Author's Notes:

School holidays coming on the 18th onwards, so will have lots of free time apart from the day job and likely lots of time to do RaK and my new story, God of Cookery.


Here he was with Brody finally in his pocket, and then this damn Pillar was in his way. Purushartha was his real name, and he was the General of Akaashs' South Gate. But none of this was worth a damn to Ajay, he was in the way of his prey and it was a bloody nuisance.

"What worth could she possibly place on that puppet?" Ajay inquired on why he was protecting Brody.

"Anything that keeps you occupied and away from disrupting the flow of our plans." Was his reply.

(pow) (pow) Ajay ignored him and fired a quick succession of arrows at Brody with the help of his automatic loader.

But Rakshasa Purushartha stood in the way and used his lance to swat the arrows out of the air. A rather loud report from the deflection occurred as the arrows embedded with runes were smashed into bits by his weapon. Clearly, it wasn't ordinary and might be on the same league as that broken sword Vasu carried with him.

"Tsk!"

"Dude, I dunno if I should kiss you or-." Brody was about to go on his annoying monologue when an aura shot out from Purushartha to silence him without saying anything.

Ajay was now fixed onto a target not of his chosing.

"Right, I'm buggering off! Take care of 'em, will you? Woop!Woop!Woop!Woop!..." Brody tried to make a run for it as he jumped through the flame walls. Now, Ajay was really furious.

And ignored the Pillar once more by trying to pursue him. And once again, the Rakshasa disappeared from his original spot and appeared in a flash in front of him.

"GET LOST!" Ajay swung his blade down as the spear wielding Rakshasa whom responded with the turn of his lance to have the pommel facing him. He then launched the shaft at him, with the pommel going for his throat. Ajay's reflex kicked in and he tilted his head and turned his shoulders slightly to avoid the lance by a millimeter. Ajay kicked up towards his torso to which the spear twirled and knocked his leg and himself into the air. Ajay backflipped gracefully and landed on two feet.

It was at this point, they had crossed swords and were stuck in fighting one another till someone quited or died.

"Jeevan! Get Brody! I don't care if you kill him, bring me back something!" He roared over the clashing of blade and strange metal staff.

The younger man was a world about why he picked him instead of Vasu who would've had more experience. He didn't realise his own potential, and like Brody he was young which allowed him to be inventive in bad situations.

"I'm on it!" He shouted back over the fighting. Vajra instinctively felt the need he was in and accompanied the fellow seal guardian.

The Rakshasa was annoyed he directed his focus elsewhere whilst they were engaged in a duel. "This arrogance will cost you!" He hurled the lance at Jeevan who was running with his back turned.

(Boom) A shot rung out from Ajay's most powerful range weapon and knocked the lances trajectory off Jeevan's torso and stuck itself to a tree trunk. The tree uprooted from the force of the lance that javelined into its trunk

"Don't think you can just turn away after you pulled me into this!" He exclaimed to the Rakshasa.

Now, the Rakshasa General had all his attention onto Ajay, he reached out into thin air somehow calling the spear back into his hand through an invisible traction force. The lance freed itself and returned to its master. Purushartha looked down at the shaft of his lance and found its highly-detailed carved art to be blemished by the place the slug hit it on. He frowned as he didn't want to believe what the General of the North Gate told him about that weapon, but seeing if for himself he knew it wasn't ordinary now.

Vasu and the rest were fighting with the Golden Path exalts, whilst the Hunters had a small skirmish with the remaining Rangers whom were trapped like all of them were.

"Why!? Brother?!"

"Working with the demon?! Have you disowned your comrades?!"

"Don't waste breaths on a traitor, kill him!"

The Golden Path converged on him one after another with gun and blade, not fearful of being shot due to their warped nature. Vasu was forced to reveal a new trump in the form of the newly acquired sword with a broken tip. He sliced through one of the fighters and he lunged back in surprise as his body began to delay rapidly and his wound became ashes as he disintegrated slowly and in an agonizing way. It made the company think twice about approaching him, for here was a weapon that could kill them regardless of state.

The Rakshasa General was distracted for a moment when he too saw the blade in his grasps that was unmistakable.

Ajay used the counterstrike technique of the Four Seasons Pandemonium fighting art to push the attack from before back at the Rakshasa and ended up in a blade lock. He was in a bad match up with his short kukri against Purushartha's long lance

"I didn't want to believe it when Lord North Gate said it fell into the hands of a damn mortal."

"What can I say, the sword probably found him worthy." Ajay taunted.

[How can he be worthy?! He is but a mongrel!] Purushartha unintentionally reverted back to his original tongue from the anger that flustered him, Ajay understood every word thanks to a talisman on his persons that did sort of translate it in his mind.

Ajay took that moment of loss focus to slap a talisman onto his torso.

"Mire!" He called out to the talisman to activate its hidden ability.

"What in heavens?!-..." Purushartha was completely bewildered at what he just saw.

Ajay changed to the offensive and used the Third Form of the martial art to penetrate the harden flesh of the Rakshasa. Ajay shoved the blade into his shoulder neck area downwards to impale the possessed body's heart behind the ribcage. Unfortunately, his kukri was too short and it only did significant damage to the less vital organs. It was sure to have hurt like hell but this was an entity almost immune to pain.

The Rakshasa didn't let him proceed any further than that as he released a restraint on his body that was felt by everyone in the area. The shockwave rippled the air and an uncomfortable sense of distress was felt by everyone still human or close to it. The talisman caught fire and burnt to ashes, overpowered by the supreme might of the being it tried to deter.

(Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr) A tremor rose in strength.

Static erupted from his body and engulfed the entire area with a mild shock of electricity. The Rakshasa General lifted his rod into the air and chanted as the ground rocked apart.

[I never would have expected the day that you, a vessel would connive with the likes of Demon Banishers!]

