Side Story 2 (Pt.4)
The guardian, Moragg!
Moragg suddenly appeared and told Yggdra that he’ll take care of the enemy. The tree spirit was a little surprised that the guardian of the forest himself decided to take action. That said, she kind of understand why Moragg decided to step in.
The power that’s emitting from the jester-like envoy was very sinister and could make anyone uncomfortable. With such unknown power wreaking havoc in his forest, it’s kind of expected that Moragg would not be pleased.
Yggdra stared at the guardian’s vanishing figure. Now that Moragg was willing to fight in place of Black, the chance of defeating the mysterious enemy greatly increased.
“Welcome back, Black.” Yggdra greeted after seeing Black walking towards her, “Thank you for your hard work.
“It’s nothing.” Black gave the tree spirit a curt reply before looking at her offspring.
Seeing that her mother unharmed, Bristle was very happy and ran towards his mother and affectionately rubs his head at her mother’s fur. Black’s severe expression softened greatly after seeing her pup acting spoiled in front of her.
“Moragg decided to fight?” Black turned towards Yggdra after affectionately nudging her pup.
“Yes. Moragg might have seen the jester as a great threat to the forest. No… that man might be a greater threat than that.” Yggdra answered with a serious expression.
Hearing the spirit’s words, Black expression turned severe again, “Should we help him? If that strange human is as dangerous as you describe then even Moragg might have difficulty defeating him.
Black was worried that the jester-like envoy was an opponent too much for even the guardian to handle, and suggested that they should help just in case.
Yggdra thought for a little while before shaking her head. “I don’t think that would be necessary. The jester is indeed powerful but inside this forest, very few could match Moragg.” she explained.
“Oh? You’re that confident in him?” Black asked curiously.
“Moragg was already the guardian of the forest even before I sprouted. In term of battle experience, you, I and even that jester would only be considered children in front of him.” Yggdra explained further. “Although the jester is using a mysterious power from an unknown source; he should not be a match for a guardian inside his own dominion. What's more, he's blessed by the world itself.
“That’s good to hear. I’m not sure what’s wrong with that weirdo but I can feel a terrifying from him. Compared to Chaos who’s often times don’t care much about anything; the source of that person’s power seemed really dangerous.”
“I know…”
Yggdra turned towards the small spring and watched the Moragg arriving before the jester-like envoy.
Conrad who has been very nonchalant till now suddenly turned serious. As he awaits his opponent, thick fog started covering surrounding as a mysterious pressure approaches.
Not long after, the envoy could finally see creature that was giving him a great sense of danger. It was a gigantic white stag with golden antler and red eyes.
“Who might you be?” asked the envoy Conrad with coldly. There’s no longer a smile on the jester’s face. No, he could not smile. The opponent in front of him had overwhelming power. It was as if he was facing a titan!
“I’m Moragg.” the guardian answered in a calm voice.
“Moragg? You’re the guardian of the forest himself – that Moragg?”
Conrad looked at the creature with an excited expression. After hearing that he was facing the guardian himself, his lust for battle ignited.
And considering that the envoy Conrad was known to be a battle maniac among his peers, his reaction was rather expected.
“…Yes.”
Although a little weird out by the human’s sudden strange of behavior, the guardian Moragg did not show much reaction. As someone who had lived for eons, what type of people had he not seen?
“Wohoo! It’s a jackpot!”
The envoy Conrad started uttering strange words and dancing excitedly for no reason after hearing that he’s facing a guardian. Watching him act like a jester, Black, Bristle, and Yggdra could not help but be shockl.
Moragg on the other hand didn’t react much and was still as cool as a cucumber. His eyes were glinting with cold light as he observed the envoy’s strange action. Although Conrad looked so defenseless while dancing like a fool, Moragg didn’t attack. Not because the guardian was showing mercy but because the battle had already begun!
Swoosh! Bang!
A black light flashes and hit the ground Moragg was standing earlier. The black light destroyed the ground but cause no harm to the guardian that had predicted his action beforehand.
“Wonderful! As expected of a guardian. My sneak attack didn’t faze you at all!”
