"Stay away from those children,"
Noor Jahan commanded coldly.
Huba Huba peeled himself off the wall and floated back, his head throbbing.
He could not see her, but he could feel her light pressing against his aura from every direction.
He could hear her controlled,
measured breathing and tracked her position through his Corrupted Intelligence.
"Oho… Beautiful… and dangerous…"
Huba Huba grinned despite the pain.
"Killing you will be twice as fun…".
"Try it,"
Noor Jahan challenged calmly.
She tilted her bow,
sending a wave of light expanding outward to form a Micro Barrier that wrapped securely around Zainab and the children.
It was warm and solid—the kind of protection that feels less like a wall and more like being held.
"Stay behind me,"
Noor Jahan instructed.
"This is not your fight.".
"Who is she…?"
Zayd whispered in awe.
"…Hope…"
Zainab breathed,
barely making a sound.
"I'LL BREAK YOU!!!"
Huba Huba roared.
He charged instantly at full speed,
launching the full weight of his skull like a projectile in a Head Ram Blast
. Noor Jahan drew her bow, and condensed star energy immediately formed at the string.
SHOOT!!!
The arrow hit him dead center,
blasting him sideways and breaking his charge completely. Huba Huba spun,
stabilized, and unleashed a Curse Scream Wave.
It was a high-frequency weapon that bypassed ears entirely to strike the nervous system directly.
Noor Jahan stood firm, tightening her Orbit Arrow Field to create counter-pressure.
She fired again without hesitation.
Huba Huba used a Shadow Leap,
blinking sideways so one arrow missed,
but the second grazed the top of his skull with a burst of star energy.
"What… is this power?!"
Huba Huba yelled,
feeling the intense burn.
"Star Gazer,"
Noor Jahan answered.
Huba Huba launched a Bat Wing Slash,
snapping both wings outward to fire sharp air blades from two directions simultaneously.
Noor Jahan countered with a Star Drift Shot—a curved arrow that bent mid-flight to hit his left wing before the blades could reach her,
disrupting the attack entirely.
She immediately followed up with Celestial Rapid Fire,
sending three arrows flying so fast they were almost simultaneous.
Huba Huba used multiple Shadow Leaps to dodge,
but one arrow drove deep into the side of his skull.
He spun from the impact,
hit the cave wall, and pushed off.
"You cannot aim at what you cannot track!"
Huba Huba raged, unleashing a Soul Distortion Pulse.
The wave of dark energy distorted senses and shifted balance, making the entire cave feel like it was tilting.
Noor Jahan steadied herself and fired a Star Hunt Tracker.
The arrow curved, pursued, and caught him with a heavy thud, sending him spinning and crashing into the ceiling.
The stone fractured with a loud crack as he dropped down.
"You are fast. And your arrows follow,"
Huba Huba growled, heavily and dangerously.
"But I do not need eyes to fight.
Ican feel every star particle in this cave.".
"Let's see if your light is fast enough.".
He fired a Dark Aura Spit, predicting where she would step.
As she moved left,
he detonated a Corruption Explosion—an area-wide curse shockwave that erupted in every direction.
BOOM
The cave shook violently, and Noor Jahan was thrown back a step,
though the Micro Barrier protected the children.
She steadied herself and raised her bow.
"Enough,"
Noor Jahan said.
She initiated her Final Charge,
gathering massive light with pure intention.
Every star particle in the cave was drawn in and compressed into a huge star arrow,
filling the cave with a glow that had no shadow.
Its massive light pressed against Huba Huba's aura from across the cave.
For the first time tonight,
he did not move or attack,
knowing there was nothing he could do about it.
"End,"
Noor Jahan said with absolute finality.
FINAL SHOT!!!
BOOOOM!!!
The direct hit drove into him with an explosion of pure white and gold light that erupted at the point of impact.
Huba Huba was launched backward with brutal force,
cracking the far wall deep before sliding down to the cave floor,
completely still.
