Strawberry Devil in a Fantasy World

The temple was nothing grand like the palaces I had seen from Vera and Rotask. Standing alone out in the open, it was about five stories in height layered with finely carved gray stones in a pyramidal structure.

Perhaps the reason wood wasn't used was because trees didn't seem to grow in this region. In my very humble opinion, this temple was plain and boring. It was a place I would have thought as a pile of rubble had I not visited personally.  

The two of us were just standing there taking in our surrounding after we landed here.

"To be honest, even if you do not carry a seal of passage, there's nothing a guardian can do to me." I casually remarked remembering that I didn't really give her any time to prepare herself when I yanked her out of her office.

"I had anticipated it. See? I have it right here." Kanoko pulled out a golden plate with intricate magical inscriptions out of her inner chest pocket. "I can't have you duke it out with one of our guardians."

"Hey! It's considered a spar, a friendly spar!"

"Yeah, yeah. Save your words."

The two of us entered the temple together. Me, being the cautious one, was perfectly combat ready with my celestial eyes activated.

Inside was actually only one large room with an array of perfectly spaced pillars, dimly lit by magic crystals. Some pillars had stone platforms attached as if this was some kind of martial arts training ground. Otherwise, there really wasn't nothing worthy to note except perhaps a stone altar sitting on the opposite side of the room.

"Thou hast arrived."

Two large slits revealed themselves from overhead. The voice came from a gigantic black snake coiling around a pillar above one of the platforms. It had four glazed eyes on its head. Its thick body was covered with glistening black scales that shone like polished obsidian.

"Lord Slisthe, I am Kanoko of Vera from Kingdom of Teir, here on official duty as a delegate. Here is the seal to prove my identity."

Slisthe? What a suitable name for a snake! It's just too bad he can't transform.

This snaky guardian, being only level 14, was actually weaker than Vorte. He had the typical guardian traits and the enhancement traits. Aside from that, he could petrify things with his gazes, use poisons, and split itself to create clones. That was literally it, nothing to brag home about. He wouldn't even last as my sparring partner. Though the odd thing to note was that he had a weird energy links extending from his aura.

Once the guardian had inspected the seal properly, he said, "Very well, it is as thou speakest. Even if thou hath not cometh, we would converse with a celestial race."

"I'm guessing Vorte had informed all the guardians of me?"

"Yess."

"Well, I don't know how much you all know but today I'm here to examine the situation and if possible, alleviate the burden on the sealing barrier. Paying the local guardian a visit is my way of showing respect towards your position."

"I request that thou unveilest thy status to me." He spoke without a hint of emotion or expression.

"Do you not trust Vorte's words?"

"We are wary of imposterss..."

"Would I also have to reveal it to the other guardian?"

From my radar, the other guardian with apparently much higher existence value seemed to be inspecting the sealing barrier. I would hate having to reveal my status every time someone demanded it. Sure I could beat them into submission but that really wasn't my modus operandi. If that caused bad blood between us, the heavens might rain red on this fateful night.

"One moment..."

Two seconds later, another tyrannical black snake slithered through the shadow of a pillar. From what I could tell, this snake guardian was the real deal so I briefly checked its status.

[Level 42 Spirit;
Species: Lo-Jokat;
Physical: 628/628;
Spiritual: 499/499;
Traits: Entwined Guardian, Shadow Dweller, Adamant Scales, Force, Enhanced Spiritual, Enhanced Physical, Enhanced Senses, Enhanced Resistances, Limit Breaker, Immortality;
Abilities: Grim Phantasm, Shadow Clones, Corrosive Breath, Petrifaction Gaze, Mystic Eyes;
Blessings: Shadow Tyrant;
Description: A type of spirit evolved from an ancient beast.]

Again, nothing impressive other than the ability to travel via shadows and possessing some shadow clones. I guess it's my turn now.

I looked them both in the eyes, not fearing of being petrified in the least. In the first place, petrifaction was ineffective against me due to my peculiar constitution.

"Now that both of you are here, I'll reveal my status."

The unnamed black snake remarked after a brief examination. "We are pleased, though I must add that thou hast interesting traitss."

Only after that did I cloak my status once more.

"I suppose. Mind if I know what your name is?" My gaze met the newcomer's marble like eyes.

"Thou shalt refer to me as Slizerine."

"Slizerine, Slisthe, let's hope we get along. Anyway, I'm off."

"Allow my apprentice to accompany you." Slizerine added before I could take off.

I crossed my fingers and replied with a "Rejected!"

"Explain thyself." Slizerine hissed clearly displeased with my objection.

