Thanks for this episode obehid... cant wait till saturday

obehid thanks for the update

OluwabuqqyYOLO:

Too stubborn? You seem to have missed a lot. Was it stubborn in the beginning of his life? It has been through a lot, and just as we do, has built a shield against the world. Isn't that what we do too, particularly towards betrayals?

yeah.. but not to an extent of being foolish. forgeting he is still in his imp form and portraying this kind attitude, is sure one way ticket to death.

Nebud is becoming too unsmart for my liking. What does it aim to achieve by being so nonchalant? I understand its reason but right now it is annoying. It needs to be better than n it is right now. Anyways Obehid, just keep it coming

@Ultimategeneral Sometimes, I agree that Nebud is stubborn, and very very angry. But it's like OluwabuqqyYOLO said, Nebud has been through a lot. I'm actually thinking back now to the first time that it met a noble and how obedient it had been. It had been so eager to call Fajahromo 'sirga' and follow it to the pits, simply because it told it to. So, life has hardened Nebud, and made it very difficult, and stubborn. And, I agree that acting the way it's acting while it's in the imp form, is very reckless, but, I think it's not really easy to have your identity changed. Like, on the outside it's an imp, but it still sees itself as an uspec. Anyway, I just hope that it doesn't get itself into too much trouble

@cassbeat thank you for reading, glad you liked it

@ayshow6102 thank you for reading!

@Fazemood haha too unsmart. As in, the smartness is regressing, that's too funny! I agree, but it's like I was saying to Ultimategeneral, Nebud is very very angry. And, I think, rightfully so. It has been put through so much, and now it has to endure another thing. But yes, Nebud needs to grow up...hopefully it learns that before...more coming soon

Sometimes Nebud is smart, sometimes Nebud is slow, I think Nebud has a hard time processing thoughts and situations........ Well, I think the background affects his thinking and approach to life situations also.

Am keenly observing sha, I think Nebud might have to put a stop to it's plan of overthrowing the emperor and gaining half of the army for now.

Tuhndhay:
Sometimes Nebud is smart, sometimes Nebud is slow, I think Nebud has a hard time processing thoughts and situations........ Well, I think the background affects his thinking and approach to life situations also.

Am keenly observing sha, I think Nebud might have to put a stop to it's plan of overthrowing the emperor and gaining half of the army for now.

Yeah, I agree, its background definitely affects the way it acts. Well, next installment is here

Part 10
---------

I was lost.

Perhaps it was for the best. I tried to convince myself that there was some benefit to being away from the Yakubo, the lying traitor. I could not imagine spending another moment with it. Did it really expect me to believe that it had not betrayed my confidences to its commander? Of course it had. How else would Arexon have known of my close bond with my imp? It was, after all, not such a common thing for an uspec to care about its slave. Yakubo told Arexon, and Arexon found a way to use it against me. I could not stand either of them.

I took another blind left turn down another tunnel. I’d come across several blocks in the tunnels where I’d seen naked imps lying on the floor. I stepped over them and kept walking. The soles of my feet hurt the more I walked, as each step scraped them against the rough bumps on the ground. I sighed, stopping to rest against a wall when I reached yet another joining in the way. I could either turn left or right. Which way would lead me back? I’d left in search of an okun, just a little pond to stick my bloody feet into. My search so far was proving to be wholly uneventful.

The right tunnel seemed to have some sort of color mixing further along. I caught a light stream of red-yellow light. I assumed that walking that way would lead to another dig led by another gang. I was suddenly grateful that I had paid attention to Jojo’s speech. The different colors represented different gang territories, and I had to stay in the daylight digs.

I turned left instead and continued down my torturous trek.

Why was I in Aurelion? I barely bent my head in time to dodge a stalactite. So, I missed the stalactite, but grazed the skin on my forehead against a particularly coarse bump in the wall. It scratched my skin. A finger against the abraded skin showed that it was bleeding.

