Chapter 4: Green World

Armad lost consciousness as he was dragged into the sand, unsure of where he would end up and in what manner.

When he regained consciousness, he saw a peculiar world.

Even with his eyes halfway open, an intense green light was blinding him. Slowly, he opened his eyes to see the real world he found himself in.

He looked at his surroundings and the sky and realized everything was dark green; from the sky to the ground. He took some sand in his hand and inspected it just to make sure.

The last thing he remembered was feeling dizzy and being dragged into the sand. He wasn't complaining but he thought he would have some bruises at least when he woke up, but he was fine.

As he stood there, wondering if that green environment was the fourth world, he heard movements above him.

He looked up and was greeted by a dark-green, gigantic hawk, measuring at least three meters long, swiping its dagger-like nails at his neck. Its beak was long and pointed, shining brightly in the green sunlight, and dripping a saliva-like fluid that steamed as if it was under fire.

Armad ducked, barely dodging the attack.

But before he could stand, the hawk turned around, emitting angry growls as if it was denied its rightful food, and attacked him again.

It flew downward and forward toward Armad, screeching so loud it could scare a small group of soldiers away.

Armad shook off his stupor and withdrew his blade.

A loud bang was heard when the pointed beak of the hawk clashed with Armad's sword. It sounded like a metal hitting another metal.

After the clash, Armad's sword got stuck on the beak as if it was glued to the horny projection. He pulled it back but it didn't budge.

The hawk didn't move either which further mystified the situation.

Armad clenched his right hand into a fist, looked at the hawk's neck, and in a practiced manner threw a high-speed punch like a bullet, hitting the hawk at point-blank.

To his surprise, the hawk didn't try to dodge, it allowed the fist to connect with its neck, which resulted in another loud bang as if a stone was hit.

Eyes filled with awe, Armad withdrew his hand which now felt numb. The damn thing was harder than stone despite looking like flesh and blood.

As if that wasn't enough, the other hand holding the sword suddenly felt less heavy. It was as if the sword was getting lighter. Armad looked at the sword with narrowed eyes. It was both shorter and thinner. The hawk closed its eyes leisurely as it pressed its beak on the blade.

Armad analyzed the situation and concluded that the hawk must be absorbing the metallic essence in the sword and enriching its body. He didn't know how the hawk did it and he hadn't come across something like this before. But why else would the sword become shorter?

A sudden, frightening roar coming from behind him reminded him that it wasn't the time to be admiring beasts or their Bends. He turned around and looked in the direction the sound was coming from, but there was nothing there except the endless green.

At the same time, unbeknown to Armad, the paper he received from the guardian, Han'diyuza, was glowing in his pocket.

As he stood there, debating about what he should do next, he heard another roar. He turned in the direction where the roar was coming from. This time around, he saw a giant python that was as thick as his height and several meters long. It had dark-green eyes which were so big that Armad could see them clearly from the distance.

The python was acting strangely. It ran haphazardly and so fast like it was being chased by death itself.

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Just behind the python, there was a cloud of green dust, and a bunch of greenish beasts including lionbreds, tigerbreds, and even giant hennabreds in the dust, chasing after the python with an unnatural speed.

His sword, which had been glued to the hawk, shook violently.

Armad quickly turned around, expecting another attack from the hawk, but he saw it trembling, just like the other beasts running toward him. The hawk forcefully detached itself from the sword and flew up and toward the east.

Armad looked at the approaching beasts again and realized, although they'd been coming toward him, they weren't coming to attack him. He was just on the way and if he stepped out of the way, they wouldn't mind him. Some terrifying thing must be chasing after these beasts.

At first, he decided to run, but he realized he didn't know where to run to. He didn't even know what the beasts were running away from. If he ran randomly he might end up bumping into the danger without knowing.

After a short debate, he decided to at least catch a glimpse of the danger first before he ran to safety. So he waited.

In less than a minute, the dark-green python and the greenish beasts behind it arrived at his position and ran past him without sparing him a glance. Armad saw the fear in the beasts' eyes and he realized whatever was chasing them must be frightening. Even just waiting to catch a glimpse of it might be catastrophic.

At that moment, Armad changed his mind and decided to run. He had two options: he could either run in a random direction and hope he wouldn't meet any danger, or he could just follow the beasts, after all, they must be running to safety since every being had an inherent survival instinct. He chose the latter.

As he turned around to run, he heard the sound of water running, which made him instinctively turned around to see if his ears were playing tricks on him.

Suddenly, his face turned into a picture of surprise and confusion. He saw a gigantic wave of water body that was just too big to even describe. The wave was touching the sky and Armad couldn't see its end even after raising his head. And even more frightening, the water was black, pitch black to be specific. It was the first time Armad saw anything not green ever since he came to this world, and the first time he saw anything so black in his life. The hair on his body stood on end and he began sweating from the frigid cold.

He stood there dumbstruck for a short moment before he turned around to run for his dear life. He lifted his right foot and pressed his left foot on the ground to jump. But then he felt something slippery covering his legs and body as if he was being swallowed. His vision blurred. After a few seconds, the slippery feeling disappeared and he felt as if he was both floating and running in the air. He felt dizzy and without any warning, he lost it.

After an unknown period, he woke up only to find himself in a spacious room.

As he recounted the events that just took place, he felt there was something wrong, he couldn't exactly put his hands on it, but he was certain about it.

Looking at the room, it was medium-sized and had no roof. It had four walls: one in each cardinal direction. Each wall had a different color: the wall by his left was green and the one by his right was blue; the one in front of him and the one behind him were both white, albeit different shades of white. No window or even door anywhere in the room.

At the center of the room, there was a small kite crafted out of gold. The kite was built on a podium with four steps on the ground that led to the kite.

After several minutes of wondering how he found himself there and debating on what he should do next, he decided to check out the kite and see if he could have something useful.

As he walked to the podium, he stopped and looked around, debating if he should even touch the kite or not. Luckily for him, he didn't have to. The kite, as if sensing his presence, opened its mouth with a creak.

Then as if someone had called his attention, Armad suddenly saw the paper glowing in his pocket. He quickly retrieved it and took a look at it.

After reading it, he realized what he did wrong in the green world. He was in a dungeon according to the paper. The paper listed some dos and don'ts and the descriptions that would guide him at every step to leave the dungeon. In the green world, there was an incantation he should have called before he ran. The incantation would have guided him directly to the fourth world.

After failing to call the required incantation, the paper teleported him to the wrong part of the dungeon. From where he stood in the room to the green world was a journey of ten years on a horse, and he didn't even know how far away he was from the fourth world. Though, he could blame the situation on three things: first, the guardian for not explaining it to him; second, the giant hawk for immediately attacking him after he appeared in the green world and not giving him the time to read the paper; third, himself for not paying extra attention. Luckily, the paper still mentioned how he could get out of the room and reach the fourth world.

He recited a few runes from the paper out loud and then spat in the mouth of the golden kite.

After making sure his saliva was inside the kite, he ran to the center of the room where he first appeared. From there, he turned around ninety degrees to the left and he took five equal steps with closed eyes. Then he opened his eyes and took another five equal steps in the same direction. He stood there and stared at the wall as if waiting for some miracle to happen

After several minutes, the wall in front of him creaked as if someone was opening a door. Then after another minute, the wall shook and then slowly shifted to the side, opening a door by his left.

Looking at the door, Armad hesitated, before he later stepped inside and left the mysterious room behind.