Conviction

When Alex opened his eyes it was to an unfamiliar ceiling, there was a particular scene in the air that seemed to clear and refresh his mind, but at the same time it was really thick and unpleasant to smell. He turned his head, and there was his mother looking at him. It was rather weird, but she didn't say anything, all she did was stare and it made Alex really unsettled.

"What sort of power was that?" She suddenly asked.

Alex was disappointed, he really didn't know what he was expecting. He was hoping that somehow his mother would be worried about his well being and the fact the was just in a fight with her step son. He might not have much say in the way his life is right now, but he at least wanted the family around to show more care. He knew power was important, but this was his own mother, and yet....she was so cold.

"You didn't tell me about your step son." He said to her as he got himself up to a sitting position.

"Answer my Question!" his. Mother said to him with a raised voice.

"You! Answer mine! You're not my mother!"

Alex might be soft spoken, quiet and kind, but he was by no means a coward. When it comes down to it, this young man was willing to face anybody and anything, and in this case it was his mother. But in the end he was still being just a child, he just had his ass handed to him by an annoying piece of shit step brother, and to be honest he was looking for someone to blame. Sure he turned his situation around, but it didn't change the fact that he was humiliated, and it stung.

"You don't have to worry about him. Things in the sect are not as simple as they seem, and even if I explain anything to you, at your age, as you are now, you wouldn't be able to understand. We sacrifices for the greater good, something that you've come to understand, but don't seem to have fully comprehended. Your step brother is a result of a sacrifice I made, but like I said don't worry about him." And then she fell silent as she looked at Alex seemingly wanting to say something, but having no idea how to, then she sighed as said.

"Look, I know I've not been in your life very much, and if you ask your sister I'm not that good at parenting. In fact my father, your grandfather thinks I'm no different than a child and I'm still learning to be an adult. There's nothing I can say in my defense, I've not been around for fourteen years of your life, and that's because I didn't have the power to stay with my son and the man I loved.

But you have to understand one thing Alexander, you're my son. And no matter how many mistakes I've made, other might make, I live for your and your sister, for your futures, and to make sure you guys are happy and safe. So I need you to trust me, it's the only way I can truly keep you safe."

This was probably the most she had spoken to him ever since they met, but at the very least there was an understanding to be had from what she said. Alex was surprised, but in the end this was his mother, and he can't really say she's completely failed as a mother if he doesn't give her a chance to make right her wrongs.

The question was whether or not her sincerity was real, he might not have been betrayed yet, But even Alex knew that this new world of his ran on power, and it was probably smarter if he didn't trust anybody, not even his mother. But in the end he still had to tell her something, this could be test he gave her, to show whether or not she actually care about him. And so Alex told her about spirit kings and spirit masks and spirits. About his ancestors from his father's side, an ancient line or spirit kings, a mantle that's only given to someone specially chosen by the universe.

To others this might seem like the rambling of a fourteen year old boy hoping to be special, but Alex was already special, maybe too special in fact. Something extra was not really needed but it's there, and with this addition he became not just talented in the eyes of his mother, but also a monster to his peers, obviously you could not attribute the word normal to Alex anymore, quite frankly and truthfully, he was no beyond the scope of human comprehension.

His mother left a few hours later, he was still in his allocated manor, just in a room that had bee assigned as an infirmary. After telling her everything he had to tell her, all she could tell him to do was train and prepare for the sect competition in a few months. Alex couldn't help the feeling that he had somehow gotten into more danger than he already is in.

With the way things were, it was hard to tell how his future would be, but never the less it was up for him to make the best of it. Tomorrow he was going to start focusing on polishing his skills and advancing his cultivation, and apart from that, achieve the pinnacle of body and spirit as one with Nezha. His path to power was no longer obscure of expected to take a few hundred years, in no time at all with the help of the spirit mask, he's bound to reach the pinnacle, and finally find a way to keep himself, his future and the people he loves safe. And that was the goal he had to work towards.