Chereads / The 12th Guardian / Chapter 19 - The Stranger in the Shrine

Chapter 19 - The Stranger in the Shrine

King Kirpinicus began talking to me about what the previous Guardian was like, Shiro. Apparently, he was my father and he died trying to save the world from calamity. This is what gave way to the rise of The Zenshu Cult, to begin with. The King told me that although he did not adventure with my father he spent time with him during his young age. He helped him understand what it meant to be an Arch Mage of Light. He met my mother as well, as my father brought her here early in their marriage. After learning all this I was pretty shocked, more because it officially confirmed that I was who Anita and the others thought I was. He even informed me of the different guardians that would have been forsaken. Explaining like Adora there is a Shrine for each Guardian, they are meant to honor the original owners of the Title. From the time period of King Ruko, the Shrine of Glutton is currently inhabited by the previous Guardian Wixen. He was a Fae of the Mermaid person, said to be a high-caliber warrior. We continued to discuss more until it became late. It was a lot to process with everything else going on. We still had to handle the cult since they were trying to cultivate the essence of Forsaken's.

While the King was discussing all this with me Liam and the others were busy planning what to do about the Cult. They had gathered volunteers and were gearing up to go. Apparently, the journey wasn't long and with everyone we rescued, we now had enough Arch Mages of Light to speed up the recovery process. This meant that we had more Knights that could join us. The team we gathered consisted of them, Liam, Lepricus, Gixoh, Sirasa, Temti, and I. Ariana decided to stay behind with her mother and the rest of the Royal Knights to start the rebuilding of the City. Before we ventured off the Queen as well as the people of the kingdom, thanked me. They gave me a baby Kiri egg and said one day it will hatch and I would gain a new companion.

S.Y. 641 Agi 31 2:10 L.Q. - The Shrine of Gluttony Entrance

I was amazed once we arrived at the entrance of the Shrine. It was like a fortress rock, it had a waterfall. That was only the outside, we were lucky too there seemed to be no enemies. We ventured into the shrine and it was like entering a completely different world. The inside having what seemed to be its own sky, which could not be the case. You could tell that the Shrine was old as it was now inhabited with creatures that looked much like the Meli, the others said they were called Melao. Though inclosed from the distance you could see a lava pit with a small circle of nature in the middle. They were more aggressive, so we made sure to avoid them as best we could. The closer we approached the middle, which is where the Forsaken Guardian would be located we began to run into a few Cult Members.

"We might have to slowly split off."

[Liam]

"I don't believe that would be a good idea."

[Twilight]

"Either way the only one of us that can defeat the Wixen is you Twilight."

[Gixoh]

"Then we will stay back and keep defending the entrance. At least that way, we can prevent any reinforcements from coming."

[Lepricus]

We began splitting off as we realized we would be running into more Cult Members. By the time we finally made it close enough to the middle and Wixen was visible it was just me and Temti. Ahead of us seemed to be another Cult Member, he was about 5'8 and not much older than me. He had Red hair, Black eyes, and he was a light brown complexion, he seemed to be a siren. He had this smug look on his face as I approached him, it seemed like he was waiting for my arrival.

"Psh is this really the person who's been giving all our lower classes trouble for a while now. You're just a pipsqueak. You couldn't possibly be that strong. If you can survive even one of my attacks I might consider killing you quickly."

[Zodiac General]

"Who was this guy, he didn't even know me and here he is saying I'm weak, but honestly he looks pretty strong."

[Twilight, thinking]

The Stranger rushed himself into me, fists full of rage. I was unsure what class he was, but to come at me unarmed was a huge surprise. Noticing he was a defense type, I tried my best to dodge but he was faster than I expected. He slammed into me, bringing me down to the floor. Pinning me down with his left arm, he began to rise to the right. It's then I noticed he had these claws as Liam did. He began raising his right arm, so I realized he had these claws on them that I didn't really notice before. As he inched his arm closer I realized Temti was rushing behind him. He sent out his Dacqui, the skill Sirisa taught him, the barrage of light he created hit both of us sending us flying. Though a little hurt it did cause the stranger to let go of me. With that, I was able to rush back towards Temti and get a little bit of healing.

"Man, that was a great shot kid."

[Stranger]

"Thanks!"

[Temti, a little cocky still healing Twilight]

"I don't think I've formally introduced myself. My name is Iago. What about the two of you?"

[Iago, brushing himself off]

"Twilight."

[Twilight, As temti finishes up the healing spell]

"Temti."

[Temti, standing behind Twilight]

"Well, it was nice meeting the two of you. I hope you don't take this the wrong way but I don't really have time to fight either of you. You probably know but there's this creature a little further inside this area. I don't think it will be a safe place for two small children."

[Iago, making his way towards the two of them]

"Well, honestly I don't think you have to worry about us at all. I'm pretty sure we can handle it better than you can."

[Twilight, bringing Temti behind him in order to protect him]

"Well, then why don't we work together. You said your name was Twilight, correct? That name sounds familiar. Did you happen to come from Adrilla Island?"

[Iago, still slowly approaching]

"Why is that your concern?"

[Twilight, as he and Temti began to back up]

"Well, you see I heard this story through the grapevine about some kid with a name like yours. It seemed he defeated some of my comrades back there."

[Iago]

"If you're talking about the guy with the hood then yeah. He was trying to do the same thing I believe you're doing here."

[Twilight]

"Is that so, and what do you believe that is?"

[Iago]

"You're trying to harvest the forsaken for some odd reason."

[Twilight]

"So you know what it's called?"

[Iago]

"Yeah, we do."

[Temti]

"I can't let you have it though."

[Twilight]

"I think we're going to have a problem then."

[Iago]