Armad walked carefully. The feeling of danger in his mind swelling up rapidly. He rarely got nervous but there was just something about the island that didn't feel right. He wasn't sure what it was but he knew it was there.

Because of the fog, he couldn't see very far and he often bumped into things, hard and cold. But just now, his head had bumped into two warm and soft lumps. The fog faded away and he saw four old men standing in front of him. They barely took a look at him before they returned to what they were doing. The two soft lumps actually belonged to a lady that was exactly...

Aish?! What the hell is going on? Armad widened his eyes in shock as he saw the woman.

"Aish, what are you doing here?"

"Aish? That's not my name. I am Sina Dúdu. You must have mistaken me for your friend Aish Dúdu."

This accent... It isn't her. But who the hell is she?

"What's going on?"

"Before I answer any of your questions I need that book in your pocket. I am willing to trade for it."

"And why would I ever do that?"

The woman sighed. She had bored expression unlike the cheerful nature of his friend Aish. "If we want to harm you, I would have posed as your friend there." She pointed in the direction of Aish. "That would have hurt your relationship, yes? If we want, we can take the book by force as well. But we didn't. That should tell you something, yes? Think carefully before you utter your next words, you won't have another chance." She summomed her soul sword to make sure he got the point. She even used an unknown means to show him her status.

Name: Sina Dúdu

Longevity: 1605 years

Djinn: Marid Einu

Armad realized she was intentionally doing this to intimidate him. The three men behind her didn't make a single move, yet.

This was a difficult situation. He obviously couldn't give them the book, but none of his spells and swords could work on such high level mages. The book couldn't help him either. He might need to use Lightning Flash again to escape. He still didn't master the spell, and there was every chance of misfiring again. But he decided it was better than his current situation.

He silently recited the spell and he made the incantation gesture with his hands - or at least he thought he did until he realized he couldn't move his hands. He gritted his teeth and gave it his all, but his hands just couldn't move.

"Why do you want the book? How did you know I will be coming here?" Armad asked.

The woman's expression changed and she glared at him. "First, if you try that again, you will lose the hands. Second, our reasons doesn't concern you. Will you give it or not?"

Armad suddenly felt an intense crisis. He moved reflexively to block the incoming sword. But the difference in strength was just too vast: she actually parried his sword away effortlessly, and she moved gracefully to snatch the book from his pocket before he could even blink.

Armad tried to snatch the book back but the woman was just too fast.

The three people behind her moved for the first time. They put her at the centre and started chanting spells.

It took time to explain but everything happened in a split second. Armad was still trying to understand how she got into his pocket and snatched the book when a dome of a blue flame shielded the four men protectively.

Armad wouldn't just sit and do nothing when someone robbed him, no matter how powerful they were.

He untied his headband, cut his finger and put the blood on the Miyura. His eyes immediately went blank as if he'd been possessed. A reddish steam arose from the Miyura to surround his entire body. His body shook for a few seconds before he went stiff, and then regained his composure a second later.

You have activated the Brand of Wilberforce. You can replicate any longevity within range for one minute.

Four targets detected, replicate longevity? Y/N?

NB: using this magic will shorten your lifespan.

Armad pressed yes.

Only the woman at the centre of the formation saw what was happening. Her eyes filled with fear. She tried to warn the others but she was too late. Armad was already upon them. His sword an inch away from their necks.

But Armad wasn't the only one who wanted to kill these people. A powerful aura suddenly appeared above them. The aura transformed into a yellow flash, which further transformed into a young man. The young man was so fast that not even Armad could react before he slashed through the dome of the blue flame and cut through the woman at the centre of the formation to hit the book.

The dome of the blue flame, the reddish steam from Armad's Miyura and the yellow flash from the young man mixed with a pitch black smoke currently arising from the book to give a dark brown smoke. The smoke engulfed them all.

The next thing Armad remembered was opening his eyes to see himself lying in the mud, alone. The book laid a few meters away from him. He didn't know what happened, he didn't even know how long he'd been unconscious or what happened to the other men and woman.

