Saving The Future - Chapter 53

The next day, the new governor reached the city and Aariv relieved himself of his duties. The new governor was a student of Kautilya, his name was Ahinas.

He quickly started marching towards Chola with his army and the king and his daughter. He knew that such a big army moment would not go unnoticed and he’d need to fight the enemy army, but he wasn’t afraid of fighting them.

After conquering Kalinga, the Mauryan empire had already covered 75% of India. Now only southern India and Northeast India remain. He wasn’t going to conquer the northeast yet as not many people lived there and the terrain was harsh too. He’d leave that for later.

Right now, his plan was to conquer South India and then make the empire’s administration stronger. Make people’s lives better and remove inequalities with technological advancements. He would then wait for his men to bring the kidnapped people from Greece. After that, he would leave for investigating the unknown signals.

It took them 8 days to reach the border of the Chola kingdom, there they met with the Chola army. It was flatland and perfect for a war. Aariv took out his telescope and looked at the enemy side. They were 500 meters away.

He saw that the brother of King Purusaprabhu led the army himself.

“Haha… your brother came here himself, I guess he’s eager to die”

“But how are you going to fight him? he has more than double your army” King Purusaprabhu asked, with concern for his life.

“Grow a spine will you. You just stay here and watch, when I tell you to come, you come” Aariv ordered.

King Purusaprabhu shrunk his neck in fear. His daughter was looking at her father in disappointment.

“How are we going to fight them, your highness?” Black asked.

“It’s not we. It’s just me that’s going to fight. I need to push my body to its limit so that I can get stronger.” Aariv said while looking at the enemy camp.

He then went to a catapult and talked to the soldier operating it.

“Soldier, I want you to set the aim at the center of the enemy formation. Near their commander.” He ordered.

The soldiers did as they were told and set the aim, then they went ahead and started to load an 80 kilo stone on it.

“Wait… wait… Don’t do that… we won’t be throwing a stone” he said.

The soldiers looked at him with confused faces,

“then what are we going to throw?” Black asked, and the others nodded too. They wanted to ask the same thing.

“Me,” Aariv said and jumped on the throwing arm of the catapult.

“Bye-bye” he said and cut the break rope. He knew that they would not agree to throw him so he did it himself.

“What… wait… NO” Black was fl.u.s.tered with Aariv’s sudden actions. He just saw a blurry image of Aariv being thrown in the air.

Aariv was currently in the air headed to enemy camp. He realized that his trajectory was not correct. The catapult’s aim was set with the weight of the stone in mind but Aariv was not as heavy as the stone, so he would end up at the end of the enemy lines.

He was enjoying the colliding air with his face in the air.

~Ah… I wish I could fly~ He thought.

With each passing second. Aariv’s image became clear to the enemy, they prepared their weapons to greet him, though they doubted that he would live after falling from such height.

Aariv saw that he was nearing the ground, he materialized his long sword. He was getting excited for the action.

[BAM]

He fell on the ground, his fall made a small crater in the ground. The soldiers surrounded and looked at him in disbelief.

“Who are you?” one of them asked,

“Put your weapons down and surrender, this is what your real king wants,” Aariv said, giving them a last chance to save themselves.

“You are alone and there are thousands of us, I think it’s you who should surrender,” the soldier said.

“Well, I did give you a chance.”

Aariv took a fighting stance. The soldiers around him also got ready.

Don’t know who but someone shouted and the soldiers started to swarm at Aariv. Still, only about 8 soldiers could surround him at a time. He started slaying them, they kept coming and dying. Aariv was also receiving some cuts here and there but his body healed itself.

After such a long time he felt like his body’s energy was depleting. He looked around and saw himself at the center of a crowd of hundreds of thousands. He knew that he could go on forever but that would just reduce the manpower he could have used in some other way.

He understood that he needed to slay their commander to break their spirit and decided to try a new move.

Aariv thought about trying to infuse his psychokinetic powers with his sword. He tried to infuse Aerokinesis and then slashed it towards the direction of the commander.

In a second a whitish slash left the sword with its momentum and kept on traveling, cutting whatever came in its way. It only stopped after killing about a hundred men.

~Too overpowered, normal humans are like ragdolls in front of me~ he said to himself.