"Whose fault do you think that is?" Ajay said as he sent two more flesh slugs his way. (boom) (boom) (crash)

It was as if a glass wall had been hit by those slugs and shattered some sort of null defense. Ajay switched to his wooden sword and kukri in dual wield as he approached the Rakshasa.

Purushartha flung his lance in front of him, sending the earth crackling and the ground uprooted to hinder Ajay's charge.

[Slaughter Moon!] Rakshasa Purushartha shouted with a finger pointed at him to direct the curse his way. Ajay had already begun to murmur the Vedic texts to protect his body.

"Break!" Ajay shouted back on his advance, the Karmic threads were blasted out of existence. Purushartha was getting a better grasp of his Demon Banishing powers, he had initially thought it wouldn't be a problem as the Princess had bestowed upon him and the others a boon that would suppress his inner demon. The only thing that was physically on par with their real bodies.

[Asure Sky!] At these words, Purushartha cast a more powerful spell over the battlefield. In an instant, as described by the name the sky around them turned asure colour. All the light of the sun was robbed by a drenching cold of the surroundings. Asure Sky was an area of effect magic made possible by the Rakshasas' naturally high Prana reservoir. It didn't kill nor curse its targets in the domain of its circumference.

It made those that stood in it have their very souls tremble with fear.

Fear can even paralyze a grown man, rendering him immobile indefinitely. Fear weighed down their hands of aggression and destroyed their resolve to fight further. And so, everyone else within the immediate area, Ajay's men, the Army Rangers, the Golden Path exalt fighters and even Vasu was frozen stiff. While some of their minds were defiant to this will, their bodies refused to cooperate. A cold and dark will seeped into their extremities and killed the warmth in their bodies.

Ajay didn't move either, but stayed there whilst the Rakshasa General approached him.

"Know the difference between heaven and earth, filthy mortals!" Purushartha roared and lifted his lance towards the Rangers.

"You first, treacherous wild dogs." Lightning struck down from the heavy storm clouds and were gathered by his ancient lance.

The Rangers were wide eyed, they had never seen anything like what they'd saw just moments ago. When that bastard they were chasing fought with that Havildar utilizing inhuman reflexes and were having some sort of spell battle as well, was the only way of describing what they had been doing.

"Die!" He pointed the lance downwards towards them, and a rain of lightning from the sky fell down upon their position.

A flash of light so great that it blinded all who looked in that direction temporarily, screams rang out and died quickly. When the lightning hail had subsided, all that were left were smoking crisps of bodies burnt into charcoal. Both remaining forces bore witness to the awesome might of the Rakshasa, only increasing their fear of him.

"You…" He turned directly to Vasu.

"Put down that sword."

"Take it-… off my cold dead-… hands!" He said back in defiance as he struggled to regain control of his shivering body.

"Very well…. Then die!" Purushartha did the same to Vasu and cast the lightning hail upon him.

The lightning snaked down from the sky and struck at its next victim.

(Bang) Instead, there was a sound of it bumping a window. (Bang) (Bang) (Bang) (Crash)

The lightning struck what blocked its way repeatedly till the barrier that blocked its wrath cracked and dispelled. One last lightning strike remained as it flew to annihilate the supposed victim.

(Ping) Impact from the lightning cleared away the smoke caused from its predecessors' attacks and revealed that it had yet again not struck its target.

But was deterred by Ajay's gauntlets, protected by runic symbols he spent a good amount of time to carve painstakingly. They worked differently from his other weapons, for it was his last defensive option. It didn't rely on talismans or spells, it ran purely on Prana. The deflected lightning struck the ground and neutralized.

Purushartha stood stunned but not for long. To break through the Asure sky spell once cast had nothing to do with his identity as a demon banisher. Even a fellow Rakshasa would at least shiver from its effects. It meant only one thing…

"Your dead set on taking the life of my comrade over a fractured memoir of your lord. There will come a day, not now-…. when Vasu will be the one to kill you with his own hands." He said putting down his raised cross arms and leaking a bloodied smile from the internal damage received from the lightning he wasn't immune to.

There was no presence that Ajay Ghale feared.


Cave, that's what they though this was as first. It was more like a cavern system with catacombs, for the group that travelled through the narrow passages with a chasm looming next to them this was highly disadvantageous for them. Good for the remaining marines though whom they outnumbered.

The beacon device was no longer functioning because of the highly magnetized surroundings, even the flashlights flickered once in a while due to the magnetic field screwing with the electrons passing through its circuit from the batteries. The same could be said for their reflex sights and thermos cameras.

Ricardo and Irina-Two took point, Paul followed behind them as back up. Despite his injury and their warnings, he was strangely untalkative now and more dead focus on the task at hand. Samson and Irina Alpha stayed back in the protection of the rest due to their knowledge of nuclear devices.

Samson claimed he was taught to arm a free-fall type nuclear fission bomb under the designation B61. Used in the event the then-Soviet Armies Elite Armoured Corps rolled over West Germany successfully and tried to cross The Rhine to get to France next. The Russian specialist with them, Irina-Alpha was a former Strategic missile troop specialist in charge of mobile ICBM assets the Soviet Union rotated to keep the Western powers on their toes in contrast to their stationary missile silos. The key similiarity they had was that the systems they dealt with were all analogue, gear mechanisms that triggered the explosion as opposed to the more modern digital systems that communicated via a micro processor or optic fibre.

It had been some time since they entered the cavern to bear witness to the high ceiling and hollow surroundings.

"Nothing…. Did we just get lulled into a dead end?" Luca asked.

"No. These tracks are fresh, someone was running about here quite a lot." Said their squad leader Allegretto.

"Maintain trigger discipline, no explosives. We don't know the fragility of this cave." Saras said.

