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Chapter 2 - The first blood

Chapter Two ▪︎ The First Blood

The sword rose.

Its edge gleamed beneath the torchlight, and in a fleeting flash, I saw my end approaching.

I had no body to move with. I could not scream, nor could I flee. All I could do was watch the moment when steel would pierce my core… and end me.

But it never came.

The light was cut off in an instant, followed by a sound like thunder—a sharp, splitting crack tearing through the air.

And in the next heartbeat, I saw the adventurer's head soaring upward, torn from his body. His eyes spun in emptiness before crashing lifeless to the ground.

Blood burst across the air, dripping down the cavern stone, while the ruined body collapsed in a clash of steel and bone.

The ground trembled.

From behind him, out of shadows that parted like a black curtain, the executioner emerged.

The Guardian.

No one needed to tell me—I knew the moment it appeared, as though the word had been carved into my essence since the dawn of time.

It stood taller than any man, its form wrapped in dark armor etched with red markings like open wounds. Upon its face sat a helm devoid of features, save for two burning slits that smoldered like embers.

In its skeletal hand it clutched a massive blade, a sword that seemed carved from the night itself—swallowing light rather than reflecting it.

The two surviving adventurers froze. Their laughter died in their throats, their faces shrank into pure horror.

"W-what… what have we done?!" one of them screamed, stumbling backward.

The Guardian gave no answer, spoke no word. It simply raised its blackened blade, and with it came a dense aura—an aura so heavy it made me tremble inside, as if it were tugging at my very energy.

And yet… I did not feel powerless before it. I felt it tethered to me. Not me, but of me.

One adventurer lunged forward in desperation, roaring as he swung his sword—but his movement seemed slow, weightless against the sheer majesty that filled the cavern.

The Guardian lifted its arm. Steel clashed with a shattering cry, and in a blink, the adventurer's sword splintered into shards.

The next strike gave him no time to regret. His body was cleaved clean in half.

Only one remained, gasping, staring wide-eyed at the bisected corpse.

"Stop… stop! We're leaving! We won't touch your core! Just let us go!"

But I knew the truth. There was no negotiation. The Guardian had no heart to listen. It had been summoned to defend—and defend it would.

It stepped forward, each stride like a hammerfall, its sword dragging a shadow longer than the cavern wall itself. The last adventurer collapsed to his knees, crawling backward, trying to flee.

But his end came as swiftly as his companions'.

The blade fell. Silence followed.

Three corpses now, and the cavern floor was soaked in blood.

I stood—no, watched—from within my crystal, awash in a storm of feelings: fear, trembling awe… but also, a strange relief.

The Guardian did not look at me. When its task was done, it drove its sword into the ground, then knelt on one knee, its head bowed toward me in silent submission. It spoke no words, yet it felt like acknowledgment—recognition that I was its master.

Then the voice within me returned, the same formless murmur.

[ First Guardian activated ]

[ Defense level: Initial ]

[ Resource collection: In progress ]

Suddenly… the three corpses, along with the bodies of the fallen monsters before them, crumbled into black ash, pulled into the earth toward my core. I felt the surge of energy rush inside me, heat flowing into every crystalline vein, my light growing stronger… little by little.

I didn't yet understand everything. But I understood one thing.

I was not alone.

And this Guardian… was my sword.

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