NOVGO.NET Chapter 439: How Unfortunate
***
{Outside The Projection}
Seven million dead, huh?…
That was too little.
Way too little.
The current number was a lot more.
A number that they didn’t dare reveal.
It was a number that made Huda unconsciously squeeze Layla’s hand.
One that made Layla’s trembling worsen, Azeem stutter, Dunya’s smile die, and Sinbad look down, almost despondent.
Like Layla, Azeem’s doubts were very much realistic, if only way too light.
And of course, they came way too damned late.
Seven million deaths late.
It was insane. One could only imagine being in his position, forever watching people burn, cleaning them up, and hiding them away, while never seeing one of the Corrupted Malik claimed to have ended.
It was ‘only natural’ that doubt had to take place.
His confession kept replaying in everyone’s heads, losing them in thought.
So much so that they all returned to their previous positions without realizing it.
If Azeem’s faith could crack, what of theirs? Did this mean they were excused?
No… no, it did not. Nearly all of them answered the same.
His trust in his Lord was truly extraordinary.
A loyalist like no other.
Yet, he saw himself as Noor did.
A failure like no other.
Sure, his doubts were more than valid, but he didn’t care for their validity.
This was his Lord, and he… he deserved better than doubt.
Though planned, Azeem truly believed he’d betrayed him.
A betrayal that would haunt him till death.
***
{Inside The Projection}
Thump!
But before Malik’s thoughts could even begin to form…
His head snapped up.
His eyes scanned the sky.
Somewhere there, he detected a presence.
‘…A threat.’
With barely a thought going through his mind, he stood up.
The earth beneath his feet shuddered as if it had just realized what it was holding.
Cracks spiderwebbed outward, and from those cracks, ivory fire roared forth, hoof-shaped bursts of flame that lashed out in every direction, stamping the stone flat.
His veil of invisibility burned away in that same instant, shredded by the violence of his own presence.
And then, without anyone around him noticing, not even a sound, Malik vanished.
The ground beneath his last step caved in on itself, folding like soft clay.
Yes, he’d broken its Laws, leaving it in a twisted state.
Upward he tore.
The sky above was no obstacle.
He split the first layer of atmosphere with a soundless rip, ivory flame streaming after him in a vast tail, dissolving every cloud in his wake.
The second layer folded just as easily; the pressure of the air tried to bite, crush, and melt, but his fire burned hotter than Hell itself, and nothing dared touch him.
Winds churned, screaming as if the Heavens themselves were forced apart.
His body cleaved the stratosphere, then the mesosphere, then the thermosphere—all in an unbroken line.
Each one resisted for a fraction only to break instantly.
The blaze around him carried no strain or flicker of effort.
It was a part of him.
He was flesh, soul, and flame.
All was for one, and one was for all.
Stronger than any inferno forged in damnation.
In seconds, Malik was no longer bound to Fam Iblis.
He stood in a natural void… space.
He was in space.
Behind him was Fam Iblis.
The massive planet in all its glory.
A spherical thing with an end that could not be seen.
And, of course, he wasn’t alone.
Before him were… floating carriages.
The spaceships Cyrus told him about.
‘Hm. They’re… sleek.’
They had that neat geometry he wasn’t used to—incredibly smooth hulls, angles that damn near hated light, and what appeared to be polished armor plates he’d find on a war steed.
Around him, hundreds of such ships blinked, their thin curtains of blue making them look like diamonds.
‘It seems that man was tailed…’
Malik calmly hummed.
‘He spoke the truth.’
His body exploded in heat.
‘How unfortunate.’
***
{Outside The Projection}
A WHAT?!
SPACE?
A SPACESHIP?
Did that mean there were people outside Fam Iblis?
How long have there been such people, and how did they create such things?
Just what the Hell did Cyrus talk about when the projection paused?
And who the Hell were these people? Where did they come from? Why did they come?
…Did they want their Al-Fawra? Was that why Hakim never came to visit, knowing that he’d put Fam Iblish at risk? Or was there something even more to it?
Their entire… ‘planet?’ That was how their home looked like from afar, huh?
So this was the ‘technology’ of those who could erase memories so easily.
They weren’t sure what to think, Sinbad surprisingly being one of them.
This secret was beyond him…
Another secret that he didn’t know of.
It hurt him deeply, for it seemed that he wasn’t the only one who went on expeditions.
Only that his was to find a… cure for his Elder Brother, while Malik’s was to protect the entirety of Fam Iblis from outside threats, the bastards who wanted to covet it.
They were already completely indebted to him for what he did for them.
More so with Corruption, but now this?
