After the attack on the Blackwood Estate, the surviving members of the mercenaries were rounded up by Anna, Lyanna, and members of Edward Blackwood's personal guard and taken to the city in the morning to be officially placed in prison. Both the personal guard members and the city police tried to question the mercenaries about who ordered them, but none of the survivors said.
There were theories: perhaps an enemy noble hired them to take the Blackwoods status, or maybe Edward had made an enemy and someone wanted to target his wife, but of course, to the knowledge of Alex, that was untrue.
Alex knew exactly who had hired those mercenaries thanks to Ysabel, and after letting her go undetected, he knew she would tell the guild master not to mess with him. Alex did everything he could to leave an impression on her by killing all of her friends and torturing her, making sure she knew he was not someone to be trifled with.
After the attack, Alex decided he needed to wind down, so he asked Eve if she could prepare him a nice hot bath. Eve did exactly as instructed and prepared a bath for him before leaving. While Eve went to go prepare Alex's clean clothes, Alex relaxed in the bath while doing some thinking.
"Three mercenary bands, more than a dozen mercenaries combined...she really went all out with trying to kill us...oh Ava, if only you knew what was coming to you."
Alex was never sinister; in fact, he was kind and caring, but he had one core rule since he had been reincarnated into this world.
Do not harm my family.
Alex would show no mercy to those who would dare to even attempt to harm his family. Alex cherished every memory he could with Anna, Raven, Lyanna, Amelie, and the other maids, each of them earning a place in his heart. The mercenaries attacked every member of his family besides Mary and Eve, so Alex was truly scared. He was scared of what would've happened if the mercenaries won. What would've happened to his family? He dreaded these thoughts. Instead, he decided to focus on the cause of all of this, Ava.
Alex was once again not going to show any mercy to Ava, someone he truly never liked but didn't have a problem with as long as she didn't cross a line, which of course she crossed.
As Alex was thinking about ways to get his revenge, he closed his eyes while lying in the bath and slowly drifted asleep. Darkness shrouded his vision before he suddenly opened his eyes and was surrounded by a white room. A very familiar white room.
"Xymaris?" Alex asked as he looked around.
"Nope." an unfamiliar female voice said.
Alex looked around and saw a small purple circle on the ground nearby.
"This is new." Alex said out loud.
"Step on it." the voice said.
Alex looked puzzled. "Why should I trust you? Where's Xymaris?"
The voice audibly sighed. "Just do it already; nothing bad will happen, promise."
Alex shrugged his shoulders and decided to take a chance. He stepped on the purple circle, and it was almost as if the floor collapsed beneath him; he couldn't see anything but felt as if he was falling down, not knowing where he would end up.
Suddenly Alex landed, and he felt like he had landed on something extremely soft. Alex looked around and saw that he was now on top of a purple bed. The bed was a canopy bed with purple curtains tied to the corners of the bed. Alex pushed down on the mattress, and it was so soft that his hand nearly sank in.
Alex continued to look around the room and noticed a brick fireplace on a nearby wall, the floors made of marble, and a nice table with two leather chairs next to it.
Alex got off the bed and stood up as he walked over to the fireplace. There was no fire and no wood, so Alex questioned what the point of the fireplace was. That was before suddenly the fireplace ignited with a purple flame, which made Alex step back. He had never seen purple fire before, and he wondered how it was burning so consistently when there was no wood in the fireplace.
"Purple flames?" Alex said out loud.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" a voice said from behind him.
Alex turned around and was once again shocked at the sight before him.
She was a beautiful girl with long purple hair and bright pink eyes. Her body was near perfection. Alex's attention was immediately drawn to her chest, which was rather large—maybe around the same size as Anna's but not quite as big as Lyanna's. She also had amazing curves on her, which would make any man start to drool.
Alex, being very attracted to her, did his best to hide it. "Who are you?" he asked.
"Well, aren't you blunt?' the woman said. She walked over to the leather chairs before taking a seat and crossing one leg over the other seductively. "Sit down, let's talk."
Alex nodded before he sat down on the chair across from her.
The woman began to speak "First off, my name is Iris; like Xymaris, I am a goddess; in fact, I'm her sister."
"Her sister?" Alex asked.
"Yes, I'm one of three sibling goddesses. Like my sister, I also had a part in bringing you back from the dead, my dear Alex." Iris said.
Alex looked at her, confused, before nodding his head. "Well, I thank you for that then, but why am I here now?"
"You don't have any patience, do you?" Iris asked. "Well, that's fine; I like a man who gets down to business quickly. In short, you, Alex, have just drawn your first blood, which I have been waiting patiently for you to do. Although I didn't think it would happen when you were so young, but life's unpredictable like that. But as to your purpose here, now that you have been in combat and have taken a life, you have unlocked the potential for some new abilities."
"Abilities?" Alex asked.
"You will learn them in time; just know that your magic will become even more powerful thanks to me. You can praise me now!" Iris said, actually expecting Alex to praise her.
"What do you mean more powerful?" Alex asked.
"You still haven't praised me." Iris said while she started to pout.
Alex sighed "I can't praise you until you actually tell me what you did."
"Fair enough." Iris said. "My sister Xymaris, who set you on the path of your new life, has the trait of nature. She laid down the foundation of your magical potential, especially with the natural elements. I, however, have a different trait. Destruction."
"Destruction?" Alex asked.
"Yes, while Xymaris gave you the potential for growth. My trait will give you the power you will need in the future. Pure, unfiltered strength and destruction. Plus some...additional stuff that will come into play later." Iris explained.
"So Xymaris gave me the potential to grow, and you will give me the strength to do so." Alex said, summing up what she had said.
"Precisely. Soooo...?" Iris said waiting in anticipation.
"Thank you; this ability will be extremely useful." Alex said, giving Iris the praise she wanted.
"Yay!" Iris said as she was excited.
"So now what?" Alex asked Iris.
"Well, you will wake up in your bath and things will go as normal, but remember, you are more powerful, so make sure you train your magic again. The fundamentals are important after all." Iris explained.
Iris stood up out of her seat and said "Good luck, Alex. I can't wait until we meet again." before she clapped her hands, and Alex suddenly woke up back at home in the bath with someone knocking on the door to the bath.
"Mast—I mean Alex Are you alright?" Eve said from behind the door.
Alex rubbed his eyes and regained his thoughts before answering "Yeah, I'm okay."
"I left you clean clothes outside of the door; is there anything else you need?" Eve asked.
"No, I'm good. Thanks Eve." Alex responded.
With that, Eve left, leaving Alex to get changed.
Alex walked over to his room and laid down on his bed before going to sleep, but little did he know two goddesses were watching him.
"How did your conversation go?" Xymaris asked her sister, who was sitting next to her.
"Good, although I wish we could've talked more." Iris responded.
Xymaris nodded in agreement before saying "That won't be a problem soon; we just need for him to get older."
Iris nodded as well before asking "What has the 'hero' been up to? I know Drayfall has been watching him closely."
Xymaris sighed "He's on a similar progression path as Alex, but their powers are in completely different directions. While Alex is powerful, he still needs to develop a lot of his strength before he can match the 'hero'. The hero has so much innate power that if the two fought today, Alex would barely stand a chance."
"So we need Alex to progress quicker..." Iris responded.
"A lot quicker." Xymaris said.
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