Chapter 12- Rivensdale!

We dragged our aching and wounded bodies along the dirt trail underneath us. A knight would keel over in pain and quickly attend to his wounds every now and then. However no one dared to stay in one spot for too long. Last night was truly disastrous. We feared staying another night in these plains with such a creature roaming about in the night, so a consensus was internally formed between everybody. And that was to rush to Rivensdale!

I was one of the least injured people, so I was roaming around. My white flames that sped up my healing last time weren't igniting again. I guessed that maybe they need more Qi to activate, but at the moment moving Qi the way I want it is impossible without tempering at least one of the 12 main meridians.

I closed my eyes while we moved and slowly fell to the back of the group. I felt the Qi around me and began to breathe it in and instead of drawing it into my cells I brought it to my dantian and gave it a few rotations for it to gain speed. I ran it on my heart's yang meridian, and it felt as if a gallon of water was being strained through a small glass tube. The meridian could barely withstand the strain and the pain that it produced was akin to ants tearing my veins from the inside out.

However I had finally reached the threshold of the Meridians Molding stage! Both the Meridians Molding stage and the Breaking Body stage were only the purest form of the foundation for cultivation. These two stages exist separately from one another, but the stronger they are the two most important stages in becoming a cultivator. They are both intended to change the body and mind through a series of pain and gain. Besides pain and discomfort is inevitable when one is a cultivator, so forming a mindset that is cruel with oneself and even crueler with one's enemies would be for the best.

I hadn't fully tempered my heart's yang meridian, but the difference in having and not having was immense. I pulled the leftover Qi and ran it through my heart's yang meridian. A multicolored flame seemed to wiggle out from the cells that it passed by and I singled in on the white colored part of the flame. The white flame seemed to know what I wanted and started to guzzle down my Qi and spread throughout my body. The cuts and gashes that I had suffered through healed at an impossible rate under the influence of the white flame, but my minuscule amount of Qi quickly dried out and the flame extinguished leaving my wounds still slightly open. However they were drastically improved and I could move without fear of opening them back up.

I marveled at the wonders of the white flame and happily wandered around. After awhile I went into mother's carriage to check up on her. When I walked in a sickly pale woman was laying down on a mattress laid out in the far corner of the carriage. It took me a couple seconds to realize that this woman was mother!

"Mother!" I immediately ran to her side and pressed my hand onto her left wrist. My face contorted as I felt the abnormal beating of her heart. I knew from just looking at her that her condition wasn't good, but when I actually examined her state could only be described as horrific!

She had several shatter meridians that couldn't be healed with any heavenly medicines! An abnormal heartbeat, a collapsed lung, and cracks ran up and down her dantian! The rest of her meridians were probably in the best shape compared to the rest of her body, but they were torn in several places! If it wasn't for the large pulsating sphere in mother's dantian in the place of rings, it would be impossible for her to even keep living!

I grit my teeth and brought my right palm above her dantian and with the flick of the wrist a small ball of multicolored fire was formed floating between mother and my palm. I started to aggressively absorb Qi; it raged into my untempered meridians and I channeled it to the white part of the multicolored ball of flame. The white colored flame took over and the ball turned pure white. I felt my meridians tearing as the amount of Qi increased and the mana from my mana ring gushed through at the same time.

I pushed the white flame into mother's body and it seemed to be absorbed. I ignored the pain that plagued my body and the injuries that I probably had incurred from the previous actions. Checking that the flame was healing mother at it's impossible speed I heaved a sigh of relief. Mother had loved me and trusted me with all of her heart. I would never just sit back and watch her perish!

I stayed near mother making sure there were no more abnormalities before the flame ran out. Although it was a heaven defying ability, it still had it's limits. The flame couldn't completely heal all of her injuries, but it served to get her into a stable state. I watched as some color returned to her face and her features were less strained. I gave a heartfelt smile as I left the carriage and went outside.

An unending rage began to fill my chest. Those injuries were impossible to have been gained from her last fight. She only cast magic in the back and was never directly targeted by the Nightstalkers. Those injuries must've been acquired over a long period of time! I put my revenge for later as I walked outside from the carriage.

Harold was standing outside and looked to be heading towards mother's carriage. He had a startled face when he saw me come out from the carriage.

"Prince Glen, did, did you go see the queen?" Harold had a terrible stutter as he slurred some of his words. He seemed to be worried about mother though.

"Don't worry she is getting some rest, so don't disturb her if you go in." I withhold some information and left to gather with the marching knights. Leaving Harold there to ponder over my words before he went into mother's room.

I kept feeling a stinging pain coming from my meridians, so I started to assess the damage I had recently acquired. I gave a depreciated sigh at the three main Meridians that I had torn. I could probably heal them if I could use the white flame proficiently, but at the moment even trying would only cause further damage.

