This chapter took a bit longer than expected, but here it is!
Wishes, Dreams, and Memories
Chapter 28 – Priest and Dragon
The two Earthmates climbed several sets of stairs in the darkness of the room, until some light shone on the final set of stairs. The room above was bright from the chandelier hanging on the ceiling with the walls made of golden-colored concrete blocks. The room was almost like it was recently made as no cracks were seen on the walls and the pillars were still in one piece.
"It's bright in here," Lest commented as he looked around the room, "It feels like a place I've been before…"
"Don't let your guard down," Frey warned as she had her hammer on her side, "The level of dark rune energy here is a lot higher than when we're underground."
"I know," Lest held his long sword with both of his hands, "The last one we're going to fight should be Leon's monster form, Sarcophagus."
Flames suddenly appeared from under their feet, prompting them to move away from their spot to avoid burning. The two Earthmates landed on opposite areas, completely unaware of the incoming magic attacks from their backs. Waves of ice had appeared behind Frey while a series of rock pillars approached Lest from behind, hitting them at the same time.
"I… I didn't sense anyone coming behind us…" Frey winced in pain as she tried getting up, but a hard surface quickly made contact with her face and knocked her back to the ground.
"Be careful! Sarcophagus can teleport and it can use all types of offensive magic!" Lest warned as he cautiously got up, barely dodging a light laser coming towards him.
The coffin-like monster teleported behind Lest and charged to ram him, but Lest was quick enough to move out of the way. He swung his sword as the monster passed him, but the speed of the swing wasn't quick enough to land a hit. Sarcophagus stopped in its way and turned, sending small missiles towards Lest and Frey. Even with quick dodging, the missiles kept on following them around which made them completely distracted while the monster prepared for another attack.
The chandelier started raining burning rocks down, making the two Earthmates harder to dodge any of the attacks. A few missiles managed to hit Lest while Frey got hit by the burning rocks while avoiding the missiles. With the rocks and the missiles gone, the monster appeared right beside Frey and knocked both Earthmates down with a hard tackle.
Lest, while still down on the ground, managed to create several light balls around both of them. Frey tried luring the monster to charge at them once more, which proved to be successful when the monster came charging at her. She ran towards Lest and quickly turned a few meters in front of Lest, letting the male Earthmate to send explosive fireballs at it.
The fireballs managed to stop Sarcophagus' advance before Lest continued his attack with a hard strike using his fists and kicking it to the side. The monster helplessly landed hard on the ground and rolled away before some light came from the spot where Lest had hit it before.
"What is it now?" a young Leon folded his hands as he looked at the crying girl in front of him, "Are you bullied again, Maria?"
The girl nodded, "Yes…"
Leon let out a chuckle and walked passed her, but not before he put a hand on her head, "Don't worry, I know what to do with them this time."
"B-But…" Maria said between her sobs, "If you get into a fight again… you can't become a dragon priest!"
"Nah," Leon simply shrugged as he patted Maria's head, "It'll be more fun to give them a special present instead," Leon removed his hand from her head as she turned to look at him, "Stop crying, okay? I promise you that you'll have something entertaining to watch."
Maria rubbed her tears from her eyes and nodded, "Yes, I promise!"
Another burst of fire covered Lest's vision as Sarcophagus teleported away and reappeared behind him with more missiles coming at him. Frey ran behind Lest in time that the missiles hit her instead, creating small clouds of dust as the attacks hit her body. The impact of the attacks sent Frey a few meters back, but her master cure spell managed to heal most of her injuries from the attacks.
Lest countered the fire wall with his water laser spell as the laser went through the wall and hit the monster. Frey followed up with her hammer and knocked the coffin monster far enough to buy time for Lest to cast more spells. The monster managed to stop itself from hitting the ground and teleported in front of Lest, much to their dismay.
Lest was knocked off his feet and to the ground before Sarcophagus turned to attack Frey, who had stabbed it with her spear. She pulled her spear out and kicked it back before sending out some wind cutters to knock it back even farther. The monster was sent to Lest's direction, leaving him to use his shield to halt its advance before giving it an easy slash as he pushed the coffin monster off his shield. The impact managed to send the monster towards the wall, but not strong enough to create a crack on the wall.
Bright light came out from the wound along with the dark energy before the Earthmates were swallowed by the light.
"I'm your dragon priest now, right?" Leon asked as he looked up at the green dragon in front of him, "What should I do for you, oh my good lord?"
Ventuswill stared at him for a moment before looking at the other people standing beside her, "Is he truly the dragon priest chosen for this age?"
