With his alertness half-visible, Asahi quickly grabbed Kendra and stepped away from the knight.
Both their feet rooted into the solid ground; One holding a liquid, blue luminance, while the other; had a shiny sword. They kept their haggard breathing at bay, and their awareness vital.
With each footstep of the knight gradually growing louder, they kept their mouths shut. A dim and uncontained aura radiated from the armor of the knight. The air around him was captured by his violent pressure when he stopped his approach with one loud stomp.
Rivers stretched and flowed from limitless dark horizons, extending to the many valleys of the quiet caverns. Waterfalls gushed evenly across the climbing ridges of rock and silage before they sank deeper into the unknown abyss below. The constant aggravating echoes of the ghastly waters echoed across the dreary underground expanse, panicked as an otherworldly force overlapped it.
Only a murmur of wind came up when IT had stopped its dance.
Each time the knight took a step, their surroundings would react as if they were disturbed, with the winds of the underground swirling before their every movement and the illimitable towns and night-showered forests, flinching from the impact of each swing from its spear.
Only a murmur came up from the cavern. A hopeless drone that was pleading for the anomaly to disappear.
Asahi and Kendra couldn't describe the terror they felt gazing at the knight.
It was as if their every limb froze up from the loud otherworldly echoes of its stomps hitting against the cold, stone surface.
Everyone else but them had escaped.
(I don't know what to do.)
Asahi and Kendra found themselves atop a hill overlooking the vast expanse, with a rock bridge stretching at an angle toward the distant ancient city. With each footstep of the knight gradually growing louder, the two prepared for the fight that was bound to come.
Kendra's palms grasped on a magical blue, liquidly, uncontrolled luminance while Asahi's hands clutched his sword's solid and warm hilt. They kept their eyes carefully anchored on the alien composed of steel and tried not to flinch at it as it stepped forward.
As the two kept their mouths shut, the knight suddenly stopped still and weighed its boots at the center of the stone bridge. It stood silently, moving nothing, its helmet staring intimidatingly at Asahi and Kendra. The tension of this temporary silence rose with each second.
What will he do next?
What will we do together?
These were the only two questions that bounced into their head. The absence of the followers was terrifying; nothing could compare to the profundity and fear of knowing that no one but themselves was on their side.
But just as they could unstring their nerves, the knight solidly raised its spear and spoke.
"You... Both of you have defied a law. A rule so enforced and important that disobeying it is a SIN against this reality. It is a law that regulates the FATE… of this world. And you two have shattered it."
The knight's tone was deep, unsettling, and alien, croaky like a frog chirping into the vastness and vacuum of the deep cosmos.
Unknowing the knight's power, Kendra responded to the mysterious knight with a grip on her words.
"Who... are you?" She said as she lowered her guard.
Despite the oppression that ran through this knight, even with its movements, strange dances, and powerful strikes of its spear, this individual had not emitted an aura of evil. Darkness was absent around its every bone. Instead, this person sired an exhibition of matchless modesty and refinement, A presence that displayed a remarkable fusion of morality and craft, a dazzling order of beauty and unknown.
The knight reacted to Kendra's response by lowering its spear, bowing down to them, and beaming with honor at its character.
"I... am what this universe perceives as... a Guardian. I am a being borne from the expanse outside the boundaries of this reality." The knight replied as he stood beyond the farthest edge of the bridge. "From an order of an Elysian Realm beyond anyone's, both living and deceased, comprehension. One of you may have encountered one of the Sovereigns of that realm before. Here. In this... fabrication."
With each sentence borne from sentence to sentence, a quick flame of perplexity started to invade Asahi's mind. The elegant impression of this knight made him feel as if HE was the enemy, not the knight. And yet, for some reason, it had no hesitation to strike them.
Struck with the impact of disbelief, Asahi lowered his blade and asked The Guardian with a curious tone.
"What did we do to break the law that you mentioned?"
Stepping forward with a neutral motion, The Guardian turned its helmet over to the white-haired boy and took a step forward, raising its spear, replying.
"People from the surface shall never descend the depths above or below. It is a rule that seals the fate of this reality and The Elysian Realm, made by our leader, The Establisher."
The moment The Guardian had uttered that name, it broke a stupendous roar upon Asahi's mind. He couldn't bear to think about that woman anymore, the goddess who stole everything from him. The one who had...
(... destroyed my world.) Asahi mumbled in his head.
