Yodhika’s Rebellion
Two hours earlier….
“I am yet to reach a conclusion. But I will try my best to make it fast. How do you feel now? Any pain?” the doctor asked Yodhika.
She placed a hand on her lower abdomen. “No,” she replied.
“Let me check the cervix.”
He moved below Yodhika and inserted a device into her gown. After a few seconds he pulled it out and checked the measurements.
“It is more than eight.”
He called the nurses and the other doctor. They quickly gathered around the bed.
“Now try pushing, Yodhika.”
She tried to push.
Suddenly a rush of searing pain coursed through her body. She cried out in a piercing scream. The doctors and nurses panicked. One doctor checked her pulse while the other examined the crowning.
“Breathe,” the doctor checking the pulse said repeatedly as Yodhika pushed with every bit of her strength.
One nurse held her hand while another supported her back.
“I see the crowning!” the doctor below yelled.
“Push, Yodhika, push!” the other doctor said urgently.
Yodhika’s face turned red as she pushed with the last of her remaining strength. Slowly, the baby began to emerge.
Her cries gradually faded, replaced by the faint cry of the newborn.
Yodhika breathed heavily and leaned back against the bed for support.
The doctor cut the umbilical cord and handed the baby to one of the nurses.
“It’s a boy,” the doctor said with a smile as he stood up, wiping the sweat from his forehead.
The nurse cleaned the baby and brought him to Yodhika.
She held the baby gently in her hands, a smile forming on her exhausted face. She kissed him softly on the forehead.
“Once we meet your father, we’ll name you, my sweet son,” she whispered into his tiny ear.
A nurse approached again, holding out a tablet.
“Please take this. It will help you relax.”
Yodhika looked at the nurse, then at the doctor.
“Yes,” the doctor said with a reassuring smile. “You’re drained of energy and under a lot of tension right now. This will help you relax.”
Yodhika nodded. She took the tablet, placed it in her mouth, and drank some water.
Within seconds, her eyelids began to grow heavy. Sleep slowly pulled her under as she held the baby in her arms.
The nurse gently took the baby from her.
Yodhika tried to hold on.
But the nurse pulled harder and took him away.
As Yodhika’s eyes finally closed, the last thing she saw was her son being carried away.
The door opened.
Devansh entered the room with Queen Rekha.
“Is it done?” Devansh asked.
“Yes,” the doctor replied.
He took the baby from the nurse and handed him to Devansh.
Rekha looked at the baby with visible disgust.
“What are you going to do with it?”
“As planned,” Devansh replied coldly. “Once Yodhi is bound and awake, we will kill it in front of her. After we capture that sneaky bastard Rudhra and the remaining Amirthyas.”
He handed the baby to Rekha.
“You keep this until then.”
Devansh turned toward the doctor.
“Keep her here for some time. I will send soldiers in a few minutes to bind her.”
“Sure,” the doctor said.
Devansh turned and left the room. Rekha followed him.
The doctors and nurses moved toward Yodhika.
“Why don’t we tie her down for some time? Just for safety,” one nurse suggested.
“Good idea,” the doctor replied as he walked toward a nearby tray to get the restraints.
The nurses and the other doctor approached the bed.
Suddenly—
A violent burst of energy erupted from Yodhika.
The shockwave blasted the doctor and nurses backward, smashing them against the wall. They collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
The doctor who had gone to get the restraints turned in shock and fell to the floor.
Yodhika opened her eyes.
She slowly sat up on the bed, her face burning with fury.
“How did you know?” the doctor asked in terror.
Yodhika’s eyes glowed with rage.
“Ask your dumb nurses in the afterlife, monster.”
She grabbed a pair of scissors from a metal tray beside the bed.
The doctor scrambled to his feet and ran toward the door.
Yodhika raised the scissors and unleashed her Urja.
The scissors shot forward like a bullet.
They pierced straight through the doctor’s head, bursting out through his eye before embedding themselves deep into the wall behind him.
The doctor collapsed instantly.
Dead.
Yodhika slowly rose from the bed and placed her feet on the floor. Her legs wobbled beneath her as sweat ran down her face.
She spat the tablet out of her mouth and quickly rinsed it away with water from a glass on the nearby table.
Her body swayed again.
She grabbed the edge of the table for support before she could fall.
Her eyes fell upon an IV glucose bottle lying on the tray.
Without hesitation, she snatched it, opened it, and poured the liquid straight into her mouth. When it was empty, she dropped the container to the floor.
Her gaze shifted to the surgical tray.
She picked up an incision blade.
Holding it tightly, she slowly walked toward the unconscious doctor and nurse.
As she moved, she felt energy slowly returning to her body—like a quiet fire spreading through her veins.
“I am sorry you had to be entangled in this,” she whispered softly.
She raised the blade.
“But I can’t let you live.”
In one swift motion, she slit their throats.
Blood splattered across her face.
Yodhika wiped none of it away.
She turned and slowly walked toward the door.
Footsteps approached from outside.
She stopped.
Raising the blade, she took position beside the wall, waiting to strike the moment the door opened.
The footsteps came closer.
Then they stopped.
Yodhika tightened her grip on the blade.
Seconds passed.
No one entered.
Her expression slowly changed.
She lowered the blade and looked at her hand.
Why am I in a fighting position? she wondered.
She quickly moved toward the door and pulled it open.
The corridor outside was empty.
No soldiers.
No footsteps.
