The Invincible Hero - Chapter 53

It’s not like a war was unusual. It happened every day and all the time. Typically it was one nation against another, one tribe against another. The reasons for war were typically economical. It’s rare when wars are fought for the sole purpose of genocide. Ridding the world of an ethnicity just because you hate that race. That’s not to say that it didn’t happen, but it was unusual. Who wanted to sacrifice so much blood just for hate? When a war of genocide was fought it was the surest sign of insanity. One race had gone insane.

Could it be said that the Fiends were insane? When it came to a fight against the Fiends, it was a life or death battle for every species in the multiverse. The Fiends only wanted Fiends to exist, all other species, was there really a need for them? Everyone who knew the Fiends hated and feared them for this reason. If you find a Fiend, kill it, or you may find your race wiped out. The Genocidal wars of the Fiends drove all other races to commit genocide against the Fiends. Didn’t this mean that the other races were also insane?

Of course, it wasn’t the same kind of insanity. It was an insanity based on the desire to survive. If asked, most species wouldn’t mind letting the Fiends having their own little corner of the multiverse. Yet this wasn’t enough.

The Fiends originated in the insanity of their Ancestral Matriarch, Lillith. There are several legends about Lillith from many different worlds. Some said she was the first demon who birthed all the demons in creation. One story, from Earth, held that she was Adam’s first wife, but she wished to rule over Adam and because of her Imperial aspirations she was cursed by God.

If you think that Fiends love other Fiends you would find out that this isn’t true. Fiends were as cruel to each other as they were to others. They only worked together because of their hatred for all other sentient beings. Within the Fiend Realms, it was a never-ending contest of survival of the fittest.

If you died and were reborn as a Fiend Stone there was no telling if you would ever be born again. In fact, the higher your level the less likely it would be that you would survive the next Fiend Fate. It was more valuable to a Fiend of a lower level to consume the Fiend Stone of a Fiend at a higher realm. Fiends could only madly strive after eternal life and flee from the Fiend Fate, if possible.

It would seem reasonable that as terrible as the ending for Fiends were, they should be the greatest cowards in the multiverse, however, this wasn’t the case. Fiends were vicious and brutal. They were always at the front of the fight. They fought like they didn’t care if they lived or died.

There was nothing unusual about this, Fiends were compelled to fight. They needed the blood and misery of others to advance themselves and sustain their lives. Cultivators could ultimately reach a point of eternal life living off the natural energies in the world. It wasn’t even necessary for cultivators to become warriors. A simple fisherman could be fishing and suddenly find himself experiencing enlightenment.

This wasn’t the case for Fiends. Their path was the path of ruin. It was ultimately a dead end path. It seemed like a powerful path because at the beginning it was so easy to gain power. This was the alure the Fiend Path held for many cultivators. Especially desperate or mad cultivators.

Imagine, you are a cultivator who was out training. You come back and discover your entire family has been murdered, but the culprits are beyond your ability to take revenge. All you can see, though, is the boundless desire for revenge!

You’re desperate, you need power, but the orthodox paths can only encourage you to be patient and to slowly grow your power. You may never have the strength to take revenge. Or, it could be that by the time you have the strength you need, the people who are the targes of your revenge are already turned to dust. What happens with your vengeance then?

Then, the Fiend Path whispers in your ear, it calls to you and says, “are you happy, do you have what you need? No, come, embrace me and I will help you fill the hole in your heart. I will bring you power beyond any you have known. If you want vengeance, only I can bring you vengeance. The sweet whispers grow louder in your mind, but then the whispers begin to grow even louder in your heart. Until one day, you cannot resist, you don’t want to resist. This is when you have attached yourself to the Fiend Fate.

Today, the Fiend Path is whispering in the ears of the third Imperial Prince. The Prince who has great ambitions and hates those who step on his ego, he quickly convinces himself that everything in this world is a tool to be used by him.

Prince Canscino never thought of himself as an evil man. He was always taught that the Fiends were evil, but Fanna Grace, everything she said made so much sense. It seemed so obvious the way she put things. What should he do?! Like every other royal, he was raised to hate the Fiends and to find ways to destroy them. Was it so easy? What if Fanna Grace was right?

“We’ll talk more, for now, guard your life. I will instruct my warriors to spare you. However, you’ll have to make your decision soon!” said Fanna Grace.

