I opened my eyes and found a phoenix statue in front of me. It was covered in vines, and it looked jaded with time. Memories came rushing in my mind, but as always, I managed to keep myself from twitching. It was a familiar sensation, like a binding was loosened in my recollection.

The statue stayed in front of my eyes as I reviewed everything. I then turned around, observing the forest around me. If you didn’t look closely, you would never find out that there were huts and houses amongst the bushes. Our village was very well-hidden… and with the help of magic too, of course. The whole village was built around the stone statue. Why? Well, the village wasn’t just an ordinary village.

The village was rather deserted today. In fact, that was completely understandable. A few years ago, when I was a kid, there wasn’t even any semblance of civilization here, deep in the forest. So, it was a fact that our small village didn’t have that many populations.

I walked up to one of the trees and climbed to the top. There was a simple treehouse there, made of wood and quite small.

I entered the room and found a group of familiar people inside. One of them, with his brunette hair, raised his hand cheerfully. “Ah, Ve, you’re here!”

The other two raised their head and waved at me, then went back to their own business.

“Hey, guys,” I replied. “Emma’s not here yet?”

“Nope,” the brunette said, shaking his head. “I am usually the last here.”

“Heh, she is always late.” The dark-haired boy next to the window sneered.

I didn’t reply to that, and only exchanged amused smile with the brunette. Then, glancing at the corner, I found the young man with very light hair, so light that it seemed like he was shining. He was pouring over the scrolls in his hand. “Lex, you’re getting older today? Your hair is whiter.”

“It’s silver!” The white… I mean, silver-haired boy rolled his eyes. “It’s an accident, okay? You guys had been poking fun at me for two days already, aren’t you tired?”

“No,” the brunette commented. “I still have no idea how you still can’t wash the paint off your hair.”

Lex groaned. “I see you’re taking a lot of fun in this, Wilhelm.”

Wilhelm laughed out loud. “Don’t you see, even Ryden is entertained.”

Ryden, the dark-haired boy, was indeed smirking. “Ve is right. You look old.”

Lex glanced at us in dissatisfaction, then dismissed us with a wave of a hand. “You guys are noisy!”

I laughed and sat down next to Lex. “What are you reading?”

“Some previous difficult cases done by our seniors,” he said, mumbling. “We are graduating in a few days and we have to be ready for everything.”

I wanted to comment at how studious he was, but before I could, the door was suddenly opened. “Whoa, a full house!” A cheerful blonde girl appeared from behind the door. “Sorry, am I late?”

“You’re always late,” Ryden mumbled.

Emma ignored him. “By the way, captain, vice-captain, the chief is looking for you guys.”

Lex and I glanced at each other, then nodded. “Well, speak of the devil,” I muttered. We walked outside, through the hanging bridge, and into the large wooden building without any further comment.

Our chief was sitting quietly beside the dining table, eating something out of his prized porcelain bowl. “Be careful with that, chief,” I joked.

Sir Konrad, our chief, looked up at me without a smile. I shut my mouth. He was in a rare bad mood today, so I shouldn’t worsen it. As we all know, when good-natured people get mad, mortals couldn’t deal with the consequences.

Lex cleared his throat. “Sir, what are your instructions?”

Sir Konrad put down his bowl with slightly more force than necessary, and I flinched. What happened that he was in such a bad mood? Our chief usually handled porcelain gently since it was left by his late wife.

His stare bore into me and Lex, and we couldn’t help but squirm. Even after years of training, when Sir Konrad got serious, we couldn’t ignore it. The chief stood up suddenly, startling us both. “Follow me.”

We followed Sir Konrad to his office. It was a stark contrast to the living room, with painted wood as walls and decorated with sophisticated paintings. It didn’t fit with Sir Konrad, because it was also left behind by his wife, whom I never met.

“We have an important mission,” Sir Konrad said after sitting down on his seat behind the desk. “I know, your group will graduate in a few days. And I think you two will have the chance to go back on time for the event…”

I want to interrupt him, saying ‘I think’ was a bit uncertain, wasn’t it? Inwardly I complained, but Sir Konrad’s mood was really awful today, and I didn’t want to draw his ire.

“…This mission is very important. We have lost several of your seniors, and now the best amongst the students were you.” He clenched his fist. “I would have gone, but…”

Ah, I understand. Sir Konrad couldn’t leave the village. After all, our village was the base for Guardians Academia, and our chief had also inherited the position of the statue’s knight-warden. If he left at will, the other students would be in danger.

