Koren looked at Hope, who was staring at him wide eyed. “Um, Big sis, could you please go outside, I need to change.” Said Koren with a light blush.

“Oh come on Kid, I’m a part of you now, I’m inside you, this is just a projection. Stop being shy, and change.” Said Hope with an wicked smile.

“Please, big sis, can’t you just close your eyes.” Koren insisted.

“Ah, ok. You know Koren, you will be a big charmer when you grow up.” Said Hope as she turned into mist and disappeared.

Koren breathed a sigh of relief before starting to change his clothes, as he took of the shawl, he noticed the state of his body. All the burn marks had already disappeared, and although he was a little thin, he didn’t feel all that bad, in fact he had grown a little taller. He quickly put on the clothing left by the earth spiritualist named Sappa. The clothes were a little big for him, but were comfortable. Koren looked around and found his old tattered robe in the corner. He picked it up, folded it, and then started to cry. This robe was made by his mother, she gave it to him the day he went to train with Grandpa Kafai, the day of the attack.

“Don’t be sad Koren, life and death is part of the circle of existence, no one can avoid it, not even me.” Said Hope as she sensed Koren’s sorrow and appeared behind him.

“I know Big sis, I know” mumbled Koren as he looked back.

Ken was in severe pain, his wrists and ankles were chained together as he was being whipped to continue walking by the soldier behind him. He looked around to see others from the village he once called home, shackled, and being led to an unknown destination. Two days ago, he was a proud father and a loving husband. Now, he was nothing but another slave for the Draco Kingdom.

‘Koren, are you safe, are you healthy. Are you… alive?’ thought Ken as he looked south.

Ken was home when they came. The main battalion didn’t attack, instead it was just 3 men. The village scouts and gatekeepers were the first ones to die. By the time Ken realized what had happened, they were already approaching the chiefs house.

Ken was able to get there fast since he lived close and that’s when he saw it. Lady Mari, the village healer and his mother-in-law, standing in front of the attackers, one of her arms chopped off.

Even though Lady Mari was also an earth spiritualist, she was only level 3 with a harmonization of 1.

After Ken joined the battle, he was able to help his mother-in-law and killed one of the attackers.

Over the years, Ken had increased his level to 9, coupled with his harmonization of 2, he could fight up to level 18.

The Draconian soldier was a fire spiritualist of level 15, and mostly relied on his strong physical body. Draconian’s, even the once born with spiritualist abilities, mainly practice their bodies.

Usually their spiritualist rank is always lower than their martial rank. In the case of the soldier attacking Ken and Lady Mari, his martial rank was level 30.

On solid ground, Ken didn’t stand a chance, but they were fighting in the desert, and Ken was a master in the sand.

After Seeing Ken fight, the one in charge, called Uther, personally came forward. He never attacked with his physical body, and instead let his dark flames roll over the sand and burn everything, that’s when the chief returned with Koren in toe. But instead of being of help, he was too busy protecting Koren from the dark flames, which were turning the village into an infernal hell.

Ken pushed himself to the limit that day, even detonating his spiritual core. The Detonation increased his spiritual affinity to the earth element, causing his harmonisation level to reach 10, and he was able to give the chief enough time to escape. He knew he was dead the moment he started the detonation process, but the draconian’s wanted something from him, and kept him alive using healing panacea’s.

Ken tried to concentrate into his mind, he could see the tattered remains of what was once his spiritual core, the gathering place of all his earth element spiritual energy. With its current state, Ken only had the Spiritual energy equivalent of 1, there was no way Ken would be able to fight again. At least that’s what his captors thought.

Although his spiritual core was in ruins, his harmonization didn’t actually decrease at all, instead it was still at 10. Through some miracle, he managed to keep the increased spiritual affinity.

Harmonization is the process where the elemental spirits acknowledge a spiritualist and fuse with them, becoming a part of their spiritual core. Every spiritual core has a different capacity, Ken previously could only have 2, but during the detonation process his core cracked and expanded, forcibly integrating nearby earth spirits.

Ken looked around at all the villagers, there were less than 70 left alive, mostly women and children. His wife was also among them, however all the warriors were dead. Lady Mari, his mother-in-law was already gone, he personally saw Uther torture her to death.

‘This is my secret, no one can know, not yet’ thought Ken as he started to breath heavily.

‘Don’t worry Amara, I will save you. Somehow, I know I will.’ thought Ken as he looked at the direction of his wife.

