A couple of days later, we reached the deepest part of the Tainted Land, where the core stood in front of us. It wouldn’t be the first time me and Nicole reached it, but it was the first time for David and Victoria, who looked with open mouths at the large dark stone floating in the middle of the cave.

It was an extremely large cave, with a ceiling so high that I couldn’t be sure of where exactly it was, and like it, the zone itself was wide enough to fit a small town inside.

The core was a rock with an uneven crystal-like shape, and several smaller pieces floating around it like moons around a planet. Each one of them was surrounded by a cloud of darkness that made one think that the stone was inside a cloud itself—if one didn’t pay close attention to it—and running all over its surface were streaks and flares of Hellfire, even if this core in particular was made mostly of Darkness.

One had to be careful around it as well, since…

Suddenly, from one of the many smaller stones floating around it, a bolt of darkness was fired, hitting one of the far away walls, and tearing apart the rock that composed it. Both David and Victoria snapped out of the amazement that they had and turned a defensive stance in the direction of the place where the darkness hit.

“Be careful around those things,” Nicole warned, her eyes serious as she looked ahead. “If they hit you… I think you blow to pieces…”

“You ‘think’ you blow to pieces!?” David exclaimed, “How do you not know what happens?!”

“Well… I’ve not been hit… but Althea says that that’s what happens,” Nicole replied, giving me a glance.

I nodded in response. “That is the case. I’ve seen plenty of adventurers get carelessly close to the core, thinking it was a large gem, only to be destroyed by the power it surrounds itself with.”

“T-Then, shouldn’t we leave…?” Victoria fearfully asked, taking a step back.

“No, no! We came here to train,” Nicole said, setting her battledress aflame. “We might not be able to take the core, but it doesn’t mean we just leave like that!”

This core in particular had a Guardian. In the case of Tainted Lands, I considered them as nothing more than one of Salrak’s minions, trying to stop me from cleansing the world, but now I knew that these are the same things as what I would find in a Holy Place of Power; nothing more than one of those ‘Godly mistakes’.

The last few times we came here, it was a close fight, but I managed to defeat it… leaving the core open for me; however, I refrained myself from absorbing or destroying it. I was well aware that if I did that, the Tainted Land would disappear, and the many adventurers that come here to either train or make a living, would find themselves without a place to work—myself included, since for a while, I was in need of money.

As I looked at the large dark stone floating in the air, I considered if I should absorb it this time… I might be in need of the extra power to fight with Eletha, but… with a shake of my head, I decided it was better to leave it alone. I should focus on defeating the Guarding instead, and letting the core regain its power once more.

While considering those things, from the bottom part of the floating stone and from within a thick dark cloud, a figure formed. It looked humanoid in shape, but I knew it wasn’t from the times I fought it.

It looked like a tall man, about twice the size of a normal human. The body was completely black, just like a shadow; but the face was uncovered, revealing a dark ashen skin with an expressionless face that made one think it was a statue; something that was portrayed even more by its lack of eyes, which were nothing more than completely hollow sockets.

It also had long blood-red hair that went almost to its hips, and the thing’s delicate, yet strong facial features made one think that it was the face of a young man. I couldn’t help but wonder why the core would create such a Guardian, since it was clear to me now that they weren’t made by the Holy Gods—as I thought for the longest time—and even asking Salrak didn’t give me a clear answer…

He claimed it was simply the shape of whatever was closer to it, but I just couldn’t understand how it looked like man in such depths…

Regardless, it was dangerous, and we couldn’t stop to ask it, since it—like every other Dark Beast—didn’t speak nor share any insights. Not even its gestures or expressions said anything, as they remained just as expressionless; even in death.

The Guardian’s face was turned our way, particularly on me. Its body then convulsed unnaturally, bending like a twig that was about to break to the side, with the thing’s hair falling to the ground, until its head was almost completely to the side. Once it was in that position, the Guardian’s right arm suddenly snapped to the side, with its claw-like hand opened.

“That’s… creepy…” David whispered, and I could feel mana empowering his body.

Almost at the same time, the core launched a darkness lightning, landing exactly at the claw of the Guardian. A thin mist of darkness covered the guardian for a moment, after which its shape was revealed once more. In its hand, a sword that looked exactly like mine was being firmly gripped.

“That’s new…” Nicole said with a frown.

I had to agree. In my past, I never left a Tainted Land or a Holy Place of Power standing like this, so I didn’t expect there to be such a change, especially one where the Guardian changed in such a way, so I raised my awareness and prepared for anything different that it might do. I took a step forward and moved ahead of David, Victoria, and Nicole. It wasn’t safe for them to face it head on.

Stolen novel; please report.

Almost right after I took my position, the Guardian snapped from its place, flying straight for me in an instant.

I was surprised to see it move so fast, but I still managed to react, blocking the thing’s sword with my own and creating a loud shockwave all around me. However, it didn’t stop nor tried to push the blade into me, as it instead continued striking me with it.

It was hard for me to properly follow its movements, since it didn’t have a fighting stance. It was standing still like someone who was idly walking while the arm and sword moved in all sorts of erratic ways. After a moment of exchanging blows, it kicked me, but the leg had snapped from position to do so, without having a shift in stance at all, making it seem as if someone had moved the leg of a doll.

I was forced to fly back into a wall. Rocks, and dust flew all around me from the crater that I created, but I managed to still withstand the powerful kick with the armor and my own defenses. I quickly pushed myself out of it, flying back at the Guardian, whose head snapped unnaturally to look at Nicole.

Nicole jolted from the surprise, but quickly created a barrier of fire in front of her, which was immediately cracked from a Hellfire beam that came out of the Guardian’s hollow eyes.