"You a geologist or something?" Irina Alpha asked.

"Civil Engineering, Imperial College." Was her answer, so Irina Alpha was assured that her assumption was quite well backed. Not that he'd seen her works in Kyrat before.

They followed Ricardo's tracks as he led them safely through the narrow passage and disabled some of the claymores along the way.

The light of the entrance was beginning to fade and instead another light was seen at the far end, a skylight in the roof provided light to one of the more spacious parts of the cavern if they ever saw one.

And lo and behold before them at the base of where the light shone was a collection of wreckage, not the entire craft but a black matte wing. It was a good start as it meant that they were in the right place.

Irina-Two approached ahead of the group to investigate the wreck without permission. (Click) "Chyort voz'mi! (Oh shit)"

"Don't move! Wait till I get there." Ricardo shouted to him as Irina-Two stood out in the open with a pressure mine right under his feet. The Russian specialist obediently waited as his eagerness nearly cost him his life. The rest took cover and scanned the area as Ricardo took out his tool kit and approached carefully, there was no telling if there were more than one.

"To think the first to approach would be a Russian. This was exactly as Langley feared." Came a voice from everywhere, echoing about.

"Sergeant Grilles…." Saras murmured.

"I heard that sweet cheeks, and it ain't sergeant no more. It's senior operator Grilles now, you tore up Ben-gee didn't you?" They assumed he was referring to that sniper of his.

Ricardo had just made it to where Irina-Two was standing and begun to inspect what type of land mine it was.

"Pretty cool, ain't it? You'd never expect an aircraft of that wingspan to fit into a cavern this narrow. When Willis brought me here, he told me that it didn't drag along the ground and come to a stop here. It pierced through the roof of iron ore."

"Gimme smokes!" Ricardo asked of them, Saras nodded for them to throw a few canisters of smoke to conceal their location.

"I'm no science geek, but I know that for something to penetrate over a hundred millimetres of rock and metal, you'll have to be going at speeds not possible for a simple bomber. Mach 3, was what he told me. Mach 3! How many aircrafts in the vast US Air Force fly that fast and carry nukes at the same time? My brother used to be an aircraft model hobbyist, yunno. Every week, was a new plane he'd be working on. Mom and Dad would spend a ton of cash cause he was the apple of their eyes, not a dead beat like me. But from all that blabbering he would go on about with those military planes, I could somehow remember them like the back of my hand." Grilles monologued to them for reasons unknown.

Saras had already dispatched a three to locate the source of the voice while the stood to cover Ricardo.

"SR-71 goes Mach 3 and above, but it only does reconnaissance. XB-70 Valkyrie does too and can carry bombs like it was supposed to, except….. this one ain't as big and it doesn't have the right shape."

"He's stalling us. We have to hurry." Saras whispered to Samson and Irina Alpha who took off to assist the three in their triangulation of the voice.

"But there was this one time my little bro was working on a personal project. Made with parts of other aircraft, because at the time there was no model set for this plane he made. It was an X-plane that didn't exist. But if it did, it would be the most technologically advanced air delivery weapon system ever conceived for its time. It would go faster than any other plane in existence, leaving interceptors in the dust… the even missile couldn't catch up to its hypersonic speeds. Radar wouldn't see it 'cause of the high-tech Radar absorbent material coating the airframe. There was only one type of aircraft theorised to do all of that…. Aurora."

"Got it. Let's get out of here." Ricardo said to Irina-Two as they left the land mine to get into safety. (Bang)(ping-BOOM) A bullet flew true to its target and struck the exposed landmine, setting off the explosive. An explosive shockwave resounded through the enclosed environment, engulfing Irina-Two and Ricardo within proximity of the fireball.

(rrrrrrrrrrrrr) The cavern shook from the explosion.

"RICARDO!" Stella ran out from cover but was held back by her senior.

"Muzzle flash! Three o clock! Fifty metres!" Luca called so to let the rest know he found the location of the shooter. They let out a suppressive fire to allow Michelle and Luca to attend to the two they lost sight of.

"Ricardo! Dio Santo! Where are you?!" Luca shouted through the clearing smoke and bore witness to a severed hand, where his heart stopped at the sight.

"(Cough) (cough) Here!- (cough)" He turned to find Ricardo badly grazed and smoking but intact.

"Thank god. Huh?" Michelle sighed in relief too soon.

Lying on him was half of Irina-Two shielding him from the blast. Their first casualty had been taken, and a very valuable member who was critical to the safe removal of the nuclear device.

"…"

Ricardo ran a hand over the open vacant eyes of the soldier that protected him. "I'll never forget this, Fratelli. Grazie." He whispered into the dead man's ear. He dug into the man's boot, cut the shoelaces and retrieved his ID tag before leaving the body.

"Aurora…. Willis never acknowledged its classification to me, but seeing it for myself I could only confirm with my own eyes that it really was that fictional X-plane. Pulse scramjet engines allows a maximum of hypersonic flights, delta-winged for lift, bomb bays that carry up to 10 tonnes of goodness. And when I took a peek at the cockpit-…. Well, that's just it. There wasn't any." Grilles laugh echoed from a yet untraceable location.

It was nine people now, looking for one and the remaining four that went with him who showed no signs of being around. And that was really worrying.

"To be honest, I never knew there were drones back in the '80s. Certain no super top-secret stealth bomber jets that Huey showed me. Guess you can't discount those labcoat spooks from trying."

His monologue was a nuisance, as it was a lesson on why the CIA were so desperate to cover this up. It was no wonder, it was pinnacle technology that their likely foes would pay billions to learn even a bit about it.

"If you're stalling to wait for those Ranger boys, you're wasting your time. They're all dead." Paul did some taunting of his own. And he was met with an eerie silence, Grilles was listening alright.

