Chapter 143. Guardian
Sage Lunaris.
She stood, gazing at the corpse of the Guardian lying on the experiment table, formulating two hypotheses.
One possibility was that the humans here had discovered the corpse of a Guardian who had simply reached the end of its lifespan and were now dissecting it.
The other was that they had killed the Guardian while it was still alive and were in the process of dissecting it.
Sage leaned more heavily toward the latter hypothesis.
Though faint, she could still feel the flow of a high-grade soul lingering around the Guardian's corpse. Moreover, she could sense deep resentment and bitterness emanating from that soul.
‘…It hasn’t been dead for long. It was alive until just a few months ago.’
Even if they were weak humans.
It wasn’t impossible for them to kill a Guardian.
Just because the Guardian could create a powerful dimensional barrier didn’t guarantee it had exceptional combat abilities.
‘It’s clear that these humans killed the Guardian. Whether they did so deliberately or accidentally while conducting biological experiments after kidnapping it, I’m not sure.’
Sage judged that the Guardian was a being specialized solely in the creation and maintenance of dimensional barriers.
Moreover.
She believed that the Guardian had likely exhausted most of its power over the long years it had spent maintaining those barriers.
Because of this, its defenses and combat abilities were likely significantly weakened, leaving it vulnerable to external attacks.
That’s why it couldn’t resist those humans.
‘But usually, in such cases, the Guardian would have hidden itself away in a place untouched by humans… Could it be that the humans accidentally discovered a Guardian who had been sleeping deep underground?’
It was entirely plausible.
The world of Earth had recklessly developed and destroyed its environment.
Due to humanity’s relentless exploration and development.
Regions that were once inaccessible were gradually being exposed, and places untouched by human hands were becoming increasingly rare in Earth’s current state.
So it wasn’t all that surprising that a Guardian, which had been hiding for ages, was discovered in modern times.
As Sage was lost in these thoughts.
The researchers and guards pointed their guns at her, shouting at her in Chinese from the moment she had appeared.
“回答我们！你是谁?”
“你是怎么进来的？快说！”
“这里是平民禁止入内的区域！”
“再不回答我们就开枪了！”
Translated, it meant:
Answer us! Who are you?
How did you get in? Speak quickly!
This is a restricted area for civilians!
If you don’t answer, we will shoot!
These were the kinds of things they were shouting.
But their voices didn’t reach Sage.
Her focus was entirely on the Guardian.
‘I need to retrieve the corpse first. There might still be a way to revive it.’
The effort to restore the barrier had become meaningless.
Now that the Guardian was dead.
It was only a matter of time before Earth’s dimensional barrier would collapse.
For now, the barrier was barely holding on due to the soul lingering near the corpse, but once the soul completely left the body, the barrier would disappear as well.
Having finished her thoughts.
Sage slowly began walking toward the experiment table.
At that moment.
A barrage of gunfire erupted from the countless guns pointed at her.
Bullets rained down on her, striking her body relentlessly, but none of them pierced her flesh. Every single bullet bounced off harmlessly.
“什么，什么东西？那个怪物！”
“疯了！她把子弹都弹开了？”
“别慌！继续射击！”
What, what is that? That monster!
Insane! She deflected the bullets?
Don’t panic! Keep shooting!
The humans, undeterred, continued to fire relentlessly.
Sage furrowed her brows and paused for a moment.
“You all… no, you people don’t even realize the mistake you’ve made, do you? You have no idea what kind of disaster your actions are about to bring upon this world, do you?”
She gazed at each of the humans standing before her.
“Perhaps you were just following orders from above.”
Sage raised her right hand.
“But that doesn’t mean you’re blameless. You’ve endangered the lives of billions of people, and ignorance won’t excuse you. So, I expect you to take responsibility for your actions.”
Her gaze was cold and firm.
“With your lives.”
Without a moment’s hesitation.
Sage clenched her raised fist tightly.
Using spatial magic, she simultaneously crushed the hearts of every human in the room.
A ghastly sound echoed from the chests of all the humans around her.
Their eyes widened, and blood gushed from their mouths as they screamed.
In an instant.
It was all over.
The guns that had been aimed at Sage fell to the floor, and their owners collapsed, lifeless, alongside them.
The laboratory was plunged into sudden silence.