He found an opportunity and ran towards the commander’s elephant. He reached the elephant, jumped on its back. There was an open howdah(A cushioned carpet to sit on) on the back.

The King Purusaprabhu’s brother was shocked seeing him in front of him, he immediately tried to stand up while taking out his sword but before that Aariv swung his sword.

Aariv had the head of the commander in his hand and showed it to the army while loudly roaring at them, telling them to surrender.

“I alone was enough to kill your commander and so many of you. Do you still want to fight my Army? do you want to die for your dead commander” He said and threw the head from the elephant’s back at the crowd. When they saw the lifeless head roll on the ground, they lost their last bit of fighting spirit.”

[CLANK]

[CLANK]

Soon, the sound of soldiers dropping their swords on the ground was heard.

“Black, come here with that fool, I have killed his brother and the soldiers have surrendered,” he said on his holocom.

“On our way, your highness”

…

Soon a carriage rolled in, the soldiers gave way and let it pass.

King Purusaprabhu and his daughter got out of it, Aariv signaled them to climb up the elephant. The soldiers looked at everything with defeated and sad faces.

“This is your King and the fact that you followed his treacherous brother’s commands also makes you traitors, but fear not as I will give you a chance to redeem yourselves. King Purusaprabhu has surrendered his kingdom to the Mauryan rule. This won’t change anything for you. Instead, things are going to be much better.

Your employer will change from King Purusaprabhu to the Mauryan empire, King Purusaprabhu will still be a king but he will have no right to order you around, instead, you will follow the governor appointed to this kingdom.

You will not have to face more wars as I am on my way to defeat the Cheras and Pandyas. You will have new better jobs, money, food and your children will not have to work, they can go to school and someday become a state official or even a governor. All you have to do is to stay true to the Mauryan rule. I never mistreat my people, to me each one of you is important.

Now tell me. Are you willing to follow me?” Aariv gave his speech.

All the soldiers suddenly started to kneel, they all felt that following Aariv was the best choice, not just because of his speech but also because they saw him fight. They understood that nothing good would come out by standing in his way. It’s better to join him.

“All hail his highness” Someone started to chant.

Soon, everyone started to chant. This kept on going for a while. After everyone calmed down he told them to set up camps and march with him to Chera and Pandya kingdom tomorrow. Everyone gladly accepted his orders.

Aariv was in his tents, talking to his father and Kautilya.

“Father, baldy. I have taken over Chola too. Now I am going to march towards the Chera and Pandya kingdom. Baldy, please select 2 more candidates for the governor position. Make sure you send someone with Holocom with him to keep an eye on him.

After everything is done here, I will enact the constitution. It will have everything written in it, even the powers, limits and the code of conduct of a governor will also be in it. I will also start making the lesser Holocoms which are to be distributed to all state officials. There is so much work.” Aariv frustratingly said,

“Calm down, son. After you are done with them, we will have the whole of India under our control, we will not have to worry about fighting and you will finally be able to focus on your reforms,” Chandragupta said, trying to ease his mood.

Chandragupta was feeling extremely proud to have a son like him.

Who would have thought that his dream of uniting India under one banner would be fulfilled so soon?

Aariv smilingly nodded,

“Alright, I’ll go and talk to King Purusaprabhu now, I am leaving Black as temporary governor here. I will leave tomorrow for Chera kingdom, I will keep things short and try to finish up as soon as possible. You send the governors” he said and disconnected.

…

Inside another camp.

King Purusaprabhu was sitting in front of Aariv.

“Black will stay with you and act as the temporary governor, All the troops and state officials will have to follow his orders. You take him with you to your capital city and deal with the corrupt officials who supported your brothers… you must not show them kindness, they are like a plague disease and will spread if left untreated.” Aariv said seriously.

King Purusaprabhu deeply bowed to Aariv and said.

“Thank you for helping me, your highness and you can rest assured I will not let them go.”

Aariv nodded and stood up, he came closer to King Purusaprabhu and put his hand on his head. He was using his biokinesis power to heal his infertility. He wasn’t prolonging King Purusaprabhu’s life as he did with his parents because he didn’t want to.

King Purusaprabhu was old and Aariv calculated that he would probably die in 10 years.

~10 years should be enough for him to produce an heir~ he thought and left.