Maazin gave no immediate answer; his calm, fading eyes just kept looking deeply into Aslam's soul.
That profound, heavy silence pierced deeper into Aslam's heart than any blade ever could.
"Why are you talking like this, man..."
Aslam's heart was completely and utterly shattered.
He wept with a sorrow that knew no bounds.
"You... you are breaking your promise to stay with me,
Maazin...
you promised we would always stand together..."
And at that exact, heartbreaking moment, a vivid flashback of their childhood suddenly flooded Aslam's mind—the golden days when they both used to endure mountain-like training in the vast, open fields.
*Old Memories:*
*Under the unforgiving, scorching heat of the blazing sun, the two 14-15-year-old boys were completely drenched in their own sweat. 20,000 continuous push-ups.
Running for miles while carrying heavy, jagged boulders on their small shoulders.
They weren't ordinary kids; they were breaking their bodies day after day with a stubborn, fiery resolve to eradicate the world's darkness.*
*Whenever young Aslam's leg muscles gave out from sheer exhaustion and he collapsed face-first into the dirt, wanting to just lie there and surrender, a hand would always appear in front of his face. Maazin's hand.*
*"What happened, Aslam? Did you give up this easily?"
The 15-year-old Maazin had taunted while casually adjusting his glasses—a taunt that carried no malice, only profound brotherly love and motivation.
"What a huge idiot you are."*
*"You shut up!"
Young Aslam would angrily brush the dirt off his knees, grab his brother's hand, and forcefully pull himself up.
"I am much stronger than you, understand?!
I will tear out every evil in this world all by myself!"*
*"Yeah brother, I admit it,"
Maazin laughed, his eyes shining with pride.
"But the training is still left.
We cannot stop, Aslam.
No matter what happens,
we cannot accept defeat."*
*That same unyielding fire burned brightly in Aslam's innocent eyes.
"I will never give up, Maazin.
And I will never let you give up either."*
*Back in the Present:*
"You were the one who said it!"
Aslam screamed loudly, the memory tearing his soul to shreds.
The sound of his weeping in the silent valley was deeply agonizing.
"You were the one who said we wouldn't give up!
Then why did you step in front of that attack today?!
Why did you save me?!
My life had absolutely no value compared to yours, Maazin!"
Maazin's pale, blood-stained lips moved faintly.
Taking his final, labored breaths, he spoke in a voice of absolute tranquility,
"Your life had value,
Aslam...
that's exactly why I saved you.
Now I have very little breath left, brother...
listen to me carefully."
Maazin slowly shifted his blurring vision toward the bloody stump of Aslam's severed right arm.
"Aslam..."
Maazin spoke haltingly, every word costing him immense effort,
"My right arm...
I want you to have it severed."
Aslam's breath completely stopped for a second.
His grief-stricken mind couldn't comprehend what Maazin was suggesting.
"Tell Zahira..."
Maazin forced his voice to be as clear as possible,
"To use her divine healing magic...
and attach this arm of mine...
directly to your severed stump."
The moment the horrifying reality of those words hit Aslam, his grief twisted into a state of sheer madness and desperate anger.
"What kind of nonsense are you talking?!"
Aslam screamed through his cascading tears.
He gripped Maazin's unbroken shoulder lightly, shaking him.
"Have you gone completely mad?!
I don't want your arm,
I want you!
You will stay alive,
do you understand me?!
If my arm is gone,
let it be gone,
I will fight the rest of my life with one arm!
But you are going nowhere!"
There was a strange, deathly peace in Maazin's eyes now—the peace of a true warrior who had accepted his end.
"My time is over, Aslam.
You do not have your right arm...
without me by your side,
you will be left entirely alone in the brutal battles to come.
This arm of mine, attached to your body,
will not let you stop.
It will make sure you keep moving forward."
Maazin's voice had grown even softer now, fading like the last embers of a fire.
"And...
my Scimitar sword...
give it to someone who has unyielding fire in their chest.
Someone who never bows down to anyone,
just like me."
"Why are you saying these things?!"
Aslam couldn't stop his violent tears.
"I don't have more courage than you!
How will I ever face these devils alone, man?!
I need you by my side!"
Maazin looked at Aslam one last time.
On his blood-stained, dirt-covered face, there was now a genuine, pure, and breathtaking smile.
He gathered his absolute last remaining drop of life force and spoke with the majestic composure of a commander:
"Our whole lives...
we fought together.
We never let anyone,
not even the gods,
think we were weak.
To this very day,
we never bowed our heads to anyone..."
Even in the face of death,
there was a magnificent,
unbreakable pride in Maazin's voice.
"But today...
is our real test, Aslam.
We have to prove that we are not the ones who sit and cry...
we are the ones who force our enemies to see their true place.
We never gave up in life...
and we will not accept defeat even in the face of death."
Aslam could only watch him in devastating silence, his tears falling continuously like rain onto Maazin's ruined chest.
"Aslam..."
Maazin's eyes were slowly, inevitably fluttering shut now.
"Swear an oath to me.
After today...
you will not leave a single devil,
a single evildoer alive on this earth."
Weeping bitterly, Aslam quickly and desperately nodded his head, sealing the oath with his tears.
Maazin's throat had gone completely dry.
In his final, fading breaths, he took the name of the one person he had kept safely hidden from the world his entire life.
"And yes...
tell Noor Jahan...
that I couldn't fulfill my promise to her.
Tell her...
that I truly...
loved her very much."
A single, final tear escaped Maazin's dirt-stained eye, rolling slowly down his pale cheek.
"Tell the rest of my friends too...
Haibat, Raziq, Zahira, Tarek, Layla...
take care of all of them for me. And tell Master Ridwan...
that his warrior has finally returned to God."
Maazin's voice dissolved completely into the cold air.
His chest, which had been moving in a painful, agonizing rhythm for so long, suddenly stopped completely.
His breath ceased.
But even in death, he kept one ultimate thing intact.
His head did not bow, and that faint, proud smile on his lips remained exactly as it was.
His hands fell softly into the dirt.
His eyes were open, but now they held only the vast, empty silence of death.
He was completely, eternally still.
"Maazin?"
Aslam called out softly, his voice trembling so violently he could barely speak.
No answer came.
"Maazin...
get up, brother.
It's enough now."
Aslam shook his brother's shoulder slightly with his only left arm.
But Maazin's lifeless body merely shifted against the dirt.
A true friend, a legend, and a brother...
had departed from this world forever.
"NOOOOOOO!!!!"
The final scream that tore from Aslam's chest was so horrifying, so thoroughly soaked in absolute despair, that the surrounding cliffs echoed with its tragic weight.
That scream didn't belong to a mere human, but to a soul whose other half had just died forever.
Aslam collapsed into the dirt, rested his forehead against Maazin's lifeless chest, and began to sob bitterly like an orphaned child who had lost everything.
That night in the ruined valley...
even the deafening sound of the sky's lightning could not drown out the sound of Aslam's weeping.
Aslam was left completely alone, left only with his brother's final words and the heavy, eternal burden of his severed arm.
Chapter End