The Messenger of Death

"Goodness, this is inhumane. Why not just kill the man and let him die with his dignity intact?" Argus uttered. Watching Lex take his time before killing Vincent, and also the approach that he took repulsed and irritated him at the same time.

He unconsciously took a few steps further away from where Lex was standing and started having second thoughts about protecting Alex.

"With that puppet thing of his, his battle strength and combat abilities, this kid doesn't need my protection. But I still have to stay with him just to be safe, it is what the Headmaster wants too." Argus convinced himself to stay.

"Aiya, if only this stubborn kid didn't kill a person in the academy, he would have been able to participate in the continental competition, and with him in participating, first place would have been possible to achieve. Now because of him, not only are we not going to get first place in the competition, I even have to miss the whole thing and stay watch over him. I'm starting to doubt who amongst the two of us is being punished." He complained…

Right after Vincent died, the open space on the barrier started closing. To its understanding, Vincent had left its space, one way or another.

Out of curiosity, Lex walked closer to the barrier with his spatial domain still active, he wanted to find out if he could teleport out of the barrier.

Just as the territory of Lex's domain touched the barrier, Lex stopped moving. It was as if someone had suddenly blindfolded him.

['What's wrong?'] Alex asked.

['I'm not sure. I can feel the forest beyond the barrier, although it's vague. I think I can teleport out of here, but I would want to risk it since I have never experienced something like this before.'] Lex explained.

['That's not important now, what matters the most is finding the Midas petal.'] Al stated.

Lex deactivated his domain and turned away from the barrier. He saw Milo still throwing random punches at the air. 

"Milo!" Lex called out and began laughing. "You can stop now, haha-"

-Cough! Cough! Cough!

Suddenly his laughter turned into a coughing fit where blood gushed out of his mouth. "Ouch!" Lex cried out gently.

Milo stopped throwing punches at the air and turned to look at Lex, he slanted his head a bit then began scratching his bald obsidian-like head.

Lex quickly took a healing pill that Nana left for Alex out of his storage ring. He sat down and swallowed the pill. Taking a deep breath, he began absorbing the QI around him to help increase the rate at which he healed.

"Milo, Protect me until I'm done healing," Lex said gently before he closed his eyes and focused on healing. Milo transformed into a large tiger then proceeded to sit in front of Alex, ready to pounce anyone that comes near Lex.

['Lex keeps on proving that he's the strongest amongst the four of us. Only he has killed two Sky realm cultivators.'] Alex pointed out, making Lex blush a bit with his comment.

['Hmph! What do you know? I could do the same. A Sky realm cultivator is nothing to me.'] Al childishly retorted. Unwilling to accept that he too could kill a Sky realm cultivator on his own.

['Says the person that suggested I switch with Lex.'] Alex replied sarcastically.

['That's because you had already made the fool aware of what you could do. The element of surprise was the trump card. Besides, you already fucked our body up after taking some hits. How do you expect me to battle stronger opponents with a banged-up body and no element of surprise!?'] He said in his defense.

['Oh my, that's right. It's all my fault.'] Sarcasm dripped off what Alex said.

['Why am I arguing with anyways? You're the weakest amongst all of us.']

['Hahaha! I know right, but I still don't get how you took offense from the compliment that I gave to Lex.'] Alex found their chiding funny.

['I didn't take offense, I was just pointing out a fact.'] Al defended.

['Point taken, Al, we never doubted you.'] Xander chipped in.

['Even you, Xander?']

Xander stayed silent, ignoring Al's childish antics. ['Besides, He killed the first Sky realm cultivator with my assistance. I was the one that made and tested the poison that we used to kill Hinata.'] Al muttered, refusing to let the matter end in his defeat.

['Okay, what about this one, did you assist him in any way?'] Alex asked.

['Hmph! With his cheat-like ability, what assistance does he require from me? Fine, I admit, I- I am a bit jealous of the kills that he has made.'] Al finally admitted his defeat.

['Thank you, did the truth kill you? Hahaha!'] Alex mocked.

['Boy!! How come you have comebacks now and didn't have anything to say to Camron after he called you a 'selfish brat'!?']

The laughing Alex suddenly kept quiet.

['Yeah, I thought so.'] Al snorted…

After what Al said, none of them said anything. Lex continued absorbing the QI around him to increase the rate at which he healed.

Roughly half a day had gone by the time Lex was done healing himself. He opened his eyes and took in a deep breath. He then spat some blood that was in his mouth.

['Alex, we can switch whenever you're ready.'] Lex informed.

['Alright, go ahead.']

-Switch.

"Thanks, Lex," Alex said while getting up.

['You're welcome,'] Lex sang like a little girl. The way he replied did make Alex wince a bit, but he quickly readjusted, not wanting to offend Lex.

['Now, on to what brought us.'] Alex stated.

"System,"

*Ping!

"Give me directions to the Midas petal."

*Loading. Processing information. Creating a route to the destination. Route created. Would you like to activate GPS now?

"Yes,"

*Ping!

*Activating GPS… GPS activated.

Almost immediately, a familiar red arrow appeared on the Skin crawler's screen interface. It pointed towards the North.

"Return to me, Milo." Alex directed.

Milo went closer to Alex and used his head to touch his hand before transforming into a liquid that wrapped around Alex's arm before disappearing into his body.

Alex quickly shot in the direction that the arrow was pointing to. As he ran, Alex noticed that there were quite a few auras around him.

['There are people here, but they are only watching me for now, do I probe them or ditch them?'] Alex informed.

['Ditch them, it's the prisoners here, we don't have any more time to waste on unimportant things.'] Al replied.

Rolling his eyes, Alex used his full speed to run. With having to activate his lightning bloodline, little sparks and streaks of pink of lightning surrounded him as he ran.

These streaks of lightning scorched anything that they touched.

The people that were watching Alex suddenly stopped following him. "Scar, I think he noticed us." A well-built man with bear hide resting on his shoulders and head said to his companion. His skin was tanned and some part looked rough as if he had hard feather-like barbs on him."

"Most likely, Barb, he's a quick and fast one." The one referred to as Scar replied. Scar didn't look anything like his companion. He was the opposite of Barb, with his skin fair, like it had never been scorched by the sun. A frail and thin stature, with a weak demeanor.

"Spread the word around the prison. A lump of new meat has arrived, and this meat is a student of our jailors. He's wearing black attire... And also, he's heading towards Jarja's territory." Scar looked to his side, apparently talking to the tree beside him. Or so it seemed.

A figure suddenly came out of the tree after Scar was done speaking. This figure's skin looked exactly like the natural color of the tree he had been hiding in. The figure opened its eyes and bobbed his head a bit before returning to the tree he came out of.

…

-Thoom!

Moving as fast as he could, Alex just broke through the sound barrier. He found it hard to see as everything was starting to turn into a blur to him. What he was just focused on was getting to the Midas petal.

He weaved and ducked, not knowing what he was dodging, but he did so because he didn't want to take any chances.

Alex realized that the distance on the Skin crawler's screen interface kept on increasing. This confused him and slowly, Alex started to slow down.

"System, report."

*Ping!

*An unknown energy is clashing with the Midas Petal's energy and obstructing the system's operation.

"Filter the energy out then."

*That action had already been put to action but still, there's still it is present. More accurately, it is as if the unknown energy is moving around with the familiar Midas energy.

"What?!" Alex came to a full stop now. "So we are lost?" He blurted out.

*System is working on other possible solutions, please stand by for the result.

['Just when I thought we had finally gotten rid of our bad luck.'] Al sighed.

"Fuck me!" Alex facepalmed himself…