World's Last Hope-Chapter 66: Not Guardian
The colossal monsters that were fighting around the giant hole that Aria had made suddenly froze as they sensed the approaching challenger.
From the hole, a thin leg revealed itself as it dug deep into the soil.
Then a second, then a third.
Six long legs, that refused to let the light reflect off them, appeared out of the hole. They moved as the main body of the creature slowly came into view.
Eric’s crimson eyes narrowed as he held his breath, looking at the creature.
A giant humanoid head, fused with the body of the creature, loomed ahead.
It bore two hollow eyes that looked redder than the sun itself.
From the bottom of its body, two arms had began to grow.
The guardian locked its gaze on the nearest enemy, a colossal spider about 200 meters in size.
The guardian opened its jaws, which seemed to be able to extend much farther than they were supposed to. At the end, the lower jaw of the guardian almost reached the ground itself as it let out a terrifying roar.
Then, in the blink of an eye, the guardian was upon the spider’s body.
Its jaws closed on its head, crushing it. Its six legs pierced the spider’s body, burying themselves deep, completely ignoring the acid blood.
The two hands of the guardian had already crushed two of the spider’s legs.
It wasn’t even fair to call it a fight, as the spider had died within seconds.
Moving so fast that if you blinked, you would miss it, the guardian was already upon another of the colossal creatures nearby.
Eric gulped loudly as he forced his hands to climb faster.
"How... do we defeat that thing?" His voice was weak and scared because he knew just from a glance that there wasn’t a way for them to defeat the creature.
The only way was for Eric to scratch it so that the creature’s soul would die slowly, basically using the same strategy they used when they conquered the first cathedral.
But that monster moved so fast that there wasn’t a way for Eric to reach it, scratch it, and manage to escape with his life.
So that strategy was useless against their foe.
Olivia, exhausted, spoke between ragged breaths as she climbed, her voice shaking, "That thing... Eric, your Soul Flame will not work on it."
Eric’s eyes widened for a moment. "What? Why?"
She gritted her teeth in frustration as she answered,
"Because that thing doesn’t have a soul."
"Doesn’t have a soul..." he repeated her words almost as if trying to process them.
Something that was able to move didn’t have a soul?
’System, what the hell is that?’ With no other ideas, he asked his system.
[Answering the question will require a large amount of essence. Are you certain?]
"Just fucking do it!" he muttered in frustration. This wasn’t the time to conserve his essence.
[The creature you are looking at is a manifestation of the corruption.]
"Manifestation?" he repeated in confusion.
"What the hell does that mean?"
[The cathedral has been corrupted for too long. As a result, the corruption that has accumulated over time has given birth to the creature you are looking at now.]
"But isn’t it the guardian?"
[Once the corruption reaches a certain level, the monster is born, tasked with protecting its home and killing anything in the area. The guardian of the cathedral has most likely long perished by it.]
Reaching the branch of the tree, Eric used all his might to pull himself upward. He collapsed on it, trying to calm his wildly beating heart.
His entire body hurt, but now was the time to ask as much as he could. The amount of information he got right now would decide if he lived or died.
"Does that mean that this thing isn’t the guardian?"
[Correct.]
"So it will be possible to liberate the cathedral without killing it?"
[Correct, but be warned, the large amount of corruption would make it virtually impossible to be cleansed.]
"I see," he whispered as he forced his body into a sitting position.
The roars below him seemed to have calmed down, so he wanted to see what the current situation was.
But once he looked, he quickly regretted it as he saw the bodies of the colossal monsters lying on the ground, dead, as they bled like fountains.
"It killed them so fast?" he spoke in disbelief.
These creatures that he had spent long nights cowering in fear from were just dead like that?
It was honestly too surreal to believe.
Turning his head to Aria and Olivia, who were also on the same branch as him, staring at the scene deep in thought, he asked,
"Wasn’t that thing with the same strength as the previous guardian?"
Olivia was too busy thinking to hear him, so Aria spoke as she gritted her teeth.
"It seems... we have misread the situation."
"Then... how strong is that thing?"
"Grade-6 at least."
It took Eric a moment or two to come to terms with the current situation he and his comrades suddenly found themselves in.
Sighing, Eric spoke."I... think we are all too shocked and tired to think properly, so I suggest we take a rest before we discuss the situation."
After a second, he added, "I’ve slept on the branches of the trees before, so I don’t think anything will attack us in our sleep."
No one objected, so everybody lay on their backs and tried to get some sleep, though it wasn’t so easy with the fear everyone was feeling.
And Eric had it the worst because he knew that this thing wasn’t a guardian.
Meaning the cathedral didn’t have a guardian, and it was free for them to try and liberate it.
The question in his mind that kept him awake was,
’Do we run, escaping with our lives as it is too dangerous to try to reach the cathedral with that thing still around, or do we risk it all and try to liberate it?’
