Ibaeran appeared back in her room and then immediately collapsed on her knees. Feeling an intense pain flow through her from her, so deep and agonizing that was impossible to put in to words. Tears dripped down from her eyes and on to the floor below as the memory of what she had just done moments ago flooded her head, reminding her of the painful truth that she had willingly foregone an opportunity to have something that have evaded her grasp from the very moment she was born, true happiness and freedom, void of all of the pain and misery she had ever experienced in her life, and she could have shared it all with the person she loved the most, all she had to do was open a single door.
Ibaeran felt like scream and curse herself for choosing leave being a chance to truly happy with the person she loved with all her heart but she knew that there was no point in doing that. She had made her choice and no matter how painful and agonizing it may be she reassured herself in heart that it was the right one. Understanding that for the very moment the steel wings attached themselves to her back and made her the Su Baera, she had a responsibility to her people, a responsibility she could not deny for her own personal happiness.
Ibaeran then heard a knock at the door. She then summoned all the strength she could summon to get and then went to the door, making sure she wiped away all her tears before opening the door. On the other side of door were Minji and Finita.
“It’s you two, why are you here?” Ibaeran questioned upon seeing the two maids standing in front of the door.
Minji and Finita, upon seeing Ibaeran’s swollen eyes and the dried up tear tracks on her face, looked her with a look of worry and hint of concern.
“S…Su Baera” Minji spoke, her voice cracking with fear and caution.
“Are you okay?” Minji completed her statement, greatly taken Ibaeran aback as she never expected an Uha Tamunaran to show enough concern or compassion towards her to ask of her wellbeing.
“Minji” Finita yelled at her sister, thinking that she may have offended Ibaeran by asking such a question.
Finita then turned back to Ibaeran, bowing down her head before saying, “I’m sorry, my sister talks a bit too much for her good”.
“It’s quite alright”, Ibaeran before turning face Minji who looked at her with a look of fear, scared that she might have offended Ibaeran with her words.
“I’m fine, just a little tired that’s all” Ibaeran spoke with a voice filled with gratitude, happy that someone, even if it was and Uha Tamunaran, was able to notice that something was troubling her and care enough to ask her if she was alright as that was something she only expected from one person but that person was no long in the realm of the living.
Ibaeran, summoned every ounce of strength she could muster to keep her tears at bay as flashes of Preyina filled her mind, not wanting the two maids before her to see her shed tears and so vulnerable.
“Why are you two here?” asked Ibaeran.
“It’s the king, he wants to see you” said Minji.
Ibaeran upon hearing what the two maids said sighed out in exhaustion as she doubted she, in her current state, could muster the strength to face the king but it was command and if she were to refuse him, the consequence was be to dire for her to face.
“Very well” Ibaeran spoke, knowing that she couldn’t refuse the king and even though the king was the last person she wanted to lay her eyes on during those moments, she still had to go.
The king, seated on his massive throne, waited, with an irritated and frustrated look on his face, in front the doors his eyes had been fixed on since the moment he commanded for Ibaeran’s presence. A few moments then passed and the doors finally opened up and Ibaeran then step in, making her was to his majesty before bowing before his throne.
“You asked to see me your majesty”, Ibaeran spoke to the king with her heard a bowed down.
The king was taken aback a bit by the way Ibaeran just walked in his chambers and the she spoke to him, sensing that there was something wrong with her but he what it was and that greatly troubled him.
“Have you made any progress in retrieving the Dumo stone” the king asked in his usual menacing and degrading tone, like a giant talking down to an ant.
“No but…” the king did not allow Ibaeran to complete her sentence before grabbing with one of his massive arms.
The king then began to slowly crush and squeeze within his grip.
“It seems as though you’ve forgotten who you’re talking to, I am your king, your lord, your god. You, your race, even the Uha Tamunarans owe my yours lives, for it’s simply because of my mercy that you all till breathe. If I wanted I could slaughter you and your pathetic race in a heart but no, I allowed you all to live simply because of you Su Baera. You are the key to my grand plans, my ascension to an even high realm, a realm that have been denied for far too long”, the king spoke bitterness, anger, and frustration in his voice as he grip grew tight and harder.
Ibaeran could feel her bones slowly began to crack with a great surge of pain flowing through her entire body as the king’s grip over hard grew tighter, she tried her best to summon the strength needed to free herself from his grasp but try as she may, as stared into eye of the monster that was king, she felt an overwhelming of fear grab hold of her, stripping her of whatever fear she could muster.