"Hey prince Glen you look down, what's up?" A knight trotted over to me. He was one of the three knights who I had fought with. I had won their respect when I fought against the unending waves of Nightstalkers without a single complaint afterwards.

"Ah hey Chad, I was just thinking about my future a little." I reply while he starts to rub my head. I shrug off his hand while giving him an annoyed look.

"Hahaha, geez you're not like other children aren't you? You're too young to be thunking about your future, then again you're too young to even fight a brutal brawl like last night as well... oh yea! You used that cool magic last night as well! What was that? I've never seen a mage who can do that?" Chad laughed at my response before changing the subject. He was a long winded fellow most of the time, but he was easy to get along with nonetheless. I didn't really answer him because what I used wasn't really magic and more on the lines as a perk of my heavenly body.

We eased our tensions from last night by joking on the way to our destination. And we finally reached Rivensdale in the afternoon.

For a village it was quite well off. They had tall stone walls that extended up from the leveled ground. A ditch ran around the circumference of the walls and the only way inside was a large wooden bridge that connected to an opening in the wall. Guards in light armor and long bows stood calmly from atop the walls. A man riding a horse met with Jared and they conversed for awhile before leading us in through the gates.

Stone paved roads crisscrossed back and forth between wooden buildings. People were going to and fro carrying various materials. Shouts and laugher ran abundant as I gawked at the liveliness of the village. I saw someone leading a large scaly lizard with wooden columns strapped to it's back. There was a couple of children that were running around with wooden swords.

"I see your highness Prince Glen is admiring our humble village." The man who had led us into the village came up to my side. He had a well proportioned face that fit fell with his toned body. He spoke with a jovial tone and he had a tough feeling similar to a hardy commander. These two conflicting impressions meshed well with the man.

"Oh, I'm sorry my name is Garrison Hems. I am the commander to the guards, your mother, the queen, has helped us these past couple of years, so I already know quite a bit about you. By the way, I heard she was injured. I'm going to get the towns best alchemists to help her. Let me lead you to where you can stay." Garrison spoke seriously and was looking around for mother. He led us to a nice looking house and went off to find the alchemists he told us about.

A lady came out of the house and brought a couple of us to some empty rooms. The lady told us that this was a house that was just built, and was for the purpose of housing newly orphaned children. Luckily they hadn't had a large amount of orphaned children so we could use some of their empty rooms. Mother was brought into the room next to mine and I waited by her side till the alchemists that Garrison had sent for arrived.

I heard the creaking of a door when three old men walked through the door. They wore white robes that covered their entire bodies and a thick scent of herbs and grasses came from their bodies. One of them held a large wooden box that I assumed held tools for medicine.

"Hello, we are the alchemists sent by Garrison. I presume you are Prince Glen?" The foremost alchemists spoke as he walked forwards with an outstretched hand. I returned his handshake and moved out of the way to let them work.

"Ah Prince Glen do not worry the queen will be alright." The same alchemist spoke with words of comfort and seemed to want to soothe my worries. He made some motions for me to leave them to work. However I couldn't trust three men to be alone with my mother, so I attached a small Qi imprint on the three right before I left. This way I could easily monitor them.

I left the rather large house we were staying at and started to wander around the village. There were many sights that were unfamiliar to me. The people for one were all moving about as if they had somewhere to be and something to do. They had intriguing foods that I could sample for free after telling them I was mother's child. Their culture seemed queer to me. I was used to a world where singular survival was very apparent. They however lived to help the one standing next to them; sometimes I would see someone go out of their way to help another without any want or need of recompense.

Then again I attributed it to this village's complete lack of tension. It was as if the dangers outside of these walls were nowhere to be found. I imagined if the Nightstalkers from last night had invaded this village then all hell would break loose.

A loud horn blasted me out of my thoughts and I looked around for the cause. The people who had been so active earlier were now rushing in different directions. It looked like they had lost all camaraderie and were now trying to escape. I saw a small boy with rags for clothes being swept by the crowd and I rushed in so that he would avoid being trampled by the crazed villagers.

"What's going on?" I brought the boy off to the side of the road and he looked at me with some fear. He was constantly looking around as if afraid of something.

"M, monsters..." The child mumbled in a barely audible response to my urging. He started to tug on my arms and pulled me further into the village. I suddenly felt the ground trembling and a familiar surge of mana near the stone walls that surrounded the village came to me. A loud scream then rang into my ears as the image of thousands of Nightstalkers flashed in my head. I reached for my hip only to realize that my sword wasn't there! I remembered that I left it back at the house, so I pulled the child away and started to frantically sprint for the house.