Meanwhile, in a town about 50 years ride from where Armad stood, in a realm between the first and second worlds, young girls played on the banks of a river. These young girls had homogeneous white eyes with no irises or pupils.
One of them with reddish-brown hair suddenly saw a man lying in front of her. Startled, she pulled her shirt up and called her sister.
"Suwee?"
Her sister turned around with a frown. She was called Suwainah but her younger sister, Zeera, preferred to call her Suwee.
"Come here, there's another one."
"Really?"
"Yes, it's right behind me. By the way, where are the other three?"
"Daddy took them to the king," Suwee replied.
"Daddy!?" Zeera opened her mouth in amazement. "You mean dad himself? So it is true then that they were thrown here from another world?"
Before she could close her mouth, her 16-year-old sister, who was three years older than her, came running to her.
"Stop shouting or others will hear. Daddy said we shouldn't tell anyone."
The younger sister hesitated but she nodded.
"Where is he?" Suwainah asked.
Zeera showed her a body lying by the side of the river. He was covered in mud but if you paid close attention you would see a red scarf on his forehead. And he looked just like Armad Wilberforce.
As they stood there debating about what they should do, they heard the voice of the other girls approaching the river.
"What are we going to do now?" Zeera looked at her sister in panic who quickly pulled out a small bag from her dress. They held the ends of the bag and stretched it until it was as big as Armad.
The younger sister held out her hand to grab Armad's head, but her hand went through his head as if he wasn't there. She quickly pulled out her hand and touched him again to make sure, but it happened a second time.
Suwainah reached out with her hand and touched his foot. Her hand passed through. They wondered if they were dreaming. But the voices of the women getting closer were reassuring them that they were not dreaming. They tried again to put Armad in the bag but failed.
One of the women approaching spotted them, and she began to call out to them, walking directly toward them.
***
On the other side, Another Armad stood alone on the island. He didn't know what to do, or what to think. He knew better than everyone how important his miyura was. But now it was gone. He didn't even know how it happened, so he felt completely lost. Rubbing his forehead again, it felt as if it wasn't his own.
Nusi and her brothers grew tired of waiting and came to the island on the eighth day. Armad told them the whole story. Ilias for one felt that losing the miyura was a good thing. At least now people wouldn't hunt him down for it. But seeing that Armad was upset, he didn't tell him that.
Nusi, on the other hand, was disturbed by the fact that someone she didn't know about looked exactly like her. Was the other woman using camouflage? But that didn't make sense since she didn't try to impersonate her. Something was amiss and she didn't know what.
She looked at Armad and felt a little bit better he was fine. Being the older one, she persuaded Armad to stop worrying and look at the bright side.
"The four of us can train together if you want," she told him. "That's, of course, if you still want to participate in the tournament."
It was then that Armad realized the dordor on the island was back. It was the four men that drove them away with their pol.
***
While Armad trained on the island, in some other places people had been preparing for the same jinzidal tournament.
Ikenga O. Bayajidda was already heading to the underground city to take part in the competition, even though there were still two months to go before the tournament began. Did the young man have any deal with the Denizens?
The answer lied in a forest located in the underground city. It was one of the special places dedicated to prince Deniz Bizaya for training.
Almost every animal in the forest had long been hunted down by some crazy elephants. A few lucky ones escaped underground to hide, and a few luckier ones slipped out of the forest to the neighboring bush. The elephants didn't want to share. They were bigger than any other normal elephants but they still jumped high and climbed trees like monkeys.
At this very moment, the elephants were on the trees, trying to escape the battle happening on the ground between two people. They watched from above, desperately hoping to see one of the two men fall so they could have some breakfast. Although they ate other animals, these elephants preferred human flesh.
Prince Deniz Bizaya found the elephants to be adorable and from time to time he came to fight them and have fun. The elephants had never seen him fight so hard. Not that they cared, of course. But they would be happy to see him fall.
