Part 2- The Concealed Weakness

“I’ll reduce you to ashes…!” Banasuraa, the demon warrior’s voice boomed in the entire universe as Tanun, the hero with 11 superpowers, fought with him high above in space. Banasuraa was ferocious with a power of more than 1000 hands & was considered invincible in all the three worlds. “I have conquered half of the Universe…! I’ve destroyed many planets & soon, I’ll come to destroy earth….!” Saying this, the mighty demon fired a huge fireball towards Tanun.

Tanun had a superpower by which he could expand himself to the largest form and also he could control the 5 elements of the Universe. Using his powers, he turned the Fireball back to the demon.

“I will not let you capture my planet. I’ll finish you in no time….!” Saying this, Tanun flew with the speed of light around the demon & using his sword Shanara, sliced his 100 hands in a single blow. Instantly, 100 hands grew back in their place.

Tanun had fought this warrior many times in the past, but everytime he had got defeated. Tanun was aware of his own powers, but this demon was way too powerful than he thought & every time he gained dominance over Tanun, defeating & overpowering him.

“I pray to you Banasuraa…!” Tanun pleaded,” Please stop your havoc. Spare the lives of all those innocent people you’re troubling..! Use your powers for doing something right…!”

“Don’t share your philosophy with me…! I am invincible, the most powerful in entire Universe…! It’s impossible to defeat me Tanun…!” Saying this, the demon, using his 1000 hand-power at once, fired huge fireballs towards Tanun. Not able to bear the attack, Tanun tried fighting back but the fireballs kept on coming. Tanun felt himself going weak. He used his powers of controlling the fire element, but couldn’t stop the incoming attacks. While fighting, he lost his weapon Shanara. Tanun had a superpower to defend attack from any weapon, but fire was not a weapon, and inspite of trying hard, he couldn’t control the arriving strikes. Feeling weak, he kept fighting.

Suddenly, he saw lightning all around him. With thunderous sound, he felt he saw someone entering. However, he couldn’t resist any more attacks & felt himself being thrown away far off into the Universe.

A soft sound awoke Tanun. He looked around & saw that he was on a barren land spread far across till the horizon. Above, the sky was so clear that he could see almost every star & constellation. Immediately, he released that he was on a far off planet in some other galaxy. As he tried & sat up, he felt someone’s presence around. He turned & saw a person in orange robe seated next to a fire with his eyes closed.

“I hope you’re alright now…” opening his eyes, the person said. “I hope you do know who I am...”

“Yes, I do...” Tanun, using his superpower of reading people’s minds, came to know that the person is Abhimani, the God of Fire & Lightning. “I’ve heard that Fire is always causes destruction…”

“Fire doesn’t always mean destruction..!” Abhimani growled back at him. Tanun could almost see the fire in his eyes. “Fire does cause destruction, but it means destruction of Fear, Anger, Ego, Greed & temptations…! Once a human is free from all this, then the fire of passion, creativity, zeal, motivation starts lighting up inside him, truly helping him towards his ultimate goals in life..!” Calming himself down, he further continued, “You may be thinking what brought me here…” the Fire God continued, “I belong to a planet Vimshatihi in the Alnilam constellation, almost 1400 light years from earth. My planet was also attacked by Banasuraa. I fought with him using all of my powers, but I couldn’t sustain in front of him, considering that he is so powerful. He devastated my entire planet. No one survived, except a few, including me. I wanted to revenge him but I couldn’t do it alone. That was when the Gods told me about you, the God of Wind & Storm. They also told me about all your superpowers & how you want to stop Banasuraa from destroying earth. With their blessings, I teleported & came directly in front of you. I reached in time so I could save you from the Demon. Together, using our power, we could defeat him. But for that, we need to assist each other nicely.”

“That demon broke my Weapon Shanara, the sword.” Tanun said looking at the broken sword handle left in his hand, “Considering his powers now, it’s impossible to defeat him.”

“But remember, together we can use our powers rightly and bring him down.” Abhimani said to Tanun, “we just need to know how to do it.” Looking at Tanun, he asked, “Do you know his weakness? He has to be frail in some area.”

