The Invincible Hero 61 Hi, I'm Lorne

"Awake I see," a voice said from out of Lorne's view.

Lorne turned around to see BS42 standing next to some monitoring equipment. There were wires and cables hanging from the ceiling. Smashed pieces of equipment were neatly stacked to the side. There were also a lot of people around!

"Uncle Heken," Lorne said.

"Please, I prefer BS42, my brother named me that both for your good and mine."

Lorne nodded and accepted BS42's request.

"What happened to me, why do I feel so weird. I have someone else's memories in my mind," Lorne started asking countless questions. BS42 gave him a few moments to say everything.

"First off, you nearly killed all of us. When you tackled the Great Fiend through that portal you forcefully the Karmic Transition Zone (KTZ) for the Samsara process. You used your body which lasted for a little while. While you were fighting the Great Fiend, we were fighting to keep the Samsara Pod from ripping apart," explained BS42.

Lorne looked around the room and realized why everything seemed like it was trashed. Lorne felt guilty.

"I'm sorry, BS42, but I had to stop the Great Fiend. If the Fiends got a foothold in the Dragon Empire they would eventually come to threaten every multiverse, even the Zimwarn Empire," Lorne said defensively.

"It's okay, I understand what you did and why you did it. You saved everyone by that act. If we died as a result of what you did we would have been happy to sacrifice our lives for such a cause," rea.s.sured BS42.

"There sure are a lot of people," said Lorne.

"Yes, well, the damage done to the Samsara Pod was so great that we needed to activate as many operatives as we could to begin fixing the s.h.i.+p. We've been working hard for the last year," responded BS42.

"The last year?" asked Lorne.

"Last several months, it's almost been a year since we arrived in this world," responded BS42.

"It feels like I just fought the Great Fiend, but I have memories for the last year, but they aren't my memories they belong to someone named Malkus," Lorne continued to try and piece together what happened.

"I'm not sure how helpful I can be. We've been trapped inside of this soul armor Big Bear made for you. We couldn't get messages out or find out what was going on. We haven't sent out any forced, we didn't know what was going on. All we knew was that your soul was sleeping. It seems your soul was even trapped in the armor. It wasn't until a couple of days ago that that spirit form appeared that your soul finally woke up," said BS42.

"Spirit form?" asked Lorne.

"Yes, it seems your body has gone through some difficulties. Something called a small crack to appear a few months ago, and then a few days ago something else happened and a small hole was broken from the soul armor.

"It was that hole in that armor this spirit form used to come in. Almost as soon as it entered, you're soul woke up and absorbed it, your soul even established a connection with your brain," said BS42.

"Were you able to do some exploring after the hole opened up?" asked Lorne.

"No, we've been taking care of you trying to make sure that you don't die on us. Your soul has been quiet for the last couple of days. This spirit form formed just a few minutes ago and we brought it inside.

"So you don't know anything else right now?" asked Lorne.

"Not necessarily, I have a theory on what's happened to you over the last year," explained BS42.

"Please tell me!" requested Lorne.

"I think when we came cras.h.i.+ng into this world from the KTZ, you landed in a new body, a body that just died. Your soul in the soul armor took the place of the bod's soul that already left and you reinvigorated the body. The body wasn't dead for long and the remnant memories of the borrowed body probably formed a spirit form that was able to function without the soul. The Malkus person was able to continue to exist as a temporary soul form.

"When the spirit form of Malkus came in, for whatever reason, it stumbled upon your soul and was absorbed into your soul. That and the connection with the brain is likely what allows you to retain the memories of Malkus," said BS42.

"What about the Great Fiend?" asked Lorne.

"What about him?" asked BS42.

"Where is he, I remember being in the KT Zone and the Great Fiend wouldn't let go of me. We probably came into this world together. He should be in this world somewhere. Could he be in Paneneko's body, or Tower?" asked Lorne.

"Paneneko, Tower? Who are they?" asked BS42.

"Paneneko is Malkus' twin brother, and Tower is their life and death brother. To be honest, as I think of the two I can't help but feel like they are my brothers. However, one of them might be the Great Fiend," said Lorne.

