The Messenger of Death

Not wasting much time after Al requested a guide from the system, an arrow appeared on the skin crawler's screen interface and began giving Al directions.

Filled with anxiety and excitement, Al started running at his fastest, zooming past trees and monsters.

He activated his bloodline ability, using the intimidating aura from his bloodline to scare off any monster that would think of coming after him.

The cause of Al's anxiety is from the Midas seed carriers. Al had already made an assumption weeks ago of why the system couldn't pinpoint the location of the petal's energy.

His thesis was that Mr. Guardian had found a way to mask the petal's energy from the skin crawler's detection method, but not completely.

Also included in his thesis, Al hypothesized that by the time the system would be able to locate the petal's energy, the Midas seed carriers would also have an idea of where the location of the next petal is.

At this point, Al couldn't tell if he had an advantage over the Midas seed carriers now.

Even Nana said that his talent wasn't much compared to other talented individuals in the Celestial plain realm. All of the seed carriers possess a cultivation realm that exceeds Al's cultivation realm.

Not sure of the obstacles that he would come to face while looking for this petal, Al had made up his mind, to consume the remaining Midas petal that he has stored in his storage ring and boost his cultivation as much as he can.

That's why he's rushing towards the petal here in the lower plain realm. He at least wants a head start.

['Guys, I've been thinking of going against what Nana said.'] Al brought up the topic to the rest.

['Going against what exactly?'] Alex asked.

['About the Midas petal that she said not to consume completely until she tell us to.']

For a moment, there was silence in his head, none of them spoke. Alex, Lex, and Xander all understood Al's train thought and why he was thinking about this.

If they consume the rest of the petal, then they would be going against what Nana said, and at the same time, if they consume it before getting Nana's permission it can aid them and increase their chances of getting another petal.

['Go ahead.'] Xander broke the silence.

['I'm not totally against it.'] Lex said.

['knowing Nana, she's going to punish us for disobeying her instruction… either way, do it. Just know that you're going to be the one in control when it's going to happen.'] Alex added.

Al rolled his eyes what Alex said.

"So be it, the most she would do is to break a few bones…if she's not pissed." Al muttered.

-Thoom!!

Suddenly Al felt himself slowing down against his will. He felt as if every part of his body was stuck in glue.

-Whoop!!

Like an arrow being shot out of a bow, Al was thrown away and sent flying.

-Bam! Bam!

Al hit a few trees while flying but they weren't enough to stop his momentum. The trees fell to the ground after being hit by Al. Only after crossing a few meters did Al finally stop flying.

"What the hell?" Al uttered gently. He was laying on his back and his eyes were wide open staring at the midday sky, shocked at what just happened to him.

Despite being thrown away by an unknown force and hitting a few trees, Al wasn't hurt in any way nor did he feel much pain.

['What just happened?'] Alex wondered as he was also in shock too.

['I think… I hit an elastic wall.'] Al answered unconsciously while trying to verify if what he said actually made sense.

Al propped himself up with one hand and sat on the floor, staring at the empty space where he thought he hit an elastic wall. Just as Al thought, there was nothing but more forestry in front of him. He then glanced at the arrow on the mask's screen interface that had been guiding him and it was still pointing ahead.

Not sure if he was crazy, Al got up and decided to try going in the same direction once again, only that this time he planned on going forward slowly.

Al started approaching the spot where he was thrown away from slowly. He placed his left hand in front as a precaution.

Just a few yards away from where Al was thrown away from, he felt his left hand that was placed in front, touching something hard and also at the same time soft. Al had to put more strength and effort behind his push before his hand could move any further.

At a point, his hand stopped moving again and he was being pushed back once again. This time, Al was ready for anything, so immediately he realized that he was about to be thrown again, he dropped his weight on his toes and resisted the force, creating deep lines on the floor.

Due to this, Al only moved a few yards away from his previous position.

['Now we know how we got thrown away, the next question that needs an answer is why?'] Alex stated.

"A barrier?"

['Probably,'] Xander replied.

['Look for any sign that indicates that the barrier was made with runes.'] Lex suggested.

Following Lex's suggestion, Al began searching the environment for anything that might indicate that the barrier was made with runes.

Al spent over an hour searching for any sign and soon he saw something worthwhile.

It was a stick that was hidden beside the huge roots of a tree. Because of how big the roots of the tree are, it was hard to locate the stick. Al only noticed the stick because it looked weird beside the tree.

A brown stick with symmetrical sides that was planted beside the roots of a tree would surely catch the eyes of anyone as long they could spot it.

['That definitely has something to do with runes.'] Alex mentioned.

"So what do I do, should I pull it out?"

['No!'] Lex and Alex shouted at the same time. They were the only ones that could recall a few things about rune mastery from the Dragnel memories that they got.

"Why not?"

['We might not be able to take the rebound'] Lex answered.

['At the moment, this stick is serving as one of the pillars of this barrier. If you manage to pull it out, the energy used to create the barrier wouldn't just dissipate.'] Alex explained.

"What if I burn it down?"

['Well, that might work.'] Alex said.

"Good, let me have a go at it," Al uttered and put a few meters between him and the tree where the stick was planted beside.

-Fwoosh!!

Al's forearm lit on fire and the fire started contracting before transforming into a ball of fire. "This should be enough to do the trick." Al threw the ball of fire at the stick and upon contact, the ball of fire disappeared.

"Huh?" Al exclaimed with a frown on his face.

There was no trace of his fireball anywhere.

Al decided to try again, he made a bigger fireball and shot it at the stick, and just like what happened to the first fireball, happened to this fireball too.

"This is really starting to piss me off!" Al stated in frustration.

Suddenly the temperature around started changing. As seconds passed, a few kilometers around Al got hotter.

Burn marks started appearing on leaves and all of this is as a result of Al activating his bloodline ability.

The insects around had burnt and turned to ashes, and the only reason that the trees were fine was that Al chose not to let the heat from his ability affect them.

['Careful Al, with this much heat, you could start a huge Forest fire that you might not be put out easily.'] Lex warned.

"Don't worry, I won't be using my full power, I can control this much heat," Al reassured.

A red little ball that looks like hot iron manifested in front of Al's chest. This flame is different from the first two that he shot at the stick.

"This should do the trick," Al mentioned before shooting the red little ball at the stick.

-Whoop!!

Contrary to Al's expectations the red ball of fire disappeared right after hitting the stick.

Al was about to voice his complaints when a red canopy-like wall appeared beside him. This red canopy wall is about 27 meters tall and as soon as it appeared, it started to fade off. From the bottom to the top.

"What the…"

-Boom!!!

Before Al could complete his statement a loud explosion came from the top of the canopy wall. A red pillar of Al's flames escaped from the top of the canopy.

This pillar was shot into the sky and a large part of the forest was covered with a red-like veil from above.

"…fuck, that's my fire?" Al stated with a perplexed expression on his face as he stared at the now red sky.

['Now I understand better. This barrier is the type that absorbs attacks and releases them with strength or force greater than the initial attack.'] Lex realized.

['Leave the area quickly, this will draw the attention of a lot of people in the academy. Once we are safe we can start investing the barrier and how to get past it.'] Xander advised.

"Lex switch with me." Al requested at once.

-Switch.

Immediately Lex took over, he began making his way towards the guest inn as fast as he could. Although Lex couldn't do long-distance teleportation and has a limited number of times he could teleport in a day, he used the ability wisely.

Making teleportation when necessary as he ran…