Looking at the forest from above, you could see the prince fighting another man. One held a faucet with a strange color that you couldn't tell if it was red originally or if it was smeared with blood. He was Prince Deniz Bizáya of the underground empire. On the other hand was a young man holding a long, glittering sword. Despite being tall himself, his sword was longer. He was Ikenga O. Bayajidda!
Their skin had long turned pale due to exertion and their breathing was no more than a gasp. But they fought hard as if it was their last.
***
In the distant kingdom of Infiria, a young man was sitting alone in a boat, weeping.
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He was on a river that connected the fourth world to the great northern wall. Next to him was a corpse that looked strikingly similar to him. Hanging on his back was a long spear with inscriptions that gave a buzzing sound that seemed to be in rhythm with the waves of the river. His clothes were embroidered with ornaments, a mark of nobility, but the front of his shirt was soaked with tears. He was Rafiyan Nazára, better known as prince Niyashi by his men.
Even though the young man didn't release his pol, the dordor stayed away from him. Currently over fifty of them surrounded him, but they kept their distance. Not that they didn't see him of course, but their survival instinct stopped them from attacking. A few minutes earlier, a five-headed brown dordor had approached him, but it turned around and flee like the others.
Eventually, the dordors surrounding him became too many to be ignored. At that moment, he slowly raised his head and looked up at the sky.
He roared. And, as if in response, a ball of light rose from the spear on his back. The water churned and a big wave came crushing, but it stopped just before it touched him.
As the waves settled, the prince spoke in a voice full of bitterness and anger. He sounded as if he would destroy the whole world for revenge. "Brother Firius, you've done your part, I will do mine now. I promise you revenge and victory."
Amazingly, his voice spread through the sky to the worlds above. And in a blink, it reached the people who were meant to hear it.
***
As the weeks went by, these youngsters and many others who would be competing in the upcoming jinzidal tournament prepared for the event.
On the eighth of Hdir, people gathered in a strange forest located in the fourth world. There were hundreds of them. Some were looking around, and some were chatting happily as if they were happy to meet.
Perhaps it was a bit too much to call the place a forest. It was old and big, but it lacked any indication of being a forest. No trees, no plants, and no wildlife. What it had were underground tunnels. Hundreds of huge, deep, and dark tunnels spread around it.
Looking inside the tunnels there was only darkness. Beyond the darkness, the underground empire and the home of Denizens stood. It was also through the tunnels that the Denizens came out to interact with the rest of the world.
Only those who were invited got to enter the tunnels. Anyone who entered the tunnels without an invitation would never come out alive. Partly the reason why everyone was afraid of fighting the Denizens. The underground empire used to be more than just the Denizens and the tunnels didn't just connect the Denizens' city to the surface, it also connected other underground nations that had been erased from history.
If you entered the tunnels without an invitation from the Denizens, you would be trapped between the erased cities of the underground and the surface, never able to return.
There was a myth that had long been circulating among the people about a certain ghost with the power to kill souls guarding one of the erased cities. Whether it was true or not, nobody had ever come back to tell the tale.
The people currently in the forest had been very cautious despite being invited by the Denizens. They came to attend the jinzidal tournament that was to start in a day. Some of them were heroes who came to compete, some were escorts, and some were special guests. Yet, none of them tried to jump into the tunnels on their own. They waited in line, paying an entrance fee, and hiring a local guard to take them into the tunnels.
Everyone was wearing different clothes, an indication that they came from different countries.
It took hours but everyone entered the tunnels in the end. Being guided by the guards, they went directly to the underground empire ruled by Denizens.
The empire was a huge city. It was made of five major cities: four cities surrounding a capital city, which sat in the middle and a little above the ground.
Each city was built in a strict order such that it would circle the city in front of it. A limited number of tunnels opened around each city through which the people that entered the tunnels from the surface emerged.