My frustrations mounted as I continued walking. My plan now was just to get back to the eating room. If I found my way back there, then I could get directions to the dig where Yakubo and Arexon where. As much as I hated their company, I found that I was now desperate to return. How was I to kill Arexon if I was separated from it? Knowing Arexon, the only way that I would get back with it, was if I found my way back myself.

As I continued on my walk, a troubling thought flashed through my mind. I walked past an archway which led into a small dig with naked imps packed together, lying on the floor. I heard moans as I walked by, and a number of whimpers. There were imps in there crying. I heard the sound of one retching, another who’d consumed the metal, I assumed. An image played in my mind of the imp scooping up its vomit and trying to eat it, all to put something in its empty belly.

When Musa had said that Aurelion was an imp’s worst nightmare, I realized that this was what it meant. I had thought that sapping would be worse, but nothing could be worse than this. At least sapping you lost your consciousness. There was no such mercy for the suffering imps in Aurelion.

And as I walked by this dig, the imps packed so close that where one ended the other begun, the troubling thought occurred. The thought was simple. In fact, it was a testament to my own abhorrence of Arexon that I had not thought of it sooner. I thought about spending the rest of my finite life here. I thought about what would happen if I was somehow trapped in this hellhole. What good would my hate do me then?

I had to leave this place. I could not be left here. This was the thought that troubled me, because it made me dependent on Arexon. I did not know a way out. And even if I could somehow find my way back to the pious ones, how would I demand that I be released. Arexon had the exit mapped out. I was sure of this. The commander and this mission were valuable to the Kaiser. If I killed Arexon in here, I would be trapped here, with the imps, as an imp.

I could not think of a worse fate.

I still wanted Arexon dead. I could not think of anything I wanted more than to take away the life of one that had brought so much anguish to me. But, I realized with a sinking heart, that I could not do it here. It was easier to make this decision as far away from Arexon as I currently was. I did not have to see it and have my hatred rekindled. My mind was clearer as I walked, lost in the maze of tunnels. And in this clarity, one thing became glaringly obvious. Arexon was my only way out of here.

I would have to find another place to kill the uspec then. Surely, killing Arexon would be easier than taking the life of the Kaiser Sophila, and its offspring Sophian. I just had to bide my time. I remembered another whose death I wished for. One who had forced me to procreate and then used my own offspring against me. I had found that my desire to leave the pits outweighed my desire to see the uspec dead. It was similar with Arexon.

All of this was dependent on me finding my way back to them. What if they moved? The imp, Aliyah, had only offered shelter for a night. If I did not make my way back before the night was over, they could have moved on to completing the mission of finding the last brio. In that case, the odds of finding them again would be greatly diminished.

I refused to panic. I would find them before the night was over. Arexon would be displeased. I wondered what my punishment would be once we returned to the land of uspecs? More scourging? The green room? Both would be preferable to the rest of my life in Aurelion.

I saw imps wearing clothes. They were walking through tunnels to the left of where I stood. They were my first glimpse of hope. I turned to the left, going after them. I found myself running when I thought that I might not be able to catch up with them. I ran to the end of the tunnel, just in time to see them, moving towards my right. I went after them, hoping that they would lead me back to the dig with curtains.

I walked silently behind the group. As we walked, I began to realize how easy it would be to lose time in here. How long had it been since I left Yakubo? I could not say. It could have been minutes or hours. If it was hours, then was it still night? Had Arexon and Yakubo already moved on? I refused to let myself think about it.

We walked past an archway. I stopped, frozen in shock as I stared at the dig. It was dark. I realized, as I stared into the darkness, that I was in the midnight digs. That did not mean that I was still lost though. From the tour which Jojo had given us, I remembered that the midnight digs were just by the daylight ones.

I made to move, continuing behind the group of clothed imps, when I felt a hand latch onto my wrist. The hand pulled me into the dark dig before I could stop it. Again, I was made aware of my lack of bulk. The imp grabbing me was obviously strong.

“You look lost stray. How about you give me that ring on your finger, and I’ll help you find your way back?”

I did not like the voice.

