‘BAM’ Brutus was slammed on the floor, Kush picked up the axe while lying down and slammed it on Brutus, Brutus dodged and backed off. Kush went wild now. The arear on his body Brutus could attack was reduced to his exposed foot and his head, both of which were much easier to protect. He kicked, punched, slash, elbowed, kneed freely to Brutus. “Man this armour is awesome”. Kush kicked Brutus to the ground and sat on him, Brutus covered his eye and off went off went Kush with a barrage of punches to the face.

‘BAM’ x 16 Kush went crazy on the monster. A new comer would see this as the poor monsters being bullied into submission. But no one standing there had any sympathies for the monster, cause everybody expected the monster to not even feel the impact of the punches, but Brutus knew otherwise. The damage from the punches was piling up, when he received a short respite he pushed Kush off himself and back off. Kush picked up his followed after him slashed at the ground they were standing on. Brutus lost his footing and dropped, Kush went for slash on Brutus’s front. The axe blade went from the middle of his chest to where his navel should have been, Brutus felt a tingly pain but dragged himself away from under the blade and spark was generated as he dragged his body and then it happened…

Something he had not done since his ‘rebirth’… something no one had seen or thought the monster would ever do… something even he didn’t think he needed to do… Brutus turned around and showed his back to his opponent and ran… or rather swam towards one of the other three islands. In the waters he was swimming at the speed of jet-ski. Making waves in his trail. Kush let him run and jumped once he reached the other island and slashed his axe horizontally on the wound he had created before, aggravating it even more. Brutus knew he was in danger, as he dropped to the ground and crawled ahead to escape Kush’s hit but couldn’t in time so grabbed the blade between the palm of his hands. Kush was filled with energy and seemed the adrenaline was doing its work; he was overpowering Brutus for the first time in battle. Brutus thought of all the sacrifices he had to make to get this power, thought of all the dreams he could fulfil and out of desperation the next few words left his mouth.

“Why? Why do you want to oppose me? What is so wrong with what I wanted?” He asked looking at Kush but obviously not meant for him. Brutus without intending to had swam to the island where the queen laid injured and Kush had coincidently pinned him about 10m from the queen.

Kush was smart enough not to butt in when the question was not directed at him, though nobody would mind if he said so. Finally, after waiting for almost a minute, Sylvia picked up the fallen dirty dhoti off the ground and got down from all her fours, sat on her perky ass. The second dhoti was wound around her once and tied in a knot at her waist it looked like a high slit skirt, only the slit ran all along the length of the skirt except for a tiny knot. Instead of wearing the dirty dhoti like a bath towel this time she rolled it up between her hands covered her massive breasts and tied them up behind her neck such that the cloth went above the shoulders on the front ending with a knot at the back. The blood, gut, mud, water and sweat meant, the thin fabric did little to hide the beauty of what everybody be it a man or a woman wanted to suck, bite, grab. The entirety of her back above the skirt was naked and her entire waist below her breasts were naked as well, she was the correct definition of temptress and could have bent anyone’s will in a single look had it not been for the current situation.

Gingerly she stood up, over the period of 28 hours and use of copious amounts of elixir, she had recovered from her wound the veins were still healing but the pain was bearable. She went closer to the straining monster step by step, she walked upto the monster and the expression belying her suppressed rage

“This is what you want?? You monster, what could you possibly achieve by killing so many people?”

With a straining voice Brutus replied…

“I wanted to build a paradise…”

“You mother fucking beast how the fuck would you build a fucking Paradise over pile of dead bodies this large”

“Khh…” straining he continued “I was going to… create a country, where everybody was fed and happy”

“You people to treat you like Gods, you wanted to suppress the ambitions of the citizens of this country”

“So what if did, being their God I would have cared for their needs, granted them wishes and riches”

“How the fuck would you know what their wishes were? You would just let them rot…”

“No I wouldn’t!!!” interjected Brutus. Brutus paused for a few seconds and said “I would have done my best to feed them, give them a home to live in, forgiven their mistakes and granted them their wish. I would have given them clean water to drink, clothes to wear. They would have had to work in field for sometimes a day and do their chores, but I would have taken care of the rest”

Brutus once again slipped out from under Kush’s axe. All of the queen’s guards were on alert suddenly, Kush too became ready to attack, but Brutus had lowered his hand. When tool a step to charge, Sylvie just said “Please…” and Kush stopped in place and dropped Tanka’s blade to the ground but handle still in his hand. The ordeal had fatigued him greatly so sat down to rest.

Brutus continued “There would have been no need for money and all inequality would have killed. All they had to do was understand the difference between us with the divine blood and their common blood”

The guards were surprised at the response. They were ok till the last part of the sentence and they were living similar lives before the late King Julius came along. The queen just stood there stunned at the response, not understanding a word that came out his mouth. What he was talking about was “You fucking want to treat people like farm animals???”

The response cracked the soldiers’ and ministers’ mind open, they couldn’t believe what they were hearing but realised what the queen said was true.

