Vagrus: The Guardian

~•Xaldrius•~

The time has come.

Rialdus and I prepare ourselves for the last quest. This one is different among all of our quest in the past hundred years, so we must prepare for worse because this is not only our quest, but also the quest of all Kingdoms who wanted liberation from the devilish rule of Queen Ritharia.

We only have a few times left before the night falls, and we must cross the portal or else Nara's warnings will bound to happen.

I looked at Rialdus at the side of the treetop, communicating in the air, but I can clearly hear his voice. This is one of the special abilities we both have. We can communicate at each other even when we're apart. The roar of half werewolf and half beast and three times bigger than us, we call Vagrus (a creature that guards the portal of the two worlds), devoured the gloomy and foggy woods.

Every time we journey to the mortal world, this is what welcome us, a battle with the wild guard ever existed in Hestiral. Killing Vagrus will never defeat it, because it will always come back. The only way to only defeat the creature is made it sleep with the aroma of a human hair. Lucky enough, we always have it with us, collecting it from mortals we captivated. But first, we must resist the furios creature.

"Not yet, brother," I communicate. Rialdus was aiming his crossbow to the creature.

"Waiting is a waste of time," he said and pull the trigger. It hit Vagrus at the back and his deafening anguish roar echoed.

Rialdus jumped off at his back, strangled his arms onto Vagrus neck. The creature swings his body to catch and get rid of my brother. I flew on the ground, run as fast as I can, and on knees glissade to hit its leg with a dagger. A liquid of black flows from the freshly wound I made.

Vagrus screamed in pain and that made him furious even more.

"The hair!" My brother shouted, still resisting the wild beast. Rialdus looked at the direction of a small bag on the ground where the hair was kept. He accidentally let go of it.

I was about to throw mine to him, but Vagrus now have a grip of him, Rialdus was captivated, and with force of a giant, it throw him at my direction. I catches my brother and now we're both swirling on the ground. Rialdus and I coughed because of the dust particles from the ground we inhaled, and we both groaned in pain.

"For old age sake, I hate doing this over and over again!" Rialdus annoyingly exclaimed.

Vagrus screamed at us with furious red eyes, and smoky nose with his sharp fangs streaming with saliva, desiring us

to be its meal.

Rialdus and I's sharp gaze met and our head at each other as a sign of agreement to our plan to defeat it.

"Just like the old days, brother," I said and with extreme speed beyond measure, we run, circling him, like a wind of storm.

Vagrus eyes are spinning, confused where direction to look. When I already got the opportunity, I flew facing the creature and spread the strip of hair on the air, allowing the scent to enter its nose.

I landed on the ground breathing heavily. Rialdus stopped running due to exhaustion.

I smirked when the deafening silence devoured the surroundings.

"I proclaimed victor—" My words cut off when Vagrus roared back.

"It can't be," I whispered to myself. Rialdus was astounded, can't believe what he saw.

For over a hundred years of feud that almost got us killed, Vagrus defeat isn't knew, but he grew stronger this time.

What made us terrified more is seeing the creature transformed into an ugly beast, its stomach's skin split and its flesh looked like gnawing tendrils.

With jaw dropping transformation, I was hypnotized by it. The tendrils moved and is about to attack me, but I heard Rialdus voice echoed.

"It's under the dark magic of Hestiral! Get off!"

The last thing I know I was now lying with him on the ground. Rialdus immediately get us up.

"I'll distract him, go to the portal," he said and run for his crossbow.

While I was heading to the portal, Vagrus was eyeing on me, even with distractions made by Rialdus,

I dodged to avoid the attacking gnawing tendrils, desirous of my flesh.

I stopped when I reached the destination. Feet lying on the ground, facing the oak tree, I immediately cut my wrist and wipe my blood on the tree. The tree needs an immortal blood to open.

It gleams in white with the stroke of bluish particles, that made me cover my sight because of its blinding light.

I looked back at Rialdus who's still trying his best to contain the Vagrus.

My heart was pounding the moment I vision the darkness descended. Our time has finally come to an end.

"Brother! The gates are open!" I shouted at him, both the creature and him faced me.

The guardian of the portal roared in anguish.

"Go! We don't have time!" He shouted. What is Rialdus doing? I can't leave him behind.

"I won't leave you!" Vagrus hold him with that huge hand, Rialdus head was devoured.

My peripheral view, vision the portal slowly closing.

"Go!" Rialdus screamed with visible pain in his voice.

No! It can't be! I can't leave my brother dying here!

With boiling anger in me, I can feel an unexplainable energy entering my body. I close my eyes and open it, eyeing on Vagrus. I know my eyes turned red, but I felt the heat, scorching inside me. This the first time I've felt and have this kind of feeling.

"I won't leave you, Rialdus!" I screamed.

Vagrus attention slowly shifted on me, this bizarre ability hypnotized the creature and that made it let go of Rialdus.

Vagrus eyes now gleaming in red, he's now under my control. The gnawing tendrils screaming in agony. Out of control, Vagrus eyes slowly turning dark red, and I feel like I'm absorbing him.

Unknown to me, Rialdus is already holding my wrist.

"The portal is about to close! Come on!" he grabbed me and held me with him into the portal, since I can't stop controlling what I'm doing.

Like a lightning that strikes, I felt like I was electrocuted.

An upbeat sound echoed in my ears and flickers of lightnings in different hues is all I can vision.

"Xaldrius!" Rialdus voice hit into my ears until I was brought back into reality.

I gasped for breath and sat from lying.

"What happened?" I asked, confusingly.

Rialdus gave me a big smile and chuckled.

"You almost burned that ugly creature into ashes, brother."

It was the only moment, I realized what I just did. I don't know how I did it. Am I unlocking ability that is unknown to me for a hundred of years?

"Get up! We have a lot of work to do," Rialdus said and lend his hands on me to help me get up. He then shook off his dusty black long suit and brush his long hair with his pale wounded hand.

I run my vision around. "Where are we?"

Rialdus look at me and smirks.

"Welcome back to the other side of the world, brother."

I release a sigh and look at these humans dancing wild on the beat.

~•~