"..kill me now.." Said Daniel through a weak and faint use of immortal essence.
Alesia sunk into panic. She didn't understand why Daniel had asked her to kill him, but on the top of her head, she could only believe that he was in pain, and wanted her to end his sufferings.. Something that she could never do, or at least not until she understood what was really happening.
Tears started to stream down her cheeks as she said "No no no no no.. please.. Don't die.. Please.." her sobbing almost uncontrollable. She was holding his head up, but touching his increasingly rigid body was only making her feel sadder.
Thirty seconds had already passed since Daniel had started to feel ill, and now, his vision was starting to darken. His breath was heavy and faint, almost as if a mountain was pressing over his chest.
He could barely feel the warmth of Alesia's tears crash against his face.
Finally, he stopped breathing.
A bomb of pure chaos made a mess of Alesia's mind as she saw Daniel's chest stop its already feeble inflation and deflation.. "Stay with me Dan.. please d-don't leave me like this.. HELP! HEEELP!!" She desperately shouted for help, while using all of her power to increase the volume of her voice.
Her words ran through the entire building, and rang into the ears of each and every cultivator inside it.
From inside her room, the platinum-badged girl was reading a paper. Once she heard Alesia's screaming, she looked towards her room, and after smiling maliciously, she said "Oops.."
Many people approached Alesia's room, creating a sort of choke at the entrance.
More than forty seconds had now passed, and Daniel knew that he was probably going to die. Even with 'Second Chance', he would only be able to go back to a point where he was already poisoned, and he would end up dying a second time.
A large and tall Serf made his way through the crowd that was blocking the entrance to Alesia's room. When he managed to make his way through the group, he approached the couple, and after a single glance at Daniel's body, his brows furrowed, and a furious expression appeared on his face.
For a moment, his eyes turned to look at a point distant from Alesia's room.
After regaining his composure, he dashed next to Alesia and Daniel, and fell on his knees next to him.
"H-he just.. He f-fell ill out of the blue.." Sobbed Alesia the very moment she saw Serf's familiar face.
Serf put a hand on her shoulder, and with an apologetic tone, he said "It's okay.." He then made a fingernail-sized black pill appear on his hand.
His hand moved towards Daniel's face, and tightly grabbed at the sides of Daniel's jaw, using pressure in order to open it.
After Daniel's jaw opened and exposed the inside of his mouth, Serf put the pill into it, and tried to push it down his throat through the use of his immortal essence.
Unfortunately, the rigidity of Daniel's body was stronger than Serf's power, and the rigid muscles of his neck were ultimately too hard for him to move the pill in between.
A pensive expression appeared on Serf's face.. He seemed to know this poison, and knew that he had no more than seconds before Daniel died.. So, he made a knife appear on his hand, and pointed it at Daniel's stomach.
He was about to stab Daniel's guts, when Alesia blocked his hand, and said "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!"
Serf did not have much time to explain, so he simply said "He will die in about thirty seconds.. You either let me do this, or you say goodbye to him."
The fear of losing Daniel took the better of Alesia's mind, which let go of Serf's wrist, and let him do what he wanted to do.
She then hugged Daniel's head, and pressed her cheek against his forehead.
From in between her arms, Daniel's eyes opened wide in shock as he felt the stabbing pain in his stomach, followed by the wrenching pain of having his innards being rummaged by Serf's thick fingers.
Serf wasn't an expert of the human body, yet, he could still recognize the stomach from the rest of Daniel's organs.
After he found it, he made a small incision, and pushed the black pill into it, along with a second pearly white pill which, if Daniel could have seen, he would have recognized as an extremely high quality healing pill.
The moment the two pills entered Daniel's stomach, the white pill immediately dissolved, and started to close the incision that Serf had made on it. Then, it moved through his blood vessels, and towards the cut on his abdomen, closing it in a matter of seconds.
Inside his stomach, the black pill had slowly started to melt as well, causing black liquid to wash over Daniel's body, muscles, and veins.
After more than a minute, the color of Daniel's body started to turned back into a pale yet healthier pink, and his muscles started to relax, causing him to be able to breath once again.
The immortal essence that felt like sticky mud a few seconds ago, went back into being a misty power that he could control at will.
Alesia finally took a breath of relief as she looked at Daniel take one breath after the other. Without letting him go, she squeezed his head against her chest and cried.
After a good minute passed, she felt Daniel's hand press gently against her arm. This made her calm down, and let go of his head.
She looked at Daniel's face, and noticed that he was smiling sweetly at her, with an expression on which 'don't worry' was written clearly.
Serf said out loud "YOU'RE AN IDIOT! I TOLD YOU NOT TO PLAY WITH THE DRACA NINBEA! YOU'VE ALMOST DIED!"
Alesia's face was confused, while Daniel's turned into one of embarrassment "I'm sorry, I should have listened to you.." He said.
