Rhyne City, a small town in the southernmost part of the Kingdom of Coldri.
It was supposed to be just another ordinary day in everyone's lives; the cold wind brought a tense atmosphere to this seemingly normal but lifeless small town.
At the entrance of the city, a carriage with a symbol that instantly put respect and fear in the eyes of every commoner who saw it suddenly arrived.
The carriage drove in without stopping for the guards, who only bowed quickly.
"Ouch!! What are you doing?" An angry voice echoed as the carriage passed.
A new guard on the side was forced to bow his head in respect towards the carriage by another, older guard.
"I'm just saving your ass, you idiot. That's a nobleman's carriage. It's been who knows how many years since a nobleman visited our little town; it's probably because of the recent events…" said the old guard, thinking about the information he heard from his superiors from afar and the situation the town was in.
Meanwhile, inside the carriage, three people were looking out the small windows boredly. But strange expressions appeared on the face of one of them.
'Why does this town seem so much emptier compared to fifteen years ago? Besides, I can smell blood in some parts. And the people… well, not that I care anyway,' thought the oldest of the three before he stopped caring.
"Uncle, why are we in this filthy place? Look at this town, it stinks of blood and filth. There are hardly any warriors here, let alone anyone in the Qi Awakening realm. So why did they send you here?" said a slightly irritated blond young man. He was handsome and dressed in expensive white clothes. In her hand, a thin sword was being carefully sharpened.
"That's right, Uncle Fei, any guard from the mansion would be enough to wreak havoc in this place where only the ruler of the city is a 2nd-grade warrior. And even I and Brother are probably stronger than him," said the girl who was sitting next to the boy in white with contempt. Her hair, like the boy's, was blond and long, with a light green dress. Just like the boy, she was very beautiful.
Their features were similar, handsome, and mainly those of children of nobles. They seemed to be about 14 years old.
"Hmm, before we left home to go pay respects to Viscount Arlo's birthday, I heard from some guards that an evil had apparently appeared in the mountains near this city."
"As we are the representatives of this land, we must take care of our people, even if they are just servants; without them we would not have our wealth or our strength." A black-haired man with a small beard, who appeared to be in his forties, said as he rubbed his beard.
"An Evil? For real? In this place? You didn't believe that, did you, Uncle? How could something like that appear in such a backward land with such little concentration of spiritual Qi, and besides, wouldn't we be running towards death?" The boy said ironically in disbelief.
"I know the chance of it being true is zero, but even if it is not an evil, just a demonic beast is already a great prize to get in this small place. Its core will be a great gift for the viscount's 200th birthday." The man said, already imagining that the rumors about the beasts in the forest near the city becoming aggressive were just the appearance of a demonic beast.
"An evil? Uncle Fei, what is an evil?" The girl asked curiously, not understanding what they were talking about.
"They are beings born from the concentration of evil energy; they are beings of pure evil and corrupted energy, extremely strong and rare. They are born strong enough to face cultivators of the Qi Liberation realm. Something obviously impossible for this place, your father and I are only in the Qi Awakening realm, while the Viscount is in the Qi Accumulation realm. If an Evil were to appear in these lands, a tragedy would befall this entire region. Only if a great noble came could they kill it. But until one of them arrived here, we would no longer be present in this world."
As they spoke, the carriage stopped at a large mansion, its appearance standing out greatly from the other simple structures in the city. Although it seemed incredible to the commoners of the city, to the three it was just a small house.
The two guards at the gate of the mansion, as soon as they saw the symbol on the carriage, bowed, not daring to look up.
Soon, the man and the other two got out of the carriage, as Fei said.
"Tell the city lord that Baron Arlon's sons have come to visit."
"Y-yes, sir!!" The two guards replied together as they ran out to call the city lord.
"Hehe, they're idiots; the two of them went to warn and left the place where they were supposed to be guarding alone," the girl said with a smile as she saw the two of them running quickly, full of fear.
"Since that's how it is, let's go in; we don't want to waste time," the man said as he entered the mansion, and his two nephews followed behind.
They soon arrived at a large door that was opened after the two guards rushed in.
Fei and the others entered the hall while the city lord quickly approached with a smile on his face. He was an old and fat man with an ordinary and forgettable appearance.
