Sun rose from the mountains of the lanka making it a beautiful scene to see . Lanka's palace was full of hustle bustle, all servants and maids were running here and there , princes and kings were making themselves ready by servants for the d day .
Soon arena was set all princes and kings were seated at their respective places. Karn was given the first most as he was samrat of Aryavart, Ashwatthama and others were also seated near him dushala was in ladies part on the other side with anwita.
"Maharaj Vibhishan maharani sarama ke sath padar rahe hai" announcer announced making all of them Stand from their places to pay him respects They both went near the throne and folded their hands in respect
And sat on throne
"Asur raj bali aur maharani vindyavalli pardarrahe hai" another announcement was heard all of them snapped their heads towards the door and huge personality with a stern face entering the hall making some of them shiver a bit by seeing him both of them went and sat on their respective throne which were aside of Vibhishan and sarama
"Asurguru aur dev guru padarrahe hai" seeing both of them together was rare sight , they arrived and took their places
"Dwarkadeesh shri Krishna , mahamahim Balram aur ganga putr mahamahim asur yuraj Mayank ke sath padarrahe hai"
Three of them walked through making kuru's and karn Ashwatthama frown a bit they expected Krishna and Balram to participate not as member of royal family and bheeshm was unexpected person to be present and listening Mayank all of them became alert Duryodhan and Ashwatthama were handling themselves somehow not to beat him immediately
"Lanka ki Rajkumari , Maharaj Vibhishan ki beti vibha rajkumari subhadra aur rakumari anwita ke sath padarrahe hai" all the kings and princes attention was on the entrance a female was veiled and was guided through the hallways by Subhadra and anwita , flowers started to shower on her she was guided till her seat and sarama came and lifted her veil showing her face to everyone present there all were casting their eye on the princess of lanka many people were looking at her with lust but some were looking at her with admiration some in shock
"Vritika" "vriti" "bhabhi" "jiji" all kurus and others were seeing her in shock how can this be possible Nothing was processing in their minds Ashwatthama was the first one to join all the dots and snapped towards karn who was on his left "mitr I take back my words you have to win my sister hand at any cost" Ashwatthama shook karn a bit who was looking at vritika with widen eyes he shook his head and turned his head around again gazed at vritika who was already looking at him by the time and nodded her head slightly making his heart pound and full of tears in his eyes blocking his sight a radiant smile adored his face
Vibhishan stood up from his seat "I lankadeesh Vibhishan heartily welcome all the princes and kings present her to my one and only one daughter swayamvar who is excellent warrior trained in all kinds of weapons and well versed in all shastras who is discipline of both asur guru and Dev guru spiritual daughter of mata ganga in order to find a warrior and a person capable enough for my daughter we have decided to conduct different levels of a competition where all of your senses, mind strength, and physical strength will be tested by all of us , yuraj Mayank here by going to explain rules to all of you about competition" saying he sat on his place
Crowd started murmuring about all this soon Mayank stood from his place "first competition would be malyudh and maharaj bali along with mahamahim balram would Decide the winners and persons eligible for next part of competition" Mayank announced and waved his hand converting the hall into arena chairs moved back and a sand part raised up
"But here you are not going to compete among yourself you are going to compete with demon monsters who are magically created and in strength they are equal to a mountain now this is test begins" he said ordered soldiers to release the door a metallic form of large monsters entered arena
Seeing them only many were frightened but some were determined to beat this round. Duryodhan and Ashwatthama wanted to draw back from competition but were stopped by krishna he asked them to continue but lose after trying at least he
Many kings withdrew from the competition by just seeing them but some wanted to try they got into arena one by one and it just kicked out all of them one by one in same way . Shalya , shishupal, jayadrath bhagadatta, Ashwatthama, Duryodhan were somehow didn't knock out by that but neither were they able to over power or destroy it totally only able to over pass it for few minutes next was karn . Mayank was smirking seeing him krishna got down and went near karn embraced him
"Jijashree these competitions are specially designed by asur yuraj for you he wanted to test your might and wit both and yuraj is now for his strength and more than that he is known for his wit I hope you will pass through all tests with flying colours" he said slowly so that only karn can hear . He saw Mayank who was a little bit too if the arena smirking seeing's in his direction it was like a taunt to him he turned his gaze towards viritika who was smiling without any tension seeing him she showed gesture to think him with brain not with muscle brain he smiled and got down into arena saw metal beast was beating ground with his stick
