O King, the time has come for you to meet your end in this great battle. It is clear to me that your former kingdom must be regained, but first, death awaits you here. You, the princess, and the minister must return to your old city—but only after becoming corpses here, regaining your bodies there. Just as both of us arrived in our own ways, and you came in the form of wind, so too must the princess and the minister find their way back. Each being follows its own path, as the horse, camel, donkey, and the majestic, intoxicated elephant all travel their separate ways. As the two of you spoke gently together, a man rushed in, stood above you, and cried out urgently: “O lord! A great hostile force has come, showering arrows, wheels, swords, maces, and iron clubs—rushing upon us like a single, surging ocean. Maces, spears, and clubs fall like mountain stones swept by the winds at the end of an age; they rain down endlessly. “Within the city, which rises like a mountain, fire spreads in all directions. Its crackling bursts topple the finest buildings. Smoke billows into the sky, forming mountains upon mountains, as if cosmic clouds had collided, striving to ascend like mighty Garudas. Amid the harsh cries of men, people speak with agitation; outside, a tumult fills every quarter. “The forceful drawing of bows sends forth a rain of arrows, and the loud trumpeting of huge, intoxicated elephants shakes the air. Inside the city, the leaping flames crackle, and the cries of citizens whose wives have been burned echo in great distress. The fire’s fragments roar harshly, blazing with flickering flames that sound like ‘dhvaga-dhvaga.’ “Through the window, the two queens, the minister, and King Viduratha saw the city in the deep of night, rising with a tremendous roar. It was like a single, vast ocean, churned by the winds of dissolution, surging with waves of dark, ominous clouds, all driven by a supreme power. The city was being consumed by masses of flame, bright as mountain bodies dissolving in the fires of the world’s end, filling the sky. “Terrifying, tumultuous cries mingled with the thunder of massive clouds, close enough to grasp, and the fleshly mutterings of incantations. The sky was veiled by swirling clouds of smoke, like eddies in a lotus pond, and was ceaselessly lit by masses of flames that glowed like golden clouds. Meteors and shooting stars flickered, while heaps of burning bodies illuminated the scene with blazing fire. “The city, its armies destroyed, was filled with piles of embers and clouds of ash, resounding with dreadful wails and the fierce roar of burning worlds. Arrows filled the sky ceaselessly, like a forest consumed by fire, and the ground was strewn with blazing flames that rolled through and burned down rows of houses. “Fierce warriors lay struck down by elephants in battle, and the great wealth of the city was scattered along the roads, where fleeing thieves met their end. The cries of men and women intensified as showers of embers fell, and the crackling of burning wood resounded as flames consumed all. “The sky was filled with countless chariot wheels and hundreds of suns, while the earth was covered with peaks of burning coals. The crackling of burning logs rang out like the sound of a veena, and the lamentations of all the animals being burned, including elephants, rose in sorrow. The food of kings, queens, and elders, laid out on mats, was destroyed, and the eager flames began to consume everything. “The houses echoed with the harsh crackling and roaring of the fire, and the flames, once freed from fuel, longed to devour the endless food of countless creatures. “King Viduratha heard the voices of his soldiers, who, as they burned, cried out while running and witnessing the destruction: ‘Alas! The maddened wind above is casting down burning embers from rooftops and trees, as swords clash in the blazing chaos. Alas! Swords, cold as snow, are lodged in the bodies of elephants, just as wisdom’s sayings are fixed in the minds of the wise. Alas, father! The causes of death are hidden in the tender grass of youth, burning like heaps of dry leaves set ablaze by a hero’s fire. ‘A long, swirling river of smoke rushes upward; I see the sky’s Ganges, filled with smoke, surging ahead. The smoke-river, rising with burning logs, blinds the celestial beings; look, fire-sparks and bubbles can be seen within it. Mother, father, brother, son-in-law, son, and daughter have all been burned in this house; now the fire seeks to consume the rest. ‘Alas! Alas! Go quickly, sir, from this house of embers; it is about to collapse, like the summit of Mount Meru falling down. Ah! Arrows, stones, spears, javelins, and swords—all these weapons enter the blazing, smoke-filled clouds like moths rushing into fire. All the winds are drawn into the blazing fire in the sky, just as surging ocean waves are swallowed by the fierce submarine fire. ‘Great clouds become smoky at the tips of the tongues of flame, and even lakes dry up, just as the hearts of those consumed by passion are emptied. Rows of trees, scorched and angry, are struck down by elephants, their cracking branches resounding as they fall, felled by those who have already eaten their fill. The household trees, once fragrant with blossoms and fruit, now burned and stripped of all, stand desolate—like householders deprived of everything.’” Thus, in the midst of chaos and destruction, the city and all within it were consumed by fire, violence, and sorrow, as fate unfolded its inexorable course.