Death Warrant (III): Paradise Lost

After his grandfather left the room, Alex had a few moments to himself, but unlike before they had their talk, the young man was a little bit more sure of himself. As young as he was Alex worked best when he was under pressure or when he had responsibilities to take care of. Invariably, he was the mind of person you would call a diamond in the rough, and only in pressure and a boat load of polishing would get him to shine. But trouble eventually came knocking.

*BOOM!*

The Air ship was rocked by an explosion that had caused it's entire frame to tilt to one side, throwing Alex off his seat and straight into a wall. The copper taste of blood filled his mouth as he stumbled back to his feet with a dazed expression. And that was when the door to the secret room was kicked open, and a masked man stood at the entrance. He exuded a pressure that made Alex feel shivers, but even worse was the bloody blade he held in his hand.

"Alex of the Dark Continent, a death warrant has been placed on your head. Die with the knowledge that you fell to the gracious hands of the silver assassin Wei Feibai, now die."

This man wax obviously multiple realms above Alex, and the knowledge of that alone was enough to keep the still dazed young man rooted to his position, not to talk of the aura of power he seemed to release. He took a step forward sword poised to strike, but that was the last step he ever took as his head flew of his neck and rolled all the way until it got to Alex's feet.

"Well you should also die with the knowledge that you have fallen at the hands of a very pissed of mother." Then the woman who had just slain his would be assassin looked up to him and asked.

"Zhang Feng are you okay, you seem injured?" she asked as she moved forward and pushed his head aside, observing the nasty cut and trickle of blood that flower down from it.

"Its no longer wise to keep you here son, come we head for the observation deck, you should be safe there with father and brother around. But seriously I can't believe the nerve on your father, he kept you away from me, yet he didn't even have the balls to make sure you got to me safely. His prided has always been his fatal flaw, it's probably going to get him killed sooner or later. Now come along."

Alex had imagined a million scenarios of when he finally meets his mother, he envisioned she would cry and hug him and apologize for all of the missed years and promise to make it better. And then she would apologize to his dad and ask him to forgive and then they could all be together, the perfect picture of a happily ever after. But this woman, as beautiful as she looked, was just as cold. Or rather it wasn't that she was cold, it was more like Alex couldn't feel anything.

No love, no hate, no anger, just nothing. And with the way she spoke, without a single shred of love in her voice, it made Alex's skin crawl and his already woozy vision shift in and out of focus. Safe to say his mother was not what he expected, and he was disappointed. But not in her for turning out the way she is, but in himself for holding out hope that she was more than what she already was…..a woman who chose power over her own child and who for fourteen whole years could not even deign to send him a simple message.

Alex tried his best to keel up with her, moving through various cabins on the jet or rather the airship, until they came to the observation deck where quite a lot of people were gathered and currently locked in a fierce battle.

Anya was huddle behind Alex's uncle completely scared stiff about the gruesome show in front of her, and it didn't take long for Alex to feel the same. Whenever the story of battles between fearsome cultivators are told, its always embellished and made to look extravagant and eloquent. A thing of beauty, but killing was an ugly affair, and no matter how beautiful the move you use in killing a person is, in the end when you're covered in blood with limbs all around you, it was not a beautiful sight, it was scene from a horror movie.

Lightening, flames, water and earth flew every which way as swords glowed brightly taking on a variety of colors. Energy constructs of dragons and wolfs, scorpions and snakes filled the air and clashed against each other as Alex's grandfather fought against a bevy of enemies all aiming for a life. Alex was terrified, and even though his grandfather seems to be holding his own against over a dozen men and women, Alex could not help but worry for him.

This world did not make any sense, Alex never did anything wrong, all he ever did wrong was to have talent, but yet somebody wanted him dead for it. How the hell does that work, so far cultivation has turned out to be more of a curse than a blessing. He had lost his father, had to leave his home, had to put his life on the line more times in the past few days than he ever did since he was born. And now people important to him were getting hurt, and even innocents who had nothing to do with him.

His grandfather might have given him hope about what he could be or do, about the responsibilities he had to shoulder and the light that could be in his future.

However Alex was seeing it for the first time, as bodies dropped every which way on the observation deck, some gravely Injured others very much dead, he understood exactly what it was he had just gotten his hands into.

The Wulin was never a place of heroes and romance and adventures, it was just a hell waiting to be explored, a ticking time bomb that would shred and destroy every good thing about himself and leave him a husk, nothing more than a product of blood and death. Alex regretted ever cultivating in the first place, he understood now what his father fought so hard to protect him from, yet he had ran headfirst into it, craved the attention and power that strength would bring him.

Alex could see his future very clearly, and it was not something most fourteen year old would be able to do. But he could see it alright, and it terrified him, especially since he now knew that there was no going back from it. All that awaited him and his innocence was blood, suffering, despair, steel and death. He had just condemned himself to a prison that would never let him go, the light that he believed he had, wouldn't survive what's to come.

He knew it just by standing there and watching the bloodshed that something was being born inside of him, something he would never be able to get rid of, and that thing...….Darkness.