Endless Journey: Infinite Realms

Chapter 18 Having a Fairy is sometimes Unfair

"Hmm… you seem like you have been doped." The kid muttered as he sensed the powerful fluctuations coming out of Alex's body. "Was it because of that dagger that you used earlier?"

"!!!" Alex stiffened as he realized that this kid was actually tailing him and Alina earlier! That was the only reason that this kid could notice what Alex did.

"So you have been tailing us earlier huh." Alex said as he discreetly began to activate his ability.

His next attack will take some time to work, so he needed to distract this kid first.

"I am actually not tailing you." The kid said as his eyes narrowed at Alex. "My job is to observe what Alina does in her mission. And if I were to see that there is something that is distracting her, then I will eliminate those distractions."

"Oh, so you're treating me as Alina' distraction now?" Alex said as he felt his boost time reduced to 4 minutes. "That was actually flattering."

"Hmph!" The kid's eyes began to blaze with anger as he spat away the lollipop. The lollipop's glistening candy was stained with dirt as it rolled beside the kid's feet.

The kid then crushed the lollipop as he slowly said,

"My Lord treats Alina as his own property… Nobody is allowed to lay claim on her except for My Lord. And since you dare to lay claim on her, it will be up to me to stop you."

"Property you say?" Alex stared to laugh as he urged his ability to go faster. "How the hell could Alina be a property of someone? That Lord of yours must be an idiot!"

"Hmph, you know nothing, Alex." The kid said as he began to smirk.

"Even if Alina has no feelings for My Lord, My Lord knows that it will be only a matter of time before she will be his. Besides, even if my Lord thinks that Alina is just a useless toy, a toy will still be a toy."

"This is getting ridiculous." Alex said as he shook his head. "This Lord of yours cannot just force Alina to like him. It's her own free will to do so."

"Free will? Hahahaha!" The boy began to laugh as his body shook. He started to tear up as the laughter seemed to be too much for him.

"Ever since my Lord took hold of Alina's sister, there is no more free will that Alina can have!" The kid said as he wiped the tears on his eyes. "Right now, Alina is just a slave for my Lord, doing all of his bidding. It will be only a matter of time before she becomes his bed warmer!"

It was at that moment that Asteria told Alex that his bonus mission was halfway done.

"Ok, so that is Alina's situation huh." Alex muttered to himself as he heard what the boy said.

"So Alina's sister, who was very powerful before, became incapacitated and was then captured by this kid's Lord. This Lord then used Alina's sister to force Alina to do jobs for him, and from the looks of it, this Lord's next aim is to make Alina his woman."

Alex ignored the bitter taste in his mouth as he reached this conclusion. "So that means this Lord must also be the one who commanded Alina to kill me."

One Alex had fully realized Alina's situation, his wariness and hostility that he had against her were reduced, as he started to feel pity and loneliness for her.

Alex could empathize with what Alina was feeling, as he was also forced to do things for his little sister before.

"...…." Alex suddenly gritted his teeth as he began to remember the memories of his little sister that he prefers to be just forgotten.

The kid ignored Alex's angry appearance as he looked greedily at the Star-Crusted Dagger on Alex's left hand.

This kid has seen what this dagger can do, and now he wanted to take it for himself.

"Oh, you want this kid? Then come on and get it." Alex taunted as he played around with the dagger.

"Hmm… Since this kid is just as dangerous as Alina, then his power must be scary too." Alex's mind began to accelerate as he envisioned all the possible Esper Abilities that this kid can have.

"Tsk, there are just many possibilities." Alex thought sourly to himself as he readied his body.

He can see that the kid was ready to attack, so Alex must prepare himself.

"Since you have invited me in, then I shall gladly partake on the feast." The kid said as he suddenly disappeared.

Alex's eyes widened before he suddenly felt danger descending from his left side.

Ever since Alex started to fight the 4 Espers earlier, he had been constantly shooting out radio waves all around him.

Since Alex can sense the radio waves freely, he can sense when something or someone appears within these radio waves.

This allowed Alex to sense that the kid appeared instantaneously on his left side.

"Dodge!" Alex leapt away from his spot, which allowed him to avoid the kid's first attack.

"Boom!" The floor under Alex's former spot shattered as the kid's fist crushed it.

"S**t, this kid packs some power!" Alex thought grimly as he leapt away 2 more times.

"Impressive." The kid said as he stared at Alex with amusement. "So you can use your ability to sense you surroundings. Tsk, I hate to fight people like you."

"You are impressive too." Alex said as he stared at the kid with trepidation. "You suddenly appeared behind me to attack me. That's some scary movement."

"Is that teleportation? Or is it time stop? S**t, this kid is no good!" Alex thought grimly to himself as he increased the power of his radio wave sensing.

"If I discover what this kid's Esper Ability is, then victory will be mine!" Alex thought as he waited for the kid's next move.

"Hehehe, let me tell you one thing." The kid said as he began to suck on another lollipop. "My Esper Ability is not teleportation or time stop. It is something much simpler than that."

