"Alright, pick one." Cokali said, pointing at five different facial drawings.

"Why the hell would I ever do that?" Armad snapped.

"We already told you your face is now... listen, we will just go into the city, show you why it isn't a good idea to show your face around and come back." Iliyasis said.

"Okay, I'll go with you but I won't take any of these." Armad said, pointing at the faces. "If Cokali can give me any face, why these? Choose a less frightening appearance."

All the five faces had bizarre looks. One looked like a lion without the fur, another looked like an emaciated old man, another looked like a cushingoid faciae... Not a single normal looking face.

"Really? You mean these faces aren't to your liking?" Cokali asked, shocked. He was truly amazed that Armad didn't want to look like an emaciated old man, or a cushingoid kid, or a lion. Armad cursed internally. He would rather remain indoors.

"Alright, how about this?" Cokali waved his brush and the board glowed. The five faces disappeared and another set appeared.

"What the hell... Damn you!" Armad cursed out loudly. In fact, this new set had a cat, a rat and a monkey. Cokali was already hinting at the monkey face when Armad punched the board.

The next set had feminine figures that were even more obnoxious than the previous ones.

Armad had to literally tell him what he wanted.

"Oh! You should have said that earlier." Cokali said with a sigh.

Armad gritted his teeth. He definitely wanted to punch the guy.

Armad and Cokali met Iliyasis outside the mansion. Aish had went to attend a meeting with the king and the other Dukes about her appointment, leaving him with the two brothers to show him the city.

"You look... new." Iliyasis said, observing Armad's crimson hair and eyes with a round face.

"Yeah, thank you." Armad said through his teeth. Even with all the instructions he'd given Cokali, he ended up with Aish's face.

"This is the mathematical layout." Iliyasis gave him a paper with his hand writing.

Armad sighed softly. Iliyasis had actually written the number of houses, the area of land occupied by settlements, the count of the nobles living in the city, the size of the palace and mansions of the two Dukes.... So many calculations that made his head turned upside down.

Hey, idiot, when a person asks you to show him around, you show him around not give him some extensive calculations.

"And what am I supposed to do with this?" Armad asked.

"We will first explore the outskirts, then we will slowly explore the city according to that layout." Iliyasis said, as if that was the normal thing to do.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Armad sighed. A ninety-six year old level 18 Alchemist that had somehow managed to become the Duchess, a fatty Djinn Master that couldn't follow a simple instructions and an overserious cunt. Not a single normal one.

There wasn't a single house in the outskirts which was odd enough, but what really captured his attention were some rifts. Wide as the city's gate, dark as an abandoned well, and endlessly deep like hell.

Armad looked into one of the smaller rifts. There was a black smoke swirling rapidly in the depth. The edges of the land had turned completely black. For hundreds of meters away from the rift, not a single grass had grown. Not only that, Armad felt a chilling air swept over him as he moved closer. His knees buckled.

Iliyasis quickly caught him before he fell into the rift.

"That was reckless." Iliyasis said.

"You can't look into those things." Cokali added with a hum.

"What are they? I saw some smokey beings in the depth and some... "

"You can't talk about what you saw." Iliyas cut in. "Those things can hear you."

"Are they alive? What happened?"

"It's his sword."

"Whose sword?" Armad asked.

"Huh.. " Iliyasis sighed. He would rather avoid talking about this.

"You saw the statues in front of the noble gate?" Cokali asked.

Armad nodded.

"There was one statue with a sword. He is emperor Áyúbu Nára, the greatest swordsman alive. His career began in this city. When he first came seven hundred years ago, his body reacted to the magic of the noble gate and he formed a Daikirin. The authorities then perceived him as a threat. They tried to eliminate him at night but he fought back, and these rifts are the results of his slashes. He is different: anything he cuts will be perpetually damaged. The people of Seith began to call him Áyúbu of the Perpetual Damage. People come from all over the world to see it, but nobody look too deep." Cokali explained.

Armad fell silent for a long moment. He knew the name of the emperor ever since he was a child but he never knew this story. He thought about the three sword worshippers with the same surname. Since Áyúbu was the founder of sword worshipping, it was safer to assume they were related.

"I want to see the statues again." Armad said.

"Don't worry, we are headed right there." Cokali said. "But we are not going there to see Áyúbu's statue, we are going there to see... yours and sister's."

"Mine? What are you talking about?"

They didn't answer him until they were out of the noble gate.

Instead of the six statues, there were now seven. The last addition was Armad's statue, looking exactly like him. Hundreds of people, including newsmen, were taking pictures of the new statue.

"Who is he? There hasn't been any addition since her highness the Duchess."

"There are rumors saying he is also her brother. That he was the one who brought her back."

"Man, those rumors are exaggerated to make the Duchess look good. I am sure they are not related."

The surrounding people talked about the new statue. Both the civilians and the newsmen craved for his identity. They would pay anything just to get him.

On the other hand, Armad looked deeply into his statue. Next to his was Aish's, which also looked exactly like her.

"How? Why?" That was the first thing he asked. As far as he knew, he'd no relation with Mikrom whatsoever.

"House Mikrom is the oldest House on the lower worlds. It's believed that their magic has came from the Old World before The Descent. The gates were built using the same magic to identify anyone who passed through it. The identification criteria is known only to lord Mikrom, but anyone who was identified would receive a Daikirin protector. After Cokali has knocked you out, the magic of the gate identified you. We don't know why or how, we don't even know what the Daikirin does, but sister has more information on that." Iliyasis explained. The whole expedition was to show Armad his new statue.

Armad fell silent. This statue exactly looked like him. The three months he'd lost might have saved him from the sword worshippers, but if Nostalgia or any of her brothers saw this statue, they would immediately recognized him. Why the hell did that piece of crap identified him?

Cokali, completely oblivious to Armad's dilemma, cleared his throat. "Are you ready for the real expedition now? 'Cos I have plenty of places to show you."