Sam picked up his communication token and called his friend's communication channel.

"Hey guys, I don't how you guys got me here, but great job. Someone please, get me a meal from Mackey. I am starving."

The trio was overjoyed when they heard his voice and Watt who is on the silver-wind and on his way to the tower turned back and went to Mackey's restaurant to get some food.

He packed every available dish there at the moment and rode back to the tower.

When they reached the tower, Sam is inside the shower and he didn't come out for over an hour.

He came out refreshed and Watt served him the meal on the table.

For some time no one spoke. They left Sam to eat as they saw him devour dish after dish.

After more than half an hour, his meal was finally over.

He finally looked at his friends, who are eagerly waiting for him to finish the meal, and said.

"What's up, guys? I am sorry. I was really starving."

They hugged each other and after some small talk, they finally got to the point.

"How long have I been out for? How did you get me here?"

"You have been out four more than two months, you should have been down for one more month. Sirona laid out a formation with your body and sped the process of you absorbing that black energy."

"Sirona? Seems like you guys have met and the reunion between long last cousins seems a positive one. I am surprised she agreed to help me."

"Well. actually, she is the one who wanted to help you. It seems like she has something to talk to you. She has been pestering me continuously. So, I decided to show her your condition and tell her to back off a little. But she said she can speed up the process and from looks of it, it worked."

They talked about how the emperors smuggled them right under the noses of the six major powers.

The church, the war that is happening, and so on. After a while, Sam spoke.

"So, the four major underground forces which occupied four empires are the foundation of the church and by luck or coincidence, we destroyed the Black water here and along with the establishment of the network, they are not able to work their magic in the empire.

That is completely unexpected.

Then are the guys who are falling down, are they part of the church as well?"

"I am coming there.

The church hasn't done anything to us until today. Today we got the latest battle report and that said two minor powers are gone under the church's control. But in one of the other minor powers, the church lost its footing.

No matter how we look at this it is not a good time to deal with us. We don't understand why they are sending the troops to us." Philip explained.

"Wait, didn't you say that followers that you saw in the eastern continent are all Grand realm cultivators and higher? Why are they novice stage cultivators attacking us then? Shouldn't they be sending us the Grand realm cultivators?"

"Nope, they don't directly become Grand realm cultivators, they actually become Novices when they are converted and they would grow until they are Grand realm cultivators."

"That means they are freshly converted followers."

Sam thought for some time and felt like something is off. Even he wouldn't concentrate on an empire in the corner when he has to fight against the six major powers and waste his soldiers who are the ones that are dragging the war.

He suddenly has thought and asked.

"How long does it take for them to become Grand realm cultivators from Novice cultivators?"

"Fifteen days or more."

After some more silence. Sam suddenly said.

"I think, the war would reach its final stages in the fifteen days."

"What do you mean?"

"If I were that Old one, there could be only one reason for me to send the newly converted followers here. Since he is fighting it out with the major powers, he needs all the manpower he can get, but the Novice level fighters are not much use against a major power.

Because they use Grand realm cultivators as normal soldiers.

Now that he occupied two minor power, there would be an influx of newly created followers and for him to use them, he needs at least fifteen days.

Normally, fifteen days is not much of a long time, particularly now that the six major powers are clearly showing that they want to do a long battle. But this guy is not keeping them for the upcoming long-lasting war and sending the extra people he had to deal some damage to the empire so that he could deal with us on the side.

This could mean only one thing and that is OId One is not seeing himself needing these extra thousands of soldiers in the next fifteen days."

Sam explained his conjecture and the rest of them also thought in that direction, even though what Sam said sounded a bit farfetched it does make sense.

"Call Arc and inform him about what we are thinking and let us see if the thunder god temple will listen to his conjecture," Sam said to Philip for which the latter nodded and left the place to make a call.

After a few minutes, he came back and said.

"Arc is currently on his way back to the Empire, I think he is traveling too fast, I couldn't reach his communication device."

"Sure, then we will talk to him after he reaches the empire. Anyway, what do we have at hand regarding this church and its followers?"

"We caught one manager of the hotel who turned out to be a church member, but he is not a follower or anything, he is just a normal person who was sold out for greed.

Apart from that Arc caught some followers and they are still in captivity. He sent some of them here since we said you will be waking up today, if not for the attack from church, he would have been here."

"Then what are we waiting for, let us see what we can find out from their bodies. These church followers will be a pain in the ass even with the city formation if they continuously blow themselves up.

We need to find some countermeasure against them before the next wave."

After that, Sam went to talk to Sirona while the group went to bring the captives.

"Thanks for helping me."

He thanked her as soon as he saw her.

"You don't have to thank me, I just wanted to talk to you earlier, so I made that formation."

"About that? Don't you know it is dangerous? I would have died if the formation failed. You cannot just use my body parts as nodes."

"Why is it dangerous? I am great at creating such a simple formation."

Sam shook his head and didn't bother to argue with her, anyway he still woke up earlier because of her, so he decided to not take it up with her.

"What is it that you want to talk to me?"

He finally came to the point.

"How do you know that my family will try to kill me?"

"Is this what you want to talk about?"

"Yes."

"I guessed."

"You guessed?"

"Yes, from the way you spoke, I understood how they raised you and what purpose you serve for them, so I guessed what would happen if you don't take the shadow sword with you and that is what I told you."

"But why did they behave like that? I spoke the truth."

"Haha, sometimes the truth doesn't matter Sirona. In your case, it never mattered. They never truthfully cared for you, for them, you are just a valuable asset that they want to control, and to achieve that, they pictured a beautiful lie in front of you and you made your whole life thinking that the best thing of your life is working for them.

But that is not reality, what you saw before you escaped the Usaine sect is the only reality."

Sirona didn't speak for a second and one could see that her beautiful eyes have turned watery.

"But why did they have to lie to me all the time?"

She mumbled to herself. Sam didn't answer that question.

If he can say that he understands her situation, he was sure that he understands her situation.

Because he went through the same thing in his previous life. He felt all the emotions that she is feeling now.

At this moment, he can easily answer her question about why they cheated her and why did they create such a fake world around her. But if he did say that, she wouldn't explore herself anymore and would just wallow in her self-pity.

But now, she has a choice. She can find the answer to her question herself and explore herself more. She has to find her own new life.