Koren sat for dinner with Enri and her family. Kaph and Torp were their usual selves, and Enri was snuggled next to her mother. However, there was gloom in Lady Zena’s eyes, sorrow even.

Her husband, Tanru the village blacksmith, had been staring at his food since he sat down, not taking a single bite. Finally after what seemed like forever, Enri spoke up.

“Abba, why aren’t you eating.” Asked Enri, as she noticed her fathers untouched food.

“Nothing to worry about, I’m just not that hungry.” Replied Tanru, his tone low-spirited.

“You have to eat Abba, tomorrow we have a lot of work.” Said Torp, as he took a bite from Kaph’s plate.

“Ah, that’s mine, finish yours first.” Yelled Kaph.

“My muscles need nourishment.” Torp hollered back.

“Stop Adda!!.” Shouted Enri in an overwhelming tone, her voice shut the two up immediately.

Tanru looked at his wife, and said “Now is a good time as any.”

Lady Zena nodded. “Everyone quiet down and listen, me and your father have something very important to say.” Said Lady Zena, as she looked at Koren and her children.

“All 4 of you will go to the new village with Sappa.” Said Lady Zena, her tone sombre.

“You will be joined by all the other children in the village, don’t cause trouble for Sappa.”

Tanru looked at his son’s and said “Torp, Kaph, I will rely on the two of you to take care of Enri. She may be a spiritualist, but she is still far too young.”

Torp and Kaph, who were always kidding around, looked at their parent’s serious faces. “Father, we already know we are not going to a new village location.” Torp said as he put his food down.

“We know about the attack, we overheard mother talk about it with Brother Sappa. Why are we going first, I thought we would all randevu at the Oasis.” Asked Kaph.

“What attack, where are you sending us Amma.” Enri who was oblivious to the truth spoke up.

“Abba, I won’t go, you need my help in the shop.” Said torp.

“I will stay as well, you can’t send me away, I’m not a child, I can make my own decisions.” Said Kaph.

“Enough!!” Shouted Tanru. “You will all go with Sappa tomorrow, and that’s the last of it. Now finish your dinner and then pack your belongings.”

“Amma, Abba, go where, what is every one talking about. Why won’t you tell me.” Cried Enri.

“Enri dear, don’t worry, we will join you the next day. You just have to be strong and stay with your brothers.” Said Lady Zena, as she caressed Enri’s hair. She looked at Koren who had remained silent this whole time.

“Koren, I know you have questions as well, don’t worry, The chief will explain it all to you tomorrow before you leave. For now, I want you to promise me that you will take good care of my Enri.” Muttered Lady Zena as she looked at Koren with a caring gaze.

Koren looked at Lady Zena and nodded, he knew in his heart that he would not only protect Enri, but everyone.

************

“My Prince, your palanquin has arrived.” Said an attendant as she bowed in front of the 4th Prince. Rekim was seated on his decorated Golden chair inside his tent.

Uther had been mobilising the entire battalion for movement, getting ready to block the path from the Oasis to the border.

Although, it wouldn’t be a problem defeating the spiritualist from the villages, but it would be troublesome capturing all the villagers.

If some manage to flee, then they would be able to alert the Raavi. If the Raavi found out that there was a Draconian battalion stationed in the barren Goliath Desert, they would be alarmed, and that would cause complications. The Raavi have always been very suspicious of the Draco Kingdom.

Rekim got up and walked over to the attendant and asked “Where is Uther”.

The attendant kept her head down and replied “The Commander is waiting for your highness. He has already boarded the sand ship.”

“Very well.” Said Rekim as he stepped into the palanquin.

The palanquin bearers stepped forth and picked it up. They slowly made their way towards the sand ship. Rekim stayed silent the whole time, his mind elsewhere.

************

“The 4th Prince should be arriving in his palanquin at any moment now. Sir if this plan succeeds, Prince Rekim will become an outcast, and you will become a general.” Andre whispered into Uther’s ear, who was standing at the helm of the massive battalion sand ship.

Uther didn’t respond, he continued to look at the sunset.

“Even though you will lose half of your troops, the blame will be on the 4th Prince and his reckless behaviour, even the King won’t be able to protect him.”

