Guardian(Part III): Desolation

Chapter 1: Gabriel

I heard a young woman call to me from above.

"Paladin," she whispered. "Raise your head."

I looked up and saw a dark figure looking down to me from the edge of the hole in the roof of the dungeon. I couldn't see her face, but I still knew she was talking to me.

"She lives," she said. The woman disappeared.

"She lives," I whispered to myself. I knew who she meant. Princess Meridia, the last surviving heir of the Chardanish royal bloodline. The only one who could return stability to this country. If she truly lived, I had to get to her before the rebels killed her. I turned the color of my armor from white with gold trim to all black to better hide myself, then raised my fist to the door of my cell. My armor-plated fist dented the metal door, but it remained on its hinges, and with a warding sigil etched into the floor that kept me powerless, all I had to rely on was my will and brute strength. The next punch I threw at it sent it flying out of the doorway, folded completely in half like a piece of paper. Hopefully, no one heard the noises of it crashing against the walls. As soon as I stepped out of the cell, I immediately felt it. Two auras. One was an aura of light, powerful and radiant. Princess Meridia. The other was an aura of darkness, coming from the west, in the direction of the moon. A demon. Either there was a monster under Chambers' Keep that no one knew about, or the rebels had managed to capture one. It was impossible for the latter to have happened. These rebels were nothing like true Chardanish Regulars, and as many of them as there were, they wouldn't be able to capture a monster like the one whose presence I felt without the help of a Guardian. I ignored the demon's aura for now, focusing on freeing the Princess. I crept my way through the corridors of the dungeons, until I eventually made it to a courtyard on the surface. I hid myself in the shadows as I heard footsteps coming towards me. Two rebels came from a doorway in the wall opposite of the one I came from.

"I don't know how I feel about that Knight in the dungeon, sir," one of them said. "We haven't restrained him, or even locked the door to his cell."

I couldn't tell which rank the other one was because the rebels didn't wear any uniforms, but I could tell that the first one must have been no older than fifteen or sixteen. Whoever started this rebellion was drafting children into their ranks. It angered me, but I moved past it to listen to the rest of the conversation.

"It's nothing to worry about, Private," the other rebel promised. "He's unarmed, there's a warding sigil keeping him powerless, and he's lost the will to live. He believes the Princess has been executed."

"Okay," said the Private. "But she's only a girl. We haven't killed her, have we?"

"No," the officer answered. "Against my better judgment, she's only imprisoned in the tower to the west. If you ask me, she should be executed so there are no members of the royal family left. It would make it easier for the public to accept our claim on Chardan. Then again, no one knows she even exists."

"Then there would be no purpose to killing her at all," the Private argued. "And killing a ten-year-old girl would look good to no one."

Both rebels left through the door I walked through, not attentive enough to see me, and I went forward. The tower to the west was where I was going. The problem was that it was in the same direction as the demon being kept here, and I was unarmed.

"Shit," I cursed. If I ran into the demon, I would die. I would have to stay away from it as best I could, while following Princess Meridia's. I went through the door the two rebels came through, and heard a growl from above. A monster's face was staring down at me from the edge of a roof. I couldn't have been more terrified by the sight of a pair of red, glowing eyes staring at me from a head with black scales. I spotted another doorway on the side wall, and rushed to it as fast as I could. The ground trembled as I barely made it past the door's threshold. I was safe for now, but if this courtyard was the only way out of the fortress, then I would have no choice other than to fight it to get Princess Meridia to safety. I was so focused on getting to the Princess that I didn't get a good look at what kind of monster it was. It didn't matter, though. I would find another way out of the fortress if it was possible. Beyond the door to the courtyard was another corridor that was filled with cracks and holes in the wall. One of them was in the ceiling, and from it, I could see that I was walking in the direction of the tower where Princess Meridia's radiant aura was coming from. I eventually arrived at a door in the wall, and opened it to begin ascending a staircase. I knew she was up there, and ran up the stairs as fast as I could.