Fanna Grace left the Prince and went to battle with another cultivator. Fanna Grace worked her way through the battlefield towards Kan Je. Kan Je was still in a difficult battle with B’wiri. Fanna Grace snuck up behind her to try and strike at her while she was focused on her main battle. Just as she was about to strike, she nearly lost her head from a sudden reverse sword move from B’wiri!

“I know you’re there little Fiend!” shouted B’wiri.

Since she was discovered, there was no sense in trying another sneak attack. She worked her way around to get next to Kan Je.

“I’ve talked to that fellow,” she sent a mental message.

“The result?” asked Kan Je.

“Tempted, very tempted. He’s very ambitious,” responded Fanna Grace.

“Good, we need to leave I can feel more immortals coming, some are Amazons, and others are the big powers of the North,” revealed Kan Je.

“I’ll follow your lead Grandfather!” said Fanna Grace.

“Fiend Fade!” yelled Kan Je.

At that moment all of the Fiends on the battlefield suddenly turned to shadow beings and faded from the sight of everyone there. The cultivators who were fighting a desperate battle were suddenly shocked to find that they no longer had an opponent. Checking to make sure the sudden disappearance of the Fiends was true, the cultivators finally relaxed. Half of them collapsed on the ground, they were fighting purely on willpower.

Tower and the Gun brothers rushed back to B’wiri. They were concerned for her. Tower especially worried for her, but looking at her he realized she was perfectly fine. In fact, he realized something amazing.

“B’wiri, you still had your training equipment activated! I can’t believe you can fight that well while being constrained,” said Tower.

“I can’t turn my equipment off. Only an Elder can turn it off. If I could have I would have. We would have made short work of those Fiends then!” B’wiri wasn’t happy about the fact that her prey managed to escape. Every day a Fiend lived the universe was one day closer to destruction.

“Nothing we could do about it,” responded Tower.

“Why did they leave?” asked Paneneko.

“They probably sensed the other immortals that are heading over here.” said B’wiri.

“How did other immortals know to come here,” asked Malkus.

“As soon as we realized we were dealing with Fiends, I and every other immortal here contacted ever sect and clan that we knew. Fiends are a disaster that needs to be uprooted as soon as they appear, much like cockroaches!” said B’wiri.

Not long after B’wiri finished speaking to Tower and the Gun brothers, the other immortals showed up. The area was cleaned up and there was an attempt to identify the remains. Looking through the corpses of Fiends, many people were surprised to discover that these Fiends weren’t all anonymous. There were commoners but also nobles among the Dead Fiends.

Fiends were very good at hiding in plain sight. It was possible to identify Fiend Auras as they had a very distinct feel. However, through certain means, Fiends could convert their Fiend aura to an imitation of a cultivators aura. It made identifying Fiends really difficult.

It wasn’t unusual that people would launch large-scale Fiend Hunts after a Fiend attack. These were usually done out of fear. Inevitably these would just cause chaos everywhere which is exactly what the Fiends wanted.

This was a common tactic of the Fiends, announce they were here through a sudden battle and then slip away. They would keep quiet for months or sometimes years! This would play on the nerves of the inhabitants of an area as they were expecting to go to war at any time.

However, once you finally let down your guard and started to relax in your home. That’s when they would attack, and unleash an attack so fast and swift that even immortal cultivators could be found murdered in their beds.

“Excuse me men, please reactivate your training gear. I need to have a meeting with the other immortals.” B’wiri said as she excused herself.

Among the immortals who arrived was Tower’s Grandmother. As soon as she saw Tower she came over to him and gave him a big hug.

“Oh my little prince, I was so worried when I received B’wiri’s summons. You did so well, grandmother is so proud of you. I will talk to you later, for now, here are a few gold coins for you and your little friends to play with. Run along.” beamed his grandmother.

Tower’s Grandmother left and met with the other immortals in the VIP box.

Tower and the Gun Brothers wondered through the battlefield and found quite a few of their competitors dead. Suddenly, Paneneko remembered something, Aerun!

Paneneko searched feverishly everywhere before finally finding his friend under the bodes of two Fiends. He was unconscious but alive. The brothers dug him out of the mess. Malkus looked around a little more and found that aside from Boojie Phyber Kern was also dead. Prince Karretun was proped up against the stage severly injured. There was a sword stabbed through his shoulder into the stage. He was in imense page and couldn’t remove the sword.. Malkus took in a breath of air as he helped the Prince free himself.