Although unconfirmed, Asahi had suspicions about the identity of the one who had destroyed his world. He couldn't let go of the thought that the Establisher was responsible. As The Guardian stood straight and Kendra reeled back, Asahi thought as he recollected visions.
(That cyan color matched the hue of the lightning that had annihilated our kingdoms. Before that, lava had consumed those lights. It swirled around in a vortex around those cities on the surface. It HAS to be her. It HAS to be The Establisher.)
Though his mind framed specific questions he had conjured up, one thought remained that stood on him; The mention of The Elysian Realm.
Guessing that The Guardian wasn't a threat, Asahi asked another question.
"What is the Elysian Realm?"
Although impatience mingled with scorn started to radiate from The Guardian's movements, it answered Asahi with an inaccurate strike from its spear.
"A place beyond mortal's comprehension; beyond the order of the all-supreme. Others perceive it as The Sea of Light, while we see it as a kingdom."
As The Guardian finished, returned, and retrieved its spear, it threw its weapon and took a mighty stomp, emitting glittering cracks in the solid earth. Anger had not radiated within the knight. But impatience. It knew something that Asahi and Kendra didn't, which made The Guardian restless.
Upon its soulless gaze, The Guardian raised its spear, pushed Asahi and Kendra away, and ascended atop the stone pillar. Then, it planted its boots atop the moss, threw a sparkling string into the air, and hollered with an unearthly roar.
"No more! Impatience is running thin with our sovereign. I must say this, and I must say it quick." He released another stomp and trembled the ground. "An occurrence had brewed several generations ago that had affected everything in The Sea of Light; A strange phenomenon that jeopardized EVERYTHING beyond material thoughts. And your realm... so has it... was included in this."
After Kendra and Asahi witnessed the hostile movements from The Guardian, they quickly lifted their weapons back and slid their feet toward an alerted stance, preparing to defend themselves.
"Throughout the reckoning of the incarnations of this world emerged an understanding, a trouble beyond any other for the future. Never would anyone think that a shard from The Sea of Light would end up in this realm. And with that arose a problem we can NOT fix."
As the situation's intensity lifted, The Guardian prepared for combat, twirled its body, and gathered several sparkling particles around it.
"One only concedes the existence of us if one were to defy the cardinal laws of this world. I am not from this reality; I'm only here for the problem. And you... may fate have it... are part of the problem."
(Me?) Asahi thought as the knight referred to that pronoun.
"What do you mean?"
With his question, The Guardian refused to answer.
Instead, its menacing aura grew more vigorous, and the twirling of its spear hastened.
Kendra shuddered in fear at the reveal of all of what was said by The Guardian. Throughout her life, not once had she known about a 'Sea of Light' or 'cardinal laws' existing, let alone the incarnations of this world. She was only a mortal, A weak, clueless mortal.
Asahi, too, needed to be more knowledgeable. Kendra had a reason to be unaware, but Asahi was a god. He had once possessed unimaginable power that could defy physics himself, Not just him but the other four members of his family. They were the true sovereigns of this world, left to be ruined because of the destruction and The Establisher.
The loss of his powers, his world, and his family ALL seemed to lead toward the fault of one person, and ONE person only; The Establisher. He remembered why he had hated that cyan glow. It was the hue that embraced The Establisher's presence. And now, seeing it also stick onto The Guardian infuriated him.
Now that he thought of it, coming to this place, the long-forgotten society buried underground to The Establisher seemed to draw more questions in Asahi than answers. However, this was only just the beginning.
(Even if my powers are gone, my determination is not.)
And so, bridled with pure anger, holding his Sword of Eventide straight without any disturbance, thoughts returned to him.
Memories of Aiyana's death, his forgotten parents, and his followers filled his mind.
(Kirei... Flavia.) Asahi thought. (Billions of people were here. And now. Only millions remain.)
These recollected thoughts bore a burning will in Asahi, increasing the flame of hatred scorching in his eyes; The visions of the cities, wonderous landscapes, and environments that once saw the sun and the stars, flashed in his eyes. Before he could make a grasp at it, the visions of those past wonders faded back into the bleak, dead, landscapes before him, not even emitting any sense of life. His heart plummeted into a lake of wrath. As he observed the underground cities one more time, he felt a sense of guilt swiftly pull his hope away.
Asahi would never have guessed that the old world had been buried underneath the new one. He had always thought that it was all in shambles when he and Aletha had returned. But the land and its people were alive, forcefully trapped under a stone ceiling.
