Karna's POV
The sky was on fire.
Orange clouds split apart by the cry of arrows.
Metal clanged like the chants of gods gone mad.
Earth shook beneath a hundred chariot wheels.
And in the distance, across a field torn apart by war and fate-
He stood.
Arjun.
Bowed. Armored. Alive.
The Pandava I had sworn to defeat.
The brother I had never called my own.
And Krishna beside him-silent, composed.
His eyes didn't waver. His hands didn't tremble.
Only his presence seemed to hum with the weight of time itself.
As I rode forward, the wind whispered secrets.
The 17th day had come.
Today was the end of one of us.
The field was empty of distractions.
No flanking forces. No echoes of Bheem's roar.Atleast near me.
Just him and me.
Our chariots circled. Eyes locked.
There were no words left.
The bows rose. Arrows flew.
The world exploded.
He was faster than I remembered.
Stronger than before. Each shot had the weight of rage and the precision of prophecy.
I met him blow for blow, each string-pull sending the past and the present into collision.
> "Don't fall back, Arjun," I whispered between breaths, "Not today."
He didn't.
Our charioteers drove us across a ruined earth, dust rising like spirits of the fallen. Trees wept leaves. Soil turned black under wheels. Elephants screamed in the distance.
I struck his shoulder with a flaming shaft.
He pierced through my banner.
We weren't warriors anymore.
We were memories trying to rewrite fate.
And then it happened.
That cruel sound.
Crack.
My chariot lurched.
One of the wheels-the left rear-sank.
Into the soft, blood-soaked ground.
My horse neighed. The axle creaked.
I pulled the reins.
No use.
Third person's POV
Karna's breath caught in his chest. His wheel had sunk into the soft battlefield soil-almost deliberately.Shalya refused to get down and help.He jumped down, tried to wrench it free with his own hands. Mud clung to his skin. Sweat dripped into his eyes.
But the mantras... the formulae... the divine code that once flowed like second nature...
Gone.
His heart froze. Parashurama's curse.
Not now. Not now-
From atop the opposing chariot, Arjun's eyes widened.
He had not fired yet.
Karna saw it. In his brother's eyes-conflict. Compassion. And a burning question he would never ask.
Then-
Krishna.
The calm within the storm.
He stepped forward from the chariot. Not a general. Not a god.
Just... inevitable.
> "Parth," he said, voice like the softest steel, "End this."
Arjun's fingers trembled against the unbroken Gandiva, the divine bow that had never failed him.
> "Madhav," Arjun said, not lowering his bow. "He is unarmed. He is stuck. I-"
Karna cut him off, his voice raw.
> "Vasudev."
Karna was not sure if he was hallucinating.But the time seemed to stop moving for a while. Everything stilled.He continued.
"You speak of Dharma. But where was Dharma when Draupadi was humiliated? When Abhimanyu was slaughtered like a beast? Tell me."
Krishna didn't blink.
> "I was watching," he said. "And I am watching now."
> "I have sinned," Karna whispered. "I have failed every role... brother, son, husband, friend... I have no right to mercy."
Krishna's voice was low. Barely audible above the wind.
> "I'm not offering mercy, Karna. I'm offering a chance."
Karna frowned.
> "A chance...? To live?To be better?"
Krishna smiled. Not with his lips, but with his knowing silence.Time seemed to resume once again.
> "Parth," he said again, turning to Arjun. "Shoot."
Arjun closed his eyes. His fingers tensed.
And then-
The Anjalikastra.
Swift. Celestial. Final.
It pierced Karna's chest.
And he fell.
Not with a scream.
Not with rage.
With silence.
---
Darkness.
Not death. Not life.
Somewhere in-between.
> "Is this punishment? Or peace?" Karna wondered.
Then he heard it.
Krishna's voice.
> "Open your eyes, Karna."
And he did.
> Everything was different.
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