Complete silence returned.
Only the fading light and drifting star particles remained,
as the children finally,
truly began breathing for the first time since Imran fell.
Then, Huba Huba slowly pulled himself up.
His wings were damaged, his skull cracked,
and his dark aura was leaking in uneven pulses.
He pointed his blind eyes directly at Noor Jahan with pure hatred.
"I will come back…
I will devour you…"
his voice shook with rage and fear.
Then, with full fury, he screamed,
"YOU DAMN WITCH!!!".
The darkness around him collapsed inward,
his aura pulled tight,
and he shot out of the cave like he had been expelled by the cave itself.
Silence stabilized inside the cave.
"Who… are you…?"
Zainab asked with a weak voice.
"My name is Noor Jahan,"
she answered softly.
She looked at Imran's body and then at Zainab's shattered face.
"I am sorry I did not arrive sooner."
Zainab looked down at Imran,
making a quiet sound of someone accepting a loss they have no words for yet.
"We have to move,"
Noor Jahan said, kneeling beside them.
"There is something happening in the forest.
We cannot stay here.".
"My husband…"
Zainab cried,
barely audible.
"I know,"
Noor Jahan replied softly.
"He bought you time.
All of you.
Don't waste it."
The jungle was not alive;
it was breathing death itself.
It was the same forest at the edge of the village, the same trees children had been told not to enter after dark.
Now, it was something else entirely.
The air was heavy, and the trees felt wrong—not fallen, not burned, just wrong.
From beneath the ground came the unsettling sound of something dead being told to stand up again.
"HURRY!!!
FASTER!!!"
Amina yelled, her breath ragged as she ran.
"If we stop — that devil will catch us!!!".
"Amina — where are we going—" Fatima asked, holding tightly onto Yusuf.
"Away. Just away,"
Amina answered.
"Ammi… the darkness is getting heavier…"
Yusuf whimpered, completely terrified.
"Don't feel it. Just run,"
Amina urged.
Suddenly, the ground cracked.
From between the trees, from between the roots, and from the dry earth, distorted black bodies rose.
They were the dead villagers, now completely transformed into zombie form.
People who had names and families now had dried skin, glowing yellow eyes, and broken bones cracking with every single movement.
They were slow and unnatural, moving like they had forgotten what movement was supposed to feel like.
They were everywhere, closing in from every direction.
"OH GOD!!!
WHAT ARE THESE THINGS?!"
Fatima screamed.
"DON'T LOOK BACK!!!
JUST RUN!!!"
Amina shouted.
The zombies moved toward them,
and the paths through the narrowing forest were getting smaller.
"MOM!!!
DON'T LEAVE ME!!!"
Ali cried.
"ALI!!! I'M HERE!!!"
Amina called out,
turning and grabbing his hand.
They stopped.
The path ahead was completely blocked,
and the path behind them was rapidly closing.
Amina looked at everything at once and made a decision in less time than it takes to breathe.
"Fatima,"
Amina said,
shaking but clear.
"Amina what are you—"
Fatima started.
"Take him,"
Amina commanded,
pushing Ali toward Fatima.
"Give him life.
Give him everything.
But never let him break".
"NO MOM!!!
PLEASE DON'T GO!!!"
Ali begged,
grabbing her.
She held him for one second—
the longest second of both their lives.
Then she let go.
"PROTECT HIM!!!" Amina ordered with absolute finality.
She turned and ran directly toward the zombies.
Not away, but toward them with her arms wide,
drawing them to her and away from the others.
The zombies immediately surrounded her, and agonizing screams filled the forest.
"MOOOOOOM!!!"
Ali wailed.
"NOOOO!!! AMINA!!!"
Fatima screamed.
The screams stopped,
and absolute silence fell.
Then, from somewhere deep in the dark,
a weak and fading voice whispered.
"Ali… Stay strong…
I will always live inside you…"
Amina smiled weakly through the void.
Silence returned;
only the dead wind remained in the forest.
