Somewhere else in the Ozer Continent, Noah, Alicia, and Maisy were flying above the clouds. As usual, Norvin was comfortably lying on Noah's shoulder while munching on a hundred years old dragon fruit.
"Finally, we're getting promoted to actual guardians from trainees," Maisy said excitedly. Her big round eyes sparkled thinking about being a guardian which would end all the power struggle between her family and their rivals.
"It's time they promoted us but I still feel like we're just filling the shoes of that four guardians who got exiled because of this new freak roaming around calling himself Lucifer "
"I'd say we should thank him. Haven't you seen the drop in the crime rate? It's crazy what fear could do to petty criminals" Norvin replied to Alicia. The little girl Maisy looked up at Noah to hear his thoughts but he remained silent.
He couldn't cultivate peacefully in the last couple of days. Every time he closed his eyes to cultivate, he could hear Abel's voice. It had been almost seven months since Abel disappeared. Although he didn't want to believe it, Noah had a feeling that Abel lost his life inside the Nether Realm. The guilt of failing to save his friend's life had become a thorn in his heart.
"Shut up monkey. One day or another, an innocent person gonna up in that psychopath's crosshairs. The world will go to hell if everyone starts to play judge jury and the executioner "
"You're such a hypocrite. How many people have we killed so far?"
"We were defending ourselves, we didn't go searching for people to kill or pass judgments on people. That's what king courts and the guardian guild are for. If those scumbags where to go to the guardian guild or Kethen King's court with the complaint against us instead of trying to kill us, we would have gladly cooperated as we weren't guilty of anything"
"So you're saying unless it's defending ourselves, we aren't allowed to kill and seek justice with a king's court or the guardian guild"
"Yes"
Maisy tried not to get herself into the argument between Norvin and Alicia. In her mind, they were both right as she wouldn't be able to pick a side.
However, the little girl did hate the idea of someone running around kidnapping, torturing, and killing people in the name of justice.
"Wow" Norvin and Alicia stopped arguing when they saw a majestic palace floating above the clouds. Twelve majestic marble pillars held the triangular roof. The banner of the Guardian guild fluttered in the wind along, radiating a noble aura around the palace.
"The flying angel" Noah mumbled under his breath. He had seen countless majestic structures made by various races yet this was the most grandeurs of them all. He wondered how they made such a gigantic palace fly around.
A few other figures could be seen flying into the palace at high speed. Wasting no time, Noah and his companions flew straight into the palace. The moment they crossed the twelve pillars, they were immediately teleported into a large spacious hall where they saw Peyton and Xanali waiting for them.
"What happened?" Noah noticed the gloominess on Xanali's face. The usual shine on the red head's face was nowhere to be found. Aside from Xanali, Peyton also looked very serious.
"The guardian prophet is on her way here" Peyton whispered although there were only a handful of people standing in the hall.
"Who's she? Some kind of fortune-teller?" Norvin tilted his head bewildered.
Thop!
"Ouch"
Alicia slapped the back of Norvin's head,
"Shut your mouth, damn monkey"
"She's someone who's extremely important to the guild. Apparently, the last time she came out of seclusion was fifty years ago to help the Guardians put an end to Zulo, the Necromancer. If she's coming today, it must be something extremely important"
Only Noah seemed to know who Zulo is while the others had a confused look on their faces. They kept gawking at Noah and Peyton for either of them to explain except they didn't utter a word.
Soon, more and more guardians arrived in the hall. Some were even at the Soul Refining stage.No matter how powerful one was, they all seated themselves on the ground, waiting for the Guardian Prophet to arrive.
"The Guardian Prophet has entered the Flying angel" suddenly a gentle voice echoed through the hall as the ground itself began to tremble. They all noticed the floor at the hall's very front rising to form a stage.
"Come on," Peyton gestured at them to follow her. They all followed Peyton to sit at the very first row in front of the stage.
No one in the hall uttered a word, even a pin-dropping sound could be heard crystal clear.
