After a week, they arrive at their destination, which is the thousand eyes forest. Zurawa, Tera, Ranga, and the princess with his two maids followed Akito to the mountain where the cave of the guardian was located, while Ho Kanine, one of his soldiers of Akito ordered the other soldiers to set up their equipment and have a quick rest before the expedition started. The soldiers in the forest were a bit tempted to take the rare treasures and plants in their surroundings but still resisted because they knew what was more important than those plants, as their prince was with them and the princess who cheered them when they were training, they felt touch and swore that they would do everything in their power to help the prince achieve his goal that is to cure the princess which they also wish to happen and now they are close they on achieving their goal they won't let any treasure even how rare they could be to tempt them.
"Good you truly are the soldier of the prince after all hahaha". In a far watching them was the unknown group who was hiding and waiting at the gate of city gates a week ago.
"Leader, why did they come into the thousand eyes forest? Don't they know how dangerous this place is? The guardian of the forest will get angry and could slaughter us if he finds out, why don't we just leave this place, the prince and his team would be slaughtered anyways as they invade the forest"
"Fool, you already know, for thousands of years, nobody made this deep in the thousand-eye forest. If the guardian really wanted to slaughter them he should have made it three days ago, but no, something fishy is happening. Why did the guardian do so? Let's just watch for now", looked at three of his lackeys. "monkey, buffalo, dog go take whatever treasure and precious plants in the forest will make sure our time waiting for these fools be worth it. How much gold could all the treasures could we gather here when the guardian won't even move haha"
"Hahahahahaha" every last one of them laughs as they think about the treasure they could gather in the forest.
Akito arrives in the cave when he sees the guardian meditating with all eyes open and some unknown
Scriptures made of green lights floating around him. As they see this Zurawa and the others were quite scared. Even if they already knew that the negotiation succeeded with the guardian, they still had a lingering fear because of the aura emanating from the guardian's body. It was immense, the green light itself was like a symbol of life where even plants grow around the guardian, making a beautiful scene.
"Your late humans, as our agreement I casted a barrier and will not move until the plan succeed or failed itself all my puppets have become a pillar and can't be of help to you, just place your sister here even though I can't help you I could still protect her and the two maids while you are gone. make sure to order one of your soldiers to bring the plant for your sister " the guardian commandingly gave a brief explanation to Akito, while the others are here they could feel discomfort from the voice of the guardian his words are direct and cold.
"Brother, where are you going?"
"Prince Akito, this is dangerous if we just let the princess stay here with her guardian," said Ranga
"Yes, we can't trust the guardian", even though Tera was afraid that the guardian might be offended, he still also voiced his opinion, as she was also concerned about the princess.
"Enough. Both of you, we are running out of time. We had already been delayed. The guardian had cast the barrier successfully 4 days ago, as the aura of the forest emanated in the barrier. This would also weaken the guardian. If he really wanted to hurt the princess or us, he should have done it when we entered the forest 3 days ago and would not have cast a barrier in the forbidden land" Zurawa interjected, He could feel that the guardian's immense aura was weakening slowly and the forest life itself was having a different feeling, unlike before when he could feel the majesty and power by now it's like a dying as its life was leaving the forest and all those power were being provided to help the guardians maintain the barrier. If not for the guardian itself feeling the life of the forest by its own life everything would have been over.
"Suna, do you trust your brother? if you trust this brother of yours, can you wait here for me? I will just get the plant that can completely cure you. With Brother Zurawa, Tera, Ranga, and the others, we will be safe and fast" Akito patted his little sisters head and gave a sweet smile to hee beloved sister, telling her to trust and wait for this brother of his.
"Brother, please return soon. Don't do anything stupid alright, you don't need to worry about me I know the lord's guardian will protect me He is your friend, so he is also my friend" Suna hugged Akito while crying.
