the epiphany!

Chapter 8

Ibrahim dressed in a white Kaftan, his hair neatly styled to stress his oblong face. He walked majestically into a beautiful garden full of lush green vegetation with stately trees bearing luscious fruits. They were more exotic than Ibrahim had ever seen in his life. As he walked, he saw a group of men all garbed in splendorous garments, engaged in a heated argument. Ibrahim halted for a while, staring at them and wondering what they were talking about that made them not notice him. It must be very important, he assumed, and continued towards them. He had to ask them for direction, because he did not know how he got there. A few inches close to these men, their bickering stopped, and they turned their gaze at him. Their faces were unfamiliar, except for one which was no other than Alhaji Kabiru! His late father and he screamed for joy and dashed at Ibrahim.

"Father?" Ibrahim whispered surprisingly

They dissolved into each other's arms in a rapturous embrace, with joyful tears cascading down their cheeks. While the other men watched in rapt attention. When they could extricate themselves from one another, Alhaji Kabiru was no longer smiling as the magnitude of the situation dawned on him.

"what happened?" you are not supposed to be here"

Alhaji Kabiru took Ibrahim by the hand and walked eastwards of the garden.

"I don't know, but you see the Ark developed some glitch along the way and__"

"Speak no further, my son. We knew something went wrong"

Ibrahim's eyes widened in shock, and Alhaji Kabiru nodded slowly to confirm his fear.

"Everything in life is connected, a vibrational energy runs the entire universe, and that is why you are here!"

They stopped midway, and their eyes met, and a sudden fear came upon Ibrahim.

"So am I dead?" Ibrahim asked in a pessimistic voice.

"No, and yes! No, because people don't really die. Yes, you are in your transmigratory mode, which is a good thing for you so you can go back in time, to look where no mortal dares to look into… to find the star that leads home"

Ibrahim was jolted, and his mind drifted to his father's last words on his dying bed. He looked straight into his eyes and Alhaji Kabiru nodded again.

"That is why you have come and I will help you, because it is expedient that you defeat Thantys else there won't be peace both in the land of living and of the dead"

Alhaji Kabiru nudged Ibrahim forward, and they walked on.

"Thantys cloaked with different names in different universe as evil, his powers grow strong with more souls becoming ignorant of him"

They stopped in front of a gigantic thorn apple tree whose octopal root stretched virtually everywhere in the garden. Then Alhaji Kabiru plucked its fruit and gave to Ibrahim, who was reluctant to receive it.

"Eat! Don't be afraid, your future awaits"

Slowly, he received the fruit from his father and took a bite. As he swallowed, he fragmentized into a convolution of worlds and colors. He shut his eyes and held his head to steady himself. Suddenly, he sank into the ground, all his pain, joy and anger melted away and he felt very light, as light as the air, as he descended into the ground.

* * *

Ibrahim opened his eyes in a dark place, indistinct voices whispered all over the place, strange voices that were totally extraneous to him. But when he rose, he understood why everywhere seemed strange to him. For he was standing in the Primose cave, some handmaidens dressed in a white garment hurried past him. A few inches away, he descried the supreme Oldes in their red hooded garment, gazing down on something. As he moved closer, he saw it was the enormous figure of Thantys they were looking upon on the cold slab. Hovering over his chest was a glowing stone.

"Spirits of the Alazend universe, guardians of all celestial beings, we consecrate this vessel before you to make a god out of him! An archetype machine of the new Xipetus, defender of our race. No more will our kind be killed by disease or die prematurely by accident. Deal kindly with him as he transmigrates through the belly of the underworld and crown him with godhood." They said in unison.

Ibrahim was aghast at the ritual and recoiled. He watched in horror as they buried the glowing stone in his heart and sewed the flesh together. Then they wrapped the body with white linen and placed it in one of the sarcophagus, and finished the ritual with their magical neck chains around the coffin. Immediately, a bright light emanated from the pendants and engulfed the box. By the time the fire would die out, the box was completely carbonized. For a split second, Ibrahim thought they just roasted their creation in an experiment gone wrong. But then the door fell apart and a huge, red, menacing statue stepped out.

Ibrahim understood this secret intelligent hybrid creature was no other than Thantys begotten from the core essence of the supreme Oldes to combat any outsider or dark horse that might threaten their world. He flew into a rage at the supreme Oldes for their silly mistake, for bringing forth a monster. He screamed curses at them, but unfortunately, they couldn't hear him as they led their new creation to the lake and washed away all of his impurities. After giving him a good bath in the primal waters, they spirited him out of the cave, and Ibrahim followed from behind.

This time, Ibrahim was standing on the summit of a very high mountain, adjacent, the council of the elders of Oldes seated on a high chair. They watched Thantys, now wearing a brazen pharaonic armor, battling against different creatures attacking from all sides. He fought ferociously, destroying and burning them to the ground. His superhumanness was second to none, faster and quicker than any hunting cat. His ultrasonic ability was powerful, able to detect the energy level of any object miles away.

The supreme Oldes were happy with their fine handiwork. They believed that with the countlessness of this new over-man, nothing could invade their world. Helplessness washed over Ibrahim. He wished he could tell them what would happen in the near future. He wished to tell them how deadly their mission was. That would destroy their beautiful colony.

But before Ibrahim could finish wishing, he found himself walking by the bank of river Oto, which was now a barren land. Beautiful palm trees littered the seashore, glorious moons reflected light with a glittering luster over the waters. As he sauntered around, the soft, burnished sand under his feet felt good and comforting. This was the future he dreamt of when he built the Ark, and he groaned in anguish, wondering why his life was filled with so much difficulty.