And the thought that people of the surface were clueless on this, made Asahi sick with rage, forcefully urging him to fight.
Uprearing themselves in tall, slender lines of its cyan light, The Guardian hoisted its spear upward and focused its gaze straight at Asahi. The tip of it crackled with bolts of cyan lightning and trails and sparks of immeasurable energy, harnessing absolute power with every strike.
Suddenly, a teal-green luster formed upon the edges of its armor, assembling a frightening glare that extended down the depths of the ebony surface. As The Guardian strode forward, its footsteps left behind scorch marks.
Cyan sparkles drowned the air as its voice boomed across the underground expanse with the force of a supernova.
"With the power to cleave through everything I match with, I, Guardian, will slay the ones who have broken the cardinal laws! From the words of The Establisher, none of the surfaces shall ever, under ANY circumstance, delve into depths neither above nor below. And you… you two have defied such. And so, shall you both be punished for delving into both depths? With no remorse."
Quivering among the tapestry of power of the knight, Kendra backed away from the knight as it redirected its gaze to her.
Startled by its stare, she stood on the ground with horror, trembling, and shuddering, aghast at the multitude of this event.
Her blue hair was consumed in the radiance, speaking not a word. Bowed with an inevitable frigid surprise, Kendra backed away from The Guardian and cowered behind Asahi, whispering as the heart-stopping plucks of the disembodied strings returned.
"I don't know if I can… fight this thing now. I feel... I feel..."
Within the nanosecond, suddenly, The Guardian spun its spear so rapidly that it disappeared into a swirling, cosmic cyan light. Rocks started to levitate from the immense force; its boots shattered the ground beneath. Buried despair rose from their approach.
Asahi's hands started to tremble, and he slowly backed away with Kendra toward the unseen horizon of darkness.
They had nothing to do except clutch at the very hearts of their opponent's unchallenged supremacy.
After the spear stopped spinning, the Guardian immediately dug its steel heels through the solid earth of the bridge of stone and lowered its sparking spear.
The knight's armor creaked and rattled as they gathered momentum, their muscles straining with effort as they pushed their feet to their limits.
"RUN!"
Seeing the sheer potency of this unmatched aura, Asahi and Kendra dropped their confidence and hurriedly sprinted toward a path leading over to grassy plains.
However, thundering footsteps echoed across the cavern before they even reached the border of stone and grass. The sight of The Guardian became a blur of motion as it hurriedly sprinted downward toward the fleeing two.
As it closed in on their target, The Guardian released a fierce battle cry that matched the sound of a loud tuba, their voice rising above the din of battle.
"ALL YIELD THE GLOW!"
With a burst of energy, as the slow footsteps of time caught up to the present, The Guardian thrust their spear powerfully forward to Asahi and Kendra; the weapon's tip glowing with a fierce, almost blinding light.
(BOOM)
Then, it released a tremendous blow across their bodies, sending shockwaves rippling throughout reality as the spear pierced through a strand of Asahi's hair. Following the strike, a teal-green strike painted the air red with its attack, sending Asahi tumbling backward several kilometers into the air.
Kendra screamed, watching Asahi's body collapse into a cloud of dust.
At that moment, a battle unlike any other began.
. . .
"AGH!"
After that unimaginably powerful attack tossed him, Asahi crashed onto a soft grassy floor and hurriedly clutched his blade. Without gathering anytime to think, he closed his eyes. And with a stroke of luck, he swung and felt his sword scrape the knight's spear.
A loud, earth-shattering clang sounded across the cavern's walls from the attack, sending Asahi and The Guardian away.
Surprisingly, the attack didn't slay the hopeless boy in one swing, which slightly concerned The Guardian.
Blurry. Streaks of its presence flashed and flickered. Its speed was unfathomable, with the physics around the knight unable to keep up with its pace.
In the center of a grassy marsh beneath the intimidation of the stone ceiling, a battle between a cosmic, unknown knight with a matchless power, bearing a spear, and a weak, lost white-haired god holding a frail, nearly powerless black sword began to unfold.
The Guardian stood tall and imposing, their armor gleaming in cyan light. Their spear crackled with momentous energy, ready to strike at a moment's notice. The Guardian wanted to attack Asahi first before Kendra.
At this point, it dared not to speak anymore and only wanted one thing, to slay the criminal.
