Sidratul Muntaha

Chapter 61🌑

Bismillahi Rrahmaani Rraheem •

Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuhu •

Here u go readers.

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The mist had crowded around the forest. It smelt faintly of jasmine. All around, the dark shapes of demons lingered, waiting for something to happen. The chill seeped through the floor and onto the trees, freezing them. The jade vines crawled all around the trees, luminescent in the otherwise dark forest. The Kadupuls had bloomed.

The air was filled with magic, luring and tantalizing. It was effective in misguiding the steps of people, taking them in the direction of all that was unallowed and unforgivable. The air was filled to the brim with false promises of eternal peace. The demons were proud of their handiwork. They knew, that none could break the magic that they had permeated here. It was a death trap specifically laid out for the ones that dared to oppose their mastery. But something was in the air, something strange, something they had never had the chance to encounter before. The demons hissed and growled, waiting for it to begin.

"Audhubillahi minasshaytaanirrajeem•" It was a whisper, yet it echoed, all around. The demons reeled back, screeching lightly. Who uttered the name of the Rabb over here? Who was it that had crossed their boundaries? Who was it that by their presence the very stale air had come alive rebelliously against them?

With racing hooves, someone broke the boundaries they had set and jumped in their territories. Someone was approaching them. The demons whispered. The sorcerers were alerted too. They all bunched together awaiting the new arrivals with their tricks.

This forest had many damp and dank places. Each area of this forest was under different sorcerers. They practiced their wicked craft here. They performed unnamed and unmentionable rituals here to increase their powers. Theirs was a cursed craft. They isolated themselves and for many days and sometimes months, they remained unclean to attract demons to themselves. None who entered could leave their place sane.

The Reehan arrived in the centre of the dark forest and began to move as one mass, looking all around. They were attentive and had already observed the sorcerers' presence. The demons hissed in anticipation. The taste of battled excited them.

"Stay close Sidra..." Vareesha whispered, as she and Taqdees rode, beside her flanking her. Sidra nodded gravely, with her hands ready on Jahad.

The demons came alive with the whisper. Someone precious was here in their abode. Someone, whom the warriors were trying to protect. Who was it?

"Why are you here? These are our lands! Our abode..." A sorcerer called out, then smirked viciously. "Your presence here gives us the right to harm you. Why don't we start with the one in the middle? What's her name? Sidra?" The sorcerer announced, chuckling. He uttered her name with such malice that the Reehans drew more closer around her.

"We are here because we need something from here. You are not the ones we want to engage with, so give way and make haste." Azlain, the man whom Hudhud had chosen replied. The demons chuckled and the cacophony echoed around hauntingly in the eerie lands, echoing all around. Sidra shuddered. The demons turned towards her as one. They had tasted her fear. They clicked their tongues against the air, groaning at how luxurious her fear was. It gave them a sense of power, a sense of superiority. Her fear tasted like ambrosia. They mused how amazing her pain would taste, shuffling as the imagination tightened their resolve to get her. The sorcerers were already muttering their accursed words.

"Calm down Sidra..." Taqdees whispered. Her elevated breathing was giving her away. "They can taste your fear." Sidra's heart lurched at the idea that they could so intimately know her feelings.