Lorne managed to travel throughout the maze and gathered more than half the members of the two sects. He was still moving quickly when his super senses picked up the cries of countless people being killed.
Immediately, he headed in the direction of the sounds. When he arrived he was horrified to see dozens of bodies piled up. Many of these people he spent several hundred years with.
Currently, a dozen cultivators were standing before a single Fiend. A Fiend standing six foot eight inches tall. wearing a white robe was staring viciously at the remaining cultivators. In particular, he was looking at his next intended victim, Su Ming.
Su Ming was clearly the strongest of the cultivators gathered, but she was barely hanging on with wounds all over her body. She fought fiercely to protect those around her. A look at the Fiend's face told Lorne he was just playing around. If he truly desired to kill Su Ming, it would take very little effort on his part to make that happen.
The large Fiend lifted its hand to crush Su Ming; Lorne acted instantly firing a blast of Laser Vision in the face of the Fiend. This blast surprised and stunned the Fiend giving Lorne the chance to swoop in and transfer everyone into his Samsara Pod.
"Haha, not bad, you managed to surprise me. I didn't even sense you coming," contrary to Lorne's expectations, Commander Ahm Lett lazily laughed off Lorne's Laser Vision.
"I suppose Fiends don't need a reason for attacking cultivators, but don't you usually try to persuade us to become Fiends? Why the massacre?" asked Lorne.
"These little cultivators aren't worth recruiting. They would just wind up Cannon Fodder troops. I thought if I massacred them it would force you to show up instead of continuing to zip around. You've really annoyed the General. He sent me here to deal with you. Of course, if you wish to join us as a Fiend we will welcome you. However, after observing you for so long I don't think you're the type who can be convinced to join," commented Ahm Lett.
"True, I have no interest in joining the Fiends," Lorne responded.
"Your fellow student, the big one with all the gadgets, he's a different matter. Once the General captures the girl with him I'm sure he'll be willing to join," said Ahm Lett.
"Are you talking about Tower?!" yelled Lorne.
"I don't know his name but his forging skills are extraordinary. Once he becomes a Fiend, haha, let's just say we Fiends will have increased our capacity for War greatly. You should despair for your side," said Ahm Lett.
Lorne was getting worried. He knew Tower would never betray the human cultivators, but he also knew how much Tower loved B'riri. Whatever Tower chose to do things wouldn't end well. Lorne needed to find Tower and help him. He immediately began trying to leave this Fiend to find Tower.
"Do you think you can go and help your friend? Let me tell you something, even if you could escape or beat me, you'll never be able to save your friend. Not with the General taking action!"
"I haven't been too impressed with the strength of you Fiends, I doubt it will be so difficult to save him," responded Lorne.
"Before you even think about saving your friends let me tell you one thing, the General is unbelievably powerful. He a thousand times more powerful than me, and I'm no push over," said Commander Ahm Lett as he rushed towards Lorne to attack.
"I'm no pushover either!" Lorne roared as he met the Commander it battle.
Lorne was shocked at the strength of this new Fiend. It was as powerful as he was. His speed, strength and durability were on par with Lorne. It was the first time he found someone able to go toe to toe with him.
Ever since he came to this world Lorne continued down the cultivation path like his teacher Master River taught him. Eventually, however, Lorne became dissatisfied with this path. It relied on a person attaining a mystical enlightenment of the Dao or nature as far as he could tell. Additionally, these understandings needed to be matched with a refinement and evolution of the body matching the pace of enlightenment.
If a person in this world ran out of the necessary materials or they lacked talent for enlightenment their path to power was cut short.
This was when Lorne finally understood the brilliance of the Zimwarn approach to gaining strength. One didn't need a mystical understanding of nature to use nature. One merely needed to understand nature to use it.
Through understanding the material nature of the cosmos and then applying those understandings to the Zimwarn physiology, a Zimwarn Warrior, every Zimwarn Warrior possessed limitless potential. This is probably why the slave seals were invented. There was a need to control these powerful warriors since every warrior had the potential to become an Emperor.
The cultivator and Fiend systems weeded out the weak from the strong using battle to determine the strongest and most worthy to rule. This approach was wasteful requiring a great many people, materials, and lives to refine just a few of the truly powerful.
Lorne began to believe very few true experts existed among those cultivating in this archaic manner. He was right, but when one met the Elites of the cultivation systems, as Lorne was doing now, the quality of their strength was frightening even for Zimwarn Elite Warriors.
Over the years of his travels he became familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of both systems which put him in the unique position to pick the good and discard the bad for both paths.
"Not bad kid, you're almost as strong as me, but I don't need to kill you, just delay you. When the General is done with your friend," taunted Commander Ahm Lett.
"You say this General is a thousand times stronger than you, but for me to fight him I first have to go through you, is that correct?" asked Lorne.
"Yes, that is correct, now do you understand you never stood a chance. You weak humans should accept you are weak and submit to the Fiends because we are strong!" Commander Ahm Lett shouted with passion.
"Might makes right?" asked Lorne.
"The loser is the thief while the winner is King," responded Ahm Let.
"If I meat you then I guess in your mind I'm the one in the right?" asked Lorne.
"In the conflict between us, yes. However, you have to beat our strongest warrior here and that's the General. Of course, you still have to get through me first, don't you remember I told you I wasn't such a pushover?" laughed Ahm Lett.
"You did say such a thing to me, and I told you I too wasn't a pushover. However, now I know you aren't necessarily trying to kill me just stall me. The stakes are high and I can't waste any more time with you. Prepare to welcome the king!" shouted Lorne.
Suddenly, two sounds of "clink," "clink" echoed in the empty battleground. Rolling up his sleeves, Lorne revealed a bracer on each arm. The bracers were open and Lorne casually took them out and tossed them into his armory in the Samsara Pod.
"Amazonian Training Bracelets, you have them too, but that means...!" Commander Ahm Lett was suddenly frightened.
He observed Tower and B'riri remove their training bracelets and how much more powerful they became after removing them. Watching their strength shoot up, they were able to dispatch two of his Lieutenants who were just below him in strength. Ahm Lett knew, however strong Lorne was about to become he wouldn't be able to stand against such a monster.
Lorne's strength sky rocketed suddenly. He quickly surpassed the maximum strength of Ahm Lett. Ahm Lett soon found he could no longer read how strong Lorne was becoming. The pressure from Lorne's aura was pushing him down to his knees.
Standing still, Lorne took in is surroundings while feeling the power coursing through his body. Lorne wore the training bracelets when he was in Malkus's body previously, but he was on the body for a very short time. The body he spent the majority of time in for the last few hundred years was this special body he and BS42 created.
This body contained several thousand years of research from the lower realm he came from and several hundred years of research in the current realm. Lorne never thought much about increasing his powers through the Amazon Training bracelets.
He wore them to see what kind of benefits they could bring, but eventually, Lorne forgot he was even wearing them which is exactly what caused even him to be shocked when he examined his body which was still filling with power.
Lorne lowered his eyes toward Commander Ahm Lett who was cowered on the ground. Lorne looked disdainfully at the Fiend and smirked.
"You'll make a good Warbox soldier," Lorne said before subduing Commander Ahm Lett and tossing him into his Samsara Pod, he knew BS42 would get a kick at the latest recruit.
Lorne lifted his eyes, using his now over powered Ridarn vision, Lorne finally located Tower and B'riri. Both were laying on the ground and standing between them and the large Fiend was, "Paneneko?"