A couple of minutes later.

While Queen Mother and Professor Frances were both busy on whatever the professor was planning to do, Alex and Alina were back at the wooden house.

 

Alex, who was planning to sleep earlier, was forced by Alina to come with her and leave the professor and Queen Mother alone.

“Alina, why do you want to make me do this?” Alex complained to Alina as he gave her a weary look. “Don’t you want to make me rest?”

 

“Alex, you should know that with your current constitution, it will be quite difficult for you to get exhausted.” Alina replied as she gave Alex cold look. “You want to take a nap? Hmph, more like you want to just laze around until Professor Frances finishes what she’s doing now.”

“Well…”

“Don’t try to answer now, Alex. I will see if you lie.”

“…”

With this powerful rebuke from Alina, Alex was left with no choice but to follow her whims.

 

“So, what do you want to make me do now?” Alex asked Alina as the swordswoman sat on the living room.

There was nobody along with them at that time, as both Kiera and her grandfather were asleep right now. As for Asteria, she was in the lair along with Queen Mother, probably interested on watching the professor’s actions.

“I want to fight against you, Alex.” Alina replied as she took a deep breath. Her eyes stared at Alex directly, but instead of the usual ‘I’m hungry’ look, what Alex could see on Alina’s eyes right now was only sheer determination. “Surely you can fulfill a request like that.”

 

“Wait, you want us to fight now?” Even though he sounded dumb right now, Alex had no choice but to state what Alina just said.

 

“Alex, that is just what I literally said.” Alina replied with an exasperated expression on her face. “And to answer your question, yes I want to fight you, and I want to do it now.”

 

“…”

“Alex, you know the benefits that we will get if we fight each other right now.” Alina said as she saw Alex’s silent visage. “Alex, even if we are allies, we still need to test our levels of strength, and only through fighting each other that we can do that. Surely, you can understand what I am talking about, right?”

 

Of course Alex can perfectly understand Alina.

Just like what Alina had stated, Alex also thinks that sparring between themselves will be of great benefit to them, especially during the times like these, where they have to be sure about their limits.

 

With Alex in agreement with Alina, there is no reason for Alex to reject Alina’s proposal to fight or spar with her right now.

However, since their last fight, Alex was subtly avoiding any kind of fight with Alina, as he was not that confident of winning against her.

 

Call it his pride, but Alex was a sore loser, and he was not that enthused on fighting against someone powerful.

 

Alina, with her powerful dimension manipulation and her dark magic, was obviously one of these powerful people.

Of course he will fight a powerful person if he has to, but if he had to fight only for a spar? Well, that’s a different kind of topic already.

At one glance, Alex might seem petty and cowardly with this kind of attitude, but he was not ashamed with this, as this kind of attitude allowed him to survive his childhood days.

Since this survival attitude worked for him before, then Alex will just obviously use it here too.

“Alex, I know that you are a little wary of fighting against me, but you won’t really get stronger unless you get to surpass your…. biases.” Alina said through gritted teeth as she seemed to lose her patience with Alex. “Why are you even wary of me?”

 

“You can warp spaces right now, and you can also weakly manipulate the lower and the higher dimensions.” Alex replied as he tilted his head. “Not only that, but your Dark Magic has also reached Grade 6, and your Esper Power was also way higher than mine right now… Even if I have more skills than you at this point, I am not sure who among us two is stronger.”

“Alex, I can understand why you are this cautious… But I am your ally, so you should not be worried about fighting against me.” Alina said as she placed both of her hands on Alex’s cheeks. “If you are this cautious against an enemy, then I can accept your behavior right now. But Alex, I’m not your enemy at all!”

 

“But-“

 

“Alex, are you scared of me?” Allina asked as her hands began to squeeze Alex’s cheeks. “Even if you are applying your principles here, I still could not help but feel offended but what you are doing right now.”

 

“Of course I’m not scared of you, Alina. In fact I-ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow! Don’t squeeze my cheeks that hard!”

 

Alina deliberately ignored Alex’s complaints as she intensified her squeezing.

“Alex, will you spar with me, or not?” Alina asked but this time, she asked it in a way that she won’t accept a no as an answer.

 

“Fine, I will spar with you.” Alex replied as he let out a defeated sigh. “But I’m reminding you, I will not hold back against you! So if you get injured, don’t get that angry to me!”

 

“Pfft!” Alina could not help but giggle after hearing this reply, as Alex’s words and attitude right now was a direct contrast of the way that he acted earlier.