“Weakness?” Tanun almost stood up on hearing this word. “I…I never knew anything about it.I actually never thought about it in all the earlier battles.”

“How come you don’t know this? Every warrior always has a weakness, an inadequacy, which he hides from his opponents. We need to know what Banasuraa’s weakness is. We should directly attack at that point. This will help us to reduce his powers & gain supremacy over him…!”

How come I never knew about this? Tanun thought. “He has to have a weakness,” Tanun said, thinking deeply, “And I know how to know it.” Saying this, Tanun closed his eyes, & using his mind powers, went centuries back in time to study Banasuraa.

He saw Banasuraa as a young fellow, working in a small hermitage as a servant. There was a Hermit who used to get help from him. The young Banasuraa with the powers of his 1000 hands which he was born with killed some nearby animals everyday & brought it as food to the hermit. The Hermit was a devotee of God Shambhu. The young Banasuraa helped the Hermit in almost every work. He was devoted to the Hermit. Impressed by his work, the hermit blessed him with a boon.

“Whenever some force will attack you, you will be defended by the God Shambhu. Every time your body part is sliced out or injured, one new part will emerge. You will have immense Fireball Power in your 1000 hands. You will rule all three worlds with your power & all the three Universes will be afraid of you & your presence…!” Saying this, the Hermit gave him a divine circular Amulet with three different diamonds embedded on its circumference, representing 3 universes.

Tanun opened his eyes & saw Abhimani looking at him.

“I now know his weakness. He is a fond devotee of Lord Shambhu. This Lord is protecting him from all the forces in the Universe. I saw that after receiving this boon, Banasuraa used it for removing all the evil around. But gradually, he became arrogant; he started using his powers for his own good. He wanted to create a dominance of himself. To do this, he started creating havoc in all the three Universes. Every God, every Human is now afraid of him as no one can defeat him. He’s been protected by the great Lord Shambhu. To defeat this demon, we have to stop the powers of Lord Shambhu. In my previous battles, I had tried many times to overpower him. But he always overpowered me. This time…” he said as he stood up, “I know his fragility. We need to get ready for a fierce battle.”

“But how can we stop him? He is still way too powerful to fight…. & most importantly, where can we find him?” Abhimani raised his concerns.

“This time, we won’t find him….he’ll come looking for us..!” Saying this, Tanun expanded himself huge in size & placing Abhimani on his shoulders, flew into the cosmos with the speed of light.

Tanun & Abhimani attacked all of the planets & galaxies in possession of Banasuraa. After establishing his dominance on all the planets that he had won, the demon had placed his army to guard & exploit all the innocent inhabitants of the planets. Tanun & Abhimani, using their powers fought with all of those armies and removed them entirely, establishing peace in those solar systems. Tanun knew exactly which planets to attack. Instead of attacking the demon directly, the power duo attacked all of his capitals, all those ecosystems where Banasuraa had established his kingdoms. Defeating & destroying all his armies, both the Gods created havoc in all his kingdoms. Finally, both the Gods marched towards his main capital city of Cerentivu, in a faraway Galaxy.

The city was floating in space, with extensive large & big buildings spanned on the entire city. Almost every building’s crown was decorated with precious ornaments. Banasuraa’s central palace was a huge citadel, with palaces of large edifices & huge crowns decorated with the finest metals in the entire Universe. The whole city was one of the finest places to look in, with all the modern amenities & latest technologies.

“Abhimani…burn the entire city…! Burn down his palace, burn all the wealth, every single building element that we can see….!” Tanun ordered. Abhimani immediately took action & within an instant, the whole citadel started burning. Using all his powers, the god of Fire shooted fireballs in all directions. The whole city erupted in chaos. The defending army instead of fighting with both the Gods, now started to save themselves & all the people around.

“Tanun…!” Banasuraa screamed on top of his voice. He attacked them as they were burning down his city. “You burned down my entire city, all my capitals…! Why did you do it…? You did all of it behind my back…! Face me & prove that you are mightier than me…!”