The dig I was standing in was completely dark. It was not like the previous midnight dig which Jojo had led us through. There it had been lit just brightly enough that I could make out shapes. Nothing could be made out in this dig. I could not imagine how the imp could see me.

“Let go off me.” I ordered, swinging wildly with my left hand. I felt the contact that my hand made against the imp’s face. But the grip did not loosen. I had packed all of my strength into that blow, but the strength of my uspec bulk was lost in this feeble imp’s body.

After a moment though, I was released. That shocked me. I took a step back and was stopped by a body.

“You really should just give us the ring before this gets unpleasant.” They wanted Calami’s ring. I’d forgotten that I was wearing it. The ring told me if an uspec had pansophy, but more importantly, it belonged to Calami. It was the only thing I had of my line.

“It looks expensive.”

I heard voices now, so many of them. Some spoke boga tongues, but the majority spoke an umani tongue which I had no knowledge of. I could not see them. But I could feel them.

I reached into my emotions.

There was pain. A slight pain, which was gone before I could reach for it. I assumed that was the pain from the weak blow which I had landed. That was the only pain in the room. There were no hunger pangs that I could feel, no wounds. There was also no anger.

I decided to change that.

I mustered all the strength that I could find in this weakened imp form, and put it into my elbow. Then I drew my arm forward, bent it, and drove my elbow into the side of the imp standing behind me.

I felt its anger and a slight pain. The anger was more potent. I took it and transferred it to where I believed the first imp was. I had never done this in the dark. I knew enough about emotions to know that they would not go unless I gave them another living host to transfer to. But, as I could not see, I could not say with certainty where to send the anger. There was also the little problem of the instability of polluted anger. The imp I gave it to would be driven mad with rage. But that rage would be unfocussed. In the dark, I was just as likely to be the target of its anger, as anyone else in the room. I decided it was a risk I had to take. Luckily, the imp hadn’t moved much.

I knew it worked, when I felt a burst of pain. I went into my pain emotion and reached out for the imp’s pain. I could still feel the imp standing behind me, so I transferred the pain I felt to that imp. It wailed with polluted pain.

The imp rocked forward, pushing me in the process. I found myself knocked against an imp.

Then I felt a fist slam into the side of my face. The blow was so strong that I fell to the floor.

I landed on a sharp point.

The pain I felt was indescribable. It took my focus from the rest of the room. I knew that I had been stabbed. I felt the sharp object inside me. My instincts told me that it was a pickaxe. I had seen nothing else in this place capable of inflicting the kind of damage which I felt.

I howled in pain when a leg stepped on my ankle, breaking the joint.

“The stray!” A voice yelled. “Hold her, she’s insane.”

There was commotion. I reached for the anger. It was hard to hold onto the emotion. There was so much of it now. But, the bleeding in my side was weakening me. It was dangerous to go into my lifeforce, but I had to. I allowed my mind to go blank, escaping the room, as I focused on my pain. The pain told me that the wound was a mortal one. I was losing too much blood. No wonder I felt so faint.

I tried one last time to grab for the anger, but I could not reach it. “Where is the stray? Turn on a light!” I realized then, that they could not see in the dark either.

I crawled with the pickaxe in me. My ankle was broken so I could not twist the joint. I had to move on my elbows. I tried to go as silently as I could. I did not know where I was going, but luckily, I did not slam into any imps. I kept moving, until I saw a flash of white light. I went towards the light.

“He’s leaving. By the door!”

I had just reached the tunnel when I heard that. I latched onto the biggest bump in the wall, which I could find, and pulled myself up with it. It was faster to crawl on my hands and knees. But I would not last long.

“There!”

I turned into another dark dig. This one was like the one which Jojo had led us through. There was light enough to see that it was empty. I could make out the shapes of the bumps in the walls. I was grateful for these bumps for the first time since I came to Aurelion. I used the bumps as a rail, a support through which I could pull myself forward. I noticed a crevice in the wall. It was not big, but it was big enough that my imp body could fit in, if I sat as I had in Arexon’s punishing green room.

