There came a crash, and sounds of someone being choked. This was all the evidence Alex needed. As he sped of in her direction, it became apparent to him that Angelia was definitely involved in this. If he allowed Angelia to die, there was no way he was going to get any answers from her. Saving her was imperative!
So, with his heavy boots, he kicked the door that led to the basement, and it gave way immediately. The smoke cleared, revealing the chaotic situation behind it. A short, thick bodied fat man in a long coat who was clutching Angelia neck, turned towards the sound of the door breaking. With murderous intent, he glared at Alex with hate filled eyes.
Alex was surprised. Not at the whole scene that reeked of homicide, but at the weapons in the man's right hand- it was the original Cursed Blade! The very weapon that Alex had been searching for all this while! Seeing it up close reminded Alex of the journey that had brought him to Scarlett and The Guardians.
The man, very much still intent on snuffing the life out of Angelia, called out to Alex hoarsely;
"Move along punk, this doesn't concern you!"
He ignored the man and continued to stare at the weapon.
"Are you deaf or something?? I said get the fuck out of here! This ain't the place to be a hero!"
But Alex was still not listening. His whole attention was on the Cursed Blade. Something was very wrong with it. The evil spirit inside it had disappeared! Not only that, the blade also seemed to have undergone a very terrifying upgrade. Alex suddenly felt a chill up his spine as he realized the truth- this was the godkiller!
The artifact that was now in the man's hand before him was perfectly capable of killing not just a high ranking mage like Zooey, but also a demigod like him! As Alex looked at it, he began to wonder if the artifact that was created before was actually it.
Angelia's muffled screams snapped him out his temporal shock.
He regained himself and prepared for battle. Just as the man was about to satisfy the sadistic homicidal streak in his eyes, Alex intervened before Angelia could be stabbed. The intervention came in at a crucial moment as the blade had been only a few inches away from her abdomen. Just a few seconds more, and she would have been nothing more than skewered gizzard.
The killer had been so absorbed in that moment, that Alex's interference came to him as a complete shock. Annoyed that his entertainment had been cut short by this meddling lad, the man lashed out, catching Alex squarely on the shoulder.
The air, heavy with the stench of testosterone, both parties parried back and forth as Alex came face to face with his own mortality for the first time.
Though it was barely a small cut, with every passing second that passed, Alex felt himself getting weaker and weaker. His sight soon began to dim, and he felt his body gradually begin to feel like cement. Fighting was no longer an option.
The man, obviously out for blood, lunged at Alex's neck in frenzied desperation. He barely missed that one strike, and Alex decided it was time to flee. His eyes quickly located Angelia's limp body in the corner, and he calculated his chances of getting to her and teleporting right away. That gamble involved making only a couple of quick short moves.
Unfortunately, it looked like it would end with him exposing his back for a second. And at that moment, in this dance of life and death, that one second could prove to be a decisive moment for both of them.
For the first time, Alex threw caution to the wind and decided to gamble on fate. With a quick burst of savage energy, he rushed towards Angelia. The man followed him closely, eager to punish him greatly.
Alex did not wait to grab her arm or any part of her body. There was simply no time for that! He timed his jump well. The moment his hand came in contact with her body, they both disappeared! Even as he whisked away into space, he felt the violent lash of the man's last attack. It was a close one. It was a really close one.
With death less than a few inches away, Alex had not been thinking clearly when he chose the location to teleport to. His mind had been on autopilot. So, his subconscious led him to a different place entirely- the very same place where he had first met Angelia.
As he set down the petite form of Angelia on the soft lush, green grass, he did not even bother with his regular ritual of glancing around to see if there were any trolling eyes, or worse- potential enemies.
He was way too exhausted for that. He set up a weak protective barrier over the two of them, and began to check her vitals. The evil man had come very close to suffocating her, so she had passed out from the lack of oyygen to her brain. Apart from the few small bruises on her small neck, she had suffered no actual permanent damage.
Satisfied that she was okay, he sat laid down on the grass beside her and began to ponder on what happened just a few moments ago.
He was livid. That man was a real character! Why had he even bothered with stangling Angelia when he was just going to cut her up anyway?! Had his plan been basically to slice through her dead body?! What a total psycho.
Angelia suddenly woke up with a violent start.
She literally jumped right up, gasping for breath, like she had just woken up from a nightmare. She touched her neck, and her wild eyes began to scan her environment, looking for the threat that had plagued her nightmares. Alex's calm voice was what she got instead;
"Relax, you're going to be alright."
She did not recognize the voice at first. It was only when she turned to look at him properly that a look of recognition crossed her face. Dumbfounded, and even more confused, all she found herself saying was;
"YOU!!!" she swallowed; "But...how...???"
Angelia was confused. This douchebag from that day? She distinctly remebered being rude to him, so why had he saved her? What was he even doing here? How did he manage to even get to her at that point? Did he actually manage to defeat the man with the Cursed Blade?
Several questions flew through her mind at mind numbing. Being the talktative one, normally, she would not have found it difficult to voice every single one of them out loud. But, unfortunately, at that moment, she felt like her mouth had suddenly decided to go on a vacation. It simply refused to cooperate with her.
But at that point, of all the things that bothered her, only one stood out amidst the throng of questions; did this guy actually teleport them out of there? How in heavens name had he managed to do that. This thought, amongst a whole other plethora of thoughts, baffled her, and threatened to mentally fry the insides of her brain.
The reason was simple; teleportation, even among top mages, was considered by many to be a godlike skill.
Of course, it was not purely in the sense that it was a skill limited to gods, it was simply a term that was reserved for the best of the best. Not even A-rank mages could pull it off. To be able to bend the physical laws of time/space, and vibrate every single atom in a ones body to move that way, it meant the person had to be at least an S-rank mage! Currently, only a handful of high level mages could do this via the matrix. And she could count them all with the fingers on both her hands!
This was the source of Angelia's confusion, and it was understandable.
Sure, it was a hard pill to swallow, but the evidence was glaring. It really looked like this careless douchebag, who had nearly blown her cover that day, was actually an S-rank mage! She was so stunned that she stared at Alex for a full ten seconds before she realized she was staring.
"For heaven's sake say something Angelia, you look like you've seen a ghost."
Embarassed, she closed her mouth that had been hanging open. She did not even know what to say.