Hey! I'm finally back from my hiatus. Sorry this chapter came gallingly late. But hey! I guess I'm back. I appreciate the support thus far and that makes my laziness all the more unforgiveable. I'm planning on finishing up the Vampire arc and then take a hiatus from this series to work on the Mad Hatter series. I have such plans for it. It's unfortunate that my thoughts go faster than I write. When that happens, I kinda lose the motivation to write. So sorry about that.

Author's Note: I recommend listening to this song while you read this. I think it sets the mood well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaioIutcHKI

It was a pitiful sight that lay before the two Angaellis and the Guardian. All three felt immense pity for the creature, but only one truly understood the pain.

There before them was a little wolf pup, whimpering as it lay in the blood of its mother. It had watched as the cruel hunters had killed the one it called mother. While its mother was in the throes of madness, it killed many of the hunters. Despite the madness of its mother, she still instinctively protected her baby. While she was successful in this, the little wolf pup had to watch the scene of the hunters tearing apart its mother. Lilith walked forward with a kind face which would be quite unbelievable on the face of a succubus, but now perfectly fit the countenance of an angel. The wolf pup drew back in fear and snapped at Lilith. She retreated with a sad expression on her face. Seeing this turned into her wolf form and approached the little wolf pup. She approached whispering something. The wolf pup stopped whimpering and ran right into Orthir. Abrum wore a complex expression as he watched the touching reunion. Hie thought were interrupted by Fenrir’s voice.

“You’d better hurry young Angaellis.” Said Fenrir’s voice inside Abrum’s head.

“Why? What’s going on?” Abrum mentally replied

“Seems like the villagers are a bit fed up with the mad guardians…”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, if you don’t get moving soon, you’ll have a bunch more guardians end up like the one before you.”

‘Dang it…’

Abrum thought this as he ran off in the direction indicated by Fenrir.

“W-wait! Where are you going?” Called out Orthir

“The other guardians are in danger! I’m heading out. Please take care of that wolf pup for me.” As he ran, he thought about that little wolf pup. That wolf pup… it was all alone now…no parents... All it could do was watch powerlessly as its only family was taken from it. That loss… Abrum held a deep sympathy and more importantly, empathy with the pup’s situation. If he could prevent more of those situations from happening, he would do his best. These emotions and drove him to run faster and faster, until he had left Lilith behind in the dust. As he ran, Fenrir gave him directions.

Soon, he reached a clearing. There a terrible battle raged. The ten remaining mad guardians were there waging a fierce battle against a mixture of adventurers and villagers. The adventurers were easily distinguishable by their combat and magic prowess. Near the edge of the clearing stood a couple of villagers that looked like non-combatants. There were women and small children.

‘They must have brought the whole village to fight the guardians…’

The battle was really something to see. There were around 6 mages at different edges of the clearing. They were raining down spells of earth, ice, and wind, but none of fire or lightning as to avoid causing a forest fire. There were knight-like adventurers, most with iron equipment and small shields. They kept the guardians occupied while the adventurer archers and mages rained down spells and arrows. The hunters also helped, but their efforts were disjointed. More often than not, the hunters’ arrows would damage the adventurers. There were a few clerics, but not nearly enough to stem the tide of damage the guardians did. Most of the arrows that hit the guardians penetrated the fur, but the fur of the guardians seemed to reflect the spells cast upon it. The earth, ice, and wind spells that were cast bounced right off and hit the tanks.

‘My goodness… their organization is terrible…’

Lilith had finally caught up to Abrum, and so had Orthir. For some reason, she was carrying the wolf pup.

“What are you doing Orthir? I thought you were going to take care of the wolf pup.”

“Um…”

“Never mind, just stay with the other villagers and protect them please. C’mon Lilith”

Abrum and Lilith rushed into the fight. Lilith ran to a guardian that was attacking a mage unit by the edge of the clearing. Abrum ran straight to the middle of the clearing where the largest wolf was. The adventurers there were in sore need of relief. Most of the tanks were in critical condition, and the mages attacks did nothing. When he reached the middle he noticed something. A katana was stuck in the center of the clearing with a crater around it.

‘This… kinda looks like the place from my dream… I wonder w—‘

Abrum’s thoughts were cut short as a man in iron armor came hurtling at him. Abrum ducked and the man hit the ground and bled for a second, then shattered into particles of light leaving behind some miscellaneous items. Abrum turned back to the giant wolf. The situation wasn’t good at all. Three of the 6 mages were focusing their attacks on the wolf, and this caused the Tanks to die much faster than usual. The wolf attacks were heavy to say the least. With the last tank, there were only 3 left. Abrum charged forward, summoning his swords just as the middle tank was taken into the mouth of the wolf and with a sickening CRUNCH his virtual life was ended. Abrum jumped at the wolf’s face swinging his swords. They penetrated the wolf’s snout and its eyes had pain inside of them. It swiped its paws in rage sending one of the other tanks flying into the ground. The last one, seeing his friends’ dead, charged in bravely. The wolf eyes reeled with madness and jumped back only to jump forward on top of him. The wolf jumped back and forward, back and forward over and over again, its eyes gleaming with madness as it crushed the last tank.

