Why be a guardian?

Holding the mysterious book, Walker carefully walk out of the room as the fire spread, he made his way to the hall and found the ritual sight filled with fog like smoke.

The human heads scattered everywhere released an intoxicating smell coming over to his nose, walker felt a sting on his nostrils as he made his way towards the light on the other side of the door.

"What a demonic ritual to call a God"

Walker muttered waking out of the mansion, he looked back to see its condition.

In a matter of seconds, the whole mansion was engulfed by the flame.

Walker gripped the book tightly in his hand as he watch the mansion collapse, the roof started to sink and the walls begin to pop out,

Planks after planks started turning to dust.

As it happens right before his eyes, Walker felt a pain in his chest making him look away from the burning mansion.

"I burned the evidence" He said in regret.

A killer that killed people that might be innocent, has his victim's corpse burned by him.

One of the only pieces of evidence that proved the killer's existence...gone.

Walker burned them just for the fact that he was connected to the said murder and by doing so his involvement wouldn't get out.

I'm so selfish that I ruined the chance of those innocent people having justice.

Having some deep thoughts, walker's eyes wander around and caught a glance at the book in his hand.

Seeing it he swallows his saliva and begins to walk away from the mansion putting the book against his chest and hugging it dearly.

"I want to go home"

Walker muttered, his memory regarding the life he lived back in that 'home' was something he couldn't remember very well.

But the goal of going back home, Sticks in his mind.

'Something was waiting for me there, I need to get there I was needed, I need to go back.

Walker pondered

His goal to go back home surpassed even his morality.

Going down the deserted alleyway walker wince his eyes to make out the two silhouettes of a man that was going straight toward his direction.

In another word, toward the mansion.

One looked strong and bulky while the other one was slim holding a chain collar of what seemed to be a dog.

Without getting to know more of their features, Walker looked left and right before running to the side where a half-finished abandoned shelter was built, he entered the dusty and abandoned place.

"They're fast" He murmured to himself going toward the window barricaded with planks thinking the shadow he saw belonged to the two people that were overseeing this crime.

His eyes penetrated through the small hole in that barricaded window trying to make out a clear image behind the shadow

"..." Walker tried his best not to release a sound as he watched the two shadow move closer.

As the shadow got closer and closer the more detailed the two bodies started to appear.

And when the two got a meter closer to Walker he finally got to see their full appearance.

Wearing a thin fabric covering their whole body, the thin man who looked like he was in his thirties wore glasses the same pair lonnet wears.

His partner was buffed with caramel like skin, the same features as lonnet's partner.

This was them no doubt.

Bang

The dog crash its paws through the door which walker blocked with his feet as he couldn't reach it with his whole body in time.

The wooden door tremble from the force applied to the outside.

"How did it know!"

Walker yelled, his voice swallowed by the loud barks of Miss Lilly.

Walker took a glimpse at the window and saw the two stop in their tracks to look at where the dog was trying to enter.

Bark!

The door was starting to collapse and hearing every inch of its plank cry walker couldn't help but curse the dog.

"Shit"

Walker placed his back against the door putting weight to make getting inside the house harder.

"You cant enter so just stop" Walker whispered softly as the dog got even more violent knocking at the door with its paws.

"Someone's in the house partner" Walker heard a voice making it hard to breathe.

"Stop" Walker repeated feeling the resistance behind the door getting more stronger.

"Someone with the killer's blood!" Lonnet who's behind the door yelled slamming the door sending pressure to the one on the other side.

Baam.

Walker bites his lower lip to not let out a squeak when he felt intense pain coming from his back.

"Killers blood, I just need to get rid of it"

Sitting on the dust filled floor walker murmured trying to resist the person pushing the door.

"Urrgh!" Walker put his feet against the small space on the floor, struggling to keep the door closed for the one outside.

Walker looked around the old dusty room as the force outside the door get stronger and stronger.

"Hey, get out of there right now!!" The one outside yelled slamming the door partnered by the dog's scratches and bark.

"Mask the blood...." Those words left walker's mouth as he wince in pain his whole body receiving half of the impact that the door received

"I could just mask the smell of the blood"

Walker took a deep breath before slamming the floor next to him breaking the wood into small pieces.

He hurriedly picks piece by piece, his hand trembling caused by the impact behind the door.

"No not this one"

"Not this as well"

"....."

Walker went silent when he raises a pointed piece of wood it wasn't that sharp but it should be enough.

"Open this door!" The one behind the door yelled accompanied by the dog's bark.

Walker closed his eyes and raised his hand holding the pointed piece of wood to his neck.

The voice outside didn't die down and it was still loudly ringing in walker's ear.

He was trembling and it wasn't all because of the impact coming from the door.

