The Messenger of Death

Drake, Camron, and Alex spent the whole night absorbing the energy from the primrose pill. Adrian passed out after exhausting himself, while Emma and Katherine decided to cultivate and wait till Alex was done.

Unknowingly to all of them, the night had passed and another day had dawned upon them. Drake and Camron opened their eyes at the same time.

-Burb!

The first thing that Drake did was to burp. He felt like he had just eaten a full course meal. Camron also felt the same way but he held his burb in. Drake's burp woke the rest up, all apart from Alex. He was still absorbing energy from the Pill, or so they thought.

"Alex is still digesting the pill, why did the two of you stop?" Emma asked.

"There was nothing left to absorb any more. I digested all that I could, the rest of the energy that I couldn't absorb in time had already dispersed." Camron responded.

"Yahooo!! I'm now a disaster realm cultivator of the second rank." Drake exclaimed in excitement as he jumped into the air and threw his fist up.

"Really?" Katherine blurted out.

She wanted to be happy for Drake, but she couldn't. At the moment she was still trying to rid herself of the jealousy that she was feeling. "What about you, Camron?" She turned her attention to him.

Camron grinned and said; "Same realm and rank as Drake." The excitement that he was feeling could be heard in his voice.

"Wait, Camron, you and Alex took the pill at the same time, why is he still cultivating?" Adrian asked.

"I don't know. Maybe he was able to absorb more than what I and Drake absorbed, and it's taking him time to digest it. Don't be surprised if Alex becomes the one in our group with the highest cultivation." Camron pointed out.

"I doubt that." Just after Camron had finished speaking, Alex opened his eyes. He had been listening to what they were saying.

In truth, Alex had finish absorbing the energy from the pill roughly 25 minutes before Camron and Drake were done. When he was done absorbing all the energy from the primrose pill, he opened his eyes and saw that Camron and Drake were still in the process of absorbing theirs.

He wondered why he finished early if he had done something wrong while he was digesting it. Alex then checked his cultivation realm and found out that he was at the ninth rank of the nascent realm. He had broken through 5 ranks. He decided to pretend like he was still absorbing the pill till Drake and Camron were done.

After he heard Camron and Drake say that they were at the second rank of the disaster realm, he felt way too embarrassed to open his eyes. When he heard Camron say that he might be the one with the highest cultivation in their team, Alex knew that it was time for him to stop his pretense…

"Alex," Camron turned and faced his friend. "What's your cultivation now?" He asked.

"Still in the nascent realm, the ninth rank," Alex answered as he stood up from the grass.

"Why, you even lasted longer than we did." Camron reasoned.

"No, I didn't. I finished before the two of you. When I was done I saw that everyone was resting, so I decided to take a nap." Alex stated.

From his facial expression, it was obvious that he wasn't satisfied with the results.

"Congratulations guys." Emma congratulated them earnestly. Adrian and Katherine did the same after her.

"Congratulations indeed." Alex felt like that word was mocking him.

['Why am I so unlucky!? We were the ones that stole the pills yet still the ones that benefitted less from it.'] He fumed.

['Ahh, the chronicles of the unlucky Alexander.'] Al grieved with him. He too felt like it was a loss.

['At least we benefitted from it. Learn to look at things from the good aspect sometimes, Alex. The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step, we have just taken several steps forward in our journey. It is better than standing still. Besides, you seem to have forgotten that you need more QI than the average cultivator requires for any breakthrough.'] Xander attempted to comfort Alex.

What Alex didn't know was that Camron and Drake weren't able to absorb half of the energy in the pill, while was able to absorb everything.

Alex sighed. ['I'm not being pessimistic, I'm being realistic.'] Alex retorted.

['That's one hell of a biased idealism of reality.'] Al muttered.

"Just one more step and you will be in the disaster realm," Camron stated to comfort Alex.

"Hahaha, you are not so awesome after all." Drake mocked Alex. "Camron, if you are the captain, with my cultivation level now, doesn't that make me the vice-captain?" Drake asked.