“The Princess has a lot of support in the royal court, your appointment is already a done deal. General Uther, it has a nice ring to it doesn’t it sir.” Andre continued.

“But sir, you have to understand that all of this is on the premise that you follow the plan perfectly.”

Uther closed his eyes, capturing the image of the sunset in his mind. He reached down into his mind, and could see his spiritual core. Unlike normal spiritual cores, his was pitch black, with a hint of green circling inside. The green light was a quarter of the size of his core, and it seemed to be growing. Slowly making its way to the rest.

Uther retreated from his mind and opened his eyes, he turned his head to face Andre, and said “If you want to keep your head, then stay quiet. As far as the plan is concerned, I have everything under control.”

************

“Well, this is the best I can do for now, those two probably won’t get any sleep tonight.” Said Hope, as she stood next to Koren in the Virtual space.

“My body is resting outside, so how do I train.” Asked Koren.

“Don’t worry about that, and just try to visualise your core.” Replied Hope.

Koren sat down on the ground and started to reach into his mind. He saw his core, but not in his mind but right in front of him, a physical embodiment of his spiritual core.

“don’t fret, it’s only a projection of the real thing, then again so are we. Now try to bring out the shards and cultivate.” Said Hope as she saw that Koren was getting confused.

The actual shards had already been absorbed by the Armor, the chaotic energy from the shards had been taken out as fuel and the remaining pure spiritual power was condensed into a super dense spiritual shard.

The shard appeared in his hand, he could feel the intensely powerful spiritual energy emanating from it.

“Big sis, if this is only a projection then how am I able to feel the power of this shard.” Asked Koren, surprise apparent in his voice.

“I’m not sure myself, this place was supposed to be only an ordinary virtual space, but then I was integrated into the dimensional core. It has already exceeded its design limitations, but that is a good thing for you Koren, as you can cultivate here.” Replied Hope with a light smile.

Koren nodded. Hope was right, it didn’t matter what this place had been or what it had become. The important thing is that he can cultivate. Koren took the shard into his hand and started to guide the dense spiritual power to the floating spiritual core.

A single strand of the dense spiritual power separated from the shard and floated towards the core, and just as it touched the cores outer wall, Koren felt an intense, horrifying pain coursing through him. For a second he felt that his mind would shatter. He collapsed on one knee, and the shard disappeared.

“Wha…What happened?” asked Koren as he began to pant heavily.

“Oh no, it seems that the Armor didn’t just purify the spiritual shards, it actually condensed all of their power so well that it increased its grade. You can’t absorb their power because your core is too weak.” Replied Hope, seemingly worried.

“But if I can’t use the shard I can’t breakthrough.” Said Koren, in a gruff voice. The pain was gone, but it’s effect was still fresh.

“I may have an idea, but I’m not completely sure if it will work.” Said Hope as she began to help Koren up.

“Anything is better than this.” Said Koren, as he finally got over the pain, he took in a breath and sighed.

“So Big sis, what’s the plan.” Asked Koren.

“I was thinking of channelling the spiritual power from the shard into a circuit, this would allow me to control its flow perfectly, we wouldn’t need you to personally take control… wait that would mean… and then I would be able to…” Replied Hope, but then she began to talk to herself cryptically.

“Eureka!, haha I’m so amazing. Aren’t I amazing Koren, go ahead tell me I’m amazing.” Hope began to jump up and down, then she grabbed Koren by the shoulders and jerked him back and forth.

“You’re amazing big sis, now please let me go, the pain isn’t completely gone.” Yelled Koren.

“Oh Koren, I’m sorry, I was just so excited. I solved all of your cultivation problems, now sit back and look.” Said Hope as she let Koren go and began to wave her hands around.

Structures started to appear in the nothingness of the virtual space. Hope continued to build for a few hours.

“I’m done. Look at it Koren, isn’t it a thing of beauty.” Asked Hope as she presented the finished object in front of Koren.

The Object was a Box. A dark box, with crisscrossing lines on its surface like an integrated circuit, and a hole in the middle that seemed like a housing for a spiritual shard.

“Sis, what is this thing.” Asked Koren as he stared at it with interest.

“Hehe, since I’m its architect, I will name it the ‘Upgrade Matrix’.” Replied Hope enthusiastically.