Chapter 96: The Return
Everyone stood before the dark doorway, and for a long moment nobody moved.
A familiar chime echoed inside Arthur’s mind.
[Title Earned]
[Unyielding Challenger]
[Description: A title granted only to those who overcome every trial through unwavering resolve.]
Effect: Able to quickly recover from mental attacks by half the time.
Arthur blinked and then laughed.
Sun immediately looked over. "What?"
Arthur scratched his cheek. "I was wondering if I would have gotten title. But it should be expected after everything we just survived..."
Sun sighed. "It better be a damn good one."
Mithra held her chin thoughtfully. "How about... The Unbreakable?"
Athena tilted her head. "I was thinking of the Invincible."
Sun’s lips twitched. "Those actually aren’t bad." He shrugged. "Maybe when we’re a lot stronger."
Arthur laughed. "I’ll gladly take either one someday."
He hoped he really would.
"You said the Goblin King castle had this?" Sun asked with a frown.
Athena nodded as she studied the doorway. "The mana feels identical too," she said.
Mara looked slowly between Arthur and Vedas, something clicking into place. "So that’s how," she said quietly.
Arthur turned to look at her.
She smiled faintly. "I always wondered how Vedas became a Goblin Commander," she said. She glanced toward him. "It was the Goblin King."
Vedas simply nodded.
"Well the King helped but the rest was all thanks to my buddy effort."
Vedas blushed before looking away while Mara giggles and say. "I agree, you must have done alot Vedas."
Vedas immediately looked away. "It wasn’t just me," he muttered. "Everyone helped."
Mithra laughed softly. "Still too humble."
Athena folded her arms with a grin. "He’s always like that."
Sun nodded. "Makes it even more impressive."
Arthur laughed at Vedas before walking over to the doorway. "Well, the only way to find out. Let’s go guys!"
"We are really stepping into that ominous path?" Sun asked in disbelief.
"Well you could try and walk back–"
"Nevermind, ominous doo it’s."
Nobody objected.
They stepped forward together, and the light swallowed them whole.
Darkness pressed in around them, complete and silent.
Then light returned, and the scenery reformed piece by piece. Instead of the underground garden.
They stood in the sacred clearing once more, the enormous tree towering over the shrine at its center.
They had returned directly to where they started.
Luka was already there, standing near the shrine. Raku turned at the sound of their footsteps, eyes widening the moment he saw them.
"They’re back," he said.
Several Goblin children stopped their playing at once, staring toward the group before bursting into cheers.
"They came back!"
"They’re okay!"
Then some of them rushed over.
"Guardian!"
"Melo!"
A group of Goblin children rushed toward her all at once. Before she could react they wrapped their tiny arms around her. "Kyu?!" She disappeared beneath the pile of laughing Goblins.
One little Goblin proudly hugged her tail. "My friends are okay now!"
"The grown-ups too!"
"They’ve all been coming down to check on you since you came back!"
"They said thank you!"
"They said you saved everyone!"
Melo blinked. "Kyu..."
Mithra laughed as she saw this but she didn’t go help Melo. Too busy enjoying her partner actually blushing, something she rarely does.
Another child gently patted her head. "We were really worried."
"We thought you got hurt." Melo’s ears slowly lowered.
Then she rubbed against every one of them. The children laughed even louder.
Arthur smiled as the atmosphere in the clearing brightened instantly, and even through their exhaustion, everyone in the group found themselves smiling.
He didn’t waste any more time than that. "Where’s Voro?" he asked.
Everyone stepped aside without needing to be told, revealing the Guardian Spirit resting beneath the tree.
He looked worse than before. His massive body had grown nearly transparent, golden cracks spreading across every limb, and even the roots surrounding him seemed dimmer than they’d been earlier that day.
Nobody spoke.
Arthur knelt beside him and removed the crystal vial from his pouch. Every eye in the clearing followed the small container as he uncorked it and let the Golden Spring pour slowly across Voro’s still form.
Golden light spread over his massive body. The cracks along his surface began closing, one after another, and his breathing seemed to grow steadier with every passing second.
Hope filled every face watching.
Luka smiled and Raku closed his eyes in quiet relief. The children began whispering excitedly among themselves.
One of the younger Goblins pointed excitedly.
"Look!"
"The cracks are disappearing!"
Another child jumped happily. "Guardian Voro is getting better!"
Several of the children hugged each other, already laughing.
Then the golden light flickered.
It slowed.
The cracks stopped healing.
One little Goblin blinked.
"...Why did it stop?"
Nobody answered as the glow stopped.
Half of Voro’s body remained broken, and the golden light slowly faded away, leaving him exactly as damaged as before, only slightly improved.
Arthur frowned. "Why did it stop?" he asked.
Nobody had an answer.
The children slowly stopped smiling. One small Goblin quietly reached out and grabbed another’s hand. Raku’s expression sank. "No," he whispered.
Luka clenched his fists at his sides.
Mara’s face went pale. "It wasn’t enough," she said quietly.
The hope that had filled the clearing only moments earlier drained away almost as quickly as it had arrived.
Before anyone could react further, a sharp sound cut through the silence.
"Kyu!"
Melo suddenly leapt from Vedas’s shoulder, landing several meters away in the clearing. Golden light erupted around her small form, and her body began growing rapidly, one tail becoming three comic color ones and soon an enormous fox stood before them once again.
