Svaksha peeped through one of the holes. She noticed that the army was without any particular movement. Her eyes searched for Ashwarth, even though she knew that he would be well guarded in the centre of the entire army, which stood as vast as an ocean spiraling in concentric circles around him. Svaksha felt it odd when she didn't find any advancement from his side. She looked around at the fellow Prithans. They still stood in their positions but the initial vigilance was missing.

Svaksha was frustrated seeing relaxation in their eyes. Svaksha had warned them again and again, but after five whole hours of mere standing they were bound to disregard her, though not entirely. Fine lines of frustration appeared on her forehead, when she saw the women of the nation stand close to their family members, feeding them and showing their love.

That would have been a very cute and sweet scenario but standing on the battlefield, these things only made Svaksha irritated.

Five entire hours had passed. In this time she would have gone to Vasavi and would have returned. Svaksha widened her eyes as the thought struck her. Ashwarth could have sent for more troupes from Vasavi. But, he did not require them as he was standing face to face with an army not even possessing one by tenth his strength. Then, what other help could he have wanted?

A sudden feeling of dread passed over Svaksha as she remembered about the divine astras, which were the most dreadful manifestations of nuclear power.

Damn!

Was Ashwarth going to use the nuclear weapons? The fear made a drop of perspiration trickle over her forehead. Svaksha cursed herself. She had entirely disregarded the thought. How could she ever forget about the nuclear weapon from which Vasavi had got its very name?

The Vasavi Shakthi, also called as the Shakthi, literally meaning power, was the weapon of Lord Indra, the king of the celestial beings. The weapon used by Karn to kill the gigantic Ghatotkach in the battle of the Mahabharat was in the possession of Ashwarth. It had been acquired by Ashwarth after a tough toil under his Acharya.

Svaksha found her head reeling. She found her mind contemplating about the possible divine weapons Ashwarth had. If he decided to use them against them, then the entire of Pritha wouldn't stand for even a few seconds. But then nothing would remain to rule.

Ashwarth didn't want to rule. He just wanted the stones, these powerful stones whose power she didn't and couldn't fathom. What if they aren't harmed by the nuclear weapons? That gave Ashwarth all the rights to use his arsenal.

She closed her eyes, as her lips mumbled an inaudible prayer.

"Om Namah!"

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Ashwarth moved his fingers over his silky black hair, brushing it aside as he raised his eyes and looked at the far corner. He gulped down a cup of water as he waited for his messenger to return from Vasavi. Ashwarth hated waiting. He groaned in exasperation as every minute ticked by.

Ashwarth saw his daughter and son, basically Shresht's son, but the kids had been brought up with the perspective of calling both the brothers and their respective wives as father and mother. The parents had equal love for all their children. Ashwarth's chest puffed with pride seeing his children take part in the battle. He found Sthiray coming to him with Drithi.

"Why are they taking so long to just ship some cargo?"

Ashwarth found his lips curling up. He shook his head.

"My dears, this is not some 'cargo'."

Sound of feet thumping made Ashwarth turn his head towards the source, his heart reflecting the exact beat.

They were here.

He could finally get rid of the wall in between and could at least try to have a glance at her. A scowl formed in his face with that mere thought. Distracting himself away from the chain of thoughts, Ashwarth found a wide smile form on his face on seeing his flag. The smile turned wider when he recognized the person leading the army. His Rajmata had personally come with them. He immediately ran to his grandmother and took her in a bone crushing embrace.

Pulling out, he scrunched his eyebrows in fake fury as he questioned Rajmata Shivatmika.

"Rajmata, what are you doing here? Do you think that you are merely 16? At this age you wish to fight in a battle?"

"Shh! Stop it prankster-turned-emperor Ashwarth Maurya. And I don't just think that I am 16, I am actually 16 in my mind. So get that into your thick stupid head, and remember with age lies experience. And most importantly, stop pretending. The relief and happiness is still visible on your face clearly."