Well, none of it mattered since he was fine and his book was still there, untouched. He would just find Aish and tell her what happened. They probably needed a new training ground.

However, it was at this moment that he suddenly realized he wasn't wearing any headband. He looked at his reflection in the water and, to his utmost shock, his Miyura was gone. Armad gasped. He must be dreaming. His Miyura couldn't just disappear. It was a part of his soul and his greatest weapon.

He checked again after slapping himself several times but there was nothing. The birthmark which had been there with him since birth was gone.

"WHERE THE HELL IS MY BRAND?!" Armad roared at the skies. He didn't even know what to do.

An hour before Armad arrived on the island...

The people waiting for Armad on the island had conflicting opinions. The woman wanted them to wait for Armad to arrive. Two of the men didn't want to wait: one wanted to follow Armad and snatched the book, while the other wanted to kill Armad before he snatched the book.

After they'd finished listing their opinions, the commander decided.

"I agree killing the boy and snatching the book wouldn't be a problem. But, you are forgetting the book has its consciousness. If we act in haste, things could go really bad. We will try things diplomatically, at least in the beginning."

These men had considered every possibility. What they didn't consider was the appearance of someone who should be dead.

This someone was Tyren O. Bayajidda. In his quest of revenge, he'd sworn to kill four people: those who killed his family, those who watched the massacre done but did nothing, those who laughed at the rebellion and those who heard the laughing but did nothing. These four people trying to rob Armad fit right into the first category.

1833 After Descent (AD)

Seventh World

Northern Hemisphere

Jíha

Tyren was born on Wednesday, 12th of Yuri 1833 AD.

A few hours after his delivery, his father Shísu O. Bayajidda came with a bottle of blood. The mother understood the father's intentions and she nodded. They'd already discussed everything beforehand. She opened the baby's mouth and closed his nose, while Shísu emptied all the blood inside the bottle in the baby's mouth.

"Is it going to work?" The mother asked.

"Only one way to find out." The father said, removing a small dagger from his robe. The mother hugged the child protectively.

"Oh common, Aba, I love him as much as you do. But there is no going back now. I killed the last Heir of Wilberforce to get the blood. You know what that means, right?"

The mother nodded. She reluctantly parted with the child and left the room. She couldn't see what the father was about to do.

Shísu and his wife weren't the only ones looking for the blood of the Heir of Wilberforce, and they weren't the only ones who knew what happened in that room that day. Four other people who had been around long before The Descent knew about it as well. These people had been targeting the last Heir of Wilberforce to kill her and get her blood for a ritual that was necessary to find Saif Iqra. Shísu got to the Heir first and killed her. They fought him over the blood but they lost. They later offered to buy the blood from Shísu but he refused and fed it to his son Tyren.

From that day onward, they had been targeting Tyren. They couldn't attack him while his father was alive so they waited for nineteen years until the Battle of the Rebellion where they helped Uznu Urúrú to destroy the rebellion. With Shísu gone, they could easily get Tyren and extract the blood from him. But fate wasn't on their side. Just when they were about to get Tyren, he was saved by the masked man.

They searched for Tyren for two months but to no avail. One day, the tablet in their hands shone brightly - a clear indicator that someone, probably an Heir of Wilberforce, had found Saif Iqra.

These men turned their attention to Armad. If it wasn't for the three months Armad lost after using the Lightning Flash, they would have found him already. They later tracked him down to Seith, but they couldn't attack him there because of the border patrol. So they made a deal with Duke Nista. In exchange for giving him the last seen location of the Triple-factor, he would lead Armad out of the city. It still wasn't clear how the Dukes pulled it off, but they did.

However, no matter how carefully you planned things, somethings just tended to go wrong. The young avenger Tyren found out about the plan of these four people, and he tracked them down to the island. Whether Tyren had gotten his revenge or not was something to be seen.