"….. Well….. I guess that's Army for you. Like a bunch of fuckin idiots. No matter, did ya really think I depended solely on that to escape this shithole?"

As they spread out in their search, they encountered more pieces of the crashed "Aurora" strategic stealth bomber that Grilles explained.

Saras turned to Irina-Alpha who looked back with a very calm look.

"You knew, didn't you?" Irina-Alpha slung his weapon and leaned against the walls.

"… October 12th, 1987. Mishelevka Station detected an anomaly making consistent routine patrols around our Turkestan Military District, what is today's modern Kazakhstan. High Command was aware of the Americans black project via espionage in their Lockheed aircraft plant. So they devised a trap to force that aircraft into our airspace and threaten the pilot to land. We made several mistakes that day, one was that we were under the impression it was a manned aircraft, the next was that any of our aircraft or air defence missiles could apprehend it. But whoever was remotely operating it had been cautious in his approach, despite the blockade we set, the aircraft chose the most unlikely route of escape through the unpassible Himalayas."

Saraswati didn't notice she'd been biting her lips. It was more than what Ajay and Maya had uncovered, this was the final piece it which set this conspiracy of Kyrati Civil War into motion. The Russians had been indirectly responsible for this madness as well. Was this why they went into a more comprehensive dialogue between their nations and had even provided materials and support thus far? Hoping the will of Kyrat would be lenient on their past action?

"And then it disappeared from our radar entirely, from then on we knew not if it had successfully left or not." Irina-Alpha finished his short summary.

"Our Lord will hear of this." Saras said without any tone of anger or delight. It made the Russian laugh uneasily.

"Yes…. He will…." Russia was no longer in its former state to be leveraging Kyrat like the other superpowers. If Ajay chose to cut the aluminium supply, it would be catastrophic to their re-emerging industry.

"We'll worry about diplomacy, later. For now, we need to kill Grilles and the rest of the Marines."

"Alright."

"We still need your expertise to handle the bomb." Irina-Alpha nodded and unslung his rifle to prepare for the worse that Grilles had prepared for their company.

"What's the readings on your Rad Monitor?" Ricardo came back to ask.

"Under 5 Rads, its here but not near enough." Irina-Alpha said after checking said device.

"Let's split into two groups, one with our dear Russian and the other with Samson."

"But Grilles-."

"He'll be near the nukes, that's for sure. But no matter what, we can't rush this or we'll pay with another life." Paul answered Saras.

"Alright, I'll accompany Paul, Michelle, Irina-Alpha and One."

"I guess, I get the family then." Responded Ricardo with a wry smile.

"Good luck." Ricardo nodded and went with his fellow Condotierri.

They split and when their separate ways through the caverns. Michelle took point despite Paul's fervent demand he be the one instead. They returned to the original routine of advancing slowly but surely, and in no time at all there were signs of the wreckage they'd been looking for.

A wreck about seven metres in span lay out in the open not far from where they'd found the skylight, it wasn't hard when there were skid marks on the ground and pieces of titanium and radar absorbent material lying around.

But this time, they were a little more cautious. Paul positioned behind a column closest to the wreckage of all of them.

-Stay outta sight, he's mind.- He motioned with his hands. The rest were expecting a plan to take him down together but instead, he ran out into the open.

"What the-…. Paul! Damn it!" Saras said as softly as she could and turned to look out for an attack.

(ping) Paul begun hurling grenades into every opening he could see surrounding their vicinity. (BOOM) (BOOM) (BOOM) The grenades went off one after another, which shook the cavern but not sufficient enough to cause a collapse.

Saras wanted to shout at him but he seemed dead focus. What he'd been trying to do was narrow the possible areas of attack upon them. Now, there were three points of entry that could facilitate a hit and run attack. His eyes darted to and from each and every entrance. Then Paul made hand signals for them to flank around to the left most entrance he was expecting to flush Grilles out from.

"Is this how you'd imagine yourself ending up? Buried in a foreign land?"

"Hell. I don't care where I get buried. If I were a corpse on the roadside it won't make a difference."

"Good." Paul took out two tear gas grenades and threw them into two of the points of entry. And fired his gun at the last as he advanced. He knew that before engaging his training, Grilles like the other Marines he'd seen fighting relied on their instincts first. So Paul made Grilles's instincts turn against him. Forcing him to displace. (tap) (tap) (tap) the patter of his feet sprinting gave his position away as he burst from the tear gas ridden area to new cover.

Paul fired at him on clutch as Grille ran to keep himself moving and fired on the move as well. Together, they ran parallel whilst running forwards. Grilles braked behind a column to misled Paul as he came around to find him once more. Grilles came into full view with his rifle already raised, Paul loosened strength in one leg to slide beneath the line of fire.

(Babababamm) His magazine emptied into the air instead of the target he'd intended for.

Paul positioned his rifle to face Grilles who realized he was at a bad moment to react. (click)

Fortunately for him and unfortunate for Paul, the latters rifle experienced a malfunction and refused to cooperate. A misfire had occurred due to the dampness of the cave affecting the cartridge primers of his Colt Carbine.

Grilles turned his weapon towards Paul who used the butt of his rifle to knock it out of his hand and reached into his holster to pull out his secondary, Grilles did the same. And it became a showdown with who had the quicker draw.

(Bang) (Bang) (plop)

A grazing shot struck black operator Grilles on the leg as he stumbled against a column. He fired his handgun fiercely at Paul who ran to take cover. From the bad location, he was in whilst shooting back on the move. But Grilles had focused his entire attention onto Paul that he forgot about the rest of the party. Paul had forced him to rely solely on instincts and because of that, he could not plan ahead.

(ping) (plop) He looked at his feet to see another grenade freely thrown despite Saras's warnings. Grilles dove from cover to get out of the blast radius. (BOOM) Rock shattered in the surrounding area once again. But had flushed him to finally into the open.

