A cave—but not the same one anymore.
In it was a crater, a very big one, almost as if a God’s fist smashed straight through it.
At the center was Malik, or... what was left.
Barely held together flesh, ribs sticking out, and exposed bone.
A chunk of something—maybe a lung—hung loose from his side.
At the edge of that scene was a flaming monkey, a Qurd.
With its head cocked to the side, it watched.
It was silent, almost confused.
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
The insides of a massive stomach bulged.
It was black, wet, and filled with some sort of acid.
Bones floated in it, alongside melting flesh.
No doubt this was a Roc’s stomach.
Malik’s body was swirling in its digestive bile.
His limbs had softened, and his skin was gone.
Teeth floated loose beside him like coins in a soup.
He died an agonizing death.
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
Just outside a cave’s entrance, Malik’s corpse sprawled.
His dagger had fallen right next to him.
Tiny hands shook his shoulders.
They belonged to kids.
Jasmine, a beautiful flower, screamed out.
Her tears streamed down her like a waterfall.
"Teacher... WHY?! WHY?!"
Safira kneeled next to her, screaming just as loud.
Their little hands kept shaking him.
They were smeared in his blood.
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
Malik laid next to a Corrupted Jasmine, dead.
She screamed at him, asking why over and over.
But then, eventually, she quieted down.
Her dark-stained eye was now fully black.
The other one was now turning as well.
They both looked at Malik’s lips.
"I’ll never forgive you."
Her face got close to his.
Their lips got closer.
"I’ll always love you."
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
In the middle of the desert, Malik was face down, a knife in his throat.
Circling him from all sides were Farajah officers, nine of them.
One of them nudged his head with a boot.
"...Bastard’s crazy."
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
A giant stone statue stood in an underground arena.
It was an upside-down cross with a grinning, bearded man nailed to it.
Below... Malik’s head rolled, a look of surprise on his face.
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
In a carriage, Malik’s skull cracked open.
His blood, alongside another’s, splattered across the floor.
Farajah officers sat around him, arms crossed, staring.
They spoke not a word.
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
Malik sat in a well-furnished tent.
A curved sword was pierced through his heart.
Before him was Rehan, once known only by Ali Baba.
His face was as pale as could be for an Easterner.
Beside him, Layla was much the same.
She was wide-eyed, hands shaking heavily.
Springing up, she knelt to the ground and vomited her guts out.
Rehan, without even glancing at his daughter, whispered:
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
In a battlefield lay Malik’s body... barely that.
Upon him were bugs and worms, in their thousands.
A bandit—missing half his head—had clawed Malik’s left eyeball clean out.
In retaliation, Malik bit through the man’s throat with teeth that barely hung to his jaw.
Now, he was stuck in this canyon, teetering between life and death.
Bugs crawled into his empty eye socket and into his jaw, which was detached on one side, tendons dangling like strings.
His legs were split and torn; muscle fibers peeled like ribbons.
His ribs were gone, his stomach the only thing left.
His insides were even worse.
Worms chewed through his sinus.
Ants dug into his brain.
Leeches grew fat on blood leaking from where his lungs should’ve been.
They drank his tears, coiled, slithered, and grew.
It was the last thing he saw.
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
Malik’s body fell in the middle of a crowd.
Before him was Rehan, embracing his dead daughter.
The moment he heard a thud, he looked around only to see blood...
Blood gushing from his favorite guard’s neck.
His purple eyes trembled.
His lips widened, right, widened.
...They formed a smile, a so very broken smile.
"You’re off to save her, aren’t you?"
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
Layla stood crying in a field.
A field beside a burning village.
Her hands were shaking.
They held a curved sword...
One red with Malik’s blood.
His head rolled before her.
His face was smiling.
His eyes were wide open.
No longer were they gold.
They were completely empty.
A void... Black Eyes, fully Corrupted.
Poor Layla tried to remain on her feet.
Tried to be as strong as her broken father, but she...
She failed, collapsing next to them, the only ones she truly loved.
"I’m sorry... I’m sorry... I’m sorry."
Curling up into herself, she grabbed her face...
"I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY
I’MSORRYI’MSORRYI’MSORRY."
And screamed until her throat gave out.
She had gone completely insane.
This wasn’t something she could handle.
Losing both her father and Malik ended everything.
...She might as well join them.
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
In another field, Malik kneeled.
He knelt dead, his throat slit once more.
Before him, in his loose embrace, was Rehan.
All around them were bandits.
Thousands of them... all dead.
And there, not so far behind them, stood Layla.
She just stood there staring... staring until unconsciousness claimed her.
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
Malik’s head rolled on open ground.
Before his bleeding head was Sinbad.
An owl Malik once knew only as Crimson.
The owl stared at the head, tears leaving his eyes, blood dripping from his beak.
"...W-W-Why am I not returning?"
His familiar and endearing stutter received no answer, none at all.
After a long, terrified moment, Sinbad laid his fluff on Malik’s dead body.
"It seems I’ve failed."
His pink eyes glowed bright for a second before turning glassy.
Suddenly, his body slumped down completely, covering his brother fully.
He remained still for a long time... dead.
Hm, together even in death.
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
Malik stood in a wedding hall.
Blood was everywhere around him.
Dead bodies were everywhere around him.
Ones that he had killed with his own blade.
His face remained down, staring at the ground.
The staring wasn’t intentional on his part.
And of course it wasn’t.
Malik had died standing.
Figures appeared behind him.
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
Malik stood in a marble hall.
Before him were an older Huda and Cyrus, the Former Sultan.
His head had popped, exploding everywhere, making his blood color the guards’ faces as well as the walls.
Huda, still not realizing who he was, screamed in panic, while Cyrus, knowing exactly who he was, genuinely sighed.
"...Ah. I thought he was an assassin."
"BEHOLD AN UNIMAGINABLE PAST."
A throne took center stage.
It was before a Zaqqum.
Or rather, it was part of one.
Malik sat on that throne.
A man from a ruined time.
The world blinked to nothing.