"Just follow this path." Kimmy said, looking ahead the empty gravel pathway with a thin woodland at the sides. "It isn't too long. And it leads straight to the Monastery of Light. Tell them I sent you there and ask for directions."
Guinevere nodded. The woodland didn't look too dark and she was confident she would arrive there quick using her spells.
But Kimmy still looked hesitant, his face looking paler and his light green eyes looking darker than she saw them earlier. "You have to be careful."
"Is this because of the demon colonies said to be rising from the abyss?"
The boy looked taken off guard, and he looked away. It was enough to tell Guinevere she was right.
So it was true. The Prince of the Abyss was coming.
Kimmy hovered closer to her, looking serious. "If, and I hope you never will, you meet demons along the way, don't try to fight back. Run away and put as much distant from them as possible."
She nodded. But Kimmy's brows furrowed as if he was frustrated by her response.
"Lady Guinevere, you have to take this seriously. It is bad enough that you have to take this time to run around when demon forces are uprising."
"I know. I am taking this seriously." she insisted. "I have never taken something so seriously as this in my life."
Kimmy stared at her. He must have seen how true those words were, because he nodded in satisfaction.
It was true though. Her freedom here was at stake. And she was worried as hell about her brother. He had never left without saying where he was off to before.
"Good. Now off you go. Just follow the path. You have to arrive there before sundown."
"Then see you around." She lunged towards the woodlands, blinking and leaping every few yards or so while hurtling through the large roots portruding out of the soil, and stems were bent towards the path so it hit her face a couple of times as she ran.
She would've arrived before sundown if she didn't come into a crossroad. She stopped, frowning.
Kimmy said to follow the pathway, yet he didn't mention which way to take at the crossroad.
The trees and shrubs at the left looked thicker, less stepped on. So she turned to the right and sprinted into it.
She had been deep into it when a loud roar of something apparently big echoed from where she was heading.
She halted, her heart suddenly racing. She had been mostly to Castle Gorge and Ursula Magic Academy all her life that only had she started to realize how dangerous the outside world was.
But she had to swallow down her fear and take that path. She ran, determined to find her brother, determined to break traditions.
She was sprinting so fast that it was too late for her to realize she was not heading towards a big oak tree like the ones she had passed by, but to the back of a big, dark scaly creature.
She halted, her heels sliding through the mossy ground, but the creature heard the slipping of her shoes through the ground.
It turned towards her and she could not help but gasp as she saw its face.
It was a face that obviously did not came from the living world. It had horns as long as her arms and five times as big. Its large, yellow evil eyes had red pupils that seemed to petrify her, its sharp fangs protruding from its bloody mouth .
She was about to blink herself away, but it roared so loud in her face that she screamed, and its large arms sent her flying off the ground.
She grunted as she landed five feet away, feeling something crack in her left side. Then it run towards her, the ground under her shaking at its every step.
She sat up quickly and was about to get to her feet when it came lunged itself towards her.
She screamed and held out her arms, casting the first spell she could remember.
She was surprise herself, as the demon hovered just a feet over her and she dared not move. It roared again, but it could not move in her spell.
But the problem was she was getting exhausted and she could feel the spell wearing off. The demon was too resistant to it.
Once her spell disappeared, she was gonna be devoured by the monster.
But then someone appeared right next to the demon and impelled about fifteen short blades into its hard, blood red scales.
The creature roared just in time for Guinevere's spell to vanish, the same time she that someone grabbed her by the waist and dragged her away, her broken rib moved and causing her searing pain.
Only when that someone settled her by the foot of a tree did she recognize him; Gusion, in his familiar shoulder and arms armor, though a stream of blood ran down from his left forehead down to his violet tunic.
"Stay here." He said quickly and ran to face the demon again.
She watched him reach forward, and the swords impelled into the demon's body came flying back towards him, all of it turning into one long blade right before it reached his hand.
He fought with the demon using a combat style Guinevere never saw before.
People usually chose either to use magic or a sword during combat. But this boy was fighting with his magical swords, and he looked like he knew exactly what he was doing.
But the demon seemed to be impenetrable, its scale too hard to slash, and it was getting angrier by every hit it got.
And anger seemed to make it stronger. Just as every abyssal monster fed off negative emotions.
Just as when Guinevere threw out a large ball of violet energy towards the monster before it could smother Gusion by its fist, causing the monster to be stunned for a split second, a melody so awful it made Guinevere hold her hands to her ears rsng in the air.
But strange as it seemed, the demon also got distracted and bewildered, comoletely forgetting Gusion right in front of it as it turned its head around in confusion.
Then a series of gunshots rang in the air, followed by a long, metallic slash.
The next thing she knew, the upper half of the demon slid off its bottom half before it collapsed into the ground and turned to ash, making the guy who had sliced the demon in half visible to Guinevere's view.
He had blond sweptback hair, his blue padded trenchcoat familiar to Guinevere. But what made her recognize him was the long, thick, heavy sword he held in his right hand radiating with light blue energy.
Alucard. The well-known demonhunter of the Land. Even his stories reached Castle Gorge and into Guinevere's ears as she unintentionally eavesdropped from the Baroque Family's servants.
He straightened up from his stance, propping the tip of his sword against the ground as he looked at Gusion and Guinevere, who walked slowly towards them.
"What are you doing here at this time?" He asked, his blond brows furrowing.
Gusion wiped the astonishment in his face and got to his feet. "I'm not obliged to answer that."
"Surely not having a lovers' tryst with Miss Violet there, are you?" Another guy they did not notice earlier butted in as he walked nearer to them.
He was hiding at the big dark oak tree and blended into it well with his all black coat and clothes. This one had dark hair with a streak of white at the part swept over his forehead, one hand holding a gun and the other holding an instrument's case.
That was when Guinevere figured out the awful music they heard earlier came from him.
"We're not." Gusion answered, his brows furrowing.
But Guinevere was too weak to argue. She was losing all her force, and the pain in her side was getting worse.
"I need to get to the City of Scholars." She said, her voice faltering as her knees face up and she propped herself into the ground.
Alucard quickly got to her side.
"You're surely not fit to go anywhere." The dark-haired one said, his eyes looking crimson as he stared at Guinevere.
"No. I need to get there. To see Diggie."
"Okay. But I think you need to see Rafaela first."
"Rafaela? Who's that?"
"Someone who could help you with your injuries." Alucard said, looking from her to Gusion, who looked not pleased with the suggestion. "Both of you."
Alucard then sheathed his sword into his back and carried Guinevere into his arms.
"What does she do?" Gusion asked as they started walking, with the one with a gun ahead of them.
"The best healer in the Land." Alucard answered.
Then the dark-haired one turned to Gusion and asked, "Have you ever seen an angel?",