"The Guardian of Death?" Elanor asked, yet again. It was definitely pissing me off. "So you jumped on the sole purpose of becoming a Guardian?" She eyed me, like I was some stupid and power-hungry little brat.
"No! The hell! I was already dead and then the Guardian of Silence just came to name me heir and then die! If I did it on purpose then why the fuck do you think I don't want the Imperial family from knowing?!" I shouted back with pure annoyance. I can't tolerate when people keep asking questions!
"Then aren't you ever going to go back?!"
"No one can know I am the Guardian of Death! Get the point! I am literally the protector of a nation and then walking around and people will be like 'holy moly! That kid is lying'! Don't tell me you don't know for short that no Guardians ever showed their appearance and identity to humans. And you out of all people already know that! So quit asking more questions!"
My outburst was straight-forward... But I doubt she even understood anything. Like heck did I choose to have an alliance with someone THIS curious!
"So then... Who was the Guardian?"
That's it! I had enough!
"Alright alright Countess Elanor." I walked towards her while pulling her up in a standing position and then pushing her from the back towards the end of the forest. "It's pretty late and you should probably head back because this dungeon is filled it with so many evil spirits, you will have to be well rested before you depart for the Smod Empire tomorrow! Alright! Bye!"
Then, I came to a stop, flashed a smile and walked towards the opposite direction. Sheesh! I never met someone like her before! Unless I count my mom in. I wiped the sweat accumulated at my forehead, while trying to avoid her amber gaze at my direction.
"Dungeon? This forest is a dungeon?" She asked, which caused me to pause and think a few more things before I faced her again. "Oh right... I will need to show you off too." I added while walking towards her direction and then towards the edge of the forest. She looked at me with question.
"After becoming the Guardian of Death, I realized I can't really move around much. So apparently, I am stuck in this forest until I make my presense known to the other Guardians of the realm. Apparently, I just need to make my presense known to the Aethalgards, and then I can leave this small secluded place. Otherwise, I will be considered a powerful dungeon final boss to whoever comes over to this place. And people only go to dungoens for artifacts. Which I don't know what they need from it except for hunting..."
"Does that have to do with your sword?"
"Well... Slightly. That's why I refrain from using it much. Because it is only operational when fed with blood thirst. And I have to constantly kill to keep my mind from being devoured. But don't worry about it, Spectrum only feeds off its owner's hands. So you will be left unharmed in all aspects."
"But how–"
"Because I need to feed it enemy blood at the same time, and I can't really control it when I face them. It is a bit cursed, and since it has already been fixed to my mind, I am cursed along with it. Spectrum can possess its owner. So... If I refrain from giving it my enemy's blood, it takes over my body and I start killing... Until the entire dungeon has been emptied. This makes me a final boss... If I finish off every 'participant'."
We shared a long moment of silence. Spectrum was hard to explain about, since it had too much details to put into words. It may look beautiful, but I was given it to protect me until I have made a formal appearance to the rest of the Guardians. Until then, I had no way of curing my bloodlust that easily. I may be the wielder, but Spectrum is the master.
"Then why bother keeping Spectrum?"
"Because I need it." I responded without a second of hesitation. Then, unknowingly, I pulled out my favourite obsidian blade. It lay beautifully at her two hands as I looked at it with a different angle of view. It was my most favourite, although not much powerful compared to Spectrum. But at least it didn't do the things that Spectrum did to my mind. Even wielding this one was far smoother and fun then wielding Spectrum.
"This one here... If I bring it out anywhere, my close people will know who I am. It carries my signature. And since my reawakening is the thing I don't want anyone else to know... I have to hide it."
Then, I watched as the sword dissolved with the air. The next thing I saw was the dried leaves on the ground. The only thing I heard was the soft crunch of them. I think I am starting to miss everyone. I am honestly getting bored living alone in a forest.
"I see..." Elanor replied while coming to a stop at the edge of the forest. Just from crossing the threshold.
That was when I looked up, with the first thing catching my eyes, was the marble statue in pieces. I smiled at it. I knew that if by tomorrow the news reached Lewis' ears, he might come dashing towards this place. That will be two days time for me to go ahead and visit the Guardian's realm.
"Anyways... Good luck with your mission. And while you are at it, I will be gone for a moment." I added while looking away into the distant forest. Thinking that I should probably clear the last bits of this forest. And then, after I return, I would be busy with something else of course. "If you need anything, it is safe to ask Spectrum. But also remember not to show this sword to anyone. Let alone, tell anyone about it."
Then, I turned away when I noticed Elanor moving towards the other side.
"Take care Aefia. I hope we will meet again in the future." She added while completely dissapearing towards the otherside.
The reason I had to walk her here, was that if she left without my presense around her, she might not be able to leave. It would be as if she had given up instead. But if I were to be near her, then the dungeon core would believe that we are mutual and that I am simply expelling a participant without killing her. Because otherwise, she would need to kill me to exit.
Honestly, I don't want to die anymore. I have way too much at my hands, now that my powers are back. Like finding out who the owner of this competition is. Although I still don't know why Silence put me on the throne of the Guardian of Death, but I think she may have learnt about the dark truth or she may have changed herself?
However, either ways... I don't care about her existence anymore. What really matters is, if she was forced to do so... Then I guess the competition owner knows exactly who I am by now. I just need to know who they are. They are definitely not the Torture Cell. They are definitely not associated with the Torture Cell.
