Chapter Twelve: Guardian [Long Chapter]
The hall was silent, and the burning sounds of the torches spread in the area. There was a face-off between Dusken and the other six attackers.
Without warning, Dusken sprinted, his muscles screaming in protest as the pain from the hall intensified while he advanced.
The other six also followed behind him, their expressions were twisted in pain as they ran.
"You won't escape today, Dusken!" Drake roared from behind.
Dusken ignored him, Drake was always a competitive fellow with him, but a child wasn't worth much of his attention.
Dusken lunged forward with tense muscles and immediately grabbed a torch from the wall nearby.
Without wasting time, he threw the torch at his pursuers, the flames on the black old wood flickering as the winds screamed.
The six chasing figures stopped for a brief moment to evade the attack, the torch landed on the marble floor, only for it to vanish soon after.
It wasn't long before another touch appeared on the wall like it had always been there.
Dusken's eyes sparkled; his intention wasn't to slow them down but to clarify this. It had taken fifteen seconds for another touch to appear. This meant that he could maximize the time to deal a heavy blow to some of his pursuers.
"Do you think that this can save you?" Joel shouted from behind him as he shot blue lights.
Dusken started to dodge, but one of the blue lights inadvertently hit him, making him immediately slow down.
He tried to run but felt like he was sinking into mud.
The six others were catching up to Dusken, and without any more options, he decided to execute his plan.
He stopped running and took another torch from the wall, then without any hesitation, threw at them.
The torch spiralled in the air as it flew at them; without lingering more, Dusken ran to another torch and threw it at the six.
Then another, and another, and after a few more throws, the area for a few tens of meters was covered in darkness.
Dusken's eyes peered through the veil of darkness as his vision was clear like broad daylight.
In his vision, the six people were only walking around while searching for him, but they couldn't see in this dark environment as he could.
"Do not think that by hiding behind the darkness, we would not be able to find you, Dusken," Drake shouted in a determined tone.
Dusken didn't respond and reacted immediately; there was not much time left, and with the seconds ticking by, he had to react fast.
He ran towards the strongest of them first, and in seconds, he reached Drake's location.
His footsteps were loud and heard by the six of them, so Drake swung his blade at the darkness in front of him, not knowing where Dusken was.
Meanwhile, Dusken reached Drake with swift steps, then without hesitation, his foot rose and, with accurate precision, landed on Drake's lower part.
"Ah~, curse you, Dusken!" Drake screamed as he fell to the ground, veins bulging on his forehead.
Not caring about him any longer, Dusken moved towards the boy with a whip and gave him a heavy slap on the face while his foot arrived at his crouch making the boy let out a muffled groan as he fell.
Dusken's breath was raspy while he panted, but he didn't linger in one place; he couldn't; time was precious.
Hearing the screams of the other two, the remaining four people shivered, Joel shot out his blue light in the area, trying to find Dusken.
Without wasting any more time, Dusken bent and took the crudely made whip of the lean boy.
He ran towards the fat girl while avoiding a blue light heading for him. He lashed out with the whip, landing on the girl's face with deadly precision.
He also kicked her on her already injured nose, making more blood spread and spill out.
A horrified shout erupted from the fat girl and she immediately fell on the marble floor while groaning from the pain.
Just as Dusken moved once again and was near the boy with two coloured eyes, the touches on the wall lit up once more.
Granting light to the area, but this didn't slow him the least bit, having the element of surprise on his side, he lashed out with his whip at Alex.
Alex caught the whip and used his super strength to pull Dusken towards him.
How could Dusken allow that? He let go of the whip and immediately jumped while delivering a kick at the.
The boy punched forward and met Dusken's foot with his fist.
*Bam*
A sound resounded as Dusken fell on the marble ground while Alex held his fist with a pained expression on his face.
Dusken's toe was aching with pain, but he immediately stood up and looked at Joel. 'Time's up,' Dusken thought with an unsatisfied sigh, ten minutes had passed since the battle with the children, and now…
A mountainous pressure suddenly descended in the area, making everyone cough out blood.
As they all fell to their knees.
"Who dares to fight in the sacred hall of the gods" a voice so deep and ancient sounded in the area.
This made everyone shiver from dread, Dusken scanned the children who had attacked him.
Beads of sweat rolled down Drake and Joel's face, the sword hand that Drake possessed slowly vanished and returned to normal, while the blue light on Joel's hands also vanished.
"You children, dare to disrespect this scary place?" this time, the voice sounded deeper, sending waves of fear through the children, but Dusken only felt uncomfortable, not dread.
"T-they at-tacked me f-f-first," Dusken spoke with intense difficulty.
Instantly, a vague, shapeless outline of a figure was beginning to appear in the hall.
How could Dusken not recognize him? This was the guardian of the god's palace. His father had told him that there was a guardian in the palace, and it only showed itself when there was chaos, such as fighting or ruining objects.
The guardian would not interfere until ten minutes had passed before it would show itself; this was what he had been counting on.
