The Death Valley

Chapter 20

The chapter begins with Officer Marcus, Karl's colleague, who is found completely unconscious among the sand dunes in the desert region of the island. Suddenly, he wakes up, gasping for breath, shocked, and muttering to himself, "It was a nightmare... It was a nightmare..." Marcus gathers his thoughts and stands on his feet to survey the barren desert around him.

The desert Marcus found himself in was not just a barren wasteland—it was a living nightmare, a place that seemed to embody death itself.

The sand was not golden or white like in ordinary deserts, but a pale ash color, as if it were the crushed remains of thousands of souls who had perished here. There was no breeze to alleviate the oppressive heat, only stagnant air carrying a strange odor—a mix of burnt flesh and rotting blood as if the earth itself had swallowed countless corpses and refused to forget them.

On the horizon, there were no smooth dunes, but hills of black sand emitting dark fumes that twisted in the air like lost souls trying to scream but without a voice. Every step Marcus took produced a strange cracking sound as if the sand was made of shattered bones.

But the worst was not on the ground—it was in the sky. There were three black pyramids, glowing, with one bearing a cross, another a Star of David, and the third, the largest, adorned with the face of the Egyptian god Anubis, holding a golden scepter. The face was lifeless, with blood-red tears streaming down its cheeks, its eyes glowing green, and a sinister smile revealing sharp, blackened teeth. The sky above was filled with black cracks, shattering reality like broken glass, and from within, something massive and featureless moved, making the air heavy, as if this place was haunted by an incomprehensible entity.

In some places, pools of black water boiled slowly, while others were filled with red blood, releasing large bubbles that burst and emitted confused whispers, as if someone was calling his name in his mind, urging him to come closer...

But the most terrifying part? The desert was not as still as it seemed. Every time Marcus turned his head, he saw shadows moving at the edge of his vision, but they disappeared the moment he tried to focus on them. There was something here. Or perhaps, things. Watching him. Waiting for the right moment...

This was not just a desert... This was the land of death, a place from which no one returns, where souls vanish and are forgotten forever.

Marcus, in shock, wondered, "What in the name of Christ is this? Am I dead? Have I gone to hell? Or what?"

The skulls of horses and cows, scattered around, suddenly came to life and flew into the sky. Green liquid dripped from them, and there were about seven skulls. They flew toward Marcus, terrifying him so much that he fell to the ground in fear.

Marcus, overcome with fear, stammered, "Wh-what... what is happening?"

The skulls spoke:

"Follow us if you wish to see your salvation."

Marcus: "What nonsense is this? Am I hallucinating like Karl now, or is this another dream?"

Marcus began to walk behind the skulls, not knowing why. "As those repulsive animal skulls flew ahead of him, Marcus felt his steps moving on their own... as if something stronger than his will was forcing him to follow." It was as if a black hole was pulling him toward his inevitable fate. They continued walking through the sand dunes until night fell, and the blood-red moon rose. The place became even darker at night. Skeletal wolves filled the area, running, howling, and chasing their prey—jerboas, owls, and other desert creatures. The wolves even attacked a herd of camels passing by Marcus, savagely devouring them, tearing off their heads and legs, and eating some of them alive. The food fell into their ghostly stomachs.

Those hellish wolves, straight from the depths of hell itself, continued to haunt the scene. Marcus kept walking behind the skulls until he collapsed before the pyramid marked with a crimson red cross.

When Marcus crossed the threshold into the pyramid, he felt as if he had entered another dimension, where time itself had disintegrated, and everything around him pulsed with latent terror, as if a nightmare had come to life. The air inside was thick, heavy, and saturated with the smell of mold mixed with ancient incense as if it had been trapped here for thousands of years, waiting for new prey to seep into their lungs.

The walls were not just silent stones—they throbbed like living skin, carved with ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, but something was wrong... The carvings were inverted, broken, and distorted as if they were a reflection of a sick reality, mixed with Christian symbols carved strangely as if trying to impose their presence in a place they did not belong. In some places, the Christian symbols were intertwined with Egyptian carvings—the cross surrounded by the Eye of Horus, or the sacred serpent coiled around it, as if two opposing beliefs had merged in forbidden rituals.

The deeper Marcus ventured, the more he began to hear faint sounds, whispers coming from everywhere as if the pyramid itself was whispering things he should not know. Suddenly, he stood before a massive chamber, illuminated by a deep red light, as if it were drenched in congealed blood.

In the center of the room stood a massive stone coffin, but it was not lying on the ground like typical Egyptian sarcophagi—it was standing upright, as if the mummy inside was not lying in death, but standing, waiting...

On the surface of the coffin, there was a strange engraving—a name written in hieroglyphs, but it was distorted, mixed with Latin letters. The name was: "Amonet"... But it was not the only name. Beneath it, there was writing in a language Marcus did not recognize, but his eyes read it against his will as if the meaning had crawled into his mind without his consent:

"She is the virgin, and she is not the virgin... She who carried light into darkness, and she who brought darkness into light."

