Chapter 434 - 402: Narayana Astra Can Be Used...

(A/N):

Drop a meme here that you find funny. Or reflects your mood.

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Bhishma looked towards the distant bull banners, his expression thoughtful.

"He has demonstrated that he is willing to intervene when his commanders are in danger. We must now account for the possibility that he will use his own astras whenever the battle turns against him."

"If we assume that he will remain an observer until the later stages of the war, we may find ourselves unprepared when he finally enters the fighting."

Ashwatthama glanced towards Devara’s chariot, which remained visible through the thinning dust.

"Then perhaps we should stop waiting for him to make the next move. He has already interfered once. If we give him enough time, he may find another way to disrupt the battle whenever things fail to go according to his plans."

But Devara, who had watched the storm from his position, did not appear eager to respond with an immediate display of power.

His gaze remained upon Vrishasena’s army, studying the positions the enemy commanders had taken after their retreat.

He had seen the storm for what it was: a calculated intervention designed to rescue defeated officers and restore a measure of confidence among the soldiers who had witnessed their humiliation.

The king’s fingers rested against the railing of his Vajravyaghra Rath as he considered the situation.

Vrishasena had not managed to reverse the momentum of the battle, nor had his astra inflicted a decisive blow upon the allied army.

Yet he had prevented his commanders from being defeated completely, and he had reminded both sides that the king of Vrishabhapura possessed weapons capable of changing the conditions of the battlefield.

For Devara, that was valuable information.

The first phase of the battle had revealed the strength of Vrishabhapura’s infantry, the limitations of its commanders, and the willingness of its king to intervene when necessary.

The next phase would depend upon how both sides responded to what they had learned.

Across the field, the rescued commanders regrouped behind their own lines, their pride wounded but their lives preserved.

Their soldiers greeted their return with visible relief, and the officers immediately began reorganising the formations disrupted by the storm.

The allied army, meanwhile, resumed its advance where conditions permitted, though its commanders remained alert for another sudden intervention.

The sun continued its journey across the sky, and the battle raged on.

Vrishasena had bought his commanders time to recover, but he had not won them victory.

And Devara, watching the opposing king from atop his divine chariot, understood that the man who had brought this war upon the battlefield was no longer content to let his army fight the battle alone.

Vrishasena’s expression grew increasingly grim as he surveyed the battlefield.

The brief storm he had summoned earlier had accomplished its purpose, allowing his defeated commanders to escape and return to their respective formations, but it had done little to change the overall situation.

His infantry continued to struggle against the coordinated movements of Devara’s alliance, and the confidence with which his soldiers had entered the battle was gradually giving way to frustration.

Every time his warriors managed to force the enemy backwards, fresh units arrived to reinforce the allied line, preventing a breakthrough.

Worse, the presence of Bhishma, Dronacharya, Karna, and Ashwatthama meant that any attempt to turn the battle through a direct confrontation with the enemy’s strongest commanders carried an unacceptable risk.

Vrishasena had not expected the war to unfold this way.

He had believed that the discipline of his army, combined with the traditional strength of his kingdom, would be sufficient to overcome the forces gathered by Devara.

He had prepared for resistance, certainly, but he had expected the alliance to fracture once the fighting became severe and individual rulers began worrying about their own losses.

Instead, the allied forces continued to support one another, and their most powerful warriors remained ready to intervene wherever the battle threatened to turn against them.

His gaze travelled towards Devara’s magnificent chariot, where the king of Trivenivrata continued to observe the battlefield with unsettling composure.

Even now, Devara had not committed himself to a major engagement.

His four enormous sabertooth tigers stood ready before the Vajravyaghra Rath, their powerful bodies radiating barely restrained energy, while the king himself watched the fighting as though he were waiting for something.

That calmness irritated Vrishasena.

Does he believe that he has already won? the king wondered, his fingers tightening around the railing of his chariot.

Does he think I will allow him to dictate the course of this battle simply because his commanders have performed better than mine?

