Like a flood, I remembered all I'd learned about the vicious King Ravana. In his past life, the Asura chopped off his head ten times as a sacrifice to appease the Lord of Destruction. Each time he sliced his head off a new head arose.

Ravana asked for a boon of immortality. Lord Shiva refused to give it to him but gave him the celestial nectar of immortality. The nectar, stored in his navel, dictated that he could not be destroyed for as long as it lasted. With this absolute invulnerability, he began to conquer the gods and ruled over heavenly spirits, other Asuras, serpents, and wild beasts.

Now towered over us, the Demon King blocked the heavens, endowed with the strength of moving the seas and splitting the mountains. Standing high like an enormous dark cloud, he stared down at me with maniac pairs of eyes. The human soldiers fled panic-stricken before him, and there was none to help me.

Ravana lifted his foot and tried to squash the life out of me like an insect. I rolled from under him like a dove that flies from a falcon's claws.

The earth shook behind me. I could hear the avatars rushing to my rescue from all corners of the field. Vorac circled her flying chariot around the Demon Lord while raining her arrows over him. Ravana roared and smashed his clenched fist against the wheel of her chariot. It swirled off the sky and crashed to the ground. Vorac's swift arrows were shed from her quiver as she plummeted with her steeds.

"Vorac!" Tusita cried. "How dare you hurt my woman!"

She shot an arrow that exploded on his shoulder. Enraged with pain, Ravana filled his chest with roars. His eight arms and eight hands wielded swords, morning stars, and spears.

"You all shall despair and die!" Ravana cried. "Kill every single one of them!"

The demons attacked again. Into the fight, they went with newborn vigor. Now their master was with them, and he was still unbelievably powerful. Our dead soldiers who came straight from the underworld, trying an especially daring feat. They jumped on Ravana with might. Yet, the success was not theirs.

With all his nine heads working simultaneously, Ravana destroyed them and could still find me in no time at all. He let out in an ear-splitting laugh that ripped through the night.

Then he crouched down to the ground, and like a giant spider or an ape, he crawled over towards me. I began to run through the vast fighting mess. Ravana followed me from behind. One of his eight arms lifted the staff that was now the size of a tree trunk and slammed it down upon the earth. I was sent flying by the impact and fell in a heap. Dust rained all over me.

"Who's the coward now?" Ravana chuckled.

I staggered to my feet again, and with my tiny sword, I met another bone-crushing blow. A rippling force burst between us as celestial weapons clashed against one another.

"I see that the gods have given you many blessings," he said as he pressed down harder. "But you are still no match for me!"

With that, Ravana's other hand raised his spear in the arc. Terror struck me. There was no doubt that this would end me right then and there, but a bolt of clawed horror hurled itself at his side, cutting off his action.

The Demon Lord let out a streak of surprise and left me for a terrible death struggle with my preserver, which was nothing less than my faithful mount, Gajasimha. I witnessed a battle of power, agility, and blind ferocity of two powerful beings rarely known to earthly man.

My beast king had an advantage in his first attack, having sunk his mighty fangs deep into the leg of the Asura, but the great arms had locked the throat of my guardian and slowly were choking out his life, and bending back his elephantine head upon his body. Presently, I saw the great eyes of my mount bulging from their sockets and blood flowing from his nostrils. Gajasimha was evidently weakening.

"No!" I cried. "Leave him alone!"

I ran towards them and wielded my sword over my head then slashed it downward. The flash of golden energy rushed out from the blade cutting through the air. A head and an arm were blown off from Ravana's body.

He released the lion king as he screamed in pain. Though his heads and limbs became lesser, Ravana was madder than ever. His rage instigated a storm.

"You wretched mortal!" he cursed and stood upright again before moved swiftly towards me.

At the same time, a platoon of avatars caught up with us at last.

"No!" Tepi cried. She clapped her hands together, and several jagged spires of rock the size of a pillar erupted from the ground, caging the mad demon.

The others began their attacks. But Ravana could see all things that moved. Before this daring group could bring their gleaming weapons to bear, he smashed the spires and welcomed them with the blades of his swords, the spikes of his tridents and the tips of his arrows. He cut through their ranks and files with impressive speed.

Nothing could withstand him.

Shattered to pieces, the former dead soldiers disappeared into oblivion and into the black mist. This time it was forever, never to be reborn. More and more of our soldiers followed them. It was truly an unfair battle.

I realized I had to get his attention back from my friends and soldiers, or they would all perish under his hands.

I took off and dove between his legs like I did with the monkey king and slashed the back of his ankle as I went past.

Ravana cried in irritation. Then all his weapons sought me. I leaped and dodged the frantic attacks while I ran as fast as I could. I must find a place where he wouldn't be causing so much harm to others.

The Asura King followed me. All heads tried to look for me among the shrubs. I found myself running through a woodland, across dark glades of trees, through wild orchards, past mossy rocks until I reached a clearing near the river. I collapsed there.

It was nearly dawn. Before me was Ravana's island city, hovering in the darkness.

"You have nowhere to go, Prophesied Child," his loud ancient voice echoed from the dark wood. "You shall die in despair and never to gaze upon your lover's face ever again!"

I rose to my feet with great effort. Stabbing my sword to the ground, I stood with new determination. My limps followed my orders. My muscles did what they were told. It was not over. One more time, I had to jump into the fray. I twirled around to face my foe, tightened my grip on the moonsword.

Standing there, I started to feel my powers growing back. The medicine was still in effect. My wound was closing once more. Waiting for the towering harbinger of death, I gained my ground for one last fight. At the very end of the world, the sky began to turn red behind me.

Another day of bloodshed had arrived.

But this time I was not alone. Tepi's voice called out to me. She was the first to reach me through a tunnel and the others followed.

I saw that even the avatars looked drained. How could I ask one more sacrifice from them?

Tepi, she looked so afraid. She was never one to be afraid. I looked at her face and felt pity for her. She had helped me so much, but now she wouldn't know how to go on. The same I saw in the face of each and every one of us.

One thing, I had learned in my past was that everything had a weakness. But Ravana showed no fatal flaw. He grew an arm or a head, every time he survived a blow, he closed a wound and became whole again.

I could continue the attack on the mighty king until my powers were all depleted. I must find a way to bring down the final blow and end his life.

O Destined One, his weakness is the same as yours. Find it and you shall destroy the greatest demon the world has ever known.

"The same as mine? What is it?" I said to myself, but the voice was silent.

"Nikita? Who are you speaking to?"

I turned to my friends again.

"You surely know how Ravana was slain before he took a new birth, don't you?" I asked.

"Lord Rama killed him with his very own weapon the Murthayu Wana," Raksa said, "an arrow inviolable as a thunderbolt hurled by the arms of Indra and irresistible as Yama, the Lord of Death. It struck Ravana in the stomach where his true life resided."

"But with a new life comes a new weakness," Tepi said. "Now we do not know for sure where it is."

The rumbling sounds of his arrival grew louder. The trees snapped and fell with his advancement.

"Then we have to keep on fighting," I said as the avatars came to stand by my sides, facing the same direction. "We need to be clever. We must divide our force in two and distract him while I seek for his fatal flaw."

They nodded. The fatigue left their face. Their confidence grew once again. They believed in me.

One after the other, I looked at their faces in gratitude.

"Let us end this," I grunted and lifted the crescent blade again. "His weakness is the same as mine."