Marcus, despite his fear, could not stop himself from approaching... Slowly, he reached out and touched the coffin... And at that moment, the walls began to bleed. Yes, blood seeped from the cracks, staining the ancient symbols, transforming them into something else—something more savage, more profane...

Suddenly, the coffin opened with a sound resembling the scream of the dead, and a hand emerged... But it was not just a mummy's hand... It was a smooth, white hand, as pale as ash, holding an ancient, worn-out holy book... The hand trembled, then moved, slowly descending...

And then, Marcus saw her face...

She was not a mummy... She was a woman... Or at least, she took the form of a woman... Her features resembled the Virgin Mary, but her eyes were not human... They were two black pits, bottomless, staring at him as if they could see directly into his soul...

Then, for the first time since he entered this place, Amonet spoke:

"You thought it was a nightmare, didn't you, Marcus?"

Marcus, trembling: "Isn't it?"

Amonet: "You must delve into the darkness to understand the cause of the nightmare, Marcus."

The sandy floor of the pyramid dissolved into a void of hallucinations, and Marcus began to fall, along with Amonet. The fall was unraveling his mind. Images of Egyptian cats and dogs appeared, chanting, "Remember, remember, remember, remember..."

As Marcus screamed in terror, he was dragged into his deepest, darkest, and most sorrowful memories. A memory surfaced—Marcus in the infamous Mushroom Cloud War that had occurred nine years before the events of the story. It was rumored that this war had reopened the gates of magic in the world, which had been sealed since the abandonment of the ancient witches' house, Erkantha.

In the memory, Marcus was in military service, carrying a rifle and running after a toxic smoke bomb had exploded in the area. He was running in fear across the battlefield when he tripped—he tripped over the hand of a 4-year-old Egyptian girl. She had grabbed his leg. A large part of a building had collapsed on her legs, and she pleaded with Marcus, "Please, please help me. I don't want to die. I don't want to suffer." Marcus said to her, "I'm sorry," and then shot her directly in the head...

Marcus, witnessing this: "No, this didn't happen. This was just part of the war. I'm sure it was just hallucinations from all the blood I lost."

Queen Amonet looked at him with disdain and disgust as he wandered through the void like a madman, tense, running, screaming, and crying tears of blood, saying, "This isn't real." Then, the girl's corpse appeared, crawling toward him with a hole in her head, saying:

"Please, don't make me think of it's

Like a game with a defense

Defense, defense..."

As she said these words, black fire appeared above her face, repeating flashbacks of what had happened. Her eyes began to transform, emitting green fire.

"You talk to me dirty

I'm talking back like a reflex

I'm talkin' back like a-, like a reflex-, talkin' talking

I'm talking talkin' back talkin' talkin' back..."

As she said these words, the void began to spin, and she spun with it until her face transformed into a skeletal structure, then grew skin, turning into the face of an old, ghostly witch. It was Kazia Mysien, the ancient witch.

Kazia and Amonet grabbed him by the hand simultaneously and said, "She is the one who wants to come with us on a journey to discover the meaning of life, Marcus." They began to dive into the void once again, just as we always do at night after midnight when we are alone and all the disturbing lights, including the sunlight, fade away.

Marcus continued to fall, a fall that wasn't just into the void but a collapse into the very fabric of reality itself. He didn't know how much time had passed, but suddenly, he found himself standing in the middle of a scene that shouldn't have been real, yet it was.

He was surrounded by a surreal painting as if it had been conjured from the mind of an eternal being who didn't understand human logic. In front of him was a dragon snake, its body coiled around a mysterious circle, its head biting its tail in an eternal cycle. This wasn't just a drawing; it was a living entity, its breath audible, its eyes watching Marcus with a strange intelligence. Ancient Greek letters carved beside it whispered things he couldn't understand, yet they embedded themselves in his mind as absolute truths. At the center of the circle was a six-pointed star, inside it the symbol of an eye—a human eye, pulsating with life, staring directly into his soul, seeing him, judging him, condemning him.

Beneath the dragon stood two opposing entities. On the left, a demon with torn wings, its skin burned, holding a cup emitting thick black smoke, as if offering Marcus a poisoned drink or perhaps a secret that should never be revealed. On the right, a man in an ancient robe raised his hands as if in a sacred ritual, but he wasn't entirely human. His features were blurry as if his face hadn't yet decided what form to take. Between them, a magical circle was inscribed with unearthly letters, its lines twisting like the veins of a living creature, intertwining around mysterious symbols.

The ground beneath his feet wasn't solid; it pulsed like dead skin, slowly writhing under his steps. Above, the sun smiled at him, but its smile wasn't warm—it was cracked, mocking, distorted. Its eyes were like black holes sucking in his soul every time he looked at them. On the other side, a moon split in half bled cold light, as if the night itself was dying.

Then, out of nowhere, a sound that wasn't a sound echoed—a thought that crawled into his head without permission:

"Omnia Unis Est."

Everything is one. Everything is connected. Everything is infinite.

Marcus wasn't just falling into the void. He was falling into the truth itself.

End of chapter