"If it isn't Mr. Fei and his two geniuses from the Bei family! It's been a decade since I saw you, and you're still the same, as expected. Welcome to my humble city and especially to my humble home. To what do I owe this honor?" The man said, bowing with respect and flattery.
"I'll be direct. Tell me about the 'evil' that has appeared in the mountains to the north. We're in a hurry, so let's solve the problem and leave," Fei said seriously.
A glint of joy appeared in the city lord's eyes before a solemn look took over.
"So, sir, it's like this, about 10 years ago…"
********************
Southern mountains, 15 kilometers from Rhyne City.
An extremely gigantic place with seemingly endless trees and mountains, the screams and howls of countless animals were constant in this place. It was recognized as the end of the territory of the Kingdom of Coldri. No one knew what existed beyond these enormous mountains and forests or even in the middle of them; people only explored its outer part since going any further would be extremely dangerous. After all, this was a place where thousands of beasts lived; although most of them were weak, they were populous and aggressive towards humans.
Almost fifty kilometers inside the forest, something extremely difficult to explain was happening happening.
Two beings walked completely unconcerned with the environment and the surrounding beasts.
"Lili, we've been walking for days, but we've only found trees and trees, without any sign of any other humans. When will I be able to find them?"
'When will I be able to avenge you, grandma?'
A thin, shrill, but extremely weak voice sounded among the trees of the forest that were strangely quiet, the beasts or any being that lived there barely breathing while the owner of the voice walked slowly.
The owner of the voice waited for a response that soon came accompanied by the flapping of wings and a seemingly unhappy chirp.
Chirp-chirp.
A small bird with bright blue feathers flew in a circle above where the voice came from.
Below, a strange child walked slowly, or what appeared to be a child, about four feet tall. A bizarre being that would scare and repulse everyone who saw it. He was so thin that his bones seemed like they would cut through his skin at any moment; his organs and muscles seemed to have disappeared, or almost.
His arms and legs were thin, while his head seemed to be very large in comparison to his body. Red hair, extremely dirty, without any shine, extended to his shoulders. He was wearing only a small pair of shorts that covered up to a little above his waist. knee.
That was a level of thinness that made it impossible to be alive, more like a walking corpse. But despite that, he walked constantly and didn't seem to be close to death, as if something other than flesh made him alive.
At his waist was a small brown bag, which seemed to have been mended several times in some way.
"Are you telling me that I only complain? It's really easy for you, since you don't have to walk."
"We're speeding up again, if the map that Grandma gave me before…" The boy didn't continue and just clenched his hand tightly.
"So, in a couple more days, we'll be out of this forest. I'm sorry, Grandma, I won't be able to keep my promise to stay in this forest until I grow up. I'll make them pay for doing this to you, no matter what!"
As soon as he said that, a faint aura invisible to everyone, including the boy, came out of his eyes that expressed extreme hatred, then numerous beasts hidden around him suddenly howled and went crazy.
Roars of rage and screams of pain were heard as huge tigers bit the necks of bears, giant snakes wrapped themselves around other beasts while breaking their bones. Chaos ensued as the beasts began to fight among themselves; within seconds the smell of blood in the air became strong.
The small bluebird in the sky quickly descended in despair as it landed on the boy's skeletal shoulder and rubbed its head against his neck, trying to calm him down.
Chirpii… chirp-chirp!!
Hearing the sad sound of his friend, the boy calmed down in an instant.
"Thank you , Lili; if it weren't for you with me, I think they would all fight to the death…" said the boy, clenching his hands again with a slight guilt in his heart. Whenever he became unstable or angry, this happened. He had no idea why. His grandmother seemed to have an idea, but she never explained it to him. And it only continued to get worse every year.
"I'm sorry, I promise to free you as soon as I get out of this forest, my little friends. You will soon be free from me to live as you please," said the boy as he looked back and saw hundreds of beasts of different types and sizes. Different howls were heard again that soon calmed down to the silence of before.
The boy looked at the more than forty dead beasts and several others injured and sighed as he turned back to the front and continued walking.
"I will find you; one day I will find you, no matter where." Said the boy as he tightly held a small white plate, soon piercing his skin as blood began to stain the plate.
In the middle of the plate, there was only one name.
'Sky Guardian.'