The Guardian

Chapter 238: Question

Aurora moved by, jumping through the trees and running fast, swerving when she encountered monsters.

The clouds were already starting to seep a blackish color, making the place eerie, but it wasn’t because of the silence.

“GAA!”

The roars of enraged monsters were coming from everywhere and what was spooky was the darkness that didn’t allow one to see.

Light came in during the day, but at night... There was nothing to illuminate.

Total, and completely dark.

She had taken a concoction to see in the dark because her instincts warned her that everything was being dangerous... And it was.

The Chaos grew thicker and with that brought disorder and battle everywhere, increasing the roars from the surroundings.

The situation was getting out of control and Aurora knew that in this darkness, the light could become the perfect prey for monsters and creatures.

So she had to hide in the hollow of a tree.

The trees were thick and quite tall, many of them were already dead and only the outer shell remained and those trees became the perfect hiding place for her.

While she had the tent fully equipped, it wasn’t going to be easy to set it up, especially on a night as chaotic as this one.

-—The night is scary. —Aurora muttered in her mind.

She couldn’t bring herself to speak out loud and preferred to speak mentally, as if she were having a telepathic conversation.

—You have been through scarier things and in many of them, you risked your life.

Her system responded with a text in her mind and even though it was only a text, there was an inquisitive touch in those words.

—It is normal to be beaten or mortally wounded in this profession. Aurora answered in self-defense.

She was not lying.

She had been reckless, but it was certainly difficult to come out uninjured in combat and, more so, in those of greater difficulty.

Before, she was weaker than now and that was because she now had a greater resistance than that of a swordsman thanks to the fighter’s strength that gave her an advantage.

—Still, you shouldn’t risk it.

Her system gave a comment, and Aurora curled up with a smile inside the tree.

She could sense her system’s concern and especially the denial of her reckless actions.

—I make no promises. —Aurora replied with a soft chuckle in her mind and at that moment, she became serious.

She felt a powerful presence approaching and through the hole she had created with her sword, she could see an abomination of several meters passing close to her hiding place.

The abomination’s footsteps caused small tremors and no other monster or creature stood in the way... Of an S-ranked abomination.

Aurora stood motionless, calming all her emotions and suppressing her presence, while she activated the stealth on her combat suit and silently pulled out a pair of drones to reinforce concealment.

Her senses were also picking up the presences of many monsters and she had no desire to fight on this dark night.

If anyone started a battle on this night, they could end up surrounded by creatures and monsters, triggering a pitched battle of enormous proportions and the only one who would lose out would be her.

—It’s already gone.

Her system alerted her, which made Aurora sigh in relief.

—Thank you for staying. Honestly, I think it would be scary to be alone. —Aurora murmured with a sigh, hiding her concern for her sister and the others.

Urfin, Alros, Siba, and Meden were ‘old’ veterans with enormous experience, and Alice might seem like someone who didn’t try too hard, but she was also knowledgeable and had admirable strength.

As for the others who were by her side when they were swallowed by the portal and were possibly in this place, Aurora didn’t know them well enough.

However, that didn’t take away from the fact that she wasn’t worried about her acquaintances, and more so at this moment.

Howls, roars, and all sorts of sounds were coming from outside her hiding place and the others were possibly in similar and even worse situations.

Being alone in this kind of world could eat away at the nerves and if she were honest, she would rather go fight than be on standby.

Having someone to talk to at the moment was very nice, as it helped her to share her emotions.

—It’s okay... You don’t need to worry and if you want to sleep, I’ll keep watch in your place.

Her system gave a response and while it was in text, as usual, Aurora could pick up that sense of concern that managed to bring a smile to her face.

The first words made it clear that he didn’t know how to respond to her thanks and that he changed the subject emphasized that fact.

—...

Her system sent her a few little dots, as if to say she was thinking too much, which made her smile rise.

That strange system gave a lot to think about and generated too many questions and that it had been with her since she was a little girl was disconcerting, but even with all that, it was reliable.

