Chapter 24: Of the Perpetual Damage.
On this balcony, Armad sat chatting with Nusi and let her explained to him about her plans and the evil he was facing.
After picking up the lemon juice in front of her, she asked Armad why he wasn't drinking, but instead of answering, only one word came out of his mouth, "Bihanzin."
Nusi shook her head, then smiled painfully, and said, "I wish I can tell you that you are safe from him, but I'll be lying to you because..."
Armad raised his hand with a shake of his head. "Don't be afraid," he said. "I won't die until I fulfill my mother's wish to find Triple Factor."
Nusi stared at him with narrowed eyes. "You surely have some spirit, Armad. But you should be careful nonetheless."
Armad nodded. She asked him if there was something he would like to know.
"I do want to hear your view on the slave trade," he said. "About its origin and why is it that no one in all the seven worlds is against it? Because I think it is just oppression. Helping the strong to get stronger and the weak to get weaker. But what do you think? I want to hear your take on it."
The issue of the slave trade was on his mind, and he had been upset about it for some time.
Nusi released an exaggerated sigh. Fearfully, sweat began to trickle down her face as if she had been set on fire. She got up from her chair and hurriedly stumbled to the large window closest to them. She looked through the window, her heart pounding. When she was sure there was no one outside the window she quickly closed it, then turned again and ran to the door of the room to look if someone was listening to their conversation, and when she didn't find anyone, she heaved a sigh of relief and closed it. The room was now covered in darkness.
An oil lamp in her hand illuminated the area around their table.
Armad opened his mouth to complain as he couldn't understand what was happening. She was just calm and collected, enjoying the breeze. "What's going on? Is everything okay?"
Nusi took her chair and moved closer to him. "Do you want to say something that will destroy all the millions of people in this country?" She asked him in a low voice. "Don't you know some of Ururu loyalists can convey what you said to the first world? Don't you know that Uznu Ururu is currently in this world? Don't say any more negative things about the slave trade, please. Unless you want to wipe out Khan from the face of the planet."
She paused, trying to catch her breath.
"Armad Wilberforce, this is not just about you. No, it's about all the people in this city. Ururu doesn't discriminate against children or women or the elderly. They will kill everyone when they come. So I beg you, if you want to say such things, you should wait until you can protect everyone from the powerful forces of Ururu."
Her eyes were fixed on him, wanting him to understand the gravity of the situation.
Armad smiled bitterly. "This is a surprise," he said, trying to avoid answering her questions. "These were the same words that my grandfather said to me. 'Do not fight the slave trade if you do not have the strength to protect your people from what is to come,' he tells me every time the issue of the slave trade arises."
Armad fell silent looking down, while Nusi looked at him.
He had long been concerned about the slave trade. But it seemed nothing could be done at the moment.
"One hundred years after the forceful eviction of people from the first world to the six lower worlds, which was after Ururu conquered the first world, my grandfather told me that the slave trade was the first Commandment that Ururu started in the lower worlds."
Armad told her everything he knew about the slave trade, hoping to get some new information about it that he didn't have. The light of the lamp glowed and illuminated the red cloth tied around his forehead, casting a dark shadow behind him.
"When Ururu first introduced the commandment of the slave trade, they were among the active participants in the slave trade. It all began with a competition called jinzi, in which each large and small tribe would bring in a certain number of slaves at the end of each year, and the same tribes will fight in the arena. Whoever wins, in the end, will be given all the slaves gathered by each nation. The winner will lead the slave market that year. This was how the jinzi competition started before it was later renamed to jinzidal, that's after Ururu returned to their mainland in the first world and stopped participating in the tournament.
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"Throughout the thousand years of the slave trade, Ururu has been in the first world, watching to see if anyone would cause trouble for them. Many rebels have done so but now they have no descendants in the world. Ururu has killed them and burned their villages.
"There are five great Kings who hold the highest office in the lower worlds. King Hanibal of the third world, King Miki Abbas of Mikironomada, King Deniz Iluru who chose to live in the underground empire a thousand years ago, king Rafiyan Daljari who's called the 'man with one hundred thousand pol', and finally King Bihanzin, the 'perpetual slayer'. These five control the six lower worlds.
"I'm fully aware that whoever touches the slave trade, these five Kings will be the first to finish them off before even Ururu descends from the first world. But I won't give up until I stop it. Just wait until I save my mother."
