Both Bijjala and Vijaya had orders to proceed forward and eliminate Mahendra and his family along with Shodasi Devi and her men quelling the last traces of resistance. Meanwhile, Subahu would lead the Kalakeyan army (Asura Sena) against the disarrayed and disordered army of Mahishmati that lacked a leader in a sudden night attack and take Mahishmati under control.

That was who and what the feared Asura Sena about which Kattappa had hinted before his death actually were. The Kalakeyas. They had secretly infiltrated into Mahishmati through the Kalakeya forest in the south in small, small groups in slow stages. They had disguised and impersonated themselves like the Mahishmatians. Though they wore masks and adopted disguises, they could not hide their ingrained cruelty and sadism.

Mahishmati was going to fall. The only man who stood between that was Mahendra. So both Bijjala and Vijaya had been sent here by Subahu to stop that. They all knew that Shodasi Devi had escaped Vijayapuri with her extremely loyal and fiercely protective personal contingent of soldiers. She would definitely seek and find Mahendra to win back Vijayapuri with his help. In the process, she would ask him to return to Mahishmati and take control of the army of Mahishmati and reascend on the throne as its king.

All that they had schemed for to oust Mahendra from the kingdom would go waste. If Mahendra realized that it was not his people who actually wanted him to step down from the throne but made to think like this by their plotting and scheming, nothing could stop Mahendra from returning to Mahishmati.

The storm had passed over by now. The flooded and inundated Mandakini had quietened by this time. Now it was passable. They still had to pursue Shodasi Devi and the girl child who had escaped from there. Though they stood in no apparent threat from one woman, a deposed queen and a small child, they still wanted to make sure that all their enemies were annihilated.

"Shall we go ahead?" Growled a recalcitrant Bijjaladeva.

"What fighting.....I still can't believe it was just two who fought that way against our entire army......Is it even humanly possible?", Vijayamarthanda recollecting with absolute disbelief and incredulity about the way things had gone the previous night.

"Impotent coward! I don't know why Subahu trusts you. I saw how you stood cowering in fright and cold sweat behind your hundreds of soldiers when Mahendra was advancing towards you with a leonine roar of anger and the leap of a cheetah!" Spitted out Bijjala in disgust.

Vijaya spoke sarcastically, "Yen chestham! Vanda mandini champi kani kathi digani vamsam adhi, Nuta oka mandini thechchi kathi dinchche vamsam maadi! (What do we do? That is a lineage which does not die unless they kill a hundred, mine is a family that brings a hundred and one and kills the opponent!)
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Flashback of the previous night
The branches of the trees were swaying due to the stormy winds.

Sway! Sway! Sway!

It began raining heavily.

Pitter! Patter! Pitter! Patter! Plop! Plop!

The horse hooves began making rhythmic and heavy noises as they began riding across the forest against the rain.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Sploosh! Sploosh!

Bijjala and Vijaya shuddered for a single moment thinking about the previous night's fighting. Just when they were advancing with their army thinking that Mahendra and his family would have gone and hidden themselves in some nook or corner, Mahendra and Avanthika swung right into their faces on forest vines unbalancing the cavalry soldiers who were riding in the front line from their horses before they swung back on the very same vines.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Down they fell!

"What the hell is happening!" shouted Bijjala from the rear while Vijaya who was riding behind him realizing what was happening instantly jumped behind a thick cover of his own soldiers.

Bijjala turned to his left, right, then back, and front. Espying none standing beside him, he too instantly retreated.

Bijjala ordering the archers, "Shoot the arrows you duffers! What are you waiting for?

Vijaya, a bit meekly, his head bobbing from behind his thick cover of soldiers, "Chepputhunaru kadha....Banalu veiyandi.....(He is telling you, isn't he?....Shoot the arrows.....)

The archers looked at him and then into the darkness completely clueless on where to shoot the arrows. There was nobody there.

Vijaya, by now realizing why they weren't shooting, "Pedaina chepparu kadha.....yedho alaga alaga ajja meedha kotandi........banalu yekkuve techcham.....koncham vrudha aithe nashtam ledhu....(The big man has said, hasn't he?.........Just shoot like that approximately......We have brought arrows in plenty.....It's alright if some of them go waste......)

Shoot! Shoot! Shoot!

What happened next was beyond their wildest imagination. This time they again swung on the vines. Both of them were holding wreaths made of vines and thorns in front of them like shields with a sword in the other hand. All the arrows Vijaya's men had shot were stuck in between the wreaths.

Mahendra then turned the wreath to the other side now using it like a weapon twirling it in the air like a chakra cutting all the soldiers around him with the sharp edges of the thorns and vines and the arrows they themselves had shot. Avantika followed the same.

Vijaya bellowed this time, "Stop....stop...don't shoot the arrows.....Ahem! Ahem!....I mean don't waste them....Reserve for later.....Cut off their wea.....pons...."

Before he could complete the sentence, he was unseated from his horse into the slush and slime by a huge boulder which came in his direction and landed on him.

Weaponless and stinking, Vijaya stood on marshy soil, bathing and overflowing with it.

"Serves you right!" Mahendra said to himself while continuing to fight.

"What the heck was that!" Vijaya fulminating and hurling the choicest abuses he knew. Turning towards his men, he barked, "Do you guys need an invitation now to bathe me or would you prefer seeing me like this?"

His men closed over him forming a protective shield while the rest proceeded to pour water over him and clean him with alacrity. The fighting continued to rage a short distance away. The soldiers kept going and going and falling down like nine pins.

Flop! Flop! Flop!

Just then a member of the reconnaissance party which had been sent ahead by Bijjala to look for the rest of them shouted, "All the rest have crossed the Mandakini. They have escaped. We tried to follow but couldn't as the Mandakini was heavily flooded. But one good news! The son was drowned. We saw it with our own eyes."

Drowned!.....Drowned!....Drowned!.....Her son.....

Avanthika's heart broke to a million smithereens. Her eyes started overflowing with tears. Her son.....whom she held in her womb.....so securely for nine months.....Why did she even bring him to this world?......To meet such a fate?.....What an unfortunate mother she was!........Her sword paused for a single second and her hands and limbs stood rooted where they were without fighting. That moment the soldiers surrounding her cut and slashed her.

Slash! Slash! Slash! Down she fell.

Mahendra stood shell-shocked watching Avanthika collapse right in front of his eyes. He didn't want to fight anymore. He didn't want to live anymore. A spear speeded towards him from behind hitting him. He looked back to see who it was to find Bijjaladeva's evil face gleaming from behind, "Adieu! Rest in peace, my grandson! What will you do in this world without your wife, your son and your mother? Go and join them in heaven!"
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An era had ended. A hero and warrior had died. Along with him, the hope that rested on him. A entire land was enslaved and engulphed by evil. Good had gone incognito. A family dispersed by the four winds. Who would come again this time to avenge these deaths and reinstate goodness?

End of Book Two: Dispersal