Asahi, on the other hand, seemed almost feeble by comparison. He felt the weight of thousands of stones pushed against him. And yet, he remained standing, trembling at the knight's power.
He thought his sword would be mighty, but it rusted and dull after that attack, just like Asahi's confidence.
Despite his apparent weakness, the god's eyes burned with fierce determination as he stood his ground against The Guardian. He was outmatched but refused to back down because of those memories and visions.
With a sudden surge of energy, Asahi charged forward, his sword raised high. Right after one strike, The Guardian remained still, almost amused by Asahi's feeble attempt at an attack.
As Asahi drew near, The Guardian swung their spear with incredible force. The clash of the two weapons echoed again with a sonic boom across the field and the expanse, sending several bolts of light across the cavern's ceiling.
After Asahi blundered on the attack, The Guardian charged, struck, and unleashed a storm of slashes at Asahi.
His white hair was painted with glowing blue streaks as he stumbled onto the ground, enshrouded with long, swift strikes. Bruises consumed Asahi's body.
After he endured the attack, Asahi bore no heed, and with his burning pain, Asahi crippled the vortex of strikes by piercing his sword through the wind. He hurtled and lunged his blade at the arm of The Guardian before it clanged and impaired its surface.
But then, with a sudden storm, a rush of water parried The Guardian's attack.
Approaching from a distance, Kendra arrived. Asahi's eyes flashed with a fragment of hope.
"KENDRA!"
Smiling, she captured a magical blue luminance in her hands and freed a surge of water toward The Guardian as she sprinted down the hill.
However, before any more distracting liquid affected it, the knight's gauntlets caught the stream.
In an instant, the rippling liquid froze and ground into droplets before hastily tossing it into the air, stunning Kendra. She drew her head back in shock.
'Huh?"
Now that Asahi was injured, the knight bore no care. It rebounded, threw glowing strings at her, and dropped Kendra to her knees, throwing and piercing its spear straight through her clothes.
Dread twisted her gut, and her eyes focused on the armor of The Guardian. She quivered and trembled, shutting her pale eyes, her heart beating.
"H…Help."
Suddenly, from behind, an agile swing battered its back before it could slaughter the helpless girl. In reaction, The Guardian threw its fist straight at Asahi's chin and knocked him into the air, several kilometers away.
Kendra's eyes shrunk in horror as she watched Asahi again fly into the air, but she was too afraid to interfere.
As The Guardian observed the figure disappear into the dim plains, he propelled himself up and followed it, soaring across the underground plains like a bird.
"No..." Kendra mumbled tremblingly. "Asahi..."
* * * * *
The wind rushed past his face.
Gravity yanked him down faster and faster.
A loud thud echoed across the entire expanse.
His body bounced and rolled across the hills until, finally, he was left lying down on the ground near the outskirts of a village, bruised but strangely not injured. His wimpy sword skidded across the land, bouncing and sliding back to his hand.
Confused, Asahi tried to push himself up with his arms. But just as he could get up, he saw a blur of cyan and felt a heavy weight push against his body. The sound of steel clanging against his chest echoed, followed by the scraping of dirt pinching his ear. Great shuddering seized him as he felt his limb bleed out. He couldn't stop the pain.
But, gathering all his scattered impulses into a passionate act of courage filled with dreams, refinements, and intense abstractions, Asahi grabbed his sword and swung it in a straight, crisp line before dropping it.
All his confidence.
All his rage.
All his frustration... composed this one attack.
And yet, despite all the force he had unleashed, all the attack sent ripples on The Guardian's armor's surface, leaving it untouched despite the pressure.
Silence.
While the winds of danger picked up, the knight reacted by unleashing fifty consecutive strikes with its spear at him.
From all directions, Asahi was impaled and pierced by vicious attacks. He bounced back and winced in pain. The bitterness flew in his unquiet glare as the charges overran him.
With his blade slightly torn and chipped, Asahi tried again to thrust his sword at The Guardian. Only a swing followed, with a gash from the knight's cosmic spear and a tumble.
A sense of suffocation and heaviness pressured him terribly.
(What can I do? What can I do?! WHAT CAN I DO?!)
Each ineffective swing Asahi threw had not skimmed or touched the knight. A strain weighed down on him with each thrash the knight made. Relentlessly pushed down to the brittle ground, his eyes floundered to keep up with the pace, and his hope nearly dwindled. No matter what he could do, Asahi struggled to push himself up, with the weight countering him, almost crushing his bones.
