Astraeus [Three]

It's been a year since I entered the dungeon to reach the underworld realm. But no matter how deep I walk, the path seems to stretch more and more. There's no end to the deep path.

When I was in the guardian realm, it used to take me a second to reach the core within a second. After losing my position and being unable to cultivate my guardian fragment, It's taking me too long to reach a plant's core. It's like I'm more of a human rather than a guardian now.

Every planet has a core inside that works as an engine to orbit around the sun and maintains its circular path of a solar system. A core of a planet is a semi-infinite mana source that supplies all the energy to run a planet. So, it's a perfect core to regain a guardian's power to 40-50 percent.

 But I need more than 2 planets to regain my full powers. Or I can't fight with that mophead in the guardian realm.

Rae was lying on a fire earth dragon's back and staring at the ceiling full of diamonds and mana stones stuck on it. It looked like a mini sky inside a dead lava chamber.

"Hey, torch. How old are you?"

The dragon smiled and said something in ancient dragon language.

"Heh, you're younger than me. But you're older than the 6th generation guardians up there." 

 Hah! I wonder how long it will take me to reach the outer core. I need to complete my journey in 5 years. Or else, an important star will fall.

Rae packed his bag and sat on the dragon's back to continue his journey towards the planet's core.

In the house of the guardians.

For being the worst criminals and the most dangerous beings in the universe, the guardians had to put a barrier on their guardian fragments so that heaven's guardians won't find them out. For that reason, some of them had to seal their whole fragment to stay hidden and do their work inside the house like actual humans.

Mors, the guardian of death sealed all of his fragment power and started to look after the house like a family man.

Midas, the guardian of greed also had to seal all of his powers to keep his greedy intentions hidden from leaking out. He chose to play games and became a shut-in instead of helping around. That's why Mors is always angry at him. Sometimes, he threw his cooking spoon towards his head to knock him out cold.

Akhlys, the guardian of poison didn't seal her powers because there was no need to do so. She just had to stop making any poisonous potions with her fragment to keep her location hidden. So she ended up with nothing to do and decided to annoy Elesis to death.

Tirecy, the guardian of time didn't have to seal her fragment because she's one with time herself. She can travel in the past and change the flow if she wants without breaking any big events time flow. But every second is related to the results of the future. And if the natural flow of time is broken, she has to pay lots of mana to keep the future intact or change it slightly.

And the last member of the house was Elesis. The guardian of the knowledge who holds all the knowledge of non-living things in his books. But since he was struck inside the house with some crackheads, he decides to write down some new information and visits a party once a month with Tirecy to see his younger brother in the past.

All of them in one house made the situation pretty messed up. But inside the subspace, a thousand years already passed.

…

Inside Elesis's room.

"Tsk! Mors, why did you turn off the power? I can't charge my phone!"

The guardian of death came into his room and said, "You better come outside and check this out."

 Hum?

Elesis went outside from his room and saw a bright light coming out of their house. A portal crack appeared outside their house which is probably caused by guardian heaven.

"What! Who? Who used their fragment power?" Elesis screamed out because some of them internationally used their fragment power to lure the guardian havens here.

Mors went outside the house to cast a binding spell to lock the portal as quickly as he could but nothing was working. The subspace was too damaged to fix it again. It was shattering apart.

"Tirecy!! What did you do??" Mors screamed at the guardian of Time but she answered that she didn't do anything.

But the guardian of greed was nowhere to be found. So, Elesis became so sure about what happened.

 It was the guardian of greed who made some kind of deal with them. So they are here to capture us all. That bastard.

Elesis walked outside and saw the huge hands of guardians coming out of the super blackhole.

"It's time to leave this place. Mors, stop blocking the portal with sealed powers. You will hurt your body. Go and bring rat poison out of the house."

"She's not there either! I can't sense their presence inside the house for ten minutes. They betrayed us."

Elesis took out a box made by his brother so many years ago and broke its lock to see what was inside. Elerous gave him the box on their birthday and told him to use it when his life will be in grave danger. So, he thought it might be the right time to open it.

"Elesis!! What are you doing!! Help me here! Tirecy can't make any timeloop now! We can't open the seal while attacking them! Help us!"

Elesis opened the box and saw a white orb with a powerful magic spell inside. A small was in the orb that said, 'Break it' and nothing was inside. So he ran closer to both of them and threw the orb on the lawn to break it as fast as he could. Because it was only his younger brother that he trusts so much.

The orb broke and a flash of light came out of it. The three of them felt the enormous power around their body and slowly, they vanished into space. The subspace also vanished and the heavens guardian failed to capture them again. They lost track of them again.

Back in Harvort's residence after the holy ceremony ended.

Viktor kept his position in his study room for more than two days straight without moving a single cell. After receiving the 66th guardian fragment, something changed in his body. When he found a small fragment inside an old teacup, he absorbed it quickly and suddenly, a new part of his core opened.

So, he quickly went home to read all the new informants inside his crest and found out about his brother and his past life's information from A to Z. He wasn't expecting to be a big shot. But soon he realized that his brother had used an orb he made thousands of years ago, he predicted that the situation there wasn't good.

They barely escaped by saving their lives.

Adonis came inside his room with a white towel and said, "Master, it's your bath time."

"Oh, yes. Did you receive my letters from the king?"

"Yes, master. He said he wants to meet you once you're free. He said that it's an important matter."

"I see. Okay then. I will pay him a visit. Prepare the carriage after I finish my lunch. Tell Kathryn to buy two tickets for the underground auction house."

"Yes, master."

Viktor followed Adonis inside the bathroom to take a warm bath after two days. When he stood in front of the mirror, he saw some changes in his body. All the small crests all over his body were gone. Instead, a golden hollow appeared on the middle of his chest. For the 66th crest, all of them merged and turned into a new singular crest. His body felt so light and his sense of understanding of his surroundings became more clear. So, he smiled at his black crest-free body and went inside the bathtub full of warm water. 

 I was busy reading all the memories and records of those guardians for two days. Usually, it takes me a second to read one hundred years of information. But their records are so big, so unnecessarily big that it took me two whole days to complete reading their record from the first page to the last.

Now that I think about it, when I was 19 years old, I noticed a stranger taking my pictures when I tried my first beer at the new year's party with some of my college friends. 

It turns out that my elder brother was the one who took my photo more than three hundred times. He really adores me. Heh, it's really weird to call him my elder brother now. After my reincarnation, all the memories were erased. But when I read my past life records, both of us were pretty close. And that cleaning spirit used to chase us with a mop when we used to steal cookies from the kitchen at midnight.

Hahah! It's so weird. 

Adonis closed his golden book and walked closer to the window to gaze upon the moons. "Things are going to get more complicated from now on."