Her system had been talking through text since she was a child and she understood what the reason was... Using a voice, even a mechanical one, would let emotions show through, which a system was not supposed to have.

—I am connected to your surface thoughts and that ‘text’ you see is simply a representation of our communication given form in your mind that way.

Her system explained calmly, and Aurora raised her eyebrow.

—So, if I want to give it ‘voice’, would it come out? —Aurora asked earnestly, causing silence to emerge.

Aurora chuckled to herself at the lack of response, as to her that ‘technical’ explanation simply seemed like an entertaining excuse.

But she liked to tease her system in this way and joke with it, it reminded her of when she was younger.

In her memories, her system was more clingy and more talkative, being quite conversational with someone like her, but it was normal for them to grow apart over time.

After all, it was strange and almost impossible to have a ‘system’ that talked to her in her mind, and that it had unique abilities made her feel different... It made her feel special, even though she later realized that she was just like others.

However, that aloofness was normal the more, she realized the weirdness of talking to someone in her mind and how disturbing it became at times when thinking about some scary scenarios.

In the end, the doubts and questions made them end up distancing themselves greatly unlike before, but for Aurora, she didn’t mind too much.

She was fine this way.

It was why she didn’t ask questions whose answers could change everything and generate more questions and doubts that she didn’t need now.

Ignorance was sometimes bliss.

******

—It seems that everything has calmed down. ‘Day’ and ‘night’ are very different from each other. It is possible that the weather was different from that of the earth.

After resting for a few hours and chatting with her system, Aurora prepared to leave.

She agreed with her system’s comment.

The difference in ‘time’ in this place differed from Earth.

It was not yet ‘daytime’ and outside everything was still dark, but at least the stirring of the creatures stopped and the ominous presence of Chaos diminished.

—Do you know the precise difference? —Aurora asked curiously, sensing the surroundings.

—It’s hard to say. Time passes faster. I would guess that three hours here is one hour on Earth.

It was an accurate enough precision that Aurora agreed.

She had been going to unlimited white space for most of her life since she had trained and, in some ways, had spent years in that space.

Sometimes half an hour on Earth could become several hours inside such a place, so she had keen senses to pinpoint the difference, following her internal clock.

Of course, she also followed the idea of what the expedition had mentioned in their letter.

As a group with a space mage, they would probably be able to more accurately define the time difference.

Aurora used a cleaning device and then left the hiding place and moved.

The monsters had calmed down, even so, it was still slightly dark and the number of monsters the day before gave the impression of having increased.

Aurora, to avoid battles, had to detour, trying to go around the pillar of darkness that was her compass in this world.

She didn’t like the idea that she was taking longer, but she preferred to be cautious and play it safe.

As she moved, she looked for any plant or creature that wasn’t tainted by Chaos or edible.

After she had advanced for more than three hours, she felt an ominous and sinister sensation, even though the light was filtering through the clouds.

Aurora stopped looking at the pillar in the distance and stopped, directing her gaze towards the light filtering through the clouds.

Unlike before, when she could see a plain in the distance, now she could see darkness churning strangely... Like a moving black sea.

“This is...” Aurora muttered, advancing to that place.

She was on a large cliff and beyond it, the darkness was churning like waves and while it was slow enough that she couldn’t notice it in the dark, now that the light was filtering through, it was visible.

She had taken a concoction to see the darkness, but if she were honest, she knew she would have mistaken it for some kind of ground.

Now, thanks to the light filtering through those gray clouds, she could get some clarity.

Where she stood was like an island and surrounding it was the sea.

It was not a simple sea, it was black and had become slightly viscous.

In the distance, she could see some mountains swallowed by that sea, and she could even observe grotesque sea creatures swimming in that sea.

Then her vision went into the distance and all she noticed was boundless darkness.

—Chaos has corrupted these lands. It is so dense that it has corrupted the sea. If someone drank it, they would probably transform into a grotesque monster.

Aurora was silent.

She had read the Terra nova mythology about the gods.