He had spent years protecting his authority, first from the nobles who had attempted to seize his throne during his childhood and later from every rival who threatened the stability of his kingdom.

He had learned that hesitation invited challenges, that weakness encouraged ambition, and that a ruler who allowed others to dictate the terms of a confrontation would eventually find himself with nothing left to command.

Those lessons had shaped him into the king he was today, and he refused to abandon them simply because Devara’s alliance had proved stronger than anticipated.

His hand moved towards the bow resting beside him.

For a moment, Vrishasena hesitated.

The weapon he was about to invoke was no ordinary astra.

It was a divine weapon whose knowledge had been entrusted to him by his revered guru, a weapon so powerful that its use came with a condition that could never be reversed.

His guru had explained the matter to him in private, away from the ears of other disciples and royal attendants.

The Narayana Astra was not something that could be treated as an ordinary instrument of war, nor was it a weapon that its wielder could summon repeatedly whenever circumstances became unfavourable.

It could be invoked only once in the wielder’s lifetime.

The moment Vrishasena completed the invocation and released the astra, the knowledge required to summon it would disappear from his mind.

His guru had suffered the same consequence when he passed that knowledge to his disciple, losing his own ability to invoke the weapon forever.

The secret of the Narayana Astra could not be preserved through repeated instruction or recovered by simply recalling the mantras.

Once the transfer was completed, the knowledge belonged to the recipient, and the giver was left unable to summon it again.

For years, Vrishasena had guarded that knowledge carefully.

He had regarded the astra as a final answer to a situation in which ordinary military strength could no longer guarantee victory, a weapon whose existence alone had given him a measure of confidence even when the future appeared uncertain.

Now, standing upon a battlefield where his army was struggling to gain the advantage he had expected, he finally decided to use it.

"If ordinary weapons cannot turn this battle, then I shall employ the power entrusted to me by my guru,"

Vrishasena murmured, his eyes fixed upon the allied army.

"Devara may have gathered powerful warriors around himself, but let us see whether their strength will be enough when they face the divine weapon of Narayana."

He reached for his bow and raised it towards the sky.

The change was almost immediate.

Vrishasena drew the bowstring backwards, and the yogic energy within his body began to gather with an intensity that made the air around his chariot feel unnaturally heavy.

The energy flowed through his arms and gathered around the arrow he had placed upon the string, illuminating its surface with a faint radiance.

As he began reciting the sacred invocation taught to him by his guru, the atmosphere above the battlefield began to change.

The clouds that had drifted harmlessly across the morning sky started gathering above the armies.

At first, they moved slowly, drawn towards a common point high above Vrishasena’s position.

Then their movement accelerated, the scattered formations merging into vast spirals that twisted around one another as though an enormous unseen force were pulling the heavens into a vortex.

The sunlight dimmed beneath the gathering clouds, and a strange stillness spread across portions of the battlefield as the wind changed direction.

Dust rose from the ground in thin streams, circling the king’s chariot before being swept upwards towards the darkening sky.

The soldiers nearest Vrishasena began looking upwards, their weapons momentarily forgotten as they watched the unnatural spectacle unfolding above them.

Even the experienced warriors who had witnessed astras being invoked during previous campaigns recognised that this was different.

The energy gathering around the king was not merely an enhancement of physical strength or an ordinary elemental weapon.

There was something ancient and immense within the invocation, a divine presence that seemed to extend beyond the boundaries of the battlefield itself.

Vrishasena continued chanting.

The yogic energy within his body intensified, travelling through the bow and gathering around the arrow until its faint radiance became a brilliant sphere of golden light.

The spiralling clouds above him responded to the growing power, turning faster as flashes of light appeared deep within their darkened depths.

The sound of the wind gradually faded beneath a deeper vibration that seemed to resonate through the earth, the air, and the bodies of those who stood nearby.

Then the divine energy revealed its true nature.

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(Author note:)

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