Indra did not celebrate. While the commoners feasted on the captured Gamma wine, he spent the night mapping the Theta Mountains. He knew that the terrain there was the antithesis of the Weeling plains. In the mountains, his numerical advantage with the commoners would shrink to the width of a single goat path.
The Treacherous Ascent
Indra led his twenty thousand men toward the jagged, snow-capped peaks of the Theta border. As they reached the foothills, the air grew thin and cold. They began to find the remains of Veda's "Warrior Society"—not buried, but left for the vultures. Some had been hit by the Sarpamukhi (Serpent-headed) arrows of the Theta snipers, which carried a paralytic toxin that froze a man's lungs in seconds.
Indra's scouts returned with grim news: "The Supreme General Veda is not fighting, My King. He has entrenched himself in the Gorge of Sighs. He has built a fortress of stone and timber, but the gates are facing us, not the enemy."
Veda had finally stopped pretending. He had occupied the only passage into the heart of the Theta Empire. To move forward and finish the war, Indra would have to kill his own General and the elite warriors who had trained him.
The Gorge of Sighs
Indra reached the mouth of the gorge at dawn. Veda stood atop a massive barricade, flanked by the surviving members of the Warrior Society. On the ridges above them, the Theta Mountain Archers stood ready. The alliance was complete: Veda had traded the sovereignty of Ohm for a seat at the table of the Gamma-Theta coalition.
"Indra!" Veda shouted, his voice echoing off the stone walls. "You are a freak of nature! A child who should have been cold in the river years ago. You have no heart, no blood, and no right to the throne of Arya Varma. Step down, and I will let your farmers return to their soil!"
Indra didn't answer with words. He stepped forward, alone, his black spear held loosely at his side. He looked at the terrain. The Gorge was a natural Suchi Vyuha (Needle formation) in reverse. To enter was to be pricked from all sides.
Indra turned to his commoner army. "Stay back," he commanded. "This is not a war for farmers. This is a debt between a tool and its maker."
The Breach
Indra began to run.
The Theta archers loosed a rain of poisoned arrows. In any other man's hands, a spear was a thrusting weapon. In Indra's hands, it became a rotating shield. He spun the black teak shaft with such velocity that it created a localized wind, knocking the light arrows out of the air before they could touch his skin.
He reached the wall and didn't look for a gate. He thrust the leaf-shaped point of his spear into the gaps between the stone, using it as a peg to vault himself twenty feet into the air.
He landed in the center of the Warrior Society. These were the men who had seen him defeat twenty-one elites. They were terrified, but Veda's presence forced them to strike.
The combat was a masterpiece of Marmakalari—the art of striking vital points. Indra didn't just swing; he poked, prodded, and flicked. A tap to a temple, a thrust to the solar plexus, a sweep of the legs. Within minutes, the "Elite" Society was a pile of groaning men. Indra didn't kill them all; he simply dismantled them.
Finally, only Veda remained. The General drew a massive Khanda—the heavy, double-edged straight sword of the ancient Indian kings.
"I made you!" Veda roared, swinging the heavy blade in a vertical arc meant to split Indra in two.
Indra caught the blade—not with his spear, but with the steel-reinforced middle of the shaft. The vibration shook the ground. Indra looked Veda in the eye. For the first time, the General saw something in Indra's gaze. It wasn't hate. It was pity.
"You didn't make me, Veda," Indra said. "You just watched me happen."
With a flick of his wrists, Indra redirected the momentum of the Khanda, causing Veda to stumble. In that split second, the black spear flashed like lightning. It didn't pierce Veda's heart—it pierced his throat, severing the voice that had plotted against the triplets.
Veda fell. The alliance of the mountains was broken.