The Messenger of Death

Soon, the magma started going into Al's pores. He couldn't feel pain staying in the volcano anymore and that made using this magma for the purification of his bloodline, useless. What he needed was something that he found hard to withstand.

Al made his body float to the surface. When he came up to the surface, with the first breath of air that Al took in, he felt a power that he didn't possess before.

Clearly, his cultivation didn't increase, but he could feel something else. Something similar and yet different from cultivation.

['I feel good.'] He uttered excitedly as a wicked smile appeared on his face.

['Do you still feel pain?'] Alex asked.

['No, I can tell that it's hot, but I can't feel anything from the magma. I think I made a breakthrough to the second level of the Blood Awakening Stage.'] Al thought.

['That's good, finally, some progress in this aspect of our arsenals.'] Xander commented.

['Where's Nana though? Did she dump us here?'] Alex wondered.

"I doubt that," Al whispered.

He was about to swim to shore when he saw a huge wave of magma rising meters into the air and heading for him.

Before the wave of magma could drop, Nana appeared and stood midair before the wave. Her back was facing the huge wave but right before it could make contact with her, it froze completely.

"Look at what I got for you while you were busy purifying your blood." She raised her hand and the partially frozen natural anomaly shot out from within the magma.

When Al saw it, he wasn't sure of what he was seeing. To him, it looked like she kidnapped a baby, gave it a tail, and dyed it red. He looked at the proud smile that Nana had on her face and he didn't know what to think.

"Is that a baby? Why the hell would you get a baby for me!? I'm not ready for that type of responsibility, and I never will be." Al rambled.

"You stupid disciple!! Shut your mouth!! It might look like a baby, but that is not what it is." Nana bellowed at him.

Al immediately kept his mouth shut and kept his weird comments to himself.

"What do you take me for, ungrateful boy." Nana frowned as she forced herself to control the impulse of kicking Al's balls.

"Th-then, what is it?" He asked as he saw her frown.

"A natural anomaly." She revealed.

"A natural anomaly?" Al squeezed his face a bit, trying to recall if he had heard anything about any natural anomaly. "I'm sorry but I don't know anything about that." He replied.

"What!!?? How much of an illiterate are you!! What were you doing the last time that you were in the library checking out every book that you could get your hands on, didn't you learn anything!?" She was frustrated by Al's response.

"I swear I didn't see anything about that in the books that I checked out in the library." He said immediately in his defense.

"When we get back, you better get your ass there and put your smarty pants on, because the next time that I have to explain something like this to you, I will beat you up before giving you answers. Am I clear?" Nana spoke coldly.

Despite the fact that he was still in the magma, he started to feel cold. He shivered and used his hands to wrap his body.

"Yes ma'am," Al answered like an obedient student.

['F*cking hell!!'] He cursed.

-Switch.

And then he forcefully switched with Alex without giving a heads-up.

['What the!?'] Alex exclaimed in his mind. ['You flipping twit, you just…'] He realized that he was frowning and that made Nana clench her fist. Alex immediately replaced his frown with a forced smile.

['… we will resume this later, mutt.']

"Better. Listen carefully cause I will only explain this once. A natural anomaly…" Nana proceeded to explain to Alex what a natural anomaly is.

When she was done explaining, Alex understood. He now knows what a natural anomaly is and what it meant to cultivators.

"And you got that for me?" Alex smiled.

"Yes, but I'm starting to have second thoughts." She sneered at him.

"I'm sorry, I want it, I was foolish for not being able to recognize a good thing even when it's being laid in front of my eyes." Alex pleaded.

"If you weren't my disciple, I wouldn't be giving you something this valuable. Just remember that no one loves you more than I do." She muttered as she raised her chin,

Nana was feeling proud of herself.

['This woman… we shouldn't be surprised if she does anything unexpected. She is too unusual to act normal.'] Al commented.

Alex began laughing. "I dare not forget, after all, we are a family now." He blurted out with a charming smile on his face.

When Nana gazed upon the innocent and sincere smile that Alex was making, she couldn't help but feel better about herself. This wasn't pride anymore, what she was feeling now was something different.

Pure joy and satisfaction that she was able to make Alex happy. 'Maybe I should get more of this for him. His smile is cute.' She thought to herself.

Nana shook her head quickly and dismissed that thought of hers.

"So all I just need to do is to absorb and assimilate the violent QI that is in the natural anomaly?" He asked again to confirm.

"Yes, didn't you understand what I said the first time, do you want a beating?" Nana said cheekily. She wasn't angry at him anymore. "Besides, it seems like after you purified one of your bloodlines, it helped to solidify your foundation. You can progress as you wish now, but just don't be reckless. After you make a breakthrough, you will have to re-solidify your foundation."

"Here, once I remove the ice from the natural anomaly you have to start absorbing the violent QI that it radiates." Nana reminded. "Are you ready?"

Alex who was still smiling in the magma nodded his head. "Yeah, I am." He answered.

Nana made the frozen, fiery natural anomaly approach Alex. The anomaly saw Alex smiling at it and it opened its little mouth like it was about to bite Alex. Soon the ice started to melt off the natural anomaly.

"Kyahh!!!" it screamed immediately the ice was off it. Its cry was loud enough to make the whole volcano shake. It caused tidal waves in the river of magma.

['It was just like Nana said, it can interact with any substance that has fire in it.'] Xander uttered. He was the one that was most fascinated out of all of them, by the existence of the natural anomaly.

Nana was still restricting the anomaly's movement with her telekinesis, so it couldn't do much after the ice had melted.

Alex could feel the violent QI that was radiating off the anomaly. Unlike pure QI this one was raging, nonetheless, it was pure too.

He started to drag some of the violent QI off the anomaly.

"Kyahh!!! Kyahh!!" It screamed out in anger and desperation when it saw that Alex was absorbing its energy.

Although the anomaly is still young, it knows what is harmful to its well-being, and what Alex was doing was life-threatening to it.

The natural anomaly forcefully drew its violent QI back and while it was doing that, it wanted to manipulate the fire that it could sense within Alex, and use it to its advantage.

-Roar!!!!

Suddenly, the roar of a dragon shook the whole place. Pillars of magma shot into the sky, breaking through the walls of the volcano. This roar caused a lot of things to run amok.

Listening to this roar made Alex feel like he was on top of the world, like he was the dominator, with pride, courage, and power. He had never felt like this before.

The avatar of a dragon made out of fire started to materialize before the eyes of Alex, Nana, and the natural anomaly.

The dragon was big but not near as big as the dragnels, still, it had a strong presence. When Alex saw this, he could tell that it was his bloodline that manifested in front of his eyes.

-Roar!!!!

It roared once more before it shot at the anomaly and swallowed it.

Seeing that happen surprised Nana, and Alex too. The fire dragon avatar danced around the volcano for a while before it made its way towards Alex.

When it was near it didn't slow down or stop, it went directly at him and entered into Alex from his chest.

Immediately that happened, Alex felt numb for a second before a pain that he couldn't react to or explain assaulted him.

He opened his mouth wide but he wasn't able to make any kind of cry. His whole body went through a metamorphosis as red dragon scales appeared all over his body. Two long fiery horns grew on each side of his head.

-Roar!!!

Alex roared and everything started to collapse…