“You are nothing but a weak and frail little thing who’s only purpose is to be used as a tool for my ascension and if you don’t start functioning like you are meant to, I won’t hesitate break you alongside the rest of you pathetic race”, the king spoke like a cobra spewing venom of his heart, stinging Ibaeran’s heart with his cruel.
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Ibaeran couldn’t take it anymore, with the king’s words echoing in her head, constantly reminding her of her place as his tool and the weight of the overwhelming pressure placed upon her to free her people, Ibaeran felt something within snap like thread that had been stretched too thin. Then suddenly, all her pain and frustrations, along the feeling of helpless she had been harboring within her heart for what felt like an eternity, manifested itself, in an immense fierce and fiery fury. Her entire body began to glow with raw power from it as she felt everything within her, the pain, the frustration, the helpless, fear and shame, beginning to rise.
The king upon seeing glow of Ibaeran’s body froze and looked at her with a mix shock, dread, and fear. He felt his grip grew weaker and weaker as the force from the power emanate from Ibaeran began to free her from his grip. The king then tightened his hold on her, refusing to go her, believing that no matter how great the power, it was nothing compared to his but no matter how tighter his hold on her got, the power emanate from her refused to allow her remain in his grasp, and slowly his grip grew weaker and weaker, slowly overtaking the power of the king’s grasp before finally, with massive burst of power and flash of a blinding light, Ibaeran was freed from the king’s grasp.
As the light dimmed the king winced out in pain as he looked down at the arm he used grab hold of Ibaeran, severely wounded due to the power the escaped Ibaeran’s body. The king looked up, his eyes fixed on the image above his head, of girl that he once tightly on his arms and floating above his head with a pair of steel wings extending out of her back and her body glowing with divine hue. The king, upon seeing the sight of Ibaeran hovering over him was taken back to time in the past where he witness with once dual vision, the Su Baera before being, single handedly reduced entire legions of armies to ashes with his raw power alone. Feeling in those moments what he felt upon seeing the former Su Baera back then as he dealt with his army, a feeling thought he would never feel again, a feeling of absolute and utter fear.
Ibaeran, drunk of the power flowing through her entire body, could not feel anything but pure unbridle fury, feeling the overwhelming frustration she had been keeping at bay for so long take over, she wanted nothing more than to let it all out, releasing all her fury in a single spontaneous burst but then, her eyes caught a sight, a sight she never expected to see. Ibaeran, looking down at the king, saw something, something she couldn’t believe to be through, and that was fear from none other than the king himself. Seeing that shocking sight reminded her of herself and her people, remembering the feeling of fear the Uha Tamunarans inspired in the hearts of her people and herself with power, and upon seeing the same fear the king of the Uha Tamunarans himself, she couldn’t help but feel, not a sense of pride or pleasure for instilling the same fear his kind instilled in them all, no, what she felt complete and utter disgust as the thought of making any person be them it man or Uha Tamunaran, the same unbearable feeling of fear and dread the Uha Tamunarans instilled in her and her people.
Ibaeran then felt the intense fury within her heart slowly begin to fade away and disappear, and as it did, so did the power that flowed through. She then slowly, begin to make her descent down to the ground before collapsing due to how strained and tired her body felt after exhorting so much power.
The king just stood here and watched as the power he dreaded and feared slowly disappeared with the pathetic spineless girl that hovered over him, wielding that very same power; descend down to the ground before collapsing before. The king then felt sense a wave of intense fury and rage watch over him, enraged at the fact that little worm who laid on the floor before his feet was able to make him feel a sensation he dreaded, feeling he swore to himself he would never feel again, a feeling that was beneath the great king of all Uha Tamunarans, and that was complete and utter fear.
The king then, blinded by his anger and rage, decided to use his powers against Ibaeran, extending his hand forth to her and allowing it to flow out of him. Ibaeran then felt a crushing weight mounted upon her and pushing her against the ground unable to get back up on her feet. She tried summoning whatever strength she could must but it was all in vain, the power was too great for her to overcome. The weight and pressure on her kept growing and growing, crushing her entire body and causing her bone to begin crack from within, she struggle breath as the pressure refuse air to enter her lung. She felt as though she was at the verge of death itself. Weak and on the floor like insect and before her a towering giant, slowly crushing her to death with his monstrous, that was how she felt at that very moment.
