How Baahubali:The Conclusion should have ended

Chapter 11

Noticing the anxious look on Kattappa's face, Shivudu said that Devasena is safely sheltered behind a pillar. He further added that the elephants are enraged due to the effect of a narcotic drug which increases their irritability levels. Shivudu said that while water is a very effective diluent for the drug, a more open landscape would be necessary for the elephants to run to reduce their irritability. Kattappa immediately ordered to open the gates of all the three entrances of the kingdom- the main entrance which is surrounded by a water body enough to cover 50 elephants, the rear entrance which opens to the ship dock yard and river Bhagiradhi and an entrance on the west which opens only on special occasions. 

While Jayavarma began commanding his army to drive the elephants to various entrances, Shivudu noticed that the elephants at the kingdom center were becoming unmanageable for the guards to prevent them from attacking the public and destroying their properties. He then noticed a huge water tanker at the kingdom center and approached it with a mace. "Mahendra! You cannot take down the stands, each of which is over 50 feet tall and thicker than the trunks of 3 palm trees put together" said Anila, one of the trusted subordinates of Kattappa's unit. Shivudu replied "I just need to break one of them" and made a sudden jump in the air and struck one of the stands with a twisting motion. The speed and impact of the blow was such that Anila could only hear a shrill noise after the deafening sound from the blow, which even startled the surrounding elephants. Before he could recover to his senses, he saw Mahendra give a few more blows to the pillar and succeeded to finally break it with a push. Within no time the tank lost its balance on the other stands and hit the ground shattering into pieces. Water gushed into the streets of Mahishmati flooding the kingdom center and the nearby buildings and totally submerged the trunks of the elephants whose insides were smeared with the drug. 

Though the flooding caused temporary distress to the people, it receded within a short span when Kattappa opened the drain gates at various places within the city. The elephants on the other hand seemed to be in a bewildered state, mildly recovering from the irritant within their nostrils. The guards began scaring the elephants with firecrackers and mahouts began to take control of them. Jayavarma on the other hand managed to drive some of the elephants to the west and rear entrances, while most of the others rushed towards the water body at the main entrance of Mahishmathi. The effect of the drug was such that the elephants couldn't swim to keep themselves afloat in the water bodies at the main and rear entrances. This resulted in the death of a large number of them.

Shivudu and Kattappa were disheartened at the sight of the havoc within the kingdom and the deaths of the innocent creatures. Devasena could see Shivudu succumbing to self blame for the incident and losing his spirit. "This is no time for lamenting Mahendra. We signed up for a war when we decided to restore justice to Mahishmathi and the war is won only when the enemy is defeated. Bhallaladeva is nowhere to be seen. Capturing him is the only way to put an end to this" she said looking at Shivudu and Kattappa. Being alerted by Devasena's words, Kattappa immediately summoned his special unit and ordered them to search for Bhalladeva. Shivudu on the other hand tried to figure out what Bhallaladeva's escape strategy could have been. He figured out that the first thing Bhallaladeva ought to do to escape is to free himself from the chain wrapping him, for which he must need external assistance. As he moved ahead from the point where he last saw Bhallaladeva, Shivudu noticed a trail of blood alongside the footprints of elephants. Further ahead he saw the corpse of an elephant fallen on a blood-stained ground, with one of its tusks detached from its head. Kattappa hurriedly approached Shivudu to find out what the matter was. Shivudu replied that Bhallaladeva hung onto the tusk of this elephant to escape from the stampede and used the same tusk to break open the links of his chain, resulting in the death of the elephant. Kattappa found a few broken chain links beneath the elephant's trunk, which validated Shivudu's guess. 

"He couldn't have gone far on foot. He must have taken a chariot or horse to escape fast. Given that we were present at the main entrance which was already crowded by elephants, there is little scope of him to escape amidst all of us. Since the rear entrance opens to the dockyard, he must have mostly taken the west entrance. Search for any trail of chariot wheels or horse footprints", Shivudu told Kattappa. Meanwhile Jayavarma also started checking the dockyard to see if any boats have been used to escape from the kingdom.

Just as Kattappa formed his search teams and was about to leave, it dawned upon him that the kingdom had secret escape routes known to a selective few. He entrusted the search duty to his sub-ordinates and informed Shivudu about their locations. There were two primary escape routes within the kingdom-one in the weapon foundry and the other beneath the river stream of Bhagiradhi flowing through the kingdom. Kattappa showed Shivudu the location of the passage door beneath the river stream, which Sivagami Devi had earlier used to escape the kingdom. Kattappa then rushed towards the other escape passage within the weapon foundry. Both of them found no sign of the passage doors being opened. They figured this from the absence of clear demarcations on the boundaries of the doors from the surrounding surfaces which would have resulted from their opening after a long period of time. Both of them re-assembled at the city center and intensified the search within the kingdom and at the exit routes.

 Devasena who has been observing all this felt that there is something fundamentally amiss in their search attempts. She has understood that the faint arrogant smile on Bhallaladeva's face right before he disappeared, meant that he has already outwitted Kattappa's search strategy while planning for his escape.