Kleśa
This was hell.
Or else he was trapped inside a nightmare of the most vicious kind.
The scene spread before the Sage's eyes was so horrific that he found himself denying reality itself. Buildings burned and collapsed until nothing of their original forms remained. Between the ruins lay countless corpses, and the thick stench of decay reeled his senses. Of the once-thriving city, not a single trace of life could be found.
"Ah…"
In another time, he might somehow have kept his composure. He might not have raged or grieved, but he could at least have endured. He was far from normal now. Sealed inside the Vaishnavastra, powerless for thousands of years, the Sage's mind had grown terribly unstable.
He walked the streets slowly. He spread his Mind's Eye as wide as it would go and even called upon his Eye, straining for any sign of the living. He poured out his divinity harder than usual, driving off the flies and scavengers that had come down into the city to feed on the dead. As if by some silent pact, every insect and beast fled beyond the walls at once.
"Please… please… please…"
Never in his life had he felt such frantic, gnawing dread. Yet no matter where he went, he sensed not a single living soul. Only corpses. In the Sage's kingdom, nothing remained but death.
"No. That can't be."
Crushed bodies filled his sight. Answering the storm of feeling inside him, his Eye cast the past before him. What he saw was the day the Kosala Kingdom invaded his land.
His kingdom had been no match for Kosala. The moment they neutralized the Sage, they advanced without delay. His soldiers fought with everything they had, but the odds were hopeless. At last the Kosala troops poured through the gates.
Virudhaka's eyes rolled back as he howled with manic laughter. Swept into a frenzy of triumph, he ordered his soldiers to massacre, plunder, and rape — even after the enemy had already surrendered. Prisoners were unnecessary. The mad king meant to exterminate every living soul in the Sage's country that day.
They killed the people in every manner imaginable. Tying a man's arms to a horse's tail and dragging him through the streets was among the kinder methods. Men were burned alive. Women were raped until the soldiers tired of them, then killed. Children were toyed with until they died. Some were forced to swallow red-hot iron balls. Others had their eyes gouged out and were left to wander blindly while the soldiers watched and laughed.
Why?
Why, for the love of all that was sacred?
Why go this far?
It hurt. His chest felt as though it were being torn into a thousand, ten thousand shreds.
Even that was not enough for Virudhaka. He had the people of the Sage's kingdom buried in the earth with only their heads left above ground, or else had the tendons of their arms and legs severed and lined them up in neat rows.
"Stop. I was wrong. I lost. I'll obey every word you say from now on, so please…"
The Sage dropped to his knees before a Virudhaka who was not even there, and begged until his palms were raw. But it was only a phantom of the past. Even a sage could not undo what had already been done.
Virudhaka ordered the elephants to walk the roads where the people lay strewn.
— Crunch. Crack. Snap…
The sickening sounds rose one after another.
"Aaaargh!!"
"Save me!"
"No! I don't want to die!!! I don't!!!"
"Mother…!!"
"Sage! Please help us!"
The screams of the dying nearly drove him mad. And still the hell was not finished.
"I beg you — harm no more people!! I will endure any suffering you wish, but the common folk are innocent of any crime!!"
The cousin who had ruled the kingdom in the Sage's place smashed his forehead against the ground until blood ran. Virudhaka sneered down at him.
"Look at you. You swaggered so high on the Sage's name — and now this. You want your people spared? Then go stand in that lake. For as long as you remain in the water, I will not kill a single one of them."
The cousin obeyed. He waded into the lake and did not come out for a very long time.
"Why the hell isn't this bastard coming up?"
Had he used some kind of magic? No man could hold his breath that long. Thinking as much, Virudhaka ordered his soldiers to drag him out by force — only to find that the cousin was already dead. He had wound iron chains around his entire body so that even his corpse would not float to the surface.
"Stubborn bastard! Not that it meant a damn thing."
Virudhaka did not keep his word. Even while the cousin was underwater, the slaughter never paused. He sealed all four gates of the city so that not even an ant could escape.
"Your Majesty — we have captured the five hundred women of the Shakya Kingdom who helped the others slip away in secret."
They had even hunted down the women who fled.
"P-please, spare us."
"We'll do anything."
"There's a child in my belly…"
Terrified, desperate to live, the women pleaded with Virudhaka. To the mad king, it made no difference at all.
"So these bitches have no intention of serving the son of a slave woman!"
Naturally, the women of the kingdom could make no sense of his words.
"What? What on earth are you—"
"N-no, we never said any such thing!"
"Please spare us. We'll do anything. If you want us to serve you, we will. If you want us to bark like dogs, we'll bark — just please…"
Nothing they said reached Virudhaka's ears. Their voices were no more than birdsong — empty of meaning.
"Very well. I suppose I ought to respect your decision."
Virudhaka had a vast pit dug. Then he ordered every one of the five hundred women to have her arms and legs cut off, and had them thrown into the hole.
"All that wailing and screeching is getting on my nerves. Cover them with dirt."
Without a flicker of feeling, he commanded the live burial of hundreds. Among them was a little girl who had once given the Sage a flower.
"Aaaargh!!"
The Sage screamed and clawed open the pit Virudhaka had filled. The corpses of the limbless women were already far gone in decay, the stench almost unbearable. Even so, he pulled the familiar girl's body into his arms. The dead do not move.
"Yashodhara…!!"
Then memories of his wife flooded his mind. He used his Eye to track the princess's path.
Please — I beg you — just be alive!
He prayed and prayed to no one in particular. For better or worse, he saw her leave the city walls. He moved in a desperate rush, following the trail she had taken.
The princess had fled the kingdom with his cousin. An infant rested in the cousin's arms, and the princess herself looked far from well.
"Come here. I'll carry you on my back."
The cousin tried to take her up, but she shook her head.
"Go on ahead. In this condition, running would only get us both caught."
"Stop talking nonsense and get up — now!!"
"Please… take care of our child."
"…"
They argued a few times more, but in the end the cousin left her behind and went on. Not long after, the soldiers of Kosala came crashing through.
"Well, well. If it isn't the Sage's own wife."
"You dog. Less than a dog."
"My lady has a foul mouth, I see."
"Filthy creature. Does slaughtering people like this finally soothe that inferiority of yours?"
"…What?"
The words struck home. Virudhaka flinched.
"There have always been ordinary men who envied him. Every last one of them had eyes just like yours."
"…Shut your mouth."
"You know the truth, don't you? Without that twisted trick of yours, you would never have been his match. That pitiful skill you boast of, that army of a hundred thousand you parade — all of it worthless. You were afraid of him. You're nothing but a coward drowning your terror and your inferiority in this meaningless massacre."
"This bitch will say anything that comes through her open hole. I'll make your death especially cruel."
Virudhaka severed the tendons in the princess's arms and legs. Then he ordered his soldiers to violate every opening of her body. Still not satisfied, he gouged out one of her eyes, cut off her nose and ears, and seared her private parts with a branding iron.
"Stop! Please stop!! Please!!!"
The Sage screamed and clutched his own face. Holding on to his sanity was agony beyond bearing. Whether he broke or not, the torture that treated her life as nothing continued, and the princess — in pain so absolute she could not even scream — finally lost consciousness.