The Last Rudra

"They are not wrong when they say Djalls have brains in each of their boughs. "Kruma said, his voice quivering with the soul-crushing pressure. "You knew everything all along. Here I was thinking I pulled the wool over your eyes." He shook his head. 

"Haha..you were shrewd, too. But what I don't get is why you've waited so long." The djall laughed evilly. Seemingly extremely amused for outwitting the falconer. 

The man didn't reply at once. His shield had vanished. Now the twisted branches were coiling around his body as if wanted to cover his whole body. The glow of Kurama's eyes had dimmed. 

"Leave it. I think I shouldn't delay your damnation, anymore." The djall said. And Onish saw the twigs as fine as threads wiggled out of the twisted boughs and entered into Krumas body. 

The falconer howled with pain. As the devil tree drank his blood. The ravine cawed as it flew towards its dying master. Its giant wings ablaze, and eyes erupting volcanoes. 

The sharp talons gleamed like steel blades. The air around Onish trembled.

Bhadra muttered something, and it hushed up. But a storm set out in the woods. 

The fire rained on the djall with each flap of the giant raven. The steel talons tore off its twisted whips. 

"You damn bird. So you're not a raven, but a fire crow." The djall cursed aloud as he shook off the fire. Surprisingly, the fire stuck to the djall's twisted boughs like mud. 

The djall finally seemed serious. The blood rushed through its bulging veins. Darkness gushed out of its blood-red leaves. The twisted branches lashed out to catch the enraged crow. 

Like hundreds of long arms, the dark branches close in on the fiery crow, which seemed focused on its half-dead master, who was lying unconscious near the djall. 

A swishing whip bit the bird's neck. Golden blood oozed out as the bird flapped its fairy wings and snapped at the coming dark snake-like boughs. 

It was then, Onish noticed Kruma got up. In his hand was a medallion burning with blood-red flames. 

"Leave Grimma alone, Djall. Here is your answer.," Kruma struggled, the blood dripping from his mouth. "I waited so long because my mother had said I couldn't defy you... unless I have something like this." 

Djall looked at the triangular pendant. His bloodshot eyes widened in shock. 

"Did you forge it in the masterless fire of the fire beast?" His guttural voice quivered with fear as if he had seen his nemesis. 

"Haha, it wasn't easy though. The poison tormented me for two days. I felt I couldn't make it through. But my son and my wife helped me by sharing the agony. Do you know how it felt like ingesting fire poison in your blood?" Kruma said, smiling wickedly. 

The djall shivered as if recalling some horrific memory. 

"I reckon no. Then have a taste of the curse of Uddor." Kruma mumbled a spell. And Onish saw seer horror replaced the djall's devilish grin. 

His bulging vines started to glow as if lava was flowing in them.

"What have you done to me?" Djall howled as he frantically whipped his crackling boughs. 

Kruma laughed as a golden shield engulfed him. 

"Don't you, djalls, taste blood before sucking it? No, it's not your fault. You never tasted the blood of Uddor'sons before." 

Pure terror flashed in the djall's eyes. As the realization seemed to dawn on him. His veins burst open, and red hot lava gushed out of them. The red flame engulfed him. The tree's horrendous screaks woke up the forest. 

Suddenly, the djall began to shrink into the ground. 

Kruma, who was watching the burning djalls with an evil smile, moved. He flicked his hand, and glowing chains as thick as the tree's boughs appeared out of thin air. Like giant serpents, they rushed towards the djall. But Kruma soon realized he couldn't stop fleeing the devil tree, whose trunk was already in the ground. 

"Fool!" Bhadra finally broke his silence. "Stay quiet, Lad. The falconer has brought calamity." The fowler rose to his feet. It was then Onish noticed why they had been undisturbed by the ongoing battle. A shield was covering them. The invisible shield flickered as Bhadra walked out. 

