The Guardian's Helpless Fury
The Guardian Spirit felt as if he were on the verge of losing his mind.
Could the emotion surging through him right now truly be captured by something as simple as the word anger?
The man had already returned to his original state, yet he had undeniably died once. He cradled the child in his arms, fingertips trembling as he glared at Deceiver. His hands shook with pitiful frailty, but his eyes burned with a savage light that looked ready to tear his opponent apart.
“How dare...”
This child should never be treated this way. This child should never have to suffer like this. Immortal though he was, he was not one who should waste his life in such a meaningless place.
To a child so dear and pitiable that no amount of comfort could ever be enough, this was unforgivable.
A voice seething with murderous intent rumbled low in his throat. The green eyes, laced with demonic energy, blazed with terrifying intensity.
Deceiver had been tracking the insignificant soul’s movements with pupils contracted in rage, the whites of his eyes partially darkened. He twitched an eyebrow.
“...How dare?”
To him, of all people?
It had already been irritating enough. In the bathroom he had only dodged because his focus had been on the enraged father, but even if he hadn’t, that worthless creature couldn’t have left so much as a scratch on him.
For that thing to speak to him this way?
Before the chest heaving with emotions that had long since crossed every limit could calm, the still-burning fury changed direction and locked onto the Guardian Spirit.
At last the whites of his eyes turned completely black, and from within them a red glow surged upward. A snarling voice tore free.
“A mere ghost who only escaped his sins by sacrificing his little brother…!”
“...!”
The crushing pressure of a Half-God slammed down on the Guardian Spirit.
Whether from the words or the aura, the Guardian Spirit’s face drained of color and he collapsed helplessly.
Even then, he saw how Raven refused to release the child no matter what, and how the boy struggled to endure by bracing one knee. Deceiver let out a sharp, hollow laugh and took a step closer.
The pressure grew heavier still.
“You should be grateful for your situation. If you hadn’t been keeping Father’s soul from slipping away, you would have been annihilated by my hand long ago.”
“......”
Deceiver knew exactly why a Sculpted Soul Master who had lost their Sculpted Soul could still walk the world alive. That was why he had shown mercy.
It was disgusting enough that a mere ghost clung to his father’s body. Had it not been serving even that small purpose, he would have torn it away immediately.
“No, wait. With the contract with Death now in place, even if I ripped it away he probably wouldn’t die.”
His chilling gaze slid to the red jewel at Raven’s throat.
With that choker, tearing the clinging soul free probably wouldn’t kill him. Thinking this, he closed the distance by another step.
The Guardian Spirit’s body began to lose its shape and crumble. Yet even as it did, those clear green eyes continued to glare at him without wavering. Deceiver stared at them for a moment, then reached out with a sharp laugh.
“Shall we test it?”
“......”
He knew he had to avoid it. He had to prevent that hand from touching him, whether by dodging or striking it aside...
But the Guardian Spirit, crushed beneath the overwhelming pressure until simply enduring was all he could manage, could do nothing but glare at the approaching hand.
A black shadow fell over the Guardian Spirit’s head. The distance narrowed. Just as the finger was about to touch the impudent soul’s eye, a low voice rang out.
“Enough.”
“...I wasn’t being serious.”
The vivid red glow faded. Deceiver obediently withdrew his hand.
“How could I test something that puts Father’s life at stake?”
“How amusing.”
“It hurts that you don’t believe me.”
Raven did not bother answering. He simply rose to his feet.
As he turned his broken neck this way and that to check it, Deceiver—who had already regained his composure—continued. The black shadow that had completely covered the whites of his eyes had receded back into the pupils, concealing the red glow once more.
“More importantly, wouldn’t it be better for the Guardian Spirit to return? I understand the karmic burden differs greatly between intervening of your own will and responding to a summons.”
There was no chance the Guardian Spirit would listen.
How could he leave with the bastard who had just snapped his charge’s neck standing right in front of him? He simply kept his eyes raised sharply, wary of his opponent, until Raven tapped his arm lightly.
Reading the meaning in that gesture, the Guardian Spirit looked down at the child in his arms. The murky gray eyes took on a resolute light as they fumbled where his face should have been.
“......”
The Guardian Spirit could never win against the child.
So even while grinding his teeth, he added no words and obediently withdrew. At the same moment, Raven began coughing up blood again. All the cleanup from the bathroom had been in vain.
“Are you all right?”
“If only you would disappear from my sight.”
“You’re too harsh on your youngest disciple.”
“As if being the youngest is some kind of title.”
The position of ‘youngest’ could change at any time.
His low voice came out in a growl, as though his mood had soured. But what irritated Deceiver more was the content, so he smirked, letting his crooked feelings show plainly.
“That can’t be true, Master. You won’t be taking any more disciples after me, will you?”
Because of me.
I had a great influence on you. He dared to be confident of it.
“...Nonsense.”
The clear confidence did not sit well with him. Raven, having roughly wiped away the blood, frowned deeply.
Only for a moment. Then a cold smile rose to his face. His voice turned cynical.
“I said I would grant you anything you wanted, didn’t I? It’s impossible.”
“......”
“Because I want you to die.”
It was a shame he still had not found a way to kill the bastard.
The one human who might have offered advice was nowhere to be seen, and the proper Half-God was in Esperanes, which had been placed under an access ban.
Or perhaps the ban existed because a Half-God was there.
“And didn’t I tell you? You’re not my disciple anymore.”
“...Well.”
Even if denied that way, what had already been taught would not disappear, so he believed the position of disciple remained unchanged...
