Alchemy Of Abyss

Chapter Nine~3

"It usually begins here... Jalila was waiting for me every time in this spot." He pointed at the place they were standing in. They walked through the destroyed city. Loubna held onto her shirt, feeling the terror of the place creeping into her soul.

The city was dark, with almost no source of light. They walked between the broken bricks of the demolished buildings. The darkness seemed to fade away.

Their walk stopped harshly with the view before them. Burned dead bodies, shredded flesh, and running blood like a waterfall covering the cracked ground mixed with burning flesh. They covered their noses from the deadly smell, both scared, shaking, and not believing their own eyes.

A horrific cry filled their ears, forcing them to move their heads toward it.

Dark, cold black shadowy figure standing far. The city was dim, completely dark, yet that colossal figure stood out clearly. Something behind it gave the figure an absolute light and aura that seemed foreign to it.

They stopped, close enough to see a young, tall, muscled man wearing an endless black cloth with an oversized hood. Nothing was visual from the man's body, but his tall defined figure clear underneath the black undefined cloth that looked merged with the cracked ground.

Hundreds of black wisps flew around his figure. The man moved to the left, revealing what was giving him all this light. Behind the wisps was a beautiful woman with a devastating face and shaking, beaten body and unstopped, bleeding back. Next to her were bright golden feathers lying on the ground with splashed blood over them.

The man laughed at her begging state and mercilessly hacked his right hand in the middle of her uprising chest. The woman screamed painfully. Around his black veined hand, an unsustainable light came from within her weak standing body. He twitched his hand inside her chest. She screamed even louder, almost sounding like a banshee crying threatening the ground to fissure deeper.

With his other hand caressing her raven hair, he watched her last tears run over her luminous pink cheeks before he ripped her heart out. The light that was covering his hand inside her erupted violently over the last pieces of the city, along with his screams.

Loubna and Nabil covered their faces from the mighty light that felt burning through their flesh. The man's screams stopped suddenly, and the burning sensation felt cold. They moved their hands and looked around. Everything froze, and the man was as solid as a statue.

"I see you brought your sister-in-law," a female voice said from behind the man. They titled their heads and saw the person behind that voice.

A beautiful old lady wearing a long dark blue kaftan with a loose scarf laid beautifully around her head showed her silky white hair that is in a bun underneath the scarf. The two ends of the scarf lay on both her shoulders with a silver ostrich feather brooch on her right shoulder and a silver shen ring brooch on the other shoulder.

Her age was heard clearly from her voice, yet her face and slim body said otherwise. Loubna gasped when the woman walked toward them. Nabil knew who she was yet seeing her again caught him off guard. "Jalila," Loubna said, not believing her eyes.

"Long time no see kid," she said, smiling at her. "I know you don't remember... you were like two years old."

Loubna smiled, and for a second, she forgot everything around her. Jalila is a strong woman from southern Egypt. Her name and power are known. Some people call her the mightiest witch of Africa, others call her the mother of all powers and abilities. Most people just call her by her name, Jalila, the woman beyond any definition of time or power.

"Is it true? Is this the end?" Nabil said, frowning.

"Sadly, it is," Jalila said. "I wanted to make sure your mind could oversee that future... this reality doesn't exist any longer, but it won't stop here. This massacre will happen in every reality."

Loubna breathed sharply, grasping the horrific reality she was standing in. "Who would do it? How can anyone ever do this?! Is it that man?" she pointed at the man standing next to them.

"One of them."

"Who?" Loubna asked.

"It doesn't matter now. What's important here is you, Nabil," Jalila said and looked at him.

"Me? Why? I don't have any ability or power to prevent this future," he said and looked innocently at both.

"You have, but he stole it from you," Jalila said and stepped back. "Tell your elders and meet me at the Duat, don't be late," she said and walked away. They didn't have time to respond as the screaming and the burning light started covering their bodies along with their own screams.

Aicha placed her hands over their shoulders, pushing them to fall to their sides. Both gasped for air before gaining their balance to stand. "What happened? Is it true? Is it a vision?" Aicha asked them.

Loubna looked at her and said, "It is. Jalila came and told us to gather our elders and to meet her in the Duat."

"It will happen, that future will happen!" Nabil said and ran his shaky hand through his wavy brown hair.