"That is correct, Lady Ventuswill," One of the people answered, "He had passed all of the qualifications without any difficulties."
"I see…" Ventuswill turned back to look at Leon with uncertainty in her eyes.
"Hm…" Leon studied Ventuswill's body before he let out a sly smile, "You look a bit small for an old dragon."
"H-Hey!" Ventuswill lowered her head to his level in annoyance, "A few hundred years is a young age for a dragon, you know! And it's rude to call a lady 'old' too!"
"I'm very sorry milady," Leon apologized with a smirk on his face, "I still have a lot to learn to be a proper dragon priest serving you…"
Ventuswill could tell that Leon's apologize wasn't sincere at all and more like teasing her even more in front of the other priests in the room. She could hear the other priests laughing before she let out a sigh, "Fine, just do what you're supposed to do."
The light disappeared along with the monster as it was missing from the side of the wall where it had been pushed to. A barrage of wind cutters went into various directions before the coffin monster teleported in the middle of the room and began shooting the Earthmates with lasers. The attacks managed to slow them down enough for Sarcophagus to ram them to the wall.
Lest fell to the ground near the wall while Frey managed to kick herself against the wall and hit the monster by rolling in the air and swinging her hammer. The female Earthmate landed in the middle of the room with the monster knocked back to the other side of the wall, only to disappear moments later with burning rocks raining on them once more.
The ground was moving before several rock spikes came out from the ground, narrowing the Earthmates' area of movement. Escaping the attacks with a few minor scratches and burns, the coffin monster reappeared with more missiles than before and sent them towards the two. Frey tried blocking the attack only using her gigantic hammer, but Lest quickly went in front of her and blocked the attacks with his shield instead. The missiles hit the metal plate and the area around Lest, creating a small smokescreen.
With the smokescreen limiting the three's vision, Lest could only rely on his instinct as he walked slowly within the smokescreen with his short sword ready to strike. A non-human shadow soon came into his view and he dashed towards it, positioning his sword to stab the figure. The attack hit its target and Lest elbowed the monster off his sword before the room was consumed with bright light.
"And that's all to report today," Leon rolled the scroll he was holding and the view of a sleeping dragon in front of him became visible, "And here I am, being dutiful serving a sleeping god."
Leon's mocking laugh managed to wake the Native Dragon before she raised her head high above, "Y-Yes, thank you for the report!" Ventuswill stared at the dragon priest for a moment as he looked at her with a sly grin, "What was that again?"
"Sorry, but I don't think I can repeat that," Leon spoke up calmly, "I thought it's written that my duty is to report to you once a day. If I repeat the report it would be reporting to you twice today."
"Excuse for being tired living as a god!" Ventuswill half-shouted, earning a chuckle from Leon, "W-What?"
"Of course, you're busy," Leon gave her his usual sly grin, "The temple caretaker had to wake you every hour because you're too busy taking naps."
Ventuwill let out a defeated sigh, knowing completely petty arguments with him would be endless if she kept trying to defend herself, "Well, it's already this late now. Isn't Maria supposed to be waiting for you to go home together?"
"No, not tonight," a serious look was visible on his face, "I'm going to meet someone tonight, so I told her to go home on her own."
"I see… So that's why she looked so depressed today," Ventuswill added, getting a nod from Leon.
"Yeah, but she'll be fine tomorrow," Leon turned to leave the room, but stopped once he was at the door, "Rest well, Venti. And take care."
"Yes?" Ventuswill was confused with the dragon priest's words as she saw him leaving, "That was… unusual of him…"
The smokescreen created from the previous attack was blown away easily before the monster tackled its attacker hard, sending him straight to the wall. The impact had caused part of the wall to be cracked as Lest fell from the small crater with the shape of his body and hit the ground with a thud.
"Lest!" Frey ran to her brother's side and healed his injured back, "Hang in there!"
"I'm… fine…" the light from the healing spell faded as Lest slowly sat up and held on to Frey's shoulder for support as he tried getting back to his feet, "It's getting much stronger now."
"Yeah," Frey nodded as she stood beside him, "The high level of corrupted runes is making it grow stronger as it takes more hits. Leon's body won't be able to hold all that dark energy for much longer."
"Yeah, I know," Lest and Frey jumped to opposite directions to dodge Sarcophagus' deadly tackle, "We need a plan, and fast!"
"Just hit and dodge!" Frey jumped to the side to dodge a wave of ice coming at her, "It's the best option we have with our exhausted condition!"
Lest nodded before he narrowly dodged a rock spike coming at him and cut the rest of the incoming spikes with his long sword. He left the long sword planted at the end of the rock spikes and charged with his short sword in hand. The sword could barely reach the monster's side as it charged at him as well, leaving Frey open to attack with her hammer.
