The Guardian

Chapter 260: She Had Disappeared

In his two hundred and fifty years of life, Siba had faced many frightening events.

He had been quite close to death many times and had clashed with different people for many different reasons.

Most of them being confrontations because of being called a ‘minor demon’.

Minor demon?

He never understood the ignorance of those people.

They were not minor demons!

They were humans from the fire lands!

The bastards ignorant of their history called them demons without knowing that in their lands they were those oppressed ones who rose up to defeat the demons.

Their ancestors were on the lowest rung of society. They were the plague of the plague and in the eyes of the pure demons; they were worse than the corrupt demons.

They were weak, they always were.

Enslaved and dominated in a world like Terra nova, it was not a place where things changed by ideas.

It took strength to make changes, work and stick... Strength to push ideals to a better place, but they had no strength.

Until that deity showed up to support them.

To support the ‘Fallen’ in disgrace, those who were oppressed and dominated, then that deity, gave them his blessing.

Siba was now only a descendant of such ancestors who managed to bring change with the help of a God, who was now known as a ‘Demon God’.

Walking through the forest, as the few monsters burned before the fire he released, Siba took a deep breath.

It was funny, they worshipped a ‘Demon God’, but their values were more inclined to the ‘good’ side.

No, that was not all.

They hated demons and their God was considered the Demon God of Terra nova.

As if that wasn’t enough, they had pure demon blood in their body and although they called themselves ‘humans of the fire lands’, in reality their demonic characteristics came from the ancestors of their ancestors... Who were demons that mixed with humans.

The existence of his people was a curious contradiction, but it was fine for Siba and it was fine for other empires that interacted with his lands.

Taking a deep breath, Siba could smell the scent of burnt flesh from the monsters and the scorched trees from their spreading fire.

However, he could also feel a presence pressing down on him and he soared into the sky.

“Oh, Great Lord of the Fallen. Incarnation of Temptation and Symbol of Corruption... Your loyal believer asks that you release him from the shackles and allow him to raise his weapon against his enemies.”

With each word giving rise to the title of a god, the surroundings became more sinister as that deity gave a cursory glance, perhaps because of the place he stood.

“...”

However, the next moment, Siba could feel the gaze of his god resting on him for a time that would not be normal... Giving him an attention that such a deity should not give him.

Perhaps because in this place the dimensional barrier was weakened, or perhaps because that deity was stronger than normal, but his concepts began to manifest.

The ‘Corruption’ of ‘Chaos’ being appeased to some extent.

Was that God bored, and that was why his gaze rested on him?

That was Siba’s question as his small horns grew from his skull.

His red skin and hair began to get a deeper tint, but it was his horns that stood out twisting like a goat’s and in the middle of them, a great flame appeared.

The existence of his people was contradictory... For the simple fact that in order to overthrow the demons that oppressed him, they awakened their lineage and became what they hated.

They became pure demons, just as he did at this moment.

The fire came under his control and Siba, with a breath, made the heat rise as his strength exploded to what Earthlings considered SS rank.

Only as a Terranovian, it was as if his overall strength shot up even though his ‘level’ remained the same.

He had been stuck unable to level up, no matter how many creatures he would eliminate, in what the people of his world called a ‘wall’ and at this moment, that wall was temporarily released.

However, that deity kept looking at him, and before he knew it, his lips moved.

“Come...”

That word that should not have come out of his mouth stretched out into the distance where the worm’s large presence came from... Between debating whether to confront him or walk away.

However, that simple word changed everything when it was imbued with the ‘Authority’ of ‘Temptation’.

And as requested by that deity, all the monsters and creatures that heard him charged towards him.

Siba was stunned for a moment, but then realized that his god was helping him.

Without knowing the reason, he sensed the presence of the great worm causing tremors in the earth and as he approached, Siba waved his hand upward.

*BOOM*

A volcano from beneath the earth exploded upwards, releasing great flames as it pulled the great worm from underground.

His demonic blood that he hated so much was boiling inside him as the Great Worm appeared.

It was a terrifying creature twenty meters long and its girth size was ten meters.

With a deep wound on its head, that big worm opened its mouth, revealing hundreds of fangs.

Siba was not afraid, even though hundreds of worms were crawling on the ground and the earth was rising at the will of that big worm.

He simply gave a big smile, because the fire was spreading everywhere to the point that it melted the earth, turning it into magma.

Siba let out a laugh as he felt the temperature and watched the fire burn.

How was it possible for his people to defeat demons? Not just by becoming one, but one whose fire could burn everything.

“Come!” Siba shouted loudly.

He would not waste the help his god gave him.

******

*BOOM*

A huge explosion echoed behind her, and Aurora could feel not only the temperature, but the shockwave.