“I pleaded you to stop the destruction you were doing…!” Tanun fired back in anger, “And you in turn fired me down..! You being from a noble lineage of sages started doing heinous crimes forgetting your religious routes..! I had to do this because I wanted to teach you a lesson…! And I am ready to fight with you…!” Saying this, Tanun closed his eyes & using his superpower to acquire anything, got his sword Shanara back. With the speed of light, Tanun killed the entire marching army of Banasuraa. Abhimani fired huge fireballs & lightning bolts in the demon’s direction. Tanun being the god of Wind & Storm, created huge whirlpools of wind & jolted them in the demon’s direction.

However, nothing seemed to affect the demon warrior. Creating huge fireballs from his 1000 hands, he kept firing them in their direction. Abhimani created a huge tower of fire & Tanun pushed it towards the demon. Abhimani fired huge bolts of thunderous lightning towards the demon. Banasuraa was much more powerful than them. He repelled all of their attacks with a swept of his hands. Abhimani attacked him encircling with rings of fire. Tanun then increased his size exponentially & started hammering blows on Banasuraa. Seeing this, the demon in turn increased himself in size & fought back Tanun.

Every single attack that the duo made was bring repelled by the demon. As the demon increased in size, his powers increased much more strongly. He attacked both the Gods simultaneously using all of his power. Tanun again attacked him using his sword & using his superpowers, turned all the approaching fireballs towards the demon. However, the attacks kept coming & inspite of both the Gods fighting with him, Banasuraa was still dominant on both of them. He used his hands to repel all the incoming attacks.

Tanun now realised that he had to do something. Banasuraa was increasing in power. Tanun then remembered the Amulet that Banasuraa was wearing. It contained all the powers on which Banasuraa was fighting. However, he couldn’t break it as it contained the holy power of Lord Shambhu. Finally deciding something, he signalled to Abhimani. At once, Abhimani diverted the demon’s attention by charging towards him. Seeking this opportunity, Tanun who was now huge in size, using his superpowers, instantly reduced himself to the smallest size & became stronger than the strongest element. With the speed of light, he dashed towards the amulet hanging around in Banasuraa’s neck. However, the demon came to know this & swept his hands in the direction that Tanun was flying. But Tanun was way too quick & dodging all attacks, he banged hard on the amulet & entered inside.

The Amulet was made of the strongest stone in the Universe. However, Tanun was now stronger than any element. He broke the exterior covering & entered inside. The whole interior was round in shape. It was hollow with 3 concentric circles rotating slowly in clockwise direction. Exactly at the centre, was a small Vase with white coloured Fire giving out huge beam of white light, which was the energy light from Lord Shambhu that was protecting the demon Banasuraa. Tanun slowly flew towards it & first apologised to the divine light. And then with a swipe of his hands blew out the burning holy flame. The whole place plunged into darkness. The 3 circles stopped rotating. Tanun, now dashed out of the Amulet & within a second, expanded to a huge size & started hammering Banasuraa with punches & huge bolts of wind. Abhimani fired huge fireballs & lightning bolts towards the demon with huge force.

Banasuraa suddenly felt his energy draining out. He knew something was wrong & before he knew what happened, Tanun with the speed of light sliced away all of his hands leaving only 2. The sliced hands never grew back. Abhimani fired huge bolts of thunderous lightning towards the demon. Banasuraa, now totally helpless, threw himself down in the burning citadel below and crashed down in a huge pool of water.

Reducing himself to normal size, Tanun approached the Fire God. “Thank you, the God of Fire, for giving me the important point of finding the weakness. As for him,” signalling towards the lost demon Banasuraa, Tanun said, “He’s all yours. He’s your prisoner now .And please return the amulet to Lord Shambhu.”

“Sure. I have a feeling, we’re gonna meet again..!” Abhimani smiled & replied.

“Of course…we will!” Tanun exclaimed. “But right now, I need to return back to my planet Earth. Someone is calling me there…!” Saying this, Tanun flew in the direction of Earth.

THE END