DEFEATING A DEVATA
[Then I as Krishna and Trinvarta were so far from the earth, right in the heart of the sky that the crying voices of the Gokul inhabitants could not be heard. Suddenly, Trinavarta felt that the weight of the boy was getting heavy. Trinavarta could have held the earth in his hands for years, but I as the boy was very heavy. He decided to drop the boy. But, I as Krishna, as the boy grasped at his neck and choked him. There wasn’t future ahead for Trinvarta, as he found that the boy was not ordinary, he was I - Lord Vishnu, but it was so late that Trinvarta gave up his life.]
He walks towards me. My people and Nirbhaya troop make a huge circle around us covering the whole ground of the station. Men cluster like battlements, some of their faces in terror, some of they have hope the Avatar can win.
I also start to walk to the Devata. All eyes fixed on us.
Devata halts across the ground from me. I look over the crows around and we face each other several steps apart.
I don’t know why but I can feel a trembling in my body.
“Fight well, Lord Kalki. You are the real god, and he isn’t. He’s nothing.” Tarun’s father shouts.
“Nirbhaya!” devata looks at Tarun’s father and the troop, “his voice ring back from the station building walls. He goes on: “the terms of this fight are there. If I kill your avatar, you will be punished for your treachery to the creator. Your huts will be burned and your children will slave, your women will be raped...”
He laughs like a madman, revealing his dirty teeth.
“Devata,” I cut him off, “the fight is in the wall. We have started it. If someone decides the rule then it’s me. And the rules are these: if I kill you, your flesh shall be torn apart and scattered to the dogs. Your head shall be displayed above the wall as the beginning of the rebellion.”
Devata doesn’t speak anything but stares me. I too become still and silent, watching his face and eyes across the width of the ground.
“In the name of the Creator, I’ll kill you.” his voice cannons out.
Then with a battle cay, we both move at the same moment. Like to lightning bolt, our speed is beyond human, perhaps none of us is human, he is a Devata and I’m an Avatar.
We crash as we meet in the cold air of the station, in the fluorescent light of bulbs. We both fell aside. I get on my feet first then the devata. The effect of collision isn’t much on any of us. I leap at him, aiming to get his neck in my grip. But he takes a back step and his claw-like fingers are pierced at my chest, tearing my jacket and shirt. He catches me in midair.
“Is this your Avatar?” He says and throws me away, using all his strength.
The air sweeping me up like an embrace so for a moment I think, I'm flying. But I’m not. I'm hitting the ground with such force that my legs give way and the air gets knocked out of me in a rush. My left leg twists and the wrenching pain goes through my whole body. Before I come out of that pain my right elbow causes the same burning pain in the whole body. I try to lift myself on four, on my hands and knees, pushing against the groups. Around me, the shouting has started up again.
“Lord, rise and slay this Rakshasa.” Nirbhayas shouting like a drum in my ears.
I feel pain burning at my chest and warm blood dripping from the wounds made by his claw-like fingers. His fingers are like talons of a giant bird – with long and sharp nails.
I am still struggling to rise then he reaches me. I try to twist my body over the ground as he kicks me but I can’t gain a purchase on the ground. The same moment my feet are uppermost, trying to push myself his leg hits my lungs, knocking all air from them out and pain burn inside me. I cry of pain escapes from my mouth. Drops of warm blood come out my mouth and are flying through the air.
I catch his leg at his second kick and push him away, he stumbles back, unsteady at some steps but he keeps his balance, his feet remain on the ground. He doesn’t fall.
“Come on,” he says, “if you are Avatar, you should be so weak.” his face taunting me.
Then he looks at the crowd around, “is this your avatar?” he laughs loudly, “is this on whose trust you rebel?”
I mean to say something but all I can do is groan. My body aches so badly it hurts to breathe.
“Come on Samrat,” I say in my mind, “you have to fight no matter how injured you are.”
I pull myself up, using all my strength.
“Go, get your strength,” he says as I’m again on my feet, “once Sunya is always Sunya.”
I clench my fist, ready to attack but my legs are unsteady.
As he steps to me I take back steps, “Are you afraid?”
“No,” I shout, still taking back steps.
“Then why you are retreating?” he smiles a little, but his eyes stay cruel.
“You looks like you are about to cry,” his eyes shine, “about to beg for mercy like your people has begged beyond the wall when we kill them beyond the wall.”
“Samrat,” I hear my father’s voice. I turn my eyes and over devata’s shoulder I see my father standing near Tarun’s father, his arms clutching an axe as strongly as he can. Left to him is Teena, who clench and unclench his firsts, faster than her heartbeats.
My father continues, “When this man and his companions started to kill our people and rape our girls Padhma jumped in the water channel with some girls because she didn’t want to be killed by these Rakshashas. She was brave and so are you.”
Padhma is dead. The words make my body vibrate, like a machine, like a generator producing electricity and I feel a rush of energy inside my head.
“Come on Sunya,” Devata says, “let me send you to your Padhma.”
One second I stare at him, Devata and I are staring at each other, and the next my hands are up by my face, my elbows bent. My knees are bent too, ready to use what I’ve learned on the training ground.
“Come on, Sunya,” he says, “don’t be like this. Just once beg for mercy and I will give you easy death as I have shown mercy beyond the wall,” he laughs like a lunatic, “you should be there to watch them beg and see me mercy on them.”
The image of my people begging of Devatas for mercy makes me taste something bitter in my mouth, I’m on an impulse.
The Devata kicks me on the chest. Or he would have kicked me in the chest, if I hadn’t caught his foot and yanked forward, knocking him off-balance.
He smacks into the ground, on his back, trying to pull his foot free but I don’t release his foot, “you kill my people.” I pull him off the ground and batter him again on the ground, knocking the air from his lungs.
“you kill my Padhma,” I shout like a madman, my eyes searching something around, “I’ll kill you,” as I get what my eyes were searching – a milestone deep- anchored on the ground on which is written ‘the station building - 1 KM’ with red letters I pull him from the ground, circled him in the air and batter him on the stone.
The stone comes out from his chest, splattering his ribcage and everything inside his chest, making a huge hole inside his body. I pull him again, lifting his torn body which is pinned to the ground around the stone, and batter him this way and that way. I’m shouting like a madman, “Beg for mercy,” my voice growing louder and louder, “beg for mercy. BEG, you merciless beast.”
I don’t know how long I’ve battered but I’ve battered him again and again.
*
To be continue.....
