” he sneered.

  The other warriors also remained unaffected by Vajra’s Jvala. Dispelling his Siddhi, Vajra noticed a flimsy layer of transparent slime covering the warriors’ body.

  “Your powers cannot harm us, O’ Siddhari,” the leader of the warriors said. “Because I am feeling generous tonight, I will give you one more chance. Hand over the map, and I will let you walk away with your life.”

  The rest of the warriors chuckled as their leader mocked Vajra.

  “Well – that’s quite a generous offer. Unfortunately, I must decline it.” Vajra smiled, ever so slightly. “Let me make you an offer instead. Keep your mouth shut, and you get to live. If you so much as part your lips to even breathe, I will kill you.”

  “You…”

  The leader of the warriors could not finish his sentence. Vajra immediately transformed into a fiery ball of light and shot into his mouth.

  The leader choked up as soon as the fire entered his mouth. Coursing through his entire body, the fire burnt his organs and melted his bones from inside within a matter of few moments. As his body melted from inside out, Vajra burst out of him like lava. The other warriors gasped on seeing their leader burnt into oblivion. That was all the opening he needed. Vajra split into six more balls of fire and entered their body through their mouths, killing them instantly, without leaving a trace, except for the fading embers.