The purpose of the Alkadar was to determine which candidate had the most powerful attack. It was created by the Jinzidal court to minimise the selection bias during the battle royal. In other words, the six rings had different mages with different abilities. You could be more powerful than a mage on another ring but met with equally powerful opponents on your ring. While the other mage got weaker opponents. Alkadar would fish out your actual strength and identify the actual winner.

The empires put a lot of resources in building their young ones, especially those who showed an astounding talent. A crown prince would be at the top of the list - having all the resources they needed and more. If you looked at it logically, Armad had little hope to begin with. And the audience were actually quite impressed when he pulled eighty-eight marks. But Armad wasn't impressed. Even though, he was only a digit behind, he didn't feel any happier.

Day 1: we labelled The Rebellion, The Triple-factor, The Book-sword, The Secret, The Missing Four and The Missing Miyura as the six enigmas.

Day 2: I spent the entire day fighting magical beasts.

I spent day 3 to day 5 vigorously training Meditation, Lightning Flash and Lightning Bolt.

Day 6: we reviewed the candidates that could likely represent each country.

Day 7: we reviewed the things that have happened in the three months I was gone.

Yet, I have lost... No, no, I can't lose, not now.

Déniz Iluru

Meanwhile, in the VIP area, ever since Uznu Urúrú told emperor Déniz his reasons for attending the Jinzidal, the emperor had been uneasy. He said nothing anymore. He lifted his hands reluctantly to order the commencement of the semifinals but something stopped him. Uznu Urúrú, who had been sitting with his eyes closed, opened his eyes!

Dammit! Not here please. The emperor cursed internally. Beads of sweat ran down his face and his body trembled uncontrollably as if he was trapped inside an ice box. He stopped himself from giving the command and remained still.

Is he really going to do that here? Who will be the unfortunate soul? You better not be targeting my son, bastard.

He slowly turned around to observe the rest of the VIP. Beside him, the only person still moving was commander Asifu from Burja. They exchanged a worried expression as they observed the others. Everyone else from the VIP area to the audience outside and the commentator, Armad, Aish and the others had all stopped moving, involuntarily.

He looked at the video feeds. One was focused on the right side of the arena, another on the left side, and the rest were focused on the ring. They all showed one image - their last. Iluru wondered if they were showing the current stupor or they were involved as well.

He saw Armad standing in front of the Alkadar, his head half turned in Aish's direction. Aish stood still with her palms on her face. Nostalgia was whispering something to Malik and Hasan. Everyone of them was stopped in the middle of an act.

The Unity! Holy Immortal! Iluru gritted his teeth. He was probably one of the only two people in the arena who currently understood what was happening. It was all because Uznu Urúrú had opened his eyes.

The arena suddenly started getting dark, even though the sun was still in the sky and there were several enchanted lamps in the place. It was as if there was a sudden blackout.

Iluru slowly turned to look at Uznu Urúrú. Two black holes sat in place of his eyes. All the light in the arena was disappearing into this holes, like a predatory eating its prey.

Hell, that was no predatory hunt. It is the light that can't exist in the same space as these holes... eyes.

It only took five seconds for the entire arena to become pitch black, and the only remaining light came from the Alkadar. Everyone turned in a robotic manner to look at the Alkadar. Armad's score turned from eighty-eight to eighty-nine, the same as Niyashi's.

They registered the score in silence for two more seconds before Uznu Urúrú closed his eyes. The darkness disappeared instantly, and everything returned back to normal.

The members of the VIP, the audience, the commentator, Armad and everyone else regained control of their bodies back. Everyone just went on to complete their last actions as if nothing had happened. They remembered nothing, and their memories were intact, except for one thing - Armad's score. It was rigged, but no one remembered anything. They remembered Armad and Niyashi having the same scores and were going to battle it out one-on-one.

Armad vs Niyashi. The audience discussed the possibilities of this battle excitedly.

"Who is that Armad guy?

"I don't know him."

"Never seen him before."

"How is he able to compete with a crown prince?"

"Which house did he come from?"

Nothing could explain what just happened except magic. Even Armad was celebrating, and he was discussing with Aish on how to defeat Niyashi.

Everyone had just forgotten about what happened. Well, almost everyone.

"Why do you help him?" Emperor Déniz Iluru asked the admiral.

''What if I told you that boy has something that even my magic can't see through? If he lost this early, we won't have another chance. I want to see him fight." Urúrú said.

The emperor sighed softly.

Asifu just continued his discussion with the Denizen by his side. ''Déniz Kalhari, the scope of longevity is endless. We could talk about it all day. Do you know that even the brain remembers things based on longevity? Anything you remember, be it a day-to-day memory or a spell, it all depends on your longevity. If you remember it, then your longevity is strong enough. There are things which you just can't remember, and those things have exceeded your longevity. No matter how you try, you just can't remember." Asifu fell silent while the man thought about what he'd just said.

"Look at that man over there." Asifu pointed at Uznu Urúrú. "Deniz Kalhari, how will you compare your longevity and his?"

"He has more longevity than any man in the room, but I will definitely be able to remember his actions. If I understand your argument correctly then the memory doesn't consider the exact longevity. It is more or less the longevity difference. No matter how powerful he is, I have - we all have -enough longevity to remember his actions. I am quite sure of that.''

"Hmmm." Asifu drew a sharp breath. "You are right. But let's postponed our discussion till next time. My candidate is about to give us a show. Let's hope we'll remember it."

Asifu sighed. He returned his attention to the ring where Armad and his candidate, prince Niyashi, would fight. He knew there was a rigging, but he couldn't talk back to the creators of the world, no one could. He wondered why, of all people, Uznu Urúrú would help Armad. Armad had just captured his attention and he wanted to know everything about him.

Iluru heard their discussion. Although both Asifu and him weren't affected, they'd different opinions about what actually happened. Asifu thought it was a longevity power play but Iluru thought it was the Unity.

Urúrú share their sights: what one sees is seen by all. Since their powers lay in their eyes, even that power can be shared. Basically why Urúrú are invincible and why the higher members of the race like Uznu Urúrú who have joined the Unity always walk with their eyes closed.

Iluru glanced over at Uznu. He wondered where this would all go and how far the First Worlders were willing to interfere with the lower worlds.