These attackers probably did not know of this; his father had only known by luck since he had been in a scene where different geniuses had fought in the god's palace.
Dusken's action of smashing the touches in the area wasn't only to create a suitable battlefield for himself but also to make the guardian angry so that when it came, it wouldn't leave without punishing the six who had attacked him.
The hall was silent as Dusken's mind wandered, the guardian didn't speak for a very, very long time.
"Is that so?" The guardian's cold and uncaring voice reached the ears of the seven children.
"N-no, s-s-senior, we're r-r-really sorry," Drake said with quivering lips; under the pressure of the guardian, it was very difficult to speak.
"Y-y-yes," the other children agreed with stifled voices.
Dusken was silent; he knew the mentality of those in power, and there were mainly two paths to their mindset.
One was that they derived joy from people begging for forgiveness, while two, they also derived joy from people's begging but would not forgive easily, to show dominance.
Dusken wasn't going to speak until he could properly decipher the guardian's motives.
"So, you all have enmity in the other world and dare to bring it up here in the god's palace? Do you know what you have done!" The guardian's reprimanding voice was bone-chilling to the ears.
The children all shivered with heads drooped low while kneeling.
Dusken was calm in this situation; he remained silent under the heavy pressure of the guardian and didn't make a sound or move.
The vague outline shifted its attention to Dusken.
"Young lad, you are the sole reason why I am angry. I can sense your calmness, this meant that you knew I would descend, but you still dare to mess up this place? Disrupting the peace? I don't know if you're smart or foolish,"
The air became so heavy that the sounds of bone cracking were heard from the fat girl; noticing this, the guardian dismissed the pressure.
Dusken's expression remained unmoved, but internally, he was suffering from the pressure of the guardian's glance. It seemed like a normal stare, but the guardian was pressuring him.
He turned to the vague outline of the guardian and slowly shook his head.
"I hadn't known that you even existed nor had I known that there was a guardian in this palace,"
Dusken wasn't worried that the guardian would discover he was lying because this was simply the truth; he hadn't known that there was a guardian until his father had told him when he was just seven years old.
So he wasn't lying; with his experience from his past life, tweaking a slight lie to become true was very easy.
"I don't care about that," The guardian's voice reached everyone's ears. "I am the law here and you all disobeyed."
The guardian's shape expanded as he loomed closer, making everyone's heart skip a bit, as they felt like death was caressing them.
"For fighting in the hall, you all would face ten times the pain of crossing it; you are here to get the legacy of gods, not to fight." The resolute voice of the guardian cut through the air, this decision of the entity instantly slashed the hope of these children reaching the depths of Hall apart.
Dusken immediately gritted his teeth, a wrong look appearing on his face.
"They attacked me first; I was just like everyone else, obeying the rules when they ambushed me."
Tears welled up in Dusken's eyes. The vague outline of the guardian paused and stared at Dusken.
After some time, it spoke coldly.
"You had still fought, you had disregarded the hall and your brutality is not of those of age grade,"
The gazes of the other children bored at Dusken, looks of schadenfreude. A tear strolled out of Dusken's eyes rolling down his cheek.
The guardian only stared at this without saying a thing.
"Although they had attacked you first, you had still fought, and so, I would lighten your punishment, you would only face five times the pain,"
The Guardian spoke with the same cold and uncaring tone; the outline shifted its attention to the other six.
"You all fought first and I punished another person alongside you, and instead of speaking up, you stared with malicious enjoyment. Such cruelty at such a young age, I'm disappointed; for this, you are barred from going further; you can only pick statues in the area."
The faces of the other six instantly changed as aggrieved looks appeared on their faces. The guardian suddenly vanished from the hall.
'Success', Dusken thought internally as he wiped his tears. He had just been faking those tears, and it had worked in changing the guardian's decision.
The other six children all had solemn expressions on their faces, as they gazed at Dusken with pure malice.
Most of it was from Drake and the lean boy he had kicked on the crouch, and also the Benita. It looked like they would have attacked if not for the power of the guardian.
"Dusken, Mark my words, I shall kill you with my hands," Drake shouted in rage.
"Bastard, my clan won't let you go for what you have done." Benita immediately shrieked, as she grabbed her nose while staring at Dusken.
"You all attacked me first and got punished, yet you still act like you are overlords." Dusken sneered in disdain.
'I'll make sure you all pay. A slow death is what you deserve,' he inwardly said with well-concealed malice.
The six children also stared at Dusken with rage-filled eyes, but they couldn't do anything simply because the guardian had spoken.
Dusken's stare particularly lingered on Rebecca, as thoughts on how to kill her flashed past his mind.
He glanced at each and every one of them, epicaricacy reeking from his eyes.
He turned around, and walked down the corridor, dealing with them would be left for later.
As of now, the strongest legacy of a god was within his grasp and he wouldn't let it go, not now, not ever. Even if the pain were to increase a hundred times, he would keep going.
The battle ahead wasn't to be won by brute force alone but by willpower, firm willpower.