Later that day the group of 3 walked into the city. It was the figures. At the gate two guards immediately saluted them.

“Welcome back Guardians!”

The group ignored the guards and walked straight into the city. They didn’t pay any attention to the citizens looking at them in awe.

“Where are the other 2 Guardians?” Some of the people questioned since it was obvious they went on a mission.

“Maybe they had to take care of some other things. It’s not for the likes of us to know.”

The Guardians went straight into their home. There they started to search through their storage where numerous documents were kept for information about Holy Lords and temple. One of the advantages figures had was that their master could see through their eyes if he wished. So Aleir didn’t have to move an inch and he would still get information.

After a few hours it already turned night. The figures didn’t need to rest so they spent all the time searching. But even after those several hours they found nothing. There was not even a mention of temples nor Holy Lords. Thus Aleir ordered them to go to the church in the city. Since one of the figures was Karyn it should be very easy to get to its archives.

However when they were about to leave the building someone entered.

“Hello Guardians, Can I have a word with you for a moment?” It was one of the members of the city council.

The figure with the appearance of Eldrich stepped forward. “Of course.” He smiled

“What happened to the prisoner? And where is Ornan with Zenon?” The council member looked suspiciously.

He heard that Guardians had returned to the city yet there was no report from them. Eldrich was always very serious about his reports and made them as fast as he could. However, this time the report was nowhere to be seen. And two of the Guardians didn’t come back which was unusual as well since they always came back from missions together.

The Guardians looked at each other. Then they moved to the door. Before they left Eldrich turned around.

“They died during the mission. We need to do something. It’s important, please leave.” Eldrich said in a voice devoid of any emotion.

The council member was stunned. He didn’t expect two of the Guardians to die. However what shocked him even more was that Eldrich said it in such emotionless voice. As if they weren’t his friends.

“And you thought this matter wasn’t worth reporting?!” The council member shouted at the group.

“I will write the report tomorrow. Now please excuse us.”

The group then left the building, leaving the council member speechless. Was it really the Guardians he had known all these years? He felt as if something weird was going on. All of the council members were very smart and capable individuals. Otherwise they wouldn’t get to their positions.

“I need to inform Peare. This matter is all too weird.” The council member then hurriedly left the building.

After a few minutes the council member was in front of the luxurious house Elder Peare lived in.

“Let me in! I need to get to Peare.” The man yelled as the guards were not allowed to let anyone in.

“We can’t let you in, Elder Peare’s orders.” Guard plainly stated.

“What?! Since when a mere guard block a member of the council! Get out of my way before I make sure your lives end up miserable.”

The guards tensed up. They knew that the man in front of them held much more power than they. However, they had their orders and couldn’t just ignore them. Especially orders of such an important person.

“I’m sorry but we-”

“What’s the commotion?” At this moment a voice sounded from behind the guards.

“Elder Peare!” the both guards sighed in relief.

“Peare, I think something has happened with the Guardians. They-”

“Don’t worry, I’m already aware.”

“Huh? But how?” The man was shocked. He didn’t expect Elder Peare to already know about the whole matter.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“We had an agreement with Eldrich. If he doesn’t make a report within 5 hours of his arrival then that means an outside enemy had infiltrated Guardians. I don’t know whether they are dead or alive but there is a high chance that all 3 are imposters!”

The man was completely flabbergasted. He didn’t expect there to be such a tactic against outside infiltrations. Especially with the Guardians! Infiltrating them was unheard of. The man’s admiration for Elder Peare raised by several levels in a moment. He was truly a man prepared for everything. No wonder his position in the council was so high.

“Don’t worry, I already mobilized the army. If those imposters were capable of killing Guardians then we need to be prepared for everything! Maybe it’s Fang’s empire prelude to an invasion!” Elder Peare said in a serious voice.

“Y-Yes sir! I will go notify the other council members as well and report this urgent matter!” The man then left to notify the other members.

…

After a short while the group of 3 Guardians entered the temple. Karyn stepped forward to tell the head priest that because of an important matter she needs to search for something in the archives. That place wasn’t something even members of the church could visit casually. A lot of secrets and private matters of the church were stored there, some that shouldn’t ever be revealed to the public. If a priestess was searching through the archives without a really good reason then some suspicions might fall on her.

