The Invincible Hero - Chapter 60

Three days later, Tower, Malkus, Paneneko, Aerun, and Karretun were lead to their masters to begin their training. For Tower, Malkus, and Paneneko, Master Que asked each of their masters to begin with a simple question: “Who are you?” He hoped that if these young men concentrated on the question it could lead to more clues about what happened a few days ago when the three men had their collective vision.

The three men sat with their teachers.

Master Perachia with Tower

Master Bilvo with Malkus

Master Macey with Paneneko

Three masters in three locations ask three different young men the same question.

“Who are you?”

The words of masters entered the ears of their students, but then they began to talk into their minds.

“Imagine yourself floating within yourself. This is your inner spirit, it allows you to move within your body to see the condition of your body. You can check your organs, muscles, brain, everything within you, even your soul.

Who are you?

Look into yourselves, find the place hidden from the world. The place that only you can enter. Use your spirit self to find your soul. Who are you? Think back on your life, relive your life, examine your life. Who are you? Think, remember enjoy the truth of yourself as you look back and discover who you are!

The young men each focused on the words of their masters. Even though they were meditating in different locations, it was as if everything was happening at the same time. It was like they were meditating together.

Meditation allowed one to enter a state where the complexity of simple questions could arouse one’s spirit. Developing it and pushing it. Their mental state and will were also tempered. Tower pondered on who he was it was something he never wondered about before. He was Tower, the Amazon Prince who walked the path of power. He only trusted his two strong arms until recently. He found two life and death brothers who he was willing to entrust everything to. He had B’wiri. He loved her for a long time. He didn’t know why he should hate her for killing his father, however, he never did.

B’wiri was very important to him. He knew he loved her for a long time, but it always felt one-sided. She did everything for him, she would have done everything for him. If he wanted her, regardless of his level he could have had her. Tower wasn’t like that though. He wanted B’wiri to love him back otherwise he would never taker her as his woman. They would never be married. He believed that forcing B’wiri to marry him out of guilt was wrong. If he truly loved her could he do such a thing?

Tower walked the path of power, but why did he do this. Was the quest for power the only thing that there was to him? If so, he felt he was very one dimensional. What did it matter if he ever came to possess ultimate power? What could he do with it? What would he do next? Once you’ve accomplished a goal, especially a lifelong one, what do you do next? Tower didn’t know.

He was a strong warrior, he had people he loved, people who relied on him and people he relied on, but those were just facts about his life. None of it answered the question of who he was. As he continued to contemplate he finally came upon something strange, “this must be my soul,” he thought. “How strange.”

Paneneko followed the voice of his Master through his body. He saw the magic of his inner world. He was really impressed by everything. He too was stuck on the question, “who am I,” he was still a teenage boy. He had never thought about the question. He had lived his entire life on the battlefield. He and his brother were born on it. His mother gave birth to his twin brother and him in a medical tent. After the brothers were weaned, their parents carried with them from one battlefield to another. He never knew why his parents always fought these battles.

He and Malkus were very gifted warriors and they had pretty much raised themselves. Their parents died early. Their mother was swallowed by a beast flood, and their father was killed in a tavern. It was a bar fight, someone came up behind him and just stabbed him through the heart. He barely had a chance to react. Malkus and he saw this and rushed at the man and killed him almost as fast. They didn’t know why the man killed their father for a long time. It turned out, the man was their uncle, their mother’s brother. He blamed their father for her death.

Their father died when they were twelve and after that night they had to take care of themselves. It wasn’t hard. Their parents raised them to be able to take care of themselves. They knew that living the life they did, death was only a matter of when and not if. They wanted their boys to be prepared. The only way they knew how to make money or live was to fight on the battlefield. Thinking about it, neither Malkus or himself ever really considered the why of why they fought. Unless you say they didn’t know what else to do. They never even had plans to enter a sect. They were just fighting they thought that’s what life was about.

However, after hearing B’wiri recount her life in the Amazon Sect he began to realize that there was more to life than fighting. What else could he do? What goals should he have? He still didn’t know. You could ask him who he was, but who was he supposed to ask?

It occurred to Paneneko if he wanted to know who he was he probably needed to decide what he wanted to accomplish with his life. He needed some goals. When he set his goals, then he would know who he was. Paneneko felt like this was the right track. So now, he needed to decide what kind of goals he wanted for his life. “Oh, is this my soul?” he wondered.