He didn’t continue his previous sentence, knowing we would understand. “In any case, this is your mission for the next several days.” He moved a scroll in front of us. “Read it, and be careful. The walls have ears.”

“Yes, Sir!”

Lex and I walked outside the big house and back to our base. We were quiet as we came in, to the extent that the other three stopped speaking to look at us.

“So, cap, vice, how is it? Do we get a new mission?” Emma leaned forward in anticipation.

I looked at each of them, and then sighed. “Yes.”

“Woo-hoo! I was getting moldy here.” Emma grinned. “Where, where, where?”

Wilhelm followed along with an equally excited face. “Yes, where?”

I raised a hand. “First, I have to warn you guys that this is extremely dangerous…”

“Ah, I live for danger!” Wilhelm immediately exclaimed. “There is nothing that I would not do to brave into the unknown and eradicate danger for all citizens of Westeria!”

“That’s because you can escape easily,” Lex muttered, before sitting down near his scrolls.

I smiled in amusement and sat down in front of him. “Come, come here, everyone,” I said, unrolling the scroll. “We’re seeing this together. Keep your voice down.”

The others started to gather around the scroll. Emma sat down to my left, far away from Ryden. Wilhelm leaned forward, trying to read whatever was written on it. We all frowned when the writings became visible. It was a request for help from the Southern Westeria’s Guardian base, particularly in Losrift City, the capital of Storoughia Margrave. The letter explained a series of weird incidents and murders that had been happening in the territory. Several of the Guardians died during the investigation.

Ryden spoke up suddenly. “Was this where the Coyotes go to?”

“Probably,” Lex replied. “But if Coyotes were in danger…”

…what can we do? I heard his unsaid sentence.

“We can do it,” I said, laying back on the futon. “We do, after all, have a hundred percent completion rate.”

“Don’t be complacent,” Wilhelm said, laughing. “Perhaps the Coyotes team just had a bad condition, so they couldn’t contact Sir Konrad. In any case, this is exciting!” He stood up and went to rummage his chest.

We all followed along. There were a few blunt and sharp weapons in the weapon chest; a club, a staff, couple of knives and daggers, swords, and a spear. The Academia insisted we learned everything, though in the last few years, we specialized in certain weapons.

I took a sheathed sword and properly secured it on my side. I can also use spear, of which I also brought into our team’s magic storage bag, but bringing it on the journey would be troublesome.

Emma slung her crossbow behind her and a tube of arrow in our magic bag. She was in charge of our logistics, so she started to take it.

Ryden glanced at her slightly, but seemingly decided to bring his claymore on hand instead of throwing it to our space.

Lex was the only one who seemed weaponless. He only brought his own skin bag filled with scrolls. But we all knew better; he was in no way harmless. The scrolls were all magic, after all.

Each of us can use a little bit of magic, as the chosen humans from another world, but Lex was on another level. He created scrolls for quicker activation of other magic, but he was well-versed in offensive spells. You wouldn’t even know when you die.

“We should take off now, if everyone’s ready?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Wait, wait,” Wilhelm picked a couple of throwing knives from the chest. “Alright, let’s go.”

As we went out of our village cum academia, we were welcomed by temperate forest. The trees thinned as we walked towards the biggest civilization trace nearby.

We lived near Mytallow Town, a medium town with around 7500 citizens. The only prominent thing about Mytallow was its huge marketplace. Since our Academia was hidden in a village in the forest nearby, we often went there to restock supplies, so I wasn’t a stranger to its growing spires.

“We are going by sea, right?” Emma asked.

I winked. “How could us, the Serpents, not go by sea?”

The others chuckled. Our team name was chosen a long time ago after hearing a story about Sea Serpents in our childhood, but it stuck well into adulthood. In any case, if we didn’t go by sea, we had to went around the bay, which would take much longer. I went to bed earlier today, but I didn’t want to waste much time on the road.

We stopped in town for some supplies, then Lex took one of the scrolls from his bag and rip it. The air around us rippled and shimmered, and in one big whoosh, we arrived at the nearest dock.

It wasn’t a big one, but it served our purpose. Since we were in the western part of Westeria, it was possible and even more effective to go by sea. We would get there sooner, in any case. My time in the dream world was limited.

