Chapter 14 :THE VOW OF THE FALLEN EAGLE (part 2)
Following Noor Jahan's order, they all ran swiftly and reached the edge of the valley.
And upon seeing the sight there...
the footsteps of every person standing there froze to the ground like stone.
Not a single word escaped anyone's lips.
The scene before them looked as if the world had ended.
Right in the center of the ground, a massive and deep crater had formed.
The large cliffs around it were shattered and scattered terribly.
At the same time, from the other side, Fatima, Ali, and Yusuf also arrived there, sliding down from the broken cliff.
Just then, Haibat's gaze fell right into the center of that crater.
He reached out his heavy hand.
"Aslam! Look there...
Aslam is lying there on the dirt!"
Haibat yelled loudly.
As soon as Noor Jahan looked down closely, her very soul trembled with fear.
Aslam wasn't alone there.
He was holding someone in his blood-soaked lap.
And that body in the red armor... was Maazin.
"Maazin..."
Noor Jahan said with a heavy whisper, and the very next second, without caring about any injury or danger, she sprinted toward the crater like a madwoman.
Right behind her, Haibat, Raziq, Zahira, and everyone else also rushed onto the scorched earth.
As soon as their eyes fell upon the dirt, the world of every person standing there stopped forever.
An absolute, death-like silence enveloped the air of the valley.
Aslam was covered in dirt and blood.
His right arm had been completely torn from his body, and blood was flowing.
And in the chest of Maazin, who lay lifeless in his arms, there was a gaping hole where his soul had departed.
The man who always motivated everyone had breathed his last today.
Haibat... that 7-foot-tall massive Titan, his massive knees hit the dirt.
A man built like a mountain fell to the earth today and wept bitterly like a child.
Tears continuously fell from his blue eyes onto the dirt.
But in the very next moment of his weeping, a terrifying guilt and rage filled Haibat.
He slammed both his massive hands hard onto the ground, causing the dirt to crack.
"Where did my pride go...
where did my strength go?!"
Haibat roared towards the sky like a wounded lion, a storm of sorrow and fury in his voice.
"I called myself the 'Absolute Shield' of this team!
What kind of shield am I... that
I couldn't save my own commander,
My own friend from that demon's strike?!
Curse this strength of mine!"
Crying, he dug his heavy hands into the dirt.
"Devil !!
I will tear down your dark palace brick by brick!
I will drown your demons in their own blood!!"
Raziq tried his hardest to remain calm.
Like a cold-blooded warrior, he looked towards the sky and tried desperately to hold back his tears...
but in the end, tears of sorrow escaped even the eyes of the cool assassin and flowed down his cheeks.
It was as if Zahira's life had left her.
A terrifying scream escaped her throat, and she collapsed to the ground.
She began to cry bitterly, wailing like a madwoman in the dirt.
"No... my God, this cannot be!"
Crying, Zahira crawled closer to Aslam and tightly held Maazin's cold, lifeless hand in both of hers.
"You promised me, Brother Maazin!
You said you would always protect me...
that you would always stay with us!
How can you break your promise like this?!"
Wailing, Zahira rested her head on Maazin's broken red armor and cried.
"Please wake up...
Why did you leave me all alone like this?
My sworn older brother is gone...
My last ounce of courage is gone!"
The rest of the people standing behind (Zayd, Hashim, Zainab, Ali, Fatima, Yusuf) also started crying seeing this heavy sorrow.
They remembered the destruction of the previous night and the people who died in the village.
Everyone's hearts were completely shattered.
A deep, terrifying despair had surrounded them all.
Amidst this weeping and wailing, Noor Jahan slowly approached Aslam with trembling steps.
Aslam's right arm was brutally torn off, and he was crying, holding Maazin with his single arm.
Noor Jahan stood right in front of Aslam without saying a word.
She held back the storm of tears inside her with all her might.
She raised her right hand in the air and, with all her strength—
SMACK!
A resounding, echoing slap landed on Aslam's blood-stained face.
This sound suddenly stopped all the crying in the valley.
Everyone was stunned. Aslam's head jerked to one side.
He slowly raised his bowed head and looked at Noor Jahan with his red, tear-filled eyes.
"Why are you crying?!"
Noor Jahan screamed loudly, her voice holding less anger and more of a terrifying, heart-wrenching pain.
"Maazin...
Maazin never encouraged anyone to cry in his entire life!
He always smiled, he always made others smile!
In all the fights.
We've fought alongside him till today,
No matter how dangerous and deadly the situation was,
That man never bowed down to anyone!
So why are you... being his brother,
Why are you bowing down?!"
While saying these words, Noor Jahan's own stone-like control completely shattered.
Tears filled her eyes, and her strength gave out.
She too collapsed onto the dirt right in front of Aslam and began to weep bitterly.
Aslam gently held her with his remaining left hand.
For a while, there was only the sound of the wind blowing and people sobbing in the valley.
But then... something changed inside Aslam.
Instead of tears, a terrifying fire that could burn enemies took their place.
He slowly stood up from the dirt, like a broken but dangerous lion.
As soon as he stood, Haibat, Raziq, and Zahira also immediately wiped their tears and stood in their places.
"We will stop crying,"
Aslam's voice was so heavy, cold, and serious that even the surrounding air turned chilling.
"We, all the members of the Divine Disciples...
stand on this scorched earth today and take this vow...
that until we kill that demon...
We will never accept defeat."