“So what?” he screamed back in return thinking back to a time he had this discussion with his brother.

Brutus to his brother “Do cattle have such a bad life? Just think about it, they feed, they drink, they shit, they fuck and till they do the thing they are meant to do, the owner takes care of them if they get sick. To them, their owner is their master, the one they turn to if need food. Similarly, we take care of plebeians like their Gods”

“Brutus I have worked so hard to stow us away from this old mind-set, why do you want to drag us back in? we are the among the only countries in the world who still haven’t formally recognised the fault in our ways”

“Why do you think it is a mistake? Just cause some old man from your uni said so? We have the least poverty in our country, to the extent that we never have to give out handouts. Like those fuckers from other countries who have economist punching out numbers for unemployment and economic discrepancy. The big 7 countries are just pigpens shoving their filth when they can throw it. Why is it that people want to leave their country and immigrate to ours?”

“Money not everything Brutus, people can’t be treated like cattle cause cattle cant think for themselves. A mind closed in box will never grow, never innovate, if you hammer down orders in people’s mind all you will ever achieve is stagnation and then decadance, but life is all about growth and people thrive when given the opportunity to think and to answer your ‘So What?’…”

(Both father and daughter at the same time)

“You do not own people to decide their fate” x 2

Brutus was stunned, did he get hit in the head too much cause for a moment he saw his brother’s face and held his head in desperation looking towards the sky.

“Why… oh why… can you idiots not see what I am trying to show, I am showing you a way to build Paradise?”

Kush was starting to think something was up so he lifted his axe up to the side and closed his eyes and started preparing

Brutus started thinking of the time when a man approached him with an offer and a method to overthrow the incumbent. It was not an easy decision for him to betray his country and let alone his brother. Both had common facilities and teachings in the palace, until university where Julius went to Nalanda and Brutus went to Vishvasrota which was a top tier university as well. Julius had been quirky and talented since birth, staying ahead of the game in all respects than any of his peers and even but he crossed the bounds of quirkiness after graduating. He started trying to shift the societal strata which using his power and influence. His ideologies made him popular among the masses. Brutus thought the changes in society would slow the economy down and parameters were beginning to add up as well in the first few years, but that damn Marcus, single handedly kept the entire country’s economy afloat. He was like follower of Julius, even when he was all in red he took loans and funded Julius’s extravagant projects, never letting the inertia of his decisions slow down anything till they reaped their benefits. The common people were getting skilled and within 2 decades he increased the exports to 60 times that of the former king. Julius dreamt and Marcus executed causing Brutus to keep his head bowed at all times.

The night before he made the decision to accept the offer in Julius’s private chambers. There were three people sitting there Julius, Marcus and Brutus. They were sitting in round table, by now Julius had been in power for a long time and his popularity had made him omnipotent decision maker of the country. Even the personal guards of the nobles didn’t support them when they revolted against the king. Julius then said to Brutus and Marcus about his newly thought up idea.

He said “I intend to dissolve the power of the monarch of this country and hand all the power over to the cabinet ministers”

Both the people in audience were flabbergasted at the revelation but the first to speak was his Brutus “That doesn’t make sense. The king selects the cabinet ministers, wont they all listen to him. This is like holding the same ear but using the other hand”

Julius nodded and them continued “I know that is why I am going to set up a system wherein, ministers are not selected by the king but by the people”

Brutus punched the table and shouted “Again with your non sense brother. This time you are crossing the limits and how do you expect people to know who the right noble is for the position. The monarch has always selected from them cause their personal relationship”

Julius expecting the response replied “Cabinet will not be only made of nobles but also from people and they will select representatives from each city and town and those representative will then select the cabinet”

Something snapped in Brutus’s head when he heard the points and argued against the entire set up for the whole night, Julius seemed to not compromise at all. Next day Brutus dropped off grid and Julius never heard of him again. Till the fateful day he died.

Brutus the next night, was standing in another secret chamber which seemed underground. Along with him was person he knew and the one who gave him his powers. Before parting the man just said, “The power handed over you can unilaterally destroy a small country like yours. Use it wisely and remember, no matter what happens never open the seal on your heart. You will be all powerful for a short period but then you will…”

All this was said to right before he got his powers. At the time he didn’t fully understand the instructions but these word stuck to him and he recollected them a few days later and found the seal, keeping in mind to never release it. Until today that is…

Brutus dropped on his knees and looked up at the sky his head in hand, he was overwhelmed by everything that had happened. It was too much to bear; all his sacrifices, all his hard work had been turned to naught, didn’t want to massacre the entire population, he wanted to show his way was right and force it upon people with an iron fist, hence he waited for people to surrender and he thought it was eminent and he was right until he brat showed up.

Within his body an organ the size of his fist was going badum… badum… badum… continuously. On its surface was etched a word in an ancient language. The word was pronounced as ‘Utkalit’ and slowly the word disappeared and on the outside Brutus screamed…

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”