Mahabharat: Shiva's Last Variable

(A/N):

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Meanwhile, Devara, Kandarpaasura and the others finally arrived at the place where the first trial was going to take place.

The moment Devara stepped out, he immediately noticed how different the landscape was from the rest of the celestial realms they had travelled through.

There was hardly any life around them.

The ground stretched out in every direction, dry and barren, with patches of cracked earth scattered across the landscape.

There were no trees, no flowers and no signs of ordinary creatures anywhere nearby.

In the middle of that desolate land flowed a strange river.

Its water was green, but it wasn’t the colour that caught Devara’s attention. Something was constantly moving beneath its surface.

Countless glowing lines drifted through the river from one end to the other, crossing and twisting around one another so densely that, from a distance, they almost looked like an enormous school of fish moving through the water.

Devara narrowed his eyes.

"What are those?"

Karna, who had accompanied them to witness the trials, also looked toward the river with curiosity.

Even Kandarpaasura remained silent for a moment, studying the strange sight before them.

Lord Shiva stepped forward, and the moment he did, everyone became quiet.

"What you see in that river are not fish."

Devara continued staring.

"Then what are they?"

Shiva looked toward the river.

"Souls."

The answer immediately changed the atmosphere.

"They have been drifting through these waters for ages. These are the souls of beings who spent their lives consumed by their own sins. Their bodies are gone, but the impressions of everything they did remain with them."

Devara’s eyes narrowed as he concentrated.

At first, all he could see were the glowing lines moving beneath the green surface.

Then his vision changed.

The outlines slowly became clearer.

They weren’t fish, They were people.

Countless translucent figures were submerged beneath the surface, their bodies twisted and distorted by the current.

Some appeared to be desperately reaching upward, while others were being pulled deeper into the river.

Their mouths moved continuously, but their voices were almost impossible to hear from the shore.

Devara’s expression became serious.

There were thousands of them.

Perhaps millions.

They weren’t simply floating through the river.

They were drowning in it.

Shiva continued explaining the rules.

"The moment you enter the river, these souls will sense your presence. They will try to escape through you. They will grab hold of your body and attempt to pull themselves out of the water."

Kandarpaasura looked toward the river.

"And if they succeed?"

"They will drag you beneath the surface with them."

Shiva’s answer was simple.

"The deeper you are pulled, the harder it becomes to escape."

Devara continued observing the river.

He could now see several souls pressing their hands against the surface before being dragged back down by the current.

Their faces were filled with desperation, their movements frantic as they struggled against something that had held them there for ages.

Shiva turned toward the two contestants.

"The objective is straightforward."

He pointed toward the opposite bank.

"Reach the other side."

Devara looked at the distance.

It wasn’t particularly far.

But the river itself was the problem.

"You cannot simply overpower the souls," Shiva continued. "They are bound to this river. Fighting them directly will only cause more of them to gather around you."

Kandarpaasura gave a faint smile.

"So brute strength won’t help."

"Not in the way you are thinking."

Shiva looked at both of them.

"You must find your own method of crossing."

Devara remained silent.

His eyes continued moving across the river.

The souls were not random.

They moved with the current.

Some drifted near the surface while others remained much deeper.

And every now and then, one would suddenly rise toward the surface before being dragged down again.

Devara slowly folded his arms.

’So the challenge isn’t really about crossing the river.’

He studied the souls more carefully.

’It’s about understanding how they behave.’

Beside him, Kandarpaasura was also watching the river.

The confidence on his face had not disappeared.

If anything, it had become more focused.

Neither of them had moved yet.

The first trial had finally begun.

And somewhere beneath the green surface, countless restless souls were waiting for them.

Kandarpaasura stood at the edge of the strange river for a few moments, studying the green water and the countless glowing figures moving beneath its surface.

The souls drifted endlessly with the current, occasionally rising close enough to the surface that their pale faces could be seen before they were pulled back into the depths.

He seemed curious rather than frightened.

Without saying anything, Kandarpaasura slowly extended one of his fingers toward the river and dipped it into the water.

For a moment, nothing happened.

Then the river moved.

A pale hand suddenly burst through the surface and desperately reached toward his finger.

The fingers stretched as far as they could, trying to grab hold of him, almost as though the soul had been waiting for anything living to come close enough to escape its endless suffering.

Kandarpaasura immediately pulled his hand away.

The moment his finger left the water, the hand tried to follow him.

But the current was stronger.

The pale arm was dragged backward, disappearing beneath the green surface along with the rest of the soul.

For a brief instant, several more hands appeared around the same spot before they too vanished beneath the river.

Kandarpaasura stared at his finger.

"So they really do try to pull you in."

Devara, standing a short distance away, had watched the entire thing.

"Looks like Lord Shiva wasn’t exaggerating."

Kandarpaasura glanced at him.

"I wasn’t worried."

"I didn’t say you were."

The Asura gave a faint smile before turning back toward the river.

Now both of them understood that the trial wasn’t going to be as simple as swimming across.