Conrad was delighted. Seeing the guardian easily evading his sneak attack made his blood boils with excitement.
“Ahahaha! Let’s have an exciting fight!” Conrad laughed out loud before lunging at the guardian with crazed eyes!
****
Conrad slashed as he lunges at the guardian. The slash created a sharp, dark-purple blade light that looks like a crescent moon and flew towards Moragg. Seeing the incoming blade light, Moragg squint his eyes before vanishing into the mist.
The blade light cut the mist in the middle – cutting down anything that it hits. Conrad wasn’t too disappointed that his attack missed but instead made another attack by slashing horizontally to his right – creating a horizontal blade light that countered Moragg’s stumping attack.
Dark-purple blade light and the shockwave created by Moragg’s stump cancelled each other. But it didn’t end there – the guardian did another stumping attack with his right foreleg which sends a powerful shockwave in all direction.
Being slightly slower, Conrad could not conjure another blade light and was forced to release a dark-purple aura that protects him from the shockwaves. But despite blocking the shockwave, Conrad was still sent flying through several trees.
*Vomits*
Although Conrad successfully blocked the attack, the impact had still injured his internal organ forcing him to vomit blood. Nonetheless, this was not enough to stop the half-crazed jester. He stared at the guardian who wounded him before showing a twisted grin on his face.
“Strong! You’re so strong – as expected of a guardian!”
The jester-like envoy seemed to have become more crazed as his eyes gives a sinister glow. Again he lunges himself into the guardian while covered with dark-purple aura but unlike earlier didn’t vanish into the mist but instead charged at the envoy with the same ferocity!
Bang!
The guardian and the envoy collided with each other ferociously like two trucks colliding head-on creating a loud bang that could be heard miles away!
But as one would expect, the one who suffered lose from the collision was the much smaller Conrad who flew back much faster than when he charges. Still that wasn’t enough to stop the frenzied envoy. On the contrary, his ferocity didn’t lessened but increases instead. It was as if the more he was injured the stronger he became.
“Do you surrender?”
Seeing the envoy slowly standing while being covered in blood; Moragg did not follow up with another attack but instead asked the jester-like envoy if he wanted to surrender. Although the guardian’s killing intent was stroke by Conrad’s sinister aura; that killing intent lessened after fighting the man head-on.
“Surrender? No, no, no! The battle had only begun so why would I surrender?”
Blood flowed from the Conrad’s ears, eyes, nose and mouth which made envoy look more sinister. It was obvious from a glance that the envoy had suffered greatly from their head-on collision. Nonetheless, the desire to battle was still very apparent from the man’s eyes.
“You’re a very strange human. If he was here to see you, he’ll be very interested in you. After all he loves interesting things.” Moragg sighed with regret.
“He? Who is this ‘he’ that you refer to?” Conrad asked with a confuse look.
Moragg shook his head and then stared at the jester-like envoy that looks worse for wear. “No need to tell you anything now. Since you don’t want to surrender, I could only kill you. Of course if by some luck you survived… then you might run into him in the near future.”
“Envoy of the Void, and… Seeds of Chaos... People blessed by two unknown entities of unimaginable power. Yes… the envoys and seed-bearers will surely meet in the very future. As the saying goes, two tigers could not exist in one mountain.”
Conrad’s expression grew more twisted as he listened to the guardian’s drivel. It would be one thing if he understood who or what the guardian was referring to but without context, his words only confuses him further.
He did understand something though… and that he might meet this mysterious “person” if he survived the battle with the guardian.
Since the guardian refuses to explain his stigmatic words further, Conrad could only force out the information out of him.
Conrad pointed one of blades and stared intently at the guardian before breathing in and out deeply. Noticing the strangeness of Conrad’s action; Moragg felt somewhat alarmed and charged at the envoy with incredible speed. Unfortunately, Moragg was a little too late as Conrad vanishes into the void!
“Did he escape?” Moragg asked himself if the envoy chooses to escape but quickly denied that thought. “No… there’s no way a battle-crazed human like him would escape. That means…”
Upon realizing something, Moragg quickly moved away from his current position – just barely enough to dodge the pillar of dark-purple light that emerges from the ground!
****
“Bastard!”
