The General stroked his hair and exhaled. He had to meet Niiya. He called his secretary to call Dr. Tanaka and fix the meeting as soon as possible.

It was past midnight. Ziu was strolling outside in the cantonment waiting for the fighter jets to fly when one of the serpents who survived approached him and informed him about the massacre that took place in the lake. When he heard about it, he was enraged. Was the informer telling him that he was defeated already?

​​

He grabbed the collar of the informer and lifted him in the air. He spat, "What do you mean that serpents have been killed? Who killed them?"

The informer's breathing became ragged. He felt Ziu's hands around his neck. Somehow he spoke in a hoarse voice. "Your Highness, we were caught in between a dragon like creature and flood. There was this gigantic animal who was breathing fire, killing so many of us in one time that none of us had time to even think about what was going on. We were finished in numbers before we could plan out any strategy."

Ziu's angered expression changed. His eyes became wide. He left the informer's collar, who fell on the floor with a thud. Ziu stared at him for a few seconds. His mind was unable to process the information. "Dragon-like creature?" he asked as if trying to convince himself that he heard the informer correctly. He had heard about dragons, but they were extinct. In fact, they were extinct for so long that they were mythological now.

He bent down and slapped the informer hard across his face. "Did you see that beast?"

The fork-mouth whimpered. "Yes, I saw it. It was appearing and disapp—"

Before he could complete the sentence, Ziu had entered his cell. And there he saw the dance of destruction, the boiling, the fire and then—the Dragon himself. At first Ziu was awestruck by the sheer force and deadly nature of the beast and then he was horrified by the devastation it was able to do. All his brothers and sisters and other kinship were ripped apart or boiled.

The thing that he couldn't understand was the flood part. How did the lake flood all of a sudden in the middle of the night and that too without any rain or thunderstorm?

He came out of the informer's cell and stumbled back a little. His knees became weak.

He steadied himself again. "A royal serpent never stumbles," his father had said when he was young. They were a family of strong breed. He wondered where his father was now. "Where is the King?" he asked.

"I- I don't know," replied the informer who was still on the ground.

Had he failed? "No!" roared Ziu. "I can't fail!"

"Go back and find my father," he hissed.

"Yes, my Lord." The informer stood shakily.

"I will come and investigate this matter myself."

"Yes."

"Now leave!"

The snake left immediately.

Although Ziu really wanted to go to the lake and find out about it, he decided against it. If his army was already killed to such an extent, there was no point in going there and inviting death. It was better to use the humans now.

Inside, he started to feel unsettled. His father's army was a strong backup. He was not able to understand as to how a beast came and destroyed everything and that too a dragon. Did Adrianna already know about his plans or was it merely a chance?

With so many disturbing thoughts, Ziu went to meet the pilots of the jets. He was not confident about the General after the way he behaved in the control room. He looked so dazed and doubtful of the whole mission that Ziu couldn't take any chance with him. He gave the pilots different coordinates to enter the airspace above the Wizard Realm and he had also instructed them on what to do once they infiltrated it.

After all, Ziu had only one night to prove himself and to defeat the Queen. He was determined to overthrow her at all costs.

It was an hour later that Ziu was waiting in the airfield for the fighter jets to take off. As they flew one by one, he watched them patiently. But he was dismayed to see that only ten aircrafts took off.

Ziu became mad as hell. He rushed to the control room to find the General to scold him. He was surprised to see that there was no one else other than a young boy present in the cabin.

"Where's the General?" he asked.

"I don't know," replied the young lieutenant as he took the headphone off and looked at Ziu.

Ziu brushed his hand through his hair. His face was red and he could feel heaviness in breathing.

"Where are the rest of the fighter jets?" Ziu asked again. He was sitting on his chair and scheduling the airplanes to take off from the control room.

The young boy shrugged. "I don't know. I have been asked to fly these and this is what I have done."

Ziu's rage was now uncontrollable. "You imbecile!" yelled Ziu and kicked the chair on which the boy was sitting. The chair tumbled and the boy fell on the floor.

"Hey!" retaliated the boy wiping the blood that trickled from his forehead. "Why are you angry at me? I am not the General. Go catch him. I only follow the orders."

Ziu went to the boy, grabbed him by his shirt and made him stand. With a clenched jaw, he said, "Instruct your main military base to send ten more fighter jets or I will smash your skull."

"I can't man!" said the boy as he struggled to get free. "And you look like a demented soul!"

Ziu stared at him for a second and then hurled him across the room like a maniac. The boy hit the wall and became unconscious.

Then he swung to the monitor and got hold of the microphone. He switched on the red button on which 'Emergency' was written. There was slight noise in the headphone. Immediately, he barked in the microphone, "This is the General here. I need ten more fighter jets now!"

There was a flicker of noise in the headphone and his hopes were raised. Suddenly a voice said, "Sorry, authentication failed. This is not the voice of the General." And the line went dead.