Ashwarth broke into a small chuckle. A real one! His Rajmata was indeed an amazing support. She could make all the over confidence in Ashwarth vanish in a second, just like Svaksha. Not again!

He was in for another pleasant surprise when he found his mother Rani Dharma with Rajmata. His mother was a specialist in medicine. With her words of wisdom and her mere presence Ashwarth got a huge dose of confidence. He found his smile still lingering on his face. Ashwarth smirked. He had work to do, very interesting work.

Shresht kept his hand on Ashwarth's shoulder and looked at him questioningly. Ashwarth hadn't been very much clear with his idea of cargo. Shresht's question, though not voiced out was haunting both Rajmata and Rani Dharma as well.

"So, are you really going to use the divine weapons?"

Ashwarth found his eyebrows creasing fast. He shook his head much to the relief to his family. Ashwarth knew full well about the after effects of using those weapons. Mass destruction in less than a moment! For heaven's sake, he couldn't just kill everyone with a single stroke, especially when she was there. And moreover the effects of these lingered for centuries, affecting the vegetation, and also the children born in that area even after centuries.

Ashwarth would never use the Vasavi Shakthi. He didn't want to finish the war so easily, anyway. He knew that his family questioned him so because he had ordered his messenger to bring the instruments required for firing the divine astras.

And the questioning glance was still etched on the faces of his family. Ashwarth moved towards the reverently brought Vasavi Shakthi and moved his hands over the immense bow specially hand crafted for the usage of this particular weapon.

"It is not the weapons we require, Rajmata. I wanted these instruments for my new experiment."

Ashwarth lifted the huge bow, and ordered his soldiers to bring a few straight swords. Ashwarth touched their tip, and a mere slide made a small incision on his finger, making a red thick liquid trickle over the metal.

Good, sharp enough!

Ashwarth looked at Shresht, gesturing him to look at Ashwarth. He ordered his best archers, which comprised of Ashwarth, Shresht, and the children with ten more of his men to take some more of the bows made for the usage of the divine astras.

Ashwarth unsheathed his dagger and made a small slit in the wooden handle of the sword. He then positioned the slit just over the string of his bow, turning the sword into an arrow. He closed one of his eyes and looked at one of the holes made in the wall. Following suit, the archers did the exact same and about fifteen swords sprang through the air towards the Prithans.

Ashwarth smiled in satisfaction as he heard the cries from the other side. The swords were indeed as sharp as he had wanted and these bows gave an amazing balance in withholding the swords.

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Svaksha walked out of the strategic wall, to take a cup of water to ease out her stress. As she gulped down a glass of water, she heard the heart tearing bellow of one of her soldiers. Immediately dropping her glass down, she rushed to the arena to find her men down on the ground, their arms gripping their hearts or their eyes which oozed out blood. Svaksha's eyes widened on seeing swords stuck on their hearts, she didn't know how they had managed to hurl swords so high.

Without wasting time in pondering on that thought, Svaksha yelled loud and clear.

"Comrades, get down the structure. Quick! The Vara Lakshmi formation, fast!"

Svaksha kept chanting a prayer, to help her ease out. Nivruth ran towards Svaksha, as she sprinted to the centre of the army making the formation.

"What about the wall?"

Svaksha didn't even turn towards him as she replied.

"Ashwarth will take care of that."

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No sound was heard from the other side of the wall. No cries of agony, no yelling of curses, just some shuffling of feet! Ashwarth tilted his head as he examined the wall properly. He ordered his men to do the traditional demolish. He waited as he found the wall break down, falling as a gusty avalanche. Ashwarth's eyes immediately widened as he found the whole of the Prithan army in some formation he couldn't quite understand. This maze was totally different and he couldn't guess their method of attacking.

Fighting an unordered enemy would be easier than fighting the one who had an unknown order.

But, still with difficulty lay the amusement. His lips curled upwards as he whispered gently, making his own brother doubt if this was Ashwarth as his voice was devoid of expressions, containing only dripping venom.

"Svaksha, you never fail to amuse and amaze me. This is going to be really interesting."