The Messenger of Death

"Show me how far you can go with your ability," Alex said to Adrian.

"I can't do much. I can tap into the ability if I focus on just one sound, or if there is a loud sound that can overshadow every other noise. When there are multiple sounds from different sources, I find it harder to use the ability." Adrian answered.

"Last time when I was helping him train, he managed to travel with the sound that I created by hitting two weapons together," Emma added.

"Hmm, how long does it take you to tap into this ability of yours?" Alex asked.

"Sometimes it takes 14 seconds before I'm able to travel with sound, and most of the times it's around 20 to 21 seconds."

"That's below average, if it takes you that long to use to the ability, then it is unsuitable to use in battle. If you can't reduce the activation time to 5 or 4 seconds, then your ability is just for show.

But if you can do that, you would be an opponent that I wouldn't want to face. Fighting against someone that could manipulate and integrate with sounds to an extent. Imagine fighting with someone, and you use the sounds that they make against them. So many things are possible with your ability." Alex stated.

Hearing this made Adrian excited, he couldn't wait till he could utilize and control his abilities properly. "Tell me what I have to do and I will do it. Teach me how to use my ability." Adrian uttered in desperation.

At this point, with the respect that he has for Alex, being someone that even Alex wouldn't want to battle with was thrilling to him, just the thought of that gave him that euphoric feeling.

"To be honest, I don't know how to teach you, but I do have a way that should work. Since sounds that are low are hard for you to tap into, then you should train using low sounds. If you can perfect your ability with lower sounds, then the loud ones shouldn't be hard for you to get used to.

When you are able to perfect those, we'll move on to another training. For now, try to tap into the sounds that your footsteps make."

Alex directed and left him to start with his training on his own. Alex turned to Emma.

"Emma, can you tell me the odd things that you can remember, things that happened to you when… you know... when you went Mother Nature on us. Apart from the intense emotions that you were feeling." Alex requested.

He didn't know how he was supposed to help Emma, however, he decided to figure something out for her, and for that, he needed to know if she noticed anything different when she was using her ability.

"When I started remembering my mother, and my emotions started to intensify, I felt as if everything around me was trying to feed me. Not console me, but feed me, with their energy. I felt a dense, pure QI invade me from every direction and I couldn't control it, it was like it was attracted to me. That's why I…" Emma paused.

She recalled what she did yesterday when she hugged Al. Emma started to blush as she began feeling ashamed of herself.

"When you did what?" Al asked.

"When I ran into your embrace." She continued to blush.

"Oh, did you break through to the next rank after the energy entered your core?" He asked.

"No, I was too scared to use that QI and that was why I jumped into your embrace. Then before I knew it, the energy in me was being drawn away from me. Are you okay?" Emma asked because she knows how dense and pure that QI was.

"I'm alright, I think that QI was of help to me." He revealed.

"How?" Emma wondered.

"I almost broke through, if I hadn't knocked you out, then I might have been able to make it to the second rank of the disaster realm."

Emma became speechless, she couldn't believe that Alex dared to use that dense QI to cultivate. "Are you sure that you are alright?" She asked again.

"Yeah I am, that QI was dense, but it wasn't harmful in any way. Check your core and see if there's anything wrong with it." Alex mentioned.

Emma did as he directed and checked her core, when she looked into herself, she saw that some of the impurities that used to be in her core had been cleared. She frowned and rechecked her core and still saw the same result.

"How?" She exclaimed.

"I don't know, but here is my hypothesis. You said that when that whole ordeal was happening, you felt as if you were being fed with QI, right?" Alex asked.

"Right," Emma responded.

"I think that the QI that is willingly given to you by nature has no impurities, nor does it have any known negative effect," Alex revealed. "It's all a thesis, we aren't sure yet. In fact, I don't know if your ability is the type that can harm its user."

['Like the spatial ability, it's capable of harming us.'] Al pointed out.

"I've never heard of that before, it's just like you saying that a fire elemental user will get hurt if they placed their hand in the fire that they summoned." Emma found it hard that her ability could hurt her.

"There are some abilities that will hurt their users if the user isn't careful. Although I am not sure of yours, we shouldn't cancel out the possibility." Alex informed her.

"Okay," Emma nodded her head. She knew that Alex had his reasons for doing things. Just like he was the one that helped to awaken her ability, he might also know something about it that she doesn't know of. "I'll be careful." She added.

"Good. When was the last time that you cultivated?" He questioned.

"After taking the miracle fruit."

