Roud just stopped the phantom guardian in time, his face covered in blood, drops falling down his vest to his arms and chest. Under the blood, you could still see his eyes, fierce and powerful like a millennia-old wizard. The phantom did not move; he froze in that pose, did not say anything, but his face turned serious and steady. Agatha still had her mouth open; she was ready to scream from the pain, but instead, a very soft but funny sound came out of her since the strike had been blocked.

  The phantom then put down his sword, knelt while Roud was still on his back.

  “You are the massssteerrr of Liiight..” said the phantom with his terrible voice.

  Roud did not reply; he slid down the phantom’s back and turned in front of him, looking him in his face, which was now facing the ground.

  “I am Roud, the master of Light, yes indeed!” His blood was still falling to the ground.

  “I am at youuur serrviceee..” replied the guardian.

  Roud moved towards a big rock, sat down while looking at his vest covered in blood. Agatha closed her mouth, but was speechless, she then gently moved towards Roud scared he would die, drained of blood.

  “Roud..” said Agatha gently “Roud..are you..going to still be here?” asked Agatha.

  Roud turned his face towards Agatha, made a big innocent smile and said..

  “Yes, Agatha, you’ll have me here..” replied Roud.

  “What..what, should I do? Do you have anything?! Anything to cure you? All this blood? How can I help Roud? How? I do not know what to do; there is too much blood!” said Agatha, anxious and losing her mind.

  She knew Roud had no chance of living; she was totally in panic, any person would die in that condition!

  “Use your light, Roud, no? Why don’t you use your light?” asked Agatha in panic.

  “Ooow, well, I need it for later in the Tomb..” replied Roud.

  “What on sky are you saying? You have to use it now, you will die, Roud? Have you lost your mind?” asked Agatha with tears.

  Bracchius, meanwhile, who had not moved from the same spot since the beginning of the fight, too fast to comprehend, looked at Agatha in pain, feeling guilty.

  “Oh well, do not worry, remember your Fire Libellulas?” said Roud with an even greater smile, taking a jar out of his pocket that emitted light. He poured out of it some Libellulas that trusted his hand.

  “I just have to eat them! Ahah!” laughed Roud.

  He brought them to his mouth and, with a loud crunch, started chewing them. Quite difficult eating them since they are quite hard; some legs were coming out of his mouth, still moving. Agatha opened her mouth again, staring at the unexpected scene.

  “Mmmmh, they are not that bad, you know? Want one?” asked Roud.

  Agatha did not know what to say. She just wanted to beat him for how stupid he was, for the scare and the danger he always brought to her, somehow, but now she was finally realizing what a wizard truly was. Inside that young kid, there was a warrior who fought thousands of battles and enemies; inside that kid, there is one of the strongest forces of nature. Even if his jokes seem stupid, maybe he is trying to look at the bright side each time.

  “I have misjudged him” Agatha thought.

  After Roud swallowed the last Libellula, a bright light started to emit from his body. You could see the cut getting thinner and thinner until it closed completely, leaving only a scar. The blood started to dry till it completely stopped bleeding all over his vest.

  “Oh well, this meal was good!” said Roud, standing up again, touching his belly “I unfortunately am still covered in blood, but better than dying, I guess?” smiled Roud.

  “Roud..” said Agatha, still with her tears on her cheeks. She jumped to hug him.

  “Thank you, Roud..thank you for saving me” said Agatha.

  Roud did not expect a hug, so he was quite frozen and not at all welcoming of it.

  “Well, it’s ok, you work with me, and I need to protect my hunter, no?” smiled Roud.

  Agatha took her hands from him and cleaned his vest at least from the dust, since the blood was dry. Bracchius looked at the scene happily.

  “So what do we do with him?” asked Agatha.

  “Well..we start asking him questions” replied Roud.

  He moved in front of the phantom.

  “Stand up, guardian! Why did you attack us without letting us explain who we are? You were about to make a huge mistake!”

  “I apologiiiise, Light wizarrd..” replied the phantom.

  “I haaave beeen choosen by the whiiiite kiiing to proteeect the tomb..hee saaid to kiiil aaany whoo enteeers..” said the phantom.

  “Who? Who is the white king? I do not recall any so-called white king in my memory or in my learning. I have lived through many centuries, and I do not know any white king!” said Roud with interest in the conversation.

  “The whiiite Kiing..the ruuler, the one youu all dependd ooon..” replied the phantom with admiration.

  “We do not go anywhere here Agatha..” said Roud, looking at her.

  “Ask him more..come on!” said Agatha

  “Ok ok, well..guardian, guardian of the tomb, you now will obey me, and you will not do any harm to my friends and me. This next to me is Agatha, she is my hunter and friend. From now on, you will protect us instead of fighting us.”

