The long, curved blade blinded Lara for a millisecond, but she quickly shifted her focus towards the wielder of the sword —a lean boy who looked not much older than her. He had skin as light as Lara's but with a rosier undertone, and his monolid eyes were glaring at Lara with such animosity, as if she had murdered his entire family.

Most importantly, Lara noticed that he had a very unstable fighting stance. His feet were flat on the ground, his knees were straight as a stick, and he was holding onto the katana like a baseball bat. The first thought that came to Lara's mind was: oh, this should be an easy one.

Remembering her training, Lara swung her arms and gave the boy's wrists a brisk, sharp slap. His sword flew out of his hands and landed a few feet away, bouncing around with a few loud and humiliating 'clang, clang, clang'. With a sweep of her leg, she tripped the boy over, twisted his hands to the back, and kneed him firmly to the ground.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" The dark-haired boy squirmed under her weight. Despite being bigger than Lara and having a weapon, he was basically powerless against Lara. It was obvious that he had not been trained.

Lara didn't have time to gloat, however. Her body froze in place when she felt several muzzles pressed into the back of her head.

"Stand up and put your hands behind your head," a low and husky voice commanded.

Lara cursed silently. There was no way she could ever fight her way out of this. Reluctantly, she followed the orders. The strange boy took the chance to scramble away, not forgetting to spit at Lara's face indignantly the moment he was out of arm's reach. Ah she really should've given him a punch in the face while she could...

"Turn around slowly," the deep voice continued, "and if you try anything funny, any sign of a Gift at all, we'll blast your head off."

Lara shuffled her feet cautiously and found herself standing in front of a row of soldiers clad in boxy, dark grey uniform, their rifles pointing at her. At a quick glance, they looked as though they were all from different realms; some of them had similar features to the boy who attacked her, others were slightly more tanned with sharper features, while a few people, including the tall, burly commander in the middle, had dark charcoal skin like the imprisoned Karzian boy. Whatever realms they might be from and whatever their skin color was, it seemed that they had one unifying goal in mind: to kill both Lara and Ryan. The cursed Earthlings.

Warily, Lara shifted a little bit to the side, blocking Ryan's unconscious body with her own. "W- What do you people want?" She tried to sound as intimidating as possible, but her voice came out as a meek squeak.

"What kind of question is that? You teleported here!" the dark-haired boy snapped.

"Jun, go to the back, and stay there," warned the commander. Jun grumbled a little to himself before retreating behind the rest of the soldiers.

The commander was a head taller than almost everyone in the room, and his uniform, taut against his bulging muscles, had additional badges on his collar and shoulder straps. Despite his steely expression, he had a pair of gentle brown eyes that matched his ebony skin —eyes that were very similar to those of the imprisoned Karzian boy, Lara noted. Just a thought of that poor boy made her heart ache once again.

"So I see that Ryan Carland, the notorious Operative, has brought you here. This is very unexpected of him. He knows very well that coming here would mean his death. Yet he still comes, and even brings you along. Why is that?"

Lara's mind had been inundated with questions ever since Ryan had transported them here, but she perked up when she heard the word 'death'. "I- I don't know, but- but please, don't kill him!"

"You are not in the position to be demanding anything from us, Earthling," the commander said, his brows furrowed. "Tell us, who are you?"

"I'm L- Lara." Then, Lara remembered what Ryan had told her. "Oh, erm, I'm- I'm apparently the descendant of erm..." —What was the name that Ryan had said again?— "Erm, Lisa Skyborn?"

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"Elissa Skyborn?" A strange expression took over the commander's face. Everyone in the room also became visibly flustered at the mention of that name.

Did she get the name wrong? What else had Ryan told her to say? "Oh yeah, I'm- I'm born under a special star? The star of Nada, or something?" Lara tried to babble as much as she could remember. Ryan had not given her enough time to process before taking her here, so her memory was fuzzy at best. "And oh, Madam's- I mean, our First Lady's Gift didn't affect me at all, too..."

To Lara's surprise, the commander dropped his weapon on the ground. "Finally." He approached Lara and snatched up her hands endearingly. "After fifteen years, finally, that bastard returned you to us. We've been waiting for you, Lara."

"What?" The sudden change in attitude was giving Lara whiplash. "What do you mean?"