The king wanted nothing more that to crush her with his mighty power but no matter how great his rage and fury was, it did not blind him to the point where he forgot he true, determined to claim the greatest of powers and ascend to heights so high that nobody not Niyanlafu or his master, and certainly not the fable little pathetic girl lying before his feet could reach, to reborn as true god. But for his dream to be a reality, he needed the power the girl possessed and so he needed her to live, even though he wanted nothing more than to crush her and watch life escape from those pathetic little eyes of hers.
The king then brought down his hand, free Ibaeran from the crushing weight of his power.
Ibaeran then gasped out for air, feeling her entire body ache from within due to the overwhelming pain coursing through it. Then, before she could even get back on her two feet, she heard the booming voice of the king saying, “Six days remain Su Baera. If you fail to retrieve the Dumo stone within those six days then…”The king slammed his fist on the handle of throne causing it crumble and break apart before saying “You along with every single one of your people will know my wrath”.
Ibaeran upon hearing the words of king felt a wave of fear consume her heart, having never before seen him so furious and consumed by rage before. He, in her eyes, resembled a raging beast, ready destroy and devour anything that crosses his path.
With those words said, the king dismissed Ibaeran, allowing her to return in her room. Once there Ibaeran fell down to the ground, her knees too weak to lift her off the ground. Her mind was scattered with different on the events that had just pasted, recalling how the king grabbed hold of her with his massive arms, squeezing and crushing, how the horror and fear she felt during those moments, then that fear slowly began to morph and change in to something Ibaeran could not recognize. A raw fury, fueled by all her frustration over her fears, loss, and feeling of helplessness, manifested itself in a way that truly shocked Ibaeran. Recalling all the immense anger and rage she felt at them, like a raging bull free from its shackles and chains, she felt as though she was ready to set the world ablaze with her fury, and what frightened her the most was she, with the overwhelming power of the Su Baera that flowed through her body at that moment, might have actually been able to just that.
Ibaeran then thought about the king, the source of all her frustration and the one she truly wanted to inflict as much pain and suffering as possible. Ibaeran couldn’t believe the emotions she felt rising within, anger, rage, and utter hatred all directed at the king. She believed that fear was the only emotion that king could inspire in her heart but she was wrong, for in those very moments she discovered something her fear refused her to see, and that was that, she truly and deeply loathed the king and all that he was. He was a monster, a beast that couldn’t even be merciful to his own kin. Ibaeran had never allowed herself to harbor any true form hatred to anyone even the Uha Tamunarans, not seeing the point in hating something that was over you in power but at that very moment, while her body was consumed by the raw power of the Su Baera, she allowed herself, first time in her entire life, to experience, true and genuine hatred for none other than the king himself.
Ibaeran then remembered she saw in the eye of the king, something that truly shocked her right down to her, never expecting to see such a thing his eyes, fear, a feeling she knew well, having been inflicted by it her entire life but never expecting it to exist within the heart of someone as powerful and ruthless as the king. The sight was now arched in her mind with her still questioning herself on whether or not what she witness was real or just her mind playing tricks on her. Her recalling seeing the king in such a state, consumed by the very emotion he inspire and thrusts on all who are in his presence, made her wonder if the king’s power was truly as great as she believed, and was she wrong to fear him. Ibaeran’s mind then went back to fearsome display of power by the king, recalling how she felt her bones begin to crack and slowly break from within her, remembering the crushing weight his power placed upon her body and how she felt as though she was knocking on deaths door about to be ushered in to the place of death. Those recalling those moments reinforced her belief that the king’s power was truly something to fear but at the very same time she couldn’t ignore the fact that the power that resided inside her was great as well and maybe it might be just as great as…Ibaeran stopped her mind from straying too far as, at the moment, it really didn’t matter, the king was still king, he commanded entire arms of Uha Tamunarans, being who were so powerful that they were next to being gods themselves, and he was the most powerful of them, the one who claimed the life the Su Baera that came before her.
Ibaeran just sighed deeply, believing that no matter how great the power she possessed was, it didn’t really matter as at the end of the day, he was the king and she, was she, even though at moment she was struggling to understand who she was.
Ibaeran then found the book left behind by the former Su Baera that came after her lying on her bed and next to it was the map Ton’Onama gave her. The echoing voice of the king began to ring in her ear, reminding that only six days were left to save and free her people from the king’s wrath. Ibaeran then summoned the strength she needed to get back up on her feet, knowing she still work to do and her people were counting on her. She managed to get up and move her tired weak legs to the book and map, grabbing hold of them and then shut her eyes. She then began to focus on where she wanted to go, trying her best to clear her mind and feel it with thoughts desiring only one thing, to go to Kiri Dumo. Then with a flash of blinding light, she was gone.