The Guardian

Parallel Story New Beginning Chapter 22: Angry

Aurora walked silently to the main building where she resided.

The blade of her sword still bled and her feet still left blood stains, causing those nearby to look at her and murmur, but she continued without sheathing her sword or wiping her feet.

The expedition leaders who followed her without speaking in public and they all entered the main hall.

Aurora made her way to the main seat and after sitting down, she stabbed her sword into the floor in front of her as she lowered her head.

“That was a mistake,” Arnold said with a serious expression and, seeing that all was silent, he stated. “You killed people from a guild. Within that warlord’s area... That was reckless.”

Reckless... Aurora knew it was reckless.

She killed quite easily, as if she felt nothing and had become a killing machine without her realizing it.

Her sword let the blood drip falling down the blade to the ground and Aurora looked at that weapon, as her hand wanted to tremble, but it didn’t.

Now was not the time to be swallowed by her emotions, her regret, or the consequence of her own actions.

“That’s enough,” Cardinal Brousseau said, trying to support her.

“No. It isn’t. Stop treating her like a child. Her decision influences the outcome of all of us and now, by murdering locals, she has gotten us into trouble... The whole caravan, endangering our mission,” Arnold interjected coolly and with a cold tone, he added. “You put a girl in charge, and now she has to take the consequences of leading.”

His tone sounded annoyed, and he was letting out the frustration of being under the command of a girl and that she was putting up with it for the entire trip. He let his professionalism show.

“And because she is the expedition leader, shows more respect,” Cardinal Brousseau interrupted in an authoritative voice and then with a soft tone, she added. “Still, the action was wrong.”

“A simple scolding...” Arnold muttered, even angrier at that response.

His anger was showing, and it was normal for him to be like that... Right now, he was the only one who was treating her as the leader and the others were either staying silent or giving her a little scolding like Cardinal Brousseau.

That response showed that the others were still looking at her as a child and trying to take care of her.

The result of his actions could turn the caravan against the local forces and organizations, while leaving him in a bad position with the local warlord.

She had just started a reckless conflict, without consulting the other leaders and making the decision on her own.

All while, there was a more important mission that needed to be carried out and which was his main objective.

“What are we going to do?” Zhan Tian asked with a serious tone.

Aurora chuckled softly at that question and stood up, looking at the expedition leaders.

Their expressions turned serious as they looked at her.

She wasn’t crying as some of them expected, and her expression was colder than before.

“What do you want to do, apologize?” sneered Aurora, unable to control her irritation and anger.

Such emotions pushed her S-rank presence to appear, letting it be seen that she was strong.

She was unsteady, but that didn’t mean she was going to stand by and do nothing when she saw humans locked in a cage.

The top priority in the mission didn’t take away from the fact that she would finish her objective one way or another.

Maybe she couldn’t help every person in the world, but at least when she was present she would do what she had to do.

Still, she put them in unavoidable danger and now....

“I’ll take care of everything. None of you need to take any chances,” Aurora stated with a colder tone than usual.

She knew it was wrong how she was treating them when some of them were trying in their own way to help, but she wasn’t going to stop.

She wasn’t a child like they thought she was.

She had lived through many situations during her short life.

From the presence of the Undead Calamity, when the city Jerusalem disappeared, her revenge on the guild that caused everything and recently when the ‘Great Khan’ acted.

This was Africa.

A no-man's-land, wild and where only the strong survived and did what they wished to do... And she was strong.

And she was angry.

Angry enough to take down that entire guild and that she would do.

—I have found the position of the Oak Guild.

******

In a mansion far away from small Zinder City, a group of people were in a large room in the middle of a private meeting.

Their barrier prevented outside calls or interference from entering, and some of them had several smiles on their faces.

Most were from the Oak Guild, who had some prestige in the area.

The guild had an S rank and since the guild actually came from outside in search of profit and a better life; they had greater skill and weaponry than the locals... Basically, they became little kings that no one could stop or oppose.

“Zerzura... A city raised in the middle of the desert. The problem is the Church of Time and Space and the Apicius Enterprise who say they are supporting it,” said one of the members of the meeting.

He was the leader of a small organization tied to the Oak Guild, and practically that man was the one who was in charge of human trafficking and selling them.

Among all the small towns in West Africa, this place was the smallest and had the least competition.