(I... can't... take it.)
At full length, he gripped the hilt of his blade and welled up a sweat in agony as he felt a searing, burning pain struggle to consume him. Warmth encompassed every corner of his body, and his ears rang with the deafening clashes of his blade; many attacks overwhelmed him.
He wrestled with The Guardian's grasp before tightly maintaining his grip on his weapon.
Then, he threw all his strength into the knight and shoved it away. But as he stood up, the knight forced him back down, preparing to slaughter Asahi full force.
"I can't… move."
The knight finally seized his arm. Hope was coming thin.
Echoes of Kendra's worried cries rolled from afar as he got overpowered by the knight's unimaginable strength. Yet, despite being pressed on and overrun, hearing those cries reminded Asahi of something.
(Kendra... has a life ahead of her.)
And so, he dared not to break free and ruin his position as a past god. He tried everything in his best to distract it by throwing stones and kicking him despite giving off any damage.
After two seconds, his eyes noticed something. A ribbon had poked out from the knight's armor.
Without hesitation, Asahi pulled the ribbon and threw it to a nearby hill covered in waterfalls. In reaction, The Guardian hurriedly dashed over to it and bent over to grab the ribbon, distracting The Guardian. Then, Asahi barrel-rolled out of the area, hoisted his sword, and took a deep breath.
Now was his moment.
Although powerless, he had to take advantage.
He locked his gaze on The Guardian's presence. With its black steel, cyan edgings, and concealing helmet, Asahi observed as the knight grabbed the ribbon and the spear.
But before he decided to attack him, Asahi felt something sharp stab through his feet that matched the pain of glass piercing your skin. The air crackled with power as his black sword started to glow. White lines unfolded across the steel surface, emitting a dazzling aura that flushed the cyan light away.
His eyes bulged in shock as he heard a loud, deep drone gradually grow louder.
"W... What's going on?" Asahi mumbled to himself, speechless.
A tingling feeling started to pinch his limbs. Watching as the glow grew more assertive, The Guardian ceased all movement, stepping backward and lowering its spear, possibly in shock.
"This power…"
Feeling the pain of the sharp object impaled through his feet, Asahi stepped away, sensing the warmth of luminance consuming him. He dropped his shoulders and felt a power course through his veins—unimaginable power.
Something had awoken him when he had touched that sharp object.
A power he had never felt in years.
"It could only mean one thing…."
His eyes glowed with an intense white light, and the air surrounding him shimmered and distorted.
With a sudden burst of motion, Asahi lunged forward and felt his fists and blade crackling with intense energy. He witnessed light follow his swing to The Guardian's helmet like strings attached to a puppet. And then, with the intensifying power of Asahi's ability reaching its summit, the moment Asahi's shining blade's tip skimmed The Guardian's chest, their body flickered backward rapidly, sending a shockwave so strong enough that it froze time ITSELF.
. . . . . . . .
Within these eight still seconds, Asahi witnessed a breakdown unlike any other. The Guardian's presence was stretched and contorted into a blurry straight line. Particles froze in place like icicles. The shifting rocks stood like statues. Even lights appeared as if they were strings.
Before freezing still, the ground beneath him trembled vigorously, forcing the plates to shift a centimeter, uncovering the object that had pierced his feet moments ago.
He found an opaque shard embedded into the ground. It shone an unidentifiable luminance as if infused with every color, its sharp edges displaying a droplet of dust and blood. While sounds around Asahi distorted from the halt of time, a trembling response uttered from his lips.
"Is this... The..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Asahi watched the particles and stone rain down to the ground, felt a tremor shake his body, and heard absolute silence consume the noise.
After time caught up with the pace, Asahi hurriedly tilted up and saw The Guardian fly thousands of kilometers from him into the cavern's darkness without any melody to go along with it.
. . .
Silence.
The attack rate was so unimaginably quick that no sound could catch up for a minute.
Long after The Guardian vanished into the distance, sound returned. It gradually increased in intensity until it finally became a deafening roar that shook the entire world.
Everyone's eardrums vibrated painfully at the sound, including Asahi's.
As the flickering white luminance on his body faded into darkness, Asahi felt his blade slip away from his sweaty and clammy hands. His eyes forgot to blink. Just seeing that attack alone was enough to take his breath away.
As he watched what he thought was an impossible opponent to match with swiftly fly away from him, the pressure of fear in Asahi began to lift...
And slowly, he felt all his stress drain away.