"Work.....this need to work"

....

Bang

Bang

Bang

Lonnet was slamming the door nonstop, Miss Lilly had already stopped her tantrum and was marching away from the abandoned house.

Only lonnet was the one still trying to force the door open.

"Partner you need to stop" His partner said looking at Miss Lilly in the distance, barking for the two of them to follow along.

Bang

Bang

Lonnets hands are faintly red but he didn't stop only when his partner grabbed him by the collar to show him the smoke in the distance sky did he stop

"look at the sky! something's on fire, our only evidence is on fire"

He said to lonnet grabbing him by the hand and dragging him towards the place where a cloud of black smoke was tracing towards the sky

"That house has the killer, Miss Lilly said so" Lonnet murmured trying to struggle out of his partner's grasp.

"Miss Lilly might have been mistaken, that house doesn't have the killer" His partner said to him.

"How would you know!?" Lonnet screamed trying to push his partner's hands away from his.

"Miss Lilly isn't just some street dog!, she won't mistake it"

"If only you help me open that door!"

Lonnet's partner soften his grasp on his hand when he said

"That house has an owner, we aren't gonna pay another sixty silver for a destroyed property, us guardians don't have that much money" He said those words but his eyes were looking at that certain house with suspicion.

'Is money more important than lives' lonnet wants to refute but when he felt his partner stop on his track and miss Lilly began to bark like crazy.

He stood up, his legs become numb when he was dragged toward this place by his partner

But it seems his partner wasn't wrong for doing that.

They were at the gate of the mansion, the fire was dancing everywhere and lonnet couldn't imagine how the mansion originally looked as all he could see is a large fire and a lump of wood being burned to coal.

Thin pieces of wood still stand as the support of the mansion but they will soon be eaten by the fire, just like the lump of wood resting on the ground.

They were late.

Miss Lilly barked at the fire, circling the flame as it grew larger and larger.

With how fast it ate the whole place, finding any evidence is close to impossible.

"We're late" Lonnet said in regret.

"No we're not" Lonnets partner said going closer to the fire, "The mansion is still on fire, it must have been lit just a minute ago the killer is still nearby"

"Even so, our evidence was destroyed, and just like last time it was because of fire."

Looking at Miss Lilly barking at the fire that was still growing large every ticking second, made lonnet angry for some reason.

He blink and the event that resulted in his involvement in this investigation flashed in his mind.

It was the same as this time.

'Office of the guardians head' Words carved on a burning door where lonnet stood frozen

He could hear his brother's cry as the sound of metal and explosion resonated inside the room.

But even so, he couldn't move and the thought to try to open the door to at least see if his brother was alright didn't cross his mind.

He just stood there, Miss Lilly his brother's dog by his side trembling like him.

He couldn't muster the courage to step forward so he and the dog, the two of them waited

My brother is strong and brave, he was the head of the guardians no one can kill him no one can beat him, lonnet believes.

"What are you doing here!" A scream came from afar, lonnet took a look and saw his now partner Raven.

Wearing casual clothing and holding a plastic bag, Raven smiled once he saw lonnet

"Are you here to give that blockhead something?"

"...." Lonnet was silent, he shifted his attention to the bag in his hand filled with dishes that he stayed up all night making.

'So he came for the same reason....then'

Seeing Raven, lonnet pointed at the burning door and said his voice trembling

"My bro-

Ting.

A loud metallic sound rang inside the room, it sound like a coin hitting the hard ground.

Raven's ears perked up, he push his body forward leaving a deep footprint on the wooden tile he once stood.

"get out of the way!"

It happened so fast that lonnet couldn't react, Raven run towards his direction shoving him and miss Lilly out of the door as a small explosion happened.

"Raven!!" Lonnet screamed the moment he regained his composure.

"It hurts"

He was on the ground whole body aching from pain.

The burning door is now out of place, the whole outside was covered with fire and the door was split in half, one half was on lonnet's side.

In the middle of it all was Raven, his shirt burning and both his swelling arm put up to defend his face.

He lowered his arm showing an angry expression that it was hiding

"Who's brave enough to attack my partner!!" He yelled going inside the room.

Fire crackle, yell echoed and the sound of metal coins keeps on getting louder as if it was getting closer.

The loud sound rang in lonnet's ear, he closed his eyes and waited accompanied by the dog on his side whimpering.

"Brother, Raven.....end it quickly" He wished.

A minute that seemed to be an eternity has passed and the sound abruptly stops.

The fire crackle as a shadow exit the room.

Lonnet focused his vision on the shadow to make out who it is and once he did he muttered.

"Raven....Raven what about my brother?"

Raven turns in the opposite direction and began to walk away stiffly, blood dripping out from his ring finger.

