A year before Armad set out...

"Armad, you should stop using Locust," his mother said, sitting next to him in the room.

It was dark and Armad had just returned from training with his grandfather. He hadn't even changed his training dress before his mother barged into the room.

"Look, anything you want to do with a sword you can do it with lightning. But just don't use that sword anymore. You are damaging your lifespan and reducing your days every time you use it. I won't forgive myself if anything happens to you. So just stop. And if your sister Hidaya knew what would happen she wouldn't have left the sword for you."

"It's okay, mom, I will stop using it," Armad said sadly, remembering the hardships he endured before learning how to use the sword. About five years before that day, he inherited the sword from his elder sister Hidaya. And from that day on, he devoted his life to using it despite the resulting physical harm. It was the only thing that reminded him of his sister.

The locust is a tree that produced bright yellow leaves and a fruit that tasted sweet. Hidaya named the sword after the tree. Many people thought it was because of the yellow-colored essence produced by the sword but that wasn't it. Her reason was her younger brother Armad. He would ask her to bring him the fruit every time she went to another country for a mission. Armad liked the locust fruit, and as a child, he dreamed that before he died he would taste every locust seed in the seven worlds.

***

Armad felt the cold damaging his body. He felt his skin being burned by it. His eyes blurred and he stopped hearing his opponent's voice.

If his miyura was still there, he could use the Dance of Uncertainty to break the ice and bring down Ikenga with an attack so fast that he wouldn't even realize it until it happened. But the miyura was gone. And if he stayed on the ice for too long, he would lose the tournament. He would also lose his only lead to find Triple Factor, which was something he wouldn't let happen especially since he had less than six months to find the man.

He decided. "To help my mother get healthy again, I'll lose one or two or ten years of my lifespan. If I'm meant to live for 50 years, I can manage with forty."

Armad called the forbidden incantation that opened the door to using the historical sword called Locust. The sword itself was inherited by his sister from their father.

An incantation was used to enchant the sword in a shrine. No one was allowed to communicate with the shrine except a Wilberforce. When he inherited it, the incantation was connected to his core and blood and hence it was named after him.

"Armad-Wilberforce," he intoned.

Whenever describing a cross over Bend, the essence board would have question marks. It was as if it didn't know the description of those Bends or maybe it just didn't recognize them.

Yellow lightning flashed from his body. It melted the huge ice around him and splattered on the ground.

Ikenga felt a new energy and tried to turn around but before he could, the ice had melted. All he found was a flash of yellow lightning surrounding Armad and a long, amber-colored light with the shape of a sword hanging in the air.

A long sword appeared before Armad. It was three and a half cubits taller than Armad with a breadth half the width of his palm. Its steel was covered with a bright yellow light that attracted the attention of everyone in the arena. A yellow-colored star hanged at the tip of the sword and refused to disappear. The star wasn't up to a cubit but it was pretty conspicuous even from a distance. What was more strange was the pol that caused everyone in the arena to feel heavy. It was as if they'd gotten bigger all of a sudden. It affected even Ikenga and the people in the VIP room, attracting unwanted attention.

The representatives and the guards affected stood up and opened their mouths in shock. Even Uznu Ururu had a slight frown on him. These people recognized the sword, they might have seen it before.

"Wilberforce sword. Interesting." Uznu Ururu murmured to himself. He probably knew more about the sword than any other person there. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the board that identified the Book-sword earlier, only to see it glowing. The glow was the same as when it identified the Book-sword. Uznu shifted for the first time in his seat and folded his arms. The boy had gotten his full attention.

Armad was unaware of all the things happening, he simply wanted to win and save his mother. He lifted the sword up and then in a swift dance turned it upside down and lunged forward.

Ikenga pointed his finger at the sky, causing the clouds to erupt with flashes of electricity. Three large ice boxes fell from within the clouds. Ikenga made another gesture with his fingers again and the ice boxes turned into adult size statues. Each statue transformed into Ikenga, including his clothes. He clapped and the statues opened their mouths together. An unpleasant squeak came from them, originating from the sheet of ice coming from the mouth of the first statue, and the lightning bolts coming out of the second statue, and the hot water coming out of the third statue. They were determined to destroy Armad.

Armad turned the long sword in his hand, the star on the tip glowing and slashed at the statues.

The distance between them was more than fifteen feet and there was no way the sword would reach the statues, or even the attacks coming his way. But then, suddenly, a flash of yellow-colored lightning left the sword as Armad struck, and it approached the three statues.

A popular but rare sword Bend that could send powerful attacks to distant targets. A few Benders had learned to channel their sword essence through their swords. It was a much more effective method when fighting long-range Bends.

The audience was shocked by what they saw. Ikenga and Armad didn't look like they were below a hundred years at all.

"Look, Armad can use the flying sword!"

Others said, "look at Ikenga's Djinn. It's a KING."

So what did it mean by his djinn was a King?

The commoners among djinns were generally divided into three tribes: black, white, and red. The noble djinns, on the other hand, were divided into the Rohan, the Devil, the Murid, and the Euphrates. Even among the nobles, there were Kings.

The main difference between these djinns was their strength and the amount of essence they could

produce. For example, a commoner of the White, Black, or Red ethnic groups would have a limited essence. After channeling their essence for some time, you would have to wait for them to recharge even if your pol was fully regenerated. But the essence of the noble djinns had no limit, that was to say, it could produce essence continuously and all you needed to channel it was pol. Every time you looked into the little space between your djinn and essence board, the essence would be there waiting for you. As for the Kings, they'd limitless essence like the nobles, but they could also possess more than one essence. Usually two. But less than one percent produced more than two essences, like Ikenga's djinn.

The Kings usually had a special prefix added to their names to identify themselves among the other nobles. For example, Ikenga's djinn was originally 'Iyyu' but it was a King and so it was called Gal-Iyyu.

In short, the fact that Ikenga's djinn produced ice, water, and lightning made it a King. A King among djinns.