Novel Full Chapter 456: They Are Here
A pause took over.
“A…”
The snake’s tongue slid across the white surface.
“A BREAK? BREAK? BREAK?”
IT chuckled loudly.
“YOU CALL SELF-SACRIFICE A BREAK? DELIGHTFUL. YES. DELIGHTFUL.”
Malik, again, didn’t care for IT’s mockery.
“…I’m sure you… enjoyed watching me.”
ITS moons for eyes brightened.
“‘ENJOYED.’ ENJOYED. SUCH A SIMPLE TERM. TOO SIMPLE. TOO SMALL FOR WHAT I AM. I NURTURE. NURTURE. NURTURE CURIOSITY. I DEVOUR. DEVOUR. DEVOUR PATTERNS. YOUR REACTIONS—YOUR REACTIONS—YOUR REACTIONS ARE THE MOST JUICY, JUICY, JUICY FEED. FEED. FEED.”
The words filled his mind so completely that the cold almost felt nonexistent.
“OUR LITTLE GAMBIT, OUR LITTLE GAMBIT IN HELL—HELL, HELL, HELL—FORCING YOU, FORCING YOU TO CONFRONT YOUR MANY PATHS, YOUR PASTS, YOUR UNIMAGINABLE, UNIMAGINABLE PASTS. MY CURIOSITIES. MY CURIOSITIES. THE LATTICES—LATTICES—LATTICES MELTING, MELTING, MELTING ON MY TONGUE… ALL ALTERED ME. ALTERED MY REACH. ALTERED MY JURISDICTION. MY JURISDICTION ON FAM IBLIS—FAM IBLIS, FAM IBLIS—BECOMING LIMITED. LIMITED. LIMITED. I WAS CONSTRAINED. CONSTRAINED. CONSTRAINED. THE RUKHS, THE RUKHS, THE RUKHS WOULD HAVE CURSED ME—CURSED ME, CURSED ME—HAD I BROKEN, HAD I BROKEN THEIR LAWS, THEIR LAWS ONCE MORE. THEY WATCH. THEY WATCH. THEY WATCH. AND SO—I STEPPED BACK. BACK. BACK. ALLOWING YOU. ALLOWING YOU TO TAKE. TAKE. TAKE FROM ME AS YOU LIKE, AS YOU LIKE, AS YOU LIKE.”
ITS voice was a thousand voices wearing one snake.
“AND YES—YES, YES, YES—YOU WERE RIGHT. RIGHT, RIGHT. I GAVE YOU SPINE SPLITTER. I GAVE IT BECAUSE I WAS CURIOUS. CURIOUS. I NEEDED YOU. NEEDED YOU TO REACH HELL. TO FACE YOUR PAST. YOUR PAST. YOUR PAST. SO I ORCHESTRATED. ORCHESTRATED. ORCHESTRATED A GOOD PART OF YOUR PATH. I WATCHED. I WATCHED HOW YOU LAUGHED. I WATCHED HOW YOU CRIED. I WATCHED HOW YOU BROKE—BROKE—BROKE. YOU ARE INPUT. INPUT. AN INTERESTING INPUT. INTERESTING. SO VERY INTERESTING.”
Malik’s head tilted a touch, a man listening to a particularly tasteless joke.
“So it was all for curiosity?”
The anger in him was nonexistent.
“To see how I’d break and if I’d become a toy?”
ITS oceans of emptiness seemed to ripple.
“AH, YES… OF COURSE. I’D DO ANYTHING FOR IT. ANYTHING, ANYTHING, ANYTHING. I AM NOTHING BUT VOID, VOID, AND I NEED MORE, MORE, MORE TO FILL THIS EMPTINESS. MORE KNOWLEDGE, MORE TASTE, MORE OF YOU. AND YOURS—YOURS IS THE SWEETEST, THE SWEETEST, THE SWEETEST. OH, IT IS SO SWEET, SO SWEET, SO SWEET, YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND—YOU DO NOT, YOU DO NOT, YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND.”
Malik said nothing.
“WE… WE ARE ALL TOYS, TOYS, TOYS TO SOMEONE. I ADMIT IT, I ADMIT IT: I WANTED TO SEE, TO SEE, TO SEE IF A MORTAL COULD SEVER A BRANCH OF ME IN ‘HIS’ REALM. I WAS TICKLED, TICKLED. YOU DID WELL.”
Malik’s hand trembled when he lifted it once more.
It was a tremble of age, of everything that had become too heavy.
He placed his palm where anyone else might lash out and said something soft, almost tired:
“Stop trying to tempt me; you know that it won’t work.”
ITS laugh sounded like avalanches.