I knew that if I could make it into that crevice, then I could hide there till the imps passed. It was dark enough that they would not be able to see anything more than my shape in the wall, which could easily be overlooked.

It was a struggle to stand.

Each time I tried to use my unbroken leg as a support, I fell back against the wall.

“Where did he go?” I heard the voices. They were outside the dig now. It would not take them long to realize that I could have come in here.

I put both feet against the floor, and I stood. The pain in my broken angle was almost unbearable. I did not need to go into my pain lifeforce to know that I was aggravating the damage already done there. But I had to stand to get into the crevice in the wall, and that crevice was the only thing that could hide me. So, I bit down hard on the insides of my mouth, silencing the cry of pain that would have been torn out of me otherwise.

Standing, I was just high enough to sit in the crevice. I sat, taking the weight off my broken angle. There was something strange in my mouth, a soft piece floating about. It tasted like blood.

I spat it out, once I realized what it was. My mouth was still filled with the taste of blood.

I had to lift my injured leg into the crevice with my hands. Then I pulled my knees close to my chest and I waited. I felt my energy draining as I stayed in the crevice. I left the pickaxe in my side. I could just barely remember reading in a tome, that it was better to leave objects such as these inserted, in the case of a stabbing wound like mine. Perhaps, the pickaxe could slow the blood loss.

“Let’s check this dig.”

I watched as several imp forms walked into the dig. I remained silent, trying not to think of anything. Not the smarting pain in my ankle, not the lightheadedness, not the blood in my mouth. I must have bitten off a good chunk of my flesh, because it felt as if my mouth was filled with blood. Liquid spilled out of it. I could not spit. Not with the imps in the dig. I opened my mouth instead, and let the blood, run down my face.

An imp stopped in front of me. I could not tell from its shape if it was facing towards me, or away. The lightheadedness was becoming even more severe.

“It’s not here.” A voice said.

“Then it’s in another dig.” Another replied.

“I want an imp covering every inch of the midnight digs and tunnels. I will not let a stray make a fool of the moon gang.”

The imps filed out, but they did not go far. I could still see hear their voices, speaking the umani tongue.

I knew that I was losing consciousness with each moment that passed. I felt drowsy. How much blood would I lose before I died? I tried to stay awake, to force my mind to stay active. But the weariness was too strong. My eyes shut, and my head fell back against the wall behind me.

will nebud na die like this ni ah nice update �

I hope someone does not find it before it wakes up.

Obehid today's update is very short oooo

thanks for the update obehid nehud stay with me please don't die

Actor no dey die

@dragonstar14 thank you. Will it end like this? That's a good question

@tunjilomo I hope so too, that could be very dangerous for Nebud haha

@spixytinxy I know, this was indeed a short episode, but Wednesday's will be longer

@ayshow6102 thank you for reading. Yes, oh, Stay with us Nebud

@Smooth278 ...well...let me just keep quiet

Time for Nebud to learn some more magic... Healing spell maybe

Smooth278:
Time for Nebud to learn some more magic... Healing spell maybe

maybe... let's see, update is here!

Part 11
--------

I felt cold. My teeth chattered, but I could also feel myself sweating. I saw shapes dancing around in front of me. The shapes spoke. I could not understand what they were saying, but I saw enough of their mouths moving to know that they were forming words. The ringing sound in my head could be their voices, I thought. My eyes closed.

Sweat poured down my body. I blinked, suddenly feeling an overwhelming surge of strength. Where was I? My legs ached from being bent at the strange angle. My back was bruised from the bumps on the walls behind me. The bottom of my feet felt numb. I moved slightly, trying to ease the pain in my leg, but the slight move made the ache in my ankle even worse. There was a burning in my side. The burn was followed immediately by a jolt of pain. I was too weak to move. For some reason, I knew that I should be checking for shapes, and listening for the sounds that the shapes made. There were no shapes. What did that mean? I felt tired. A ringing noise filled my head. My eyelids suddenly felt too heavy to keep open. My eyes closed.

