Chapter 273 - 271: News Of Victory... Princess Run’s Out...

(A/N):

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The underground chamber had never felt so heavy.

Even after the three Rakshasas had been killed, nobody had the heart to celebrate.

The bodies of the fallen guards remained near the entrance, while the lifeless body of Sage Veenadhara had been carefully placed upon a clean cloth.

His wooden staff rested beside him, and the blood that had stained his robes had already begun to dry.

Only a short distance away, Kumaravarma sat silently.

"...."

His clothes were still covered in blood.

Some of it belonged to the Rakshasas.

Some of it belonged to Veenadhara.

He had washed his hands several times, yet he still felt as though the sage’s blood remained upon them.

His mind kept replaying the same moment.

The sword coming down.

Veenadhara stepping in front of him.

The old sage collapsing into his arms.

Then the rage.

The strength that had erupted from somewhere inside him.

He still couldn’t understand how he had done it.

He wasn’t a warrior like Devaratha.

He had never possessed extraordinary strength.

Yet somehow...

For those few moments, he had fought like an entirely different person.

Kumaravarma lowered his head.

He wasn’t even thinking about the three Rakshasas he had killed.

He was thinking about the man who had died saving him.

Across the chamber,

Queen Devayani sat beside her daughter.

Princess Indhumati had been crying for what felt like hours.

Her eyes were swollen, and her face had lost nearly all its usual colour.

The news that Devaratha had been buried beneath the battlefield on the hundredth day had broken something inside her.

She had tried to remain hopeful.

She had tried telling herself that everyone was wrong and that he would somehow return.

But as the hours passed without any news...

That hope had become increasingly difficult to hold onto.

Her fingers remained tightly wrapped around the edge of her clothing.

She couldn’t stop thinking about him.

’Where was he?... Was he alive?... Was he suffering?’

Would she ever see him again?

Then suddenly...

Footsteps thundered through the passage.

Everyone turned.

A soldier came running into the chamber.

He was completely soaked from the rain.

His armour was covered in mud, and his breathing was heavy from running.

Several guards immediately moved towards him.

"What happened? Why are you running?"

The soldier looked around.

His eyes immediately found Queen Devayani and Princess Indhumati.

For a moment...

He seemed almost too excited to speak.

Then he finally managed to catch his breath.

"Your Majesty..."

He bowed quickly.

"The war..."

His face broke into a huge smile.

"We won! We won the war!!!"

The entire chamber went silent.

"..."

"..."

"..."

Nobody reacted.

The soldier looked confused by the silence.

"...."

He quickly continued.

"King Devaratha... He came back!"

Princess Indhumati’s head snapped upward.

"What?"

The soldier smiled even wider.

"King Devaratha is alive! He came out of the ground this morning!"

"He returned to the battlefield!"

The words seemed to hit Indhumati harder than any weapon could have.

Her eyes widened.

For several seconds she simply stared at him.

"He’s..."

Her voice trembled.

"He’s alive?"

"Yes, Princess!"

The soldier nodded enthusiastically.

"He returned! He defeated Pushpasura!"

The chamber erupted into confused voices.

"What?"

"Pushpasura is dead?"

"How?"

"What happened?"

The soldier raised his hands, trying to calm everyone down.

"Please, let me explain!"

He looked around at the frightened civilians.

"After the war began today, everyone thought King Devaratha was still trapped beneath the earth."

"But then..."

He paused dramatically as if he was saying some mystic story.

"The ground began shaking."

"He emerged from the crater himself."

"And he wasn’t the same as before."

Several villagers leaned closer.

"What do you mean?"

The soldier swallowed.

-Gulp!

"He looked like a guardian deity."

"His skin had turned completely dark, and he was carrying an Aruval and a spear."

"He wore iron chains across his body."

"He looked..."

The soldier struggled to find the right words.

"...terrifying."

A few villagers exchanged stunned looks.

"But that wasn’t even the most important part."

The soldier’s excitement returned.

"He fought Pushpasura himself."

"And..."

He raised his fist.

"He killed him."

A collective gasp swept through the chamber.

"Pushpasura... is dead?"

The soldier nodded firmly.

"Dead. He will never return."

"After that, our king ordered the Rakshasas to surrender."

"He could have killed every one of them, but he allowed them to leave after they surrendered."

The chamber slowly began filling with relieved voices.

People who had spent the entire day believing the war had been lost were now struggling to process the news.

But Indhumati heard only one thing.

Devaratha is alive.

She suddenly stood.

Her chair scraped loudly against the stone floor.

"Where is he? Tell me where is he?"

The soldier blinked caught off guard by the sudden out burst.

"Princess?"

"Where is Devaratha?"

Her voice was urgent now.

"Where is he?"

"He should still be on the battlefield..."

That was all she needed to hear.

Indhumati immediately turned and ran towards the passage.

"Indhumati!"

Queen Devayani quickly stood seeing her daughter.

"Wait!"

But her daughter was already gone.

The queen hurried after her.

The other royal women followed.

Maids rushed behind them.

Then the villagers began following as well, desperate to see the outside world after being trapped underground for so long.

Even the guards quickly formed around the group.

Kumaravarma remained seated for another moment.

"...."