Since this was just a small village dock, there were no official route. The Guardians’ funds were generous, though, so we directly carter a small ship.

Honestly, we could just teleport directly, but Lex didn’t have enough magic nor scroll for that, as it was too far. Magic scrolls were resource-eater and very time-consuming to make, so we can only go manually from here.

“It’s been a while since I saw sea,” Wilhelm commented as we stepped onto the ship. “Last I was on the beach was when I was six.”

“I see sea every day,” Emma replied.

“Obviously, you live near shore,” Wilhelm said. “Hey, Ryden, your family have a yacht, right? You must be used to the sea?”

Ryden only hummed lightly. Except Emma who snorted, we were all used to him being like that. Lex only shook his head and said, “I’ve only been to this dock here occasionally. Ve should be an expert, though.”

“Oh, right!” Wilhelm glanced at me, “Didn’t you get a solo mission to the sea one time, Captain?”

I chuckled lightly. “Yes. That was a few years ago, though, so I’m not really used to the sea.” I glanced at the wide, still water, and sighed slightly. That one mission required me to stay at the small fishing village for a few months, and until now, I still shuddered remembering the mutated octopus that I killed. It was… black, sticky, everywhere.

“Ah, well, if the ship sunk, we all would drown, wouldn’t we?” Wilhelm lamented.

“Don’t worry,” Lex spoke up and pat his skin bag. “We’ll teleport to the nearest land.”

“Would you know the coordinates of the nearest land, though?” I asked, interested in this hypothetical scenario.

“Well, there’s an extremely expensive emergency teleport scroll here…” Lex said slowly. “It can teleport us to Brit.”

“Right to the Capital?” Wilhelm raised his voice loudly, and turned it into a whisper when he faced our gazes. “That must take a long time to make!”

I nodded, agreeing. “Did you make it yourself?”

“Of course not,” Lex said, smiling amusedly. “Even if I can make it, I wouldn’t have gotten time. Master Jasmine gave it to me, for emergency.”

Master Jasmine was our magic teacher, but her favorite was Lex, since he was such a good student. I nodded in understanding. “That’s good, then. We wouldn’t die.”

It took six hours until we finally got to Shimhand, a small port town in the Storoughia Margrave. I stood up with stiffness. During the first few hours, I was still up and about training myself, but the boat was too small and it was rare that I had the chance to rest. Sure, my body was technically still asleep, but I was always mentally conscious, especially lately my work piled up because my graduation from Academia was imminent.

So just closing my eyes and relaxed was like sleeping—it felt like a luxury.

But I never could really sleep in this world, since I am but a soul here. Still, relaxing made me feel better, even though my soul-self felt stiff right now. Even after years I still didn’t understand why my soul felt like my body, except that I need not sleep nor food here.

“It would take four hours to get to Losrift by horse…” Emma said, after inquiring with the locals.

I glanced at Lex, who nodded. “I can afford to teleport us.”

We finally decided to use a magic scroll to teleport to Losrift—otherwise, we would take too long on the road. But using a magic scroll in a crowd was just inviting trouble, so we had to go out of the city first.

I looked around Shimhand with curiosity. The Margrave entire southern and eastern border was sea, so they had one of the best navy armies in Westeria Kingdom. The port town was part of it, being also a trade center, mainly with Roroughia Kingdom across the sea. It was bustling with noises rivalling a modern city in my world, and Mytallow couldn’t compare.

Yeah, I need to be more careful. It won’t do to accidentally hit someone.

I paid attention to my path as I said to Lex, “It’s a bit weird.”

“What is?”

“This town,” I replied. “I felt something was off.”

Since I didn’t know how it was usually, I didn’t have any memory to compare. I have heard of Shimhand before, as one of the important parts of the prosperous Margrave, but hearing and seeing were two different things.

“Yes,” Lex narrowed his eyes. “There are a lot of noises.”

As I sense movement from my right, my hand moved to my pouch. The guy who had walked beside me looked at me, saw our group of people, then sneered and retreated.

A cutthroat thief. It would certainly be common in a crowded market street like this one, but my unease grew stronger. “Let’s not stall.”

Getting out of Shimhand Town, we found a place near the walls. It was hidden enough, at least. Lex opened one of our pitiful numbers of scrolls—that we usually use to escape—and started to read the words on the scroll.

It started glowing and before long, we appeared a few kilometers outside of Losrift City.

