Gacha Sovereign

Alex was shocked upon seeing Firia get hurt, he felt the same feeling as that time when he watched Alicia on the brink of death back in the dungeon. Firia already became an irreplaceable person in Alex's life. It took a long time for him to realize that. Her existence was already imprinted on his heart. But why did he only realize this when they were on the brink of death? He started to regret all of this. If only, he accepted them before all of this, what would happen? But he didn't have time to think about all of this. He didn't have time to regret all of his decisions. His top priority now was…     

Because the assassin attacked Firia, he didn't have any time to react to Alex's attack. Alex's spear immediately pierced his head, thus, killing him on the spot.     

Firia fell with her pale face. Alicia held her in pain. She looked at Alex who was approaching them, she smiled while in tears. There would be hope if Alex came, "Alex."     

But sadly, her smile turned stiff. She let Firia go and immediately ran toward him. Alex was surprised why she suddenly did that. 'Maybe she feels danger?' he thought. But when Alicia reached him, she didn't stop and immediately went past his back.     

The assassin that was almost killed by Alex already couldn't use his hands. But he grabbed a dagger with his mouth. The dagger's blade seemed to be coated by some kind of liquid. It was poison. He was sneaking and went toward Alex. Even though Alex already crippled his two hands, he still had his legs. He was proud of his speed, and he could use his mouth to hold a dagger.     

Alex felt something amiss when Alicia suddenly went past his back. He turned his head and saw her…     

'Stab!'     

The assassin stabbed Alicia with the dagger. He was startled when Alicia suddenly got between them. His initial target was Alex. Their mission already failed since Alex killed two of them and crippled him. That's why he thought to at least bring Alex down with him since it was their original mission. But he never thought that Princess Alicia suddenly got between them and shielded him from the 'poisonous' dagger.     

"Alicia!"     

Alex immediately went toward her and kicked the assassin. He held her tightly.     

"Check Firia first, her injuries are worse than mine," after she said that, she passed out.     

Alex didn't say anything, he carried her up. He then approached Firia and put Alicia down beside her. Alex took out all of the Restoration Pill and shoved them to their mouths. Alicia's and Firia's wounds closed up at a visible rate. Firia's face also started to regain some color.     

After he was sure that she was okay. Alicia… Firia… recalling what happened, Alex went insane. The Mana in his body flared up and all the fire in his body started gushing out.     

"Ahhh!"     

Alex went berserk and his fire as well. His fire blazed around his body and enveloped his surroundings with flame. The forest started to burn, the ground started to melt, but no speck of heat came near Alicia and the rest. The 'Alex' now only fought with his instinct. The assassin was shocked by this. The flame also engulfed him and burned him to death. The power from the fire was multiplied a few times over because of his anger.     

On the contrary, Sherry felt something else within Alex. It felt his sadness, disappointment, anger, and much more.     

"Wuu!"     

It let out its flame too. Sherry's pink flame was instantly engulfed by Alex's flame. Although its flame was swallowed by his flame, its emotion, bond, and feeling were there within the flame and it seeped into Alex.     

Suddenly, a circle appeared both on Sherry's and Alex's forehead. In the middle of the circle, there was a fox's head pattern. The circle symbolized their connection, bond, emotion, feeling, and existence. The circle seeped into its head. At the same time, the circle also seeped into his head. It didn't stop there. On his back, inside his clothes, a mark suddenly appeared. A mark duplicated into two, two became four, and so on. After a while, it stopped, and a fox tattoo was formed on his back.     

The mark suddenly shone brightly after it was completed. It calmed Alex down. Sherry poured all its Mana to calm Alex down. Alex's rampaging fire started to tone down before finally stopped. Alex slowly gained his senses back. After he regained his senses, Sherry was finally relieved and walked to Alex.     

"Wuu (I'm glad you are back, Master)!" After it said that, it fell unconscious. It started shrinking, from its original one-meter height to only forty-centimeters.     

Alex immediately checked her condition. Sherry was fine for now, it only exhausted all of its Mana. He was confused as to why it shrunk, but at least its condition was stable. He couldn't afford to think about that for now.     

"Thank you, Sherry."     

After the blazing fire from Alex disappeared, the rain suddenly started pouring down and started to put out the remaining fire that was burning the trees. Alex didn't care about it and immediately approached the now useless assassin. Sherry was fine, Firia also stabilized. And the problem was…     

"Haha!" The assassin laughed happily, unlike the normal people who will start to panic when they were feeling threatened, this assassin was laughing like a maniac instead.     

"Where is the antidote?" Alex said in a cold tone.     

"Hehe… I like your expression just now," the assassin felt very joyful looking at Alex's expression. There was one word to describe this guy. 'Sicko'     

"Puah!" He spurted blood as Alex kicked him in his stomach, "Give me the antidote!"     

"Haha, we specially prepared that poison for you, but I never thought that the Princess would sacrifice herself for y- Puah!"     

Alex kicked him again, "Give me the antidote now!"     

"Since you loved her that much. I will give you the answer. There is no antidote. This is the legendary poison, it is the Green Devil Poison. Even after a few millenniums, there is no antidote for this poison. It is said that this poison can even kill a god. Haha… the only outcome after being inflicted by this poison is death. So say goodbye to your lovely Princess. Cough... cough!"     

Alex couldn't stand this guy anymore. He wouldn't get any answer from this man's mouth anyway, so he raised his sword.     