Lonnet cleared his throat and spoke loudly

"Is my brother okay?"

Raven just kept on his way walking in an awkward manner stumbling on the walls.

"He might not have heard me"

Lonnet whispered trying to stand up but his whole body ache as he try to do so.

"urrk" He pushed his body to its utmost limit and using the wall to maintain his balance, lonnet walked towards the burning room, the bulldog behind him.

"No need to be scared, everything is fine now" He reassured the dog but he couldn't calm down himself.

Why is Raven, his brother's partner ignoring him?.

did they win?

Did Raven run away from the fight? if he did that explain why he ignored him.

Those questions ran through lonnet's mind as he reach the burning room.

When he saw a shadow of a man hidden by the bush like flame getting even thicker with each passing second.

A relief smile formed on his face

"brother"

the fire spread everywhere making it hard to recognize whose shadow it belong to but lonnet immediately recognized who it is.

Woof.

"Wait!" Lonnet yelled

Miss Lilly goes toward the fire despite lonnet's order.

"Miss Lilly"

Lonnet took a run inside the flame as well going after the dog and heading over to his brother.

"Seriously that dog of yours" Lonnet said with a chuckle getting over the flame wall separating him and the shadow he recognized as his brother.

The temperature spiked up making his entire body sweat and his pants to be caught on fire, but he ignored it.

An old man with long white hair and beard wearing a white uniform of some sort has his body embedded with hundred of holes making him unrecognizable to anyone except for lonnet.

It's his brother.

But he was the leader of the guardians, he was strong and brave no one could beat him.

Lonnet's eye turns lifeless when he witness Miss Lilly bumping its head on the leg of the corpse.

He then saw a gold coin on the ground coated with blood but he couldn't focus on that object.

"..."

The bulldog was happily barking while lonnet was standing in the middle of the fire unable to accept the situation.

The fire is dangerously getting larger and lonnet still has his eyes on the corpse supported by a wooden desk

"Stop Miss lilly"

He said to the dog kneeling to get her but as his arms wrap around the dog she bit him in the hand.

"Ouch!"

Lonnet backed away surprised by the sudden attack, he looked at Miss Lilly and it begin to bark at him angrily.

Lonnet looked at the burning room the fire was trapping the two of them, staying inside this room would do him and miss Lilly no good.

"Stop, he won't respond to you....brother's dead!"

He yelled to the dog grabbing its leg by force.

The dog fought back, biting him in the arm but lonnet took it and ran outside the room Miss Lilly with its teeth embedded deep in his arm.

"Brother's dead" lonnet said to himself sitting on the corner watching the fire in the room grew larger as he felt the pain in his arm.

It doesn't feel real, it's like a bad dream.

"At least I could save you" Lonnet said with a dry smile, he patted the dog on the head but it just growled and bite harder on his skin making it bleed.

"..."

Lonnet shuddered remembering that

traumatizing moment.

"You were spacing out so I gathered all the evidence nearby" Raven said to him right under the extinguished fire.

"Oh sorry"

"So shall we leave?" Raven asked but lonnet didn't immediately tell an answer.

He looks around the area before finally making a decision.

"We should look around, we might find more evidence"

"If you said so partner" Raven replied going toward the gate to search

While lonnet circled the burned mansion.

When the sun begin to set did they start to leave, but they didn't go together.

"You go first, I'll do something quick" Raven spoke to lonnet going towards the corner in the mansion gate

"You can go report I'll follow you later!" Raven yelled forcing lonnet to left the crime scene without him.

"Follow along quick!"

Minutes passed and Raven finally decided to go back as well.

The sky is about to turn dark so he made his detour quick.

Going towards the house where lonnet tried to enter and where Miss Lilly barked at earlier.

He opened the door and found blood stains on the ground he squatted and put his finger on the blood and it was still freshly sticking to his fingertips.

"I couldn't catch the killer, Me and my partner found three places that has his DNA but no contact with the killer or anyone suspicious enough to be his partner, the last known place that still carry his blood was the abandoned mansion yards away from the guild the mansion was burned, and that's the last place we could track his blood."

Raven said, he cleared his throat before adding

"Me and.....the old leader injured the killer enough so he wouldn't be able to cause that much trouble so him getting out of the city is unlikely, he'll likely die before even arriving at the border"

Raven was in a dark room face to face with the person behind the desk.

Hearing Raven's report the one behind the desk cleared his throat before speaking

"I'll send a squad to investigate the mansion, do you have any more to report?"

"Nothing leader"

"Then you can leave"

'Office of the guardians head' Words are carved on the door, Raven exit the room lonnet waiting beside the door.

"Did he say anything?" Lonnet asked fixing his glasses

"Nothing important" Raven replied.