While on one side the entire valley echoed with Aslam's fury and everyone else's sorrow, right behind the crowd, having climbed down from Haibat's shoulder, 14-year-old Farid stood absolutely silent.
Ali, who was crying bitterly after losing his mother Amina, turned around and looked at Farid.
"Farid... why aren't you crying?!"
Ali screamed, crying, his voice trembling with sorrow and fear.
"My Ammi left me... everything is finished!
We are left completely alone, Farid!
Why aren't you scared?!"
Without blinking, Farid looked at Ali with his lifeless and emotionless eyes.
"My tears dried up the very moment my Abu left me,"
Farid's voice held a deathly silence.
"At that time,
I didn't even have the courage to face that wretched, merciless demon.
I just stood there quietly, like a coward."
Farid clenched his fist so hard that his nails dug into his palm.
"My Abu was in so much pain...
and
I stayed quiet just to save my own life!
I don't even deserve to be called his son.
I should have died right there at that moment.
That bastard turned my Abu into a jinn ...
and I couldn't do anything."
Farid looked at his father's heavy, burnt Iron Axe held in Raziq's hand, and then looking back into Ali's eyes, he said in a stone-cold voice:
"Tears flow, Ali...
when there is something left in the heart to break.
My everything turned to ashes this very night...
When that demon turned my father into a jinn ."
Hearing this, whatever little patience Ali had left shattered.
His small hands began to tremble with anger and sorrow.
"What do you think?!"
Ali cried and screamed loudly, his tears continuously flowing over his dirt-stained face.
"Do you think you are the only one who lost a father?!
I... I lost my Ammi!
She gave up her life to save me!"
Ali sat on the dirt and hid his face in his small hands.
"Now I have no one in this world!
The only person left in my life is my Abu... and where he has gone,
I have no idea.
Ammi used to say he went to another country.
I only saw my Abu when I was very little... after that,
I never met him!"
Ali's sorrow now turned into the heart-wrenching wail of an innocent child.
"I am missing my Ammi so much, Farid!
Now who will sing me lullabies to put me to sleep?!
Who will make delicious kebabs for me?!
Who will care for me...
Who will love me?!"
Ali's agonizing voice made the surrounding silence even heavier.
But there was still no emotion on Farid's face.
He had a fire inside him, but that fire could no longer be put out by tears.
The goal for Aslam and everyone else was to eradicate evil from the world, but Farid's goal was strictly personal.
Farid took an oath inside himself that was not of a hero, but of a broken son:
*"I will go to Jabar's palace... and I will kill my father with my own hands to free his soul from his slavery."*
Aslam took one last look at Maazin's lifeless body lying on the ground and his blood-stained Scimitar sword.
There were no tears on his face anymore, only a fire that could defeat even death.
"Maazin told me one thing in his final moments,"
Aslam told everyone in a calm voice.
"He said to give this sword of his to someone who has fire inside them...
someone who has an unbreakable courage to fight evil until their last breath."
Then Aslam slowly turned and looked at Zahira.
"Zahira..."
Aslam's voice carried a deathly stillness and a command that could not be defied.
"Prepare your healing magic.
You have to... right here and now,
Sever Maazin's right arm...
And attach it to my severed stump."
Hearing this horrifying order, a terrifying shock appeared on Zahira's tear-stained face.
She took a step back in fear, both her hands trembling.
But there was such stubbornness in Aslam's eyes that no one dared to question his decision.
Wiping her tears,
Zahira gave a trembling nod.
Without waiting for another word, Aslam's gaze moved forward.
His eyes passed through the crowd of terrified survivors and suddenly stopped at one spot.
Right near Zayd and Zahira, standing covered in dirt, was that 14-year-old blind boy—Omar.
His eyes had been gouged out by Huba Huba, and now there was only blood and darkness there.
Aslam looked at those empty, blind, and bloodied sockets of Omar.
He remembered one more final legacy of Maazin—those fiery eyes.
Aslam pointed his finger towards Omar, and looking at everyone, gave an order that spread a dead silence throughout the entire valley:
"And give this boy..."
Aslam's voice echoed in the valley.
"...Maazin's eyes."
Hearing this, every single person standing there was utterly shocked.
"No...!"
A painful cry escaped Zahira's throat,
And her hands went to her mouth.
Tears began to flow from her golden eyes.
"Aslam! How can I do this?!
He was my older brother!
Tearing into his body like this...
How can I take out his eyes?!
I will not commit this sin!"
Just then, Haibat, who had been quiet until now, stepped forward with his heavy strides.
There was a deep fear and shock in his blue eyes.
"Aslam, come to your senses!"
Haibat's booming voice echoed in the valley.
"You are talking about a 14-year-old blind boy!
Those eyes of Maazin... that 'Red Legacy' are no ordinary eyes.
Will this little boy be able to bear that fire and its burden?!
It could take his life!"
Aslam stood in his place like a rock.
He looked at Haibat and the crying Zahira.
"Maazin's body will mix with this dirt, Haibat..."
Aslam said in a voice that now held an absolute truth.
"...But his fire will not.
And look at this boy...
He lost his eyes in a single night,
lost everything, yet he did not fear death or demons.
Begin it."
Zahira was still sitting on the dirt crying, lacking the courage to step forward.
A heavy silence descended upon the valley, carrying only the weight of death and the dawn of a new legend.
A 14-year-old blind boy, and the fiery eyes of a fallen warrior.
This was the beginning of a new legend,
But its price was going to be terrifying.
( Chapter Part 2 End )