The Messenger of Death

Alex began to sweat profusely. He found it hard to breathe at this point.

['Why are being so stubborn now? You have already exhausted every energy you can squeeze out of the fire bloodline and your core. Switch with Lex or Xander, they can use the energy from space and lightning bloodline, respectively. I don't understand why you have to be stubborn about switching now.'] Al disapproved of Alex's decision.

['Let him be Al. he should push himself to the limit. Only then would he be better.'] Xander interjected.

Xander knew why Alex was acting this way. He knew that he had come to a realization that they, his alters, could choose not to obey his wishes. Anyone would be scared if their body gets seized by personalities that isn't theirs.

But one thing that Alex still hasn't realized is that his alters liked him.

Although they demanded equality by using their abilities as leverage to blackmail him, they still didn't want Alex to feel left out. They have been with him longer than he knew, guiding, planting ideas and feelings in his brain. While they did all that in the past, they deprived Alex of the luxury of knowing who he truly is.

Deep down, despite his skills and cognitive reasoning when it comes to doing the job – Although he was numb to killing people, Alex's alters know how much of a kid Alex is.

Alex kept on pushing till his sight started to get blurry. He leaned on a tree closest to him. The red-furred rabbits were only a few yards away from him now. He turned his head and watched as the rabbits approached him.

'I need to switch, but I shouldn't. I shouldn't. Don't panic, don't panic. Once you do, Lex will take over.' He thought as he watched the rabbits get closer with a deadpan expression.

['Alex!!'] Al called out when he noticed that Alex still wasn't ready to give in and switch, even when the rabbits were just inches away from him.

-Zznn!!

A blue light flashed in front of Alex's face for a second, and when it disappeared he was baffled by the sight that filled his eyes.

Everything that came in contact with the blue light froze and was covered by layers of ice.

"I guess you are empty now. You even stood still and waited for your death. I am disappointed that I didn't have the chance to see you use the lightning element, but this would do for now." Nana walked out from thin air and arrived beside Alex. She placed her hand on his shoulder.

"You… are. Huff, huff… crazy." Alex forced those words out of his mouth.

"That's no way to talk to your master." Nana smiled and applied a little force on his shoulder. 

Alex winced due to the pressure, but he didn't make any sound. "One last question, are you a bloodline bearer?" Nana removed her hand from his shoulder and watched as he slowly turned his head to look her in the eye.

"No, I'm not."

She cocked her head at his reply. 'Does he think that I don't already know that he is a bloodline bearer? Oh well, he is my disciple now. He will open up later, it is better if I don't force this out of him.' Nana reasoned.

"Let's head back then." She placed her hand on his back and they left the forest in a flash…

"You should rest a bit now," Nana mentioned when they arrived in the room that she dragged him out of.

"Rest? I… thought that… you needed my core to be empty so that you could teach me something." Alex found it a bit difficult to talk properly.

Nana giggled and placed her hands behind her. "That was a lie. I only took you there because you said that I looked like I was 40."

Alex felt his jaw drop on its own, her reply shocked him. "All that, because I said that you looked like you were 40!?"

"Was that wrong of me?" She asked and put an innocent face on.

Alex dropped his head back and fell on the couch. "Leave me alone. If I had the energy to go back to my suite, I would have done that already."

"Even if you had the energy to leave I wouldn't let you leave."

"What!! Don't tell me that you wish to imprison me here?" Alex shot off the chair.

"No, although I wish I could." She sighed, "But you will need the worldly experience that can only be gotten from exploring. As my disciple, you are not allowed to bring any sort of disgrace to my name."

"Like you haven't done that to yourself already." He whispered.

"I heard that… Here," Nana threw an orange pill at him. "Eat this, it will help recuperate faster. I need to step out and do something, don't attempt to leave the library. If I come back and you are not here, it will be hell for you." She threatened and left the room.

"What the hell did I get myself into?" Alex stared at the pill as he whispered to himself. He threw it into his mouth and swallowed it…

He reclined himself and laid down on the couch. Everything was silent as he closed his eyes, even his alters didn't say anything.

['Guys, when you said that you wanted to co-exist, what exactly did you mean by that?'] Alex questioned. He decided to be civil with them before they choose to revolt against him.