Grilles stumbled to get up as he found his leg a bloodied mess, but he had more pressing matters so he reached for his fallen rifle.

(Click) A rifle cocked after a fresh magazine was loaded. Pointed at him by the one that made it happen. Grilles gave up on fighting, he'd seen how crazy Paul was. Using explosives in such tight confines and against an expert like Saraswati's instructions. Even he knew this place would collapse at any moment. Paul had done a trick to the explosive grenades he threw, which he made air burst rather than impact the ground and tremor the floor. So the foundation of the columns and support pillars were not compromised as much as they thought.

Paul carefully approached flanked by the rest that had approached due to the duel that was going on between them.

"End of the line." He said as he holstered his handgun cowboy-style after blowing the muzzle.

"For me that is. But this is just getting started, this country'll suffer for killing our boys…..(huff) And you've made it happen."

The rest had gathered around after Grilles had been mortally wounded and unable to continue, Paul watched him whilst the nuclear device specialists approached the main portion of the craft. Ricardo screened for booby traps but there were none. Irina-Alpha's Rad monitor went up to 15 Rads as he stood near the craft, it was still safe levels but he wasn't sure of the decay the warhead had undergone behind the bomb bay doors. So they stepped back and allowed the experts to don their CBRN warfare suits before proceeding.

A power saw with an auxiliary power unit became instrumental in cutting the doors away. Watching all of this take place as they left him to die slowly, Grilles laughed in the background.

"What gives?" Paul asked.

"How many devices do you think were stored on it when it flew? Who do you think its target was?..." By now it was no surprise how Aurora ended up here. A drone this age flying through an area with a highly magnetized field would distort even the most durable of instruments, like the gyroscopic stabilizer.

"From the moment we opened those doors, there were four of 'em. Big ones, the type we'd use against a Major city….. Hey!... Maybe they were targeted for Moscow… Beijing? I'm not an airman so I wouldn't know."

But Paul did. If he was not mistakened, nuclear-armed devices and aircraft had a Permissive Action Link anti-tamper device. Most came in the form of combination locks, while others depended on a keycard. Attached to that device was a communication circuit that relayed the appropriate coordinates of the drop location. Perhaps that Black box would reveal who the targets were, suffice it to say they didn't want anyone knowing.

"Got it. Help gimme a lift." The power tool had done its job, now they had to heft the hinged door of the bomb bays aside. It had previously been welded shut by the Marines. With much effort, the cover was put aside and revealed the bay to all of them.

"Those-…. Those are…."

"Free-fallers. Cavolo! They're B83's." Only Irina-Alpha and One knew what were the designation of the weapons residing in the bomb bays of "Aurora"

"Levels are manageable." With that said, the three of them took off their chemical suits and gas masks. It seemed they contents hadn't leaked which was good.

"Each of these bombs have around One megaton yield, enough to burn Kyrat to a crisp and irradiate the Himavanas for decades." He said to Saras as they continued to break into the bomb cover to access the PAL interface.

Paul approached like the rest of them did to inspect the nuclear bombs still latched to the internal bays. And where his heart pounded at the sight of only three bombs inside the internal bays with a single rack missing one.

"Is this all?"

Paul went back to where Grilles was who grinned with a bloody smile.

"I've done all I can. The rest-…. I'll leave to the lads… By the way, where's the Captain and Perkins?..." He asked with strength waning.

"We shipped them back."

"Huh!… those two aren't soldier material… they just can't ignore the ugly truth… Thank You….." It was all Grilles had left to say, after that he let everything go. And died in a place that no one would ever venture ever again. Paul scratched his head, a little weird this guy that abandoned his comrades had left thanks for letting them live their lives.

The rest were really worried now. They had spent a good amount of time delayed by Grilles, so there was no telling where the other Marines had run off to with the last nuclear bomb. How did they carry a ton heavy bomb on their own?

"They couldn't have gone far with it in this kind of terrain. I suggest, you have Kamran pick you up and get a search party rolling to find them. I'll stay with One and remove the Blackbox and the triggers." Samson suggested.

"Ok, we'll assemble at the pickup. We'll have Kamran swing around in an hour's time to help with the retrieval of the rest of the devices. How does that sound?" Samson nodded to Saras's plan.

She unraveled a topographic map as they begun to look at the possible routes that the Marines would have taken with the device towards safety which was Peshawar, Pakistan. The US military base.

Paul was busy searching through the pockets of the corpse for any clues as to which direction the marines were headed in. He went through the combat harness thoroughly and was disappointed to find not a single clue. Until, he reached the shirt pockets and found something that seemed a little off.

A seed of some fruit Grilles must've eaten to sustain himself without supplies and rations for a good long while. He went over with the seed to where the others were in a heated and uneasy discussion of where they might've gone.

"Can you narrow those options to places with this fruit?" Paul said holding out the seed for them to see. Saras took the fruit seed from his hand and investigated the features.

"It looks like a loquat." She began to rake her brain for possible locations.

"We're looking for a place that isn't affected by the winter nor snows, preferably a valley with good soil composition and less density in the forest." Ricardo gave his assessment based on, Saras and a few others looked at him.

"What? (sigh) Before all of this, horticulture was my thing." He said before going back to the map.

"What about here?" Irina Alpha pointed to a place that had just the right flatland conditions for there to be a considerable growth of forageable loquat plants.

Unfortunately, the expression on Saras was anything but content that they had at least found a possible lead.

"That's where Ajay last reported in.""


"This can't be happening!" One soldier expressed his disbelief at the things they'd seen.

"If you can yap your mouth off then help Collins blow an extraction point near us!" His superior told him as he walked up to the hill to get a better vantage point of the situation that had befallen them.

"And where's that air support!? I asked for it last year!" He called to the radio dispatch.