“Go. We will support Siba.” Urfin ordered as he cut down several approaching monsters.

Aurora took a look at the SS rank battle... Siba was using flight to his advantage and while he was having a hard time resisting the constant ground attacks rising up, he was causing massive destruction.

The Great Worm was using the earth, firing huge pillars at Siba who was dodging flying and then dropping huge fireballs, all while laughing.

Aurora simply gave it a glance once before following her group.

The monsters and worms had gotten close to Siba, who drew them all in mysteriously, but now they needed to clear a path.

Adala and Zorkas were in the middle next to Marius, and the one clearing the way was Theodore.

On the sides were Alice and Amanda, the former being the one who carried in her shadow all the goblins they had rescued.

She trailed behind as she occasionally let out slashes of green auras to slay the approaching creatures and monsters.

The goblins were too many to be counted, but so were the monsters they were charging barely, they noticed them.

*BOOM*

The explosions at their back and the presences of both SS ranks in their harsh confrontation managed to make everyone tremble from the power... Including the monsters, worms and them.

Still, they kept coming as Amanda mowed them down and Theodore burned everything in their path.

When they came out of the forest and onto the plain, they could notice the wormholes and, in the distance, at the top of a cliff, the portal.

“Go. I’ll call attention!” shouted Aurora with a serious expression.

She could tell that there were quite a few worms buried in front of them and that was why, without hesitation, she infused her sword with her green aura.

She needed to reach her targets... She needed her attack to succeed.

With a dense aura of green surrounding her sword, she slashed forcefully forward, managing to extend dozens of slashes that went deep into the ground.

“GRAAA!”

In the next instant, grunts and tremors came from beneath the earth as worms began to emerge and head for her, some of them severely wounded by her slashes that successfully hit them.

Marius and Alice, led by Theodore, advanced towards the abyssal portal.

Nodding to Amanda and Adala, who had stayed with her, Aurora looked ahead at the pursuing monsters and advanced.

“GRAHh...”

With a speed that would cause a panic in normal enemies, she slashed at the approaching worms and monsters with her red aura infused sword and then, stopping, slashed forward.

In the distance, whirlwinds of fires could be seen in what looked like a combination of Siba’s fire magic and Alros’ air magic.

However, in front of her everything was slashed like a painting, only for the next moment those monsters to split before her powerful and most destructive slash.

“HA!”

With a shout filled with the spirit of battle, Amanda swung her greatsword infused with the power of her lord and the creatures were cut down with the same destruction she had caused.

Adala moved next, creating cannons of condensed water that were fired, managing to tear off part of the monsters she struck.

Aurora fueled her concept of a fighter with her emotions, pushing her body to S rank and as she cut down the monsters, she paid attention to her companions who had already reached the portal.

Zorkas was the first to move while Theodore kept an eye on Marius and Alice started to take out other monsters.

That old goblin elder, with his statue in hand, approached the abyssal portal and after a moment the huge pillar shook intensely.

“GRAA!”

That gigantic pillar seemed to weaken even more and become slightly translucent, and drove the monsters into a frenzy.

Aurora’s expression turned serious as she watched the monster’s approach from all sides and the worms that were affected by the chaos, enter a crazed state.

All while explosions in the distance began to approach.

******

Alice heard the steady explosions, and she left the goblins huddling among them.

“Oh, Great Lady of Order, protect the innocent,” Theodore prayed, opening his arms.

A light opened the gray clouds and fell on the goblins, generating a white barrier to protect them.

Marius was among that group.

“If you do anything, you will die,” Theodore threatened seriously as he waved his hand to burn some approaching goblins.

He had made sure through the Goddess of Order in preventing Marius from doing anything foul while Zorkas protected his people.

“GAA!”

*BOOM*

Roars and explosions came from behind them and Alice, after leaving everyone, without looking, advanced towards where Aurora was.

Using black arms behind her back, she was piercing through all the monsters as she walked.

The abyssal portal had stabilized at the cost of the will of the gods that was that black pillar, but at the same time it caused the creatures to go into a frenzy and just as it had happened to Cedric at the time, more monsters were coming for them.

Aurora was fighting some abominations and so was Amanda, while in the distance Alros, Urfin and Meden were either supporting Siba or keeping the monsters from approaching.

“A giant abomination is coming!” shouted Adala loudly and fearfully.

She was pale and the biggest reason was a tide churning in the middle of all this chaotic scenery to sweep away all the monsters or slow them down as much as possible.

Aurora and Amanda were fighting in against other abominations, so Alice tensed her arms to be shot at the approaching creature.

“Gaaa!”

Not caring about the size and insanity of the grotesque monster, her black arms pierced the skin and flesh of the three-meter S-ranked creature that looked like some kind of monstrous hippopotamus.

