The Wars

XXIX- Nilan- The Cremation of Heroes

You know that feeling, that when, you're going to get strangled the moment you're resurrected? 

Well, it happened to me. As soon as I saved Aranya, she shrieked, "Nilan!" and wrapped me in a bone-crushing, strangling hug. 

"Ow- air- breathe." I choked out.

"I'm sorry." she said, with tears in her eyes. 

Karna rolled in his chariot, looking triumphant. The two of us eyed him with disgust, and he just smiled at us. 

Aranya eyes flashed black, for a strange reason, and she staggered backwards, staring at him. 

"You-you-" she stammered. 

He nodded, and said, "I didn't betray you."

Dumbfounded, we stared at him. "You tried to kill me!" she shouted. 

"That was before I came to my senses." he said.

"You two have weakened me, and now it is time for my death. It was prophesied." he said calmly. 

What?

No bad guy would ever surrender his own life.  

He unlatched his armour and his metal arm-band, and stabbed himself in the elbow. He smiled serenely and said, "Remember me."

So, we defeated the bad guys? Yes. We.... we thought a guy betrayed us, and then killed himself for us? Yep!

So, on the scale of weird 1 to 10, this would definitely be 200. 

"We should go. Remember his sacrifice." Aranya said softly. 

Our friends came over to us, and gave me more bone crushing hugs. "You killed Karna?" Isha asked brightly.

Aranya and I shared a look, which said, Don't tell them now.

"Yes. We did." I said, with fake cheer in my voice. 

We surveyed the destruction around us, and I said uncomfortably, "Well...... let's go kick demon-butt?" 

They all nodded, and we ran to different places, killing asuras and rakshasas. After hours, the battle field was rid of the demons, and only the Kauravas were left. 

I readied my noose, and prepared to fight, but suddenly, I found myself in the room where the Pandavas' thrones were. 

The Pandavas teleported, and were now sitting on their thrones. They weren't wearing princely clothes, but they were wearing armour, and their skin was bloody and dusty. I looked down at my own clothes, and saw that they weren't any better. 

"Did we win the war?" I asked in a small voice. Yudhishthira smiled, and said, "We did."

Aranya and I looked at each other, and her gaze said, We need to tell them. 

So we told them. Everything. 

Yudhishthira stroked his beard, and said softly, "He didn't betray us." Then, he said loudly, "Karna shall be honoured. He shall have the Cremation of Heroes."

x-x-x-x-x-x- TIME SKIP -x-x-x-x-x-x

The sparks of fire blew around everywhere. The night sky was covered in stars, and the wind was cold and crisp. The gods stood in a line, looking morose. Us, the avatars stood in the front, watching the fire slowly die out, and seeing the remains of Karna turn to ash.

All six of us stared at each other, and then, Aranya and I put a plaque next to the urn of ashes. It read, "Here is Karna, the demigod who sacrificed himself for the Avatars..."

The urn would be on display, and so would be plaque. We got many questions about the battle from the Celestial World-lings, but we didn't answer them.