Chapter 9: Strange visions of Karna
1 year later;
After starting to learn the music from the Gandharva King, Karna started to travel between Gandharva Loka and Surya Loka quite often. He also wanted to visit the Naraka Loka (Hell) but Lord Yama would reject his wishes every single time giving the reason that the place is too cruel for a kid.
However, it was just an excuse. The real reason is that Karna is a mortal human and he can't visit hell with a living body. It is against the principles of nature.
But, Karna didn't know that and Lord Surya had banned anyone to speak of the secret. Even the gods including Lord Indra were warned strictly.
He thinks that his brother still treats him as a little kid and could only sulk about it as even his parents were against it.
At Suryaloka, as Karna once again become busy with his prayer at the secluded forest, Roshini was tagging along with Goddess Sanjna, practicing the cooking.
This is what the parents of both of them decided. Every third day of the week, Karna will visit The Gandharva Loka and learn new music from her future father-in-law, and every sixth day of the week, Roshini will come to the Suryaloka to learn cooking from her future mother-in-law.
This way, both of them not only got closer to each other but also to each other families.
"Ssss…" The 12-year-old Roshini felt pain in her fingers because of the heat as she started to peel the boiled potatoes.
"Careful, Roshini."
Sanjna was standing beside her, trying to guide her. "You don't need to peel them right away. You can submerge them into cold water for a while before peeling them. It wouldn't matter. The potatoes will be heated, again, anyway."
"Ah, I see." Roshini blushed in embarrassment, thinking that she made a fool out of herself.
"There's no hurry, we have a lot of time." Sanjna let out a smile as he patted the girl's head.
"Anyway, once we are done with… Hmm"
All of a sudden, she felt powerful energy nearby. She furrowed her brows and immediately tried to check it with her divine sense. Her eyes widened when she realized the source was from the forest behind the palace.
"Roshini, you stay here. I'll be back, quickly." She walked outside the kitchens with a worried expression on her face. "What is happening with my son?"
It's not just him, but even Lord Surya and Goddess Chhaya also sensed it. The latter didn't care but the former rushed out from the palace.
Soon, both of them were standing before the wild neem tree where they saw their son was moving his head right and left while emitting powerful divine energy. The divine armor and earrings were glowing brightly.
"Karna…" Sanjna stepped forward but was quickly grabbed by Lord Surya and pulled back as the beam of energy hit the spot where she stepped on, just a second ago.
"Stand back, Saranyu. You will be hurt if it hits you." Lord Surya said with a serious expression on his face. "It isn't some normal divine energy that all our gods have. The divine armor and earrings were actually the concentrated form of my sun rays. You can say that it contains a portion of my own strength.
By meditating daily, our son has unknowingly cultivated it to the extent that the energy seemed to be going out of control. Don't worry. I will take care of it."
He closed his eyes and raised his arms. Similar divine energy hit Karna's divine armor and eventually calmed it down, making Karna unconscious.
After a couple of hours, Karna regained his senses and found that he was on sleeping on the bed while his mother his watching over him.
"Mother?" he slowly called out to her.
"Son," Sanjna hugged him immediately, and looked at him in concern, "Are you alright? What happened there?"
Forcing himself to sit, he explained, "Just like every day, I was peacefully meditating while praying for Lord Shiva"
While doing the meditating, all he could imagine was the energy pillar that didn't have an end or a starting. After hearing the story about the beginning from his father, a couple of years ago, instead of shiva linga, Karna shifted the image of Lord shiva to this original form.
"I don't know why but this time, my concentration started to slip out as I was witnessing disturbing images. I saw explosions everywhere. I heard the screams of a countless number of people, women, men, and children, all kinds of screams. And... and..." Karna suddenly started to shiver as he added, "I saw someone, something... The lower part of the body was just like us but the upper body is different. It looks like some kind of blue animal with several horns protruding from the back. This thing was too huge and it's eating planets..."
Sanjna was taken aback as she heard the description given by Karna. She didn't know what it was but she knew for sure that it wasn't a coincidence.
Caressing his forehead and the hair, Sanjna forced herself to smile, "don't worry about it. Your father told that the divine energy inside your divine armor and earrings were getting out of control. It probably affected your mind. Forget it. Do you know that Roshini is cooking one of the dishes by herself?"
Sanjna tried to change the topic to divert his thoughts.
Just as she expected, as soon as she spoke about Roshini, Karna immediately sprung up from the bed, "Roshini is here? Ah, I forget that today is Shanivar (Saturday). I'll go to the kitchen and see what she is doing."
Sanjna shook her head with a smile and grabbed him, "no, you will wait. Let's see if you can find out which one she made. If you guess it correctly, I'll take to your grandfather's place."
"Grandfather's place? Really?" Karna's eyes lit up in excitement. The abode of Vishwakarma is his most favorite place that he went to during the past three years. There were so many exciting inventions placed all over there for him to try them out.
And his relationship with the divine architect of the gods is also very good even though the latter knew that Karna isn't his daughter's biological son.
Meanwhile, on the Earth;
Inside the hut, Kunti was screaming in pain as Queen Madri was delivering her third baby, born from the blessings of Lord Indra.
Pandu was walking back and forth in tension while 2-year-old Yudhishthira was playing with 1-year-old Bhima on the side.
Soon, the baby Arjuna was born into the world, bringing a smile to this former king.
Taking it from Madri's hands, he announced, "With Yudhishthira's path of dharma, Bhima's path of strength, and the valiant Arjuna, the kingdom of Kuru will be safe from outside and inside threats. I no longer need anything."
"Dear..." Madri furrowed her brows in response to his announcement, "What about me? You have three wonderful warriors, sister Kunti experienced motherhood. Is it fair for me?"
Pandu could only apologize as he was helpless about her situation too.
As Madri sulked about facing the unfairness and resolved to meditate eternally without touching food or water so that he may also get a boon from Lord Brahma, Kunti gave her the mantra to let invoke the Ashwini kumaras and receive a blessing to give birth to twins.
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