Only small patches of ash scattered across the floor.
Her eyes narrowed.
Suddenly she sensed movement in the corner of the hallway.
She turned sharply.
Nothing was there.
A chill ran through her spine.
Without wasting another second, Yodhika hurried out of the room and moved toward Rekha’s chamber.
Behind a pillar in the corridor, someone watched her leave.
Sabo stepped out from the shadows.
Yodhika ran through the palace corridors, moving from room to room and cutting down every soldier who stood in her way.
Some fell by the incision blade in her hand. Others were crushed by waves of Urja she hurled through the halls. Yodhika slowly recovered her strength as she ran across the palace.
Her pace quickened as she approached Rekha’s chamber.
Two guards stood outside the door.
The moment they noticed her, Yodhika thrust her hand forward. A wide burst of energy exploded from her palm, slamming both guards violently against the wall behind them.
They collapsed instantly.
Yodhika grabbed the sword from one of their lifeless hands and pushed the door open.
Inside the chamber, a baby cried.
Rekha turned toward the sound of the door in shock.
Without hesitation, she snatched the baby from the bed beside her and pressed a knife against his tiny body.
Yodhika froze mid-step.
“How are you awake, you ungrateful child?” Rekha asked, her face burning with rage.
“Give me my son, Mom,” Yodhika said coldly, pointing the sword at her. “Or I won’t hesitate.”
Rekha laughed bitterly.
“You would kill your own mother for this monster? For the child you had with that imbecile?”
“So, you all knew, huh?” Yodhika asked.
“Yes. How could you do this?” Rekha snarled. “This is beyond blasphemy. A Pranvar woman having a child with that Amirthya scum? You have fallen beyond saving… whore.”
Yodhika’s grip on the sword tightened.
“How did you know?” she asked quietly.
“Your father discovered it two months ago,” Rekha replied. “He was only waiting to see if the baby had any abilities.”
She looked down at the child with disgust.
“But this worm has none. No powers. Nothing. He is neither Pranvar nor Amirthya.”
Rekha pressed the knife against the baby’s forearm, slicing the skin.
The baby screamed in pain.
“STOP THAT!” Yodhika roared.
The wound did not heal.
Rekha smirked.
“So your father decided to wait until the child was born… so he could kill it in front of you. A lesson.”
Yodhika swung her sword in fury, slicing the wooden leg of a nearby cot clean in half.
“If you hurt my son again,” she said, her voice shaking with rage, “you will feel pain so unimaginable that you will beg for hell!”
“Stand still, bitch,” Rekha snapped. “Or I won’t mind going to hell.”
Yodhika slowly dropped to her knees.
“And don’t worry about your dear lover,” Rekha continued mockingly. “That scum Rudhra. Your father must be capturing him and his loyal warriors right now.”
Yodhika’s shoulders sank.
“Some of his warriors confessed everything to Jeron,” Rekha laughed maniacally. “Betrayed by the very scum we’re about to enslave.”
Yodhika slowly raised her head.
Her eyes burned with fury.
“What?” Rekha sneered. “You’re not going to cry?”
Suddenly—
An immense surge of Urja erupted from Yodhika’s body.
The floor beneath her shattered, forming a deep cone-shaped crater centred around her.
The violent force yanked Rekha toward Yodhika.
The knife slipped from Rekha’s hand and clattered to the floor.
In the same instant, Yodhika grabbed the baby from Rekha’s arms and shoved Rekha to the ground.
She pinned her down, gripping her throat with crushing force.
“Listen carefully,” Yodhika said through clenched teeth. “These are the last words you will ever hear, you demon.”
Rekha struggled helplessly beneath her grip.
“You were nothing but a tool for Father’s influence,” Yodhika continued. “You never understood the pain of your own children.”
Her voice hardened.
“You never deserved to be a mother… and you will never live to be a grandmother.”
She picked up the sword lying beside her.
“Wait for your husband on the other side, you monster of a woman.”
Yodhika shielded the baby’s face with one arm.
With the other, she drove the sword straight into Rekha’s throat.
Rekha’s body convulsed violently as blood sprayed across Yodhika’s face and behind the baby.
After a few seconds, the body went still.
Yodhika released the sword and sank to the floor, clutching her son.
Only then did she notice his desperate crying.
She tore a strip from the bedsheet and wiped the blood from both herself and the baby.
Then she stood.
Sword in one hand. Baby in the other.
She glanced once at Rekha’s lifeless body before running out of the chamber.
She rushed to her room.
Once inside, she laid the baby gently on the bed.
In frantic movements, she changed into her combat suit.
She opened a drawer, grabbed her weapon—a metal rod—and picked up the baby again.
She ran out of the room.
Suddenly the floor began to tremble.
The pillars shook.
The roof groaned.
Yodhika’s breath caught.
Who activated Wamon? she thought in panic.
At the centre of the palace stood a vast courtyard.
In its middle rose a tall tower-like structure.
The structure began to emit a deep, humming vibration.
Several soldiers ran toward it across the shaking ground.
From behind the structure, Sabo appeared.
“It’s Yodhika!” she shouted. “She turned on Wamon! Inform the king immediately!”
The soldiers glanced at the structure and sprinted toward the palace.
Sabo watched them leave.
The moment they disappeared from sight, her breathing slowed.
Behind her, the ground continued to shake. And ashes trembled silently on the floor.
(To be continued)
Karun G Nath 
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