The next morning David awoke to a commotion outside of the prison cell. The two guards from last night were being berated by nicely dress man.

"You two bastards are going to pay for this shit. Of the entire shipment, there was only one female. She was very attractive and had a Level 1 Body Foundation Stage cultivation...how the hell did you fuck her to death?," the well dressed fellow screamed while waiving his hands around in threat.

"And you even killed another one with the collar. You have absolutely fucked this shipment. I will be lucky to make any decent stone on this transaction," the man fussed.

Looking in the cell, he shook his head and ordered, "Clean them up and redress them. If they step out of line, cut their heavenly energy completely and beat them....but do not kill them, you idiots. Once they get cleaned up bring them to the gateway for immediate transfer to The Other. The longer we hold them...the more something can go wrong."

The fancy man walked off briskly leaving the two guards standing outside the prison cell regretting their actions from the night before. After a moments wait, the two men quickly walked up to the cell and ordered the men to strip their clothes. After the experience so far, everyone complied without much fuss. Seeing that the men were complying, the two guards walked off down the corridor.

As the grown men were left by themselves in the cell, they began to stand and strip their clothes. Their eyes couldn't help wonder around to see the state of everyone else in the cell. Morning light streamed in through a small window in the cell giving them a view of the other men in the room. A few things were noticeable to everyone. They were all wearing a thin metal collar around their necks. Each man looked like he had been through one hell of a fight. Since it was inappropriate to stare at another grown man naked, everyone got just a glance at each other as they each peaked around at the group of slaves.....everyone but David. Everyone couldn't keep from staring at David.

Most of the guards had lived a carefree life in the Carmine residence. Some of the other unknown guys seemed to also be well off in their physical care. The group appeared to be guys that didn't get in violent fights that frequently and had been living generally easy going lives.....

David was an exception. His body was covered with large and small scars, burn marks, bruises that were not healed all the way, gouges out of his flesh...his body was complete riddled with traces of injury in just about every location.

"My god," one of the guards said seeing David's appearance.

David looked up at the man and smiled to show some of his missing teeth and the gaping hole from his missing eye, "I know right.....My package is huge."

Chaz and a few of the other guards that knew David immediately broke out in laughter, but all of them were amazed.....this guy could still joke around....in that condition.

"Quiet in there," came a yell from outside of the cell. A dragging sound accompanied the shout and soon the two guards appeared at the front of the cell with a large trash bin and a water hose with a sprayer at the end.

"Alright, throw your shitty clothes into the trash bin and line up against the wall for a quick cleaning," one of the guards said.

David and the other men walked with their old clothes and tossed them into the trash bin for disposal. They then lined up along the cell wall. The two guards sprayed them down and then handed out fresh sets of simple linen clothes.

David actually enjoyed the spray of cold water and cleaning his body. First, he was thirsty and this gave him a chance to have a few sips of clean water. Second, he didn't like the feeling of the dried blood as it stuck stiffly to his body. The stream of blood being washed from David was visibly notable heading toward the drain in the floor.

The prison guards walked around the room handing out fresh clothes and inspecting the men's conditions. When they got to David, both of the guards winced.

"Damn, somebody really fucked you up," one of the guards said then turned to the other guard, "Do we still have any of those eye patches left in the desk.....go check...the boss wants the slaves to be presentable....if this guy shows up with a hole in his face then the potential slave buyers will run the other way."

The one guard left and came running back a few moments latter with an black eye patch in his hand.

He threw it at David and said, "Here put this on your eye....you're scaring people."

David put on the eye patch and continued getting dressed in the simple linen shirt and pants. The men were also given some simple sandals for shoes. The outfits were not great, but David understood they were cheap.....who would want to waste money on slaves they were about to sell?

After all of the prisoners were cleaned up, the two guards stung them together with a cord through a small loop in the side of their collars. They started marching the men forward down the corridor. Along the way, the people could see the naked body of a woman laid in a pile of trash. They all knew this was the woman taken out of the cell last night.

The two guards must have felt the anger emanating off of the men because one of them turned around and said, "No problems from you all. Don't forget that we can shut off your elemental energy and beat you."

The groups anger started to die down, but David was still angry. They didn't even give her a proper burial and just through her out with the trash. With a thought, David could feel Heather's dream orb residing in his soul. He still hadn't had a chance to investigate this issue any further.

David had some trouble walking along the way but he was able to keep up with the group for the most part. After about a 10 minute walk, the group of slaves arrived at a very large open underground area that looked like old Inca temples. At the center of the temples, a large platform was constructed with an large space portal glowing at the center.

The slaves were marched up the platform near the glowing portal. The well dressed man that had previously berated the guards was standing besides the portal to The Other.

