Beneath the Old City – 8:17 P.M.
The whisper slithered through the tunnels like a serpent, curling around Nathaniel's mind. It was neither a voice nor a sound, yet it spoke—directly into his soul.
"Unseal… and the river shall bleed."
Nathaniel's pulse pounded in his ears. The scroll burned against his palms, not with heat, but with an unsettling energy. He felt as if something inside it was watching him.
Leah took a step closer. "Did you hear that?"
Nathaniel swallowed. "You heard it too?"
Lucien's face was grim. "Not just you. The scroll—" He hesitated. "It's waking up."
Nathaniel glanced down. The ancient writing on the parchment had begun to shift, rearranging itself into a pattern he couldn't quite grasp. But one thing was clear:
This was no ordinary scripture.
Leah turned to Lucien. "You said this ties into the Second Woe—what exactly does that mean? What happens if we unseal it?"
Lucien's jaw clenched. "If the prophecy is literal? It means… the Euphrates will dry up, and something bound beneath it will be released."
Leah exhaled sharply. "The four angels?"
Lucien nodded. "And with them—death."
Nathaniel felt a weight settle in his chest.
It wasn't just scripture.
It wasn't metaphor.
The prophecy was real.
And Rahim—
Rahim was already ahead of them.
---
The Banks of the Euphrates – 9:45 P.M.
The river was black.
The moon cast an eerie glow over the surface, but the water was thick—too thick. It moved strangely, as if something beneath it was alive.
Rahim stood at the edge, his dark coat billowing in the wind. The veiled woman in crimson stood beside him, her hands raised over the water.
The chants of the robed figures grew louder. The air rippled.
Then—
The ground shuddered.
A deep, guttural groan echoed from beneath the riverbed. The water churned violently, thrashing like a wounded beast.
Rahim smiled.
"The seal is weak," the woman whispered. "One more step… and the river will bleed."
Rahim reached into his coat and pulled out a dagger. Its blade gleamed red-black, as if forged from blood itself.
"Then let it bleed."
He stepped forward—
And plunged the dagger into the earth.
Silence.
Then—
The world split open.
The river erupted. The sky above turned scarlet. The water itself curdled, twisting into something darker, thicker—
And then it began to recede.
Rahim watched as the Euphrates, one of the oldest rivers in the world, began to vanish.
And beneath it—something moved.
---
Beneath the Old City – 10:02 P.M.
Nathaniel doubled over, gasping.
He wasn't in the tunnels anymore. Not really. He was somewhere else.
A vision. A prophecy. A warning.
He saw the river—twisting, vanishing. He saw shadows rising from the cracked earth beneath it, their forms terrible, monstrous, ancient.
And at the center of it all—
Rahim.
Nathaniel snapped back. His vision blurred, the tunnels spinning around him.
Leah grabbed his arm. "Nathaniel! What happened?"
His breath was ragged. "The river… Rahim… He's doing it. He's breaking the seal."
Lucien paled. "Then we're out of time."
Nathaniel clenched his fists. He could still feel the whisper of the scroll lingering in his bones. The choice he had been trying to avoid was now standing before him.
Either they stopped Rahim now—
Or the prophecy would unfold in full.
He met Leah's gaze. "We need to move. Now."
She nodded. Lucien was already reaching for his phone, calling in every contact he had.
Nathaniel turned back to the scroll one last time.
It had whispered to him before.
Now, it was silent.
Waiting.
Because it knew.
The Third Woe was coming.
And nothing would ever be the same.