The chill of fear is initially perceived by the amygdala in the human brain. In a fraction of a second, it triggers a chain reaction in the body, causing eyes to widen, ears to prickle, pulse to race, breathing to speed, stomach to twist, palms to sweat along with a full-body shiver. Until the terror proves benign, the human body will continue to succumb in fear’s thrall.

The entire arena was suffering from the effects of a never-ending fear. As if their worst nightmares have been materialized.

However, the one sustaining full effects was the one in the eye of the storm. S had long lost consciousness as his organs almost gave in. It was A, the last one still struggling to keep his life. He was on his knees, clenching his palpitating heart with a feeling of being choked to death.

As he saw Angelika approaching him, he gathered all his energy to speak.

“Sphhh...are mmmy...iffe. I appo...gise” With great difficulty he tried to apologize and ask for forgiveness. She bent down to his level and looked him deeply in the eyes. The look on Angelika’s reddish eyes said it all. “There was no forgiveness.”

She wanted to witness this feeling of despair in A through her own eyes. The reopening of old wounds brought back some bitter and painful memories for Angelika. It was more excruciating and suffocating for Angelika than any physical one. He needed to suffer for causing such pain. But her thoughts were abruptly suppressed by the face of Noah lying in the hospital.

Angelika was brought back to reality. She was reminded of her intent to participate in the match.

Measuring the state of A, she stood up slowly and turned to leave. The Domain was brought down. Everyone present nearby could breathe properly now.

Taking a step or two she halted. Turning her head over her shoulders, she looked at A.

Being relieved from this devastating domain, A was trying to utter some words.

“Thank ..“ A could not finish his words.

Angelika delivered a SuperKick Out of Nowhere to knock him out.

Match over. Team RedRock wins.

There was no cheer. Not even a single utterance in the crowd, only a dead silence. As if they had been muted forcibly. The events that happened a few moments earlier, they considered themselves lucky enough to be breathing.

Angelika slowly picked up all her teammates and rested them in a corner. Sprinkled some water on them. James and Kaisha woke up slowly.

She asked them to take care of Melv and Marty, as she proceeded towards the office of the Manager of the Underground Arena. As per the contract, she is now eligible to receive the antidote. However, the manager was not a trustworthy person. So she didn’t waste any longer and rushed.

As she reached the office, the door was open and everything was dark inside. Angelika carefully entered the room to find everything is broken, from the table, chair to the closet on the wall.

Something was hanging from the closet. As she closed in cautiously, she saw it was a hand.

“Wait, that is the head security guard of the manager.” Angelika was shocked. The guard was smacked hard through the closet and his body was stuck inside upside down with his hand hanging.

“What just happened here?” Angelika was clueless.

...

Let us go back a few minutes while the match was still in progress.

The Manager was quite happy with the processions as Team Black turned it around. It was a 4v3 situation at that time as James and Marty were just knocked out.

“That’s my team. Haha. Some kids think they can come and do whatever they want. I won’t give you the antidote even if you win. Hahahah.”

“How shameless can a person be? Those kids are fighting for their lives to save another. Whereas you are still trying to make a double profit. But what can a person expect from a lowly scum like you.” A voice resounded from the door.

“Who’s there? Who dares to speak like that to me?” shouted the Manager.

“Well, that is a needless question. Instead, you should ask how many bones in your body will I leave intact.”

“What an absurd audacity. Guards, kill that guy.”

What followed next was that the guards charged at this unknown assailant wearing a black mask and hood.

One guard was hit on the throat, resulting in a broken Vertebrae. He immediately collapsed on the ground. Another one tried to swing his right hand and got a broken Radius and Humerus on the right hand. The punches of the assailant were all swift and decisive. The next hit shattered his Tibia on the left leg followed by a broken nose, a punch to the face.

The last one, the head of the security guards, tried to shoot the assailant with his firearm. The shot grazed past the assailant and he found himself a flying kick to the Sternum. The impact was so big that he flew towards the closet and shattered it. He lay hanging outwards from it.

The assailant slowly approached the manager who was left without any security now. The gun he was holding slipped from his hand in terror.

