The Messenger of Death

"How are we going to do this, the training with the bloodline elements? We have only 4 hours of rest every day for the next 2 to 3 weeks." Lex asked.

['We don't need to rest for the whole 4 hours, do we?'] Alex reasoned.

['Yeah, that's not necessary. We can rest for an hour and then use an hour to train with an element. 1 hour to each of the elements.'] Al interjected.

['That will put a lot of strain on the brain, and body. But it is possible for us, after all, we haven't had a comfortable or normal life.'] Xander spoke.

"The first goal will be for us to learn how to use an AOE attack of our own. Every personality will have the chance to train with the element that they can control." Lex mentioned. "But first, we should rest for today, this is just the beginning of the hellish training with Nana."

-Switch.

Lex returned the body controls over to Alex.

"That woman will be here any moment from now…" Alex turned and looked at Milo. "…Return to your cat form." He ordered and Milo complied.

He transformed while he was still on his shoulders.

['You start first Alex, your control over the fire and lightning elements is below average. Once you can control it better, you can attempt integrating the bloodline ability with the surrounding QI and maybe create a new kind of attack, AOE or not.'] Xander suggested.

['We each have only an hour to practice our elements, how are we going to make way for hillbilly here to learn control.

I think it will be better if the three of us just do this and he sits back. He will be the one that Nana will train most of the time.'] Al refused Xander's suggestion.

['Have you forgotten that you are the better alchemist amongst us? You will switch with him frequently to take lessons from Nana.'] Xander pointed out.

['I will sacrifice my position for him to use. Alex, you can use my one hour for the first 2 weeks. I already know how the AOE attack works, so I'm not in a rush to learn more.'] He added.

Xander did this just so he could avoid arguing with Al, and because it was one of the most reasonable options amongst all the ones that he thought of.

"Thanks, Xander," Alex whispered.

['Suite yourself, I will become stronger.'] Al muttered.

Alex could sense that Al still had some kind of problem with him. Just like when he had just grasped a fundamental nature of lightning and began using the element, Al verbally attacked him. He wanted to ask what he did that caused this, but he was almost as stubborn as Al is.

He didn't want to feel like the weaker one by asking him if he did anything wrong, so Alex kept quiet and let Al continue to act like a kid.

['Al, stop this childish act of yours. It's stupid.'] Xander mentioned. He could tell why Al was acting like this.

Even if Al is the type to flirt and make crazy incredulous plans, he still had feelings, the feelings of a teenager. It may not surface frequently but it was still present. He is yet to grow in that aspect.

['It is not childish, I am taking preventive measures. I will not become useless and be discarded.'] He retorted.

['Preventive measures? Useless? Discarded by whom?'] Alex was confused and yet he felt as if Al was saying this to him.

Al refused to say anything on that again.

['Lex, will you kindly put a stop to this?'] Xander requested.

['This isn't a situation that I can solve just by telling him to stop. They would have to do this on their own. I just hope that it doesn't take long for them to do so.'] Lex answered.

Xander sighed at his reply, ['Fine, we'll see how things play out.']

Alex used his fingers to massage his brows. He had been frowning for a while now.

"I thought I told you not to teleport?" Nana appeared beside Alex.

"Hiss!!"

Upon noticing Nana's arrival, Milo turned into the big snake that he transformed into previously. He did it so that he could scare Nana.

Contrary to Milo's expectation, Nana didn't even flinch or give him any satisfactory reaction. "Turning into a big snake won't scare me, I've seen things a lot scarier than this.

Looking at you now gives me the urge to skin you and use your scales for alchemy." Nana said as she spared Milo a glance.

"Meow!!" He returned to his cat form and hid behind Alex.

"I know that you said that I shouldn't teleport but I couldn't help myself. I needed to confirm something. Besides, I made sure that I didn't teleport out of this room, so no biggie." Alex waved his wrist, trying to dismiss the subject. He laid his back on the mattress. 

"No biggie? You went against my order and now you say that it's nothing serious? Get up, that's the end of the break for today." She ordered.

"What!? Why? C'mon, I didn't do anything wrong." Alex panicked a little.

"Don't make me repeat myself," Nana uttered in a low scary tone.

Alex gulped the saliva in his mouth down as he could feel the temperature in the room drop. He could tell that she was about to snap, and if she did, it won't end well for him.

"Alright, I'm getting up…" He pushed himself off the bed. "…now what?" He raised his hands.

"Your training starts now. We will begin with solidifying your foundations…" Nana relayed what he was going to do today, in detail. And she also mentioned punishments that he was going to get if he didn't do what she asks of him.

This was the beginning of Alex's hellish training with Nana. He consolidated and solidify his foundation for an hour, after he was done, Nana had him make ice cubes. She gave him a model and told him to replicate it 10,000 times.

If one of the cubes is different from the shape and size of the model that she told him to replicate, then she would punish him. The level of punishment depends on the number of mistakes he makes.

When or if his QI is depleted, he was given an hour to replenish his core and solidify his foundations again, before he returns to making ice cubes.

This went on for 10 hours. When he was done with this, Nana didn't give him a chance to rest before she started shooting ice needles at him again. His job was to stop every needle that approached him, for 3 seconds.

This particular exercise went on for about 4 hours before Alex ran out of mental strength. Nana threw a pill at him and gave him an hour to regain his mental strength. He stared at her with pleading eyes. She was being harsher than ever to him.

Even if Alex wouldn't say anything about it, even if he claims to be a frequent host of pain, he didn't like pain. No one does. It wouldn't show on his face, but it was hard to hide feelings in the eyes.

Nana saw this but it didn't change her resolve to train Alex harshly, nor did it change the stern expression on her face.

By the time an hour had been exhausted, she began teaching Alex the basics of alchemy. In the middle of this exercise, Alex switched with Al.

He had decided to leave this part completely for Al. he was already exhausted before the day had ended…

Hours later, Nana was done training Al on alchemy. "You have 2 hours to rest, this is your punishment for going against my order," Nana stated before she left Al standing in a hall alone.

Al's body slumped to the ground, and he switched with Alex. Even with the body of a cultivator, it was hard to follow Nana's schedule, even harder to accomplish what he planned.

Alex could feel his sore muscle cry out.  His head was been assaulted by migraines and his core aching from the frequent overuse that it faced during the day. It was emptied and refilled constantly today.

"If this is how my body is going to feel at the end of every day. I don't even want to think of what will happen."

['Rest for an hour, use the last hour to begin training your control over the fire element.'] Xander mentioned.

"Mmm." Alex agreed.

['Just a reminder, do not go against Nana's orders during the training. Don't even complain of she says anything unreasonable. It is as if she had become another person.'] Lex advised.

['Yeah, she is serious about training us. I understand her harsh nature. I would use these same tactics to train others too.'] Xander interjected.

"I know that she wants to make me strong, I understand that she has to be like this, I just find it hard to…" Alex kept his comment to himself.

['Forget about it.'] He thought and closed his eyes. Alex fell asleep.

…

Meanwhile, not far away from where Alex was laying on the ground. Nana stood with her back against the wall. She had been eavesdropping on Alex. Listening to the conversation that he was having with himself.

She gave a heavy sigh as she recalled when her disciple looked at her like she was a wicked person. "I hope this wouldn't make you hate me." Nana thought with a heavy heart.

This was hard for her to do, if not harder than the training that she was putting him through. And it was hard for her to watch with a straight face.

Nana had already admitted the fact that she cared for her disciple, very much. Maybe more than she was meant to…