“GA...”

That creature remained alive after being pierced, but Alice simply waved her black arms, turned spears, trying to penetrate it deeply, until she succeeded.

*BOOM*

The group could feel a huge explosion as the earth shook.

The cause was Siba, who created a terrifying explosion that could be seen from afar in a collision with the huge worm that also cast a powerful earth spell.

“AHH!”

Paying attention from that side, they suddenly heard a scream and when they looked, Adala had suddenly been attacked.

The attacker was a small green creature whose intent was somewhere between slashing her with the dagger and satiating his primitive desires.

“Help!”

Adala panicked as her stomach was badly wounded, and the creature was trying to rip off her clothes.

It was likely that goblin was a survivor of this place that was corrupted by raising his primitive desires, but regardless of the reason, Alice moved.

She connected the shadow of that creature with the darkness she dominated, generating an effect similar to the ‘shadow jump’ of darkness magic, but instead of her going, out came a black spear that pierced the goblin.

Aurora arrived the next instant to Adala, who was crying.

That young heroine had suddenly been attacked and perhaps because of the constant stress she had panicked and could not avoid being ambushed.

“Amanda, take Adala to Theodore’s group. She needs to be healed and disinfected!” Aurora ordered with a serious expression.

Those creatures’ weapons were imbued with poison and she needed them to act fast to avoid a worst-case scenario that couldn’t be circumvented with potions or a scroll.

So, when Amanda obeyed, only the two of them were left slaying the monsters approaching the first area.

At their back were Theodore and Zorkas, who were in charge of guarding the portal and protecting the goblins.

*BOOM*

Another explosion resounded, only this time they could both see a large worm rampaging through the earth, heading in their direction.

Had the worm noticed the portal or were they all drawn by the remnant will of the guardians of this world?

Aurora looked at her, and Alice nodded and moved.

She was swallowed by her own darkness and then connected to Aurora’s shadow, who ran towards the huge worm with the sword surrounded by red aura in her hand.

The red aura was turning scarlet from so many slain monsters.

Aurora’s speed increased thanks to her fighter’s body and even though the huge worm was throwing rocks to stop her, she dodged and slashed the worm’s back.

Alice stepped out of the shadow and thrust a spear into the big worm’s back to assert herself.

“GAA!”

The next moment, the black mass that had solidified covered her and entered the warrior form, turning into that large jet-skinned creature.

Alice was inside it and gave a big smile as she made her arm turn into a thick spear, striking the large worm.

“GAAAAA!”

Rocks started flying towards her, but tentacles came out of her big black body to grab onto the trees and try to hurt the big worm, while protecting herself at the same time.

In her warrior form, she was five meters tall and while her size decreased subtly as more tentacles and spears came out, her attack power was terrifying.

The large worm’s skin was tough, and it was protecting itself with stone armor, but Alice hit it, again and again.

At the same time, its tentacles were digging into the ground and grabbing the trees, trying to immobilize that great beast.

“Coming!”

A scream came suddenly as a line cut along that creature, tearing open the flesh and from the thick wound blood gushed out.

“GRAAH!”

Perhaps the pain made him react instinctively, but that worm shook his body and Alice lost her grip being thrown far away.

Her five-meter warrior form rolled across the ground as her severed tentacles spread around, only to slither back to her.

However, that was not the full retaliation of that beast.

“Shit!”

Alice heard Aurora’s curse and as she raised her head, she noticed the huge boulder coming down from the sky, trying to crush her.

It was big enough for her warrior form to be crushed completely and with enough speed that she couldn’t escape.

*BOOM*

Before she could try to run away, pillars rose from the ground like fingers of a hand to stop that big rock, but the power difference was huge and Alice was buried underground affected by the remaining explosion.

Meden had lifted those fingers, but had also collapsed the earth beneath her feet to allow her to fall into a worm tunnel below.

Still, the damage was significant... Alice didn’t need to look to know that chunks of stone were stuck and pierced much of her warrior form.

She had fled into her shadow’s space, but the backlash still affected her as she could not hide in time.

Abandoning her shadow and reaching inside her warrior form, the black mass opened up, revealing her figure.

“Tch...”

As she watched the pointed rocks come out of the body of her warrior form, whose solidified black mass had been pierced, she spat blood staining her hand with which she covered herself.

The impact was powerful enough to affect her real body.

Her gaze fell on the blood that was covering her hand.

“...”

Her blood was not red in color, it now had a blackish hue that was coming close to resembling black mass in its liquid form.

She stood stunned, looking at that blood slowly drifting away from the blood of a normal human.

*BOOM*

“GRaa!”

An explosion snapped her out of her daze, and the growling from afar made her realize her situation.