The commander's mouth bent upwards, revealing the kindest smile Lara had ever seen. "Come with me, Lara. Let's talk." With a casual wave of his hand, every other soldier lowered their weapons as well.

"O- Okay..." Lara glanced at Ryan, who was still lying on the floor. "But what about him? Please, don't hurt him."

"Lara, this man is responsible for the deaths of millions," the burly man said somberly. He lowered his voice and added with a whisper, "Including the death of your parents, Lara."

"What? What are you talking about?" Lara exclaimed. "Arianna told me my parents died when giving birth to me. And Ryan is an Operative, he only kills the ruthless armies of the Turned Realms."

Whatever Lara said caused quite a stir; some people cringed outwardly, while others, Jun included, began to cuss out loud. The room quietened down once again when the commander lifted his hand up.

"My child, is that what you think of Operatives? Some kind of knights of justice?" The commander looked as if he had just swallowed a mouthful of bitter medicine.

"Aren't they?" Lara insisted. "They kill the evil people who are working to destroy the peace in the universe."

A small sigh escaped the commander's nose. "Well, whatever you believe in, you have to remember that you are in our realm now, and therefore he is subject to our law. We will give him a fair and proper trial tomorrow, where we will decide on a punishment that he deserves. I'm sure it will be a punishment that you'll agree with as well, once you hear about what he's actually done." He nodded his head at two soldiers on the side. "You two, take him away."

Lara couldn't argue with that. The commander was right; she's no longer on Earth anymore. She watched helplessly as Ryan was dragged away from the room, his curly, brown hair mopping the stone-tiled floor. "What... realm am I in?" she asked, finally taking some time to look around the luxurious, palace-like room. What realm was this affluent, and had such diversity among their people?

"The realm of Karz."

Lara almost choked on her own saliva. "K- Karz? T- This is a Turned Realm?" She spun her head around a few more times again. From everything she'd heard from Madam, this was... not at all what she imagined a Turned Realm would look like.

"What, do we not look as evil as you think we are?" The commander chuckled. "Don't worry, Lara, we won't hurt you if you don't hurt us. Also, allow me to properly introduce myself. My name is Arthur Canary, and I'm the General Commander of the Karzian Army." He gestured to two soldiers who stood right behind him. "And these two are Nick and Yvo. They're my lieutenants. Come, walk with me, Lara, let's talk."

Hesitantly, Lara followed Arthur out of the room, with his two lieutenants trailing close behind. The rest of the army scattered as well, while Jun sheepishly went to retrieve his fallen sword. As Lara walked by him, he stuck up his middle finger out at her, and Lara felt no qualms in returning the obscene gesture.

The hallways were lined with the same exquisite marble pillars. In between each pillar, oil paintings or sculptures decorated the walls. Lara figured that this place was not really a palace, but probably some kind of a government building. A bunch of people clutching briefcases and wearing sophisticated office wear trotted along the corridors. They were as diverse as the soldiers in the room.

Whenever they noticed Lara, however, they would stop dead in their tracks and stare at Lara, like she was the literal spawn of the devil. Lara had never felt so... aware of her Earthling features —her porcelain skin stood out like a sore thumb in this realm. Arthur strode next to Lara, nodding his head calmly at the nervous passersby. His sheer presence was enough to placate any distress that Lara apparently caused.

"So Lara, how much do you know about the Turned Realms?" Arthur asked. "What exactly do you think we are?"

Lara hung her head. "I- I was told that... the Turned Realms were reigned by people who thirst for war and terror."

"Now, why would we want that?"

"I don't know." Lara looked up at the dark-skinned commander. "Is it not true?"

"Of course not." Arthur peered at the girl. "War is painful for everyone. Nobody wants to fight to the death ever."

"Then why would you turn against the First Lady? She stopped the Grand War and brought peace to the entire universe. Why would you want to go against that?"

Arthur nodded. "Yes, Elena did participate in stopping the Grand War, and I appreciate her for that. But you know, she didn't do it alone. There were others who were also granted the First Gifts."

Lara blinked. "Wait, what?"

"Ah, you don't know, do you?" Arthur said with a knowing smile. "She must have been omitting that information and taking the credit all by herself."

"What information?"

"The truth about how the Grand War ended."