Moragg cursed out loud after being almost hit by the pillar of dark-purple light. If he didn’t dodge in time, that pillar of light would have impaled him!
“As expected… you could even dodge that!”
The envoy Conrad appeared on the same spot as the pillar of light and praised the guardian for dodging one of his strongest offensive ability.
The guardian glared at the envoy before opening his mouth, “What’s that ability?” he asked.
“Oh? Are you referring to the pillar of light or my ability to enter the void?” Conrad asked back.
“Ability to enter the void – is that the ability that the so called ‘god of the void’ gave you?”
Conrad let out a smirk but still chooses to answer the guardian’s question. “Yes, it’s called Void Phase… and among the other envoy, it’s the ability only I could use!”
“Void Phase… void phase… Phasing through the void… Yes, the name fits perfectly.” Moragg praised with a nod.
The envoy’s smile grew deeper after hearing Moragg praising his ability. “Yes, yes! It’s a great ability. How about it? Are you interested?” he asked.
“Those words… why… do you want me to serve the god of the void with you?” Moragg asked with sarcasm.
Conrad ignored the sarcasm in the guardian’s voice and nodded vigorously – indicating that he was indeed inviting Moragg to change side.
“Apologies… but I’m not interested in serving a foreign being with obvious dangerous motive. How about you change side and join our side instead?” the guardian countered.
The smile on Conrad’s face vanished, “It seemed that the negotiation failed?” the envoy asked in a solemn voice.
“Was there even a negotiation in the first place? You’re an intelligent man (despite being a little crazy) and should have known that a guardian would never betray the world. Our fate and life had always been interconnected with this world. If the world is destroyed then we would follow.”
“I see, I see… such a shame. I guess I could only destroy you...”
After saying so, Conrad vanishes into the void again. Moragg also did the same as his figure quickly vanishes into the mist. With the two gone, peace returned to the devastated battlefield. But such a peace was not meant to last for long.
Dark-purple light and greyish-white light collided and cancelled each other again and again as the two fought inside the immaterial world. Although they’re fighting inside that world, what’s happening there was still affecting the material world.
This situation lasted for almost half an hour when space shattered and a figure was thrown out!
Boom!
“Damn it… to think that I’m still weaker than you even in the immaterial world.” complained comrade who slowly crawled out of the crater that was created when his body hits the ground.
“Our abilities are very identical. Although the method of execution was different, the result was the same – it was the fact that our abilities allow us to freely enter the immaterial world. Moragg explained after coming out of the mist.
Conrad stood unsteadily and glared at the giant stag. He was in a very sorry state’ bloodied and battered, and was even missing his left arm. Moragg on the other hand lost several pieces on his golden antlers – indicating that he too had paid a price.
Still, it was obvious to see which one of them was the true victor of the battle within the immaterial world.
In all their previous exchange, Conrad realized that he was weaker than the guardian Moragg. Even his prided skill Void Phase was defeated due to the fact that the guardian has similar skill, and that he has more experience in the immaterial world due to living for so long.
“Let’s end this.” Molagg declared.
The guardian lowered his head faces his antlers forward – his gesture was obvious – he would be charging at the seriously injured envoy using his strongest charge attack.
Seeing this, Conrad knew that the battle was about to end. With all his cards out, the jester-like envoy could only brace himself. Conrad forcefully squeezed out all of the remaining power in his body and put it all into defense.
Conrad knew that if he failed to defend against the guardian’s strongest attack, nothing would be left on him.
Roar!!!
Moragg charges at the injured envoy like a white meteor. White light covered his entire body as his mountain like figure transformed into bright charging light. But the moment Moragg was about to hit the envoy Conrad… a dark-purple barrier appeared in front of the guardian!
Bang! Shatter!
The dark-purple barrier shattered into millions of pieces before disappearing completely. But the barrier wasn’t the only one that disappeared. Conrad’s heavily injured body disappeared as well!
“You damn cowards!”
The enrage Moragg roared towards the sky but to no avail. Conrad and the mysterious person that saved him from sure death were long gone.
****
End of Side Story 2
Previous Chapters: https://read.cash/@beastion