"I'll be going to the core of the Abyssal Gate. Do you have what it takes to keep up?" I retorted.

"Access within is denied. We shall not entertain the possibility of unsealing the barrier. Thou shalt not enter."

"Berry..." Kanoko uttered with a sigh. "You didn't mention you were going inside."

I was able to obtain information regarding the rough nature of Abyssal Gate via Echo, the system. In other words, I already devised plans to resolve it. Coming here with Kanoko was only a matter of ceremony.

Anyhow, depending on the size of the core of this so called Abyssal Gate, I could eliminate this danger completely by swallowing it whole. This was a task that could only be accomplished by my |void| trait and my subspace. However, this was only a fleeting thought not to be confused with a realistic plan.

"Let me ask you all. Who benefits from having the Abyssal Gate, a ticking bomb, sitting here? Does it benefit any nation, perhaps the empire? No. Does it benefit the guardians? I'm sure it doesn't because they have no traits and abilities that can quell and control the mana. How about the demons? They only thing they can do is to use it as a weapon of mass destruction."

"True..." Kanoko nodded.

"I'm telling you all. I'm here to do my job and do a maintenance of this world. I didn't come here to ask permission. If I wished, I could go anywhere in this world and there's not a damn thing you could all do to me, guardians, demons, heroes. I'm an administrator, a being who stands above the guardians and the demons. The only one who has more authority than me is either the system or god. Slisthe and Slizerine, know your place."

As I finished my declaration, I unleashed a surge of my repressed divine aura directed at the two snake guardians. Regular folks might not sense it but guardians and demons should be able to without a doubt. To that, they reacted by contracting their heads.

"O Vorte, what hast thou done?"

"Hissss! Since it hath come to this, we shall bear no responsibility. Slisthe, we take our leave!"

The two guardians, seemingly acting as one, clearly displeased with my spiel began withdrawing from the temple into their shadows. It seemed that I had trampled on their pride.

"Wait, please don't go! The empire still needs you to maintain the sealing barrier. Please stay! Lord Slisthe and Lord Slizerine!" She cried out desperately but without . In a matter of seconds, only two of us remained inside the temple.

Thump.

Kanoko was on her knees, her face ghastly pale. "Berry, what have you done?! This... This is a disaster."

I patted her shoulder with a reassuring smile, "Just leave it to me."

Now I kind of feel bad for her... Well, the situation is in the bag as long as there's no external interference. Though, speaking of interference, demons just had to show up now. What a coincidence! Not.

Whatever, just perfect, maybe I can take some souvenirs home for Oortez.

The annoying part was that this snake guardian hid a shadow clone in each of mine and Kanoko's shadow. If I tried to leave or send Kanoko away, this clone would follow us to our destination. If that destination was my subspace, the residents could be in danger. Frankly, I didn't trust this guardian.

On a serious note, what kind of guardian had shadow manipulating abilities and traits? Only evil fellows and demons thrived within shadows.

Guardians might be considered those standing on the side of good just like heroes. Reality begged to differ, just like that Hero King who recently lost both of his hands for being a baddie. Nothing was preventing guardians from collaborating with demons, nothing at all.

I suppose people's heart change with the passage of time. But still, it's like this is all a show. All the world's a stage...

I'll just play along and everything will be fine. My blessings are there for a reason.  Alright! Let's get this started!  

Just by analyzing the current situation, I could tell what schemes they might be trying to pull. Should I fail to stop a demon and allows a disaster to occur, I would become everyone's enemy. Well, that was assuming the snake guardian would report my situation to the empire and whatnot.

Heheh... You underestimated me. It's a unfortunate day, eh, night for you.

The snake guardians, in truth, was likely a single entity. Though I wasn't quite sure how they managed to split up physically, with the energy links all the same connecting the shadow clones and the main body, their true identity couldn't escape my sight. My best guess was that Slisthe was actually a manifestation of [Grim Phantasm] or perhaps a mixture of abilities and traits. The fact that |force| was visible on both perplexed me, but it might have to do with |entwined guardian| trait.

"Kanoko, I'm keeping you in my barrier. A demon just showed up and there are reasons I can't send you away just yet."

Strictly speaking, after I said that, more was popping up on my radar.

"Wait... A demon now?"

"Stay vigilant."

That was the last I said to her before I sealed her away in a multifold barrier that no demon or guardian could hope to penetrate. With the link severed to the clone within the barrier, it would remain dormant, unable to harm Kanoko. Even in the worst case scenario, a shadow clone wouldn't hold a handle to Kanoko. However, just in case, I left a phantom strawberry inside the barrier.