Chapter 706 Origin Shard
[Alina, I know that you still doubt me now, but this is not the time for you to fret. Do you want to live? If so, then allow me to a.s.sist you…]
"Alex, you really should not have come here." If she could just move her body, Alina would have used it to already chase Alex away. Seeing him right here is enough to make her worry, and not even Alex"s current strength can remove that worry.
[My love, why is it that you always want to chase me away. Did I do something to offend you? Come on, you know that you need me to survive. Just admit it, and we can do proceed with the normal stuff here.]
"Normal stuff my a.s.s, Alex! Why did you come this early! You did not follow the script!"
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With her life in the brink of death, Alina was partially happy to see Alex coming in to rescue her.
However, the majority of Alina"s emotions were plagued with worry, as Alex chose the worst time to come!
"Alex, I am happy that you came here to help me, but in your current state, you should have come when our enemies are tired…." Alina thought to herself as she stared at Alex"s handsome and also malevolent face.
Seeing his face made Alina"s heart throb, especially with worry, as Alex"s arrival in this place had just added a whole lot of problems on Alina"s already chaotic situation.
Alina had intended it so that Alex will arrive late in this battle, but because of her inadequacies, Alex was forced to arrive early!
This sudden change threw a wrench on Alina"s plans, and now she was forced to wrack her mind for solutions, as letting things proceed from here will surely lead to disaster…
"Since Alex is partially corrupted by the Abyss, it signifies that making him exert the power of the Abyss will bring him closer and closer to full corruption. That is not a good scenario, so I must do all that I can to prevent that from happening." Alina thought as she bit her lip.
"That means that as much as possible, Alex should only be forced to use the power of the Abyss when it matters. Making him use the power of the Abyss on unneeded situations will just bring him closer to full corruption…"
"For today"s events, I made things to happen so that Alex will only appear once I have done dealing with my enemies. That way, Alex will only be forced to use his power against me, which will allow him to retain his partial sanity for longer…."
"That is the only way that can help me find a way to heal Alex, and my allies all agree with that."
All this time, Alina"s main goal was to save Alex from his corrupted state. All her plans related to luring the Travelers and their Companion were for Alex"s sake, and ALina made sure to time each plan to her advantage.
Because Queen Mother and Professor Frances were helping her in her plans, Alina was confident that her plan will succeed.
Alina was also confident that her plan will succeed even if she dies, which was the reason for her acceptance of death earlier.
But all of these carefully planned steps are all ruined now because of Alex, leaving Alina reeling as she found no solution to her dilemma now!
"But even with all the planning that I did, I still failed to last for long!"
"Because of my weakness and because of the overpowering strength of my enemies, Alex now came in to save me! I know that he"s bound to come in to get me any second now, but for him to come at this moment is still early!"
"Tsk, what will I do now? If I don"t do something here, Alex will surely start fighting these 4 Travelers just to save me."
"Doing that will surely corrupt him more, to the point that there might be no coming back for him!"
"Argh! If this happens, Alex will certainly be doomed to stay this way forever!"
As much as she tried to salvage the dilemma brought by Alex"s sudden arrival, the gloomy Alina realized that just like her death earlier, the current situation is already out of her grasp.
What happens from here will only depend on her luck and Alex"s actions, two things that she definitely does not trust.
"Sigh…. So after all the planning that I did, it all come back to this huh. So I still have to gamble, even though the odds are against my favor? Tsk, this is a bad way to handle this situation…."
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With 4 Travelers on her back, 2 allies who are unsure on what to do, and one partner whose intentions are unknown, Alina could only stay silent as she waited to see what happens next.
She kept her eyes narrowed and her focus untainted as her body continued to transform, with her mind taking in each and every details of her surroundings.
This proved to be a proper move, as the newcomer Alex did not waste anyone"s time.
He immediately jumped in into action, although his "action" was different from what Alina had expected….
[So you"re the Travelers that I have to compete against? Seeing you here makes my heart jump in excitement. Oh, all of you looks like you have been injured by my partner. I hope she injured you enough to make you angry…. ]
With a small grin present on his face, the evil-looking Alex did not immediately attack the Travelers surrounding Alina. Instead, he extracted a small crystal from his chest, one that glowed faintly against the sunlight.