The Denizens called the five cities Seerish. Moving away from Seerish, there was a forest that was twice as big as the five cities put together. And beyond the forests was a wall made of a special substance that was neither soil, nor stone, nor iron. It was something harder and more durable. A higher element called Yeniy.
The wall was so big that you couldn't see its end in both directions. And beyond it there was water. Nobody knew what was beyond the water or if the water had any end.
In the capital city of Seerish, there was a large plot of land that was used to build an arena.
The arena was even bigger on the inside than the outside. It had a round viewing area with seats that were too many to be counted for the viewers. Looking at them for the first time, you would think that it was too big. That no crowd could fill it. There were small booths lined up in front of the seats, and the ring sat at the center of the arena in front of the booths.
Despite the new carpet covering the ring, the feeling of death coming from it was still fresh. Huge, floating rocks surrounded the ring, giving a wonderful sight.
The ring was empty at the moment, but armed men were moving in and out of the booths. They appeared to be the participants who had come too early.
Just above the viewing area, there was a room built from a hill behind the arena. This room was built with glass and you could see everything inside it from outside. You could see about fifteen chairs inside embroidered with noble ornaments.
People were already taking seats in the arena and recounting the stories of past competitions. Many more people stood at the entrance into the arena. All you could hear was the names of the stars who were expected to participate in the competition.
About an hour before the competition started, a young man approached the arena. He was accompanied by a company of seven men, all dressed in red.
The crowd waiting at the entrance recognized them immediately.
"Huh? It is him."
"So they are sending a prince this time around? It'll certainly be a fight to see."
Among the crowd, a young boy who wasn't tall enough to see the newcomers pulled the shirt of the old man standing in front of him. "Please, mister, who's coming? I can't see anything."
The old man turned to look at him. ''They are from the Han tribe of the third world," he said. "I think the boy in front is called Hán Amuru. He's like a son to King Han'ibal." The man turned around and looked at the newcomer one final time before he looked away. "His eyes... burn. He..."
The old man trembled as if remembering some torment of the distant past. He clutched his arm.
The boy nodded. "It's okay. You don't have to say it, uncle, I understand."
The team came and went into the arena. There wasn't much cheering and everyone seemed to be edging away from them.
Soon, the audience became even more chaotic after seeing three teams coming. They cheered. Their shouts ringing throughout the city.
"Prince Bizaya!"
''Even Ikenga O. Bayajidda is with him."
"And there's... Mikironomada."
The leader of the first convoy, consisting of about fifteen men, all dressed in white, was recognized as Prince Bizaya. The leader of the second convoy was recognized as Ikenga O. Bayajidda. His was the smallest convoy with only three people. Each dressed in a yellow robe. Then there was the third convoy which the crowd recognized as the team from Mikironomada. It consisted of about ten people, most of whom were dressed in different costumes.
Surprisingly, the audience showed little interest in the convoy coming from Mikironomada. They looked away from them and concentrated on the first two teams, waving to Bizaya and Ikenga and wishing them all the best in the matches.
Prince Bizaya and Ikenga's team were given a certificate of entry and a place in the booths. Many of the audience followed them, completely ignoring the convoy from Mikironomada.
After that two more teams came. The few remaining audiences still at the gate recognized them almost immediately.
"Everyone, Infiriya has sent prince Niyashi. Everyone, It's prince Niyashi. The red-haired prince."
''It's him. Prince Niyashi, the spear of death."
"Look, there are people from Sisiya as well. It's prince Kiru.'
“The brother to princess Nostalgia."
''Oh, that Nostalgia? Do you think she is among the three women in that team?"
"No, she couldn't be... I was told her skin glows like the sun. We will know if she is here."
The cheering and pointing at the stars continued. Some of the people who had left a few minutes ago came back to see the newcomers. Along the way, some of them pushed the convoy from Mikironomada out of the way like they weren't important.
The audience didn't like Mikironomada. What could be the reason?