He came from nothing. He became everything. And when the last Natt falls... he will dig his own grave with their bones.
The Natt army arrives. They do not find a frightened peasant. They find Maula standing on the dung heap, bare-chested, the gandasa glowing red from the forge fire he built in the last hour.
This is where the Einthusan legend diverges from the common tellings. As dawn bleeds orange, Maula does not kill Daro with steel. He captures her. He drags her to the center of the village, to the dung heap where the village outcasts sit.