“ Shall we go then, Yashir?” Tuz called out to me to my personal name and l was perplexed for a moment.

  I looked at Tuz and he was pointing the way for me. I ordered my brain as quickly as possible to quickly retake the task and l just walked the way to the residence block with a Deprave.

  “ It was a good meal.” Tuz replied after eating the meal that Ellaya made. She was smug at being praised for her cooking skills.

  “ Yeah! I taught her most of the things and cooking was one of them.” l clarified the things to stop Ellaya’s smug face.

  “ Really. I have tasted your cooking too but I have to admit that your cooking is at a whole different level. However, despite the age difference, her cooking can still land not far from your culinary skills.” Tuz replied with an astonishing blank remark.

  “ So what is it about the invitation that you mentioned?” I asked the most obvious question.

  “ It is to the national tournament of Depraves for the anointing of the new Deprave king. You have been cordially invited to participate in it.” Tuz replied.

  “ What if l was not interested?” l asked.

  “ Then you will lose the initiative of gaining advance level Deprave samples. It can be promoted as a cultural exchange study. You are not the first human that has been called to a tournament like this.” Tuz calmly relayed all of my concerns.

  “ OK.”

  For the first time in a while, l had been so soundly made to be kept quiet. It was like l was facing a very powerful foe that knew everything about me while l did not know anything about it. Even though, Tuz and l made frequent contacts as part of assignments that it had made deals with me. I had never been pushed so far back into a hole that l had to listen to my client one handedly but then again, the offer was too promising. I was not a fool to turn back an offer like this. It was like a one time lottery ticket. Just the poison sample l had taken from Zayn was strong on the acidity level, it was a very lethal type of poison and a very nice sample for my arsenal. advance level Depraves were not only cunning and capable of analyzing and using tricks, their bodies had adapted to such a level in the collapsed world that they were running bodies of lethal biohazards.

  “ So should l take it as a yes.” Tuz was not letting me off the hook that easily. He wanted a proper response and I was not giving him one. It looked like this time Tuz’s backer was someone of power. I did not know if there were political games in Depraves society and l was not going to participate in one of their quarrels. It was alright dangerous but they had been keeping an eye on Ellaya so it was unclear where their intentions really lied so I nodded in affirmation. It looked like l had to step in the Deprave society in order to make some adjustments to keep my family safe.

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  “ Yes, you can take it.” I finally conceded and gave my affirmation.

  “ Finally, you cracked down. Now that you have given your consent, l can talk about the things that you need to do before we go. You must be interested in why we are so much interested in a child like Ellaya.” This caught my attention.

  “ Ellaya is the only one who was a child in the whole collapsed world and just the rumor of it is gonna make those fanatics come rushing through your front doors. You are familiar with this. Aren’t you?”

  “ Of course. I know that this was the whole point that l made it a secret even from you. It is just a wonder to me how did you know all this?”

  “ We had been keeping an eye on you for the past half a millenia.”

  “ What?” They had been keeping a look out for me for such a long time. It was the first time I had taken a fight with an advance level Deprave and won. It was my first successful subjugation of tier SS rank Deprave and it got me enough money to let me buy off the much needed equipment that l had to get in my early days for the dimensional domain.

  “ Yes, we had been keeping your track record for such a long time because you were an interesting individual. I liked you and that is why l infiltrated the humans as a client for you. I can still remember the first years when we made contact with you and you were like an angry gorilla in those times. Actually I had made a false identity a long time ago before you caught my attention.”

  This explained most of the things but there was still the concern of my participation in the tournament.

  “ What about the tournament?” l asked.

  “ Oh! You are invited as a guest not as a player. It is just a fun festival where we Deprave per custom fight for some time to quell our differences. It was proposed by the previous king before he went mad and before we had to replace him with a new one. After that time, it has become a custom of sorts to do business with each other depending on our fights and you are not the first human who is invited in such a fight. There had been other ones before. Ask Amir if he was invited before.”

  “ Yes, he is telling the truth.”

  It was a bombshell for me and l could not believe what I was hearing. It looked like a conspiracy to me that there was something really wrong going over here. I was going to go berserk but Ellaya's soft face toughened up and it made me realize that it was probably a game going on.

  “ What are you two playing out? What do you mean by this?” l looked at Tuz and Amir for questions.

  “ I might have turned Deprave but there was a time when I lived among the Deprave community. I learned their culture just enough to live out my days before I started working for you. Sir, you are quiet on the uptake so let me tell you my part of the story a little bit before you make any hard decision that can demark the stability of this dimensional zone.”

  Amir's words made a lot of sense and eased me a lot so I let go of my fears and turned my ears to hear what the turned Deprave Amir had to say as he was not the talking type. Therefore, it was my first time hearing what he had to say.