  The phantom made an angry smile but put his sword down.

  “Now, where is the way to the great tomb of Ranesis Heart?” asked Roud.

  The phantom opened his eyes more in fear or maybe surprise.

  “Whyyy..the Liightt Wizaaard neeeds to goo too thaaat plaaaceee?” asked the phantom.

  “The clouds are shut, guardian. It is time to open them and retake our role in the world” replied Roud.

  “Yoou..youuu aaareee messeeengeer of liiight..likee allwaaayss, youuu do not remeeember soo weell, yourrr naaame waaaas Reiklaaan..and youuu havee killeed meeee..” said the phantom.

  Roud felt something inside him, like he remembered, but unfortunately, he could only sense some fear and some pride in what he had done in that past life.

  “Well, you still serve your purpose as a great fighter in this life or in the other, now..tell us the way to the tomb, guardian”, said Roud with an egocentric attitude.

  The phantom moved to the center of the square; he raised his sword in the sky, then plunged it into the ground. He looked at his sword emitting some green and blue energy and said:

  “Lademessssh na radiriii..”

  From the sword, the energy covered the whole square. It became brighter, then burst towards Agatha and Roud, and then disappeared. The guardian turned in front of them, knelt to his plunged sword, and said:

  “Yooou areee weelcomeee to the underrrwolllrd of kiiingssss..”

  Agatha swallowed her own saliva from the scare. Roud was looking at him with a supercilious expression instead, while Bracchius was playing again with his tail.

  “Ooook..such a big scene ha? But..where is the way?” asked Agatha to Roud.

  “Come, Agatha, follow me..right behind him” said Roud while walking behind the phantom.

  Agatha could not believe it. Where the phantom knelt, stairs going down appeared. He was kneeling on the first step. The three started walking and flying down the stairs.

  “Ah..guardian? Keep the way open till we come back..” said Roud.

  The phantom did not move or react. The two continued walking down the very long, intricate stairs; the farther they went, the colder it got. Roud took two torches from the wall and lit them. No sound at all, only wind and fake whispers made from air.

  They continued down for quite a while, till they arrived at a gigantic door made of wood and steel. It was so big that even a hundred Daigongs would have passed through it simultaneously. Daigongs are a special creature used in the Sky Lands for improving the quality of the earth. They look like gigantic frogs with big eyes that most of the time never look at the same position. They are fat, so fat that they are actually round like balls and have small legs and arms. The weirdest thing about them is their very small wings on their backs. They are in red, yellow, blue, purple, and orange, too. They basically sit next to a field and have food dropped in their mouths every day. The apparently disgusting thing is that they process their food in their five stomachs and then regurgitate the rest onto the field, adding new nutrients and minerals to the ground. Every Skymen farmer loves their big Daigongs the most they can. Since they are also very sensitive creatures, the more you treat them well, the more they give nutrients to the ground.

  “Oh, well, how do we open this?” asked Agatha.

  “Mmmh, actually..good question..” said Roud.

  The two tried to touch the door, but nothing happened. Roud tried to use the light, but still nothing. They started to inspect the door and finally, by looking at it..

  “Aaaah! It’s a wind mechanism!” said Agatha.

  “How do you know?” asked Roud.

  “My Grandpa has a friend, Remidus, who is a wind sculpture. I often go to his workshop, he is very much an expert on old traditional wind mechanisms, they kind of look the same!” replied Agatha.

  “Ok, you can use your air bracelet..right?” asked Roud

  Meanwhile, Bracchius jumped and blew a powerful gust into the door mechanism.

  “Y...ye..ss?” asked Agatha while turning her head behind her back towards Bracchius.

  “How..how did he do that right now? Why does he sometimes work and sometimes not? Why does he half-understand, half-not?” asked Agatha, annoyed.

  “Ahahahahah!” laughed Roud “well, that’s how he is, you cannot ask people, and especially creatures, to change their nature!” replied Roud.

  The wind flowed into the mechanism at tremendous speed. From the sculptures all around the door, statues of people and creatures started to sing a chord, then another, and another. The melody was nostalgic but also had a sad beauty. The door opened towards them.

  Inside, a hall of greatness Agatha had never seen. Columns of stone and majestic ceilings of rocks, black marble mixed with grey and white marble, all around. Burial mausoleums all over, bigger and smaller ones, with different colors of marble. Some black, some grey, some white, some with mixed colors. Some statues also differed from the mausoleums.

  The three entered the Tomb.

  Kings, queens, and their children, warriors of the sky, and artists. Tombs of chefs and tombs of writers, tombs of musicians and tombs of creatures..

  The two were astonished, their mouths open to such immensity. Bracchius started biting some statues, trying to eat them, instead.

  Welcome to the Great Tomb of Ranesis Heart, the Tomb of Kings!