I heard voices.

“It’s been days Navid. I know you want to catch the stray, but he’s not here. We’ve searched everywhere. Perhaps it’s time we give up this search.”

“A few more days.” Was the hesitant response.

Days? That word should have more significance to me, but it didn’t. Why did it, or did it not? I felt so confused. Where was I? I could not feel my legs. My body burned, as if I was being consumed by heat that only hail magic could inflict. I felt a sticky moistness about me. I was sweating, I realized. But even with the sweat and the heat I felt, I heard myself shivering. It felt as though the blood coursing through my veins was freezing, while my skin burned. I tried to open my mouth, but it was too hard. More voices. No. Not voices. A ringing. Days. I closed my eyes.

I saw a figure dancing. The figure had long hair, which spun as it twirled. It lashed out with one hand and struck out with a foot. Other figures fell. I saw a figure stiffen. One minute the figure was standing with its arms spread, as if to strike the dancing one with the long hair, then the next it was standing still, like a statue. The dancing figure touched another and that one fell. More figures came and, one after the other, the dancing figure defeated them all. Then the dancing figure was the last one left standing.

It walked towards me. My mind told me that there was something significant about this dancing figure and the way that it turned others into statues with a single touch. For some reason, my mind linked this dancing figure to another, a name, Musa. Musa. The name stirred feelings in me, feelings of joy mixed with apprehension. Musa. My mind churned the name over and over again. The dancing figure walked towards me.

I could not move.

A hand brushed over mine.

‘Pansophy,’ I heard a voice say in my head, just before my eyes closed.

When I woke, I was laying fully sprawled, on my back.

I tried to move, but I couldn’t. I could not as much as pull my eyelids open. I could tell from the feelings of the ground underneath me, that I had been moved. It all came back to me at once. Yakubo, the expedition that I’d gone on. I’d gotten myself lost. Then I’d been accosted by imps who’d wanted my ring. I felt the ring on my finger, so I knew I still had it. I remembered squeezing myself into a crevice in a moonlight dig to keep myself from being seen. I remembered the pickaxe in my side, and my broken ankle. My ankle felt stiff now. I could not move it, but I did not feel much pain coming from it. And my side? There was a slight twinge, but nothing as bad as when the pickaxe entered me.

I reached for the lifeforce in my pain and went into myself. A thorough search showed that the pain I felt were healing pains. My wounds had been healed. But why and by whom? I tried to remember the things that happened after I’d been in the crevice. I remembered waking up a few times and seeing the imps still searching for me. I remembered hearing them say that they’d been searching for days. Days, I thought with a forlorn sigh. Arexon and Yakubo would be gone by now. Arexon had said the mission would only take a day or two. They would not have gone looking for me. I was stuck here, as an imp, for the rest of my life.

I was suddenly starting to wish that whoever saved me, hadn’t bothered.

Saved me. Musa. No. Not Musa. It could not have been Musa, Musa was not in Aurelion. But, for some reason, I was certain that the imp that saved me had pansophy. I did not know why my brain made this connection, but it did. It took me a lot longer to remember the last thing I’d seen before losing consciousness the last time.

An imp dancing.

It touched another imp and that one turned to stone. Extra form? Or maybe even lack of motion. Either could have been responsible for what I saw. But definitely pansophy. The imp had touched my ring. I recalled the voice in my head saying ‘pansophy’. An imp with pansophy in Aurelion. Could it be Musa? It seemed like the kind of thing that Musa would do.

I remembered another pertinent detail then. The imp had long hair. Musa did not have hair that long. Although, it could have grown its hair out to that length. No, it wasn’t Musa. Musa would not grow its hair out. And Musa would not be in Aurelion. Perhaps if it thought that I needed aid, then maybe it would have come. But Musa had no way of knowing that I was in Aurelion, with the identity of an imp.

Then who was my savior? I did not like this. An imp with pansophy. An imp with pansophy who’d saved my life. I would be indebted to this imp then. Perhaps I could pay it back with the rest of my life, which I would spend here, in Aurelion, I thought sourly.

