Seventh World

Northern Hemisphere

Jíha

1851 AD

Tyren O. Bayajidda

The headquarters of the rebellion was located in Jíha. The final battle that determined the fate of the once great army of the rebellion was also fought in this city. This was the battle that incapacitated Armad's mother.

The war came to an end around twelve midnight. By two o'clock in the morning, there was nothing but an eerie silence and the stench of death.

Hundreds of thousands of mutilated corpses laid on the ground. There were children, women and the old. Urúrú left no survivors. The little ground not covered by corpses was dyed dark-red with blood and gore.

Forget about the city, which was already leveled to the ground, even the surroundings in front of the city had over fifty thousand corpses. Some of the corpses were missing a head, some had lost an eye, some had lost their limbs, some had lost their intestines, some had lost a part of their chest, some were pierced by several of arrows, some were killed by spears (hundreds of spears)... If you looked closer, every corpse had an obvious cause of death. It was truly an unreproducible feat how someone could escape from this battle with their body intact. Even more impressive if someone didn't run and yet were still alive.

At the centre of these of corpses, there was a certain corpse. It had six arrows stuck in its chest, another arrow stuck in its throat and another in its abdomen. The way this arrows were arranged would tell you whoever fired the arrows was determined to kill this corpse. And yet, they'd failed.

This corpse moved, scaring the vultures away.

Slowly and steadily, this corpse sat upright. Then it slowly stood on the other corpses around it.

The corpse belonged to a young man who was at most eighteen.

It had already been ten hours since he was impaled by this arrows. He had been fighting between life and death, swearing to the Creator of his ancestors that he wouldn't die.

He had lost any coherent thinking, his body was covered in dried blood and his eyes had turned into a burning charcoal. He should have died already but he refused to let go. He swore with everything that he ever held dear, and more importantly, he swore to the Creator of the seven worlds that he would not die. He would live to avenge his family.

This young man lapsed back into unconsciousness several times, but he fought his way back by sheer insanity. And he continued to swear with all held dear.

He spent three days like this. On the fourth day, when his will was finally broken, when he was about to let go and die, a certain person came to his rescue.

The rescuer had a face mask such that the only thing visible in his face was his black eyes. Two black holes that shone brightly in the moonlight. The moment he appeared, his eyes absorbed all the moonlight and everything became pitched black.

He went straight for the young man. "Young man, you have sworn not to die and you have defied death for three days... you have an impressive will. Why? Why do you want to live after everyone you have ever known is dead?"

The young man could barely talk but when he saw the black eyes of his rescuer, he managed a single word. "URÚRÚ?!" The mere hatred and the pure desire for vengeance contained in his word was enough to turn the sky black.

Urúrú had just killed his entire family and city, it was easier to believe this one had also come to kill him and finish the job.

Surprisingly, the owner of this black eyes just smiled. His expression was difficult to interpret because of the mask.

After an undetermined period, the owner of this black eyes took this young man in his hand and left.

This young man was Tyren O. Bayajidda. Could this young man fulfill his wishes of becoming a true avenger? Was he just another failure?

Armad

Armad and this young woman faced each other in thought. Armad had told her how he came to be there which caused the woman to frown in disbelief.

"So you are telling me you don't know how you came here? That you just used a spell and it misfired? That you know nothing about the last three months?"

Armad nodded.

She looked at him curiously for several seconds before she looked away.

"I don't know if I am to believe you or not. Spell misfiring is pretty common and it comes with diverse effects but.. time travel? That's just a myth."

"What about you? What are you doing in a heavily warded area?" Armad asked.

"This is a Promotion Centre. The whole area is cut off from the rest of the world: the only way to enter it is through a portal in the capital, and the only way to leave it is through a force field."

"A Promotion Centre? So you are an Official?" Armad asked, excited. 'Official' was the term used to describe all Lowborn government personnel. For a noble, their position was solely dependant on their birthright, but for a Lowborn, they'd to qualify. Qualifications varied from country to country but the term 'Promotion Centre' was common to most places.

"Y.. yeah, I will be.. as soon as I passed this exam. The problem is I am stuck here for one year."

"What?!" Armad visibly deflated. The fact she wasn't yet an Official was depressing, but knowing she had spent a whole year trying to pass the exam had completely crushed all his expectations. Obviously, Officials didn't have previlages like nobles but they could still be helpful in his situation, especially if they'd a relatively higher rank. However, it would take someone who wasn't yet an Official years to reach any position that could help Armad.

Besides, the fact she had been stuck in a preliminary exams for a complete year spoke of how weak she was.

In other words, the woman would be of no use to him.

Armad remained silent for several seconds.

"Bros... are you okay?"

Armad nodded absentmindedly.

"Look, bros, it's a simple earth element enhanced force field with a few barriers I... "

"If it's so simple why don't you break it? Why are you stuck for an entire year?" Armad said with a bit of an anger in his voice.

"I.. I am a noncombatant." She said.

"Huh.. So that's why you gave me your clothes and ayrid comm!" Armad came to a sudden realization. Most Officials were noncombatant with classes not suited for battle. It would be almost impossible for them to break any force field.

"Look, bros, I really need to get out of here for my two younger brothers. And you need to break the force field to leave this place, you can surely take your sister with you, right?" She gave him a hopeless look that further deflated him.