As evil matures and destruction comes to fruition, the earth herself is torn from her roots and overturned, her very foundation shaken. In this upheaval, consciousness fades, and the earth’s natural fragrance is lost; venomous serpents are drawn out and exposed. Yet, as loss and defeat are swept away, a fierce force arises—Śarva, enraged, descends and crushes, so that even flesh is ground down beneath his wrath. Amidst this chaos, Nirṛti, the devourer, consumes and is herself consumed in turn. She who devours cuts off entire worlds—the sacred cow of Brahman, the Brahman-wife, is taken from here and there, severed from her place. Her destruction is wrought through witchcraft, and the binding command of Menirā holds her fast. She is left bereft, deprived of her own, abandoned by all. Then Agni, transformed and flesh-eating, enters in and devours the cow of Brahman, the Brahman-wife. He severs all her limbs, her joints, her very roots, breaking the bonds of kinship—her paternal kin are cut off, her maternal kin are driven away. She destroys all marriages and relatives, the cow of Brahman, the Brahman-wife, when the Kṣatriya does not return her to the Brāhmaṇa. The one who commits this act is made homeless, without kin, without offspring, left without refuge and diminished, for such is the fate of the Kṣatriya who, knowing the truth, seizes the sacred cow from the Brāhmaṇa. At her killing, vultures swiftly descend to make carrion of her remains. At her burning, wild-haired women dance around her, striking the evil flesh with their hands against her chest. In her dwelling, wolves gather quickly to make carrion as well. Those who witness these events question what transpired—was it this, or was it that? A cry arises: "Cut, cut, cut forth! Destroy, destroy completely!" Angirasa is called upon to take up the guilt of Brahma-slaying and deliver it away. The victim is named Vaisvadevi, bound with the ritual cord, and she who burns is the thunderbolt of Brahman, burning alone and burning together. She is called upon to become death itself, razor-edged and swift, to run forth. Yet, this force also grants victory, brilliance, the fulfillment of desires and offerings. Having won, she bestows victory in this world upon the victor. O sinless one, she is invoked to become the path that leads away from the curse of the Brahmin, to become a mark for arrows, and the destroyer of the destroyer. She is asked to strike off the head of the Brahma-slayer—the wrongdoer, the god-hated, the evildoer. Agni is called to burn up the evil deed, already crushed and trampled. Again, the command resounds: "Cut, cut forth, cut together! Burn, burn forth, burn together!" The goddess is entreated to burn up the Brahma-slayer from the very root, to send him far away from evil worlds, as if from the abode of Yama himself. So too should she act for the Brahma-slayer, the wrongdoer, the god-hated, the evildoer. With the hundred-jointed thunderbolt and the sharpest of razor blades, she is urged to strike off his shoulders and his head, to cut off his hair and strip away his skin, to slice his flesh and tear out his sinews, to crush his bones and extract his marrow, and to dislocate every limb and joint—so that the weight of his wrongdoing is utterly destroyed and cast far from the world.