The audience fell into the same semiconscious state as before. Nobody moved and nobody knew what was going on.

Surprisingly, Aish wasn't affected like the others. She freely moved and was already making a gesture.

"Surely, we can solve this issue by discussing it. I won't just let you murder my brother even if you are the admiral. I am sure you understand." Aish said.

"You are free to protect him." Uznu said.

She wasn't sure what she was doing but she attacked. It was one of those times when you just did something on a whim, and you had to slap yourself when it later appeared to you how stupid it was.

Uznu waited until she was a meter away. He blinked and, suddenly, an even darker mist came out of his eyes. It transformed into a misty snake, forty meters long. It attacked so fast that Aish only saw a blur.

Five giant mushrooms appeared in front of her to block the snake. The snake swallowed them all, but that gave Aish the time she needed to dodge.

She removed five bottles from her robe and broke them. The potions in the bottles evaporated into a thick layer of a mist in front of her. It engulfed the snake and consumed it.

Aish made another gesture and called her most powerful spell. "World Tree."

A seedling appeared beside Uznu. It transformed into a fully grown tree with multiple branches that surrounded Uznu all around.

"Just please, listen to me. Let's discuss it over. Tell me what crime did my brother committed? We can solve it diplomatically." Aish said, gasping for air and sweating cups. I still don't know why the hell I'm attacking an admiral.

"I only need the book and your brother's life. How about it? Can we negotiate?" Uznu asked. He probably didn't see the hundreds of branches swaying to and fro around him, ready to engulf him at anytime. Or maybe he did, but he didn't care.

Aish sighed. She should just run away and hide somewhere, why the hell was she still there, fighting.

She weaved an even more complicated sign and pointed at the tree. The branches locked Uznu up in several layers of wood. She even went all out to summon the Mother Furnace. A gigantic blue furnace that looked like a drum. She created ingredients from thin air, then she used her left hand to summon a nine-colored flame to heat the furnace while her right hand stirred the mixture to produce a brownish oil. The same mist that consumed the snake ealier burst out of the furnace to fill the entire ring. Aish poured the brownish oil on the Mother Tree.

The next thing that happened was too dramatic even for her. The tree branches grew several meters longer and thicker and they began to multiply. Each branch closed in on Uznu, tightening their lock on him a hundred times more. In the end, Uznu disappeared inside the ever growing tree. By thirty seconds, the tree had occupied most of the arena.

Aish blinked several times. She was still apprehensive. That's reckless... Shit. What am I doing? I'll think about things later. We need to escape before he breaks out.

But summoning the Mother Tree had its toll. She withered: her hair turned grey, her eyes sunken, her skin wrinkled and the number on her forehead disappeared.

"Armad, wake up, we really need to leave."

Emperor Déniz Iluru who was still inside the VIP area stood up hurriedly. He touched the foreheads of his aids to awaken them from their slumber.

"Protect the audience. Erect our most powerful force fields." He said, pointing at the ring where Uznu was currently locked in. "Those foolish kids have awaken the dragon. They will soon see why the world fears the First Worlders. Those black eyes have the power to destroy everything."

Uznu Urúrú removed the Veil restricting the true power of his eyes. His real black eyes became visible. Two black holes floating above the arena. One looked like the twelve o'clock sun, while the other looked like a full moon. But both were dark and menacing. Their presence alone dissolved the Mother Tree into a pool of quickly evaporating fluid.

Uznu looked at Aish and Armad. Armad was already lost in the slumber but he still saw the notification.

Warning: your soul has sustained a massive injury!

Warning: your soul has sustained a massive injury!!

Aish shook from the intense cold. The Mother Tree had already taken everything from her. What should I do? He won't even allow me to run away. Shit! This is the worst possible situation I've ever been. Armad, just what the hell have you gotten us into?

She was thinking about how to pull a miracle when something akin to the weight of the entire seven worlds hit her. She was sent flying into the sky, vomiting buckets of blood. The last thing she remembered was something trying to break out of her body. She didn't know what it was, or if it had broken out.

She flew in the air for a long time. Crossing the wasteland and the forest around the Underground Empire. She flew over the last wall to the realm beyond. Her insides were crushed to a pulp and more than one hundred bones in her body were broken.

***

What the hell did you do to her?! Armad wanted to say but he couldn't speak or see. He still felt touch and hear voices.

He felt a hand slipping into his pocket to take the book. But the book suddenly turned into a small gelatinous... something that disappeared into his body.

You have merged with Saif Iqra. You can now communicate with them.

Armad cursed. Every bloody hell wanted the book. The worst part was he had absolutely zero control over it. These people had ways of detecting it and were all thousands of years older and stronger than him.

"Take him to the headquarters. We will extract it there." Uznu said. Armad frowned.

What should I do? I have to do something. Where is Aish?

***

Even as Uznu Urúrú prepared to take Armad away, Armad saw himself in a completely different dimension. He stood in front of a gaint being, thousands of meters tall. The being was chained up with what seemed like a hundred thousand chains.

Armad thought it was the concussion, or maybe he was dead and this was the dimension called the afterlife.

He lifted his foot up, slapped himself and even conjure a small bolt. Um.. I still have control so I'm probably not dead. He knew that wouldn't rule in or rule out anything but it gave him a measure of relief that he could feel.

The dimension had a white landscape that extended endlessly in all directions.

I should be in the arena, where am I? Armad remembered everything up to the point where he merged with the book. He just didn't know where he was.

He looked at the being in front of him closely. The first thing he noticed was how it was also looking back at him.

It had three pointed horns at the vertex of its head. Each horn five meters long. It had dark green eyes with greyish eyebrows that covered its eyes like a beard. Its skin was paper white from head to toe.

The best way to estimate its size was by comparing its little toe with Armad. He would need a ladder to see the top of the little toe.

After debating for a while, Armad finally decided to open the floor. "Who are you? Why are you in chains? And where is this place?" These weren't the best questions but that was what came to his mind.

The being glared at Armad and looked away. Whatever it was, whatever their deal with Armad was, it wasn't happy to see him.