The Invincible Hero 37 A New Life

Looking around where he was Lorne made a startling discovery! There were strings and ropes of different colors all around Lorne and they seemed to be going in different directions. Looking at his body, Lorne noticed threads were beginning to form around his body.

One of the methods Lorne's master taught him was a visualization technique called Karmic vision. When Lorne used this technique, he could see the strings of karma attaching everything to everyone. When Lorne punched the hole into the energy void he thought it was just a dimension of chaotic energy. Now, he realized he tore a hole into the flow of karma. Physical bodies weren't meant to enter this dimension. No wonder everyone who entered died. Lorne knew after they died their souls were probably immediately reincarnated.

Lorne remembered the description of the Samsara pod and how it worked. It flew through this Karmic dimension and found the strongest thickest karma ropes to help guide their warriors to the most beneficial next life. Lorne needed to get away from the Great Fiend. However, the Great Fiend was holding onto Lorne's left hand like a death grip and refused to let go as they battled.

"Let go of me!" Lorne demanded, but the Great Fiend simply smiled viciously.

"These are Karma ropes, find a good one for yourself and you can reincarnate! If you keep holding onto me then I don't know what will happen!" Lorne yelled.

"I know what will happen." The Great Fiend said with a mocking smile.

"What?!" asked Lorne.

"Look below, see that little red dot?" The Great Fiend asked.

Lorne looked down and far away he could see a little red dot.

"I see it, what is it?" asked Lorne.

"That is called the Fiend Fate, and it's coming for me. Since I am attached to you, it's also coming for you. You killed me, we Fiends don't reincarnate we are consumed by the Fiend Fate in a bitter and painful process. We are then recycled into Fiend Stones waiting to be discovered by other Fiends who can help us become reborn. It's a terribly boring process for a Fiend. Waiting to be reborn is like being in an incoherent state, it's like you're delirious with your consciousness coming and going. Fiends experience this state until they are reborn, or they suddenly find themselves consumed by other Fiends and die a true death. The last time I waited to be reborn it took more than a trillion years." The Great Fiend laughed.

"I'm not a Fiend, how can I be consumed by the Fiend fate?" Lorne asked in fear.

"It's true, you're not a Fiend, right now. You know the funny thing is I wasn't always a Fiend either. I used to be a cultivator like you a long time ago. Unfortunately, for reasons I won't go into, I found myself forced into pursuing Fiendish arts. Once that happened, I was forever forced down the Fiendish path." The Great Fiend said with a calm smile.

Lorne looked below and saw the red dot getting bigger. He was feeling a little panicked. After thinking for a moment, Lorne realized the Great Fiend was no longer attacking him. He seemed to be waiting for Lorne.

"What do you want?" Lorne asked.

"It's simple, I don't want to be a Fiend anymore. It's fine living as a Fiend, but once you die the chances of surviving are low, and even if you survive, you have to spend all of that time in the Fiend Stone. It isn't a fun experience. I want to become a cultivator again," said The Great Fiend.

"How do you do that? I can't do that!" Lorne said with an angry and worried voice.

"Of course, you can help me with this. Just as the Fiend Fate can consume you and turn you into a Fiend if I can attach myself to you to one of these Karma ropes I can be reborn as a cultivator." The Great Fiend said as if the solution were obvious.

Lorne was stunned by this new information, but as he looked down he noticed the red dot kept getting bigger and bigger. Lorne knew he was running out of time.

"O...Okay! You'll need to work with me, no more fighting!" said Lorne.

"Of course, how can we do this?" The Great Fiend asked. One of the things Lorne noticed was there weren't any karmic strings attaching themselves to the Great Fiend. If the Great Fiend were here alone all he could do was wait to be consumed by the Fiend Fate. Lorne, on the other hand, had Karmic strings constantly attaching themselves to him. He was being pulled in a few different directions, but so far, the strength of the karmic strings was about equal, and they were canceling each other out. Karmic Entanglement could take a while unless you made a move to proactively gather Karmic strings going in a similar direction.

If Lorne could make contact with the Samsara pod, then he could use the Samsara pod to help with the process of karmic entanglement. However, he was unable to contact BS42. He a.s.sumed it had something to do with Big Bear's soul armor.

Lorne realized in his storage compartment he had Big Bear's Soul Weapons series. He might be able to use those to attach himself to one of the larger Karmic strands or even a karmic rope. Looking around, Lorne saw a Karmic rope getting closer to their position.

"Ok, we're going to try and attach ourselves to that Karmic rope coming to us." Pulling out a soul weapon grappling hook with an extremely long rope attached to it Lorne continued to talk with the Great Fiend.

"I need to throw this around the Karmic rope and we'll grab onto it and let it take us away from here. It seems to be moving pretty quick. This is our best chance. I need you to let go of my hand and grab my waist. Hurry we don't have much time."

The Great Fiend didn't argue and did as he was instructed. He wouldn't let Lorne get away from him, but he understood if this were going to work Lorne needed his hands-free. The Great Fiend looked down and the Fiend Fate drew closer to them.