Devara stepped closer to the edge and carefully observed the movement of the current.

He could see the souls moving in different directions beneath the surface, their bodies constantly being carried by the river while their hands occasionally reached upward whenever they sensed something living nearby.

He began thinking about what abilities he could use without violating the rules.

Kandarpaasura was doing the same.

His enormous wings slowly folded against his back as he considered his options.

He could probably force his way through the river using sheer strength, but Shiva’s warning had already made it clear that attacking the souls directly would only make the situation worse.

Around them, the Trimurtis and the other observers took their positions along the opposite bank.

Narada stood nearby with Tarini, watching the two contestants with considerable interest.

Ganesha leaned slightly toward Kartikeya.

"This should be interesting."

Kartikeya nodded his head.

"Especially considering neither of them knows what the other is planning."

Devara took a slow breath and looked across the river.

The opposite bank wasn’t impossibly far away.

But the river between them was filled with countless souls who had spent ages trapped beneath its surface.

He couldn’t simply overpower them.

He needed to cross without allowing them to drag him under.

Kandarpaasura suddenly stepped forward.

"I suppose we should begin."

Devara looked at him.

"Agreed."

Both moved toward the starting point at the edge of the river.

The gathered gods became silent.

The barren land fell still.

Only the strange current of the River of Sin continued flowing.

Devara lowered his stance, preparing himself.

Kandarpaasura rolled his shoulders and looked across the water.

Neither man knew exactly what awaited them beneath the surface.

But both were ready.

The first trial had begun.

The moment Sage Narada raised the ceremonial conch to his lips, the entire area fell silent. Even the restless River of Sin seemed strangely still for the briefest moment.

Then Narada blew.

The deep sound of the conch travelled across the barren land, marking the beginning of the first trial.

Both Devara and Kandarpaasura moved at once.

They leapt from the bank and plunged into the green waters.

The instant their bodies entered the river, the situation changed.

Hands emerged from beneath them.

One... Then dozens... Then hundreds...

Pale, translucent hands wrapped around their legs, arms and waists, gripping them with desperate strength.

The souls beneath the water had sensed living beings entering their domain, and they surged toward the two contestants as though the arrival of the living had given them a final opportunity to escape their endless torment.

Devara was dragged downward.

He immediately fought against the pull, kicking his legs and trying to push himself toward the surface, but more hands wrapped around him.

The water filled with the cries of the trapped souls.

Their voices weren’t coming from a single direction anymore.

They surrounded him from every side, their wailing echoing through the water and entering his mind.

"Help us..."

"Don’t leave us..."

"Take us with you..."

"Please..."

Their voices overlapped until they became almost unbearable.

Devara gritted his teeth and continued fighting his way forward.

A short distance away, Kandarpaasura was experiencing the same thing.

Several hands had wrapped around his legs while others clung to his arms and torso. He grabbed one of the translucent arms and tried to tear it away.

"Let go!"

He threw it aside.

Another immediately replaced it.

Then another.

Kandarpaasura’s expression changed.

He pushed forward with tremendous force, attempting to overpower the souls and swim toward the opposite bank, but the more he struggled, the more hands gathered around him.

"What is this?"

He kicked violently, sending several souls away, but they simply returned.

Their strength was increasing.

Every attempt he made to fight his way through seemed to make the river respond with greater resistance.

The souls were no longer merely grabbing him.

They were pulling him downward.

Kandarpaasura’s feet disappeared beneath the deeper part of the river.

His eyes widened.

He drove his hands through the water and tried to force himself upward.

But the current itself seemed to work against him.

The wailing grew louder.

The countless souls surrounded him, their desperate cries filling his mind until it became difficult to distinguish one voice from another.

Kandarpaasura snarled and released a burst of his strength.

The water around him exploded outward.

For a moment, several souls were thrown away.

But almost immediately, they returned.

There were simply too many.

On the riverbank, the gods watched carefully.

Narada’s expression became serious.

"He is trying to overpower them."

Lord Shiva nodded his head.

"That is exactly what he must not do."

Meanwhile, Devara was struggling beneath the surface as well.

Hands were gripping his legs and pulling him deeper, while several others clung to his arms.

He could feel the weight increasing.

The deeper he went, the more difficult it became to move.

But unlike Kandarpaasura, Devara stopped fighting for a moment.

He looked around.

The souls weren’t attacking him out of hatred.

They were desperate.

They had been trapped here for ages, and the moment they sensed someone living, they instinctively tried to hold on.

Devara slowly realized something.

’The more I fight them, the more they pull me down.’

His eyes narrowed.

Perhaps the first trial wasn’t asking who could overpower the souls.

Perhaps it was asking who could understand them.

Another hand wrapped around his wrist.

Devara looked at it.

The translucent figure attached to it was crying.

And instead of pulling his arm away, Devara stopped resisting.

The soul paused.

For the first time, the desperate grip around him loosened slightly.

Devara’s eyes widened.

He had just discovered something.

The River of Sin wasn’t testing their strength.

It was testing something else entirely.

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(Author note:)

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