The Messenger of Death

['Do what you want.'] Xander said.

Alex kept the gourd and letter in his ring. When he looked at the wisp, it had slowly started to move towards his left, he quickly followed it.

When he was just a few yards away from the opening that showed the waterfall, the stone wall moved and closed the view. He looked back and sighed.

'A nice view that has been wasted.' He thought.

Alex had continued to follow the wisp till they walked into a wall at the end of a corridor. When he stepped out of the wall he was no longer surrounded by moving stone walls, now he was back in the forest. The exit point of where they had come out of was a huge dead tree.

"Not weird at all." He said sarcastically.

-Ping!

*Happy birthday Sir. Alexander, you are now 16 years old.

The system notified him and then it sent virtual holographic fireworks into the air.

"My birthday?" He looked at the time interface at the corner of his screen.

"27th March, 3030. 00:00. It really is my birthday."

['Well happy f*cking birthday to us, yay. Now follow the wisp, that thing is a treasure finder.'] Al urged.

Alex also didn't seem to mind the tone and sarcasm in his speech because he was also passive about about his birthday. The last time he cared to celebrate his birthday was when he was 5 years old, when his parents were still alive.

He ignored the system's notification and followed the wisp.

['Just in case we run into any of the berserkers, have the system put on the GPS to the where their hearts are located.'] Lex suggested.

"System, give me directions to the site where the vibrations were found.

*Activating GPS. Activated.

The arrow appeared and was pointing in the same direction that the wisp was heading.

['Maybe the storage rings of the rest, are where their hearts are and the wisp is taking us there for that.'] Al said with optimism oozing off his tone.

['Don't be blinded by your greed Al, Mr. Guardian never said that the wisp was going to lead us to treasures. He only said that it will take us to where we are supposed to be.'] Xander popped his dreamy bubble.

['Let me be, it's my greed.'] Al retorted and kept quiet.

Alex kept on following the wisp, and the arrow from the system was still pointing in the same direction as the wisp. Soon they arrived in front of a tall bush, the wisp entered into it and Alex followed behind.

As he walked through the bush, following the wisp, the foul but familiar stench of blood reached his nose.

['Was there a bloody battle around here?']

This thought stayed at the back of his mind. He moved and he followed the wisp further into the bush, the further he went the thicker the stench of blood was. The thick mist that had covered the forest had started to reduce the closer he went towards his goal.

Roughly 5 minutes later he reached the end of the bush. He raised his hands and used them to push the tall grass that was blocking his view. Alex stopped where he was, from where he was he could see over 75 berserkers standing, and some squatting down.

They all had their attention on the hip of dead bodies that looked like they had been drained of every single drop of blood they had in their body.

These dead bodies were the corpses of the other teams' teammates. The ones that got poisoned and captured first. 14 of them, not far from the corpses were run-down wooden huts with holes on the roofs – shaped like that of a human; like someone was thrown through the walls.

The berserkers were was just looking at the body with want in the eyes, they all looked like they were waiting. They stood at a corner close to the entrance of the village.

['They actually eat the bodies, eww.'] Al voiced his disgust.

['What are they waiting for?'] Alex asked.

['If I recall correctly, there are 137 of them and there are only 77 of them here. They are waiting for the rest to return.'] Xander pointed out.

['60 berserkers are still out there hunting for the rest.'] His thoughts drifted to the wellbeing of Camron.

['Wait, where's the wisp going?'] Lex questioned.

Alex snapped back to reality and looked at the wisp. It was heading straight for where the berserkers were standing.

"Noo," Alex whispered.

The wisp passed the front of the berserkers and nothing happened. It was like they couldn't see the wisp.

"Am I the only one that can see it, or they are just color blind and can't see things that glow?" Alex wondered. The wisp stopped moving, it was waiting for Alex to follow it. He looked at the distance left to the shrine, on his mask

*GPS, status: 5km till site.

['I guess the wisp and the mask are taking me to the same place.'] Alex uttered.

Alex erased his presence and stepped out of his hiding spot. He walked quickly and silently towards the entrance of the village. He didn't pass the front of the berserkers like the wisp did, although his presence was hidden he wasn't invisible.

Alex used another route and made it to where the wisp stopped and waited for him. As soon as he reached it started to move again, it went deeper into the village and Alex followed suit. The huts in the village looked like the outcome of a mini earthquake, most of its structures had been destroyed.

Blleee!!

Not long after, Alex heard the familiar cry of the berserkers.

"Shit!"

He dived through a broken window and into a hut. He stayed silent as he raised his head to peep and assess his situation.

['They've been silent all these while, why did one of them suddenly cry out? Was I spotted?'] Alex's thoughts were a mess at the moment.

Fortunately for him, none of the berserkers had spotted him. The cry didn't even come from the berserkers that were standing at a corner close to the entrance of the village, the cry came from the new sets of berserkers that had just arrived with people hanging on their shoulders.

"Camron." Alex saw his friend and Sara hanging on the shoulders of the berserker that he had set on fire.

['It must have taken the two of them down on its own. Quickly head over to where their hearts are and destroy them. I don't see the white bowl anywhere close to the entrance, so it should be closer to the shrine. We still have time before they kill the remaining.'] Lex said.

Now all the berserkers had arrived. The berserker that took out Camron and Sara on its own threw their bodies to the ground, it walked to one of its companion that had been there when Alex arrived and collected a bone dagger from it.

"Why is it collecting a dagger? Wouldn't it be wiser to drain the blood of your victim when you are in front of where the blood is meant to be stored?"

The berserker looked like it was about to start slicing their wrist.

['If Camron wasn't among the people here, I wouldn't be considering wasting my chance to finish these berserkers without a fight, and going to save them.'] Alex thought.

['I guess we've taken a liking to him.'] Al stated, admitting that he also supported Alex's Idea.

['Xander, let's switch. Now that we are a nascent realm cultivator, the lightning should be stronger than before.'] Alex thought with an evil smirk on his face.

['So be it.'] Xander agreed.

-Switch.

Immediately Xander took control, he activated his bloodline ability.

-Zzzz!!

Sparks of lightning surrounded him. The lightning around him was a bit different now, it's color had changed to rose-gold.

"Befitting," Xander uttered at the sight of the new color of his lightning.

-Zzzzz!!!

Xander started to charge himself up. The sound of sparks started to sound like that of raindrops hitting a river, it was continuous and loud enough to attract the attention of all the berserkers that were there.

********

-Thud!

Camron was thrown to the ground and the same was done to his sister, she landed right next to him.

'At least we can't feel any pain.' He thought.

He tried to look around and see if Alex had been caught too. After checking he didn't find Alex anywhere close. If he could move he would have given a sigh of relief.

'I want him to be here and I also don't want him to be here. If he was here, then at least I would have the hope of his protector saving him and maybe us from this horror.' Camron thought.

He looked at the berserker that captured him and his sister, it walked away from his side, and not long after he saw it return to his side with a bone dagger in its hand.

Camron's heart started to beat fast, he turned his eyes and looked at his sister who was still out cold.

'Sara.'

-Zzzzz!!!

He heard a loud sound, it the sound of lightning sparking…