The speed of Sarcophagus' movement made Frey's hammer miss its target and hit the ground instead, creating a small crater on impact. The female Earthmate pushed herself forward for a full air flip and landed in front of the crater to pull her hammer out of it and swing the coffin monster appearing in front of her.
Just as the monster was going to fall face first, Lest had made a small rock pillar to push its face and threw it backwards. Lest had landed a punch as the monster was falling backwards, but the attack hardly caused any damage as the monster countered with more missiles. The projectiles were quickly blocked by his shield, but the strong impact managed to create more smokescreen as Lest was pushed back.
The push gave Lest a bit of advantage as the monster couldn't see that he was pushed back towards the place where he left his long sword, turning the impact as a force strong enough to pull the sword out. He ran as fast as he could and landed the final blow on Sarcophagus while blowing away the created smokescreen.
The final light filled the room as more of Leon's dreams came into the Earthmates' minds.
"Leon," an old man with a mix of green and white hair called out to Leon, who was looking up at the sky, "You may have been the person I have been searching for, but I will not force you to do it."
"I'm not forced to do this," Leon replied without taking his eyes away from the night sky, "I'm not doing this just as the duty of a dragon priest. I'm doing this to save her. It is my job to protect Venti, like a Guardian."
"Yes, but given the time needed…"
"There's not much time left," Leon cut off the old man's sentence as he turned to look at him, "You, an Earthmate, also knows that much."
"Correct," the old man nodded, "Before I can cast that spell on you, do you have any unfinished businesses?"
"I have a lot of them," Leon let out a sad smile, "But we're running out of time. This is all I can offer to help her and I hope that there will be someone else who are able to truly save her."
The old man looked at Leon, "I can see that you will never change your mind on this decision."
"Yes," Leon looked at the old man with a smile, "So please, save Venti."
"Very well," the old man nodded and Leon saw as the old man was preparing for the spell, a familiar figure was watching them from behind the wall, listening to their conversation.
'I'm sorry, Maria…'
Leon slowly opened his eyes and saw the two Earthmates watching him, "What… happened?"
"It's a long story," Lest replied as he helped the Guardian get back to his feet.
"And we don't have much time to talk about it now," Frey added, getting a surprised look from Lest.
"What do you mean? We've got all of the Guardians back, right?" Lest asked, leaving Leon confused with the unknown topic.
"It's not over yet… huh?" Frey felt something heavy on her head and noticed that Leon was petting her and Lest on the heads, "What… are you doing?"
"Giving you your well-deserved reward," Leon replied casually as he smiled.
"Why did you pet us, though?" Lest asked as he tried removing Leon's hand from his head.
"I just felt like doing it," Leon removed his hand and stopped himself from ruffling the Earthmates' hair even more, "So, what's next?"
"You should stay here and let Lest and I take care of the rest. It's too dangerous to wander around here aimlessly in your condition," Frey turned to Lest, "Come on, we should get going. There should be one more person left waiting for us."
Leon saw the two Earthmates leave the room before his mind went white, feeling as if he was standing alone in an empty space.
"Your Holiness," a voice called out before it revealed itself to be the coffin-like monster, "For all the trouble I have caused using your body, I owe you my sincerest apology."
"Just call me by name, okay?" Leon responded, "That title no longer exists in this era."
"Leon," the monster called out, "I can feel that sadness and regret deep within your heart. Is that girl precious to you?"
"Maria…" Leon whispered before giving a nod as a reply, "Yes, and I broke my promise with her when I became a Guardian in front of her."
"You are not the only one," the monster continued as Leon looked at the monster in confusion, "Before I came back to this world a little while ago, she asked me to give you a message."
"A message?" Leon asked, "Please tell me everything."
"She said that she wasn't lonely anymore," Leon's eyes grew wide in surprise, "The moment she saw you become a Guardian, she never knew how long she needed to wait for your return. She had to break her promises, because she understood why those promises were made. You wanted her to be happy."
"She… said that?" Leon looked at the coffin monster in disbelief.
"Yes," the monster responded, "She also never cried in sadness anymore. The only tears she shed were tears of joy. She wanted to thank you for all the things you had done for her in the past and hoped that you would live your new life happily without burdening yourself with those promises."
"That's… that's just like her…" a single tear escaped from Leon's eye, "Pass me a message to her as well. Tell her that I'm also grateful to have known her."
"You have my word," the monster replied before it disappeared from the Guardian's view.
"Thank you, Maria… I'm… really glad…"