Abrum rushed to the side of the wolf and slashed as hard as he could with his dual blades. The blades penetrated only shallowly and the wolf swiped at him. He ducked and made to stab his blades up into the belly of the wolf, but it was all a feint. The wolf swiped at him and it hit, throwing him back a bit. He stood up and charged forward once again. He was interrupted by a scream.

A scream resounded through the forest, one that reached Abrum’s ears over the din of battle. It spoke to Abrum in ways that words could not. Abrum turned to look at the source of the scream, and his eyes widened, his pupils contracted to see the sight. The guardian that Lilith had been battling was bleeding heavily. Lilith had done quite a lot of damage, but the difference between a former C rank boss and a B rank boss was apparent from the outcome. It’s true the wolf was breathing heavily from its wounds but Lilith wasn’t even breathing anymore.

The wolf held its mad head up in triumph, twitching all the while, its eyes rolling sporadically. In its mouth… it held Lilith. She hung limp, like a marionette with its strings cut. Her arms dangled loosely out of that ravenous maw. Abrum’s eyes started to dilate. The guardian he was previously fighting took this opportunity to strike. It opened its jaws and snapped at Abrum’s arm. It crushed his arm… but his face didn’t show any sign of a grimace to correlate to the damage. Abrum’s eyes were completely devoid of emotion. He didn’t react as the ligaments and tendons were torn brutally off of his arm. He didn’t care as he bled out on the ground. He looked to the hunters that were cowering in fear as they retreated to defend the non-combatant group. His eyes sent that message to his brain, but he couldn’t process the situation.

‘It’s happening all over again… those I care for…. They’re being taken from me… There’s no point.’

Abrum’s body fell heavily and he lay on the ground, his blood pooling around him. The mad guardian underwent a startling change. As it walked towards the cowering hunters, its slavering maw started to twitch more and more. It padded step by step, but its body progressively became smaller and smaller. Step by step, the muscle mass decreased, the fur lessened, and the joint structure in the behind legs changed. It crawled forward on what was now its hands and knees. Now, instead of a savagely mad guardian, a muscular man with wolf ears, a tail, and thankfully fur covering the important parts was crawling with red lightly tinting his cheeks. The madness was no longer prevalent in his eyes as he collapses and snored peacefully.

Abrum couldn’t care less about the disturbing sight he had just witnessed. Lilith was taken from him. She was taken… His precious companion and the girl with such a brilliant smile. The wolf that had taken her… it had dropped her body like it was nothing… NOTHING! It dropped her and padded over to Orthir and the rest of the villagers. Orthir stood up and growled at the wolf that tried to attack the villagers and more importantly the pup. More of the guardians finished up the under-equipped adventurers that had taken up this doomed quest and converged upon that point until all 9 remaining ones were threatening the safety of the non-combatant group. The remaining archers and 5 mages that survived and were forming a ragged perimeter around the non-combatants

‘Oh well… I guess I failed the quest…’ That is what went through Abrum’s mind… Apathy… he had lost what he was defending, so what was the point? He lay in his blood as he surveyed the faces of all those who were about to “die.” All he saw was a bunch of computer programs that only mimicked humans. He held onto this terrible thought as he surveyed the villagers, Orthir… and then the wolf pup. His eyes met those of the wolf pup. As he gazed into its eyes, he didn’t see just a computer program. He saw emotions in those eyes that were frighteningly human. He saw within those eyes fear, but more importantly, a startling depth of pain. Those little eyes conveyed the pain of losing the only family it had. That loss… Abrum could empathize with.

‘And now these “guardians”… They DARE to try to take the poor wolf pup’s life!? After it has already lost a parent…’

The light of determination returned to Abrum’s eyes. He tried to stand, but the sudden loss of muscle in his arm and the weights kept him from getting up. He tried to summon a sword to help him stand, however, it would not come to him. He had lost too much blood for him to be able to focus on materializing the blade. Abrum searched frantically for something to help him up. His frantic eyes stopped upon the black sword that had started it all. Closer inspection revealed that the sword was of Japanese origin. The scabbard was black with deep purple snaking designs up and down. The hilt was composed of black ribbons interlacing with deep purple ones. On the very tip of the hilt was a dirty white ribbon that seemed anathema to the whole design of the hilt and scabbard.

As he stared at the blade, a voice from the distant past rang out in his head.

“Truly wanting to protect someone means you are willing to sacrifice everything for the sake of that someone.”

Abrum closed his eyes as he remembered those words from distant past. His eyes opened again, burning with determination. He reached up his hands and grabbed the hilt and thus began to change.