"Wait! I know you are going to kill me. But I will tell you who was the mastermind behind this… the one that sent us out to kill you…"     

"The one who sent us out is the Hero from the Zircodina Kingdom. Haha… he wants to kill you very much. Our top priority is to kill you. We know you are abnormal, so we specially prepared that poison for you. But never would I have thought that she would protect you. Oh right, the Hero wants to ruin her personally. But I think I already ruined her on his behalf. Haha..."     

He decided to give him the information after he saw that 'scene'. He knew Alex was abnormal, but after seeing his capabilities, he realized that he had underestimated him, Alex was more than abnormal, he was a monster. Thus, he thought, since he was going to die anyway, why didn't give all of the information?      

Having a fight between The Monster from Acacia vs The Hero from Zircodina, wasn't that wonderful? Why did he accept the job? For money? No. It was simple, he accepted the job because he wanted to see humans fighting each other. One dead person would lead to another death and another one and so on. He wanted to see the world fall into chaos. With Alex as the center of attention, killing him could lead the Acacia Kingdom to attack the Zircodina Kingdom. If Zircodina was destroyed and Acacia wounded, the Demon would win the war with the Holy Kingdom, and the world would turn to chaos.     

Alex kicked him again. "This is your last chance, give me the antidote."     

"As I said, there is no antidote for that poison. It is useless to ask m-"     

"You are crazy! " Alex roared as he killed him. There would be no answer from his mouth anyway.     

"Alexander!"     

Alex heard someone shout from behind him. Alex turned to the source of the voice. He saw Leyfon and Andreas were flying to him. After the fire in his body engulfed and started burning the forest, Leyfon and Andreas noticed this weird situation and went to check it. They were surprised to see Alex standing in the middle of everything that was happening. They found Alicia, Firia, and Sherry collapsed on the ground along with four corpses.     

Alex immediately went to Leyfon and desperately said, "Sir Leyfon, please help Alicia."     

"What… what happened?"     

"Please Help Alicia."     

"Alright, alright. I will check her condition immediately. Andreas, you check the other."     

Leyfon looked at Alicia. With blood on her clothes, he immediately noticed the stab wound. However, the stab wound itself was already closed with the pill. Her condition was at least stable.     

"She is fine right now."     

"She was poisoned. One of them said it was the Green Devil Poison."     

"The Green Devil Poison?" Leyfon perplexed, "I think I heard it somewhere before…"     

Soon he remembered. His face turned red with shock and anger, "The Green Devil Poison!"     

"Sir Leyfon. Do you know the poison? Please help her if you know."     

"Andreas, change of plan. We will bring them to the capital immediately," Leyfon was full of sweat.     

"What happened, Father?"     

"There's no time to explain. Go right now!"     

"Y-yes!"     

"Sir Leyfon, what happened?" Alex asked him desperately. Leyfon was the only hope for him right now.     

Leyfon didn't have any choice left, so he suddenly punched Alex in the stomach and knocked him unconscious. Alex's state of mind was in a mess, it was better to knock him out right now. Leyfon grabbed Alicia and Alex while Andreas grabbed Firia and Sherry. They flew toward the capital city.     

As soon as they reached the capital, they immediately let all of the doctors check their condition, especially Alicia's.     

***     

The king and his retainers were still in their meeting when suddenly…     

'Bang!'     

"Your Majesty! There was an emergency… Princess Alicia… Princess Alicia…"     

Before he finished his words. The king immediately stood up, "The meeting is finished now."     

All of his retainers immediately left the palace. Princess Alicia was always his soft spot. They already knew about it. Now there was an emergency about her, so the result was obvious. They immediately left the place, as they didn't want to suffer his wrath at this moment.     

"What happened to my niece?"     

"She… according to the doctor, she was poisoned!"     

"What! Tell me where she is now!"     

The king immediately went to visit her. Alex, Firia, Sherry, and Alicia were lying on the beds. Leyfon and Andreas were watching on the side. The dean was also present. The king looked at all the doctors in the room.     

"How's her condition? Tell me now!"     

One of the doctors said, "Her condition is stabilized for now. Please calm down, Your Majesty. The rest of them are only exhausted. They only need to rest for a while and they will be fine."     

The king was relieved when the doctor said her condition was stable.     

Suddenly the dean approached him and said with a bitter tone. "She was poisoned. According to Leyfon, Alex said that she was poisoned by the legendary Green Devil Poison. So we tried to confirm her condition. Unfortunately, from the symptom, we are certain that Princess Alicia got poisoned by that legendary Green Devil."     

"What did you say? You say the 'Green Devil Poison'?" His leg went limp and he fell.     

"Your Majesty!"     

"Your Majesty!"     

The others were trying to help the king. The dean continued, "Your Majesty, I found an ancient book in our library. There is one record that said one person was cured of the Green Devil Poison."     

"What? What is the cure? Tell me, I will use all the power I have to search for it."     

The dean bitterly shook his head, "The record was from five thousand years ago."     

"You mean…"     

"Yes, the one who cured that person was the Ascender."     

The king fell once again. "Who… who dared to poison her?"     

"I will explain what I saw in the forest, Your Majesty," Leyfon stepped forward. "I didn't get much time before. After Alex said about the Green Devil Poison, I immediately flew here. So I will give you a report about what I saw in that short moment. First, according to the number of corpses, there are four assassins. All of them are rank 7 assassins. They seem to be fighting for quite a while. Ultimately, all of them died. I suspect that Alex or Sherry was the one who killed them. That's all. For now, we don't know who sent them."     

"Investigate immediately!"     

"Yes, Your Majesty!"