‘Pansophy.’ The voice filled my head.

I was expecting the touch before it came. A hand brushed against my side. It poked at my side, where the pickaxe had lanced me, and then it withdrew its hand and moved to my leg. It repeated its poking on my ankle. The pain was slight with both pokes.

The imp was touching me a… the imp was touching me. It’d had me unconscious for I don’t know how long, and now it was touching me with ease. The imp would already know everything about me then. It would have poured through my mind. I knew that I should be furious, but I could not summon the strength for that. I felt strong, much stronger than I’d been in the crevice. The imp must have fed me then. Knowing what Aurelion was like, I knew that the imp would have had to go to a lot of trouble to sneak food out of the eating room, and bring it to me. Then I remembered an important fact, the imp had pansophy. It could easily have taken the appearance away from the food, making it even easier to sneak. What did it matter? I was not an uspec anymore. I was stuck in Aurelion. Why should I care what the imp saw in my head?

If I wasn’t so absorbed with my own thoughts, I would have registered the fact that I could move sooner. As soon as I realized this, I jumped, springing to my feet.

It was a tiny dig. The dig was so small that I could see every wall. I frowned. See every wall? How was this possible? There did not seem to be any entrance to this dig. It was completely enclosed. Then how had I been brought in?

The imp was standing with its back to me. It wore a tunic, a short tunic which stopped just above the back of its knees.

“I took away your motion so that you could heal.” The imp said, turning around.

I frowned. I knew this imp.

The ring. I thought, shaking my head. I’d forgotten one key thing about how the ring worked. It did not identify pansophy in all that touched it. Only in uspecs.

Arexon.

“If you do anything to disrespect anyone, and they take it upon themselves to discipline you, I will not intercede.”

Arexon’s warnings from the day that we embarked on this journey to Aurelion, filled my mind.

“You said that you would not intercede. Why did you?” Why? Why! I could honestly say that I would rather have died in that crevice than been saved by Arexon. Arexon! I hated this uspec. I was going to kill it! But then it saved my life and now I felt indebted to it. I wanted to go back in time and fall in deeper on that pickaxe.

Arexon had pansophy. How could I have been so foolish? It knew everything by now. Even the slowest pansophy practitioner would know everything in the amount of time that I had been unconscious.

Arexon was frowning at me. “You have a startling way of showing gratitude.”

“You should have left me there to die.” I replied. But why would it, when it could save me and have one more thing to hold over me. Only if I let it. I was still going to kill Arexon. I was going to kill it, if it was the last thing I did! How dare it save my life!

“You would like that, wouldn’t you?” Arexon walked forward and sat on the floor. “Sit.” It ordered.

“Why did you come back for me?” I demanded, ignoring its order.

Arexon sighed. It shook its head. “I do not believe in abandoning my troops. I brought you with me on a mission and I would not leave without you, or your corpse. I said I would not intercede, not that I would leave you in Aurelion. Besides, I know how attached you are to that ring. It only makes sense that you would fight to keep it.”

“I know how attached you are to that ring. It only makes sense that you would fight to keep it.”

“You’ve been using your pansophy to siphon my memories, haven’t you?”

“From the first time I met you. How did you think I knew about your special relationship with your imp?”

“Yakubo.” I spat out.

Arexon chuckled drily. “Yakubo is loyal to a fault. It would not betray another like that. Sit!”

“No! if you think that saving my life gives you a hold over me, you are wrong. I despise you.”

“I know. I know you planned on killing me.” It stared at my face and then its lips bent in a wry smile. “Plan on. Sit anyway.”

I sat. Reluctantly. It wasn’t till I was sitting, that I realized how smooth the ground was. There was no bump. I inhaled then too. This place smelled good. It smelled clean, like the eating room. This was no dig.

“What is this?”

“A cove, one of the coves that we came here in search of.”

“For the last brio.”

“Yes.”

“And did you find it?”

“No.”

Arexon had not found the last brio? “Have you found the other coves?”

