The Last Rudra

Ishi's heart sank as he saw the torrent of fire coming towards them. Just by fluctuations, he knew his shield couldn't stop the fire. So, he ran up on the giant statue, taking spirit support. Ruchito did the same. 

The fiery breath hit the giant statue, bathing it with red lava. The splashes crashed Ishit's shield, setting it on fire, and thus searing his back.

Appalled, Ishit flew off in the air. Ruchito was not doing too great. His icy armour had melted away. He had shot singed hair and eyebrows, scorching marks all over his face. 

As for the statue, the fire caused no substantial damage to it except turning it black up to its waist. 

"Where are you going now? " Adard called out laughing. "If I let you escape today, how can I face Udalf?"

He moved his hand, and the dragon roared as it moved its giant wings, sending flames everywhere.

A storm hit fleeing Ishit, causing him to lose his momentum. 

And before Ishit could rebalance himself the beast was on him. Ishit threw a fireball at him, which smashed the giant eyes of the beast blasting apart. 

Ruchito moved and a frightening whirlpool engulfed Adard, sending him off balance.

"You too have a death wish. The discarded spawn of  Glass castle.  " Adard grunted, as he formed a shield to protect himself from the raging whirlpool. 

"How do you know?" Ruchito's face lost its colour, hearing the traitor's world.

"Haa haa.. You guess! Why do you think the old healer so willingly left for  Avida, a place he hadn't set for 12 years?" Adard said laughing evilly. 

"Don't talk to him. you fool! Just attack .." Ishit shouted as he shot upward avoiding the dragon. 

However, Ruchito didn't seem to hear him. He continued to stare at the grinning Adard. 

Myriads of emotions were flashing on his face. 

"You should have seen the old geezer face when he pleaded with me." Adard continued, "I told him to lick my feet and he did like an obedient dog."

Ruchito's eyes glowed brightly, as the air around him tensed up. As he said clenching his teeth 

"Don't disrespect Apurva before me. "

"Little druidy is angry. You should have listened to the spirit wielder advise" Adard said as his eyes glinted.

Ruchito's face fell as he sensed something behind him. He didn't turn to have a look. He knew he had fallen in the traitor's trap. 

The little druid summoned everything -stones, fire,  charred trees, air, and with a loud howl he attacked Adard, without caring about the sword that was stabbing his back. 

The stones came like meteors, accompanied  by the fiery lava breathed out by the fire dragon.  The wind turned into a frightening tornado, prisoning Adard. 

Izidor  howled like a beast, as the stones pelted him furiously, making him lose control over the healer's body. 

He commanded the sword with full concentration. The sharp metal pierced the young druid's chest. But it didn't stop Ruchito from sending him flying towards the enraged dragon fire dragon. 

Ishit watched horrified as Ruchito fell down like a rag doll. He didn't have time to check his friend because the enraged dragon seemed to have lost its mind. 

It came for him breathing out lava, without stopping. Ishit turned to flee but the dragon was too fast, its wing, and too close. Its giant wings caught him in the middle of his flight and sent him flying towards the giant statue. 

The momentum was so high that Ishit could regain his control. And his body crashed into the chest of the stone warrior. Ishit heard his bone breaking. 

The dragon didn't give him any moment to breathe as it came roaring, and smashed into the statue. Trying to turn Ishit into meat pulp. 

However, Ishit was swiftly slipped under the giant arm. And tightly gripping the giant armour's edge. The earlier impact had knocked him silly. His chest had caved in. 

The blood was dripping from his mouth. Moreover, Ishit's mind was blank. He didn't even seem to notice the running crack from chest to the waist of the warrior. 

The dragon roared loudly and came again for Ishit. But before it could smash its giant body into the statue and squash Ishit, the stone warrior came crashing down upon it. A bright light rushed out of the giant statue as it rushed up in the sky. The dragon, all of sudden, burst apart, and lava flowed out in all directions. 

Ishit fell down his hands helplessly grabbing the air.  His eyes had lost a blue glow, blood was flowing out of them. 

Adard was nowhere to be seen. His body must have fallen into the  ruined city, like Ishit, and Ruchito

The commoners who had survived the deluge watched the lava melting their stone houses as if they had been made of wax. 

The buildings were burning like the pyres of Manikarnika Ghat. ( a famous cremation ground in Glassia ).

The fierce battle had left nothing intact. The children were crying. Many of them have lost their parents in the fight that had caught them unguarded. 

******

Nearly 1000 miles away from Avasta, in the capital city Avida …

In the Glass Castle, 

In the King Nirvano's court 

King Nirvano, a man well past forty, was sitting on his golden throne with his courtiers. A man in a black cloak was standing before him. Strange runes were running around his eyes and his forehead. The man's eyes were changing colors like chameleon skin. 

The man bowed his head little, and said in a hoarse voice 

"Udolf,a son of Hyde the Great, pays his respect to the almighty King of Glassia."

Nirvnao raised his hand to his chest and nodded, a Glassian custom to tell that he had accepted the greeting. 

The king frowned, for he had never heard of Udolf or Hyde the Great before, nor had he met a man with strange runes running all over his face like this. 

He glanced at his courtiers. They all seemed as clueless as he was. 

So he refocused his attention on his guest. He noticed his guest black cloak was not made of cloth or any material that he knew of. It seemed as if the darkness had been condensed to forge its fabric. 

Nirvano's curiosity piqued. 

"His majesty might not know me and my great ancestors. However, you must have heard of Varta."

King frowned and then his eyes widened as a distant memory struck his mind. 

"You mean the land of dwizas."

"Yes, your highness." 

A low murmur spread in Glass hall. 

"So you mean you have come from the land beyond the living sea." Nirvano was shocked inside. 

Ages had passed since someone last came from the fabled land of dwizas. Not many in Glassia would believe in its existence. The tales of divine land were now just myths. 

If he hadn't read the ancient chronicles, he wouldn't have believed that there was such a land whose kings once ruled the whole Mazia. What was more unbelievable was that their ancestors had come here to Glassia from Varta. 

He looked at the man with renewed interest. 

"Not exactly but from its neighbouring empire called Kemet," Udolf replied.

"May know the purposes of your trouble. For as far as I know the living sea has long banned the sea routes." Nirvana asked, putting aside his curiosity. 

"To warn you, the wise king," Udolf said, and this time the murmur in the court was not low. 

Nirvano frowned, so did his courtiers. 

"May I know? Against what?" Nirvano asked. 

"One of my brothers, Izidor,  has come to your peaceful land. And he is here  to take away the destiny of your land." Udolf said with some hesitancy. 

Nirvano frowned eased as he heard his guest. 

"And how would he do that? As far as I know, destiny is not a tangible thing " He asked. 

"It is as tangible as treasure in your royal coffers. My lord. It is as tangible as I and you. Moreover, Izidor  is not an ordinary man. He is a wizard, specialised in souls." Udalf said. 

"What should I do? Can you give us details about him so  we can look for this wizard, who has crossed the living sea to steal destiny?"

Nirvano asked with an amused expression. Of course, he didn't buy the nonsense. Now he even doubted the man's claim that he was from Varta or Kemet. 

"I don't have any. Because there was no way of knowing whose soul he had captured in the Astral plane." 

Nirvano was now sure the man with funny tattoos on his face was a gypper. He was really surprised at his guts to come here of all the places in Glassia. 

He needed to teach the swindler a lesson to set an example for all the people like him out there. 

Nirvano was about to call out his prime minister when he heard a loud chime.. The sound made him freeze on his spot for a moment, and the next thing he knew he was rushing out with all the courtiers in his trail.