There were only three prominent cities in the southern margrave; Shimhand, Wilham, and the one in front of us now, Losrift. This was also one of the bigger cities in Westaria, although certainly couldn’t compare to the Royal Capital of Brit.

It was surrounded by huge walls all around, but oddly, I saw no activities anywhere. No carriages, or people… Nothing. We kept our guard up as we came near the city wall.

“I heard something,” Wilhelm spoke up.

“Yeah, me too.” I heard some swords clashing and had a bad feeling. We were met with a fight right as we arrive? This was no good omen.

The road to the city was empty. We walked in the tall grass and observed a bunch of people with guardsmen’s uniform who was attacking a carriage…

“Isn’t that a house emblem of Margrave Hinston?” Lex, the most studious of us, said with a frown.

“And that is a city guard’s uniform,” Emma muttered. “The house emblem is also sewn on their clothes. Why would they…”

I kept my quiet as I pondered. Margrave Hinston was master of this territory. Why were the guards attacking their own master?

“Too much thinking,” Ryden said. “No wonder your face has wrinkles.”

Emma glared at him, but Ryden heaved up his big sword and charged forward.

“Ryden!” Emma widened her eyes. Wilhelm wanted to chase him, but he first glanced at me.

I didn’t stop him. “Alright, he was the one who sent the letter for help, anyway. Let’s go save him.”

Emma and the others heard me and nodded. I unsheathe my sword and ran after Ryden and Wilhelm. As I came near the carriage, I immediately felt uncomfortable. I might not be as skilled as Lex in magic, but I still know a little bit… Something was wrong with these guardsmen.

We managed to help them fend against the crazy guards and subdued them, though I didn’t manage to avoid the blood on my clothes. I walked forward to the carriage and opened the door.

Margrave Hinston and his son were cowering in the carriage, trembling in fear. I paused a bit as they looked up at us.

“What happened?” I asked slowly.

The Margrave’s face was pale with fright. “Who are you?”

“We are the Guardians from Brit County,” I said with a small bow. “Our chief sent us here because of your letter. I believe our seniors also arrived a few weeks ago?”

There was relief in the nobleman’s face. “Finally, you’re here! You have to help us, Guardians,” he said, glancing at his dazed son. “There are witches and demons from the sea! We went to Wilham to seek help, but it was worse there.” He shuddered.

The son didn’t react much and I realized something was wrong with him. “We should go back to your house first.”

“Yes, yes.”

We went to the Margrave’s manor along with the guards. It was located outside the city, so I didn’t manage to see what happened in Losrift, but the way the Margrave and his personal guards avoided looking at it… was telling something.

“This manor is completely empty,” Lex said to me in a low voice. He could detect lifeforms with magic, so when he said that, I believed him. My frown worsened, but I still gestured to the others to follow the Margrave instead. There was no other way, after all—this lord was the one we came to help.

We all sat in the drawing room, though Ryden insisted to stand near the door with his claymore. I let him be, though Emma gave him a stink eye.

“It all started in Shimhand,” the Margrave began as he poured us tea. There were no maids inside, which was very weird. “We were going there for a vacation. My son likes the sea.”

His teenage son, who sat in the room, only stared emptily at us. I held back my shivers. I had a feeling I was about to hear what happened to him.

“I let him play there, of course… He met a mermaid there. He was obsessed with her, so much so that it was scary. It is like a sickness. He had to meet with her every day, otherwise he started to scream in pain. I called a mage, of course, to find out what was wrong with him… But instead, the mage died with blood all over him.”

We all listened intently.

“I was scared and brought my son back to Losrift right that second. But weird things started to happen in our residence in the city.” He shuddered. “The servants started to die one by one. Even the people who lived near our residence were dying, and soon, it spread to the whole city. It was random at first, but soon we realize that anyone who had a contact with my son… died miserably. Your other Guardians friends said there was something wrong in Shimhand and went there, but they never came back even after a week… I decided to bring my son to Wilham, but there was worse!” Hinston was histerical by now. “It was anarchy. Total anarchy. No one cares about law anymore. Robbing, stealing, killing… It was all common, survival of the fittest.”

I glanced at Lex, who met my eyes. It seemed like the same thing happened in Shimhand, like what we saw. “So, you come back here.”

“Yes. I come back here, but the guards wouldn’t let us in.” He sat back, deflated.

“The city guards didn’t seem sane,” Lex commented. “They just attacked you?”