Haruki was bored, he didn’t like it when the chief forced him to train. He was already 14, and in the desert, that was already old enough to take a wife. Yet the chief treated him like a child, always pushing him around. But things were looking good for the future, as another spiritualist had been born in the village, and this one was only 8 years old.

The spiritualist was his friend kaph’s little sister Enri, or as he often called her pipsqueak. The chief would probably be busy teaching this new kid, giving Haruki the time to socialise with the ‘ladies’.

He already had his eye on Sumi, the innkeeper’s daughter. Shale Village was home to over 400 villagers, hence it often received traders from nearby villages.

There were only 3 inns, but only sumi’s had the best food. Haruki was lazy and a Glutton. He would rather chow down on a boar then practice his earth spiritualist abilities.

After training finished, he was hoping to go and taste some of Sumi’s Sand baked Rafa, but then he remembered she wasn’t even in the village. She should be part of the group going to the Oasis, his elder brother Sappa should be the accompanying spiritualist.

Haruki didn’t like his brother. Mainly because the chief would always use him as an example whenever they train.

Sappa was large in size and was muscular, even more so then regular sand warriors. While Haruki, was a little chubby glutton. However, whenever someone pointed that out, he would always say “I’m a growing boy, I gotta eat”.

Haruki made his way towards the chiefs home, expecting to see the old man seated outside like always, blowing on his pipe. However, he wasn’t there.

“hm, where is that old goat” said Haruki with some displeasure.

Just as he was about to leave, he saw the chief walking towards him from the direction of the village gate. He could see his brother, Lady Zena and her pipsqueak daughter Enri as well. There was also another kid, sticking close to his brother, roughly of Enri’s age.

Haruki approached the Chief and just as he was about say something the chief shut him out.

“Not now Haruki, I have an important matter to tend to” said the chief as he walked into the tent briskly, followed by his brother, who made sure to give him a glare of disapproval, as well as Lady Zena and the Strange boy.

“Haruki, this meeting will take a while, can you take Enri home for me, thank you.” Said lady Zena as she handed him the pipsqueak.

“Enri, who is that kid” asked Haruki as he led Enri towards her home. “His name is Koren, Uncle Sappa found him.” Said Enri in her Pixi voice.

Sappa was seated next to the chief on his right, while Lady Zena was seated on his left, followed by the village Matriarch and 2 village elders.

Sappa had already handed the sword to the chief, such an important object had to be handed over immediately. The chief’s name was Ipnak, but everyone just called him the chief. Everyone except the matriarch.

“Ipnak, what is so important that you had to assemble everyone here, and who is this boy” asked Matriarch Hera in a bossy tone.

Chief Ipnak didn’t answer instead he was looking at Koren who was seated in the middle. “Little Koren , tell us your story.” said chief Ipnak in a serious tone.

Koren started to tell them what happened, he told them about his village, the attack and how him and his grandfather had to run. Lastly he told them about the sword, but left out the coin. He didn’t tell them about what happened to him since.

“It is as I feared, they know the artefact is in the desert” said Ipnak in a grim tone.

“That’s impossible, they should be searching in the icy mountains of the Luna Range. How can they possibly know its here.” Asked the Matriarch in a serious tone.

“I don’t know, but the only possibility I can think of is someone betrayed us” said Chief Ipnak.

“Chief, Matriarch, I apologise for my intrusion, but can you tell us what you are talking about.” Interrupted one of the elders.

The chief looked at his wife who nodded at him and sighed. He looked at everyone in the room till his gaze came to rest upon Koren. “Koren, do you want to know why your grandfather chose to run from the village instead of staying to fight?” Asked the Village chief of a befuddled Koren.

Koren always thought his grandfather was a very valiant individual. He would rather fight and die then run away. He thought that the reason he ran was to protect him, but he had to know that the chances of their escape were slim to begin with. So there must have been another reason, previously he thought it was Hope, but Hope told him that he was the first to awaken her. So his grandpa could not have known about Hope, for all he was concerned, the ring was just an ancestral heirloom.

‘It must have something to do with the sword’ thought Koren.

“Say Yes, I don’t like to be kept in suspense” said Hope as she was floating above Koren.

Koren Looked at the Chief of Shale Village, whose gaze was filled with pity, not for Koren but for everyone in the room.

“Yes, I want to know” said Koren with zest and vigour.