Weed slowly turned around…the colors of the world around him faded away and everything was colored in hues of black, white and grays…Weed had no way of confirming it immediately but he knew that time had paused…as Weed looked at what created the massive shadow eclipsing him…behind Weed sat a Panda.

‘What the…’ Weed was paralyzed in shock as he tried to make sense of what just happened.

“Wind God?” Weed muttered out as his brain scrambled to put the pieces together.

The Panda stared snickered at Weed’s bewildered expression.

Weed cautiously took a step back; he could feel great anger and malicious intent pouring our from the panda. It wasn’t sinister like Shadows but it was enough to give Weed an idea that the Panda in front of him could kill him in a single strike.

‘Now is not the time to back down….I must use this opportunity to make the Wind God understand what is about to unfold.’ Weed regained his confidence and stared back into the Panda’s eyes.

The two were staring at each other with so much intensity if someone were to walk between their gaze they would have been smothered to ashes. The Panda was clearly annoyed seeing how Weed refused to cave into the fear and awe.

“Grrrr.” The Panda snarled slightly revealing his sharp teeth big enough to rip elven flesh or tear through light armor.

Weed was startled but he did not let it appear so on his face. His heart was beating fast and he thought of the situation like one where a little child had been corned by a growling ferocious dog.

The Panda stood up on its four paws and slowly walked towards Weed. The Panda was most curious to see up close the creature which smelt of fear but dawned the appearance of a tiger cub. Weed’s feet were stuck to the ground, he wanted to run but his legs would not listen to him. He could only watch as the Panda moved in closer and closer; soon the Panda’s face was no more than inch away from his. Weed could feel the stinking air the Panda breathe out while sniffing Weed. If this was an ordinary panda it might not have been as scary as an experience but this wasn’t reality, although the creature in front of him looked like a panda it was probably ten feet tall if it stood on its hind legs. Simply put it was an over sized Panda with super powers.

The Panda encircled Weed twice sniffing him and inspecting him very closely. Weed tried his best not to fidget; he didn’t want to move suddenly causing the Panda to attack him. The Panda satisfied with his inspection faced Weed once more and stared at Weed right into his eye.

‘Why did I ever call him Panda piss….’ Weed wondered remorsefully.

“RAWRRRRRRRR” The Panda opened its massive mouth and roared out aloud. Weed’s long hair were flying back while his face was covered in Panda drool.

The Mighty Panda Roar!

- Health decreased by 50%!!

- You are in a state of confusion.

- You are more vulnerable to physical attacks.

- You have no elemental resistance.

- You are in a state of confusion.

- All attacks deal 45% less damage.

- Physical attacks deal 70% less damage.

- You cannot use run and escape related skills.

- All stealth effects and wards have been disabled.

- Defense bonuses disabled.

- Defense reduced by 40%!

Weed stared in horror as he watched his stats fall. Panda roars were insanely overpowered; maybe a stronger player might have resisted most status buffs but this was still ridiculous. ‘If its roar is this strong what will its physical attack be like?’

Weed gulped in fear as he wondered what should he do next.

“Porle sazaid instan loasre furiya ko.” The Panda said as it sat back; shaking the earth upon touching the ground.

“Korean please?” Weed said as he smiled expressing his ignorance.

“Kurta.” The Panda said softly as it picked up a bamboo stick which appeared out of nowhere and began chewing on it.

‘Okay….that was awkward.’ Weed thought. Weed was sure pretty sure the last word was some sort of insult.

“English?” Weed suggested as he changed his language.

“…”

Seeing no response Weed asked, “Mandarin?”

The Panda paid no attention to Weed as it continued to chew on the bamboo.

Weed was annoyed. He was excited to see the Wind God … a little disappointed to note that the Wind God was a Panda….a little more disappointed to note that the Wind God spoke a different language to his and annoyed that this was going nowhere.

“Kurta…” Weed whispered hoping to grab the Panda’s attention.

For a huge creature the Panda still had very small ears but they were sharper than any animals.

“Want to repeat that, elf?” The Panda asked with menacing look on his face.

‘English!’ Weed thought in delight.

“My humble apologies…” Weed began in a patronizing tone.

“Die if you want to apologize. Only with your death will I be appeased.” The Panda spoke completely uninterested in Weed’s patrons.

“Then why don’t you kill me?” Weed asked. He felt somewhat emboldened to ask the question and push the Wind God to a corner. If he had to die, the Wind God could have killed him already, clearly there was something holding him back.

The Panda smiled revealing his annoyance. “Cause I am forbidden to interfere in this world.”