“Yes. No last brio.”

“So, the mission is complete.” Without me. I added to myself. “It is unfortunate that you will be taking bad news back to your masters.”

Arexon’s lips pulled together. It stared silently at me.

“You are a shame to Arigad’s legacy.” I stated.

Arexon’s jaw clenched. “You know nothing about my progenitor.” I reached for its anger and I felt it.

I smiled. “I know that your progenitor had pride. Self-respect. It had thought you had the same thing when you formed your first eye-socket at the tender age of one.”

Arexon laughed. “Arigad had no pride. It begged for its life. It went down on hands and knees and begged Sophila to spare it. It told Sophila that it would serve it in anyway it pleased. Sophila took Arigad’s center eye and replaced it with its own, and Arigad did not put up a fight.”

Bells went off in my head when I heard that. Sophila’s center eye, the one that I had come here to take, had actually belonged to Arigad? But Arexon was still speaking and so I could not ponder on this.

“Arigad is a liar. It had time to write its final tome because Sophila gave it that time. It wrote its tome from a cell in Sophila’s prison, not from the Castle in the Aboga acropolis. And I was not one year old when I formed my outer eye socket. Truly, have you no sense, how would you believe tripe like that? No uspec forms its outer eye sockets that young. I was ten when my first outer eye socket formed. Arigad’s final tome is fiction. Arigad was a liar and a weakling, who spent eight years in Sophila’s prison. It told me to survive. That was what Arigad said to me, ‘survive for you are the last of a great Uspecipyte dynasty.’ I spit on Uspecipytes. I spit on Chuspecip. And I spit on Arigad, the weakling who took its own life. Sophila offered Arigad a chance to fight for our freedom. A fight between Sophila and Arigad in an equipoise. If Arigad won, it would receive Aboga back, if it lost, it would die honorably, and I would be raised as a Chiboga duke. Arigad killed itself instead, and I was made a serf. Don’t talk to me about Arigad Nebud.”

I was stunned. I did not realize, until that moment, how sacred Arigad’s final tome had been to me. I had read it over so many times and believed every word in it. But according to Arexon, all of it was false.

“Eat that. We’re leaving.”

A black fruit fell on my lap. I remembered this fruit. It was an okun fruit, or rather the black fruit which grew from a weed in the okun. I recalled the energy boost that it had given to me on the occasions that I had imbibed it. I chewed on the fruit slowly, all the while considering Arexon’s words.

Arigad, a coward. Not the valiant Kaiser I had imagined it as, but a coward.

I did not know what to say, but it was obvious from the look on Arexon’s face that it was past the point of speaking to me. I had truly offended it, I realized. For a moment I felt regret. Arexon had saved my life. But then I remembered all the reasons I had to hate Arexon. I remembered the way that it had used Musa against me. I was a serf because of Arexon. No, I would not soften towards it.

“Get up. We’re leaving. We’ve been delayed in Aurelion for long enough.”

I finished off the fruit. It was obvious that Arexon no longer cared if I followed behind it, because it stormed out of the cove. I jumped to my feet and ran after it. I realized, after walking through a wall, that the walls where actually just fog made to appear like the walls of a dig. I did not have much time to ponder on that. I had to run a little to catch up with Arexon. It was walking fast, leaving me with no other choice but to match its pace or get lost. Something told me that if I got lost again, Arexon would not return to find me.

Arexon was a mystery. I think the most puzzling part was that it had pansophy. Why did an uspec with pansophy serve ones without it? I remembered then that Arexon did not have the full range of spectra. But where did Arexon gain pansophy? I had so many questions. As the questions flooded my mind, I thought about Arexon as a ten year old, probably expecting its progenitor to fight for it. Whether Arigad won or lost, Arexon’s life would have been better. But Arigad chose not to fight, and Arexon was made a serf. I could not imagine how betrayed the young Arexon must have felt. How had Arexon managed to rise to such a high rank in Sophila’s army despite all of that? With pansophy, I imagined. Perhaps the pansophy was a gift from Sophila. I did not know Sophila, but I highly doubted that it was the kind to give pansophy to a serf. I could not know for sure, but I was almost certain that no one in the Kaiser’s line knew about Arexon’s pansophy.