"Hom…"
This crystal pulsed with an unfathomable power which made Alina look at it in wonder.
Creation, Destruction, Beginning, End, Time, s.p.a.ce, Body, and Soul.
All these ethereal concepts swirled from within the crystal, shrouding the whole place with this mysterious feeling that n.o.body was able to shake.
All the Travelers in this place, Queen Mother and Professor Frances, and even Alina were all entranced by the mysteriousness of this crystal, and not a single one of them were able to remove their gaze away from it.
They could only feel the desire to take the crystal, ad even when it was being held by a dangerous-looking Alex, this desire almost made them ignore his power.
"…."
The only thing that were stopping everyone from s.n.a.t.c.hing the crystal was their wariness towards Alex, who seemed to be pleased upon seeing everyone"s reactions.
[Oh, it seems like my guess is right. So how angry are you right now, my fellow Traveler? Are you so angry that you want to eat my lover?]
[Well if you"re that angry, then you can just vent your anger on me. You can get this crystal from me, if that"s what will make you happy…]
[Come on, what"s the matter with y"all? You can get this crystal now if you want. Come on, you"re free to get it…]
Alex ven waved the crystal in a provocative manner towards the Travelers, as if he was urging them to make a move already.
"Alex, what the h.e.l.l are you doing?" Seeing that Alex did not immediately attack, Alina was relieved, thinking that the current Alex maybe still had a sense of care for himself.
But now that Alex had resorted to actually goading the enemy Travelers to make a move, Alina"s worry went back to its peak levels.
"Alex, I don"t know what is the ident.i.ty of the crystal that you are holding, but I can feel its importance. Since it was important, then you should be keeping it hidden."
"But look what you did here! Not only did you let the enemy Travelers discover that you have that kind of crystal, you are even encouraging them to get it!"
"What the h.e.l.l is wrong with you Alex? Did you really get corrupted so bad you"ve become this irrational?"
"Argh! I don"t know what to do with you anymore!
"Tsk, why do I even think about that crystal? I have my own problems here, and I am not yet even done transforming yet!"
Since she can feel that the crystal that Alex held was precious, Alina could already envision a bitter fight between him and the enemy Travelers, especially in regards to the owner of this crystal.
This was how important this crystal really is, and if Alina could move, even she could have joined in on this scramble too.
"Sigh, forget about it. If Alex wants to do it this way, then so be it. Let"s just hope that this will turn out good for all of us..."
With their another chance to survive ruined by the reckless Alex, Alina tried her best to hide her disappointment.
She just tensed her body again as she waited for the inevitable fight, and she hoped that it will not start intensely.
"…."
"…."
"???"
But to Alina"s surprise, none of the enemy Travelers made a move.
Although all of them looked at the crystal with greed, they did not do anything to obtain it.
They just stared at it with both greed and wariness, and with their whole bodies tense, as if they discovered something worrying about it.
"??? What is this? Why won"t these Travelers try to obtain this crystal? It"s obviously precious, and Alex is even goading them to get it. Why don"t they want to get it? Is there something about this crystal that is making them wary?"
Alina quickly realized that the current situation was weird.
As for why it was this weird, even her All-Seeing Eyes could not fathom why.
Fortunately for her, someone from the people present gave the needed explanation.
u003cYou foul beast… is that crystal… an Origin Shard? And is it one that came from a True G.o.d?u003e The woman with the Conqueror"s Aura, whose beautiful face was tinged with wariness this time, asked this question to Alex while she kept some distance with him.
This woman was obviously distressed about something, and it seemed that it took her a lot of courage just to ask her question.
u003c…Why are you silent, foul beast from the Abyss? Can"t you even answer this simple question? Just tell me if that crystal is an Origin Shard, and tell me if it came from a True G.o.d! How hard is it for you to answer that?u003e
The added stress on her tone made her question sound much more important, forcing Alina to realize that this crystal is indeed suspicious.
As for Alex, the wary tone from this woman just made him smile, as if he had expected to hear her talking like this.
[My, my, my, Miss s.h.i.+ Xingyun, since you already realized what this crystal is, then why are you still asking me? This crystal is indeed an Origin Shard, and it is one that came from a True G.o.d. As for which True G.o.d, I"m afraid I cannot tell you for now…]