A majestic dragon, enormous with shiny black scales adorning its body, its black wings spanning about 30 metres were flapping and bringing gusts of winds. Trees were getting uprooted, everything was getting thrown off. It destroyed everything with just a flap of its wings.

The other side was not weak in any way. They were a group of well-equipped humans, their teamwork was well-coordinated, and each individual was an amazing fighter. They were giving a hard time to the majestic dragon.

Although the fight looked more like a bull annoyed by pesky flies. Here, the pesky flies were more vicious and highly trained. One of the fighters swung a metallic chain and threw it over the dragon. The hooks got stuck on one of the wings of the dragon. As the chain was pulled, it tore off a part of the wing causing the dragon to issue a deafening roar.

The roar threw off the humans. The dragon breathed out black flames and burned the surrounding forest.

The humans who were still standing ran for their lives, they got on their spaceship and took off leaving the injured behind.

“These damn kids think I’m weak. Now you have successfully annoyed me.” The now angered dragon picked the few humans lying on the ground and flung them far off.

After dealing with the humans he summoned out a black orb. It was spinning in his hands and slowly growing larger. He then flung the orb into air. Instantly everything stopped moving. The raging fire stopped, the winds stopped, the fluttering leaves on the trees stopped, the animals stopped. Kiara and Aarav were stoned. They couldn’t move their body. Even their pupils could not move. Only their consciousness was still there. They could feel this bizarre phenomenon.

This phenomenon occurred only for a second. More like a few microseconds. In short, the time passed was almost negligible. If they hadn’t been paying attention they wouldn’t have felt it.

After this short pause, everything went back in reverse restoring the trees and animals how they were.

“Huh….”

“What just happened now?”

Kiara and Aarav were deliberating whether they should run away when time suddenly paused and everything went back in reverse. When they realized what happened there, they were in the line of sight of the dragon.

The dragon was looking straight at them. They were petrified by the gaze. A pair of golden eyes were looking straight at them. Their throat went dry and legs become weak. At that time a warm gentle voice echoed.

“What a stroke of luck? A pair of healers just when I needed it the most”

The dragon moved past the tall trees as if crossing some ordinary fences. He came near the duo. His body started fading and transformed into a handsome man. He had long black hair, golden eyes, a very handsome face adorning a black robe like an ancient cultivator. He looked more like a deity than a mortal man. Even his terrifying temperament changed into one of gentle and calm aura.

The deity-like man gently and elegantly moved closer to them.

“Huh?” The man tilted his head and said, “ you’re not healers.”

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He moved back said with amazement.

“You’re not from this world. Are you? What are you doing in this wilderness”

The dragon was amazed and started mumbling on his own. “Is that even possible? You can cross dimensions just like that. What an amazing find?”

The dragon kept mumbling to himself pacing back and forth.

Aarav and Kiara were confused. They hadn’t spoken a word yet and this person dragon has figured out their secret in just a glance. Moreover, the dragon was speaking in some strange language, but they can clearly understand him. The dragon’s arm was injured and dripping blood. They realized the dragon approached them for help and was not hostile to them. If it was, they would be the most unlucky people in the entire galaxy.

“Sir, you need some help?”

Aarav moved forward gathering some courage while indicating the wound on the arm of the dragon.

“Ahh! Right! Those annoying bugs managed to wound me. Do you know how to heal?”

“No. I have some bandages.”

After treating his wounds, they set up a tent and took shelter for the night.

“How are you guys still alive?”

“Excuse me?” Aarav and Kiara spoke up together. The dragon didn’t look hostile, nor his behaviour was. Rather he exuded a warm aura. But why does he want them dead?

“I mean, you’ve been in the wilderness for over a month, how are you guys still surviving?”

Well, they looked feeble by the standards of this world. But they were not weak. They were in good health.

That question was a huge blow to Aarav’s ego.

“We somehow managed.” Aarav wanted to refute but he really can’t. He would have to be insane to do so.

“I didn’t mean you’re weak in any way”

The dragon said it as if he could read Aarav’s mind. He paused and continued, “What I mean is, how are you not affected by the Night? You have been travelling both day and night. And still, you are not affected by the Night. Any normal person would go insane by a week. Both of you don’t have spiritual abilities. You are not affected by the Night’s pressure and also you are both in very good shape”

Aarav and Kiara were befuddled by this new information. They were not told about the effects of seemingly harmless night. The night here looked different but they had no idea there were adverse effects.

“You mean it’s dangerous to travel at night,” Kiara asked the dragon.

“Haa_ Let me enlighten you, ignorant fellows. You must have realized that this place is entirely different from your Earth. During the night, the spiritual pressure on this planet increases a hundred times. So, people don’t travel or even move out of their shelter during night time. Only safe places are pockets where most villages and settlements are. Only these places have negligible or no effect of the night. Normal people can’t even live a week. Ability users can hardly live by a month. Only pilgrims walk on this road, even that is done using artefacts. You wouldn’t have recognized any village even if you passed by them anyway. It’s like you skipped the tutorials only to find yourself running around in circles”

The dragon was talking as if he could read their minds. Even the analogy he gave was familiar to them. If they were not betrayed, they would have reached the city in a day. Now they haven’t reached the middle point in so many days. Curse that merchant who left them to die. Hearing the explanation they didn’t have any dangers from the animals. Rather the nights would have slowly poisoned them. And why they were alright, even the dragon had no theories behind it.

He further told them things that were not recorded in any books. Only ancient beings like him would know or so he claims. He told them that the Taiba planet was initially uninhabitable because of its distance from the Sun, which should make it a planet like Mars.

During the genesis, the creator of this world ‘Elysium’ dumped all the spiritual waste and toxins left after creating Elysium into this uninhabitable planet. Later he covered this planet with flora and fauna because it stood out like sore thumb to him. It looked beautiful on the surface but made the nights deadlier. Later few settlers known as natives came and lived in the pockets and voids where spiritual pressure was negligible. The settlers didn’t know the reason behind the blue nights. They thought that it was mainly because of the plants which emitted light during the night. Even to this date, they haven’t found the reason behind it. The beautiful Taiba planet was sparsely populated because of this reason. It became a backward planet even after 10,000’s year of its discovery.