“That didn’t stop you from killing me plenty of times before.” Weed argued back. He felt somewhat angry that he had died so many times before and now the Wind God is declaring that he can’t interfere in worldly affairs!

The Panda smiled, “Now now…I didn’t kill you…you were simply so frail that cold winds were all it took for you to catch a cold. The cold killed you.”

Weed would have attacked the Panda by now for being reminded about the past but he stopped himself as he realized that the Wind God was governed by certain rules and as long as he didn’t openly violate those rules he could continue being part of the game.

“I see…a wonderful way of putting it.” Weed muttered as his brains quickly mapped out his options. “So why did you stop the tornado midway?”

The Panda continued to ignore him.

“Why did you stop mid way?” Weed asked again.

The Panda raised his eyebrow, his menacing look conveyed the words; who the heck are you to ask me questions.

“Majestic Vayu, there is something that I must inform you of…” Weed began as he ruled out the idea of further interrogating the Wind God.

“PFFFTTTT! HAHAHAHAHA…” The Panda began laughing louder and louder. “Majestic Vayu….hahaha that’s a new one.”

Weed was puzzled, he wasn’t sure how to deal with the Panda’s personality. Most NPCs loved being patronized, the Panda was completely different. The panda knew when it was being sucked up to and when it was being insulted. It was more emotional and moody than a normal NPC which made it tricky handling him.

“God Vayu?” Weed tried again toning down his choice of words.

The Panda kept laughing for a while and the earth shook quite a bit with each grunt and laugh.

“…” Weed really didn’t know what to do…'This annoying oaf....being as difficult as can be...' and then it struck him.

“Your not the God Vayu!” Weed exclaimed.

The Panda stopped laughing and sat up straight. “Aye. I am not the God Vayu. How on earth do you manage to confuse me for her?”

Weed scowled as he realized the Panda was only laughing at his stupidity. “Its not like I have ever met the Wind God…” Weed tried to explain his lapse in intellect. “And you also suddenly appeared in front of me. Its easy to make a mistake a ‘guardian of the land’ for a ‘God’.”

The Panda continued laughing. “Child of the land, son of the fair folks and the dimmest being of this land, you don’t have to ever meet the Wind God to know its her.”

The Panda began circling Weed again. “She is the tempest, the fairest and the most divine creature in all of Versailles. Your body will quiver in fear and you will piss your pants wet if you ever come across her.” The Panda assumed a dark and cold tone. “She is a whirlwind of power and destruction and yet she can be as gentle as caring mother. To mistake me for her greatness is an insult to her and her insult in turn is my insult. It is unfortunate that I cannot kill you with these paws of mine but how I would have loved to tear through your soft flesh and feed it to the ants below your feet.”

“…” Weed could feel the venomous anger of the Panda with each enunciation of words.

“I could have killed you with just a sneeze for the foul words you have been spouting out from that rotten mouth of yours however only a God is entitled to pass judgement on a foolish mortal like you not a mere Guardian like me. Listen well dim fair being, Guardians never interfere in the realm of the mortals. We can only pass judgement when the divine realm has been disturbed by the mortal realm.”

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Weed wanted to say a lot but he got a gist of what the Panda was saying. “So you are saying no matter what I say or do, as long as it doesn’t interfere with your realm its okay?”

“Don’t think for a second that it doesn’t mean I can’t kill you. Your death is one I am sure I will savor regardless of the consequences that I have to face afterwards.”

“Yet you stopped short of the killing blow.” Weed knew he had leverage and was growing confident that he could handle the Panda.

*GROWL!!* The Panda leapt forth in front of Weed shaking the earth. Weed held his balance regardless how violent the earth shook. Falling would only show weakness and although Weed and the Panda, both knew Weed was weak but Weed didn’t want it to be blatantly obvious. It was something along the lines the matter of pride. Weed concluded from his analysis the Panda was a very proud being and even the slightest fault in his own countenance would become a discriminating factor against him. Weed knew he had to appear strong and confident no matter how much the Panda tried to rile him up.

“Still trying to scare me?” Weed asked as he stared back at the Guardian. The two were facing each other only an inch away.

*GRRRRR* The Panda growled as he stared at Weed, this was a complete stand off and the first one to blink would be the loser. The tension in the air was high and neither the Panda or Weed moved for an entire minute. Weed then did the unimaginable, he placed his had on the panda’s head and began patting the Panda.

“There there...lets become good friends.” Weed took a chance, there weren’t many options he had and he took the Disney way of taming animals….unfortunately it back fired. The Panda snapped and tried to bite of Weed’s hand. Luckily, Weed was fast enough to pull back his hand. “WoAH THERE!!” Weed began as he took a few step backs.