Her heart was pounding and she looked into Armad's eyes and made sure that he meant what he was saying, that there was no joke in it.
Another sigh escaped her mouth. She couldn't change his mind, not now anyway, so she closed her eyes and shook her head.
"The important thing here is you don't interfere with the slave trade now. You will get invited into the Non-Touch dungeon, and when you come back we will take a look at the best way to help you find Triple Factor and go back to your mother. Right now, we can't do much but wait for the next six days."
Armad could see her resignation, but he didn't object, instead, he let her continued.
''I need to go into a secluded meditation in Asúlu cave to face my purification. It's a benefit of passing the exam. If I'm lucky, I'll be able to raise my blood purity during the seclusion. I'll be gone for at most five days. I'll be leaving tonight. Only members of the parliament are allowed to be near the cave, so I have to go in alone.
"Take a break and relax. My two brothers, Ilias and Spoon, will show you around the town.'' She seemed to remember something funny, and she smiled. ''They are kind and quick to befriend. We started together, it was only luck that made me their superior.
"Ilias is not talkative, but he is strong. Notice what he does and you will learn many things.
"And Spoo..." Laughter kept her from saying the name. "He's funny and he's stronger than he looks."
***
The next morning, three people walked in one of the alleyways in the outskirts of Khan. They seemed happy when you looked at them from a distance. One of them who was fair and fat laughed and beat his chest.
"My name is Spoon," he said. Then he pointed to the other guy on the other side and said, "This is Ilias."
As he spoke, his eyes were fixed on the young man between them, who was tall, black, and handsome. He was so muscular that many assumed he was over twenty years old. He also had bright eyes that you wouldn't miss even if you didn't pay attention to him. His shirt was sleeveless and the hard muscles of his arms and the long sword hanging from his shoulder were both apparent. His red headband occasionally fluttered in the air.
This young man was of course Armad Wilberforce. He had recently been named Heir of Wilberforce in a small village - though he still didn't know what the name fully entailed, or whether he was supposed to be happy or sad about it - and he awakened a Daikirin as he entered the city of Khan, something everyone kept saying it was a miracle but failed to mention one benefit it had besides, of course, making things more difficult for him.
Spoon glanced at Armad. "Will it be ok if I call you son?"
His eyes were dead serious and full of fatherly love.
Armad had estimated their age the first time they met. Spoon was the youngest of them. Then either Ilias or Nusi. But even Nusi wasn't much older than twenty. So when he heard the question, he just burst out laughing and remembered what Núsi told him about Spoon.
Armad could have still answered him but his eyes were fixed on a rift a few meters away from them. It was surrounded by iron rods so people wouldn't accidentally fall inside. He stared into the rift only for a second and something inside, hot, hard, and furious, hit him. It felt as if his eyes would burst from just looking at it. Darkness and a swirling vapor filled the rift, making it look like veiled ghosts. It felt and looked like a bottomless hole, only connected to the vast horizon of the next world.
Armad quickly looked away from the hole, but then he saw an even bigger rift in the distance. His hair stood on end, his core began to heat up, and then the miyura on his forehead began to shine without him activating it. He quickly turned to Ilias to ask them what was happening there.
''You don't look into these holes," Ilias said. "You can do a lot of damage to yourself if you look at a big one. There are many in that direction, so don't look there." Ilias pointed to an area in front of them. "Mostly the big ones are walled by boundary Bends. The ones you see around you used to be walled as well, but the rift gradually ate the Bends that surrounds them. It is the revenge of the perpetual sword.
"Many years ago when Bihanzin first came to this city and awakened a Daikirin, the councilors at the time didn't like him. They feared that if they let him grow they would lose their position. So they secretly plotted to destroy him a few days after his arrival. But Bihanzin was impossible to kill. They fought and these rifts were the results of that battle.
"The people that were injured by Bihanzin on that day didn't live for many days afterward. Their wounds refused to heal no matter what they did. But it wasn't only the living, anything that Bihanzin cut, be it earth or metal, couldn't be repaired. All these rifts you see came to be as a result of his slash.
"After Bihanzin left, the new council leader tried to close the holes but he couldn't. He invited experts from the neighboring cities to try closing it but nothing worked. They had to resort to just fencing it. It has been forty-two years now.
"People from around the world come to this city to see the holes, to see how the earth was damaged beyond repair. Many lose their minds when they see it. And it was them who coined the term 'Bihanzin of the Perpetual Damage'."