['Well, what we had in mind was that we all get a day for ourselves every week. You can sacrifice 3 days out of 7 for us to do as we please, without your interference. You are the host and we are the alternate personalities, to you, we are invaders. But to us we had no choice, we gained consciousness in you. Alex, you have feelings and desires, so do we. We just want to satisfy a part of those desires.'] Xander explained.

-Ahhhaaa!

Alex unintentionally made a sleepy yawn. "Sorry, I wasn't yawning because of what you said. I suddenly feel sleepy. Very sleepy." He didn't want his alters to misunderstand his action.

-Ahhhaa!

He yawned again.

['Wait, the pill that crazy woman gave to you. She took measures to prevent you from leaving the library. Most likely, what she gave to you was a sleeping pill.']

-Ahhaa!

"What you said about us co-existing…" Alex's eyelids started to get heavy and they dropped. "I will think about it." He managed to finish before he fell asleep…

*******

Standing in front of the pavilion of elements is Camron. It has already been 2 days since his last visit. He had a blissful smile on his face as he stepped in. Today, there were a lot of students in the pavilion's reception, standing in a long line.

Camron didn't know why they were lining up so he chose to walk past the line. "Hey!! No cutting!" a student in brown uniform said to Camron.

"I'm not cutting in any line. I'm just going to where I am supposed to be. I don't even know why you guys are lined up here." Camron refuted his accusations.

"Liar!! Why else will you be in the pavilion of elements if it isn't to rent a room to cultivate?" The student stood his ground.

"You over there! Be quiet. Who are you to cause a disturbance in this pavilion?" The female staff that Camron met the first time he arrived here, walked up to Camron's side.

"I'm sorry. I saw this guy trying to cut into the front of the line and I had to stop him." He pointed at Camron.

"This way." The woman hinted at Camron and led him away from there.

The student that stopped and accused Camron was startled by what happened that he didn't notice when the line moved, and when he had been skillfully pushed out of the line by those behind him.

When he snapped back and realized what had happened he saw the fingers of those who were previously behind him, pointing to the back of the line. He had no choice but to go to the back…

"Thank you, Ma'am. If I may ask, why are there so many people here today?" Camron inquired.

"Because Merits points have been allocated to those that deserve it, today. Before you can rent a room here, you need to have MPs. Your case is a special case. We are here." She stepped aside and opened the door for him.

"Same rules as the last time. The pill?" She asked and Camron immediately brought one out and threw it in his mouth.

"Good, you will be starting from the first difficulty again. If you want to go past the difficulty you stopped at last time, then you have to make sure that you complete the earlier ones faster than before."

"Okay." He replied and stepped into the familiar room…

It took Camron the same length of time as the last, to complete the first and second difficulty. When he stepped out of the room, he was a bit unsatisfied but still appreciated his progress. Although he didn't breakthrough like the first time he went into the room, he could still feel the increase in his strength.

Camron went straight to the guest inn.

When he entered he heard some of his teammates talk about the number of merit points that were deducted from them.

"Despite all the ingredients we turned in from the mission, we only had 5000 merit points added to our names. So now we all have negative 9,583 on our names. Cumulative is negative 57,498." Katherine calculated.

"We are still a long way from reaching anywhere. If we haven't paid this debt by the end of next month then we wouldn't get any ECs from the school." Emma said dejectedly.

"True," Adrian whispered.

For the past few days, the members of the seraphim team have been spending their free time in Alex's suite.

"You guys have already checked it out huh." Camron walked to a chair with a fruit that looked like grapes, in his hand. "Alex still didn't come by?" 

"No, is this a normal thing for him?" Adrian asked.

"Kind of. Last time he almost spent a week without coming back here once."

-Rat-a-tat!!

Emma went ahead to the door and opened it.

As soon as it was open, Drake burst into the living room. "Guys, have you heard!?" He looked frightened as he asked.

"Heard about what? Our cumulative merit points?" Katherine attempted to guess.

"No, not that. I'm talking about Alex's misfortune."

"What!? What happened to him?!" Camron jumped off his seat, while Katherine who was standing beside Adrian, grabbed his shirt and squeezed it.

"Alex, he. He. He has been taken as a direct disciple of the psychopathic witch." Drake announced.