But they are however, associated to the Great Yearly Catastrophe.
As far as I can recall... Puppet was the one who told me about this very thing.
It was quite some time after I had reawakened that I started questioning it for informations. Of course, Puppet wasn't quite happy that I had jumped right into worrying about the current situation.
*
I guessed that since I had reclaimed my element, added to it the power of the Guardian of Deatt, I could restart my system and work on my research again. It was just then that Puppet bursted out of thin air and joyfully jumping up and down.
"Yay! I am back!"
I just stared at it with multiple thoughts. And then...
"By the way! Congrats on your Phase Four and ascention to Guardian of Death! I am so proud of my owner!"
"What?" I asked, thinking it was just a joke.
But that was also when my screen popped up.
[You have unlocked Phase 4: The Fifth Sovereign]
I was shocked to the depth of my mind that I had grown my power that much while it was restricted from use. I guess Silence really helped with this part. But that was also the time before I had become this blood thirsty. Because right the next day, I found Spectrum tucked inside my inventory and pulled out the curse it brought along with it. Puppet tried to prevent it, but how I had suffered the previous encounter trying to reverse the Cursed fate skill, I didn't want to risk it anymore.
"I am keeping this sword. In return, swallow my time related skills. I don't need them." I declared while unshealthing it from the white scabbard. If it weren't cursed, I would have given it to Lewis. For the Whale element's colour, it really matched him. Then again, I wasn't allowed to meet him anymore because of my identity.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
It wasn't like those skills would have done me any good anymore. I hadn't been using them for so long that I completely forgot how to activate them maybe. And, predicting the future felt very evil for my enemies. I still have the mind to do justice. Afterall... I am the Guardian of Death. In long form, the Guardian of the Dead.
As Puppet was busy feeding on my energy and skills, I decided to ask a simple question. "By the way. Is there anything you know about the Great Yearly Catastrophe? By chance?"
It looked at me with a sort of expression that I was probably making a grave mistake. But given that I had become very unsocial in the short time that I had reawakened, it didn't bother and batted an eye to my question.
"If you know by now, you can bend the space fabric to form a wormhole where two ends meet to form a teleportation tunnel sort of stuff. Right?"
"Well yes. But is it even proven?"
"Of course. Because this very Catastrophe that you are facing as a question in your mind... Is a result of shaping the space fabric to do a certain something that no one really knows except the owner of this Competition. Do you understand?"
The amount of detail that Puppet just spewed out, almost made me lose my mind. "So... They are trying to bend the spacetime fabric? To form a wormhole?"
"No. No one is actually sure. Because this s just an experiment that the owner wants a result to. Not even the founders know actually. Even I am not sure about what is in that person's mind. But I can tell you that for a human to simply bend that spacetime fabric is going to take a huge amount of energy."
I stayed silent and nodded to ask it to continue.
"But honestly. The experiments are all just failing. And everytime, it is resulting in a huge amount of energy being wasted. As you know, humans can't really do such a thing."
"Then why not stop?"
"Arrogance. So even as the competition owner is actually running out of their own energy, they are planning on using other sources. And that is exactly why fifteen of you have been participating in this nasty fool's play. They are planning on using those mentors to raise you guys into powerful mages."
"And... Is that probably why Silence left me as an heir?"
"How is that supposed to be associated with this?"
"Because she was stealing everyone's energies behind the owner's back. So what if 'they' told her that she would have to return it back to whoever she stole them from." I deduced. "But either ways... Why teenagers and only people from Earth?"
"Because teenagers grow faster and can learn faster then most ages, they are even stronger and have more powerful minds. Added to it, Earth people can withstand a lot based on the situation they are at."
"Well that is great use of logic there." I spoke while standing up. "This just made things even more complicated for me."
"How? You are literally the only person who has left the competition and has the most knowledge and duties."
"That is the thing. I have the most knowledge and duties... But I still don't have adequate to actually find out who really the owner is. If he has started to run low just recently... Then imagine how much power he still has left. That fifteen fully trained participants are necessary to fulfil the amount of energy needed to warp the space time fabric. Regardless... I have heard that this has been happening since I was born. Being exactly fifteen years as it states."
"And what if I told you there is a huge possiblity that the owner recided in this world? Since they had to bring you guys to Nikoan just to supervise?"
"Yes but the Guardians are also said to be the protector of different nations. What if 'they' are just another Guardian? That way, it would be easier to keep an eye on us too." I suggested. At this point, it was completely unmistakeable that the owner had ancient knowledge that they knew would be able to fool our minds. Because fantasy stuffs can almost never be a sense if told by the mouth of a regular person. That is how evil took over humans.
I thought for a few seconds. Keeping my eyes glued with no focus, at the dried leaves at my shoe soles. "I think... I want to head over and check out the Guardian's Realm. It's not like I don't need to do it to begin with, I am the Guardian of Death afterall. I am going to investigate the Aethalgard."
"You are still a rookie though. You think they will buy it?"
"Then what do you want me to do? Bending the spacetime fabric and causing major problems throughout the universe and then wasting energy... You think this person is sane?"
"..."
"And either ways... I thought I was the one who needed to deal with this. I have quit my role as a participant with the competition, so it is all up to my hands to free the participants before their minds go haywire with those stupid information they are being fed. How long am I supposed to stay silent like this?"