The Messenger of Death

As the two fireballs approached themselves, it was as of they recognized themselves and as if there was enmity between them.

The prince's fireball started to morph into a phoenix made of flames.

-Caww!!!

The Phoenix cried out and shook the hearts and minds of those that heard it, except Alex. This time, even the children of kings were affected by the cry.

-Roar!!!

Al's flames roared, this was the first time it was happening since he got this fire ability. His flames roared but it didn't look like it was going to morph into a dragon too.

The roar that his flames made had the same effect that the Phoenix cry had. It shook the hearts and minds of everyone that heard it.

Everyone but the Phoenix prince.

-Puff!!

Suddenly, and unexpectedly, the flames thrown by the two of them went out before they could make contact.

"You are a trouble maker, aren't you Alexander? I put out your flames before it could morph. The last time we met, I took measures to make sure that the beast from whom you got your bloodline will not be exposed, and here you are, about to waste that kind gesture of mine." Mr. Guardian's voice reached Al's ears.

"Oh, I didn't know," Al replied.

While the rest were trying to figure out why the two flames vanished before they collided, Al was about to start a conversation with Mr. Guardian.

"You should find your way to the petal before they do. Whoever gets to it first will be the one to take it, and trust me, whoever can make it to the petal will have their cultivations returned to them.

Now that your cultivation is the highest here, you should use it to your advantage. Getting to this petal may not be as simple as the first one. Note, I won't be helping you as you make your way to the petal." Mr. Guardian advised.

"Okay," Al answered and looked at the arrow on the skin crawler's interface, it was pointing towards the northeast of where he was.

Al looked at the prince one last time. "Let's see who can make it to the petal first. Seems like the guardian here doesn't want us fighting. Adios pretentious f*ck." Al flipped his middle finger at him as he let his flame engulf his legs.

-Whoosh.

He charged in the direction that his GPS arrow was pointing at.

The prince was about to chase after him. He has never experienced that much disrespect that Al showed to him. He was furious, but he hid it under a calm expression. Even at that, his upper lip was twitching as he was finding it hard to keep his cool.

Unexpectedly, everyone with a Midas seed saw writing in their mind, telling them of the rules that they had to abide by if they wanted to acquire the petal.

This writing that appeared in their minds interrupted the prince and stopped him from chasing after Al.

The prince read the writing that appeared in his mind. There were three rules, the first being;

TO BE ABLE TO GET TO THE MIDAS PETAL HERE, EACH CONTESTANT HAS TO UNDERGO A TEST.

ANOTHER CONTESTANT CANNOT HELP A FELLOW CONTESTANT UNDERGOING A TEST.

YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO KILL ANOTHER MIDAS SEED CARRIER AT THIS POINT.

At the end of the rules, the bead told all of them where they should head to.

By the time the prince was done reading the simple rules, Al had already gone far and the direction at which his Midas seed was pointed was different from where Al was.

"Pray that I don't find out who you are, when I do, it will be the end of you." The prince whispered, referring to Al…

['I still feel like I should have exchanged a blow or two with that pretentious prince. He looked expensive and expensive things are fragile.'] Al spoke without thinking.

His thought was still being influenced by the competitive spirit in him.

This wasn't the usual Al that made plans and thought things through, what he didn't know was that the dragon blood in him was reacting to the presence of another beast the same class as it.

It was something that was imbued into the core of a beast of that class to make the strongest known, whenever they meet for the first time.

['90 kilometers left.'] Alex read from the interface.

What Alex said snapped Al out of his thoughts.

['Mr. Guardian did say that this time it wouldn't be easy for me to get to the petal. Did he say that because of the competition or something else?'] Al questioned.

Suddenly he came to a stop and looked at where he was. The trees around him didn't have blue leaves anymore, they were all brown and dried up. And every tree there looked so weak that if he put a bit of his weight on one of them, it would fall to the ground.

He looked behind him to see if the blue forest that he came from was still there. And as expected, it wasn't there anymore.

It was just a valley with dried leaves on the floor, and it stretched out as far as the eyes could see.

A strong wind blew the leaves on the floor into the air and created a little hurricane. This hurricane didn't last long before it dispersed.

After it had dispersed, a black humanoid figure emerged from where the hurricane was, previously. This black figure looked like it was made out of obsidian.

It had no eyes, nose, ears, or mouth. It stood at the height of 8ft with long arms that dropped to the floor.

This black figure had no presence or aura. It made no sound as it stood a distance away from Al, just facing him.

Al was shocked to see this figure appear in front of him.

"Is this an illusion?" He wondered.

['Switch the outlook from natural to camera.'] Xander suggested.

Al did as Xander suggested and he changed the outlook on the skin crawler to camera. Even after he did that, the valley of dry leaves and the obsidian humanoid figure was still present.

"It's still here," Al uttered.

['Use the X-ray feature to determine the credibility of this black humanoid figure.'] Lex suggested.

"System, activate X-ray vision." He commanded.

-Ping.

*Activating, X-ray vision. X-ray vision activated.

Al looked at the black humanoid figure and saw that it had a skeleton. Meaning that what he was seeing was real.

His eyes opened wide as he started to feel uneasy. He then frowned and chose to try one more.

"System, switch to infrared mode."

*Switching to infrared mode. Current mode: infrared.

Al looked around once again and saw that the trees that looked fragile, still had a little heat signature left.

And what that means is that they were living things.

He then looked at the black humanoid figure, wanting to see if it was also a living thing.

After staring at it for a while, the black humanoid figure didn't have any heat signature.

"System, return to camera outlook." He frowned as he gave his command.

*Outlook: Camera.

Al proceeded to take a step forward and as he did, the black humanoid figured did the same. It took one step forward.

Seeing that made Al take a step back. The black humanoid figure took a step back too.

Al tilted his head to the side a bit and the humanoid figure did the same.

He raised his right hand and took a step to the side. The black humanoid figure still followed him and did the same thing that he did.

"Why the hell are you imitating me!?" Al shouted at it. But since it didn't have a mouth, it couldn't imitate what Al said.

So the humanoid figure just stood the same way Al was standing.

['Try getting past it.'] Alex said.

Al immediately shot forward and made his way straight to the black humanoid figure. Just as it has been doing, the black figure imitated Al's movement and shot at him too.

Seeing the humanoid figure approach him, Al knew that if he didn't change his direction, at this speed that they were approaching each other with, he would collide with the black obsidian humanoid figure.

He didn't know what it was capable of or what would happen if he touched it.

Al jumped to his side, hoping that he would be able to dodge this humanoid figure. But unfortunately for him, he wasn't that fast.

The humanoid figure immediately jumped to the side and was set to collide with Al.

Al jumped, crossed his hands in front of his face, and raised his legs up to the point that his knees touched his elbows.

-Fwoosh!

He set himself on fire and awaited the unexpected that might happen if he touches the obsidian figure. Al hoped that his flames would be able to help him.

As he expected, the thing that he was against copied his movement, but what he didn't expect was that the black humanoid figure would also set itself on fire.

-Boom!!!

They collided and the impact of their collision cause every leave within 4 kilometers to burn into ashes…