The Karmic rope quickly moved closer to them. Lorne had one shot at this and began to swing the grapple. Lorne felt extremely lucky such a large Karmic rope was coming in their direction. Once they got on it they would move away from this location even faster than the Fiend Fate was approaching them.

Feeling the corruption of his body continue Lorne felt flakes of his clothing and skin breaking off. He tried to ignore all of this and aim for the Karmic rope. Lorne felt the timing and knew it was now or never. Lorne threw his grapple onto the Karmic rope. He felt it as it left his right hand and used his left hand to let out the rope as it flew away from him toward the rope. His right hand quickly joined his left hand. Without grabbing onto the rope, he guided it. The grapple moved quickly to the rope and finally, he felt it hook something. Lorne pulled and was abruptly dragged away. The Great Fiend held on tightly to Lorne's waist.

Lorne pulled them up along the grappling rope until they were able to grab onto the karmic rope. The Karmic rope immediately formed an attachment. Feeling he wasn't in any danger of falling away from the Karmic Rope, Lorne gathered his grapple.

"Thank G.o.d for Wranglers Camp!" Lorne said with some relief. His parents let him join what Lorne called 'Cowboy Camp' when he was a child. He learned how to rope things, ride horses and other things a cowboy needed to know. Wouldn't it be great to be reincarnated as a cowboy?

"Hey, Dragon kid, the Fiend Fate is still gaining on us!" The Great Fiend yelled.

Lorne looked back and was immediately frightened. When the Great Fiend said their souls would be consumed by the Fiend Fate he didn't think he met literally. Lorne witnesses the scariest and creepiest face he ever saw in his life. It looked like a red-head with jagged teeth, burning mad eyes and an aura of insanity and death.

s.h.i.+g, he didn't want to get eaten by that thing, but it was quickly gaining on them. If he didn't do something quick, they were going to be eaten. Lorne took out his spirit grapple again and used it to capture the nearest karmic threads and ropes he could. As he did so these strands and ropes combined with the Karmic rope they were riding.

Lorne kept madly gathering every strand or rope he could and their Karmic Rope became thicker and thicker and before they knew it they left the Fiend Fate far behind. Finally noticing they were no longer in danger of being eaten, Lorne let out a sigh of relief.

Looking at his body he noticed his armor was gone and most of his body had disintegrated. Lorne's soul began to s.h.i.+ne through and the karmic threads attached themselves to him more and more.

Lorne looked at the Great Fiend and noticed most of his body was gone. He only had the left side of his face and a complete jaw left for his head. However, the Great Fiend's soul was strange. Lorne looked at it and noticed it was initially turned into a platinum colored soul. The further they moved forward he began to notice cracks were appearing on it and karmic threads slowly penetrated the metallic exterior and chipped away at the soft Fiend Stone that began to form.

The Great Fiend looked like he was both in pain but also feeling some kind of relief. A huge chunk of the softened metal fell away, and a pure soul light shone through the cavity left by the chunk falling away. The Great Fiend's body trembled. He looked up at Lorne and he could see tears streaming down his face.

"Thank you!" He said, and Lorne knew he meant it. Lorne was shocked by all of this but suddenly he felt jerked violently forward and saw the Great Fiend also being jerked along with the remainder of the Fiend Stone breaking apart and falling away. The Great Fiend had a real soul now. He was no longer a Fiend!

Both the Great Fiend and Lorne lost consciousness as they fell through the sky of a new world.

***

The planet Myshar was a planet about one hundred times larger than Earth. On the continent of Afrina in the country of Chikra, a great battle was taking place. thousands lay dead or dying on the ground as a sea of blood soaked the earth. Warhorses and strange battle beasts fought and attacked under the orders of their masters. It was a time of uncertainty. Chikra was in a state of War.

Injured Warriors were evacuated from the battlefield and carried into the nearest medical tent. In one of the medical tents, doctors and nurses rushed around to try and help those they believed could be saved. Others, who they had no hope for were left to die on their own.

As the doctors and nurses rushed around they forgot about some of the bodies. Suddenly two black men without covering on their upper torsos shot up shouting.

"Who am I? Who are you? Where are we? Am I black?!" The two men sat quietly for a moment and closed their eyes. Finally, they opened their eyes and looked at each other.

"Brother, we're alive." The pair said to each other. Relief was in their eyes, they thought they had died. Malkus and Paneneko Gun were two brothers mortally wounded on the battlefield. They were brought to the medical tent, but the Doctors soon gave up on them. They were left to die, but now they were alive. Each man had a terrible scar on their body that was quickly healing. Moments before the two brothers were dead, but then two souls crashed into them and a mysterious quick healing process took place. Now they were alive and grateful.

The two brothers sat up and took everything in for a few moments. A giant of a man walked near them.

"If you two wusses are awake then you can fight! Come with me!" The man demanded. The two brothers looked at each other and without further comment, they found armor and weapons, suited up and headed back to the battlefield with this giant like-man everyone called General Tower.

Malkus and Paneneko felt disorientated. Not because of nearly dying, but it was something stranger. For some reason, they just didn't feel like themselves.