“What’s wrong Alina? Did I do something funny?” Alex asked Alina as he saw the amusement on her face. “Hey Alina, don’t look at me like that! I’m not a weird person!”

 

“Oh Alex… You really are an inconsistent person.” Alina replied as she shook her head in amusement. “No wonder you managed to become a Traveler… You are just as chaotic as a prankster.”

 

“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean!”

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

TWO HOURS LATER.

Two sweat-covered bodies went inside the wooden house, and with one look, one can see that both of these bodies were extremely weary and tired.

 

“Ugh… So it was a tie? That ‘s a definite improvement compared to our last fight.” One of the bodies said as it almost stumbled against the wall.

 

The second body then replied, as it also slightly staggered on its steps.

“Alex, you’re lucky that we did not use all of our power. If that was the case, then our sparring would not have been a draw!”

 

The first body, which turns out to be Alex, gave the second body, who was actually Alina, a cocky smile as he said,

 

“Oh, so you are complaining right now? Do you want to go to a second round?”

“Well, you still looked like you have the stamina for that. Are you game to do it?”

 

“Well, why don’t we do it now? I’m sure that I will last longer this time!”

You sure are cocky. If I can remember, you almost deflated against me-“

Alina suddenly stopped talking, as her face went red from embarrassment.

“…” Alex went red from embarrassment too, as he realized that the conversation that he just had with Alina sounded somewhat… suggestive.

 

“Ehem.” Alex let out  a cough in an attempt to clear the awkward situation. “Well,  now that 2 hours have passed by, maybe Queen Mother and Professor Frances are already done with whatever they are planning to do. Why don’t we visit them now?”

 

“I concur.” Alina replied, with the blush on her face reduced to that a pink flush. “We  need to see what they have already done.”

The flustered duo then hurriedly cleaned themselves up, and once they had done so, they immediately re-entered Alex’s lair.

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

“What in the world are those things?” That was the first thing that Alex said as he entered the lair. “No matter which way I look at those things, I can only feel the need to kill them with fire! Are you sure that this is the one that we needed to use here?”

“What the hell is your problem, Alex?” Professor Frances hotly replied as she and Queen Mother gave Alex cold looks. “We took time to create this, and yet you want to just destroy it?”

“How could I not want to destroy it?” Alex replied as he gave the angry duo a pleading look. “I mean, just look at these f**kers!I Nobody sane will actually like these things!”

“You!”

“Well, tell me that I’m wrong right now.” Alex smugly said as he crossed his arms. “Go on, tell me that they look cute and harmless.”

“…” Both the professor and the tree woman were unable to reply, making Alex feel satisfied, but also resigned.

Alex already knew that both the professor and the tree woman won’t be able to refute him, as what he can see in front of him was already enough to show them the truth.

Right in front of Alex was a petri dish, with its size only a percent larger than the original one.

Nothing special could be seen from the petri dish, well except for what was inside it.

Placed on the petri dish itself were thick, white, wriggling worms the size of a human finger.

Each worm moved in an odd and erratic phase, which can induce extreme feelings of nausea, disgust, and dizziness.

Most people would be incapacitated by this, although Alex was not affected by these worms greatly.

Alex was able to contain these negative feelings with the help of his power, although he had to use most of his attention in order to achieve this.

“…”

As Alex stared at the worms warily, he looked at Professor Frances and Queen Mother, who were both protectively hovering over the petri dish.

 

 “…Okay, maybe I will keep them alive for now.” Alex murmured to himself as he looked at the worms with disgust. “Since you made an effort to create these creepy things, I will allow them to exist within this plane of physical reality…”

 

“Heh, at least you still have some conscience left in you.” Professor Frances replied as she pulled back her tense body. “Good man, good man.”

“Hmph, I only kept them alive for now, as I want to see what they can do in the first place.” Alex said as he crossed his arms once more. “Oh right, you still did not tell me the name of these wriggling things. What do you actually call these worms?”

“…” The room then went silent for a few seconds, as Professor Frances mentally composed herself to give Alex an answer.

 

“…We call these worms Brain Eaters.” The professor replied as she let out a sigh. “They were the products that I made along with the help of Queen Mother earlier. With their small size and quick movements, they can easily enter through a person’s orifices and then go all the way up to that person’s brain, and once they were there, they can pretty much do what they were intended to do there.  Pretty scary, right?”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“That’s it, now I will really destroy them all until nothing is left!” Alex shouted as he gritted his teeth. “You want me to stay in a lair along with something that was called a Brain Eater? No f***king way that I will allow that!”