"Right, he is my friend after all. The guardian is a good person, so just talk to him when you miss this work of yours so he can transfer your message to me using the forest. I know the guardians have that kind of ability hahaha"
"Tsk...."
"What you don't want to friend," Akitoease up the dense atmosphere by joking and showing the crying princess face making such a cute way while crying the prince also showed puppy eyes hugging the little princess.
Zurawa, Tera, Ranga, the two maids, and even the guardian were speechless by the prince's shamelessness. This was his first time seeing such a human in his life.
"Just this once,"the guardian look at Akito, saying he was defeated by Akito's shamelessness.
"Alright hahaha, see sister, even the guardian was defeated by your cute haha"
"Prince, it's time," Zurawa whispered to akito, making the laughing Akito make a serious face before smiling again.
"Sis, wait for me alright, I'll just take the plant that could cure you, you two be with the princess and don't cause trouble to the guardian. And always attend to the princess's needs. After I return, I will make sure to give you two a good reward"
"Yes prince, please be careful," said the two maids while bowing in the direction of the prince.
"Brotheerrrr.. pleaseeeee be careful I will wait..." the princess shouted with loud voice while seeing his brother from far waving at him before yelling to and going down the mountain.
The Guardian sees this and does not react, he just waves his right hand and a lot of beautiful lights come close to the princess and maids, while a lot of beautiful plants also start to show themselves, even mountain animals. come fort to play and guard the princess and maids which make the princess and maids happy and laugh at the same time to see the scenery for the first time in their life.
As they got down the mountain, the soldiers were already ready for the expedition. They had serious looks on their faces while holding their shields, swords, spears, and arrows.
"Ho is everything alright? Did they rest?" Ask the prince
"Prince, you don't have to worry everyone rested and is ready for your commands."
"Alright, I would like to thank every soldier who followed and trusted me with their life on the line. You have my respect now that we are close to achieving our goal we must not retreat, but if there are who are afraid to die now is the right time to step forward I will honor your decision" no one move " Good, let's get ready I will lead everyone to victory....."Akito gave a confidence, determination and smile to his soldiers.
"We will follow the prince."
.....................................................
"But the fight was turned into a disaster. A variable showed up. When I was focusing all my power on strengthening the barrier I didn't have the time to check the forest. You can say it was also my part as a guardian to have been too careless. I forgot the human heart " said the guardian to Raven with a disappointed smile on his face and hatred of those variables.
" It's not your fault. It was also our part to neglect such a situation, When the prince died, we still succeeded. The prince used his life in exchange for all of us to survive. He didn't want to release that evil and become the sole reason for the destruction of the world. Even though he didn't succeed in killing it, he still succeeded in injuring the evil entity. Furthermore, he used all the power of the legendary sword to charge the chains, imprisoning that bastard till this day."
"But it won't be long before that bastard breaks those chains again, we have to kill him this time," said the guardian with hatred.
"Then what happened to the princess," asked Raven to the two.
The two looked at each other before answering Raven's question.
"When the princess was cured and learned what happened to the prince she couldn't bear the sorrow and wanted to rush, find the corpse of his brother to take it back, but we stopped him from doing so. After that, she asked the guardian to be turned into a puppet in order to have the strength to fight that monster, but because of the guardian's respect for Akito, he couldn't do it, even though he was heartless to a human when it comes to the forest the little girl was, to innocent that even the forest was protecting her. So, rather than being turned, the guardian decided to teach and passed his blood to the princess and become a master and disciple."
" What then, where is she? Did she die at old age then?"
"No, she cast a 'hibernation of the forest' on herself to sleep for at least 300 yrs. When we learned about this, all of us decided to turn into puppets to become undying soldiers to protect the princess we formed a natures pact so that, if ever, who could achieve one of the two conditions, our soul would wake up, even though it's only temporary" Zurawa answers Raven's questions with a slight smile and looking at him at his eyes
" Humans, can you help us fight that evil entity? We see you are different from this world. Your ability is really different from ours"
"What???"