In another area were the soldiers of the ‘General’ and even the Mistress of the Beasts was present, whose taxes and interest rates were extremely high.

They were the nearest ‘Great Warlords’, but also to the west was another and not to mention those who controlled the cities. Small rulers were numerous.

The Middle East had been the ideal place for former gamblers and lunatics, but that, changed when Malik Zamora started his stupid war and now Africa had become the best place for those wanting freedom.

As long as they were strong, and avoided those stronger than them, no one could stop them.

Now it was different.

“How are you going to be scared of some girls?” the dedicated leader of the drug section asked.

His mocking question made the others chuckle with amusement.

What kind of city puts two ‘girls’ as its ‘protectors’?

The title of ‘Protector of Zerzura’ was spreading fast, but mostly it was done with a mocking tone, putting the former warlord ‘Great Khan’ down as useless.

It was one situation to die for a hero who was possibly a former player and another to die for a girl who was just finishing high school.

“We just have to prove who we are, what we do and what we are capable of. The Apicius Company won’t mess with us and as for the ‘Protectors of Zerzura’, they’ll think twice before going against us... Let alone the real leaders letting her decide,” said the S-rank leader with a small smile.

The guild was formerly small, but now it had merged with other organizations and had become medium-sized... To the point that the leader had managed to rise in rank.

They were considered the second most important force in the city and were actually behind the ruling warlord, for the simple fact that on that individual’s back was the SS ranked ‘General’.

“Business will follow,” said the leader, and looking at those present, he added. “What we need to think about now is how to trade with the demons. They have brought many items from their world and some may be valuable.”

Selling them people for rituals could be a good way to trade and another was to sell them modern weapons.

Now that the war was in favor of the humans, it was possible that some demons might start to escape and they could receive them.

The eyes of the other members shone brightly, but the leader sensed something and frowned.

It was a strange feeling of being locked in.

“Is something wrong?” another individual asked curiously.

Not all of them were skill users, and some of them were ordinary people running one or another business.

The leader deactivated the barrier in the room and allowed the holographic clocks to connect to the outside.

Messages started coming in, but everyone’s vision went to the window.

“Did it get dark already?” Doubted someone with a frown.

The barrier was strong enough to prevent eavesdropping or peeking, so it was normal for it to cover the entire room, preventing light from entering.

However, that window that would let in sunlight now let in darkness.

They both approached and opened the window, pulling the curtain aside, then everyone’s expressions changed.

Darkness surrounded the whole mansion.

It was not as if night had suddenly fallen, but rather it was as if they had been swallowed by an abyss of endless darkness.

The sky was completely hidden, not letting them see any stars, but also in the garden it did not let them see the trees on the other side.

When everyone approached, the window was the moment that the darkness trembled and two teenage girls walked through the darkness and walked into the garden with cold stares.

One of them was connected to that darkness by means of her feet that managed to extend through that immense dome in which they had been enclosed.

The other had a sword in her hand that managed to give a cold and insensitive sensation.

Both had black hair and eyes of the same color, but their gaze was different in a unique way.

The one with the sword had a cold and serious look, while her companion gave an indifferent look as if she was looking at corpses.

They were just as the rumors had said... Two pretty girls with jet black hair and eyes who were cold enough to assassinate the ‘Great Khan’ and his group.

“Surrender!” the young girl demanded with the sword.

“...”

There was silence first, and it was followed by a loud laugh from all that was present.

“Surrender?” the leader asked in amusement and as he stepped out of the window, he let his S-rank aura of a swordsman show.

He had only recently been promoted, but he was strong and besides....

“Why would we give up?” he asked back with a big smile as he saw his people leaving the mansion.

An important meeting was held today with several heads of different sections and while some of them were not skill users, their guards were strong and skilled.

As if that wasn’t enough, this building was the headquarters of their guild and it housed all of their people and now each of them came out with their weapons.

While they had seven A ranks, everyone else was a B or C rank and the quantity became a type of strength and also gave them confidence to smile smugly and gain confidence from the numbers, but that smile lasted for a brief second.

“...”

The dome of tangible darkness shook with force and then hundreds of thousands of black spears shot out from the darkness aiming at the mansion.

There were too many to count with the naked eye... And at the sight of them, they all trembled in panic.

Realizing that they had entered someone else’s domain... A domain of darkness in which they would not come out alive.