The Messenger of Death

Camron and the rest stealthily followed the berserkers into the village, they were curious as to why the berserkers tried to stand up but always ended up falling back to the ground. That didn't happen when they were being chased in the forest.

"There's a smoke coming from over there." Katherine pointed at the direction of the shrine.

Everyone looked at it and wondered what was happening. "Maybe it was Alex that set something on fire." Emma thought out loud.

'Alex.' Camron was concerned about his friend. His guts were telling him that something was wrong.

-Skee!!!

The berserkers stopped moving and screamed in anguish, and after that loud cry, they ceased to make any other wails or movements.

"What's wrong? Why aren't they moving again?" Lenny questioned.

Slowly, the motionless bodies of the berserkers started to crumble and turn into sand. They had finally died for good.

"Is this another kind of illusion?" Amelia freaked out. "How can they just crumble into dust after crawling!? This doesn't make any kind of sense. Am I losing my mind?" She fell into a trance, questioning her sanity.

Sara walked up to where the bodies of the berserkers were previously and touched their remains. "I don't think it's an illusion. Let's continue, into the village."

They did as Sara said, but they didn't drop their guard down one bit.

Soon they reached the vicinity where the shrine was, they saw smoke rising from the shrine and a body lying in blood not too far from the shrine.

Camron looked closely at the body lying in the bloody pond. "Alex?" He was unsure if it was his friend or not.

He hurriedly moved closer to the body.

"Alex!"

He shouted and ran to his friend. He shook his body a bit.

"Wake up Alex." He didn't get any response.

Camron quickly checked his pulse from his wrist and he couldn't feel his heart beating. He changes the method and put his ear over his friend's bloody chest.

-Lub..dub!

His heart was still beating, but weakly and barely doing so.

"He is still alive, but he needs immediate treatment," Camron said.

When his ears were over Alex's chest, he could tell that Alex's ribs were broken. He looked at his friend's face and saw the imprint of a person's foot on one part of it. It was the imprint from the kick that put Xander out.

"Amelia, come quickly. Help give him first aid." Sara urged.

Amelia walked to his side and analyzed his injuries.

"He has 7 broken ribs, torn muscles, multiple fractures, and a dislocated knee." She paused and looked at Alex's head, she noticed the bruise on his neck. "Bruised lungs. Help me open his shirt." She spoke to Camron.

Camron ripped the shirt of Alex's uniform, open.

-Gasp!

Amelia, Sara, and almost everybody there gasped at the sight of Alex's upper body. The scars they saw was something that they didn't expect. Especially those that knew that Alex stayed in the school's guest inn penthouse.

Sara glanced at her brother, she saw that his expression remained the same. 'He already knew about the scars.' She concluded.

"Was he abused as a child, or tortured. Even if he was a slave, it would be monstrous of a person to do this to a teenager." Amelia frowned as she placed her hand on the scar of a laser gun injury on Alex's chest.

Everyone turned to Camron, expecting him to give them a piece of information about Alex's past.

"I don't know a lot about his past. He doesn't talk about it." Camron said.

"And what I know is not something that I have the right to divulge to anyone else without his permission."

'Did he leave his royal family because they treated him like this? Does he even have a protector watching him from the shadow?' Sara wondered.

She shifted her eyes from his scars to the lean muscles of his abs. 'He works hard too.' She finished.

Amelia shook her head and brought out some ointments and bandages from her storage pouch.

"I'll need lots of clean, warm water and an extra hand. We can't move his body too much until he has gotten proper treatment." Almost everyone here volunteered. After seeing his scars they all felt pity for him.

They couldn't hold a grudge against Alex now. They all felt like if they faced what he had gone through, they would also have the same attitude that he has now. They would also be skeptical and arrogant towards others.

Amelia picked Emma and Camron to assist her with the application of the first aid.

Lenny and some others watched from afar. "Although the journey of cultivators is not a pretty one, nor are its road straight and smooth, even if you know what to expect you can't help but sympathize with some that have fallen victim to it holes.

