Soo Good to Be Back

(This is the continuation of Prolouge)

The questions flooded my mind as I read across the message over and over again.

"What is this? I thought it was over?"

This message, it is from the Head. This is legit. I texted to my friends about it and finally snapped back to reality and before I even realised it, the bus I waited for had left me. Great.

I need to join with the others. Sofia, Amir and Hadley, I really hope that they are safe. Now that I think about it, I remember the place we used to hang out when we were Guardians. If they got this message, I am sure they would go to that place. I decided to go to the highest place in the city and I need to fly from there. I haven't use magic in a very long time, I hope I still got this.

I managed to get to one of the high building without anyone seeing me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I felt the every air particles and mana brushed my skin. It tickles me but this felt like nostalgia. I used the surrounding mana to support my body in the air and use my own mana strength to propel me in the air. It feels soo good to be back.

I took off and the distance from here is quite far, so this is going to be very tiresome. Midair, I sometimes lose control of my mana strength and almost face death, like going straight to the airplane's engine or almost hit a building that might potentially broke all my bones. But the messed-up part is, I am used to that.

As I soared through the night sky, the half-moon reflecting the rays the sun had left for us, fused with infinite amount of night particles, cold breeze that shivers every nerves in my body, all of that feelings I missed it. Then I realized that I face death every single day when I was a Guardian, but now I feel that I am alive, although I was the one who quit being a Guardian to stop doing that but, my real-self begs to differ.

Finally after hours of flight, and almost out of breath and mana strength, I almost reached the place. In a distance, I saw a tower, more like a old patrol-tower, its base surrounded by thousands of trees. That is the place we used to hang out. What's more is that, the lights are lit up inside, my guess is correct then. I started to walk to there and suddenly my phone rang.

"Ahmad? Why the hell didn't you answer the phone? You worried us, you dumb fuck."

Ah, same old Hadley. Glad to hear her voice.

"Yea, sorry about that. I flew through here, the signal didn't reach me i gues--"

"Shut the fuck up and get over here, we need to discuss the thing."

"Ok, Hadey. I'll see you there in a minute."

"Take the same route, you always take, I am sending Sofia to your place so, you should see her in 5 minutes. ...dumb fuck."

I heard that. Even after 5 years she still haven't changed a single thing. It's not bad i guess. Sofia huh? I wonder how she will look like now? If she got cute I might fall for h---

----I didn't notice that. Dark tear? Hand?...

I immediately dodged whatever that was, using electric magic. Never once a demon got close to me but, that thing. I looked at it and I saw a large slender arm with a hand that could fit a human. Through a splited dark tear, a large eyeball peaked through it and reflected my image. It was trying to crush me but how did that thing got up close.

I summoned my rapier and went for the eye, in a blink of an eye, it was just gone. I fixed my position and posture and waited for it to attack me. But it didn't came. The more I wait, the more I looked around for it, fear and anxiety slowly crawled behind me.

What? Did this meant what being hunted by demons means? They are different. Demons that I used to know never retreat and sliently hunt us. Sofia. I gotta find her.

Just like Hadley said, I followed the same route in the forest and my eyes only want to find one thing, Sofia. I ignore my stamina and ran as fast as can. Evaluating the demon, it could suddenly just popped up in front me or her and kill us. Wait. How can I be sure that the demon is actually gone? Is it still looking out to me? Is it waiting a chance to kill two birds with one stone? Shit, then, should I avoid Sofia? Fuck, this is confusing.

I stopped in my tracks and calmly think through this. The demon we are facing, is it possible if two of us take that thing out? No doubt, it is fast and can appear out of know where. Since Sofia an archer, if it got close to her, I might not save her. Should I make the call to Hadley? Just to play safe, I'll ---

And demon appeared again, but this time, it is in front of me. It went to crush for my head. Luckily, I dodged it but the thing is it wasn't aiming for the head, the went for the phone. It figured out what I was trying to do and stopped it. They really changed. This time the demon didn't disappear, instead more hands emerged from that dark tear, it was trying to rip off my arms.

I blowed every hand with my rapier before it even touch me, every time I cut or blowed the hands, more appeared and they are smaller. I kept my distance between it and I kept spamming the same move set and it did the same. Stamina began to keep up with me, I am losing focus, my arm feels heavy. I needed to back down. But the demon was having none of it. It knew my every move, I needed to destroy its core but it is way deep down inside the dark tear and it won't come out. And then, an idea clicked.

Didn't mean to cause deforestation but that's the only way that I could think of. The demon seems to be focused on me. Thousands of its hands were going psychotic, flattening anything in its path to get me. But that's what I want. Anytime now, Sofia.

In a flash, literally, shot through an arrow, into the dark tear, into the core. One shot was all it took for Sofia. The dark tear immediately closed up and cut its arms off. The sea of arms was almost covering the whole area. The problem that's left with us is, to clean up and restore all those destroyed trees to avoid suspicions. Well...Fuck.

When I turned around, I saw Sofia walked over to me, a hug is what I expected.

But not a punch.

"You....gone....mad!?"

"Yep, It is good to see you too."

"How are we gonna restore it all? Hadley is gonna kill us. This is on you, ok?"

"Wait!? On me? Hey, I made this to make your shot even clearer and give a signal."

"I...uh....."

Yeah, that's what I thought.

"Ok, let's just go. We can clear it before morning."

We walked to the tower. All the way, she didn't talk to me. Awkward and silence put a wall between us. I never want this to be our first reunion after 5 years. Why it is far, went things are awkward?

"Hey, um.. I am sorry ok. I don't want to be our reunion like this. You were right. The shot was much clearer."

"Yea, I thought the same way too, I could have made other strats but I was dumb enough to choose that."

"Ok.....um, we even?"

"Bet"

The moonlight shone above us but the only thing her saw is her face. Her short hair flowing in the direction of the water-cold breeze. Her pink-red cheeks with dimples and in her eagle-eyes, me. Yep, she got cuter.

We finally arrived the base of the tower. We went up and knocked on the door,

"You motherfucker! What the hell were you thinking?"

That was an expected response.