“WHY, WHY, WHY DO YOU REFUSE, REFUSE THE DELICACY, THE DELICACY OF CORRUPTION? I OFFER YOU POWER, POWER WITHOUT COST. AND YOU—YOU OFFER ME SPECTACLE, SPECTACLE WITHOUT COST. HOW AMUSING, HOW VERY, VERY, VERY AMUSING. I WOULD LOVE YOU IN RUIN, LOVE YOU IN ROT, LOVE YOU IN ENDLESS, ENDLESS, ENDLESS NIGHT. AND STILL, STILL, STILL YOU DENY ME, DENY ME, DENY ME. HOW SWEET, HOW BITTER, HOW SWEET.”
Malik’s eyes moved across the forest, seeing the faces of his people.
Sinbad, Dunya, Layla, Azeem, Kabir, and his Shurtat al-Khamis.
In every face was the thing he’d given them.
A reason to stand before the inevitable.
They were the resistance.
His resistance.
“Because…”
He spoke slowly.
“If I die like a coward who took an easy bargain, they will never learn to be stronger than what they hate. If I die and they’ve been tempered by hatred and trial, forged by it, they will come back different…”
His black eyes reflected the snake’s white.
“They will stand when I am gone.”
“AND WHO TOLD YOU I HAVEN’T CONSIDERED THIS?”
IT boomed.
“WHO TOLD YOU? WHO TOLD YOU? WHO TOLD YOU THAT YOU COULDN’T CREATE SUCH AN ENDING? ENDING, ENDING, ENDING. BUT YES—YES, YES, YES—YOU’RE RIGHT. RIGHT, RIGHT. I WON’T CREATE SUCH AN ‘END.’ AN END, AN END. IT’S TOO… TOO CREATIVE. TOO CREATIVE. TOO ROMANTIC. ROMANTIC, ROMANTIC. TOO PATHETIC—PATHETIC, PATHETIC, PATHETIC.”
“…”
Malik’s silence was his answer.
“SO IS THAT IT THEN?”
He nodded at IT.
“It is. I have defeated you.”
“NO…”
The snake shook ITS head.
“IT IS ONLY THE BATTLE OF MINDS THAT I HAVE LOST…”
IT hissed once more, soundless.
“THIS IS NOT THE END, YOU’LL SEE.”
A hush grew cold.
“YOU. YOU ARE CURIOUS. CURIOUS. A CURIOUS LITTLE SPECIMEN, MALIK. CURIOUS, CURIOUS, CURIOUS. I WILL ALLOW IT. ALLOW IT. ALLOW YOUR ‘BREAK.’ YOUR LITTLE BREAK. BUT—BUT—BUT—DO NOT BE GLAD. DO NOT BE HAPPY. HAPPY IS FOOLISH. FOOLISH. FOOLISH. EVEN IF YOU FOOL ME, EVEN IF YOU FOOL ME INTO REST, INTO REST, INTO REST—I WILL RETURN. RETURN. RETURN. WHEN YOU FALL, WHEN YOU FALL, WHEN YOU FALL—I SHALL SEND THEM. LEGS. LEGS. LEGS. WINGS. WINGS. TEETH. TEETH. TEETH. LAWS, LAWS, LAWS FROM BEYOND. I WILL POUR ARMIES. ARMIES. ARMIES. ARMIES THROUGH GATES. THROUGH GATES. THROUGH EVERY GATE. ARMIES SO LARGE—SO LARGE—SO LARGE—THEY WILL STILL BE LEAVING, STILL BE LEAVING, STILL BE LEAVING MY KINGDOM WHILE YOURS IS DYING, DYING, DYING. I WILL FILL IT. FILL IT. FILL IT. FILL IT WITH HUNGER. HUNGER. HUNGER. WITH WHAT REMAINS OF MY HUNGER UNTIL THERE IS NOTHING. NOTHING. NOTHING LEFT. YOU WILL BE NOTHING. NOTHING.”
Malik breathed, an almost invisible motion.
“I will be waiting.”
With all that he had left, he reached out for the third time.
His fingers touched the Forgotten Nexus, and the snake slithered onto his hand.
IT went back into him as everything around him flashed into a blinding white.
Malik blinked only to find himself before the Golden Throne once more.
The same cold had returned, his Corruption spilling over.
More ‘sand’ trickled out of the hourglass.
It was way beyond full.
Yet, he remained Malik.
He wouldn’t allow himself to die Corrupted.
If in life he wasn’t human, then at least in death he would be.
The hall felt like a single held note, one that had him close his eyes once more.
Though only for a small moment, as he opened them once more.
No longer were they black, but pure gold, fiercer than ever.
Three words split his mind in two.
‘They are here.’
He pushed himself up.
“Ah… I’ll finally sleep.”
His eyes brightened for one last time.
The stage was set, and the main characters had arrived.
Now, it was finally time to see this story’s end.
“…Let this be my final act.”