The boat was slowly moving toward the coast and Armad was in it thinking about the seven months ultimatum. Everything he did from now on should be strictly calculated and time-bound.

When he landed on the shore, he placed his left hand on his sword and he used his right to tie the boat to the root of the nearest tree. After that, he headed for the island. From a distance, the whole place looked abandoned. Buildings turned to rubbles and overgrown trees everywhere.

Armad was still thinking about the dordor on the island, or rather the lack of it. He should have killed many by now. Why was it so silent? Was there something on the island that even Nusi didn't know about? He'd a bad feeling about it so he drew his sword.

"Lightning armor," he intoned.

"Lightning Armor."

His body was suddenly covered in lightning. It spread to cover his sword, flashing across the island and illuminating the desolate place and its broken domes. Armad could vaguely see the silhouettes of people hiding beneath a tree in the distance.

Unsure of it, he disappeared from his position and reappeared in front of the tree, readying his sword for any surprise.

He was right. Four people were standing beneath the tree. Armad narrowed his eyes. His sudden appearance and the lightning flashing from his body and sword didn't startle the men. They didn't budge or even look at him as if they hadn't seen him.

Armad stood there for a minute. None of them seemed to be wounded or in the mood to communicate. "Well," he said to himself. "Everyone's minding their business then." He turned and left.

After taking five steps, he looked over his shoulders. The four men were still there. He hesitated but at last, he walked away.

"Are you just going to leave?" said a female voice. He didn't realize there was a woman among them. Armad turned to see the speaker.

His eyes went wide.

"Nusi?" The woman who just spoke looked exactly like the Nusi he had left on the shore. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm not who you think I'm," she replied quietly, "the only thing we want is the book you found in the Non-Touch dungeon. You can't handle it anyway so we may just be doing you a favor."

Armad frowned. "And why should I give you my book?"

The woman shook her head with a sigh. "If we have wanted to deceive you, we would have posed as your Nusi and we would have ruined your relationship with her. But our leader wants us to treat you with respect. I want you to think twice before you speak again. It may your last." She punctuated her threat by drawing her short sword and pointing it at him.

Armad noticed that the woman was consciously releasing her pol so he could read it and understand her rank.

Pol: 713 years

Negrinki: Second world

Djinn: King type

Sword Bend: Sixth Age

The three men behind her remained still like statues. Armad knew he couldn't beat them. But what did they want? Why didn't they kill him just yet and take the boo? How did they even know about the book? Why did that woman look like Nusi?

He still didn't know how the book worked, let alone used its power to help himself.

"Why do you want the book?" Armad asked.

She frowned and angrily replied, "That doesn't concern you. Will you give it to us or not?"

As Armad debated about what he should do, he heard the sound of her sword passing through the air. He reflexively jumped back and at the same time swung his blade to block it. The two swords clashed and the woman pushed Armad to the ground on his knees. If he didn't have the lightning to protect his sword, it would have already shattered.

Armad tried to push her sword back, but the woman used the opportunity to put her other hand inside his shirt. Armad didn't have any hand to spare. And even if he did, the woman had seven hundred years of pol and he'd less than one hundred years. She was too fast and strong for him. As he tried to push her sword with both hands, she managed to find the book in his inner pocket and take it.

Armad burned twenty years in an instant to power his muscles and pushed her sword aside. Then he reached for his book, but she jumped back.

For the first time, the other three behind the woman jumped and moved closer to her. The woman put the book in the middle - and it surprisingly floated in the air - and the four of them surrounded her, ignoring him. They read incantations in a language Armad didn't know.

Everything was just happening too fast. It had only been three seconds since the woman snatched the book and jumped back.

Armad quickly began to untie his headband, but then he saw a bolt of light appeared above the four men. The light took the shape of a door and a young man came out from it. The newcomer stabbed his sword between the four men. He was either lucky or extremely capable and skilled because the sword passed through their joined hands to reach the book beneath.

A dark glow burst out from the book and the sword melted. A powerful wind threw Armad back and his head hit the ground. He fell unconscious immediately after, unsure whether it was the black light or the concussion that knocked him out.

The next thing he remembered was waking up on the wet soil of the coast. He saw his book a couple of meters away from him. Everyone else was gone.

He thought about the four men and the young man that came later and he realized nothing made any sense. But it didn't matter now. He still had the book. All he had to do was to make sure he was gone when they came back.

As he took the book, he realized he was missing a headband. It might have just fallen somewhere, but why was his miyura not glowing? It always glowed when it wasn't covered.

Feeling a little bit worried, he hurried to the bank to check himself out in the water. He looked at his face in the water. His appearance was the same but there was no miyura on his forehead. His forehead was completely plain like a normal human. He gasped. For just a short moment, he thought it wasn't his body. He looked again and rubbed his forehead. But there was no miyura; no signs of it.