Then he heard something. Ibrahim stopped as his eyes darted back and forth. But there was no one in sight. Yet the raucous sound continued, anyway. It forced Ibrahim to follow the sound, which led to the end of the bank. Just behind one tree was Thantys, in a heated argument with a Xipetus. Confusion overwhelmed Ibrahim, for he did not understand what was going on. Suddenly, Thantys picked up the Xipetus and wrung off his neck. Ibrahim was shaken and recoiled, but in that moment he remembered he was there remotely, thus no harm could come to him.

Thantys threw the lifeless body into the ocean with his chest, huffing in unabated rage. At a distance, some Xipetuses ran towards the monster with their flaming swords. Thantys did not wait for them to get to him as he roared and charged at them, raging like a wild beast. Ibrahim watched as Thantys slaughtered the Xipetuses in the most brutal way. Ibrahim knew he had to communicate with the Oldes to prepare them for what was coming.

As Ibrahim ran, he slipped and fell and the next moment; he was in the secret chambers of the supreme Oldes. The place was filled with chaos, the supreme Oldes argued vehemently about Thantys being no longer loyal to them. For his entire being was contaminated with hubris and wanted to be worshipped as a god. At this moment, Ibrahim was not angry at them, but felt pity. They knew their end had come, for Thantys existed because of them, and killing them would be his next plan so he could absorb their life force, and become a god. Fear reverberated through the walls. Suddenly, countless number of handmaidens with a baby appeared in the room's corner, and Ibrahim watched the Oldes as they examined each child carefully. He did not quite understand what was going on. After a harrowing moment that seemed to last forever, they selected a child with the most intelligent eyes. Ibrahim's eyes flew apart as he recognized the child as himself. His heart pounded. Nothing seemed to make any sense to him. Each of the Oldes bathed the baby with his breath before handing the baby back to the handmaiden and she dashed out of the room. As the woman with the baby ran, Ibrahim pursued her. He had to know the outcome of the baby, but he found his feet glued to the ground. 'Why couldn't he leave?' he cursed himself. He turned to look at the Oldes again. The room had fallen into a terrible silence. Each supreme Oldes retrieved a piece of a glowing stone from his heart and sealed it in the chest. Immediately the supreme Oldes lost their glow and shriveled until they were only bones left in their vestment.

Outside the city, Thantys raged on and massacred thousands of Tivs and Xipetus. Blood gushed down the streets of the city like a raging river. No mercy for their youngling, both old and young, were consumed by his wrath, and smoke rose to the sky. It traumatized Ibrahim at the slain and wept. As Ibrahim wept, the horrible atmospheres transformed into the Panopticon, and he stood beside the glowing stone. Thousands of Halycones stood in dormancy, but the moment Thantys transferred the consciousness of the dead Xipetuses into the Halycones and activated their intelligences with the stone, they all came alive. Their eyes darted around, flexing their mechanical limbs, grateful for this abnormal eviternity, and they praised and hailed Thantys as their god, worshipping his awesome power over death. Then Thantys charged his legions of Halycon to scour every nook and cranny of the city for any life form.

A sudden dread came upon Ibrahim. He felt there was something he could do, even in his intangible form, to help in this war. He dashed out of the horrible place and stumbled over debris, and wondered how he was going to maneuver his way before the Halycones entered the city and finished what they had started. Suddenly, a giant orb whizzed past him and flew into the sky. Ibrahim paused for a minute to look into the sky. Somehow, he just knew that the psyche of the Supreme Oldes was in that spacecraft. But where was it going to? And what happened to his baby form? He quizzed, a bit saddened.

Behind him, Ibrahim could hear the spluttering engine of a vehicle, and he knew the Halycones were close by to carry out their master's order. But he was glad that whatever was in that mysterious aircraft had left before Thantys could get his hands on it. As Ibrahim turned to laugh down in their frustration, his environs flickered and was no longer in Alazend. He found himself in Nigeria, in the year 1967, at the brink of a civil war, an erroneous time to be in. There was a baby whose forehead was badly bruised, the same baby the Oldes hand picked in their secret chambers. wrapped in a white linen and crying beside a nearby bush on a desolate street.

Suddenly, a blue colored 404 Peugeot car pulled over by the corner of the street, and a well-dressed couple alighted from the vehicle, whom he recognized as his parents. They were totally shaken from the pitiful sight of the baby. Out of a motherly impulse, Hajia Shadia reached for the baby and her husband grabbed her wrist.

"And what do you think you are doing? This could be some trap!"

"We are not going to leave it here?"

Alhaji Kabiru heaved a sigh with his hands akimbo

"Listen my husband, we are just returning from Mecca and it is best we do well to this innocent child… besides I really need a child, I don't want to die a barren woman," she cried.

Alhaji Kabiru looked at the abandoned child for a while, and his heart heaved with feelings. Slowly, Kabiru crossed over and his wife was confused over his reactions, instead he carried the child in his arms, and immediately the child was comforted and stopped crying. Alhaji Kabiru smiled at the baby, then he turned to his wife.

"This would definitely take away the reproach in our home!"

They both smiled

Tears gushed down Ibrahim's cheeks, and his entire body rocked with emotions. 'How could Alhaji Kabiru have kept this secret from him and loved him more than his own son?' he reasoned.

On the day of his christening, different clerics prophesied that he would be a mighty person. Ibrahim touched the strange birthmark on his forehead, and he realized who he was and what the vision all meant. The conundrums fixed perfectly. In that epiphanic moment, he felt lighter and lighter until he diffused into the air.