Everyone turned to look.
Even Arthur looked surprised. "Melo?" he said.
The Goblin children slowly stepped backward but none of them looked frightened. Their eyes were simply wide with awe. Golden light danced across Melo’s nine flowing tails as they moved behind her like waves.
One tiny Goblin whispered, "...Guardian."
Another quietly nodded. "...She’s beautiful."
Without hesitation, she ran toward Voro and wrapped all three of her tails around his massive body. She pressed her forehead gently against his chest, and her entire form began to glow, soft and warm and golden, nothing violent about it at all.
The light spread through her tails, into Voro’s body, into the roots beneath him, into the tree above, into every flower scattered across the clearing. The whole sacred grove began glowing together, one connected pulse of light.
The healing resumed.
The cracks began disappearing again, slowly, steadily, closing one after another as everyone watched in complete silence.
Athena finally whispered, "She’s completing it."
Then the drifting golden lights began to move.
One.
Then another.
Soon hundreds of tiny lights floated through the sacred grove and then thousands. They emerged from the trees, from the roots, from the flowers, and from every corner of the forest.
Luka looked around in astonishment. "They’re all coming here."
Mara slowly lowered her book. "The forest is welcoming him home."
The countless lights circled Voro in silence.
The entire clearing became brighter and brighter until it looked like a second sunrise had appeared beneath the World Tree.
Nobody spoke.
Nobody wanted to.
It felt like the whole forest had been waiting for this moment.
Then a heartbeat echo out through the entire forest.
Boom.
Another followed.
Boom.
Birds took flight from the surrounding trees, and leaves rustled as a gentle golden wind swept through every branch in the grove. Voro’s body finally became whole again, the last of the cracks sealing shut.
The children erupted into cheers, jumping up and down, some already calling out toward Melo.
"Guardian!"
"Great Guardian!"
Voro’s eyes slowly opened, bright and clear, full of a life that hadn’t been there in months. He sat up slowly, looking around the clearing with quiet wonder, then smiled.
He saw the tree.
The shrine.
The children.
Luka and Raku.
The flowers blooming around him before a peaceful smile appeared on his face. "Home."
Only then he looked toward Arthur. "Thank you all," he said. "You really are worthy successors."
Arthur blinked. "You know us?" he asked.
Voro chuckled, low and warm. "I’ve been watching," he said.
Everyone looked confused. Voro raised one massive hand and pointed toward the faint golden lights still drifting through the air around them.
"Through them," he said. "I watched every step you took."
He looked toward Arthur. "You carried hope," he said.
Then toward Vedas. "You carried the King’s will."
Then toward the rest of the group. "And none of you abandoned each other."
Arthur scratched the back of his neck, a little embarrassed. "So," he said, "you’ve been watching us this whole time?"
Voro laughed. "I had little else to do," he said.
Everyone laughed with him, and the last of the tension sitting in the clearing finally broke completely.
A familiar howl echoed through the trees a moment later, and everyone turned toward the sound. Golden mist gathered near the treeline, and a massive wolf burst through it, sprinting straight toward Voro.
"Loyo," Voro said, smiling.
The wolf crashed into him hard enough to nearly knock him back down, rubbing against him again and again, whining happily the entire time.
Voro laughed. "I missed you too," he said.
Then Loyo suddenly stopped, sniffing the air, ears perking up sharply as she turned toward Arthur. Before he could react, she sprinted across the clearing straight at him.
Thud.
The giant wolf tackled him to the ground, and Arthur burst out laughing as she happily licked his face.
"Hey!" he said, still laughing.
He reached up and rubbed behind her ears. "So you’re the amazing Loyo," he said. Her tail immediately began wagging furiously.
Loyo barked proudly.
Voro chuckled. "She agrees."
Sun laughed. "Of course she does."
Everyone laughed again, even Vedas cracking a small smile at the sight.
It was a warm, playful moment, sitting in complete contrast to everything they’d just survived.
While Arthur continued wrestling with Loyo, Athena walked over toward Voro. "I saw the underground city," she said.
Voro nodded slowly. "The murals," he said. "The Builder Hall. The sacred garden. The Trial." He closed his eyes for a moment. "I remember those places."
He continued quietly after a pause. "When the Dawn Kingdom fell, a few of us escaped. We fled beneath the forest. I stayed."
His expression clouded over. "After that," he said, "I don’t remember much. I only remember waiting."
Mara lowered her head quietly at that. Thousands of years, reduced to nothing but fragments and waiting.
The clearing felt peaceful again as the afternoon wore on. Children laughed as they played near the shrine. Luka smiled, watching them. Raku stood quietly to the side, watching Voro speak gently with a group of the younger Goblins gathered around him.
Arthur finally stood after Loyo reluctantly released him, brushing dirt off his clothes.
Everything felt complete.
Then a pulse of golden light swept through the clearing.
Voro froze mid-sentence.
Loyo froze beside him.
Both of their bodies began glowing at once, and the laughter around them died instantly.
Luka’s smile disappeared. "Voro?" she said.
Mara’s eyes went wide.
Arthur noticed immediately, his own expression shifting the moment he saw it.
The smile vanished from his face.
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