Malkus followed the voice of his master into his body. ‘Who am I, I’ve wondered that from time to time. I think it’s a question different from what I want to do.’ Malkus thought to himself. Malkus thought back to his life on the battlefield. He knew long ago that if he didn’t want to wind up like his parents he would need to make his way off the battlefield. That last battle, whoah, he nearly died. In fact, he thought he had died.

Malkus thought about the various ambitions he came up with. Until he met Master Shannon the extent of his dreams was to become an important person like a night or a noble. He never thought himself to be a King. Really, he didn’t know how someone became a king. When Master Shannon introduced the idea of going into a sect, Malkus was surprised. He never knew there was such a possibility.

He maintained low expectations the entire journey here. It wasn’t until he got to the sect and was tested that he finally realized just how broad and bright his future was. He never realized that a mere king would be nothing to him. He had family and he would soon have power. The question was, what would he do with the power once he had it? He didn’t plan to spend his life on the battlefield. He also couldn’t see himself sitting around in a sect meditating all the time.

Still, who he was wasn’t necessarily the same thing as his career. A person might be a carpenter to earn money, but he could also be a famous scholar. Some scholars abhorred the idea that they should treat their scholarship so cheaply as to sell it to others. They would rather give it away for free. They still had to support themselves so they would take up a trade.

Who was he, who was he, who was he…who knows? He did find himself uncomfortable when asking himself this question.

Floating, floating, floating, Malkus felt himself arrive at a location. He opened his eyes in wonder.

“Is this my soul?” He wondered out loud.

It was wonderful. It seemed both translucent and solid. Malkus willed his spirit form to go around his soul to look at it. It seemed like it was a rough outline of his body, but it looked funny. His head, for one thing, looked more like it was shaped like a helmet. The whole body looked more and more like armor to him. Suddenly, he noticed what appeared to be a hole in the armor. Malkus drew closer to his soul.

Arriving near the hole, Malkus peered through the hole to see something strange and amazing, what is that, he wondered. Suddenly he felt a suction and his spirit form was sucked inside. The speed of being sucked in was so quick that he was disorientated. when he opened his eyes and looked up, he saw something unbelievable.

“What….what is that? Is that a ship?” he wondered aloud.

Before him was a ship that had cracks throughout it, all types of materials were floating about, it looked like an injured beast and then Malkus realized that the ship was suspended in something ethereal. Malkus realized the ethereal substance was actually his soul! What was the other thing he came through?

The questions seemed to stir the soul surrounding Malkus. The more questions he asked, the more agitated the soul became. Malkus felt something in his heart, he felt the excitement, but he also felt doom! As he was considering this feeling he noticed his soul-stirring. Next, he saw the most frightening thing in his life. The Soul opened what seemed to be eyes. The eyes stared down at Malkus.

A portion of the soul enveloped Malkus, and then some of the soul went towards the hole he came in through. The soul made its way through Malkus’ body and wrapped itself around Malkus’ brain. The brain began to glow and Malkus could feel both his spirit form dissipating and an interchange between his brain and his soul. Wait…was this his soul? No, it wasn’t his soul, where was his soul? What was happening to him?

Suddenly, Malkus realized what was happening. He was being consumed and assimilated into this foreign soul. His brain cried out in agony.

“No, I don’t want to die, please be merciful, don’t make me go away!” Malkus cried. He felt his awareness being absorbed into the soul, his situation was hopeless.

NOOOOOO!!!!

Malkus fell off the jade bed he was sitting on, he was screaming in horror and confusion. “I don’t want to go, I don’t want to go!” he kept saying. Master Bilvo was startled by the sudden actions of his disciple. After a few minutes of thrashing around, Malkus seemed to pause as if he were confused.

“Who am I, where am I, what’s going on, why do I feel so strange?” Malkus began to feel his body and his face. He ran his hand through his hair.

“No, this isn’t right, I need a mirror, a mirror. Where’s a mirror.” Malkus looked around the room desperately. Master Bilvo brought Malkus a mirror. Looking into the mirror, Malkus was really shocked!

“Why am I black? I thought I was Chinese or was it caucasian? Oh, no horns, no horns, I’m hornless, but I wasn’t a sheep I was a dragon.”

Malkus pulled open his robes and looked at his chest.

“I’m missing a hand, give me a hand, I had to hand it to ya,” he said as he looked at Master Bilvo.

“Ah, Tower, B’wiri, Paneneko, the Great Fiend, the Great Fiend is here! Paneneko, Tower, don’t die, don’t die!” Malkus yelled before he finally collapsed on the ground into unconsciousness.

Master Bilvo looked down at his unconscious disciple.

“What the hell, what happened?” He asked himself.