Raja chuckled. “And yet here you stand, inmyrealm, uninvited, daring to judge me.” He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he stared at Samir. “Do you think your light can extinguish my darkness? Do you think your history can bind my future? You are fools, all of you.”
Beside Samir, Nimara stepped forward. If Raja remembered from his own roaming in the human realm and listening to other supernaturals, she was the Seer. Her gaze was piercing, her expression calm but unyielding. Her voice was soft, but it carried the weight of truth. “You do not understand what you’ve done. The Balance is not a chain to be broken. It is the foundation of existence. Without it, all realms will fall into chaos.”
Raja’s laughter rang out, echoing through the chamber. “Chaos?” he mocked. “Chaos is merely another form of order, one that bends to the will of the strong. And I am the strongest here.”
Zahran, a warrior, stepped forward then, his presence like a storm barely contained. His voice was sharp, his tone a challenge. “Then prove it, Usurper. Show us the strength you claim to wield.”
The chamber grew still, and the tension crackled like a thunderstorm on the verge of breaking.
“So be it.” Raja rose from his throne. Shadows surged around him—a living, writhing mass of darkness that swallowed the light in its path. “If you wish to challenge me, then prepare to fall.”
The battle began with an explosion of power that shook the very foundations of the Realm of the Dead. The djinn army surged forward, their light blazing as they clashed with the darkness that poured from Raja like a flood. The souls that lingered in the realm screamed as the fabric of their existence was torn apart by the sheer force of the collision.
Zahran was the first to strike, his blade of light cutting through the shadows with the precision of a lightning bolt. Raja met his attack head-on, his own power surging forward like a tidal wave. The impact sent a shockwave through the chamber, shattering the ground beneath them.
Nimara’s magic followed, her spells weaving through the chaos like threads of silver, each one aimed with deadly accuracy. Raja deflected them with a flick of his wrist, his laughter ringing out as he turned her light into shards of broken energy.
Samir held back, his gaze fixed on Raja as he directed the djinn army with calm, calculating orders. The djinn warriors moved in perfect harmony, their combined power a relentless assault that pushed Raja to the edge of his limits.
But Raja was no ordinary foe. The power he had harvested from the souls of his realm made him a force unlike anything the djinn had faced. He moved like a shadow, striking from every direction, his darkness swallowing their light and leaving destruction in its wake.
For every djinn that fell, another took their place, their light flaring brighter as they pressed forward. The commanders moved as one, their power combining in a blinding surge that forced Raja to retreat, if only for a moment.
“You cannot win.” Samir’s voice echoed through the chaos. “The Balance will not allow it.”
Raja growled. “The Balance is mine to command. You are nothing but ancient beings clinging to a broken ideal.”
And then Khalid stepped forward.
The Binder’s presence was quieter than the others, but it carried a weight that made even Raja falter. Khalid’s voice was soft, almost gentle, as he began to speak the ancient words of Binding. His magic wove through the chaos, wrapping around Raja with a force that defied comprehension.
The force immediately pulled Raja, and the crushing weight tore at his essence. He roared, his power surging as he fought against the spell. “No!” he bellowed. “You will not take this from me!”
But the djinn were relentless. Nimara’s spells struck like daggers, Zahran’s blade cut through the shadows, and Samir’s light pressed down on Raja like the weight of the sun. Khalid’s binding words grew louder, stronger, until they drowned out even Raja’s roar of defiance.
The spell took hold, tearing Raja from his throne, from his realm, and from his very essence. He screamed as the darkness around him shattered, his power ripped away piece by piece.
The last thing he saw before the void consumed him was the djinn army, their light flickering with exhaustion as the Binding drained them. And then he was gone.
Raja surfaced from the memory and realized the darkness was no longer silent.
It trembled, pulsed, rippling outward in waves that Raja could feel deep in the core of his being. He stirred, the weight of his long imprisonment pressing down on him like a thousand chains, but this time, it was different. The void that had once been his captor was now alive, thrumming with power that vibrated through the very fabric of his essence. It pulled at him, whispering, urging him to wake.
For the first time in what felt like an eternity, Raja opened himself to the world around him. He reached out, his senses expanding through the dark expanse, and he felt it—the weight of theNushtonia, the prison that had held him captive for centuries. But it was no longer the prison it had once been.
It was alive.
TheNushtoniapulsed like a living heart, its energy radiating outward in steady, rhythmic beats. Its power was vast and unrelenting, and it coursed through the dark expanse like blood through veins. It was as if the book itself had grown, evolved, feeding on the countless lives that had touched it.
And oh, how they had fed it.
Raja pressed deeper, his senses brushing against the edges of theNushtonia, and the echoes of those who had come before him surged to meet him. They were faint at first, like whispers in a distant storm, but as he focused, they grew louder, clearer. He could feel them—the beings who had touched the book, claimed it as their own, and poured their greed, ambition, and desperation into its pages.
They had sought power, and in their ignorance, they had given it. Blood magic. Dark magic. Rituals performed in shadowed halls, sacrifices made under blood-red moons. Each act of ambition, each drop of blood, had strengthened theNushtonia. And in turn, it had strengthenedhim.
Raja smiled. The djinn thought they had contained him. They thought they had stopped him. Fools.
He tilted his head, adjusting to the darkness as he probed deeper into theNushtonia. The book’s sentience stirred at his touch, rising to meet him like a predator recognizing its equal. He could feel it now, a reflection of his own will—twisted, hungry, and alive. It whispered to him. Its voice was like velvet and venom, promising power, revenge, freedom.
