THE UNSUNG WARRIORS OF INDIA

Scene: The Shore of Scars – Distant Ullal, Dawn

The ocean didn't roar that morning.It whispered.

Fishermen found strange objects washed ashore—sealed Portuguese barrels, marked not with the cross, but with a skull inked in tar.

The village elder, Tilaka, split one open.

A foul mist hissed out—black and green, the stench of rotting flesh and burnt herbs.

Within hours, Tilaka collapsed, coughing blood. Then his eyes rolled back, and he laughed like a broken marionette—before convulsing into silence.

By sunset, the village was dead.

But no one stayed dead that long.

Scene: Abbakka's Court – The Last Council

Abbakka stood barefoot in the war hall, as her generals reported what none dared to believe.

"The dead walk in coastal Ullal. They don't speak. They don't rot. They move toward the city like shadows pulled by strings."

Her court fell into chaos. Some cried witchcraft, others blamed divine punishment.

Abbakka slammed her palm on the teakwood table, cracking it.

"It's not sorcery. It's science."

She looked at her spy master.

"Cabral has begun chemical warfare. A baptism of disease."

Her eyes narrowed.

"Then we'll baptize them back—with fire."

Scene: The Labyrinth Beneath the Palace

Few knew of the tunnels below the palace—ancient catacombs built during the Chola dynasty.

Here, Abbakka's scholars, physicians, and poisoners toiled in silence. Here, herbs turned to gases. Bees became spies. And ancient Sanskrit scrolls whispered secrets of warfare the world had long buried.

Asha, now half-covered in ritual scars and armor etched with mantras, led the research.

"Their mist is alchemical," she said. "We traced it to ingredients found only in Goa. Mixed with Christian funeral ash and opium oil. They're playing god."

Abbakka stared into the flame.

"Then let's become the devil they fear."

Scene: The Surgeon of Shadows – Arrival of the Stranger

That night, a strange figure arrived at the palace gates.

A man cloaked in raven feathers, face masked with brass, fingers gloved in silver, his voice laced with silk and venom.

"I am Vasudev the Black Surgeon. I've studied corpses that walk and diseases that think. You want to stop this... plague? You don't need soldiers. You need an artist."

Abbakka studied him.

"And what's your price?"

He unmasked—revealing no face, only burnt skin, stitched into a smile.

"Only vengeance. For what they did to my family in Goa."

She accepted.

And war changed shape.

Scene: Resurrection Fields

The plague spread with the wind.

Children sang songs of ghosts in gardens. Dogs howled endlessly. Fishermen burned their own boats, fearing what floated beneath.

Abbakka and Vasudev launched Operation: Red Seed—a counter-strike using infected Portuguese corpses, reanimated by Ayurvedic venom and set loose back upon their creators.

The Portuguese called it black magic.

Vasudev called it balance.

Lobo, still in Abbakka's dungeon, watched from his barred window as the first Portuguese village fell to its own dead.

He smiled bitterly.

"The lioness doesn't roar. She infects."

Scene: Betrayal in the Wind

Amid this chaos, betrayal crept.

A young monk named Aryan—trusted advisor and royal priest—was caught smuggling documents out of the palace inside holy scrolls.

He was a spy for the Portuguese Inquisition.

Before Abbakka could question him, he bit into a glass bead sewn under his tongue.

Poison.

His last words?

"The Pope sends not priests anymore… he sends hell."

That night, lightning struck the temple tower.

And in its place…A black flag with a crucifix in flames.

Scene: The Hell-Fleet Arrives

At dawn, the sea turned black.

An armada of ten ships, unlike any seen before, approached Ullal.

But they didn't come with cannons.

They came with smoke.

Large iron towers stood on deck, belching toxic clouds. Birds dropped from the sky. The waves bubbled.

And at the center stood The Inquisitor, a pale, skeletal figure clad in silver armor, holding a bible in one hand and a crucifix-shaped flamethrower in the other.

His voice boomed across the water:

"Bow, heathens. Or drown in salvation."

Abbakka stood atop the sea cliff, eyes burning.

"Let them come."

She turned to her Night Guard.

"Tonight, we set the ocean on fire."

Scene: Operation Fire-Womb

Using Vasudev's formula, Abbakka's navy had coated dozens of small skiffs in flammable oil derived from elephant resin and pepper extract.

They were set adrift toward the Portuguese fleet—seemingly unmanned.

When the Inquisitor's men tried pulling the boats in...

The flames ignited.

The sea exploded.

Black smoke spiraled into the sky. Ships burned from mast to hull. Men jumped overboard only to find the waters laced with acid salts.

The Inquisitor did not flinch.

He simply raised his arms, walking into the flames.

Scene: The Smiling Corpse

At midnight, a body was found nailed to the palace gate.

It was a Portuguese officer—his hands sewn to his chest, eyes burned out, tongue replaced with a scroll.

On it was written in blood:

"We do not fear your crosses.We carry gods who bite."

Beneath it was scrawled the mark of The Black Surgeon—a raven's skull.

The people of Ullal cheered.

But Abbakka? She stood quiet.

"This is not victory," she said."This is the part of war where the world begins to rot."

Scene: Final Silence

In the dungeons, Lobo sat in darkness.

He heard no screams. No drums. Just the sound of a child humming beyond the walls.

Then, he saw her.

Abbakka, alone, walking into his cell.

She knelt beside him.

"Do you still dream of peace?" she asked.

He looked up, his eyes tired, empty.

"Only when you stop fighting."

She nodded.

Then, without a word, she stood and walked away.

And for the first time in his life, Lobo wept.

Final Image: The Burning Bible

At dawn, Abbakka stood on the highest cliff of Ullal.

She held in her hand a Portuguese bible soaked in oil.

The people gathered below.

The sky turned orange.

And without a word, she set it ablaze and tossed it into the sea.

"No gods. No masters. Only fire."

The crowd erupted.

The war had only begun.

✨ End of Chapter Five