Keeper's Oath

Chapter 26: Guardian

Hope jolted awake.

She sat up right away as if she had been shaken awake. There was no grogginess that usually welcomed her after waking up. Hope was fully alert and ready to see what had happened while she was out. Otto had said not much time had gone by but more than he liked had passed.

The surroundings were as she had remembered previously. The large dark room welcomed her. It was a lot colder than she recalled it being last time she had been there awake. Though, thankfully in the memories, it had been comfortable. That might have been the reason why this place felt more chilly, Hope thought.

There were few things different though. Hollow was fighting Guardian who had an orange glow around him. That was the first thing she noticed as Guardian dashed around the black werewolf. The dragon's sword swung at the werewolf without mercy. The sounds of the sword hitting the werewolf were thuds as if someone was beating up a pillow.

Right by her, Hope saw that Forgo was bent over by Knowledge. He was weakly on his side with his arm propping him up slightly off the chilly stone floor. The werewolf was glowing from a light which came from Forgo's palm. Hope assumed that her guardian had used too much of his healing powers to heal himself. She wondered what exactly had happened while she was out. How long had she been out?

Hope slowly gathered herself together and stood up. She wobbled trying to balance herself. The guardian was able to regain her balance as she got used to standing up on her actual body again. The body she had been used to traveling with for a while had been so light.

Knowledge's ears twitched. He turned around to see that Hope was awake. Forgo stopped his healing on Knowledge as he seemed to be well enough to move now.

"Hope!" Knowledge got up and walked a few feet towards the young woman. He looked her over and nodded to her. It warmed her heart seeing how happy Knowledge was seeing her. The memories that she had seen, she thought to them. He had tried his best after all, unlike what she thought previously. Unlike what Guardian had thought of him before.

"Aye, she seems to be doing just fine. Thankfully your soul wasn't harmed in any way, lass." Forgo nodded to them both. The God of War turned towards Hope and then glanced behind himself. "You have been out for a while. Thankfully Guardian took over the fighting. He came out of the darkness with newfound energy to take Hollow on again. It took me a bit more than what I liked to recover. I must be getting old."

The deity chuckled at his last comment. Though he shook his head slowly as a serious look in his eyes flashed briefly. The way that Hope had seen him move, he was still spry.

Hollow had wrapped his tail around Guardian's sword, he threw it towards the trio. To their luck, Forgo had been alert enough to pay attention. The older man withdrew his axe from his back and blocked the attack. The shade's attack on them had failed. The sword clanged against the stone floor, Guardian glanced at the trio and nodded to them. The leader of the guardians seemed happy to see it had failed.

Moving swiftly, Guardian got closer to them. He was still between Hollow and the three behind himself.

"Good, you are awake, Hope." Guardian's orange aura grew brighter than before. There was something different about him. Yet, Hope wasn't able to pinpoint it. "I was thinking about this before. This will be my last fight probably and I will throw out my name that I have been calling myself. In this last fight, I will fight as Largonz."

Hollow laughed at the dragon.

"I don't care what you call yourself, worm! You shall perish with them either way!" Hollow growled as he flexed his clawed hands. Knowledge stood in front of Hope, he held his hand in front of her. Forgo held his axe readying himself for another battle.