After considering things for a few moments, BS42 shared his opinion.

"It's possible, but I don't think it's likely. Understand that everything I'm about to say is just speculation. What you experienced is beyond anything anyone in the Zimward Empire ever experienced.

"The Great Fiend was attached to you through the KT Zone, but once you come out; unless you have a Samsara pod your soul is thrown wildly away. He might have come with you into this world, but he could have ended up anywhere. Even on the other side of the planet. It's not like gravity works on souls.

"Second, it doesn't seem like Paneneko and Tower are in the same situation as you. Part of the reason your soul has been unconscious for so long is that your soul was trapped in Big Bear's soul armor. The Great Fiend wasn't wearing such an armor, so if he followed you into this world he probably awoke immediately. If he's here he's probably somewhere out there up to who knows what.

Of course, this leaves me puzzled," said BS42.

"What's confusing?" asked Lorne.

"I didn't think that Fiends reincarnated," said BS42.

"They don't they experience something called the Fiend Fate," said Lorne.

"Fiend Fate?" asked BS42.

"Yes, it's scary! as soon as we pa.s.sed through the portal the Great Fiend grabbed my arm and wouldn't let go no matter what I did. Eventually, this evil looking read face started chasing us to eat us. I had to save both of us in order to escape from becoming a Fiend. As we were about to enter this world the Fiend stone around his soul shattered and he became a cultivator again and was able to rejoin the cycle of reincarnation." explained Lorne.

BS42 was surprised, who thought it worked like that for Fiends. Lorne continued explaining everything he learned about FIends from that time and BS42 was more and more shocked. He was absolutely stunned. The Fiends have bluffed everyone. Every time they die they face a terrible fate and yet they act like madmen who don't seem to care about life or death. If it were him, he would be the most cowardly person ever, he would never engage in fighting.

"I should get back to my friends out there. I need to let them know what's going on." said Lorne.

"You're just going to tell them? Why don't you just pretend to be Malkus for now?" asked BS42.

"Two reasons, the first is that I can't pa.s.s for Malkus. Malkus was much more aggressive and angry than me. I think he was at a fork in the road about whether to take the Fiend path. He didn't know a lot about it, but he wanted more power. That's not like me at all.

"The second reason is that the people of this world are under attack by Fiends. I have to do everything I can to protect the people of this world from Fiends. If the Fiends get a foothold on this primitive world then once they're able to build s.h.i.+ps they'll spread like wildfire. I owe a lot to the people of this world, especially my three friends.

"Can you come with me?" asked Lorne.

"No, the hole is too small, the best I can do is send a Holo Pod with you. Maybe I can start to explore this world. We need materials if we're are going to step out into the real world. We need to be able to walk out there, we're too weak right now," said BS42.

"How's the s.h.i.+p, can you fix it?" asked Lorne.

"Even if we could, the Samsara Pod isn't suitable for this world. You've ascended and that means the materials from the old world aren't strong enough for this world. We need to build a new Samsara Pod. Our plan is to break down the soul armor and use it to start forging a new sh.e.l.l. We have a forge master who can help us, but he needs more materials from this world," said BS42.

"Follow me out and we'll see what we can do." aid Lorne.

Lorne left the Samsara Pod, he took a look back at the s.h.i.+p and sighed. In some ways, the Samsara Pod was like his childhood home. He would miss it when they inevitably tore it apart to use its materials for the new Pod. Lorne noticed a floating bullet shaped object small than his fist floating next to him. "This must be the Holo Pod," he thought to himself. With that, Lorne turned and flew towards the hole in the armor. He emerged back into the real world and into his new body.

Lorne opened his eyes for the first time in his new body. As his eyes blurred and brought everything into focus, he noticed everyone standing around him. Tower, B'wiri, Paneneko, Master Que, Master Bilvo, Aerun, and Karretun. Lorne looked at them all. They were all clearly worried about him. Lorne silently sighed inside. It was time to get the hard stuff over with.

"h.e.l.lo, I'm Lorne," Lorne said as he rose up from lying on the bed.