After hearing the conversation between the two, the group of people that was clogging the entrance of Alesia's room showed faces of derision and disappointment, and went back.
The moment everyone left, Alesia said in a low voice "What are you talking about?"
Serf was about to explain, but Daniel interjected by saying "Earlier, I've played with a venomous plan which Serf had told me not to touch.. I should have listened to him and stayed away from it.. I guess that the poison only took effect now. I'm alright, don't worry."
Alesia's expression changed into a furious one. She let go of Daniel's head and slapped the back with her hand. "I WAS SO DAMN WORRIED! JUST BECAUSE YOU'VE BEEN AN IDIOT!" She shouted angrily before storming out of her own room.
Once Alesia left, Daniel brushed his abdomen with his hand. On his face, was an extremely serious look. "How much?" He asked to Serf.
"If you don't take any more of these pills.. A month.. If you take them every month.. Maybe a year.." Responded Serf with an apologetic and dispirited tone.
"Do you know where this poison comes from?" Asked Daniel, almost unfazed about the news.
Serf lowered his face lightly, then said "Yes.. It's the poison of one of the leading families of the poisonous rose.. I guess that they didn't really accept your offer.." Responded Serf plainly.
"No, the poison wasn't for me. It was delivered to Alesia's room.." Said Daniel after thinking about it for a few seconds. He then remembered the pain of having his guts rummaged by Serf, and said "We can talk more about this later.. I just want to sleep now.."
He then teleported out of Alesia's room, leaving Serf alone.
The moment Daniel left, rage came back on Serf's face. He stood up from the ground, picked the poisonous letter, and made it disappear into his spatial ring before walking out of the room with a fast pace.
-----
"Young Miss, do you understand how bad of an idea that was? You've used your family's signature poison.. It couldn't have been any worse.. If people were to find out it was you.." Said the teacher with an odd mixture of rage, shock, politeness, and worry.
"Stop worrying about it! I just wanted to have a laugh. Leave now.. I have guests.." She responded before..
*Knock Knock*
The teacher showed a dubious expression one last time, then, he teleported out of the girl's room.
"Come in." Said the girl with a polite, and almost sweet tone.
The door opened slowly, and behind it, the silhouette of Serf appeared.
"Brother.." Said the girl while smiling sweetly. She then walked towards him and tried to hug him.
Before she managed to do that, Serf entered the room, and avoided her arms while saying "You will never stop trying to kill me, will you?"
The girl didn't respond. She looked at her fair and small hands covered in invisible poison, and said "What can I do for you, brother?"
"Why did you poison my friend?" Asked Serf with more anger than he meant to show.
"I just wanted to have a bit of fun.. Had I known she was your friend.." Respond the girl, letting her voice die out, and continuing after a few moments by saying "I would have killed her sooner."
If Daniel was present, by now he would have connected the dots.
Serf and this young girl which had tried to poison Alesia and had hit him instead, were two of the four members sent from Serf's family. Serf was the copper-badged student, while she was the platinum-badged student.
It was clear that the two did not have a good relationship even though they were, apparently, brother and sister.
"What did grandma have to say about this?" Asked Serf while keeping his eyes on his sister's expression.
"She only told me not to kill the guy.. She never said I couldn't kill the little flower." Said the girl a jovial tone, almost as if what had happened had nothing to do with her.
"The only problem is that you did not hit the girl.. You've poisoned him." Responded Serf with a cold tone. "He has survived thanks to me, but he will be too wary of the poisonous rose to sell his fire essence treasure.. And that's all on you."
For the first time, the girl showed a worried expression.
"It was an accident. Grandma will understand." She responded, almost unwilling to admit what she did wrong.
Serf smiled back at her, and said "Are you sure about that?.. A perfect fire treasure.. I am sure you had already accepted his deal, and would have paid what he asked.. That would have been such a big contribution for her.. But now, she will know that everything was ruined because you had to feed your sick need of killing people. Only I know that the letter was meant for her and not for him.. Maybe I will forget that detail.. And when they'll ask me, I'll tell that you've sent it to him voluntarily. You know what happens in our family to those who don't obey the orders of the head.."
Serf was furious, but he knew that confronting his sister with anger wouldn't have worked. What he wanted to do, was to make her anxious. And that could only be achieved by threatening her.
The girl showed deeper worry by the minute, then said "What do you want?"
"If you come close to my friends once again, I'll tell our family that we have lost a one-time opportunity because of your whimsical behaviour." Said Serf before turning towards the door, and start walking.
Behind him, his sister approached quietly.. But before she could touch him, Serf added "Oh, and if something happens to me.. There are at least ten different people in the city that will send a letter that describes what happened to our family, and the rest of the main families."
These last few words made the girl stop in her track.
She looked at Serf leave her room without even turning to look back at her.