Keith and Aden had fallen under the gate Guardian's aspect since theystepped foot in the forest near the swamp, each one of them had been place under an illusion while being guided towards the guardian without them knowing luckily for Keith he had quickly realized that they were under an illusion because of a simple fact, mirror gates cannot be seen with the naked eye by people at the level, and right when he made the discovery and broke the illusion Aden was already in the guardian's tentacle about to be consumed, from the swamp rose a huge deformed head that resembled that of a man but where the eyes were supposed to be there were stitches, the had only had ears a nose and a mouth that was cover in three set of razor sharp teeth, to call it a maw would be more reasonable.
The guardian had grey scaly skin full of open wounds that oozed out pus and another black substance emitting a foul stench, it had a few strands of hair on its deformed head, Keith grimaced at the sight of the creature also frowning in disgust at the foul stench it emitted.
"You are such an ugly one." Keith murmured as his arms started moving quickly a dense energy rippled through the air making the guardian pause what it was doing to face Keith, even though it had no eyes Keith could feel the weight of it's gaze on him and his movements started to becomes clumsy, his eyes slowly became fog but Keith willed himself and even bit his bottom lip until it bled in order to keep himself awake, this was the Guardian's horrible power the ability to assault the mind.
Keith started hearing familiar voices, knowing that it was just an illusion Keith continued with his movements the dense energy returned again this time stronger than the one before, the guardian opened its maw and screamed throwing away Aden and letting its tentacles attack Keith.
The scream produce a Shockwave that blasted Keith away, Keith hit a tree a few meters away from the swamp, the black slimy tentacles were coming straight at him. Keith hit the tree hard, pain radiating through his body. Gritting his teeth, he pushed himself up just as the black, slimy tentacles closed in on him. He rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding their grasp, and sprung to his feet. The dense energy returned, stronger than before, and Keith knew he had to act quickly.
With a swift motion, he raised his arms, summoning the dense energy to his aid. It responded, swirling around him like a protective aura. The tentacles lunged, but Keith dodged them, his movements fluid and precise. Each time he evaded an attack, the energy around him grew more potent.
The guardian roared again, sending another shockwave in Keith's direction. He leaped to the side, but the force of the blast still knocked him off balance. He tumbled to the ground but quickly rolled back onto his feet, the energy around him crackling with intensity.
Aden stirred nearby, slowly regaining consciousness. He saw Keith fighting off the tentacles and jumped up to help. Summoning his strength, Aden began to chant the incantation for the tier 4 spell Banishment, his voice growing louder with each word.
Keith continued to dodge the relentless tentacles, his arms moving in a precise, almost hypnotic rhythm. The energy around him grew denser, each wave more powerful than the last. He sent a burst of energy toward the guardian, slicing through one of its tentacles. The creature howled in pain, but its remaining tentacles attacked with renewed ferocity.
Aden's chant reached a climax as he gathered the power needed for the spell. "Keith, keep it distracted!" he shouted, his voice echoing through the swamp.
Keith nodded, charging forward to draw the guardian's focus. He ducked and weaved, narrowly avoiding the tentacles' strikes, and sent another concentrated blast of energy at the creature's face. The guardian shrieked, its tentacles flailing wildly in response.
Aden finished the incantation. "Banishment!" he cried, thrusting his hands forward. A brilliant light enveloped the guardian, and it screamed in agony. The tentacles recoiled, the dense energy around Keith dissipating as the creature was pulled into the swirling vortex of the spell.
Keith slumped down and so did Aden, they exchanged a glance before nodding
"You-you did well." Keith smiled unnaturally as he complimented Aden who was surprised by Keith's words.
Smiling back Aden bowed at Keith "you did exceptionally well, thank you for saving my life."
Shaking his head he responded "No need to thank me, I trust you would do the same for me " Keith responded seriously before taking out his glasses and equipping them again, he had took them off before they entered the forest.
The guardian was gone but the gate's oppressive wail was still loud, with the guardian gone Aden and Keith had to keep watch over the gate as it will start releasing fallen for three days straight and since it was a category 3 gate it will only release rank 1 and 2 demons which they had to eradicate. So the two young men sat down and began meditating in order to refill their life force energy reserves. The light from the spell Banishment began fading and darkness reigned on the swamp again, the sky above darkened and wind picked up. Denta's stormy weather was trouble for everyone, and soon rain started falling.
Keith who was cautiously refilling his LFE paused and looked up at the sky, for some moments before he resumed what he was doing.
....
Nigel sat by the window as he watched the rain fall down, he could feel a pull towards the chain of mountains just outside of Venus. Hope was currently out to go get some food with aldrian they had left him alone because he was still hurt or so they thought. Nigel did not want to reveal to them that he was already healed, infact when he woke up his hand was completely fine and so was his chest, he had been 'cleaning' his wounds himself with the excuse of learning how to take of himself in case he would find himself injured and stranded. Hope had made him promise to ask for help if he was failing to do it himself.
Currently Nigel was thinking of what to do, he had already come up with a few ideas, the first was to gather books on storms and their legends, the second was to investigate what these inscriptions on his hand meant. Both of these were feasible ideas but they had no feel to them. His mind has been piqued by the world around him, almost every day he would sit and reflect on his first battle. The illusions, the sharma's real appearance, her summoned monstrosities, his ability to see through the illusion and mostly the fight of his life. He was grateful that aldrian was present otherwise he would have died.
"I am reborn but yet I still do not know what my purpose is." Nigel thought turning away from the window. A few moments later aldrian and Hope entered the room with trays of food and drinks, there were a variety of dishes and it was all thanks to aldrian they could eat this good since he was using his own money. Aldrian could be considered a wealthy man since he is a former knight and one of a high rank that is. He had a lot of money saved up to which he said he did not know what to do with it.
"We have returned, come let us eat." Hope spoke joyfully, Nigel pretended to struggle as he got out of the bed mumbling "my cane would have been pretty useful right now." Hope and aldrian exchanged a look but did not comment.
The group of three sat down on the carpet and the food was placed in the middle, they began to eat after aldrian had blessed the food. Eating in perfect silence with the only sound being that of their chewing, aldian gazed at Nigel, he clearly had something he wanted to say but he was reluctant to share it. Nigel having noticed he asked "what is the matter aldrian?" Aldrian wiped his mouth with a cloth before speaking
"I have been asking around the past three day and I have found some valuable information about those inscriptions on you body,would you like to hear it now or after you are done eating?" Aldrian asked
Shrugging Nigel answered evenly "you can yell me now , I do not have an appetite anyway." He also wiped his mouth and stared at aldrian expectantly
Nodding alsrian began "From the information I gathered from various sources, those inscriptions on your body are called runes. They are believed to be a primordial tongue dating back to the days of creation. Runes are said to be ancient symbols that hold immense power. Each rune represents a specific aspect of the world, like elements, forces of nature, or even concepts like life and death."