There are people with worse scars than Alex, and many of us wouldn't flinch when we see the scars that others have. But because he had saved us multiple times and earned our respect with his abilities, we pity him and want to treat him better now." Lenny smiled.

Since he met Alex, he didn't like or hate him per se. He couldn't even bring himself to acknowledge his presence at times. Lenny had felt like Alex was a waste of time to interact with.

Later on, Lenny got jealous of Alex, because of the attention he was getting from Sara. He had a crush on Sara, but he didn't know how to say it or show it. He was also afraid of her family and siblings.

But a weakling like Alex was getting her attention and he rejected it multiple times and that, on one side, made him feel good and on the other made him hate Alex...

"Okay, we are almost done. We would soon be able to leave this godforsaken forest and never return." Amelia announced.

Shortly after that, they announced that they had finished. "Who's going to carry h-"

Before Amelia could finish asking her question Sara had already gone forward and picked Alex up. She gently put him on her back.

"I guess she'll be the one to do that then." Amelia uttered.

Sara walked past her and said; "Let's get out of here."

They wasted no time in doing that. Fortunately for them, the thick mist in the forest had disappeared as mysteriously as it appeared. They could navigate their way better than before now, but they were still on high alert.

They sped their way towards the exit of the forest…

**************

UNKNOWN SECT, IN THE CELESTIAL PLAIN REALM.

An average height gardener, in an overall attire for gardeners. The gardener was speeding through a long hallway, breathing unevenly. He stopped in front of a huge wooden double door and stayed stilled just so he could catch his breath.

-Rat-a-tat!!

He knocked on the double doors.

"Come in." A deep voice from within the double doors permitted him.

The gardener rushed in and fell to his knees. The room that he entered was dark with only the lights from several incense sticks giving little illumination to the room.

"Sect master!" The gardener called out.

"What is it, why do you look uneven?" The deep voice asked with a nonchalant tone.

"Sorry for disturbing your peace sect mas-"

"Get to the point Amir." The sect master interrupted the gardener.

Amir, who was the gardener, swallowed a lump of air that seemed to have gotten stuck in his throat. He washed it down with his saliva.

"Sect master there's an urgent issue at hand that needs your immediate and undivided attention," Amir said.

"I thought I told you to get to the point?" The sect master was starting to get annoyed by Amir's delay.

"Y-yes you did, and I am about to do just that sir. Sect master… a petal from the Midas flower's overseer has fallen…"

Amir bent his head down and closed his eyes in fear...

-Boom!!

"What!!?? How is that possible!??"

The sect master who had been seated all these while stood up and the floor beneath his chair exploded, he created a huge crater on the ground.

"I-I-I-I don't know sir." Amir stuttered as he answered.

"What do mean by you don't know!? Aren't you meant to watch it and take care of it!? Did you slack off or did you cut the petal off from the overseer yourself, just so you could pull one of your stupid pranks!!? "

The sect master took a step forward and the room he was in started to shake.

Amir shook in fear and flinched with every step that brought the sect master closer to him

"A-actually, father my job is to only watch it. I can't even touch it, even if I could I wouldn't be able to leave a scratch on it. Cultivators at the emperor realm can't even do anything to it, so how can I? The only way anything can happen to the overseer is if the Midas flower it's self-had been touched." Amir pointed out.

"You insolent child!! You dare to call me father and talk back at me?"

"N-n-no Father, I dare not." Amir blurted out, when he realized his mistake he used his hands to cover his mouth.

The sect master waved his hand and the wall next to the hand that he waved broke into pieces.

Amir shrieked and was about to scurry away. He ran towards the double doors as fast as he could.

"Where do you think you're going?" The sect master stretched his hand out, and an invisible force caught the collar of Amir's cloth.

With the wall broken, rays of bright light from the sun invaded the room and illuminated its surroundings…