MTLNOVEL Chapter 9: 9
** Chapter 9: The Eternal Banquet **
*(POV AYMAN AL-SARAAVWI)*
Blackola's ax weighed like a curse in Ayman's hands. In the ruins of the Sanatorium of the Mosts, the air was loaded with a sharp silence, interrupted only by the rustle of dried leaves that fell from already dead trees. Kara adjusted the last symbols of the iron circle on the floor - a inverted pentagram made with ashes of bones - while whispered enchantments in a forgotten tongue.
* "The portal will only open once,"* she warned, looking at the ax. *"And Blackola *knows *. He will come. "*
Ayman didn't answer. Since he had touched the gun, the voices of Blackola's victims echoed in his mind as a choir of pain. Among them, Molly shouted: *"Don't trust black water! He's stronger… it's*Famelico*! "*
As soon as the thought had finished, the soil trembled. From the horizon, an dark green mist has advanced, swallowing the forest. Inside her, a silhouette dragged -*Blackola*, but transformed. His body now had *four arms *, two of them ending in twisted meat hooks. The head of a dead rabbit was cast to a human skull, with incandescent red eyes. Its ax shone with newly ranned runes, pulsating in sync with Ayman's heartbeat.
* "Pratinhooooo!"* Blackola's roar made Ayman's blood freezing. *"I brought new seasoning…*your fear*!"*
Kara raised the rifle. *"Keep it away! I open the portal! "*
---
** The bloody ritual **
The ax blade cut the air as Ayman diverted from Blackola's blows. With each impact, the floor cracked, releasing vapors of black water that scalded like acid. The creature Ria, invoking spirits with blows on the ground -*Ghosts of children with bone knives, pregnant women whose befels exploded in tentacles*.
*"You will feed the banquet for*centuries*!"*Blackola spit a cloud of green gas, and Ayman fell to his knees, vomiting blood.
Kara shouted ancestral words, and the pentagram behind her was lit in blue flames. A portal tore the air, revealing an infinite corridor of rusty doors -*between*.
*"Ayman,*now*!"*
He ran, but Blackola threw a hook, hovering his leg. *"Will you escape the*chef*?!"*The creature pulled him close, her rotten breath burning Ayman's face. *"First, I will taste your eyes… Then I will take your brother*rotten*to the devourer!"*
Ayman understood: *Ayman's clone was still alive *, arrested somewhere.
*"Molly… me*help*!"*He shouted, and the ax answered.
Spirits broke out of the blade -*the victims of Blackola* - and grabbed the creature. Ayman escaped, running to the portal.
---
** Kara's sacrifice **
* "Not so fast!"* Kara shot the chains that arrested the portal, but angry Blackola launched the ax. The swivel blade hit Kara into the chest, clutching into the earth like a trophy.
*"Kara!"*
She spat blood, smiling. * "The circle… does not die."* With a final gesture, she tore off a grenade from her waist and pulled the pin. *"Go! *Find it*! "*
The explosion swallowed Blackola and the portal. Ayman jumped into the darkness, the cry of the creature echoing behind him:
*"I will bake your liver in hell!"*
---
** O between **
Entre was a nightmare maze. Runners folded themselves, doors led to floating operating rooms, and the air smelled of burnt iron. On the walls, Molly's photos appeared and disappeared -*she was close*.
The voice of Ayman's clone silied in his ear: *"You shouldn't have come. She is already**. "**
Ayman ignored him, following Molly's screams to a room with pulsating meat walls. In the center she was chained to a machine that extracted black liquid from her spine. Half of his face was covered by a metal mask, and his arm transformed into a blade shone with runes from the devouring.
* "Ayman…?"* She lifted her head, the voice a mixture of relief and despair. *"He's here… the*real devourer*… not a parasite… it's a hungry*God!"**
The floor trembled. Doors opened, and Blackola emerged from the portal, rebuilt -*his flesh was now a collage of human and animal parts*, with the ax cast to his right arm.
*"The banquet… starts!"*
Ayman lifted the ax, but Molly's chains loosened. Her lumine arm crossed Blackola's chest, and she whispered:
*"You… never…***."**
Blackola laughed, even dying. *"The Devator… Already**touched you*…"*
His body disintegrated in green larvae, which dragged on to the shadows. Molly fell into Ayman's arms, his metal mask cracking to reveal totally black eyes.
* "He's in me, Ayman,"* she cried. *"But the ax… can *cut *the bond. Use it… on me. "*
Ayman hesitated. The clone whispered: *"Do… and release us." *
In the hallway, doors began to close. The devourer roared, approaching.
** End of Chapter 9. **
---
** Note: ** Blackola returns as an uncontrollable force, his obsession with Ayman becoming a metaphor for the hunger of the devourer. Entry between deepening cosmic horror, revealing Molly as an involuntary avatar of the God. Kara's sacrifice and Ayman's final dilemma - Matar Molly to weaken the devourer - they prevailed the terrain to a climax where no character will come out intact.