"Here's what I want you to try and do now. Try to absorb that same dense QI, even if it's just a wisp of it that you can get, try and get it. After absorbing it, cultivate with that little energy. I have a feeling that it will be most beneficial to you." Al directed.

Emma was skeptical at first, she knew that if it was harmful then she might be committing or worse, crippling her cultivation. Despite the doubts that she harbored, Emma trusted Alex with her life. She chose to do as he said.

"Alright, I'll try it." She uttered as she proceeded to sit on the soft, grassy floor.

"Now the two of you don't have anything special, I can't teach you anything but combat and battle tactics. If you are talented enough, you should be able to strengthen your combat senses in a short time." Alex faced Drake and Katherine.

His words sounded a bit harsh to them, but they couldn't refute it because it was the truth.

"What about me?" An annoying but familiar voice reached everyone's ears.

Alex hissed and closed his eyes. It was Gustavo's voice.

"What is this stalker doing here? Who let him in?" Alex whispered.

He turned and saw Xiao En standing behind Gustavo. Alex frowned as he looked at Gustavo.

"What is he doing here?" Alex asked Xiao En.

"He told me that you accepted him in your team." She replied and left immediately. She looked like she didn't sleep in a long while.

Gustavo smiled as he went closer to where the seraphim team members were. "Hello everyone, I'm Gustavo, your new teammate." He introduced himself.

"We know who you are, join the training," Drake responded while the rest went back to what they were doing before he arrived.

Gustavo was quite happy that he was welcomed by the rest, at least that was what it looked like, he was expecting a much colder welcome, and compared to his expectations, this was a warm welcome.

He went to stand next to Drake with a smile on his face.

"Where's the captain?" Gustavo searched around for Camron.

"He's not available at the moment," Alex answered sternly, he was about to tell Gustavo not to speak again when he was interrupted by another familiar voice. One that he knew and feared all too well.

That person was Nana. "Hey, crazy kid, did you miss me?" Her voice reached his ears.

Alex froze as a cold sweat formed on his forehead.

He turned and faced the entrance to the back yard of the guest inn. He saw Xiao En, Argus, the steward, and his master, Nana.

Alex swallowed his saliva and took in a deep breath.

"Nana," He called out.

"Seeing your expression, you must have missed me. I heard what you did in the academy and the uproar that you caused. Personally, I'm proud that you did so but also disappointed that you got caught." Nana said with a smile on her face.

She arrived here in her normal attire. Her see-through nightgown and barefooted.

Seeing the scariest person in the academy there, Drake and Katherine froze, they always did so whenever Nana was close.

"I only got caught because of the pill that you gave me." Alex pointed out.

"Eh? So I'm the cause of your misfortune?" Nana stopped and tilted her head as she arched a brow at him.

"No, that's not what I meant." Alex kept quiet, the damage had already been done.

"Your disciple broke some of the rules of the academy that would have warranted his death, however, we chose not to touch him because of…" Argus paused as he stared at the smirking Nana.

"Because of you." He completed.

"Good dog, you know what you should touch and what you shouldn't touch." Nana chuckled.

-Gasp!

Drake, Emma, Adrian, and Katherine gasped when they heard Nana call Argus a dog. They used their hands to cover their mouths as they looked elsewhere.

Gustavo did not react because he already had an idea of their real identities.

"Because I can't touch him doesn't mean that I can't punish him," Argus stated with a straight face.

Xiao En giggled, she seemed to be enjoying the way Nana was bulling Argus.

"Ohh, I'll like to see the type of punishment you have in mind for my precious disciple." Nana folded her hands over her chest as she smirked widened.

"Alexander will be ban from participating in the selection competition." He stated.

"What!!!" His teammates exclaimed.

Alex remained unfazed by that so-called punishment. ['That's all? I was expecting more.'] Alex thought.

"Hahahaha!! What's this selection thing that you are talking about? A competition between simpletons? Even if my disciple wanted to join such degrading competition, I wouldn't have let him do so." Nana stated.

Alex chuckled at her statement.

Noticing her disciple's reaction to her words, Nana smiled and walked closer to Alex. When she was just a few steps away, she glanced at Gustavo.

"You, you made the right choice." She uttered before she faced Alex

"I'm back, I won't be staying for long. Come with me." She held his wrist.

"To where?" Alex frowned as he asked her.

"Didn't you read the note that I wrote to you? I said that I would take you somewhere interesting when I get back."

"But where exactly is the-"

"Hold on." Nana interrupted, and before Alex could react, he felt as if his body was being pulled and pushed by two enormous forces that he couldn't resist…