The only sound remaining was Sage’s calm breathing filling the space.
“I was merciful. I let you die painlessly. I prefer to kill without causing suffering, even if my enemies have committed terrible sins.”
Murmuring to herself as she passed the bodies.
Sage finally reached the experiment table and carefully lifted the Guardian’s corpse in her hands.
The cold expression she had worn moments before was completely gone.
Now, her face was filled with deep compassion.
She felt immense pity for the Guardian who had been killed by the very people it had long protected.
***
Sage had discovered the reason behind the anomaly in Earth’s dimensional barrier.
The culprit was none other than us humans.
It seemed that in some laboratory located in China, they had kidnapped the Guardian who had been protecting Earth and killed it while conducting biological experiments on it.
“...Crazy bastards.”
【Pururu】─For real, those ungrateful bastards are about to cause harm to billions of innocent people.
【Yumi】─I can't help but curse. Even if they didn’t know the creature they kidnapped was a Guardian, the fact that they conducted biological experiments in the first place is already wrong.
【Mysticism】─ Right! It didn’t even look like a beast, it looked more like a human! 🤬🤬🤬
【Rizenova】─ Lady Luna, how did you handle those people?
【Bubble Bubble】─ Surely, you didn’t leave them alive, right?
【Luna-chan】─ Don’t worry. I sent them off neatly. After all, they saw my face.
【Mir-Stin】─ What should we do now?
【Mir-Stin】─ They said it’s only a matter of time before the dimensional barrier disappears. Aren’t we in big trouble?
We decided to discuss potential solutions to this crisis for a while.
Since Earth could face destruction at any moment, we couldn’t just sit back and watch with ease.
【Yumi】─ How about sending the Guardian’s corpse to Geon?
【Mysticism】─ 😀 Oh, that’s a good idea! The Necro Puppet Master could resurrect it as a puppet!
After receiving the Guardian's corpse.
The plan was to turn it into a puppet and regularly dispatch it to Earth to maintain the dimensional barrier.
‘…This doesn’t seem right.’
Puppets can’t be dispatched.
But if we only send Necro, it could be resolved since Necro can summon puppets near him, no matter where they are.
Although, we still don’t know if he can summon a puppet from another world.
【Rizenova】─ But if the puppet Guardian returns to the Ancient Labyrinth, won’t the dimensional barrier weaken?
【Bubble Bubble】─ That’s possible. Still, it would only be weaker than before, not completely gone. After all, the one who set up the barrier would still be "alive."
【Luna-chan】─ This method won’t work.
【Luna-chan】─ Even though it’s not a living creature, the cost is too high.
【Mir-Stin】─ That’s right. It seems expensive because it’s the Guardian’s corpse.
【Pururu】─ Looks like you two are together.
【Mir-Stin】─ We just met a moment ago.
【Mysticism】─ 🤔 But Mir, you’re rich anyway!
【Mir-Stin】─ Even if I have a lot of money, I can’t send it. There’s a fee limit.
Due to the fee limit, it seemed impossible to send the corpse.
But I wasn’t disappointed.
I didn’t intend to adopt this method in the first place.
The reason was simple.
Puppets have a consciousness but no soul.
The assistants overlooked one thing.
According to Sage, the reason the dimensional barrier on Earth was still holding was that the Guardian’s soul was lingering near the corpse.
This meant.
The key to maintaining the barrier was the presence of a soul.
Therefore, a puppet without a soul wouldn’t be able to create a proper barrier.
That’s why I didn’t even consider sending Necro to Earth to turn the assistants’ corpses into puppets.
【Yumi】─ If sending the corpse isn’t possible, couldn’t Necro come to Earth directly?
【Luna-chan】─ That won’t work either. Puppets don’t have souls. I forgot to mention, but a Guardian without a soul wouldn’t be able to create a proper dimensional barrier.
【Yumi】─ Ah, I see.
“Couldn’t Sage just set up a new barrier herself?”
【Mysticism】─ 😮 Sage can set up dimensional barriers too?
【Pururu】─ If she can restore them, she should be able to set them up as well.
【Mir-Stin】─ She mentioned before that she could. She’s very versatile.
【Luna-chan】─ I’m sorry, but that’s not going to work either.