“At first I thought they were blaming my son for everything that happened in the town. But as you can see, they seemed… odd.”

“It’s like they’re controlled,” I said, narrowing my eyebrows.

“Yes, exactly.” The poor margrave looked out of his wits. “What else can I do?”

Wilhelm stood up and went to the teenage son. “Little lord, can you hear me?”

He stared at Wilhelm blankly.

“My poor son,” the margrave wailed. “My poor Anthony.”

Anthony didn’t respond to his father’s cry. He didn’t even flinch as Wilhelm came closer. “He became like this after that mage died bloodily?”

The margrave nodded. “Maybe something went wrong in the magic process… It’s like he lost his mind. He didn’t recognize anyone. He wouldn’t even eat if we don’t feed him.” After a few seconds of silence, Lord Hinston added with a whisper, “Like… it is just his vessel left.”

All of us I looked at each other. It certainly looked that way. “Then we will go check the city,” I stood up as well. “Is there another entrance… beside the one besieged with guards?”

The margrave looked us in terror. “You want to enter the city?”

“We have to check, my lord,” I replied to him. “Otherwise, how can we know what actually happen?”

The lord was silent, then he clenched his fist. “Yes. Come, I’ll show you a secret entrance.”

The secret entrance to Losrift was built in case of war or other disaster, the margrave explained. He added a few lines in their map and said that there were other things to handle. It was obvious that he was afraid we would ask him to come with.

Well, it worked for us. After we went out of the mansion, we trekked through the woods in the south of the city. “It should be around here, right?” Emma asked, looking around the trees.

I nodded. “There,” I pointed at a phoenix statue, overrun by vines. It was obscured if one did not know what they were searching for, as it looked similar to other stones around.

Not every statue was surrounded by a settlement. The case with our statue was because it was the safest place that was very close to the center of power, so the King decided to let the guardians trained there. The knight-warden of Losrift statue was a small, sleepy fox that only glanced at us a bit before letting us come closer.

We didn’t speak as we walked towards the phoenix and touched the stone texture. The eyes of the phoenix shone white as our souls imprinted to this… checkpoint.

It was the term that we decided, since the way it worked was similar to a checkpoint in a game. After all, when we entered this world through sleep, there need be an anchor for our souls; a portal point to come through, otherwise who knew where we arrived in. The statues strewn around Westeria, or I assumed this whole world, was that point.

“Greetings of the Spirit to you, Knight-Warden,” I said respectfully after we finished with the statue.

The fox didn’t look up again, only waved its hand.

“Knight-Warden, may we ask something?” I continued.

The fox seemed annoyed that we bothered him, but he finally looked up. His eyes were saying, ‘what?’

“Do you know what happened around here?”

“There were some guardians here last week,” he replied lazily. “They haven’t come back until now.”

I froze. The seniors… some of the seniors were also dream humans. They should’ve come back here if they were still alive…

I swallowed.

Lex continued for me. “Do… do you feel anything strange is going around here?”

The fox shook his head. “My responsibility is the statue only. Don’t bother me, it’s all your guardian’s thing.”

I understood. The power of the Knight-Warden only extended around area they were supposed to protect, so most of them never left their post. “Then we apologize that we bother you, Knight Warden,” I said. “Thank you.”

“Thank you,” everyone echoed, then we left.

“They never came back after a week…” I said with a low voice.

Lex, who was beside me, nodded with an equally worried. “Something is very wrong. The seniors are very strong…”

But I never really intend to be scared away by death. “Let’s investigate the city.”

The city was very quiet as the five of us walked out from the secret passage. Too quiet. Contrast to the riots in Shimhand, this city felt weirder.

We walked to the Margrave mansion inside the city and was startled upon seeing the crowds around it. They… were the citizens. They seemed like an empty vessel, was my first thought. It was similar to the margrave’s son’s condition. Their eyes were focused on the mansion, staring at nothing.

In front of them, on the stairs up the mansion, was a witch.

At least I thought it was a witch. “A sea witch?” Wilhelm whispered beside me.

His whisper was low, the ones we often use during mission. But we forgot that Losrift was extremely quiet right now.

And this unknown sea witch stared at us the moment he said that.

The crowd followed. It was horrifying. It was like hundreds for puppets following their master, turning their heads towards us.

All of us stared at each other with widened eyes. Right after the sea witch said, “Attack!”, I vanished from there. []