He looked toward the body of Sage Veenadhara.

The old man’s final words echoed inside his mind.

"Be brave..."

Kumaravarma slowly stood.

His body still felt heavy from everything that had happened.

The fear hadn’t disappeared.

Neither had the memories of those three Rakshasas.

But he couldn’t remain here.

If Devaratha truly had returned... He wanted to see him too.

He quietly followed the others.

The procession moved through the underground passage.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity...

They were walking towards the surface.

Indhumati was already several steps ahead of everyone else.

She didn’t care about the rain.

She didn’t care about the mud.

She didn’t care how exhausted she was.

Her heart was pounding so violently that she could hear it.

For an entire day...

She had believed she had lost him.

And now...

She had been told he was alive.

Her eyes filled with fresh tears.

But this time...

They weren’t tears of grief. They were tears of relief.

She tightened her hands against her chest and whispered his name.

"Devara..."

Then she ran even faster toward the light at the end of the passage.

The moment Princess Indhumati stepped out of the temple, she stopped.

For the first time in what felt like an eternity, there was nothing above her except the open sky.

The clouds were still thick and dark after the heavy rain, stretching across the heavens like a vast grey blanket.

Water covered the stone steps and pooled around the temple grounds, while small streams of rainwater ran down the paths leading toward Malikavana village.

Indhumati slowly stepped forward.

The cold air immediately brushed against her face.

She took a deep breath.

The smell of wet earth filled her lungs, carrying the familiar scent of rain-soaked soil, leaves, and the forest surrounding the village.

It was such an ordinary smell, something she had experienced countless times before, yet after being confined beneath the temple for so long...

It felt completely different.

She closed her eyes for a moment.

The cool breeze moved through her hair.

For those few seconds, she simply stood there and breathed.

No stone ceiling above her. No underground chamber.

No guards standing at every entrance.

No fear that the Rakshasas would break through.

No whispered conversations about whether they would survive another day.

She was outside.

Free.

Behind her, Queen Devayani slowly stepped out as well.

She stopped beside her daughter and looked around.

The other members of the royal family followed, along with the maids, villagers, and guards who had spent so many days hiding beneath the temple.

Some simply stood there.

Others raised their faces toward the sky.

A few villagers began crying quietly.

They weren’t tears of sadness.

They were the tears of people who had finally been allowed to breathe again.

One elderly villager slowly removed his sandals and stepped barefoot onto the wet ground.

He looked down at the mud beneath his feet and laughed softly.

"I never thought..."

He swallowed.

"...I’d be this happy just to feel rain."

Another villager smiled through tears.

"Neither did I."

Kumaravarma stepped out last.

He paused at the temple entrance.

The cold wind hit his bloodstained clothes, and for the first time since the attack, he felt the weight sitting upon his shoulders begin to loosen.

He looked toward the open sky.

Then toward the village.

Everything was still damaged.

The war had left its marks.

But they were alive.

That alone felt like a miracle.

Indhumati looked upward.

The clouds remained dark for several moments.

Then...

Something changed.

A thin opening appeared between them.

One patch of blue sky became visible.

The clouds slowly began separating around it.

A narrow beam of sunlight slipped through.

It grew wider.

Then another ray appeared.

Soon several golden shafts of sunlight poured through the clouds, illuminating the wet temple grounds.

One of those rays fell directly upon Indhumati.

She instinctively raised her hand to shield her eyes.

The sunlight warmed her face.

She smiled.

Behind her, Queen Devayani looked upward as well.

The golden light touched the entire group.

The villagers stood beneath it quietly, their faces illuminated after so many days spent in darkness.

It felt almost as though the heavens themselves had witnessed everything they had endured.

The deaths. The fear. The sacrifices.

And finally... Their freedom.

Indhumati slowly lowered her hand.

A small smile remained on her face as she looked toward the distant battlefield.

Somewhere beyond the village...

Devaratha was alive.

He had returned. He had won.

And now she was finally going to see him again.

Her heart began racing.

This time...

She wasn’t running away from something.

She was running toward someone.

Without waiting for the others, Indhumati gathered her clothes and began moving down the rain-soaked path.

"Indhumati, wait!"

Queen Devayani called.

But the princess only looked back with a smile.

"I’m going to see him."

And this time, nobody tried to stop her.

By the time Princess Indhumati and the others reached the entrance of Malikavana village, the battlefield had already begun to change.

The sounds of war had disappeared.

There were no more screams.

No weapons clashing.

No arrows flying across the sky.

Instead, the area was filled with the quieter sounds that came after a great battle.

Soldiers were moving among the ruined battlefield, gathering weapons, tending to the wounded, repairing what could still be repaired, and carrying the bodies of their fallen comrades away from the places where they had died.

Several groups of soldiers were preparing funeral pyres.

Others were digging graves for those whose traditions required burial.

The air still carried the smell of wet earth and smoke, but there was no longer the suffocating tension that had existed during the war.

The war was truly over.

Indhumati slowed her steps as she noticed something that caught her attention.

Not far from the allied soldiers...

A group of Rakshasa bodies had been placed together.

Human soldiers were carefully carrying them toward a separate area where funeral rites were being prepared.

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(Author note:)

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