Chapter 183: Guardian
Maydeath's skills allow her to pry through a person's flesh and peek at their soul. That was the reason why she was able to tell that despite being in the body of a younger teenager, this guy had a part of her former classmate, Saito.
The freak who always had some issues with Seth even though Seth always considered him as his friend, nothing less.
From what she had heard, Saito was already dead and he was killed by none other than the person he hated the most.
...that brings up the question, how was he still alive?
"Pretty shocking, right? I mean, you thought you got rid of me that day and now I am here once again. Standing in a far better body than the last time."
Each of Saito's words was directed at no one but Seth. On the other side, Seth remained unfazed yet his daggers never left his grip, as he remained vigilantly prepared for anything.
Now that he mentioned it, Maydeath could see that there was some mysterious power source Saito was possessing that was strengthening his vessel at a certain rate. It wasn't ferocious, but there was something amiss in him...
'This isn't Soul Energy...what is this?' Maydeath frowned upon failing to discern his power source.
"What do you need now?"
Anabelle's threatening voice crept its way toward the violet-haired individual standing some meters away from them.
Her palms were glowing, indicating the activation of some spell. It was evident from her expression and demeanor that the girl was a breath away from attacking Saito.
"Oh, me? Well, I desire to do a lot of things..." As he said, the young man possessed lips with his eyes never leaving Seth.
That made Maydeath narrow her gaze as she conjured a spell of her own with her consciousness now completely converged at the person who was blabbering a lot.
"...but I will hold myself back. After all, I am being chained up you see?"
As he brought his left hand above his head, a dark blue shackle suddenly manifested around his arm. The chain only appeared for a single moment before it disappeared into particles.
Whether those chains were binding him or not wasn't important here since Maydeath's focus remained in his presence around this place out of anywhere else. And how come he was still alive when Seth definitely killed him in their last meet-up?
"Oh hey, Keita. Long time." Saito waved at Arata with a casual smile to which Arata only gave a slight nod of acknowledgment. He was still holding his blade so it was apparent that even Arata wasn't too believing of Saito's twisted nature.
"Why are you here?"
The first thing Seth spoke after witnessing Saito was such...which greatly surprised Maydeath, since either it was his tone or demeanor, it seemed Seth already was aware of the fact that Saito wasn't killed that day.
Regardless, she didn't pry and allowed the conversation to flow,
"Ah, me? Well, I was chained here with a duty to play the role of guardian."
Seth frowned at that, but before he could ask, Saito continued, "I know this wasn't in the script but the geezers living up, just pushed me with this role of testing the determination of the one who has come to acquire the treasure."
As he said, this was something not included in the plot.
The Treasury had no guardian or extra set of precautions described in the book. Just the three pieces of key were enough to access the vault.
However, now...
"And what if we attack you at the same time?"
Anabelle raised the most efficient and safest option, considering how tricky this freak named Saito could be for the sake of hurting Seth.
But as Maydeath expected, this was not as simple as Anabelle made it sound.
"Oh well, you may try if you want, but you see, these chains are accursed. Until I don't bind another person with the other end, I cannot attack them...and of course, it goes the other way as well."
Maydeath narrowed her eyes at the declaration before she chanted three flame lances over her head and made time spin at a furious pace.
"Ah, Miyuki~Quite a greeting you have there."
The tone of the arrogant bastard just ticked her off before Maydeath launched the flaming lances in Saito's direction without considering whether it would take his life or not.
*Ting*
However, like a transparent shield surrounding the guy and the vault, the lances just burst into amber and Maydeath lost her control over her magic.
"What..." She couldn't believe how quickly the connection she lost with her spell that it felt like she was never in control of them.
"As I thought...that barrier just removes a skill from the very existence." Anabelle, who experienced the sensation previously, muttered under her breath and Maydeath couldn't have agreed more.
While Maydeath was looking at her palms in disbelief, the ground suddenly shook, and a figure leaped toward the vault.
"How about THIS!!" Arata spun in mid-air before he directed a frontal strike toward the door of the vault, however...
*TING*
The barrier once again surfaced and Arata was repealed at an astonishing pace, throwing his back toward where Seth and his group stood.
The legendary sword wielder somehow regained his center of gravity and planted his blade on the ground to lessen the momentum, before he finally came to a halt in front of Anabelle.
Thus, it was proven that neither magical nor physical attacks were damaging the barrier nor Saito.
Seth remained silent during the whole ordeal as he studied the predicament that popped up out of nowhere.
"Seth...you are not planning to agree to his condition right?" Maydeath couldn't help muttering her hope since from what it seemed there was no other option than to accept Saito's terms to access the vault.
"He is too suspicious to act just based on the face value of this matter. Please abandon this plan, Seth." Anabelle pleaded her eyes filling with the only emotion of concern.
"She is right...I think abandoning the vault is the right decision." For the first time, Maydeath heard something meaningful from Arata.
Maydeath hoped that Seth would drop the plan and they leave this bastard here to rot in this jungle for the rest of his life.
However,
"I am going in."
*****
A/N:- Drop a comment if you feel excited about the things awaiting him inside the vault.
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