"Radios are still dead, sir! Last I heard from 31st back in the rear was they're engaged."

"Engaged? Out here?! Do they take me for some kind of fucking idiot?! Who joined the party, the Indians?" He said sarcastically.

"With respects, sir-…!?" His superior who had a bronze star upon his shoulder grabbed his shirt and pulled him along to witness the battlefield over the ridge they were behind.

"Take a look at that, Lieutenant!"

Chaos. The entire valley and mountain side were filled with burning trees and the strong odour of death looming about. Below in the valley, was a defensive line being formed as thousands of men made a retreat from the enemy unknown.

At first, when he'd received word of the attackers being strangely dressed in pale blue plain on their dark skin wearing strange masks, he assumed they bumped into some savage local inhabitants. He tried to get word from his reconnaissance element, commanded by a friend in the Rangers but in vain. He sent some boys to check, and they relayed to him distressing news.

The entire Ranger Battalion had been slaughtered. "Slaughtered" was the word used by his scouts as they converged. Since the nature of their mission was to pass through this place and these tribes weren't recognized by anyone, he thought it fair to erase them from existence. An eye for an eye, the lack of long ranged comms and satellite imagery was still prevalent and highly irritating. He sent two regiments to sweep the area for the rest of the division. Ten minutes later, there were no reports from them and a few stragglers came running back to tell them of a terrible tale. An enemy that jumped out of thin air and attacked them, impervious to small-arms and were cleaving through them like they were animals in a slaughter house. Doing other strange things that could only be described with the word "magic". Men bursting into flames, poisonous air that suffocated them, winds that impaired their vision. All sorts of reports were being passed down the line as they advanced further until he decided that enough was enough. The situation was different and they had no forward intel at all. He called in a napalm strike on the valley ahead but as of yet, they hadn't responded due to a strange magnetic storm. The reports of casualties increased till out of the fourteen thousand only nine thousand were left.

It was inconceivable!

How could he lose this many in only thirty minutes of losing contact with Patterson? There was something going on here, and he shouldn't stay around to find out. So he and his staff unanimously voted to abort the mission to retrieve the nukes from the black site and the suppression of the local Kyrati government.

Helicopters were called in to pick up his men from the ridge line his command post had been established.

The fighting below at the defense line had worsened to the point that there were detonations just fifty yards from the hastily dug trenches. Mortar batteries had been emplaced to provide local indirect fire support and was doing a mighty-fine job at blowing to hell whatever was charging out of the forests to kill his men.

"Take a good look! Those are our boys dying out there because you can't put that horn to your ear and yell like your life depended on it! They're dying because of your incompetence!" He shoved the Lieutenant to the ground as he took out some binoculars and observed the fighting.

"Sir, helos are im- wait! No! It can't be!" Another radio dispatch showed shock on his face.

"Speak to me, son." The radioman looked at him with a strained face.

"They've been engaged by some unknown force using Russian designated SAMs on them!"

"Jesus Christ. Of all the times and places….."

The Brigadier placed a hand to his head and sighed. What he and the general staff thought was the perfect opportunity to avert the attention from the Middle East with "capturing a madman who threatened the President of the United States with stolen nuclear weapons" was now looking to fall apart heavily. They should've seen this coming, it was a provocation to bring them into this trap.

They knew too little about this place and hadn't even established any local assets to draw intelligence because of the urgency of the operation. Despite the warnings from the Marines sent back on "goodwill" whom they took their advice as hot air and "too long in the mountains" kind of talk.

All because of a letter that reached the White House. Worded taunts had been the death of over five thousand men on this very same day. A letter that challenged them on their ethics and openly revealed the existence of the nuclear weapons which the CIA had kept swept under the rug. The NSA was conducting a full branch sweep of those involved in an '88 operation long ago. Two names came up, Willis Huntley, MIA. And Paul Lynch, MIA. Both case officers last reported to have been in this region months ago.

The sender of that letter was titled… "Badala, 1st Lord of the Royal Army of Kyrat."

He'd heard much about him from interrogations in the CIA over a catalogue known as the "Leviathan" a compilation of monsters that were impossible to terminate and extremely dangerous. Yet, none of these status Ls had ever done as he did. Threatening not just a nation, but the most powerful nation in the world.

He had quite the infamy as well. He major feat was sending back the PLA response force at the Tibetan border. Singlehandedly repelled the rebels in his country. Invaded and subjugated a neighbouring state. There were strange reports of under the combat prowess section, having killed a Tiger with his bare hands. Fought in a gladiatorial arena and shred a Rhino with a knife. The codename "demon" was aptly named.

As he'd been occupied in an internal debate about what should have been done before this reckless campaign even started, he felt a sudden shift in the battle taking place at the defence line. He took up his binoculars and observed the front.

"Defense line reports, cannot hold! I repeat! Cannot hold!" The radio dispatch told him.

But he could see for himself, he saw the defence line soldiers turn and run as a tidal wave of those savages ran them over. He saw a soldier empty a full mag into one before getting his head torn off, he saw a masked savage point to a retreating soldier who burst into flames without explanation.

"Dear god…" They weren't savages, they were monsters.

"Sir? Orders!" His adjutant came back from the front and seemed to want to ask for a withdrawal.

"Have the reserves form a red-carpet for our evac. Set charges to blast the LZ after we get the hell out. Full retreat gentlemen, and have someone tough as nails stay behind to act as cover."

"Aye, sir!" The radio operator was just about to send it in when a cold feeling engulfed the surroundings.

"Leaving already? Hmph! It doesn't matter where mortal man hail from, they're just as equally cowardly in nature." Said a foreign voice to their own.

The armed guards turned their rifles towards the intruder within the camp. The intruder had the form of a woman, but the feeling coming from him was anything but earthly. The Brigadier's instincts were telling him that he was in great danger just by being near her.