I pushed myself in the air to get faster to it, since it was clear that her barrier wasn’t going to last longer. In another instant, I heard Nicole’s barrier shatter, while I landed on top of the Guardian, pushing it away and closer to where the core was, but still keeping my distance away from it and the occasional darkness lightning it fired.

“Ahhhrg!” Nicole cried, causing me to turn my attention to her for a moment.

The Hellfire Beam from the Guardian had pierced her in the arm. I was tempted to go back and immediately heal her, but the Guardian quickly punished my mistake as its other arm snapped to grip my face. I empowered my body, focusing as much as I could in protecting my face, but I could still feel the thing’s powerful grip trying to crush my skull.

In that moment, a blue lightning hit the Guardian on its face, and it snapped to look in the direction of whatever had done it. I couldn’t turn to look at who it was, but judging from the high pitch yelp that followed, I guessed that it was Victoria.

Taking the opportunity that the Guardian gave me when it turned to look at her, I slashed with my blade across the thing’s torso. It was powerful, but not strong enough to cut it in half, so it was sent flying to the side of the cave, tearing the arm that was gripping apart while its claw remained firm on my face.

I grabbed the arm, and with as much Hellfire power as I could gather into my hand and close to my face, I turned the thing’s hand into nothing more than a mist of darkness.

Once I was cleared of it, I turned to look at the place where it landed, trying to keep my thoughts away from the wounded Nicole.

Like me, it crashed inside a crater to one side of the huge cave. I waited for a moment to see if it would come out, but it remained quiet. Not wanting to let it recover, I gathered power into my left hand. A ball of darkness surrounded by dark purple lighting quickly formed on it, and as fast as I could, I launched it in the direction of the buried Guardian.

While the ball of darkness was cutting through the air, a Hellfire Lightning was fired from the Tainted Land core to the exact same place where the Guardian was stuck. The lightning was much faster than my ball of darkness, so it managed to hit the Guardian before I did.

Soon after, a sphere of darkness with dark purple lightning exploded in the place of impact, pulling rocks to it, and even causing my hair to rise slightly as it was also pulled to it. Purple lightning spread through the walls around it, causing rocks to fall and be pulled into the explosion as well. The explosion was sustained for a moment, until eventually, the darkness was cleared.

There remained a barrier of Hellfire, cracked and crumbling into pieces, but succeeding in its function to protect the Guardian.

“It—it could do that? I didn’t know that the core could create barriers like that,” Nicole said with a strained voice. I wanted to turn and take care of her, but if she could make a comment like that, then there really wasn’t anything for me to worry about.

The Guardian was revealed to us soon after. It was missing its lower half and the recreated blade was no longer in its claw-like hand. I readied myself for whatever might come next, but the Guardian simply fell from the hole in the wall to the ground, creating a crashing sound.

I quickly noticed that it was crawling to me with its one remaining hand, snapping back and forth as it tried to go as fast as possible, but it was nothing compared to when it first appeared. It seemed like the barrier that the core used wasn’t enough to protect it.

Having no desire to allow it to be healed or protected again, I dashed ahead to it, with my weapon raised and both Darkness and Hellfire coating it with as much power as I could gather into it.

With a powerful swing, I cut the Guardian in half, it's one remaining arm snapping all over the place in a desperate attempt to do something about it, but there was nothing else it could do. Its expressionless face was cut in half, and soon after, the arm stopped moving. A mist of darkness was forming at the Guardian’s bottom, and then, like pulling on a sweater’s thread, the rest of the body turned to a mist, which then turned into a swirl of darkness that was absorbed into my body; just as it usually happened in here.

I sighed and turned to look at the core, still floating in the air. The mist of darkness surrounding it had lessened by a lot, and the flares of Hellfire had turned into simple blood-red lines that sparked here and there. It seemed like the core could do nothing more now.

This would’ve been the perfect opportunity to destroy it or get its power, but there was no need to do it—at least not right now, so I put away my sword on my back and finally turned to tend to Nicole.

“Good job,” David said with a nod. “It seems like this whole time you could’ve just done this whole thing alone.”

“It’s always better to have someone looking after you,” I replied, turning to look at Victoria. “Thank you for the help.”

“O-Oh, I just reacted by instinct…” she said with a wry smile. “Now that I think about it, I might’ve hit you with it… so I’m sorry for that.”

I shook my head and smiled, hoping to reassure her. “No. It was a good call. You’ve gotten much better with magic control, so if you think you can do something that might help, then you shouldn’t be afraid to do it.”

“R-right… Thanks,” she said with the same wry smile.

“And I didn't do anything this time…” Nicole said with her hand covering her arm.

I approached her while looking at her arm. “Let me see.”

“Oh!” she exclaimed, “No, it’s fine. David quickly healed me while you were fighting, I’m holding here just ‘cause I still feel it…”

She removed her arm, and there were indeed signs of healing, but I could still see a few burned parts, so I placed my hand over her wound and tried healing her as well, only to be pushed away by Nicole’s hand, causing me to look at her with a bit of surprise.

“No, no!” she said, “You know how overhealing is bad! I know you’re concerned, but I think this is good enough.”

I pushed my hand down and nodded. She was right. There was no need to push it more than it should. “If that’s the case, then, we should go back now.”

“Not without the booty!” David said, carrying a fist sized dark rock in his hand.

It was probably the Guardian’s magic core. I nearly forgot about it, so I nodded to him, and then looked at the softly floating core in the air. There was nothing more for me to do here that wouldn’t cause any more damage, so after a moment, we turned to head back outside of the Tainted Land.