Using his shape-shiftings skills Arvin had done free fall many times. And it was quite fun. He would go in the sky and then dive down in the human form. And then when he was about to reach the ground, he would transform back to his bird form. It was quite fun…

The portal was like that but with a twist. At first, when Arvin jumped into the portal he felt like that he was free falling. But then he felt a sudden jerk on his back. It was like while free falling someone caught him with a rope while free falling and then started pulling him up. Arvin was sure that sudden jerk would have broken his back. 

After that jerk, he felt that instead of free-falling he was flying with a high velocity like a rocket launched towards the sky. After some time he came to an abrupt stop. After the stop, Arvin felt like a black hole suddenly manifested itself beside him. And then he got sucked in the black hole. His whole body started twisting and turning while traveling in the black hole. But then the twisting and turning came to an abrupt stop and Arvin touched something solid.

It took Arvin a few seconds to regain some sense of where he was or otherwise his mind was groggy. Arvin stood up and saw that he was standing on some sort of platform. That platform was located up a hill. And in front of him, he could see a great scene of a forest. The forest looked dense and he could various types of birds chirping from the hill. Hearing the voices of birds and other animals, Arvin assumed that this forest must be full of wild creatures.

The interesting part about this forest was that it was not that big. The whole area of forest was enclosed by the formations of hills. Arvin looked back and saw that just outside the hill formation there was weird fog. Arvin could not see anything beyond that fog. So he presumed that the foggy area must be out of the limits.

So the whole area was enclosed by a weird fog. Inside the fog, there is a circular hill formation. And inside the hill formation, there is a forest filled with wildlife. While just between the hill formation Arvin could see that there is a huge pyramid…

Seeing that huge pyramid in the forest, Arvin abruptly remembered Aria, the woman who took his virginity. When Arvin went to her house he saw this exact same scene carved on the door of her house. He remembered it clearly…

<A.N- Check out chapter-10. In that chapter, I have mentioned this scene.>

After checking out the area, Arvin started doing some planning before he head out. That was a forest down there. And without his shape-shifting skills, he can’t fly. That means that he had to go through the forest to get to the pyramid. He doesn’t know much about the forest or its wildlife so that is a part which would be a surprise for him. If he had to run then it would probably take about 20-30 mins to get there. Now that is a tricky part.

If Arvin assumes that all the representatives reach that place at the same time then he would be at a disadvantage. Because first of all, he had the key to the temple. He can’t use the key in front of them. He would need to get those people out of his way. So he had to kill them one by one. But then there is another theory that Arvin wanted to use but he can’t do it because of all these people…

According to the story that Velma told him, only the fiercest black fennec fox would enter the temple to compete. And then only the strongest black fennec fox would get the chance to enter the sacred temple. And then those bandits told him that a black fennec fox went inside the portal and only he made it out somehow. So that got Arvin thinking, maybe the answer is black fennec fox? Maybe the only reason that guy made it out alive was that he is black…

So Arvin was thinking that whenever he would go in there he would cast an illusion on himself and make himself a black fox. But now that seems impossible. But if only black foxes are the only ones left alive then maybe it would mean that all these people would be killed in some time. So the best strategy for him could be to outwait everyone. He just has to stay here and wait.

So Arvin sat down on his platform and decided to wait. But as Arvin sitting he noticed something. Originally Arvin was wearing the armor of the Bahamut Empire’s soldier. He was wearing metal cuffs in his hands. But while sitting he noticed that there was a black line on his left arm. Arvin removed the cuff and it was then he noticed it…

In his left arm, there was a tattoo of a sword. Originating from his elbow to just below his hand. Before he saw the tip of the sword peaking through his metal cuffs. As far as Arvin could remember he didn’t have this type of tattoo before. This was something new. As Arvin was looking at the tattoo closely he noticed another weird thing. The tattoo was vanishing slowly from the hilt. 

Arvin understood that this tattoo was related to this place and its vanishing could only mean one simple thing. This tattoo was a timer. And he didn’t want to know what would happen if that tattoo completely vanishes. So all Arvin could do now was to throw all of the plans and plots to the back of his mind and started running towards the temple. 

But as Arvin got up and wanted to start running he noticed another thing.. He could not use magic. He was literally surrounded by magic yet the mana in his body was not responding to him…