Soon it marched towards him he ducked immediately from his attack, same way first he was calculating his moves. When ever he ducked from attack it reached the corner he saw it was effected by drums sounds . He understood that it was effective towards particular sounds , he removed his musical vessel flute from his pocket which was given by krishna once as gift when they were in Magadh
He started to play it pleasantly making the beast gradually fell into sleep . In this way he overpowered the beast . All the crowd was looking him with awe they only tried to defeat it physically but they didn't tired to figure it's weak point
"I and maharaj bali had already chosen participants for next part of the competition they are maharaj shalya, chedi naresh sishupal, Rajkumar bagadatta Panchal naresh Ashwatthama, Rajkumar Duryodhan and at last winner this level samrat karn" Balram said getting up from his seat
Mayank snapped his hands again bringing up another part of arena up it was a maze a mirror maze
"This is a mirror maze there is a six different flags in middle of the maze now the six participants will enter from six different directions and who will be able to grab the flag before this incense stick completes would be the winner of this level now the competition starts" Mayank announced seeing the maze which he created by himself all the participants started their journey inside towards centre of the maze but were struck inside couldn't find the way were moving in circles
Mayank turned towards vritika who was having a small smile "don't be happy with his first victory vibha there are still three levels which he have to pass and I won't make it easy for him he will surely lose in this level itself see" Mayank smirked towards vritika "Mayank confidence is good but what you are showing is overconfidence I know you have created every level except last level with loopholes and hints just when he is able to get that he will able to pass through" she said confidently
"And you promised us that you are not going to give him any sort of clues or even communicate with him in any mode till he be able to win your hand and shouldn't it be a fair one I want my competitor to be of my level" he said making vritika roll her eyes Vindhyavali scolded them to concentrate on competition more than concentrating on their own banter .
They both moved their gaze towards the maze they saw bhagadatta was showing his strength and destroying whole maze and things coming on his way shalya and shisupal were doing the same . Where as Ashwatthama and Duryodhan wontedly roaming round and round around. Karn was calculating the flow of air from where it was flowing and following that direction though karn reached third he didn't get disappointed because other part of maze was totally destroyed by other four
"I announce maharaj shalya , chedi naresh shishupal samrat karn and Rajkumar bhagadatta are eligible for next level of the competition" bheeshm stood from his and said
Mayank growled seeing karn guessing all his loopholes so easily. Ashwatthama and Duryodhan were happily commentating sitting back at their places . Ashwatthama gazed at vritika smiling like a maniac which she gave back he saw anwita who was sitting beside her who was a bit happy, but having tension lines on her face she saw at him for once and gave a polite smile with nod which he returned to her.
Subhadra was biting her nails in tension seeing the levels of competition. Dushala was constantly cursing Mayank for setting up difficult levels and making it hard for karn to win
Others were having neutral face and fully concentrating on the competition. Duryodhan was a bit confused seeing Mayank here if he was engaged to vritika then why he himself after breaking of their marriage had set competitions for her swayamvar
Next arena was set many rotating discs letters were written on it "these rotating discs contain different letters all letters have their duplicates but only one letter doesn't have its duplicate and now you four have to guess which letter it is before the sand from sand clock gets down and a small part here as the time runs out the speed of the rotating discs will increase their speed now let the competition begin" he said rotating the sand timer ⏳ all were given different set
Shishupal and bhagadatta randomly chose one of them which was correct but karn being archer his eyes were sharp than usual person's he immediately guessed the word there was a loop hole here to the words were
Arranged in patterns the letter which disfigured the pattern was the one
"I announce chedi naresh shishupal, Rajkumar bhagadatta and samrat karn as eligible for next level of competition" Krishna announced getting from his seat
Mayank again snapped his hands bringing another arena in front there are many targets in them some were moving up and down some were moving side wards some were rotating some were revolving
"Now coming to this level of competition there are many targets here but in that only some are original some are just illusions and now from all of you three who the person who will be able to hit as many as they can will be the Winner of this level and only will be able to get into next level or else not and if you hit a illusion you will lose one point from your score and you are free to use any weapon you want not only bow and. Arrow " Mayank announced