Which made my knowledge of it, a powerful weapon, one that I could use against Arexon when the time came.

Arexon navigated the tunnels flawlessly. It did not seem to hesitate at any crossroads. It just knew exactly where to go. I was starting to doubt that this was Arexon’s first time in Aurelion. How else would it have such an expert knowledge of the place?

We walked for so long that my ankle began to throb. Arexon was no healer. It must have given me growth then, to heal my wounds. Apparently, it was not enough growth to fully heal me, and leave me painless.

I was relieved when at long last Arexon stopped.

“Follow this tunnel till the next crossroads and then take a left. That will take you back to the dig with the curtains.” Arexon spoke with its back to me. “When you get there, you will tell them that you snuffed the moon gang members yourself, and found your way back. Do not mention me. When they ask you how many, say too many to count. Zane will be impressed. At that point, you will apologize to the imp for touching its girlfriend and you will promise not to do it again.”

“I will not apologize to an imp.”

Arexon turned to face me. Its tone was flat as it spoke. “If you do as I say, when I return you will be wearing clothes. If you do not, you will be naked as you are now, and I will leave you in Aurelion. The choice is yours.”

Arexon vanished after saying that.

I was so shocked by its sudden disappearance, that it took me a while to realize that it had simply transferred its appearance to something else. That realization filled me with the dreadful knowledge that Arexon was quite skilled in the use of pansophy.

Another unbelievable twist.

ObehiD this our updates recently are short there should be about 3 of them, good work love the twist and turns. So Arexon is no coward and Arigad is no champion either... Continue

wow.. so people can surprise us

I need to process this new twist, but I have a feeling Arexon was only playing on Nebud's intelligence with that response and besides a question comes to heart......Is Arexon not aware of Nebud's quest for Sophila's eye. Without any doubt, the voice speaking to Nebud must be Arigad but how did it get into Nebud's head..... "loads of questions from this perspective.

Thanks for the twist Obehid.....

Beautiful as usual. Love the twist

Ahn ahn obehid wat happening, u promised dat today's update will b long but it is not.thanks for d update sha

Now I don’t want to miss any update. This is just too good. But I wish I can see the look on Nebud face when he heard about Arexon story. I mean the real story.

But wait this guy Nebud can be so stubborn and stiff necked ooo

thanks for the update obehid when is my nehud going to start doing his own magic tricks with panasophy

Read rereading again n again,thanks Boss L

Wow just wow keeping wowing me obehid..

I have been suspecting Arexon has something up it's sleeves... He is the baddest guy.

@tunjilomo You know I have to have as many twists as possible

@phoenixchap Well, this episode is actually the regular length, I think the ones I'd been posting before were long, haha. Thank you! More coming soon

@popeshemoo yes oh, people can surprise us...there m...let me just keep quiet so that I don't spoil anything

@Tuhndhay Thank you for reading and enjoying the twist! Hopefully your questions will be answered in the not so distant future

@barag thank you for reading

@spixytinxy I said that the update will be longer than the last one, and it is longer than the last one. This is the usual length of the parts, its just that some parts are uncharacteristically long . Thanks for reading

@Botaflica Yes oh, Nebud can sha be very stubborn sometimes. And even now that Arexon saved it, it's still angry with it. Chai...smh, anyway, we shall see what happens with this stiff necked Nebud

@ayshow6102 thank you for reading. Pansophy is not in my power to give oh! According to Musa, it's only the pious that can give pansophy, so I don't know if Nebud is going to get that one. We'll just have to wait and see

@Madosky112 Thanks for reading and rereading!!!

@cassbeat thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it

@HotB As in ehn...in fact...lemme just stop typing before I now come and say too much.

So finally @obehiD,been counting days for next and Saturday is a few hours already, fingers crossed.���������waiting.