“I’m sorry but even your status as a Guardian doesn’t give you the means to ignore the rules. If you get me a statement from the council that they approve of your actions I will naturally let you in, but like this I’m afraid I can’t help you.” The bishop of the church said. His status was way higher in the hierarchy of the church than Karyn’s.

When Karyn heard that she frowned and looked at the other 2 figures. They nodded to each other.

Karyn then walked closer to the bishop. The bishop was confused about her actions but didn’t think much of it. Maybe they would try to persuade him further but he knew he can’t back off.

When she was in front of the bishop at arm’s length, a dark hand shot out of her abdomen and tried to pierce right through the bishop. Unfortunately for them, the bishop wasn’t weak. The moment he saw the dark hand appear he created a layer of translucent shield on his skin. That was enough to stop the dark hand from piercing through him. However it still stabbed into his left side as the hand was really strong. At this moment, all 3 figures encircled the bishop. He would have to somehow get rid of at least one to get away.

“Ugh… I should’ve realized that something was wrong… What happened to you Karyn?” He looked at her, revealing a sad expression.

The figure didn’t respond as she thought there was no need to. More black hands then shot out of her body and the bodies of other figures and were trying to stab through the bishop’s shield.

“… So be it. Repel!” The bishop yelled out and the shield then expanded and threw the figures flying until they hit the wall of the church. The shield then dispersed.

“My Holy Lord, I won’t falter in the path of my duties. Give me the strength to defeat my enemies! You all prepare to die!” The bishop said with a ferocious look on his face. White specks of dust were flying around him.

The figures then launched a bombardment on the bishop who created an armor with shield and sword from the dust of magical energy. A lot of blows were exchanged, sometimes the bishop was thrown back and sometimes one of the figures received a slash, however even if one of the figures was cut the wound closed. That was due to the bigger amount of dark energy stored within them. As long as they had sufficient dark energy they could be infinitely recovered.

After around a minute both parties were exhausted. Aleir who was watching from afar through the eyes of his figures was shocked. He didn’t expect the bishop to be stronger than 3 guardians! Especially when he even gave them more dark energy to negate potential problems.

“I can’t afford to waste time, I need to get rid of him before someone hears the fight.” Aleir was thankful for once that the Church had such thick walls, thus blocking a lot of the sounds.

The figure of Antar then trembled. A huge amount of dark hands shot out of his body, completely ripping apart any human appearance it had before. Now it looked more like a monster than human. The numerous dark hands then pinned down the bishop. Even bishop couldn’t defend against such bombardment.

The other 2 figures then blasted open the entrance to the archives and went to collect all the books and parchments they could find.

The bishop fell to the ground as he couldn’t stand such strength.

“Argh… Who the hell are you?” grunted the bishop as he was on his death’s door.

“Your Holy Lord” the figure said casually.

“What a sick joke… devil spawn…” Bishop said as his eyes lost its light and his heart stopped.

The figure staying above the bishop then started cracking and slowly fell apart, burying Antar’s soul with it. Although there was a huge burst in its strength it wouldn’t be able to reform the body back and the overdraw of dark energy would destroy the figure. That was the price. Although Aleir didn’t want to resort to that method he had no choice since it was still better than not getting any information at all.

The remaining two figures were hastily putting the last books into a big bag. Before they left the archives they looked if they hadn’t missed anything. After they were sure they didn’t leave anything behind they then left the archives.

Aleir pondered for a bit to assess the situation. “Dammit, those books better have some information. Otherwise I will have to spend a long time looking for some other way to get the information.”

He then ordered the figures to leave the city. There was no time for experiments with mortals. The discovery of the bishop’s corpse was just a matter of time now.

When the figures opened the doors of the Church there was a huge amount of soldiers. From the looks of it there must’ve been at least several hundreds. And who knew how much more was prepared to fight at moment’s notice.

“DAMMIT! How could they notice so fast?!” Aleir loudly cursed. He was trying to come up with a way for the figures to leave the city. However, he couldn’t come up with anything. He then clenched his teeth.

“Fine! You forced me to do this!”

Aleir ordered the figures to fight their way through the army of soldiers. At this moment he didn’t care whether the figures would live or die. That was irrelevant to him. All he needed was the bag they were carrying.

In front of the Church, behind the large force of soldiers there was an older man. It was Elder Peare. The man’s expression was fierce. He was measuring Karyn and Eldrich with his look.

“Who are you? And what happened to the Guardians?!” The Elder then said roughly.