What were they supposed to think anymore?
They were sure that those spaceships came again and again.
And Malik, of course, destroyed them again and again.
Yet, throughout all of that…
Fam Iblis was none the wiser.
Never did they get a hint that their very existence was in the balance.
Always…. always in the FUCKING DARK.
Till how long will this repeat?
Perhaps it was finally time…
Time to accept that they could never repay him…
That no matter how much they wanted to, this debt would forever remain ingrained in their soul, staying with them long after their deaths took hold.
And maybe such an ending wouldn’t be so bad.
At least then, it wouldn’t ail them so.
***
{Inside The Projection}
Malik’s flames sent a shockwave all around him.
The ship’s weird blue light for shields flickered, absorbing the heat.
‘Sturdy.’
Thinking that, he raised his hand, ivory growing on top of his palm.
[Cease your fire!]
But before he could attack, he heard a voice directly in his mind.
[We need not unnecessarily fight!]
Tracking the source of the sound, Malik materialized directly before a ship.
[Please. Talk to us. Are you the King of this realm?]
It was a humongous one, bigger than most around it.
“You’ve come here to talk?”
His voice held his Aether.
“No… no, you didn’t.”
He looked up at it, his eyes burning gold.
“I’m no king. Kings are too weak.”
His hand reached forward.
“I am this realm’s Sultan.”
It easily pierced through its shield, reaching its metal.
“A protector… a Magi only a step below Malāk.”
His hand clutched, gripping the hull, making the entire thing shake.
“A Mithqal Al-Khalid, and you’ll beg God to have never met me.”
[Wait, we—]
“FALL.”
And before their words could be uttered, Malik casually flung the ship into another.
[FFFFFFFFFFIRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEE—!]
That was its last word as it exploded, the blast pushing away everything around it.
Malik, using the shockwave to roll away, easily dodged the red fire that followed.
Then, without him needing to adjust to the lack of gravity, the fight began.
[KILL THIS MAN!]
…
Space…
There was no sound in space.
At least not in the ways scholars would expect.
If one listened differently, they’d hear the noises.
A high, brittle ratchet of shields cracking; the low throat of contraptions trying to outrun a predictably monstrous Fate; the tinny, panicked chatter of ship captains; red light fire; and flying pen-shaped objects exploding.
They wanted him to panic by the sheer arsenal on display, but he…
He tried them as a child would a new toy, flinging them around.
This all made Malik so very curious, so he held back.
He needed to see all that they had.
And so, he moved around, not needing a ‘ground’ to plant his feet or a ‘breath’ to spend.
He simply stepped into the void and moved, Aether his one need, both his ‘ground’ and ‘breath.’
Malik didn’t walk between ships so much as rewrite the space that sat between them.
With a single patient motion, he split the void, and his form slid through the seams of reality.
He appeared above a capital hull and flung himself over its spine. He appeared under a fire net and unfolded like woven light.
They threw increasingly ridiculous things at him.
A volley of red that looked like a comet field, little bodies that detonated, clouds of devouring nanocontraptions, gravity traps, reminding him of that man of chaos, and even flocks of bird-like things that exploded into something green.
Sinbad would have called them pretentious.
Malik called them irrelevant.
Hundreds of attacks, thousands, all gone with a flick of his hand and his ivory flame.
His moves had become a rhythm.
Step. Flick. Flame. Roll. And flare.
He used their shockwaves, too, leaning into explosions and rolling clean through their ships, using his body as something of a wrecking ball.
Fear was being ingrained in them.
Everything he did was for that, too.
The assault became the definition of absurd.
Until finally, there was a pause, for there was only one spaceship left.
One lonely ship, stripped down, its shield trying to be brave.
Malik floated before it, staring at its pit of command.
There, he saw a few terrified faces…
Faces that had completely given up.
“Invaders…”
He asked one last useless courtesy.
“Have you advertised our location?”
[…]
[…]
[…]
Nothing but silence answered.
He lifted a finger, flame gathering at its tip.
“Then…”
Malik was their judge.
“Go prepare a home for your kin.”
Execution was their verdict.
“Many more will join you.”
The finger flicked.
Thump.
His flame slid like a snake across the ship’s hull.
For a heartbeat, it glowed as if it were a single candle before being swallowed whole.
Nothing of it remained… and yet the snake didn’t pause, flying through the void.
Malik watched as it went after the scattered wreckage, hungry for more.
It ate everything it touched, leaving nothing behind.
Though he was sure the location was leaked the moment they arrived…
He couldn’t let it be too obvious.
‘…Really unfortunate.’
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