The Messenger of Death

Milo flew and landed on Alex's shoulder.

"Oh, fuck!!! There's a huge bird on your shoulder!!" Drake reacted quickly and brought out a huge hammer from his storage. He was ready to attack the Milo bird form on Alex's shoulders.

"Relax Drake, it's just Milo," Alex revealed.

"What!! Wasn't he a cat the last time we saw him?" Drake questioned, unable to understand how a cat transformed into a huge raven.

"Yes he was, but that's not important at the moment." Alex looked at the place that they were in. They were in a valley filled with bones, cowries, and weird idols that seem to have been carved out of wood.

"Should we just take time off and head to the capital city from here, before we even begin the mission?" Drake asked.

"We can't."

"Why not?" He frowned at Alex. "If it is time you are worried about then you shouldn't be, we have enough time for the mission," Drake added.

"That's not the issue, the issue is that the academy already has two of its informants there in the village. Do you know why the coachman informed us of their existence in the village?" Alex looked at Drake as he wore a stern expression.

"To differentiate our allies from foes?"

"That is correct, but not the main reason. When the coachman said that the academy has two informants in the village, he was indirectly telling us that if we don't make it to the village, the academy will know of our absence.

Meaning that they have eyes on us. This mission is very fishy." Alex explained.

"By the way, where exactly are we?" Alex questioned after he had finished taking in the weirdness of the valley.

"Probably the outskirts of the Poduct village. I told you that the Poduct village is filled with bizarre people and things. We are definitely close to that place." Drake muttered as he looked at the skulls of beasts that he has never seen before, hanging on the rocks and hills in the valley.

"Not only are they bizarre, their strength is beyond reasoning, most of them are rune masters, but their power of runes is different from the ones we are being taught. Rumor has it that they acquire their strength from the god of darkness, war, and iron – Ogun." Gustavo revealed the little information that he had on the Poduct village.

"A god? So they are religious people?" Alex asked.

"Yes, scary religious people. Many of them are extremists." Gustavo answered.

"I just checked the map, we are about 4 miles away from the village. If we head east, we'll be there in no time." Emma stated as she folded the map in her hand and returned it to her storage pouch.

"Well then, let's start the mission and get done with it so that we can go and check Camron out," Alex mentioned.

"What about the bag that the coachman handed to us, aren't we going to check it out?" Adrian raised the bag up as he brought their attention to it

"Open it." Katherine came closer.

Adrian wasted no time in doing as she said. The coachman said that the school provided a disguise for them, and now, they were curious about the type of disguise they were provided with.

As soon as the contents of the bag were revealed to them, they all became speechless.

"I am not wearing that." Katherine thought out loud.

"Me neither," Drake uttered after her.

The clothes that were in there looked like sacks and animal skins that have been sewn together, with bones and cowries.

For the females, they have a very short skirt that would definitely reveal a lot of their skin to people that were interested in seeing, coupled with a sleeveless top that stops a few inches away from the navels.

For the males, they were also presented with skirts, and nothing else. Their skirts had more bones than cowries.

"They don't expect us to wear this skimpy thing, it reveals more of our skins than the female's own," Drake complained as he raised the skirt up.

"Are they hostile to outsiders?" Alex wondered.

"No, not exactly," Gustavo replied. "Although they don't get a lot of visitors from outside, they still have tourists that are fascinated by their religion and comes to learn more about it. They welcome such people."

"Then let us proceed. Wear the clothe if you feel like it, for me, I will be going like this." Alex started walking towards the east, making his way to the village.

"Return, Milo." He commanded and Milo turned into liquid before entering his right hand.

The rest of the seraphim team looked at their selves, wondering if any of them were actually going to change to those clothes or bones.

They all shook their heads, making a unanimous decision to not wear the disguise.

Adrian wondered if he should throw the bag and the contents away, later on, he decided to keep it in his storage pouch, just in case, it might come in handy in the future…

Roughly 30 minutes had gone by before they arrived at the entrance of the Poduct village.

Just like Gustavo had said, there were tourists around. Before they even stepped into the village, they saw people with unique attires exiting the village in a carriage.

"From the way things are looking, this place is big enough to be a city, why is it called a village?" Alex looked at the giant wooden walls of the so-called Poduct village, decorated with skulls and bones.

They didn't even have guards at the front of the entrance, or anywhere near the entrance. But there were a lot of people going in and out of the village, with smiles on their faces.

"I thought you said that they didn't get a lot of visitors?" Alex frowned as he spoke, referring to Gustavo. Many of the people that they saw at the entrance of the village weren't dressed in anything similar to the disguise that the academy provided for them.

"They don't, we must have arrived during a festive period or something of the sort," Gustavo mentioned as he stared at the busy streets of the Poduct in disbelief.

"Seems like rumors about this place aren't meant to be taken seriously, well apart from the bizarre part. Cause I still see bones and cowries everywhere." Drake interjected.

"We might have a lot of work to do," Alex mentioned when he recalled what the objectives of the mission were.

"I think it would be better and faster if we could get in contact with the academy's informant early. That way we might be narrow or figure what exactly the academy wants us to solve or investigate." Emma suggested.

"I think so too." Alex concurred. "Let head in." He added.

"It's a good thing that none of us decided to wear those… things that the school provided in the name of disguise." Katherine rejoiced.

Stepping into the so-called 'village' Alex couldn't help but notice the diverse, yet similar cultures of the people around here. Many of them had different ways of greeting passers-by.

"How are we going to find them in this village, or should I say city?" Drake wondered.

"We don't, they will come to us on their own. After all, they have to report back to the academy. Once we have made contact with them, everyone needs to be on alert. We don't know what the school is trying to do."

Alex started contemplating if he should use the talisman that Nana gave to him, but then if he wasn't in danger and he summons his master here, she was going to punish him.

He decided to wait till he was in danger that he could deal with before he uses the talisman.

Not long after they entered the village, 2 women approached them and showed them a token of the severance academy

"The two of you are the informants?" Alex asked.

These women looked young and they were both wearing casual clothes, looking like the tourist around here. The two of them weren't all that pretty, nonetheless, they were attractive in their own way.

They were both tall, one had blonde hair, and the other was a brunette.

"Yes, we are…" One of them replied.

Alex suddenly used his consciousness to take a peek at their cultivation realms. "Nirvana realm cultivators at the fourth rank." He muttered in surprise.

The ladies looked and frowned at Alex, they looked like they were about to kill him. Someone with lower cultivation dared to take a peek at their cultivations in front of them, not only was it disrespectful it felt like an insult to them.

"If we weren't in the streets of this city, undercover, I personally would have killed you." The blonde informant uttered spitefully.

"With such little strength, you wouldn't be able to," Alex responded.

"Take us somewhere private and tell us what the hell is going on here," Alex demanded.

At this point, the ladies were confused. They wondered if he actually probed into their cores or not…