Alex was silent as the old man"s body turned to ash and faded with the wind, he was dead. But yet justice has still not been served, in fact the enemies he has to deal with were not ones he could just march up to and behead, and even worse was the fact that there was a traitor amongst his own people. Alex turned around to look at them all, it was hard not to be distrustful, but who exactly betrayed him.But then again this might have been this a.s.sa.s.sin"s way to cause a little bit of trouble for Alex; the worst mistake he could ever make was to let what the man had said get into his head. Right now all that should truly matter to him right now was to find a way to make Walter and Lu Ming pay for what they"ve done.
Perhaps he hadn"t been to serious about helping the princess get the throne, he might have planned to just coast by and do the bare minimum that would certify he and his family remained safe against whatever was to come from this battle for the throne. But now that his family has been pulled in and made to a price, he was going to fight back even harder.
He turned to the three wraiths, he wanted to have them go on to rest after they were done with their vengeance, but this a.s.sa.s.sin was not the person who truly killed them, he was only the tool that was used to carry out the act, and until vengeance and justice was carried out, they would never rest in peace. In that regard he had to do something about their bodies.
The moment their bodies are exposed to the sun, the ritual would fail and their souls will be destroyed. So in order to avoid that, he would have to keep their bodies somewhere secret, before he takes them back to Zhang clan for their burial, and even worse was the fact that should their bodies be destroyed, then they would remain as wraiths forever, and that was not a fate Alex wanted for them.
"I"ll give you guys the vengeance you deserve, I promise you. Louis, figure out who this dead a.s.sa.s.sin is, and bill him or any other member of his family that"s alive for the damages. The rest of us should just go on with our lives for now, in a week, we"ll start making our moves.
Since our enemies want to play dirty, then it"s only fair we accommodate them. But let me make something clear, I trust each and every single one of you, but if what this a.s.sa.s.sin said is true and one of you is a traitor, then believe me when I tell you that even death won"t save you from me. But no one should dwell on that, we"re a family, let"s just remain that way."
This might be a pipe dream on his part, but he honestly hoped that a.s.sa.s.sin had been lying, because nothing would be worse than him killing someone he cared about. The academy really was a lawless place, even with all of the destruction they had caused, there was no one around to stop or chastise them, and many of the people who had actually come out to watch a fight knew that right now, there was a full out war between Alex and Walter and Lu Ming who for all intents and purposes was Walter"s lover.
There was one more thing that Alex needed Louis to take care of, so far he has been thinking hard about what sort of name to give their organization. He didn"t want it to be generic and overly extravagant, but he also didn"t want it to be simple. This would be the first real authority Alex would have, and he wanted it to mean something, to have more value than any other organization and have a deeper meaning than most.
He turned to look at this rabble of a team he had gathered around him, Alex wasn"t stupid; one of them might be a traitor, but he knew he would be able to find a way to deal with it. But when he looked at them, he wondered what it was that kept them together and so in sync. Frankly speaking none of them had simple stories; they had all come from somewhat difficult backgrounds.
Yet here they stood, together as one and ready to face whatever the world had to throw at them. Alex mused, what was it, that grit, that bond, that strength of self that has been cultivated over hardships and near death experiences. Through loss and pain, and all sorts of heart ache, yet still capable of pushing forward, of going beyond and above what was expected of them every single time they"re tested.
What was it, the word was right there, right at the tip of his tongue, and then suddenly he had the answer. Or rather it would be easier to say that the ever silent Xeron had the answer that he was searching for; it was as simple and as deep as he wanted it to be. The answer to why they were so strong, why they could keep on pushing regardless of what they had to face or go through, the answer was….
[SPIRIT]
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SEVEN WEEKS LATER
Alex had all eyes on him as he walked through the school grounds, for the past two weeks the fame and prowess of the leader of the newly crowned spirit organization had been the talk of the academy. And even more so was the fact that Walter of the n.o.ble family of Albion and Lu Ming of the imperial family had fled the academy with the excuse of going to get married, leaving all of their family"s business and a.s.sets in the hands of their followers.
However they had left important businesses in the path of a bunch of hungry lions, and while many wanted a piece of the pie these two were in charge of; none of them had the guts to go against the spirit organization and their spooky leader. There were already rumors that Alex could speak to the dead and that he feasted on souls of young children.
It had been the source of many laughs between Alex and the rest of the organization"s members. But they all reckoned that it was a good thing, Alex having a fearsome reputation would cause a couple of people to think twice before making any sort moves. Besides, it wasn"t as if they were all rumors, Alex could talk to the dead after all. He just wasn"t sure about the eating soul"s part; he"s never tried to anyway.
But the rumors were given even more of credibility when Alex had been missing from the public eye for seven whole weeks, and in that time the spirit organization"s tower had gone through lots of changes. For one they now offered the best and highest grade alchemical plants and herbs for pract.i.tioners within the first gate of their respective discipline.
But as if that wasn"t enough, they were also selling weapons capable of channeling both mana and Qi. And there was the option to have a blacksmith of theirs who many suspect is actually Alex to create custom equipments. It was such a shocking achievement that blacksmiths, Qi engineers, and artificers from all over the world had come to learn the secrets behind such a success in melding and creating a weapons capable of utilizing and channeling Qi and Mana.
Unfortunately most of the visitors were chased away by Alex"s demon dog as Khan had come to be known. Their growth had been meteoric, especially since they were on good terms with the ninth princess"s quarter of the imperial organization, and also the beggar"s sect organization.
Alex had too many things going for him, and a reputation so ill.u.s.trious most males in the academy were incredibly jealous of him,
But Alex didn"t care; he had spent the past seven weeks building up a foundation for his organization, and with that out of the way he could now put all of his focus into learning, which was why he was here today.
Three months after coming to the academy, he was finally ready to start learning, but beyond that it wasn"t just about learning, he needed allies, he needed followers, enough power that even the emperor himself would have to give him respect whenever he spoke.
And this school was the gathering place of the future. The world of the present didn"t matter; it was something Alex has had to painfully learn when Walter and Lu Ming ran away before he could rain fire and brimstone on top of their heads. With their exit, he now had no idea who was the traitor, but after these seven weeks he was sure of one thing.
There was no traitor in his camp, not even Miranda who should have the biggest motive gave off any sort of suspicious vibes in the seven weeks Alex had secretly spent observing everyone. So there was a possibility that Molock was just f.u.c.king with his head, but even if that were so, Walter and Lu Ming were not here to clear Alex"s doubts.
But never the less it was time to start phase three according to what Victoria had planned. Step one was Alex building a reputation, step two was taken care of Lu Ming and Walter, which funny enough those idiots did themselves. And now they had come to the third phase...….Take the Earth Alliance Defense Academy and make it theirs!