The kid then drew a sword from his back as he said,

"You must be thinking on attempting to decipher my power. Just give it up, as since my next attack will kill you!"

After hearing what the kid said, Alex just smiled as if he was not worried about the kid.

The reason for that smile was revealed as Alex looked at his left shoulder with gratitude.

"Thanks Asteria." Alex thought to himself as he gave Asteria a grateful look.

Alex truly has no idea on how the kid was able to suddenly appear behind him.

However, Asteria seems to have figured out the kid's power, and when she told Alex about her suspicions, Alex found it to be actually plausible.

"Hehehe, you can stop someone's mind for a certain period of time, right?" Alex said as he trusted the answer given to him by Asteria.

"Once you stop someone's mind for a second, you can use that time to attack that person." Alex muttered as Asteria let out proud smirk.

"For the person that you used your ability on, they would not sense the things that happened when their mind was stopped. They will just assume that what happened before the mind stop and after the mind stop were the 'real connected' events." Alex said as he relished the astonished expression on the kid's face.

"Even if it appeared that you teleported behind me, all that you did was to just run towards me when my mind was stopped." Alex concluded his speech as he looked at the kid's constipated face. "My explanation hit the mark, right?"

"...." The kid glowered at Alex for a second before he out a sigh. You're d**n right, kid."

"Hmph, I told you I am right!" Asteria arrogantly said to Alex as she crossed her arms. Her face was so smug right now that if Alex was not fighting this kid, he might have pinched Asteria's cheeks already.

***********

According to Asteria, when the kid made his move earlier, Alex suddenly froze in place, as if he was forced to stop.

Since Asteria was Alex's Guide, she can sense all of Alex's vital signs.

Asteria noticed that while most of Alex's vitals were good, his brainwaves appeared to be extremely sluggish.

In fact, they were so sluggish that it was as if Alex's mind has stopped.

Add the surprised expression on Alex's face when the kid attacked him from behind, and Asteria was able piece together all the clues.

She naturally told about her discovery to Alex, as she will die if Alex dies.

**************

The kid's expression turned green with anger when Alex discovered his power. However, this expression of his only lasted for a second before he let out a laugh.

"So what if you know my power now?" The kid said as his smile twisted into something feral, something predatory. "You still have no way to stop it!"

"You think so?" Alex smiled as Asteria told him how long he was stuck in a mind stop. "You can stop my mind for 1.5 seconds huh. That's neat."

"How could you have known that!" The kid suddenly stiffened his body as he realized the answer.

"You, you have another person surveying our fight!" The kid muttered as he shook his head. "So someone can actually hide their presence better than me."

"Yes, that person really is good at stealth." Alex said. "And right now, that person is still here, ready to strike you down."

Of course Asteria has no way to fight against this kid, but the kid does not know that it was a weak fairy that was surveying him.

The kid was most likely thinking that the person who was hidden right now was another powerful Esper.

The fear of being attacked by a hidden Esper was enough to make the kid hesitate.

Alex took advantage of this hesitation as he unleashed the attack that he had been building up earlier.

"...."

A hole suddenly appeared on the kid's torso, as a powerful laser beam tore through it.

"What…" Blood dribbled out of the kid's moth as he looked at the hole in his torso. "How could this be…"

"It worked!" Alex thought with relief as he looked at the hole in his right shoe.

While he was talking to the kid earlier, Alex had been busy building up EM Waves inside his right shoe.

Inside his right shoe, Alex has placed a special metal that when hit with the right amount of EM Waves, will release a powerful beam composed of excited photons.

The problem in using this technique is that it will take around a minute to fully build up the right amount of EM Waves to create the photon beam attack.

That was the reason why Alex tried stalling for time.

There are a lot of risks by doing this, and Alex almost failed when his mind was stopped by the kid.

It was lucky for Alex that his body continued on amassing EM Waves even when he was mindstopped for 1.5 seconds.

Alex then reached the breaking point when he told the kid about his mindstopping power.

At that time Alex only needed the kid to be distracted enough to not see his coming attack.

This chance came when the kid began to look for the 'hidden enemy' warily.

He bombarded the metal on his right shoe with all the EM Waves that he has gathered, and the resulting laser beam tore through the kid's torso like it was butter.

"No hard feelings kid, but I have to do this." Alex said as the kid kneeled on the floor in agony.

But before Alex could feel more smug with what he did, he suddenly saw the kid injecting himself with a syringe.

"S**t!" Once the syringe was used, Alex could see the kid's wounds healing at a visible rate.

The kid began to pant as his pale complexion cleared up.

He slowly stood up as he glared at Alex murderously.

"Now you've really done it!" The kid said as his face became a twisted expression of anger. "I planned on making you die quickly, but now I will just hack your limbs one by one!"

"Hey, mind your words kid.' Alex said as he backed up slowly. "You just healed and you are blabbering that much? That won't be good for your mind!"

"Shut up!" The kid said as gripped his sword tightly. "Let's see if you can still survive right now, you bastard!"