[BL] Guardians of Fate
Chapter 79 - 20: The Battle’s End [3]

Chapter 79: Chapter 20: The Battle’s End [3]

Ardyn was successfully rescued, but they all knew very well that this wasn’t the end. The monster hadn’t been sealed yet, and they had to get out of the way so that Evan could complete the sealing. Otherwise, they might get caught in the celestial prison.

"Now that he’s saved, we should flee!" Voss shouted, barely parrying a particularly large tendril that came straight at him. He snarled and drew his sword, making it glow orange for a moment. The blade then sliced through the thick vines like a knife through butter.

"Right," Mathias agreed with a nod. "First, we find — agh!"

"Matty!" Elyana exclaimed, eyes wide as her friend suddenly dropped to the ground, panting heavily. "Are you okay?"

"I’m fin—" Mathias could not bring himself to finish his sentence. He looked down at his trembling hands and saw the blood and some dark liquid staining the skin. Those thorns had penetrated his skin deeply; he could still see some of them sticking out.

Elyana saw this and gasped. "We should take them out! You might get infected!"

She dropped to her knees beside him and gently clutched one of his hands in hers. "I’ll make it as quick as I can," she told him. "If we let it stay in your bloodstream for too long, there’s no telling what might happen."

Mathias had nothing to say, because she was right. They had all seen the puddle of bubbling black ichor and the dark energy seeping into the Deiridh’s lance. They couldn’t risk anything coming from the Calamity’s body worming its way into their own bodies.

Ardyn, on the other hand, was breathing hard from all the adrenaline. He couldn’t believe it. He had almost died. He had been in danger. Just one quick motion and that monster could’ve gobbled him up whole.

What in the hell kind of world was this?!

"You okay?" Clay asked, offering Ardyn his hand.

"I’m fine. Thanks," Ardyn managed to say as he grabbed Clay’s hand and allowed the latter to pull him up from the ground. "I’m sor—"

Clay interrupted his words with a shake of his head. "The apologies can come later. We’re not completely out of the woods yet."

Ardyn swallowed. He was right.

He looked up and saw what appeared to be Evan floating in the air, watching them from above. He also looked over to where the giant celestial being was. It was currently plunging a huge sword into the monster’s mouth, causing the demon to flail wildly.

However, no matter how much dark ichor poured out of its wounds, it did not seem to have any serious effect on the monster. In fact, it seemed more irritated by the restraint than anything else.

"Oh my god!" Elyana cried out. "Matty, your hands...!"

Everyone turned to look at Mathias and was stunned by what they saw. Black markings were slowly spreading from his bleeding wounds, as if trying to crawl up his wrist and arm.

"Is this some kind of infection?" Elyana exclaimed, now quickly removing each thorn from his skin.

The sight made Ardyn wince; he usually didn’t mind seeing such things on TV back in his world. In fact, he liked horror and thriller genres, but to see it in real life was, frankly, unnerving.

"What? An infection?!" Gideon exclaimed, swallowing visibly. "What do we do? We don’t have a healer."

"Mathias.

The familiar voice made them all look up.

Evan stared back at them and extended a hand in their direction, a beam of light emanating from his fingertips. The holy light was now directed at Mathias, whom Elyana was tending.

As the last of the thorns were plucked from his hands, his wounds began to heal quickly. Mathias craned his head towards Evan, who smiled gently at him from a distance.

"You idiot!" he yelled. "You shouldn’t waste your magic on me!"

The smile never left Evan’s face as he turned his head away, now focused on conjuring more holy chains to bind the monster. At this point, they could make out a somewhat ghostly shape of a giant box surrounding the Calamity, as if it needed more color and particles to fully form.

"It’s almost happening. The celestial prison," Voss said with wide eyes, taking a step back. "It’s not gonna be a good idea to stay here."

"Right!" Elyana nodded as she helped Mathias get up from the ground. "Let’s go, everyone! Let’s not interfere with the sealing process any longer."

Everyone nodded and began to hurry off. Clay looked back at Ardyn, who was lagging behind a bit. "Go ahead of me!" he told him. "I’ll cover you from the rear!"

Ardyn didn’t want to interfere anymore, so he nodded to show that he understood. He ran faster until he was ahead of Clay, running right between Voss and Ansel.

"Are you really all right?" Ansel asked him worriedly as they ran.

Ardyn nodded. "I’m fine. I promise," he replied shakily.

"Good! I don’t know what happened, but we’ll stick together from now on, okay?" Ansel gave him a reassuring smile. "We may be Evan’s Guardians, but we’ll protect you, too."

"But why?" Ardyn asked quietly. "Why would you guys risk your lives for someone like me? The one who brought that... that monster back to your world?"

Ansel reached out and patted Ardyn on the shoulder. "Like Evan said, it’s not your fault, so don’t beat yourself up about it, okay? Besides, we all weren’t so trusting of you at first. I even contemplated telling on you to the King and Queen... but just for a moment." He looked sheepish the next second. "I’m sorry about that, by the way. I could’ve... gotten you in trouble."

"Oh. You don’t need to apologize... I understand," Ardyn assured him. He didn’t know what else to say. He couldn’t exactly blame them, either.

"Thanks for understanding." Ansel smiled. "We all trust Evan, so we don’t doubt his words. Believe it or not, his intuition is quite strong."

"You all really trust Evan that much, huh," Ardyn remarked quietly. He didn’t know exactly what to feel at this moment. It was as if his guilt and gratitude were mixed together, making him feel an intense conflict in his heart.

He had a lot of regrets ever since he had been forcibly taken to the battlefield. At first, he felt panic and fear, so he struggled wildly in Calamity’s grip, trying so hard to free himself, even though he knew deep inside that it was futile. After all, he had no powers or abilities.

He couldn’t even remember much of what he had done or said earlier when he was still trapped. Everything had felt like a blur, as if the world was moving in slow motion and then in fast forward at the same time. He couldn’t fully perceive his surroundings, and when he was finally rescued, it was only then that he realized how much danger he had just been in.

He felt so much anger and guilt towards himself that he couldn’t think straight. When he saw Mathias’ wounds and realized that the Guardians hadn’t left the area yet because they had to save him first, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of self-loathing.

What the hell, Adrien? What have you been doing...

He gave Ansel a guilty look as they tried to find a way around the huge pile of rubble. Since the edge of the city was basically in ruins, there was a lot of debris and rocks everywhere. It was hard to find a clear path or a direct way back to the safety of the city.

Although the city wasn’t very safe, it was comparatively better than here. It seemed that Evan was about to finish the sealing ritual, and if any of them stayed here, they would only be a nuisance.

"We trust him a lot, but it’s not just because he’s our Summoner," Ansel explained as he climbed up the ruined stairs. Even though it was partially destroyed, they could still cross the left part of it safely. "Trust isn’t so easy to come by, even though we’re bound together by fate. Evan has earned our trust with his words and actions. We all owe him something, including me."

"You owe him?" Ardyn asked, surprised.

"Yep. He saved my life back then, you see. It’s not out of obligation or anything like that, but something born out of pure gratitude." Ansel chuckled. "Evan helped me change into a better person. A better version of myself. That’s why I’ll always be grateful to him."

"I see," Ardyn said as he let Ansel help him up. "That’s really nice. A friendship like that... it’s worth a lifetime, isn’t it?"

"It is," Ansel said. "That’s why, if it ever comes down to it, I won’t hesitate to lay down my life for Evan. I may seem like a child sometimes, and it may seem like I’m afraid of a lot of things. But when it comes to protecting the people I love, I’ll do anything in my power to save them. Don’t you agree? Won’t you also do the same for a person that you care so much about?"