Shhhhhhhhhh!
As they were waiting for the prophet a heavy wind appeared in the hall out of nowhere. The howling sound of the wind slowly turned into a soul-soothing melody as an orb of light emerged above the stage. Gradually the light disappeared, revealing a wrinkly old woman in ragged clothes. Her white hair was messy just like her brown robes. One would not believe she's such an important person of the Guardian Guild as she looked no different than a beggar. But none dared to utter any words in her presence. A few seconds after her appearance, everyone's brows slightly arched up, no matter how hard they tried to sense her cultivation level, they were unable to see it.
The old woman stared at the people sitting in front of her before raising her hand.
"Aww"
Noah heard Norvin grumble as he himself felt a sharp pain in his hand. He looked at the place that was hurting to see blood flowing out of a cut from his right hand. The wound looked like someone cut him with a sharp blade.
Every single one of them had the same cut on their hands. It was obvious the old woman was the one who cut them, they wondered why. The blood spilled from their hands flew above the old woman, forming a blood orb. Slowly the blood orb descended on the old woman's head. Many thought the blood would drench the old woman but the blood was completely absorbed through the messy hair into her head.
"AHHHHH!" the moment the blood orb disappeared, the old woman screeched like a canary. Her cry made many guardians close their ears.
"Stay still" just when some of the guardians tried to run towards the old woman, the same voice that announced the prophet's arrival appeared again. This time, the voice didn't sound as gentle as before.
Followed by the old woman's screech, her pupils slowly moved back into her skull. In a couple of seconds, her eyes completely turned white,
"The Dark Lord has found his path" she spoke in such a horrific manner. Her voice was neither of a woman nor a human. The voice was so unearthly, nothing like Noah or anyone in the hall ever heard before.
"The Guardians failed to kill the Dark Lord when he was just wandering without any powers of the Dark Lord. Soon he's going to get a power that will rival the powers of the gods themselves. His powers will begin to manifest" the whole building trembled as she spoke. The bright hall slowly started to grow darker and darker
"Search and destroy the evil powers scattered around the world guardians. Every time the Dark Lord obtain one of these, his powers will grow by leaps and bounds" her voice grew more and more animalistic,
"Accept your destiny and you'll be able to stop the Dark Lord, Lightbringer"
Noah felt something happening inside him, he never experienced such a warm feeling. Although the old woman's words were common for everyone, he felt like they were directed at him.
"The Light within you is much less powerful than the Darkness inside the Dark Lord. You must find a way to kindle the light within you. Only then, you'll match the Dark Lord's power"
Until now, Michael never received any powers that solely belonged to his future self, the Dark Lord. But the old woman's visions showed her the glimpse of the powers he's going to achieve soon.
When the old woman's eyes turned normal, breathed heavily.
"You must….you...must….stop...him," she said in a normal voice but it was filled with fear,
The few glimpses of the Dark Lord's powers were enough to shake the old woman to the core. Her bloodline was guiding the Guardians ever since the guild was found and the most powerful foe she faced was the necromancer, Zulo but Zulo's total power could not hold a torch to the few glimpses of the power she saw from the Dark Lord.
She believed the words that came out of her mouth were not hers but they belonged to the gods. But she never knew that the Dark Lord himself is a god in the making.
Who is the Lightbringer?
Can he really stop the Dark Lord?
These were some of the questions that emerged in her mind. When she was disappearing into the light once again, she put aside all the doubts in her mind. To defeat evil, they had to believe in themselves.
While teleporting herself away from the Flying Angel to her cave, she closed her eyes concentrating on the blurred vision she saw before, the vision that freaked her out the most. Even after the gods left her body, that image alone stuck in her mind. It was extremely difficult for her to see the visions again but she tried, she tried her hardest to make some sense out of those images, she tried till her nose bled.
"Three heads" A shadow of three heads in a storm cloud above the sea was the last thing she saw before losing consciousness.