“I AM NOT YOUR PET FOOL!” The Panda roared as he took one step closer to Weed.

“I am not sure why you appeared in front of me but there must be something you want right? I mean if you want to fight me and kill me go ahead, you know that you can do it however if you do so the truth will forever remain lost and the evil will get what they want.” Weed spoke carefully, he didn’t want to be rude anymore.

“Call it a guardian’s intuition however I have a very foreboding feeling enveloping inside of me.” The Panda Guardian finally explained.

“But when I said that you didn’t even listen to me…” Weed began but was cut off.

“Listen well, young fair one, there are certain conditions that must be met for a land to have a guardian. Do you know what those are?”

Weed looked excited, this was going to be one hell of a quest. “No, I am unaware however if you asked me to guess, I would think it would be a temple dedicated to the god?”

The Panda sat back. “You have much to learn. There are many conditions for a piece of land to be endowed to a Guardian. Your guess is right, the first condition is a temple dedicated to the God who will watch over the land, however a single temple would not be able to encompass the entire region.”

“So you need many temples?” Weed asked.

"In theory that would work." The Panda nodded.

"So why do I only know of 4 temples in all of Lavias?" Weed asked curiously. "Don't tell me the area covered by a single temple runs in miles and miles?"

"It doesn't, then again there is no fixed rule."

"Then what is the thumb rule?" Weed piled questions upon questions to learn as much as he could.

"If it is a simple household shrine, then area as much as the household and maybe the surrounding streets." The Panda demi-god explained.

'Thats kind of little...' Weed thought about the number of houses that would need a shrine to cover all of Lavias.

"If it a minor shirine, then double that, a major shrine double the previous, a grand shrine triples the previous...and so on..."

"That makes sense, so we have temples here...that would covered a portion of the city?"

"A single temple in Lavias covers the tenth of a city."

"That doesn't explain how you govern over the entire city then....also I don't think I have seen anyone worship a Panda God...is there another way then?"

“Yes there is another way as well, it is the more common way of governing over a land. The Guardian of the Land is recognized by a Greater God as a minor God.” The Panda explained. “As you rightly pointed out there is not a single temple dedicated to me however there are many shrines and temples all around Lavias dedicated to her Greatness Vayu. However even Vayu cannot be present everywhere there she selects those whom she recognizes to step into her place in her steed to become the Guardian of the Land. As She recognizes my caliber, I have been recognized as a minor God and hence have no need for temples. As long as I protect this land and more temples are built, Vayu's strength increases and in turn my strength increases...”

Weed looked at the minor god suspiciously. “What are the other conditions?” Weed asked, he knew there were more conditions required since he didn’t get it completely right.

“The people of the land.” The panda said and then remained silent.

Weed frowned, he had a rough idea where this was going.

“Just building thousands and thousands of temples won't strengthen a God, it is also the number of people...as the number of people of the land were to make the land their home, the power of the Minor God increases. The more faith of the people of the land the more powerful the people and its guardian. Therefore, it stands to reason if for some unforeseen reason the people of the land who worship Vayu were to die then the Guardian would bear the brunt of it all. The Guardian has it in his own self interest to protect the people of his land. If many people of the land were to die then a Guardian may even cease to exist. Hence, it is our duty to step in and protect those who worship us.”

“…” Weed knew this piece of information was pretty big and it was possibly a big clue on how to deal with Gods in the divine realm. “Is that why you punished those sent by his Grace? For killing the people of the land?”

“Yes, because they killed my children, Vayu’s children.” The Panda replied. “And for that I will never forgive them….”

“It wasn’t the players.” Weed blurted out as he rushed with careless choice of words. “There is a darker and more sinister hand at play…”

The Panda raised his eyebrows. “Yes, I remember you saying something about about the truth…at first I dismissed it but fair one there are many mysterious energies I sense at play and they grow stronger with each passing moment as I grow weaker.”

Weed grew alarmed. ‘Why is he growing weaker? The repercussions would be unimaginable…’

“The people of this land are dying, it is now at the outskirts but it will soon spread…” The Panda spoke with a worried expression.

“You are dying…” the words left Weed’s lips slowly.

“Tell me fair one, who is responsible for this?” The Panda asked; slightly emotionally charged.

“…” Weed didn’t know where to begin; there was so much of information to process.

“Shadow…” Weed began with the one being responsible for it all.

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Authors Note:

1. T_T so busy.

2. Minor Edits.

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