“Using illegal weapons inside city walls. A sum of the lowest level.”

“Ta..Take whatever you need. Please leave me.”

“Can’t hear you properly.”

“I mean. Please, sir, I beg you to spare my life.”

“Ah, now we are talking properly.” The assailant tapped on the pale face of the manager.

...

Coming back to the current scenario, Angelika looked around the room to find anyone apart from the security guards lying here and there. The manager was nowhere to be found.

“Shit! Where did he run away?” She was thinking to herself that her eyes fell on the antidote. Her eyes lit up at the sight of it.

“Finally.” She exhaled deeply.

As Angelika picked up the antidote, she found a note which said,

“Due to certain unavoidable circumstances, I am unable to hand over the antidote personally. Please take the antidote as per the contract.Thanks for your cooperation.”

“Well, whatever.” Angelika did not ponder much on the message as she left for the academy.

The crowd slowly left the arena. They were still in shock.

One of them heard a moaning sound from the back alley while leaving. As he went closer, he saw a garbage dump shaking up from time to time and making some noise. He slowly approached it and opened the lid. To his shock, he found a person in it.

The person was beaten black and blue. His whole face was swelling. Broken bones in all parts of the body. With a shrill sound, he said, “Helllllp me.” Other people also gathered nearby.

It took a while for everyone to recognize this person as the Manager of the UG Arena.

…

Noah opened his eyes slowly. The pleasant scent brought by the cool air breezing through was quite relaxing. He was lying down among the meadows' lush pastures for quite a while now. He sat up straight and started looking around.

“Wait. Where am I? How did I get here?” Noah kept wondering.

“I was fighting in the Promotion Battle. What happened?”

It took some time for Noah to recollect fully what had happened earlier.

“I was poisoned. Did I die then?”

“Is this what the Afterlife looks like?”

“But I had so many tasks left. So much work to do.” A sense of sadness crept into his heart.

“Guess I wasn't meant to be then.”

“In the end, I couldn’t achieve anything.” Noah raised his palm in the air and looked through his fingers. He fell back on the green pasture. He was totally disheartened. The faces of all his near ones floated in his eyes. Melv, Lucy, Kane, Principal Beck, Solomon, Marty and Angelika.

“Sorry, everyone. I let you all down.”

“Attachments aren’t easy to let go, child.” An appealing voice spoke. Noah immediately stood up and tried to find the location of this voice. But there was no human presence.

“Where is this voice coming from?” wondered Noah.

“Ahh, are you searching for me? I am right beside you.”

Noah still couldn’t find him.

“Look at the broken pillar to your right. You will find me.”

Noah immediately turned his gaze towards the broken pillar. But all he could see was a beautiful bird. With different shades of blue, the majestic appearance gave an artistic feeling.

“Now you can see me right?”

“Wait. But how can you talk?” Noah was confused.

“Ohh I forgot. The human mind gets confused when it sees things beyond its comprehension. I was so happy to see someone here after such a long time that I totally forgot.” The bird suddenly changed its appearance to an old man.

“Principal Beck?” shouted Noah.

“Ahh, do I look like him perfectly? I just gathered his basic outline from your mind.”

“From my mind?” Noah was having a lot of questions.

“My My... You have a lot of questions. Shouldn’t you be asking the right ones?”

Noah calmed himself.

“Where is this place? Am I dead?”

“To answer your second question - yes and no.”

Noah was confused.

“Let me answer your first question, you will get an idea.”

“But first, let us change locations.”

A mystical prism pattern gateway opened and the old man went in.

“Are you coming or what?” The old man changed his appearance to Melv.

Noah hesitated at first but followed eventually.

As he came out of the gate, he was stunned. It was a captivating scenario. Beautiful mountains on the sides, with a rumbling waterfall coursing like a river through the meadows. An old majestic structure levitating in the middle. It looked like an ancient temple of some sorts.

In fact, if not seen with one’s own eyes, some might think of it as a rendered graphical painting.

“Where is… where are we?”

“You will understand slowly. Let me answer your first question now.” The appearance is now looking like Kane. He opened several mystical prism pattern gateways around and closed them.