A grotesque baby worm approached, wanting to eat her, but Alice extended a tentacle that pierced the worm through the mouth to the tail and then ‘devoured’ it.

Not the simple and subtle way, she actually devoured it, when from her tentacles appeared mouths chewing on the creature’s flesh until it swallowed it whole.

Inside her shadow, the pieces were assimilated by the darkness, becoming part of her.

It was no longer time to think it was normal.

Her facade of normalcy was going to come to an end at some point, it was inevitable.

But it was okay. Being normal wasn’t going to allow her to protect her sister, and it wasn’t going to allow her to help her as she wished.

Alice stood up as her black arms helped her to her feet and reached out for the corpses, devouring them all whole.

If it was necessary to become a terrifying monster to protect her sister... She would do it.

Even if she had to devour everything in her path.

******

Urfin blew a horn that stimulated the spirit of his allies and helped them recover from their exhaustion.

Such a horn was his war artifact with large-scale effect and that was useful right now.

Alros’ tornadoes were spreading around, cutting and tearing apart all the monsters, while he was moving at high speed to attack the abominations, preventing them from causing trouble.

Siba was fighting against the big worm, casting spells trying to burn it, while Meden was in charge of countering the earth magic.

Maybe Meden wasn’t as strong as the worm in pure magic use, but she didn’t use her magic instinctively and used her knowledge to her advantage.

“GRAA!”

The large worm let out a roar, raising spikes from its surroundings, managing to make Aurora and him dodge.

At that moment, Alice climbed out of the hole she had fallen into and transformed into the five meter tall creature.

Urfin, who was preparing his next attack, could see Aurora relax at the sight of her healthy sister, but he could also see an unspoken nod between the two of them.

They were going to do something.

Noticing this, Urfin signaled his team and with just a few glances, the team entered into a tacit coordination.

“...”

The one who started was the creature Alice had transformed into... Such a huge five meter creature advanced on the large worm.

Its enormous size caused some sense of danger for the big worm and that was why it paid attention to it, wanting to devour it, but Meden moved.

*BOOM*

Blinking near the big worm’s head, he hit it with his big hammer, creating an explosion that caused the worm to veer off course.

Alice took that advantage and, transforming her hand into thick claws, jumped onto the big worm’s back, piercing the flesh and part of its defense.

However, she wasn’t done with that and that black creature opened a mouth that started to grow in size and bit the big worm, swallowing part of the flesh with its jaws.

“GAAAAA!”

The great worm roared in pain, but the earth spears it threw were deflected by Alros, who intervened with air magic.

Urfin was stunned to see how the creature that had transformed Alice not only ate the great worm, but the next moment began to devour it.

That was the only way that could be described when everywhere on the black body of that big creature of five meters mouths appeared biting the big worm.

Alice held on using her claws and her five meter size to keep from falling, as she slashed and attacked with so much momentum that it caused the great worm to panic and go berserk.

Urfin immediately moved as he sensed Siba was preparing.

“HA!”

Urfin, without hesitation, hit the big worm in the head, specifically in the eyes.

His two axes hit the big worm again and again, trying to draw attention away from Alice and Siba’s next attack.

It didn’t matter if it had eyes or those spheres was something else. He just kept on striking, knowing that Meden avoided using earth magic and Alros gave support with his air magic.

Then, when he felt the overflowing heat on his back, Urfin immediately blinked, using his armor’s ability, moving away into the open sky.

“GRAA!”

A huge flare was launched by Siba and the power was so terrifying that it burned the trees at a frightening speed, resembling a dragon’s breath.

He could see that the creature Alice had transformed into jumped up, catching Aurora in her arms to protect her from that flame and they both rolled away from that blazing fire.

“GAAAA!”

Siba controlled such an impressive spell to swallow the worm whole, but that large creature roared in fury and pain as it was burned.

However, it was a SS rank creature and its body was strong, while the earth magic powerful.

No matter if Meden hindered the large-scale spells, the large worm was able to protect itself by using a spell similar to ‘stone skin’ which was more personal.

Even so, the fire was cast by Siba, who had the strength of an SS rank and the affinity to the fire element of a ‘pure demon’.

The stone skin was burned until it reached the real body and when that moment came, Aurora, who had rolled on the ground, stood up and performed another slash.

“GRAA!”

It cut the air, cut the trees, cut the fire and then cut the worm’s body, creating a deep wound that bled intensely.

When the fire disappeared, and the creature moved, Alice attacked.

Her warrior form approached with her blinking ability and then, the entire black body of such a creature, turned into jet-black tentacles that burrowed through the thick wound of the large worm.

It was a mixture of liquid and solid form that went through the wounds and into the worm’s body until the black creature disappeared without leaving anyone in sight.

Where was Alice?

She had disappeared inside the large worm.