"Slaves, you will enter the portal in a single file line....one at a time. You will orderly follow the slave in front of you. No unruliness or you will be executed. The long distance transfer to The Other takes roughly 30 minutes. You will be traveling in the space between realms so do not try anything stupid. Your body will be restricted in it's movement...so just relax and enjoy the ride," the man warned before turning and stepping into the glowing portal.

David was in about the middle of the group of 12 men that were lined up in slave's clothes. David knew some of the men....some of the men he had never seen before. He couldn't keep himself from looking at Chaz angrily...an apology wouldn't fix his betrayal.

The men stepped into the portal one after the another. Eventually, it was David's turn to step through the portal. As David stepped forward, he could feel himself be pulled into the nothingness of the space between worlds.

His body was restricted from movement as he felt himself moving along at a very fast speed. This transfer portal must be a wormhole of sorts.

After about 5 minutes into the transfer, David began to feel a pleasant sensation. It was that feeling he got when his mom hugged him....the felling that he got when he walked alone at night.

Looking straight ahead, he saw a beautiful womanly figure walking toward him through space around the portal's wormhole.

"Oh...my child, someone has not treated you well," the ethereal voice said.

"Yes, I have not been treated kindly. But I will survive and they will die," David said with a hint of anger to his voice.

The woman continued to look at him and smile.

"My friend, I see that you have accomplished something great. You are starting to understand The Great Truth of Reality. I can feel the pull of reality from your soul. No one has ever accomplished the mastery of reality.....at least no one that we know of. Good luck."

"The Truth of Reality? What is that?," David asked puzzled.

"oh....my child, I forget you are in a forgotten lower realm. You probably do not know. Truths exist for all things in existence. A Truth is the knowledge of the natural order of the universe. The last time we met, I gave you the small gift of the Truth of Shadow. But today, I see the traces of all sorts of truths on your soul. None are complete, but you are advancing.," she said with a pause before she spoke again.

"My friend, the Truth of Dreams lingers on your soul like an interesting scent. It is your first step into the Great Truth of Reality that you always wanted to achieve. Dreams, Presence, Perception, Real, Fake and Imagination....the six Truths that combine into the Great Truth of Reality. How to explain such an abstract thing as reality...oh, this will work for now....Dream is the world that all living being possess in their soul but very few know how to enter and even fewer know how to control. Presence is to influence other beings view with respect to your existence. Perception is the ability to be aware of everything in existence. Real is turning something that does not exist in reality into something that exists in reality. Fake is seeing through things that are not real. Imagination is most mysterious of them all....is creating a reality based on people's own imaginations," the beautiful dark woman lectured.

"My child, I can not offer much help to you going forward. My time with you is limited. I am so far away and am only here in projection," she said while looking at David intently.

"I see.....You have developed some skill related to dreams. You also have another soul being held within the your soul world. Is this an enemy or a friend?," the woman asked.

"She is a friend who suffered cruelty and violence at the hands of men. I took her physical life as a way to save her from her torture," David said trying to speak appropriately with the woman.

"oh...Then let me help both her and you. I will give you a soul technique that will suit your path well. Then I must leave. Best of luck to you in your journeys.....My friend. My child," she reached forward and touched David's forehead.

Information flooded David's brain and he was shocked by the information.

Then he thought for a second before opening his eyes and speaking. He could see the woman standing there slowly starting to fade while looking at him lovingly.

"Thank you....My mother...My friend," David said as he started to immediately comprehend the information she had given him.

"Ahhh...that is nice," she said with an even bigger smile before fading off into nothingness.

David was left motionless in the wormhole of transfer between the two worlds. By his estimation, he still had 15-20 minutes left until he arrived in The Other.

David began to focus on his own physical being inside the portal's wormhole.

To his surprise, he could easily absorb heavenly energy through the collar during the transfer. Realizing that this was the case, David began to focus his efforts on healing his body. He healed his organs first. Next was his leg so he would have a better chance a fleeing if needed. Although he could not replace his eye, he healed the area around it so that it was smooth hollow opening in his face. He was in the process of healing some of his muscles when he felt an abrupt pull and was thrown out onto a stone ground.

"Stand up, don't hold up the line," a voice yelled at David as he was herded along with the other men that had come out of the gateway.

As he stood in line waiting to be moved out of a small underground building that looked similar to a temple, he could still feel a small steady stream of heavenly energy flowing through the collar. The amount wasn't as great as when he was in the wormhole, but it was still flowing at a decent rate compared to Earth. David enjoyed the feeling. He could feel that his starved body was absorbing the small stream of energy and pushing him toward advancement.

'If I was free of this collar, I would probably advance to a Demigod of Shadow on the spot now that most of my injuries are healed,' David thought as he was crowded along with the slaves. He still pretended to be just as broken as before.....he limped along barely keeping up with the group. After a minute or two of steady walking, the group of men entered a tunnel that appeared to be an exit to the outside world...and exit to surface of The Other.