"Hell no." Alex rejected that thought.

"Noo!" And so did the rest. They were all against Drake being their vice-captain.

"Why not!? I have the strength for it." Drake was a bit offended by their rejection.

"You might have the strength for it, but not the brains," Alex answered.

"Exactly." Katherine concurred.

Drake scoffed and folded his hands on his chest. "I'm on a different realm than you guys, what does having a brain have to do in front of raw power." He muttered.

['This dumb ass thinks he's capable now.'] Alex thought.

"Don't let your cultivation get to your head. Even if your cultivation is still higher than mine, I can still beat you up as I did before." Alex smirked at him.

Drake was about to argue but he held his words to himself. He recalled the terrifying curtain of lightning that Xander created during their last mission when they were escaping from the rain of arrows.

"Monster." He uttered, referring to Alex.

"It's a good thing that you know," Alex replied smugly…

"Alex, have you thought of a way to help me with mine?" Emma brought his attention to her.

Looking at Emma, Alex could see that she had been trying her best to be patient and she was filled with hope. "No, not yet. I'm still thinking of a way for you." Alex answered truthfully.

"Oh," Her previous hopeful countenance changed into a dejected one.

Alex saw this but chose to ignore it. 

"Don't worry Emma, he will surely figure something out. Just give him more time." Adrian said to her. As someone that was once in the same situation as her, he knew what she was feeling. He knew that she was feeling dispirited.

"Adrian, were you able to complete it with the sounds that Katherine helped you create?" Alex questioned.

"Uh, yes, and no. I wasn't able to move at will and I still can't control the direction that I'm heading to."

"That's troublesome." Alex thought.

"Hey guys, we should head to class. It is already morning." Camron pointed out.

"Class? Oh, that's true. We have something like that to attend. I have either been with Nana, injured, or gone out for missions. What a model student I am." Alex muttered.

"Well then, let's all be on our way. We don't want to be late, do we? And Emma, perhaps by the end of the day I would have found a way to help you." Alex uttered and lifted the dispirited Emma from her downhearted state.

They started making their way towards the mountain. Not long after, they exited the guest inn and were now walking through the pathway in the forest that leads to their class.

['I do feel a bit sad for this Emma.'] Al uttered.

['She was the one that had her hopes up, I didn't ask her to do anything like that.'] Alex responded to Al's statement.

['You were the one that gave her no reason to doubt the hope that she had. You pointed out that they had an affinity with something, then you proceeded to help Adrian to awaken his. Anyone would believe that you are capable of doing such, even after you pointed out that you are not. To them, it just going to sound like you're being humble.'] Al replied.

['But it's still not my fault.']

['I didn't say that it was. I only pointed it out so that you can know that your words can be proven otherwise by your actions and vice versa.'] Al explained.

Alex was about to interject when a strong wind scattered his hair. He looked up and saw that it was about to rain. "The weirdness of the weather here, just a few seconds ago, it was sunny." He scoffed and removed a piece of hair that stuck to his face.

He looked at the trees and saw them dancing to the wind, or so he thought at first.

['Wait, something's not right.'] Alex stopped walking when he noticed the direction in which the wind was blowing.

['What is it?'] Xander asked.

['The trees are leaning towards the opposite direction that the wind is blowing.'] Alex pointed out.

Coincidentally, the trees there looked like they were trying to follow Emma as she was walking. Then it hit Alex.

"Guys! Stop, nobody move." Alex directed.

"What's wrong?" Adrian was the first to ask, he beat Camron to it.

"Why?" Drake asked.

"Emma, come over here. I think I just figured something out for you." Alex mentioned.

Emma was delighted to hear that, she started walking towards Alex with an excited grin plastered on her face.

With each step that brought her closer to Alex, the dark clouds began to disperse and the strong winds turned into light ones. The trees changed the direction that they leaning towards, they defied normality as they changed the direction at which they were leaning on, to the direction where Emma was walking to.

This scene did not escape the eyes of the rest, everyone there but Emma noticed this.

['This is…'] Alex was lost for words.