? YUDDHARAJYA ?
The military headquarters of Yuddharajya erupted into chaos without warning. One moment, soldiers crossed the central courtyard beneath the fading evening light; the next, hundreds of people appeared across the stone grounds, covered in blood, dust and fragments of shattered armour.
Some collapsed the instant their feet touched solid ground, while others stumbled into whoever stood nearest. Voices rose over one another as men shouted for healers, water and missing comrades, and attendants rushed from the surrounding halls with litters before anyone had fully understood what had returned from Kurukshetra.
At the centre stood Nagraji, the oldest of Yuddharajya’s ten Jacks, his armour cracked across the chest and shoulder while ash and crimson sand clung to his cloak. Dried blood darkened one side of his face as he looked over those his teleportation had managed to reach, knowing others remained behind.
"Healer! Get the healers! Clear the courtyard!" His order cut through the panic long enough for physicians to force paths between the wounded while attendants began carrying those who could no longer stand.
The headquarters had received casualties from Kurukshetra countless times before, but the survivors themselves unsettled even the experienced healers. One soldier sat beneath a pillar with both arms around his knees, barely wounded yet trembling hard enough for his armour to scrape against the stone.
"He’s coming..." he whispered when a healer crouched beside him. She told him he was back in Yuddharajya and safe, but the soldier only lifted his eyes toward her and answered, "No."
Across the courtyard, another survivor shoved away a physician and tried to run until an officer caught his arm. "But he broke it," the man said, staring past him toward the walls as his hands began shaking again. "One arrow..."
Nagraji left the courtyard to the healers and entered the war chamber, where Yuddharajya’s other nine Jacks waited around a table crowded with maps and troop markers. The arguments stopped when Yalambar rose and Ghatot looked past him toward the courtyard.
"What happened?" Yalambar asked, while Ghatot followed with the question already hanging over the room. "Where are the rest?"
Nagraji approached the map and placed one hand beside the section marking the Great Wall. "We lost the greatest defence mankind has ever built."
"The Wall?" Yalambar asked, and Nagraji nodded before pointing to one section of the map. "Breached. Large enough for an army to pass through."
Ghatot immediately asked whether the Asuras had crossed. When Nagraji said not yet, another Jack suggested sending builders, but Nagraji removed one gauntlet and set it on the table.
"Nobody is rebuilding anything while that thing is still in Kurukshetra." A slight tremor ran through his exposed hand, and every general in the room noticed before he slowly closed his fingers.
"I’ve led more than a hundred expeditions into Kurukshetra," Nagraji continued. "I’ve watched Queen-level Asuras tear through battalions and seen creatures strike that Wall until their own bodies failed before the stone did. That thing fired one arrow."
Yalambar stared at him. "One?" he asked, and Nagraji’s answer came without hesitation. "One."
No hand reached for another marker after that. Ghatot finally asked whether the creature was King-level, while Paruhang followed with the harder question.
"True King?" Paruhang asked, studying Nagraji across the table. Nagraji considered it before answering, "We prepare as though he is."
Yalambar pushed away from the table. "Then I’ll go."
"You know you can’t," Nagraji said, reminding him that the King’s order still bound Yalambar, Ghatot and Paruhang to Yuddharajya. Yalambar lowered himself back into his chair with his jaw tight and muttered that whatever His Majesty was keeping them there for had better be worth it.
Nagraji was not sure he disagreed, but another detail still had to be said. "The Asura spoke." Find the original chapter at g.com.
Ghatot’s hand left the map. "Spoke?" he repeated, and Nagraji nodded before looking around the chamber.
"To us." He explained that the creature understood them, questioned them, mocked their gods and commanded the other Asuras around him.
The generals knew outbreaks and powerful creatures, but not an intelligent enemy capable of opening the Wall with a single shot. Paruhang stepped closer to the table and said, "We inform the other kingdoms," and Nagraji agreed immediately.
High above Yuddharajya, messenger cages opened and pigeons burst into the evening sky carrying sealed warnings. Thin inscriptions on charms near their wings flared, making the birds vanish and reappear miles away before leaping onward again.
Some headed toward the kingdoms of Aryavarta, while others followed less obvious routes. One disappeared beneath the shadow of an ancient structure far from any royal court, while another crossed the mountains without turning toward a known capital.
? DHANARAJYA ?
A pigeon appeared above Dhanarajya’s golden rooftops and descended toward the Royal Trade Council. When a minister broke Yuddharajya’s seal and announced that the Great Wall had been breached, conversation died around a chamber crowded with maps, ledgers and trade routes.
Within moments, ministers were discussing western caravans, iron shipments and medicinal herbs until an elderly merchant at the end of the table removed his glasses. "If this letter is accurate, stop asking what things will cost tomorrow," he said. "Ask what will still reach us tomorrow."
The point settled quickly. Routes nearest the breach were closed, caravans were redirected through Kshetrajya where necessary, and a messenger was sent to inform the King while clerks began carrying new orders from the chamber.
? KSHETRAJYA ?