The ancient Primordial God of Chaos had sacrificed himself to save his daughter he had had with the Primordial Goddess of Destruction.

It was a very tragic story that marked the birth of the Immortal Devil, another primordial one, but at the same time, it showed that no one else controlled the Chaos that this ancient god dominated.

—According to the sages, Chaos is found throughout the void. That line between the different ‘dimensions’ or ‘universes’. When the dimensional barrier cracks and breaks, this can happen.

Her system gave her an explanation, and a thought came to her mind.

Could this happen on Earth?

That was her question and her system had answered it.

She may not have been an expert theologian or liked to read the countless books Alice enjoyed reading as if it were some kind of fun history, but she understood the basics.

“Did this world lose its ‘Gods’?” Aurora asked seriously.

—Maybe or maybe they never had.

Aurora took a deep breath for such an ambiguous answer that gave both possibilities.

The ones who were in charge of protecting the Earthlings for most of their development were the Earth Gods, who were born out of their beliefs.

They, even when they found themselves in a difficult situation of no longer being able to cope with the work because of their weakness, they asked for help from an external deity and the God of Time and Space came.

Even now, the Gods of Earth were still supporting, blessing, and allowing paladins to use their powers.

Aurora was silent with too many questions that she could not now answer, being involved in this situation.

So, instead of wasting time on unnecessary questions, she gave one last glance at the sea before turning her gaze back to the pillar of darkness.

She could tell it had gotten closer and while taking the detour slowed her down, realizing it wasn’t that much, it cheered her up a bit.

“I’ll go with more haste this time,” she said after a moment’s thought.

—I’ll take care of informing you of the surroundings.

Pulling out her sword, she ran, advancing quickly.

She didn’t understand if her system used her senses or some other means to warn her of danger and if she was honest, she didn’t care and more so when her system’s warnings were helpful.

Moving through the trees, using them to push herself further, she moved so fast that her figure could barely be noticed and her presence went unnoticed.

The few times some monster with keen senses noticed her, she killed it and continued to leave the corpse to be devoured by other monsters.

Her speed was fast and when she had no trees to move on, she created platforms under her feet.

Since it was a direct journey, it shortened quite a distance more than she had shortened before, but it also made it difficult for her to pay attention to everything around her.

Then, after a few hours of steady travel, she stopped feeling the change in her surroundings.

The area she had come to had fewer monsters, and the land had a greater vitality.

Some trees had some green leaves still on them and they were no longer all dry.

It was a minimal and subtle change, but there it was.

—It’s possible that the closer we get, the less ‘Chaos’ there is... Although we don’t know how long it will last.

Her system gave an analysis and Aurora, who was silent, realized that it was just as her system said.

In this area, the ominous feeling was less than next to the cliff, but at the same time, the feeling of ‘pressure’ was greater being close to the pillar.

The first caused the Chaos to stop corrupting the surroundings, leaving some life, and the second caused the monsters to decrease in number.

Advancing a little further, she noticed these changes more noticeably and observed how the land had a more natural and vivid color, leaving behind the gray color and becoming a greater full of vitality and fertility.

At that moment, Aurora stopped as she sensed a presence very different from the monsters.

Looking down from the top of a tree, hidden using the stealth of her combat suit, she could see a deer-like animal.

It had four horns on its head and instead of fur or skin, it had brown scales that were only visible if one concentrated.

And that native deer was eating grass under a tree as Aurora tried to classify it and in the end, simply marked it as some kind of low-ranked magical beast.

It didn’t come out as the deer had presences following it.

“...”

Three arrows flew through the air from some bushes and pierced the animal, giving it a certain death.

Then three goblins jumped out of the bushes to go after their prey quickly.

They were the ‘little devils’ what the goblins themselves called the ‘lower caste’.

Aurora was thrilled to see the first creatures alive and not corrupted by Chaos that she had seen since coming to this place.

And without hesitation she followed them, keeping her stealth to a maximum.

This seemed like an opportunity.