Odyssey of the Guardian Emperor

Sensing auras, aether(both wild and tame), influence, domains, and every other kind of ethereal phenomena was a valuable skill in Valeria. The more one could sense and the easier they could pick up on such things, the more equipped one was to survive.

That way, it was easier to avoid running into trouble unnecessarily, which, in Valeria, consisted of powerful foes, demons, calamities and places. Some of these 'presences, if you may' were more subtle than others, like Alaric's influence on the world around him before ascending to the Wood Temper Rank and some domains, while others weren't so subtle.

That said, everything with a heartbeat within the city of Melbourne was forced to go still for a moment when Alia stepped out of In-Between and into the mortal realm, her presence washing over the city like a war horn, loud and oppressive.

Finn felt it, and everyone below the Fifth Level of the Glass Rank found themselves falling onto their knees under the pressure. 'She's never been this angry before.' Finn pulled himself to a wall, hoping that staying out of sight would lessen the pressure.

Back at the scene of the battle, Avaros emerged from the rubble of a demolished wood cabin, blood flowing down the side of his face. He looked pale and for the first time, he didn't have a cocky remark right off the bat. The aether around him sparked as though his very identity was fighting the oppressive aura of the Guardian.

"You don't have a Concealment Barrier," Avaros breathed, almost unsure if his words meant he was safe. "You just dug your own grave."

Alia stayed silent a little while before the sound of breaking glass filled the air. The Dark Mage looked up to see his purple barrier get riddled with cracks before it shattered completely, erased from existence. High above it, a different kind of barrier stood, glowing faintly in the distance.

"Sh*t," the man cursed, rubbing a hand through his dark hair in frustration, "So, that was his plan all along."

"You've done a 'good job' roughing up my master." Alia's voice was gentle, like a cold breeze, yet chilly, as if it were holding back a hurricane of rage. It felt like even breathing was worthy of execution.

He clicked his tongue. "I was just getting to the good part when you interrupted," he drew a pair of blades from the sleeves of his scaly armour, "Think what a handsome sculpture he would have made. The feeble attempt at an uprising of the false Guardian Emperor."

"False?" the guardian tilted her head.

"Yes. False. The Emperor would never stand for this," Avaros answered with a smirk, "Your presence changes nothing. It only makes this battle more interesting."

"Let's see about that."

One moment, the guardian was standing in front of Alaric, and the next, she had taken the dark mage's place, delivering a kick to his side so hard it left an afterimage on her foot.

The sound of the hit reached Alaric a fraction of a second later, and the shockwave of wind blew his hair back a second after the sound, 'That… speed…'

The guardian, still a foot above ground, didn't land like Alaric expected her to. Instead, she shot off as though she'd kicked off the air in pursuit of the dark mage. Dazed, but responsive, Alaric tapped into his teleportation ability, only for his senses to suddenly fill with information.

For a brief moment, his green eyes glowed a fierce neon green, and tears began to flow from them before he vanished in a furious implosion.

He was in no condition to fight, but he wasn't done with the Dark Mage either. Part of him also wanted to see his guardian take a fight seriously. He'd seen her fight on the day Jared died, but that had been so one-sided that it didn't count.

Alaric appeared on a rooftop in time to see the Dark Mage's blade leave a trail of sparks on Alia's vambrace as she flawlessly parried his attacks, brushing off his speed like it was nothing.

Two more swift parries later, the city shook from the shockwave of a fist slamming into the Avaros's gut.

Alia's blow didn't send him flying, though, and Alaric felt his brain heat up just deciphering why. The guardian hadn't followed through with her punch, and because of that, she'd delivered the full force of the blow without sending her opponent flying. Avaros merely staggered back. Two more of those earth-shattering blows echoed through the city before Alaric caught up.

Avaros swung a high arc and missed. A heel connected with the back of his head before he could pull back his fist, and with it, his face slammed into the ground, planting a crater with his face in it.

Alia paused for a bit, her fists raised in front of her. She'd brought her height down to seven feet, and from the looks of it, she was taking her sweet time. "What was that about my presence changing nothing?"

Avaros scrambled to his feet and held his blades, blood dripping from his nose. He blinked and his face was smashed in by a black glove, before a right hook caught him square in the jaw. The man's head whipped to the left with so much force that Alaric thought he'd break his neck.

His eyes rolled back, most likely failing to catch up to the blow to his chest that sent him flying through a building.

Alaric teleported ahead and found Alia already there, 'How!'

Alaric would have stopped the guardian for an explanation if it wasn't for the fact that Avaros was still standing up, knives ready, but his face was bleeding. It was a miracle his nose didn't look broken, but then again, that was a Steel Rank for you.

