Chapter 73: Guardians from myths
"Chirp. Chirp chirp."
"I see. So they first put me through intense trauma to test whether my astral body could handle the process that they were going to perform?"
"Chirp. Chirp~!"
"I see. So they then deconstructed my entire being so that they can ’fix’ it."
"Chirp~!"
Nyx was using some vulgar vocabulary that I am pretty sure he learned from the old books in the library, but he was practically explaining what the Guardians did to help me.
"I can channel energy throughout my body now thanks to the new energy channels that connect to the dragon heart, right?"
I could feel how different my body was now.
Not only the strength, but the distinct feeling of the energy moving from my heart to my shoulder, then the arms, and then reaching the fingers.
I could play with this energy. I could make strings out of it and I could release it in the form of sprinkles.
"Miii~. Miii~." There were many creatures around me and I’ve been playing with a small blue creature that resembles a mole.
She loved chasing the pretty golden sparkles that came out of my fingers.
She thought they were rain drops and happily played with them like a little girl.
"There there. Be careful." She was a small creature that closely resembled the earth mole that we saved all the way back in the sixth cradle. However, unlike that simple creature, she had a blue body as well as pretty pink eyes that shined like the first light of dawn.
"Miii~!"
She was adorable so I continued testing my new ability with her while listening to my little white bird’s story.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
According to him, when he first entered the sanctuary, this giant place that has made a deep impression on my heart, he encountered the Guardians before any other creature.
They were pretty surprised to see a phoenix and asked him various questions, but he didn’t have the answer to things like where he had come from or what kind of powers he had.
He knew just as much about himself as I did, perhaps a little more than that. But that was all.
He was a being that lived a different life before the Silver Phoenix sent me back... and if I’m telling the truth, I know nothing about his past.
"Chirp! Chirp!"
Anyways, after he came here, he waited for us. When only Felix came here and told them what was happening with me, he got mad at the Guardians for not bringing me in directly.
The guardians argued how doing so would be possible but it would not solve the fundamental problem of my inability to channel energy.
Then they told the two how people like me who could not use any energy gathering inside our bodies, people with Energy Decay Syndrome as it’s known now, used to be pretty common in the past.
But people still managed to find a way by restructuring their bodies.
"Chirp..."
"Ah, you two have gone through a lot for me, huh?"
Then Nyx argued how the technology and techniques of the old world do not exist anymore.
The guardians did not really have any excuse against that since they knew how the outside world was changing thanks to the people that came here occasionally.
This time too, since someone like me came here, they were surely curious about me. But, the curiosity wasn’t strong enough for them to allow me in here directly.
They had their own laws and limitations even with the great powers they seemed to have.
’Even right now, they were looking after the creatures like the caretakers in the other cradles do.’
They didn’t seem like some higher beings or something unfathomable. In the dumbest sense, they were, much like us, limited beings of nature.
"Chirp~!"
When the guardians did not listen to him, he protested and asked them why they didn’t just help me. He even offered his own services, anything he could do for them.
’And much like it would be for any curious entity, the guardians agreed.’
They did a lot of ’things’ with my two partners that the two weren’t even talking about. Things that they believed were better unknown to me.
I did not like that but, for the time being, I did not pressure them. They can tell me if they feel like it later on.
"What matters now is that I am here... is that what you’re saying?"
"Chirp!"
"You care about me that much?" This made me smile at this little fellow.
"..."
But, like someone who didn’t like showing his affection for me, he turned his head around, his white face red with embarrassment.
"Chirp! Chirp chirp chirp! Chirp!"
Then, frustrated, he stomped his little feet on the ground and walked off, flying away somewhere else like a little kid.
"Hehehe."
Sometimes, I’m happy that it’s him. That what came here with me was a good, troublesome but good creature like him.
"Haaaa..."
"Mii~." The little mole was upset that I wasn’t playing with her anymore so she tapped on my hand.
"Mii?"
When I did not listen, she pouted like another angry child and climbed my palm, then my hand, and when she was on my head, she tapped my forehead where Nyx was hitting before.
"Aw! Hey." The area was a little bruised so it hurt a little, but not too much.
I simply found her eagerness to play with me a lot more funny.
"Miii!"
"Alright alright."
I made some more stars with my golden energy and sprinkled them on my head.
"Mii~!"
She was happy once again.
"Meow..." And now that she was happy, I looked at my little kitten who was looking at the giant beings of fire.
"Felix?"
They were made of flames. It wasn’t that their body was burning, they actually seemed a materialised spiritual entity instead of a physical one.
They were pretty much similar to the spirits, however, what made them distinct from the spirits was their unique intelligence.
They were strange beings... and, the curious academician inside me could never just stay still while in the presence of such entities.
"Excuse me." They have helped me and from the looks of it, they already had what they wanted from me.
Now, I wasn’t of great importance to them. However, they were still here, and there were still countless questions I had for them.
[ "Yes, child. We understand that you have questions for us." ]
The way they spoke reminded me of the time when the Silver Phoenix spoke to me for the first time on the last island.
[ "However, you do not seem to have any questions that you may need our assistance for." ]
The first one to speak was not the one that said these words.
[ "You are capable of answering those questions yourself." ]
And the one who concluded their piece was also not the same one as the rest of them.
The three spoke, yet the voice remained one.
’There are three of them...’
At least, that is what I can perceive with my limited mind right now.
"Mii?"
I know this is absurd to think but there is no other reasoning or explanation that comes to my mind.
’A deity.’
There was no other way to explain what they were.
And there was no other way for my mind to accept the things that it has known and understood ever since coming to this great sanctuary.
’They are divinities.’
That was the answer to the first of my questions.
And truthfully, an explanation to many others that were constantly popping in my head right now...