"Or perhaps I speak too hastily, no… you are even worse than the Kyratis."

"The fuck are you!?" He called out. To which she sighed.

"Even your mannerism is uncouth. Are you truly even a threat to men of the Himalayas?" she said playfully behind the garbs that hid her face and a pair of katar blades slid out of her garb into her hands. Presenting a real and credible threat to the officers in the command post.

(Babababaam) One of the guards didn't wait for anyone to tell him and fired his carbine at her, the rest followed suit. A dreadful feeling washed over them as she visibly grinned and kicked off the ground passing by a soldier who dropped his rifle as she passed. His head fell to the ground moments later.

She laughed playfully as she danced through the gunfire like it was no challenge, swatting away those that were in her line of motion. Running her katar in either of her hands through the necks of the guards.

And in five seconds flat, all of the armed personnel had perished. The personnel in the command post who had previously done admin jobs of relaying orders quickly armed themselves to apprehend her had died as quickly as the armed men if not easier.

She pulled her katar out of a man's skull and tasted his blood, standing still as if to savour the taste or something.

"Worthless…. This one was a foot soldier after all." He stepped back unconsciously at the inhumanity.

"Who-…. What are you?" The Brigadier realized he'd been the last to remain alive in the command post. He checked the outer perimeter of his command module to find the guards outside were in a worse state than those inside.

She disappeared from her previous distance and closed the gap in a blink of an eye, wrapping her hand around his neck and lifted him off the ground.

"I am the General of the West Gate to Akaash, Narmada. And you…." She ran her cold hand across his aged face.

"Will be the undoing of your insolence army for crossing the sacred boundary that predates your heritage." She opened her mouth and gorged into his neck.

"AHHHHH!-…" He screamed as she tore out a huge chunk and spat it out like it tasted horrible.

"Disgusting." She changed her options and drew back her hand before thrusting into his chest. Piercing fabric, ceramic armour and bone with an easy thrust. A wet and gory sound echoed as she dug deeper and deeper in search of the organ she was looking for.

"Ah!" Her hands clenched around it and pulled out from the Brigadier who died of shock. Held in her hand was a still beating heart. Her nail ran across the heart causing it to cut open from its sharpness, the bleeding heart let out the purest form of blood there was in the Brigadier's body. She held it over her mouth and drank from it.

In performing such an act, she acquired everything US Army Brigadier Ryan Farragut held as the most precious possession of all. She stole his life memories. She learnt the troop formations, the operation that had been conducted here for a superweapon that man had wielded not too long ago, but a lifetime for the mortals. A weapon that mimicked the power of a Deva's Astra but not quite in the same fashion and not nearly as powerful even at its weakest. Highly effective upon their own kind, this weapon was built to kill other mortals. She snorted at the arrogance they held because of this weapon.

Pride was what filled this man's character, proud of his achievements, proud of his family, proud of his country. But Rakshasa Narmada felt another strong emotion dwelling in his blood, a newly felt sensation he developed just recently and had nothing to do with her or the rest of the Rakshasa. It was the fear they held for the vessel who threatened them with the very same weapon they used to threaten the rest of their human kind with. The vessel had done the most absurd, he lulled them into this deathtrap whilst acquiring the very weapons they once built.

A smile appeared on her handsome face as she pushed her hand into the soil and murmured a curse. A shockwave burst from the ground which she touched and did something the victims of the Rakshasa didn't need on top of the attack from these demonic entities.

Their dead rose upon their two legs or whatever limbs they had to support themselves with as they limped towards their former allies in hopes to join them into their ranks of undead. The restless undead had vines snaking into their bodies as if puppetry strings to keep their bodies in motion. Joining the ranks alongside the Rakshasa were the recently deceased comrades of the American forces. It sent genuine shock down their hearts, their only thoughts were either despair or a tiny hope of getting out of this hopeless situation alive.

Narmada had the peace to reflect on the memories and coincidences between her King and the vessel. Since she was no longer needed in this battle her subordinates could fight on their own. Fighting innumerable odds on their own, with undaunted spirits.

"How interesting?... It was just like old times, was it not my lord?"


Somehow, they were glad that they'd been restricted by the magic hexing spell that Rakshasa Purushartha cast. Because it prevented them from getting involved in that hurricane of exchanges that both the Demon of Kyrat and the Rakshasa General sent at each other. Also, they got to watch something spectacular as it was frightening.

Because there existed a being that was truly inhuman in his ability, invincible, magic-wielding and had a cunning intellect. But worse of all for the likes of Golden Path, was that the Demon of Kyrat who was inherently human was fighting on equal grounds to a monster. Not firing from afar, but clashing with a kukri and a wooden sword against an ancient lance that was imbued with lightning element. Every contact of the blade sent not just sparks from friction, but a beautiful arc of electricity. The lance was responsible for such an action.

Did Ajay get shocked by that lightning lance? He maintained his footing to the ground without jumping about. Or he would feel the full surge of the electric instead of the ground neutralizing it for him. The surrounding vegetation was burnt up due to the flurry of clashes that ignited the ground tinder and set it ablaze once more.

Ajay had a feeling that Purushartha's weapon was an Astra like the broken sword that Vasu wielded, but inferior in quality to even that incomplete blade. Nonetheless, powerful. He had a theory that the electric storm now brewing over their heads was more than likely to do with the said lance, which showed the magnitude of its power.

-The Rakshasas' "Lightning" General.- Ajay chuckled at that thought, it sounded like a name that fitted him quite well.

Thinking that Ajay wondered if the other three had an element that they excelled in. Which would make him retract his thoughts of humour entirely because it wouldn't be funny to have a "Flame", "Blizzard" or "Earth" type Pillars to combat. Yet as he thought about it, the more it seemed like a possibility. Why did he have to jinx himself? Perhaps it was a couple of jolts he'd received one-sided from Purushartha's attacks.