Shishupal and bhagadatta were shooting arrows randomly some were hitting the original target and some were hitting the illusions but karn stood still and saw all the targets once and observed that only some have shadows while others didn't he smirked to himself and started to shoot the targets all were hitting the original ones only not a single illusion is hit
"Total there were 25 original targets and 20 illusions and Rajkumar bhagadatta was able to hit 13 of original and nearly 5 illusions that means his score is 7 , coming to chedi naresh he was able to hit 10 original targets but he shot 10 illusions balancing his score to 0 but samrat karn has hit all 25 of original targets making his score 25 so only samrat is eligible for next level" Mayank announced
Everyone cleared arena now only karn was standing in middle on arena eyeing Mayank who was spitting fire from his eyes seeing karn smiling and standing in arena without getting exhausted his smirk was irritating him much
"Next level is nothing but you have to compete with me with what ever weapons you want have to over power me if you want to win the swayamvar and no rules and regulations because this is asurs territory and rules are according to us and this competition is not going to stop till one us are going accept their defeat " Mayank said jumping from the height where he was standing
Vritika hit her head she knows both of them are not going to accept their defeat easily one wants to satisfy his ego and one want to win her for his lifeline she shook her head and again saw towards the arena they both chose sword to fight both of them ranged towards each other like made bull suddenly clashing of swords was heard and whole arena became pin drop silence they continued to fight more intensively
Mayank blocked karn by his sword and locked him between his sword and himself "what has she saw in you more than me that she chose you over me karn what magic have you done on her from when she has returned back she is being always in your thoughts" he said those words more like taunt
"That is called love mister which you can't understand until you yourself fall in love with someone" karn said releasing himself from his grip and attacked him again
Again their swords clashed their swords crossed each other's they were trying to push each other back they came more close to their swords ⚔️ "being in love is blemish for me in my dictionary" Mayank said making karn smile a bit
"This isn't a blemish this is love as beautiful as kohl . The world looks at it like a disease but the ones who know it realise this is an auspicious moment" karn replied him politely kicking him down
Mayank was clearly impressed with Karn's ideology and thoughts on love these were the same lines came from vritika when he confronted her a smile appeared on his face not a smirk but a genuine one he dropped his sword down and stood up
"I accept my defeat samrat karn I am impressed by your wit , skills , techniques and ideology I announce you as winner of the competition and swayamvar to you have won Rajkumari vritika hand in marriage but it is upto rajkumari whether she is wiling to have you as her life partner or not" Mayank said embracing him karn which he returned back hugging him
Vritika gazed Vibhishan and bali and her guru's others asking for permission to announce her decision they all nodded their heads with a smile and tears in their eyes . Finally she stood up from her seat "I daughter of maharaj Vibhishan and maharani sarama , spiritual daughter of mata ganga , disciple of asur guru and Dev guru, niece of maharaj mahabali and maharani Vindhyavali, sister of dwarakadeesh shri Krishna, Mahabali balbhadra and ganga putr bheeshm chooses you as my husband" she announced making it clear to all . Anwita and Subhadra along with other elders escorted vritika down towards karn
Kauravas and Ashwatthama along with dushala stood near karn who was smiling like a mad person and tears were flowing through his eyes . Vritika came and stood infront of karn with a radiant smile and tears in her eyes . They both were not able to believe that at last the happiness they were wiling to have in their lives has paved its way towards them dasis came with two garlands , Vibhishan took it in his hands and handed it to karn same with vritika but bali handed it to her
She garlanded him first followed by karn all persons present there were having tears in their eyes the most crying person was balram seeing his baby sister getting married soon
"I , Vibhishan announce marriage of my daughter vibha with samrat of Aryavart karn and I want all of you to be present and bless the couple with your whole heart and wants to thank each and every person who participated in this swayamvar" Vibhishan announced making all the other kings nod though some were disinterested but couldn't take away this chance by creating a relationship with lanka or dis grading their relationship which was already there
To be continued:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::;:::::::::
As promised next chapter I have written
Yeh test karn ke liye nahi mere liye tha
Mera brain ideas dond dond kar tak gayi use rest chahiye
Comment if you have liked the competitions in swayamvar
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Till then Tschüss