“This is a different realm or plane of existence as compared to your material plane. You might call it an Astral plane. There are several hundreds, thousands of such planes in the Astral Universe with many astral beings. All such beings have awakened their spiritual minds and as a result gained the right to enter an astral plane. There are several levels within these planes as well and entering them depends upon your spiritual level. However, to enter this plane one must forsake all materialistic attachments. So yes you are on your deathbed, that is why you might have entered this plane and no, not dead because it is not your time yet.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Which part?” The appearance changed to Lucy.

“I mean Astral Plane and all is ok. I get it. But how do you know it is not my time yet and if so what am I doing here?”

“Your attachment. You are yet to let go of it. I can guess it to be the only reason, as for why you are here it might be related to your current condition in the material realm. Once your body has gone to a vegetative state, your consciousness might have projected you towards this Astral plane.”

“But you said one needs spiritual awakening right?”

“Do you know what that is?” The appearance changed to Solomon.

Noah shook his head.

“Development and Sharpening of the mind. In other words, Instinct and Intellect, when both are in complete sync, the spiritual mind can be awakened. I believe you have attained it to some level. Though not fully, it was enough to bring you to the plane of existence.”

“Hmm. I get it now. But how come humans are unaware of this. Is there no way to enter this plane from the Human world?”

“Although those with special affiliation may actually be able to reach here through their spiritual connection, nevertheless it is not a physical plane that could be searched and found. But certainly there are gateways all throughout the physical plane, from where the spiritual connections can be made. But they keep shifting from place to place. Furthermore, it is not that humans are unaware, they are yet to find physical proof which is rather hard to find.” The person gave a smile.

Changing his appearance to Angelika, he said, “There are instances throughout your history, where consciousnesses of people have entered this plane for a few moments due to some circumstances. They felt the same as you. However, they did not find a gorgeous guide like me to provide an explanation…” smiled Angelika.

“They went back and mentioned this place. There is a vague outline of this place with many references. They called it by various names, such as the Forbidden Land, the Land of White Waters, Land of Radiant Spirits, Land of Living Fire, Land of the Living Gods, Land of Wonders, Land of Ever Young and even the Land of the Worthy Ones.”

“Awakened beings that come here, they don’t often want to leave this place. It is void of any materialistic desire or lust. But some also get bored and want to try their luck with a transmigration to a physical plane. However, they have to erase all of their knowledge and spiritual connection to this place and start fresh. But somehow, you seem to have a strong connection to this place.”

“I dunno. I have never been here. At least I don’t remember being here. What about you? How long are you here? Ohh, I forgot what your name is again?”

“Me. I don’t remember how long but it should be some centuries by your calculation. Here I fly around taking different forms. But you can call me Seiryuu. That was the name I was given in the physical plane.”

“Wait, I have heard that name somewhere. Centuries you said.” Noah kept thinking.

“By any chance were you not human in the physical plane but rather a mythical being.”

“Yes, my friend. I used to be a Dragon, the Blue Dragon Seiryuu.” The appearance changed to his original form, the magnificent Blue Dragon came into existence before the eyes of Noah.

“Woahh. Is this for real? A dragon?”

“Well, it was nice talking to you. I hope to meet again someday and chat a lot. But our time ends today. Before leaving I just want to remind you that there are lots of things the human mind can’t comprehend. It does not mean it's not there. There are lots of dimensions, planes, existences you are still unaware of. Live your life, achieve all you are meant to do and most importantly always remember that life in the physical plane is the preparation for earning a ticket to the spiritual plane. Good luck, my friend.”

Noah was still processing the words, as the Blue Dragon flew towards the sky. He didn’t notice that a mystical prism pattern gateway opened below him. He fell through the gateway and found himself drowning in deep waters. As he held his breath in a hurry, he quickly started to swim upwards towards the light. But the more he swam, the top reached further away.

Until a hand appeared in front of him. It was asking to grab hold of it. Noah didn’t think twice, he quickly grabbed the hand and swam up. As he slowly opened his eyes, he saw a lot of troubled faces, some even running here and there. A lot of mechanical sounds could be heard.

Noah closed his eyes.

“I am back in the physical plane.”

…