Sensing that pressing any further might trigger another outburst, Deceiver took a step back.
“I’ll hear your answer to the proposal later.”
“My attitude can hardly have seemed positive… but if you need the words. Rejection—”
“Ah, but there is one thing I still want to say.”
Deceiver cut Raven off and smiled sweetly at him.
“My wish for Father to live a long life was sincere.”
“...Well. Yes, I suppose it was.”
“......”
“You really do say the most useless things.”
Whether sincere or not, it would change nothing either way. What did any of it have to do with him? If he ever felt like living, the world overflowed with those who would never allow it.
And they were all formidable in their own right.
“Death, the world, and...”
One step. Then another.
With a dry face, Raven recited certain names as he approached Deceiver. When the short distance had closed completely—
“You.”
Poke.
A pale finger jabbed into the other’s chest.
“This should make it clear what I’m saying.”
“......”
The black eyes looking down at Raven twisted. The accompanying furrowed brow seemed rather pleasing, for the eyes holding green light narrowed. Raven smiled faintly and leaned his face close.
Between the narrow slits, eyes brimming with demonic energy shone clearly.
“You’re the one who will drag me into the abyss the moment I want to live. Aren’t you?”
Those were eyes directed at Deceiver, the Error-ridden Half-God.
In the space of the dead, the Guardian Spirit only lowered the head he had stubbornly held high after confirming that Deceiver had vanished.
Between the fingers covering his face, rugged green eyes trembled as if they would shatter, heavy with exhaustion. Helplessness gnawed at his soul and tightened his breath.
Yes. He was helpless.
He could not protect the child from Death, nor from the Half-God.
What kind of Guardian Spirit could not even protect one child? He was so utterly powerless that the thought even rose that it might be better to simply cease existing. Though he was already a dead soul, the Guardian Spirit found, strangely, that he could not breathe easily.
“Do you feel wronged?”
Death had approached at some point and asked.
“Or is it resentment?”
“......”
“You gained freedom because of that fellow, yet simultaneously had your freedom stolen by him. Do you resent him?”
The Guardian Spirit glared silently at Death, who had intruded upon his domain.
Then, suddenly aware of his own powerlessness—that he could do nothing even with the other standing before him—he closed his eyes. Resignation settled into his slowly lowering eyelids.
Of course, if he chose to lash out there was nothing stopping him. Yes, if he went berserk he could at least wound those damned transcendent beings. But if he did, the resulting aftermath and all the karmic burden would fall upon the child.
For the structure was such that every sin and every piece of karma the Guardian Spirit committed was taken entirely by that child.
“Do not speak to me. Withdraw your attention from me.”
This should not be. It must not be.
The Guardian Spirit quietly lowered his gaze. Death’s question lingered in his mind.
The question of whether he resented the child.
That cannot be.
This was a shackle forged because he loved the child too deeply. If he were to resent anyone, it should be himself.
It was simply a shame that this absurd structure—born from the child and intertwined with his own love—left him unable to help when the one he protected truly needed it.
In a relationship built on guilt, the Guardian Spirit had not been granted the right to resent the child.
Instead, he keenly felt the need for measures. If things continued this way, it would become troublesome.
But how?
Any action he took, the child would pay the price.
Moreover, the current situation was one the child had obtained by striking a deal at tremendous cost for his sake. He could not intervene carelessly.
“......”
The suffocation grew even stronger.
The Guardian Spirit pressed a hand—veins bulging blue—against his neck. The uneven stitch marks pressed clearly against his palm.
He needed a method.
“...Withdraw my attention?”
Death, who had not missed even the slightest shift in the Guardian Spirit’s demeanor, suddenly spoke.
He looked at those green eyes that, though exhausted to the limit, had endured without breaking until the end. It sparked a wariness. Sensing something ominous, he shook his head firmly.
“That I cannot do. Who knows what kind of trouble you might cause.”
“......”
“You already have a record, after all.”
He stepped closer, unleashing a heavier wave of energy as if to press him down.
Unlike the living world, this was a space inhabited only by those already dead and thus without fear of death. His influence would be somewhat reduced, but since the other also served as an agent of the world, it would still be difficult.
Even so, the Guardian Spirit raised his head without wavering and met Death’s gaze. A chilly voice fell upon him.
“The record of having hidden a sinner’s soul for a thousand years.”
“......”
“It was absurd. How a mere deceased could manage such a thing.”
It was a soul that should have reincarnated the instant it left its body upon death. The weight of its sins was so great that the world itself remembered the existence, and even Death remembered its name.
Yet he had stolen that soul away.
Not to the heated iron plates where sinners lined up to receive their tragic fates, but to the resting place for those who had lived relatively good lives. He had hidden it within the space where he resided for nearly a thousand years.
“Just what method did you use?”
It was an act that defied the world’s providence. Having committed such a grave deed, whether the Guardian Spirit or ‘Raven,’ the soul bearing that karma should have shattered and vanished at once. Just what trick had he used to evade it so perfectly?
“......”
“...Yes, of course you won’t answer.”
He had not expected one, so it was fine.
It would be good to know, but it is not something I must uncover at all costs…
There was no need to exert himself. Death let out a light sigh.
If he had repeatedly used that unknown method to keep evading karma it would be one thing, but he had not dissipated any karma even once since then. It was likely a method that could not be used twice, or at least not one that could be abused.
There was no need to dig persistently. He could simply continue his surveillance, and if something similar happened again he could determine the method then and take measures.
Therefore, instead of prying further, he issued a warning.
“It would be best not to contemplate any foolish tricks.”
The Guardian Spirit showed no sign of having heard at all.