【Luna-chan】─ At first, I thought I could create a barrier like this too, but the more I learned about the barrier’s structure while restoring it, the less confident I became. Even if I recover all my power, I don’t think I can create a dimensional barrier this perfect.
【Yumi】─ Does it really need to be perfect?
【Luna-chan】─ Of course, it wouldn’t be perfect, but I could make something similar. But I doubt my barrier could withstand an invasion from beings of other dimensions.
【Luna-chan】─ After looking into it, it turns out this world, Earth, is quite sought after. I detected a few beings that I wouldn’t be able to handle with my current power.
【Luna-chan】─ And recently, someone who identified himself as Zeus tried to force his way through the dimensional barrier. Judging by his appearance, I’d say his threat level was at least S-rank. Of course, he couldn’t break through because the barrier was so solid, and I had already repaired the damaged parts, but still.
【Mir-Stin】─ I heard you barely managed to stop him.
【Pururu】─ Why is Zeus suddenly showing up here?
【Yumi】─ Zeus? Are you talking about the Olympian god, Zeus??
【Mir-Stin】─ I’m not sure either. I just know the name. Maybe it’s just a coincidence.
【Luna-chan】─ When Mir-chan heard the name Zeus, she also mentioned Olympus or something, so I looked it up on the internet. The Zeus I saw looked completely different from the one in the pictures online.
【Luna-chan】─ By the way, I couldn’t figure out what kind of powers he had.
The assistants’ chat briefly went off-topic.
Anyway.
It seemed that Sage setting up a new dimensional barrier wasn’t an option either.
Since she wasn’t confident about it, there was nothing we could do.
【Rizenova】─ Consider a plan to relocate Earth’s inhabitants to another world.
【Rizenova】─ Oh. Now that I think about it, isn’t Elemencia a huge planet with very few humans left? Why don’t we just merge the two worlds?
【Mysticism】─ How do you plan to relocate billions of people! 😠
【Luna-chan】─ Mass migration isn’t a bad idea. I’ll keep it in mind as a last resort.
【Pururu】─ What if we can’t revive the Guardian?
【Pururu】─ It would’ve been great if one of Geon’s monsters could use resurrection magic.
“…Huh? Revival?”
Reading Pururu’s chat.
A fragment of memory suddenly flashed through my mind.
The Explorer's Journal left behind by Artpega Unibicorn’s mother.
There was a monster mentioned in those records.
I recalled a monster, suspected to be an evolved form of the Medical Mushroom, which had the ability to resurrect the dead.
To confirm my memory was correct, I opened the *Explorer’s Journal.*
━━━━#-79━━━━
There are quite a few monsters that look similar to me.
Among them, I encountered a monster that appeared to be an evolved form of the Medical Mushroom.
85
It looked something like this.
This one could even bring dead creatures back to life.
It had an incredibly broken ability.
I considered taming it, but I decided against it because it was a female.
I’ve never tried taming a same-sex creature, so I didn’t know if it was even possible.
Well, I never got the chance anyway.
I tried to increase its favorability by gifting it some shoes, but it just took them and ran off at lightning speed. It was so fast that I couldn’t chase it. Probably the fastest monster in the labyrinth.
Also, looking at it again, I think I’m not very good at drawing.
Drawing isn’t that fun for me, so I don’t think I’ll ever do it again.
━━━━━━━━━━
My memory was correct.
There existed a monster that could resurrect dead creatures.
Since it wasn’t a necromancer, it likely had the ability to bring them back with their souls intact.
Fortunately.
The Guardian’s soul was still lingering near the corpse.
‘It’s uncertain if this is really an evolved form of the Medical Mushroom, but… let’s give it a try.’
I turned my head and looked at the Medical Mushroom.
［Beep?］
I couldn’t wait for it to receive the Melody Fox’s evolution buff.
That meant I would have to use the Evolution Ticket.
Of course.
I didn’t have an Evolution Ticket on hand at the moment.
‘I haven’t gathered enough coins to buy the radiant Evolution Ticket yet… but what’s more important is evolving the Mushroom quickly. I won’t hold back on using the Vending Machine Tracker. I can always get another tracker later by sending back the Drifters.’
Using the Vending Machine Tracker would take care of things for the most part.
Now, I just had to hope that the vending machine I found had an Evolution Ticket for sale.