Kruma was startled by the appearance of Bhadra out of nowhere. He abandoned his effort to drag out the djall as he looked approaching fowler warily. 

"When did you get here, fowler?" he asked. 

But Bhadra's eyes were focused on the djall. He didn't acknowledge the falconer and threw out his hands in the air. Eight flags flew out in eight directions like arrows. 

As soon as the golden flags took their positions, an octagonal shield flickered as it griddled the whole grove, which was now ablaze. 

What followed dumbfounded Onish as much as Kruma. Bhadra formed a dancing mudra, and a giant ethereal figure appeared behind him. The burning tree got crushed; Kruma, who was watching the fowler with his mouth agape, sent flying, and so was his giant crow. 

The giant figure with no facial features squatted down, the air humming around him. The giant thrust his long finger into the earth's breast and ripped it like a cloth. A long fissure ran between his giant feet like a giant snake. The djall's desperate screams resounded into the hushed woods.

Bhadra changed his mudra, and the giant gripped the whipping branches and yanked him out. The djall's beastly howled trembled the octagonal shield. 

Horrifying gashes were running all over his trunk. His all vines were in a burst oven. The red flames were licking his ghastly wounds. 

The crimson red blood running on his giant black trunk was a gory sight.

"Who are you?" the djall screeched. 

However, what answered him was the arrow of fire white like the Himalayan snow.

The devil tree struggled to free itself, but the muscular hands of the giant didn't let it go. The white flames and red flames caught its long dark hairs like boughs. And it burnt, lighting up the dark woods. 

Heart-wrenching howls of the djalls slowly died away as the fire burned it to ashes. 

Bhadra returned to normal posture. The ethereal giant disintegrated into specks of light and disappeared, and so did 

Silence fell upon them. 

Bhadra walked over to the pile of white ashes. He poked it as if looking for something. 

A black sphere the size of a human head rolled out of the ashes. Bhadra pocketed it as he turned to Kruma, who was stroking his crow's ruffled feathers. 

Krum's blood-wet cloak stuck to his body. With hollowed eyes, his face, stained with blood and dust, was looking frightening. 

"So you're the last death-worshiper," Kruma said, looking at the approaching figure. 

"If you think so, falconer. As far as my memory serves I've never worshipped death." Bhadra replied as he halted a few feet away from Kruma. 

"So you really drank the fire poison," said fowler. 

"I had to. There was no other way. He was simply invincible." replied Kruma, looking away. 

The silence fell between them. None spoke. 

"With the first rays of Ursha on the Capricorn, the slumber of Paruh will break. She will then seek her master. So you only have five months before the daughter of Uddor will turn you into a fire beast." With that, Bhadra walked away. Kruma frowned, and then his eyes widened as the meaning of the fowler's words dawned on him. 

"Do you mean I will turn into a fire giant?" He called out. Horror was all over his face. 

"You seem too slow for a man who outwitted a Djall." replied Bhadra without looking back. "You'd better be off now with your bird if you don't want to be found out by your men." 

Gaunt-faced Kruma looked into the sky, his eyes glowing. He rode on his fire crow. "Can I ask if there is any cure?" he asked as the bird rose into the sky. 

"And you think I would tell a man who burned down the whole troupe of fire tamers," Bhadra said as he stopped before the place where Onish was hiding. 

"I didn't want to, but I had no other way." Kruma replied.

"Go, or you'll see your head on a pike in the morning," Bhadra said as he undid the shield. 

Kruma looked at Onish and Bhadra, and with a complicated look on his face, he flew off. 

"Lad, hold me tight, we have to leave this place before the swarm of falconers get here." Bhadra gave his arm to Onish. 

"Will he really turn into a fire giant?" Onish asked as he held his arm. 

"Yes, unless he gets the cure, which's not easy to find. Now clench your teeth." Bhadra replied. Before Onish could make out what he meant by closing his teeth, he felt his body dissolving into the air; his mind went blank.. For a moment, he thought he had no body.