(Boom) He drew and fired the slayer to put some distance between them. He was astounded to see the Rakshasa actually take a few steps back when his gun was drawn once more. Darshan's fiddling had tuned it to be a dangerous weapon to the likes of the Rakshasa as well. The slug impacted the ground and ricocheted at Purushartha due to the distance, impacting his torso and burnt the clothing off him. It revealed an ancient breastplate protecting the wearer, one of the many life-saving boons. And why was a clone utilizing so many artefacts?

Ajay reached down for his talisman pouch.

-Half full.- Or half empty, depending on how you looked at it. Both were just as bad, he'd wasted a good amount of talismans that took him a few days to mass produce only to buy seconds in maintaining the status quo.

Purushartha halted his assault for a moment with his eyes closed as he received something, like what Darshan's talisman of communication did. Purushartha looked his way and smiled wryly.

"Cunning. You forced your enemies on us to clear for you."

"Whoops," Ajay said without a care.

"Fighting their forces will make no difference to our strength. That I can assure you."

"You're not looking at it from my point of view, now I don't need to worry about fighting on two fronts," Ajay stated with a grin.

Purushartha snorted with ridicule. He was done talking and sped towards him at bullet speeds that a normal human's eyes couldn't keep up with.

Ajay rolled to the side as Purushartha stood where he used to. The Rakshasa was about to kick off when he felt a weighty sensation and looked to his feet. "Mire!" He had stepped upon another talisman. Purushartha raised his lance to stab down into the talisman to burn it like once before.

It did however buy Ajay precious moments, as he raised his finger to his third eye.

"My will is the mountains…"

When Purushartha heard this phrase, he worked seriously to break the talisman. But after burning it fully, he found that there were layers of protective barriers locking him within their circumference. He swiped his lance across to destroy them one at a time as quickly as he could.

"My karma is mantra…" A voice resounded with neither loudness nor quiet but was heard by every being in the area visible.

Purushartha roared as he sliced through one of the last remaining layers Ajay had schemingly planned underneath him.

"Banish all creation against nature!"

[As if I'd allow it!-] (Boom)

Ajay used the last shot of his slayer to deter the Rakshasa for a few seconds more.

"8th Demon Banishing Hex!" Ajay roared out the final phrase much to Purushartha's horror. He was really capable of using all of the Demon Banishing magic, even when his demonic nature should have caused rebounds.

Purushartha ignored hesitance and thrust his lance at Ajay who pointed towards him with equal lethality.

"SEAL!" At his command, a thread of Karma flew out of his finger towards the Rakshasa general, passing unhindered by that ancient breastplate armour he wore and through his tough skin towards the clone's soul. Piercing it and grabbing hold of Purushartha's spiritual sense imparted into the clone. Somewhere up on the mountains, a stationary figure vomited blood while in his meditative state. Ajay had suffered an equal amount of rebound, causing him to puke out blood as well.

However, he didn't catch fire or disappear into ash like with what Darshan did. He was however on the floor unable to fight anymore, the Slaughter Moon hex dispelled and released the spectating Golden Path and Hunters from that spirit invading curse. Regaining control of their motor functions once more.

Ajay walked around and loaded his slayer with two fresh rounds before pointing it the defeated Rakshasa's way.

"(Sigh)….. I've misjudged you, Ajay Ghale." He said to announce his defeat.

"You're damn right you have!"

"You're all that we've hoped for and more…" Purushartha gave a smile that makes even Ajay uneasy about.

"Whatever, go back to whatever hole you came out from," Ajay said before unleashing both rounds into Purushartha. The anointed rounds dug into his flesh and caused an expansion which forced the flesh to puff like a balloon before exploding into a rain of blood and gore, leaving only a pair of legs up to the hip. When the body showed no sign of regenerating, Ajay huffed a sigh of relief and turned to his next victims.

Realising that there was no longer a Rakshasa to deter this demon of a man, the Golden Path came to know what was true horror.

Back in the mountains, a figure's eyes opened from what had been a long meditative cycle. His clone had been utterly annihilated by the vessel known as Ajay Ghale. The figure was not like the clone which mimicked the features of a mortal human. This was Purushartha's true self, he got up from his cross-legged position and walked towards the chambers occupied by his benevolent monarch. The veiled figure was accompanied by the human apostles which she kept in her service and company. The vessel's father and the orphaned girl. He paid them no mind as he got on one knee before her, she waved for them to leave her alone with the General of the South Gate.

She looked towards her faithful general thoughtfully.

[You have met him?….]

[That I have… your highness.] They spoke in their ancient tongue

[And?...] She awaited his answer, he had previously doubted the probability of their plans turning out well. So she dispatched him out to find out on his own.

Purushartha nodded.

[He just might allow the ritual to succeed. That strength of spirit was unlike anything I've ever seen before.]

She smiled as she received his approval in this venture, allowing her full support from her military council.

[You have done enough, Purushartha. My dear friend, save your strength till we are ready to proceed. Thank you for your council.]

Purushartha bowed as he got up wobbly, he just couldn't hide how much damage he took internally from being severed from his clone. But his monarch took notice and demanded he rests and recuperates less the damage become permanent.

[My thanks to her highness.] He said before walking backwards respectfully.

A brightened mood overcame her, she could not hold back the beautiful smile she once held a lifetime ago. She clutched the small pendant mirror in her hands once given to her by her brother.

"The boy is becoming so much like you. It is for the best when you merge….. It will be as you promised…. I will free you, Bhaiya."

The once-youthful and full of spirit young lady she once was, begun to resurface. For she couldn't hide her excitement or elation.

The thousand years of yearning would finally end.