"You fight well, Guardian," the man slurred, a wicked grin blooming on his bloodied mouth, "But your vessel remains that of a Wood Rank. You'll never measure up with a weak master."

Alia blurred next to him and slammed her heavy boot on his feet, then slammed her knuckles right between his eyes.

Avaros, overwhelmed by force, slammed into the ground so hard that he left an imprint of his body and bounced right back up to meet the next fist.

He gritted his teeth and summoned a storm of shadows to protect him. Shadows burst out from everywhere at once, threatening to consume Alia. In a short time, the shadows had already formed a sphere around the pair, blades forming inside the dark prison.

Melbourne shook again, the ground cracked, and the ball of shadows exploded outwards as another earth-shattering blow buried the man even deeper into the ground.

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"Alaric," a voice tore the boy's attention from the gruesome scene. He'd been standing on the roof of a building, so he had to look down to see the familiar face talking to him. Finn was standing with a dark-skinned boy next to him, and Alistair, which made it weird.

"Finn," Alaric's eyes glowed green again, and his heart thundered in his chest. 'Wait, Finn's here…' he gasped. Vanishing from the roof, Alaric appeared in front of his friend, "What are you doing here, Finn?"

"It's good to see you, too," Finn raised an eyebrow at his friend.

Alaric's eyes blazed green before he took a step back. Thunder roared in the sky. The wind turned chilly while the clouds grew darker, "How? Did the Academy send you to fight the demons?"

"I see you after all these months, and that's the first thing you want to say," Finn stepped forward so he could look his friend in those glowing eyes. They weren't a good sign, but this was Alaric. Weird was normal around him.

Alaric furrowed his eyebrows, before his eyes opened wide and he nearly tackled his friend in a hug, "Sorry… I'm sorry… I'm a mess."

Finn returned his hug gently, "That much is obvious, Alaric."

The dark-skinned boy, unlike the reunited boys, was paying more attention to the fight. "Now that we're all on the same page, I would like to point out that I'm officially a big fan of yours. Still, your S-class guardian is powerful, but the body of a Steel Rank is quite tenacious."

Alaric pulled out of his hug and wiped tears away from his eyes, "I'm not sure I've had a fan before. And my guardian's not trying to kill Avaros. I will do that myself."

"I'm sorry?" Finn gasped. Brett was just as shocked, but it didn't register as much as it did on Finn's face. The sandy-haired boy looked like he'd seen a ghost.

"Yeah. I still have a few questions for him," Alaric chuckled nervously.

"How does that translate to KILLING him?" Finn asked, emphasising the 'killing' part.

Alaric's smile withered, and he looked away from his friend. His hands were shaking, and while he understood why his friend was reacting this way, there was no other way he could phrase his words.

A new presence made itself known. Floating down from the sky, the Matriarch landed beside Finn and placed a hand on his shoulder. "It seems being Guardian Emperor means a lot more than a simple title," the woman sighed, "If you could see what he does through those glowing eyes, you'd know."

Alaric took a deep breath and walked out, approaching the scene of the battle. By this time, the earth had stopped shaking as Avaros's beating came to a stop.

Finn, Brett and the Matriarch watched from afar. LionHeart limped out of a demolished building, dust falling out of his dark hair while a trio of Eagles landed next to him. Kair'ak wasted no time in starting up her Healing Magic as they all watched.

"I want to intervene…" LionHeart spoke in a shaky tone, "But my body won't move."

Kair'ak nodded, "You're not alone, big man. Right now, no one can intervene. We are witnessing the Guardian Emperor's Authority. I never thought I'd get to see him use it, especially when he's still at the Wood Rank."

Alia had beaten the dark mage to the point of him barely hanging on to consciousness. He had several broken bones, bruises all over his body, and was missing a few teeth, and yet even as Alaric stared at him, he felt rage boiling within him. His frail imagination failed to come up with worse ways to make the man experience pain—pain he deserved.

Alia saw Alaric coming and reached for the man, only for his body to float up into the air. Lightning flashed through the storm clouds above, and the aether in the air sizzled with a dangerous edge to it.

Avaros peered through his bleary vision before letting loose a chuckle, "Coward! You only stepped forward after your guardian fought your battle for you. Pathetic! And they call you…"

"Silence," Alaric hissed, and a subtle shift in the air made everyone aware of the command he'd just given. Avaros opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. "I could ask you why you kill innocent people, but that would make you laugh. I could ask you why you banished your guardian to the In-Between and bound him in chains of dark magic, but you would smirk and make some snarky remarks.

