The Invincible Hero 54 Welcome To The Fores

Tower brought Malkus and Paneneko to meet with his Grandmother. These were his two life and death brothers and he was very happy to have such brothers. The Queen gave each young man an immortal's stone. Immortal stones were like spirit stones only they were stones meant to help immortals in their training. The benefit for a young cultivator was immeasurable.

Anyone under the immortal level, one Immortal Stone could last thirty years. The best use was to build a strong foundation by developing the body, strengthening the mind, and fortifying the soul. The Gun brothers, in particular, were very taken with the Immortal Stone they received.

The Queen also provided a Low Rider Carriage to aid in the journey. These carriages didn't need horses, hovered and had no wheels, were lark a mini hotel, and could be programmed to follow a set of mapped coordinates. It was agreed that Aerun would man the driver's cabin so that he could monitor progress and make sure they didn't accidentally wind up in a river or valley.

One nice feature of the Low Rider Carriage is that it housed its own forge and pill making room. Everyone could continue to practice their supporting skills in addition to cultivating and their martial skills.

It was decided by a previous arrangement that Prince Karretun would also travel with the group. B'wiri would help the Prince with his clogged meridians to help increase his potential so that he had a chance to get into the Water Rock Sect with everyone else.

B'wiri never said anything but she was really disheartened about Fanna Grace. She thought she found a great girl. A solid warrior, maybe even a good friend. It was all a lie. FIends lied, everything about them that was nice was a lie. Every word they said hid a dagger. At the first chance, they got they would use your good will and friends.h.i.+p to slit your throat.

***

Prince Canscino sat nervously in a small restaurant on the second floor in an exclusive booth. It was here that he agreed to meet with Fanna Grace, the Fiend. He wasn't sure why he was here or why he agreed. This was a dangerous move on his part. Was he really that dissatisfied? He was the third prince of the Empire. Admired by many, his father and mother loved him. He got along well with his siblings. It was true that he didn't have much hope for the throne. HIs two older brothers were ahead of him. The First Prince was more likely to get the throne. He was the most like their father.

He thought, until he spoke with Fanna, he was content with things. Talking to her made him question whether he was truly content. The question she asked, "are you happy," he realized he couldn't say yes to that. He wondered what would it take for him to say yes to that question? He wasn't sure, but he was intrigued by Fanna's words. However, as he sat in the restaurant he felt like he was slowly gaining some clarity. Did she do something to his mind? He was dissatisfied at the match, but that was just a match. Fiends were betrayers. Everyone knew that. For him to work with the Fiends indicated he was willing to betray as well.

Suddenly, Prince Canscino came to a realization. He didn't want to be here, he didn't want happiness if it meant working with the Fiends. The Prince decided to leave and just as he was getting up to leave, he heard a voice.

"Not very patient, were you already planning to leave?" asked Fanna Grace.

"Hmm, I don't know what you did to me, but my mind is clear now. I want nothing to do with you Fiends. Excuse me!" said the Prince as he began to get up.

"Don't be in such a rus.h.!.+" Fanna said as she pushed the Prince back into his chair.

"You think it's so easy to meet with me? I have time for you to be wishy-washy," asked Fanna as she gave a mocking smile.

"I am an Imperial Prince woman, get out of my way!" yelled the Prince.

"Hahaha, so fierce," Fanna mocked again.

"Are you going to stand against me Fanna? I shall order my guards and the soldiers outside to deal with you!" warned the Prince.

"Oh, those men are dead, why do you think I was running late." Fanna smiled evilly.

"You killed my men?!" The Prince was both shocked and worried now. What did it mean that she had killed his men, even the soldiers? That meant they brought a powerful force and he could die at any moment.

"Don't worry, we're giving you better men to replace them." Fanna smiled sweetly.

"What do you want?!" demanded the Prince.

"It's not what I want but what you want. That was the point of are meeting. You wanted something and agreed to show up. I'm still willing to meet with you on this, but let me warn you. If you try to blow off this meeting again, or I don't hear what I want to hear. You don't need to leave here alive. We'll just stage things so it looks like you were a.s.sa.s.sinated by another country.

Now tell me, Prince, what do you want?" Fanna asked wickedly.

***

BS42 and the other Warboxes worked hard for months to fix the Samsara Pod. The s.h.i.+p was covered in patches. The goal was to use the soul armor material to slowly build up Lorne's soul and fix the Samsara Pod. Until they were able to clear out some of the armor they couldn't contact Lorne.

Lorne was worried, so long as Lorne's soul and the Samsara Pod were sealed in this soul armor, Lorne was flying blind. It was doubtful he even had his original memories. It was more likely that Lorne would develop a completely separate and new ident.i.ty if they couldn't break through soon.

Sighing to himself, Lorne continued to read the reports from the different departments. If this took place before, Master River gave half his soul slaves the chance to be free. About half of the souls took this chance.

Thanks to Master River they were severely understaffed. The place looked like a mess, there were pipes, wires, and panels loose everywhere. The once high-tech Research facilities looked like a mad scientist's layer.

BS42 continued to work as he handed out orders. The one thing they were able to determine is that they were in a higher realm. Their processing of the armor was going quicker than expected, and that was probably due to outside forces. One mystery was how the soul was connected to the body as it seemed like it was in a sealed bottle. There must be an unseen quality to souls that they were never aware of beforehand.

Now, however, they became aware that there might be some leakage. Information or knowledge might start leaking into Lorne's new body through something like dreams. Who knows, old knowledge might be seeping out. If he could figure out how that worked, maybe they could contact him.

***

B'wiri's group of travelers were once more traveling towards the Water Rock sect. The Low Rider Carriage was extremely comfortable, but Paneneko found that he liked riding on the top of the carriage during the day. He enjoyed the breeze, mostly he enjoyed the freedom!

During the day all the trainees, Tower, the Gun brothers, Aerun and Prince Karretun had to run along the carriage. Their most hated drill was the Yo-Yo Pa.s.s game. The Yo-Yo pa.s.s game set the training devices at a very high level. The men were lined up running behind the carriage. B'wiri would give the command and the two at the front of the line would rush on either side of the carriage. When they were able to see each other they were forced to use various throwing and shooting weapons to try and take out their opponent. Whoever got hit by the weapon of his opponent had to get to the back of the line and run on all fours like a dog. The winner got to skip a round of running forward.

After morning drills, the men would take turns practicing combat maneuvers while running. Once this was finished they would have lunch. After lunch, everyone would cultivate and learn battle skills. After dinner, it was mental cultivation. At night it was spiritual cultivation. At night, most would cultivate again.

Actual sleep was replaced with cultivation. Every three nights, however, B'wiri would make everyone sleep a full night's sleep.

Along the way, B'wiri kept sensing people following and watching them. She decided to use this as an opportunity to train her men in awareness of their environment. If they could become aware enough of their environment using what they knew of sensing to locate those spying on them. Hopefully, they could use this as an opportunity to train themselves in tactics for being tracked.

Surprisingly the first person to pick up on the tails was Paneneko. Paneneko caught everyone's attention and sent a coded message to each person that they were being followed. Malkus wanted to attack and make an example out of one of these guys. Tower, however, knew that wouldn't help. It's too hard to break a tail when you are as surrounded as they were. It was decided that they would quicken their pace to find coverage where they could deal with some of these trackers. It was urgent that they get rid of these guys before someone truly powerful shows up.

Consulting the map, Tower found a perfect place to ambush their attackers. The plan was run by B'wiri who told them to do what they were right according to the situation. After forming a plan, the boys were ready for a confrontation.