Another pigeon completed its final leap above Nalanda, where scholars gathered around the warning within minutes. Their concern shifted immediately to the herb-gathering expedition still inside the Hidden Forest, which should already have begun its return toward Kurukshetra.
The expedition carried years of records, rare medicinal samples and researchers whose work could not easily be replaced. When one scholar began lamenting the loss of generations of research, a woman in silver robes cut in with, "And the researchers," forcing him to stop and correct himself.
Someone suggested sending Chanakya because he was King-level, but the idea was rejected almost immediately. If Yuddharajya was right about the possibility of a True King, sending one of Kshetrajya’s strongest Siddhas blindly into Kurukshetra would only create another disaster.
"They don’t need someone to defeat him," the woman said, tracing a narrower route through the forest with one finger. "They need someone to bring them home."
Queen-level stealth squads were chosen instead. Their orders were to find the expedition, avoid unnecessary combat and return with everyone they could reach.
?? VISHISHTARAJYA ??
By the time another pigeon descended toward Divyabhawan, families and Siddhas were already waiting for news. The President’s voice carried through the great hall as he confirmed that the Wall had been breached and many of Vishishtarajya’s people remained in Kurukshetra alongside wounded from the other kingdoms.
Fancy’s fingers stopped against the orchid in her hair. Herald, Peril, Erudite, Culpa, Facade and Madam Althea passed through her mind one after another, and she counted the names twice despite knowing it told her nothing.
Around her, families asked questions nobody could answer. One mother caught a Siddha by the arm and asked whether her son had returned, then whether he was wounded, and finally who would know if the man standing before her did not.
The Siddha lowered his head, and the woman’s grip slowly slipped from his sleeve. Fancy looked away and tightened her fingers around the orchid as she pictured Peril laughing too loudly, Culpa finding some way to irritate Erudite, Facade pretending not to listen and Herald asking one question after another.
The memory almost brought a smile, but the great doors of Divyabhawan remained closed. Watching the families around her wait, Fancy understood what they endured whenever someone left Vishishtarajya and failed to return on time.
"The rescue squads are prepared," someone announced, and Siddhas stepped forward before the President could ask for volunteers. Fancy joined them until his voice stopped her.
"Fancy." The President reminded her that the battlefield remained active and the one responsible for breaching the Wall might still be there, but she only fastened the orchid more securely. This story is hosted at novelping.com.
"And you still wish to go?" he asked, watching her closely. Fancy looked toward the great doors and answered, "I have to."
The President remained silent for a moment before granting approval. As Fancy joined the rescue Siddhas, she found the mother from earlier and, rather than make a promise she could not keep, placed one hand over her heart and gave the woman a small nod.
The woman returned it. The President turned to the assembled Siddhas and said, "Save whoever can still be saved, ours or theirs. Those you cannot save, bring home."
Fancy kept her hand over her heart as the others followed. "Om Namo Narayana," she said with them before the rescue squads prepared to leave.
? DHARMARAJYA ?
Temple bells were already ringing across Dharmarajya when Yuddharajya’s warning reached the royal assembly. The King read it before telling the gathered commanders, sages and High Priests that the Wall had been breached and the creature responsible might be a True King.
One High Priest asked to see the report when he heard that the weapon had been a bow. He read the relevant passage, passed it to another priest, and a quiet exchange of glances moved between them before the King turned toward the great doors.
"Satyaki," he called, and a man in crimson and ivory robes entered with a longbow across his back. The weapon looked simple beside the ornate artifacts carried by many powerful Siddhas, yet several commanders straightened as he passed and one High Priest stopped turning the ring on his finger.
Satyaki approached the throne and bowed. "My Guru."
"The Wall has been breached," the King told him. "There are wounded still trapped near Kurukshetra, and whatever broke through our defence may still be there."
When Satyaki asked how strong it was, the answer—possibly True King—held him quiet for a moment. One of the High Priests warned against sending even him alone, but Satyaki rested a hand against the bow across his back.
"I won’t be alone," he said, glancing toward the priest. "My bow will be enough company."
The priest’s expression tightened, but the King raised one hand. "This isn’t about defeating it. You understand why I called you."
Satyaki’s fingers remained against the bow. "My arrow will protect Dharma."
"Protect the people first," the King replied, holding his gaze. "This is not a challenge for you to prove your strength. Give those still trapped there the chance to come home."
Satyaki let his hand fall from the bow. "I understand."
He bowed once more before turning toward the doors. "For every innocent still trapped beyond the Wall."
Outside, a golden chariot waited beneath the evening sky with four white horses already harnessed before it. Satyaki climbed aboard, rested the bow at his side and told the driver, "Go," while temple bells continued ringing behind them.
Across Aryavarta, the warning had reached kingdoms that answered according to their own concerns. Dhanarajya moved to protect the roads sustaining its trade, Kshetrajya sent rescuers after its scholars, and Vishishtarajya prepared to recover everyone it could from Kurukshetra.
Dharmarajya sent Satyaki, and his golden chariot was already carrying him toward the battlefield. The Wall had been breached, and the creature that had done it was still there.