The list goes on… So, I'll skip trying to understand your twisted mind. Do you know how many people you nearly killed with your Catalysts? You can speak."

Avaros coughed violently, released from Alaric's command to stay quiet, "What is this? What are you doing to me? What's this power?"

Alaric's eyes flashed green, and thunder cracked through the sky, silencing everything, including the wind. "Answer my question."

"Hell if I knew how many people live in this sorry Merchant town," Avaros yelled, struggling against invisible bonds. He summoned his shadows, and for the first time in his life, even they failed him, "WHAT IS THIS?"

"Four thousand, four hundred and thirteen(4413), that's the number of people you almost killed. You successfully caused the death of three hundred and five(305) of them with the demons out there and tortured an innocent man to the point of nearly breaking his sanity," Alaric's voice echoed.

Avaros tilted his head with curiosity, before tipping his head back in laughter, "Wait! Am I being judged?" His dry laughter filled the air before he snapped at the boy, "YOU JUDGE GUARDIANS! NOT HUMANS."

"Watch your tongue, darkling," Alia hissed, "You lost that immunity the day you embraced Dark Magic. Your guardian probably told you that a long time ago, and you didn't listen."

A blade appeared in Alaric's hand, a chain of bones trailing across the ground as he walked closer to the Dark Mage.

Seeing the blade, Avaros lost his composure, "NO, HE DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING!!! THAT USELESS PIECE OF SH*T WOULDN'T SHUT UP ABOUT BEING NOBLE AND ALL THAT CRAP ONLY THE NAIVE DREAM OF! THE WORLD DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT. IT'S KILL OR BE KILLED. THE STRONG CONTROL THE WEAK."

By this point, Alaric was floating above the man. He brought the blade to the man's neck, "You lie."

"Wh-what?" Avaros went pale.

"Guardians don't lie to me, and I spoke to yours before he passed away."

"Passed away?" Avaros breathed.

"Just a moment ago, your guardian told me everything, then breathed his last. It was a most painful death, slowly drained of his life-force after a lifetime of torture at the hands of his master's dark magic," Alaric narrated with deep sadness in his voice, "Don't worry though. You're not long for this world either."

Avaros stared Alaric in the face for a brief moment before gritting his teeth in pain. A gentle cut appeared on his neck, making it the third time the blade had cut him. Blood dripped from his lips as his wounded soul screamed, shattering in the wake of the third cut from the bone sword.

Alaric's heart thundered in his chest as he watched the Dark Mage writhing, suspended in the air while experiencing an agonising death. The number 305 kept flashing through Alaric's mind as he watched the man die. It was the number of people who had died because of Avaros, and had it not been for Alaric, 4413 would have been the number of people who would have died.

"It's not fair that you get to die once… when you killed so many," Alaric hissed, clenching his fists. Thunder continued to echo in the skies above when Alia held onto Alaric's hand and gently guided him back to the ground.

The green glow in his eyes dimmed, and he stared at the ground, dazed. "The screams are gone," he whispered, tears welling up in his eyes, "I felt all their panic… and pain. Each one of them. I could count them in a heartbeat, and I did… so many times, hoping each time that I'd missed one and the number of deaths would drop. I could feel it when they died, and when their guardians died protecting them, or worse, as a result of their masters dying. What's happening to me, Alia? What was that?"

Alia took a deep breath, kneeling before Alaric, "That was you tapping into the Matriarch's domain without meaning to. At this point, I shouldn't be surprised by what you do, but here we are."

Alaric kept his eyes to the ground, his body shaking slightly. What was the difference between Avaros and a demon? Both of them were killed with no reason or emotion, for that matter. If anything, Avaros was worse for taking pleasure in killing humans. Aether roared through Alaric's system as he struggled to keep his calm.

Alia forced him to look up at her, "Hey, hey, look at me. He's dead. He's gone. The danger has passed. You are safe now… We won."

These words, spoken slowly with just the right amount of care and love, just barely managed to pull Alaric out of his thoughts to look up at the guardian.

Fatigue crashed into him like a truck, along with a storm of so many other feelings he hadn't had time to process. One moment he was standing up straight with the chain sword in his hands, and the next, he was falling, his eyelids closing shut as everything in his body shut down.

The guardian caught him and lifted him with a sigh. Finn approached them, worry etched on his face, "Will he be okay?"

"He'll need to rest," the guardian responded. "Will you stay till he wakes up?"

"I'll stay as long as he needs me here," Finn answered, drawing another long sigh from Brett.

"It's good to see you, Finn," Alia smiled, "It's been a while."