The Messenger of Death

Alex, disappointed and frustrated, remained in the same spot for over 3 hours, sitting on the ground in the middle of the forest at midnight without any form of light or warmth. He just kept on looking at the Skin crawler's screen interface, waiting to see if it has found a solution to his current predicament.

Loading… that was the only thing that was on the screen interface and Alex was growing tired of seeing that word over and over again. He looked up to the sky with an angry expression.

"You unforgiving universe, why can't you just leave me be?" Alex looked up, waiting for some kind of reply, but he didn't receive any. The only thing that he saw up there was the moon dimly lit and the stars shining brightly.

Croak! Croak! Croak!

The sound of frogs inharmoniously croaking filled his ears and infuriated him the more.

['Forget about it, we were born cursed.'] Al said lazily.

['You're the one that was born cursed.'] Alex retorted.

['Ha, denying it won't make it untrue.'] Al replied, not taking any offense from Alex's tone.

Flap, flap, flap!!

Alex noticed the loud sound of birds fleeing in multitudes. "Something is wrong." He sat up and looked in the direction from which the birds were flying away.

['For sleeping birds to fly that fast by this time of the definitely implies that something wrong. Someone or something terrifying might be coming here.'] Al pointed out. ['Either that or someone with a nice sense of humor decided to play a nice prank on you.'] He ended with a light chuckle.

['Take precautionary measure, Alex, I don't think we can afford to have more battles, it might interrupt with what the system is doing. Unless it is necessary, we won't be fighting.'] Xander advised.

"On it," Alex whispered and proceeded to erase his aura, almost extinguishing it completely. His nearly extinguished aura then blended with that of the forest. The sound of his breathing and his heart were barely audible to even Alex himself.

At this point, Alex was in-tune with the forest, almost like he was a part of it. If one passed by him now, they wouldn't be able to notice or sense him, unless the person coincidentally comes in contact with him.

Alex then activated a martial skill that he learned back on Mars, one that was able to undergo a transformation when he used it here. He activated the Ghost-steps. Both the Ghost-steps and the ability to erase his aura or presence were both things that he learned back at Death's Door, on Mars. But after integrating QI into the techniques, they became something powerful and inconceivable, to an extent.

Upon doing this, Alex felt almost every muscle below his ankle vibrate, they vibrated so hard and fast that he vaguely felt himself floating. Alex then changed his position, moving a few meters away from where he was seated. Each step Alex took made him feel like a feather dancing to the wind.

As he moved, his steps didn't create any sounds nor did they leave a footprint. Even the twigs and dry leaves that he stepped on didn't break or crush under his weight.

Even Alex was quite amazed by the effect of the Ghost-steps when integrated with QI. Pushing the feeling of amazement to the back of his mind, Alex focused on keeping his aura in check. As amazing as this technique was, it was slowly putting pressure on Alex's core by draining the QI gathered in his core faster than he could replenish it…

Argus who had been tailing Alex for a while now had to place his hand on a tree to support his body. He almost fell due to shock. The thought that Alex was actually a demon crossed his mind.

What Alex just achieved was beyond his sense of reality. Argus witnessed the way Alex's body began changing, to him, it was as if he was fading out of reality. He could swear that he swore the tree behind Alex through him.

Then when Alex's aura disappeared from his senses the first word that came to his head was 'demon'. It was as if Alex had died... as if his soul had departed from his body. If it wasn't for the fact that he was watching all of this happen to Alex, he would have already concluded that Alex had become a dead man.

Then the Ghost-steps came in, almost throwing Argus off his feet, literally. Seeing a person flying or floating wasn't a new thing to Argus, Sky realm cultivators could do that too, and as a Heaven realm cultivator, flying wasn't anything much to him. It was the combination of it all that impacted Argus this much.

Alex moved like an actual ghost.

"It looks like he noticed the people that are coming his way. His sense of danger is top-notch." Argus muttered as he tried to repress the overwhelming feeling that Alex gave and return to his former demeanor. "I won't do anything until he's in danger, besides, it will be better if he's not aware of my presence." He said to himself.

Roughly half an hour had passed when Alex saw a person walking in the darkness. At first, he only spotted one person, then a few seconds passed, he saw the figure of many more searching around the forest with killing intent radiating off them.

He almost gasped when he felt their auras, but held himself back from slipping up. As minutes went by, they increased in number. What made him feel this way wasn't their killing aura, compared to his it wasn't much to write about, it was their aura.

['What the hell is going on!? They are all Sky realm cultivators with auras fiercer than the one Vincent gave.'] The stunned Alex uttered.

Most of them had dirt and blood mixed on their body, making them look like a scary gang of brutes, which indeed is what they are.

['Umm guys?'] Alex called out to his alternate personalities.

['Yeah?'] Lex and Xander replied simultaneously.

['What do you want now?'] Al replied together with the rest.

['Just to make thing clear in case of anything, who is going to take control if they manage to find us?'] Alex questioned, expecting to hear a reply from any of them… but a minute had passed and nobody said anything.

['What!? C'mon guys, seriously? Silent treatment?'] Alex complained, pretending to be hurt by their silence.

['Oh please, we all know that you're trying to play the hurt card and it's not going to work.'] Al put a stop to his façade.

['What about you? Aren't you going to prove yourself? This is your chance to show us just how powerful you are. I haven't banged our body up and I'm breaming with energy.'] Alex said. He was getting intimidated by their numbers as time went by.

['Prove what? When did I ever say that I could go against Sky realm cultivators? Did you inhale something intoxicating after sitting in the wilderness for hours? Quit dreaming.'] Al denied confidently like it never happened.

['You shameless piece of brain matter!'] Alex insulted.

['Alright, that's enough. If it is needed you'll switch with Xander this time. Even if you can use lightning now, you are still nowhere as fast as Xander is. With him in control, we can escape these people if they are able to cause any danger to us. Besides, we still have the Dragon bloodline suppression, we can use it on them.'] Lex pointed out.

['What if they are like Nana and are able to resist the suppression, do we use our innate bloodline?'] Alex swallowed air, he was still scared of the after-effects of using his innate bloodline.

['No,'] Al and Lex replied almost immediately. They too didn't want to risk facing a backlash from their innate bloodline.

Alex was about to curse at Al for interjecting into this conversation after refusing to assist him shamelessly when Lex beat him to it.

['No, it comes to that, then I will take control. In a day I can teleport for a total of 7-9 times. With my ability we should be able to escape them without much difficulty.']

['Alright, the two of you should be on stand-by for now.] Alex sighed inwardly.

Alex watched these prisoners search the forest and how they slowly made their way to the position he was seated minutes ago.

"Ogres! Over here." One of the huge figures called out to the rest.

He was the one that found the spot where Alex was before.

"Look at this, footprint and butt print." The figure pointed. 

Another figure placed his hand on the ground, on the spot where Alex sat. "The kid was definitely here not long ago. The place is still warm." He stated with a low tone, not wanting his voice to be heard by who they were pursuing if he was close by.

Sniff, sniff!

He sniffed in the air, "He's definitely not far from here. The air from outside the barrier still lingers around his body." What this man meant was that the QI from outside the barrier was different from the one inside of it.

This is an ability unique to this man amongst the prisoners here.

"Are you certain, Chari?" The man that called them over asked.

"Chaa, chaa," Chari replied with certainty…

"Spread out and be ready for anything." The figure that called them over directed…