They ran until the forest ended and the cliff began.
Behind them was the nightmare forest,
and in front of them was only emptiness—death in both directions.
"What do we do now…?"
Fatima asked, shaking violently. "There is no way out…".
"Ali stoped talking anything"
"We're trapped…" Yusuf cried.
The air suddenly became heavy, and the space around them distorted.
Shadow Bind black chains instantly appeared in the air. Jabar stepped out of the darkness,
walking slowly with his red orb glowing, his purple locket pulsing, and his dark red eyes finding them immediately.
"Now… it ends," Jabar declared, cold and final.
The chains moved toward them like living weapons.
"NO!!!" Fatima screamed.
KRRRAAAASH!!!
The sky completely split open.
A massive bolt of blue-white lightning struck the cliff with enough force to shake the entire mountain,
sending a shockwave spreading everywhere.
Jabar's reaching chains froze mid-air, crackled violently, and then shattered.
A shadow descended through the lightning.
A spear struck the cliff first with a heavy
THUD!!!,
sending deep cracks radiating outward in every direction.
Then, the figure landed behind the spear,
his head low before slowly rising.
ASLAM
Standing 6.5 feet tall,
he had long white hair flowing like a storm and glowing green eyes.
He wore silver-dark armor adorned with divine seals,
and his Thunder Spear crackled wildly with blue-white electricity.
He stood perfectly between Jabar and the survivors,
his back to them and his eyes locked solely on Jabar.
"Don't touch them,"
Aslam warned low,
each word sounding like a verdict.
Jabar stopped and looked at Aslam,
assessing and measuring him,
deciding what this new opponent was worth.
This time, the assessment took longer.
"Who the hell are you…?"
Jabar asked coldly.
"I am Aslam," he replied.
A thunder aura expanded slowly and deliberately, radiating electric pressure outward.
"Thunder Eagle of the Divine Disciples.
The order created by the Gods… To erase darkness like you.".
Aslam took one step forward.
"I did not come here to fight," he said.
He took another step.
"I came here to come erase a darkness like you,"
Aslam declared.
The purple locket at Jabar's chest pulsed once,
brighter than it had pulsed all night.
Something older than fear or anger moved behind his dark red eyes—recognition.
"Divine Disciples…"
Jabar whispered very quietly.
After a long pause, he added,
"I have not heard that name in a long time".
His shadow aura shifted and concentrated, becoming vastly denser.
The black chains began reforming around his hands, darker and heavier than before—not just a threat, but a preparation.
"You will not be hearing anything…
After tonight,"
Aslam stated,
his Thunder Spear rising.
The thunder in the sky responded to his voice with a massive crack and a rumble.
Then came the kind of sustained electricity that meant a storm had not just arrived, it had been summoned.
The entire cliff trembled under the immense pressure.
The survivors pressed back tightly against the rock face.
Ali, Yusuf, and Fatima watched two terrifying forces that existed in categories completely different from anything they had ever seen.
"What… are they…?"
Fatima whispered, barely audible.
Ali looking up at Aslam.
He stared at the white hair, the thunder, and the way Aslam stood directly between them and everything dangerous,
as if there was no other place he was supposed to be.
"But that one…
" Ali said quietly, "
…that one came for us".
On the left side stood Jabar,
black chains reforming, dark red eyes calculating,
his shadow aura concentrating, and his purple locket pulsing steady.
On the right side stood Aslam,
thunder aura blazing,
green eyes locked,
his Thunder Spear raised,
and divine seals glowing faintly.
Between them lay the fractured cliff, the air already crackling with unbelievable pressure.
Behind Aslam stood the three survivors who had lost more tonight than most people lose in a lifetime, still standing.
Above them all was a sky that had split entirely open to let one of them through.
The storm had chosen the battlefield, and the two forces had accepted it.
What came next would not be quiet.
"THE JUDGMENT OF THUNDER HAS ARRIVED"
Chapter End