Death of a Guardian

Chapter 16

Still in his serpavix form, the Guardian of Death's small head poked out from the water near where the boy was staying. His feathers of deep reds, bright oranges, and yellows were slicked back against his body. The scent of magic filled his tiny nose.

Unlike his counterpart, who could see the magic of life in the healing water, he could only smell it. It was too powerful for him to sense anyone using lower levels of magic. Especially earth, air, or water magic.

He missed seeing the boys' first days, but was there to watch several days of battles. Watching them, he tried to watch as many people as possible to determine if anything was out of the ordinary. At least magically speaking.

What intrigued him wasn't the humans. As the blood of the Amebelodons spilled, he felt the magic escaping their forms. Switching his eyesight over to see their souls, there were none. They were long since dead.

He wasn't certain, but he believed the magical corruption of their bodies made the vessel unable to hold their original souls. They no longer thought or had desires that were anything like what they once were. Now they were mad and tried to destroy whatever they saw.

It was similar to an infection some smaller animals get where they become rabid and attack other animals far out of their weight class. But while the animal would eventually die, the infection would continue onto anything it managed to bite. At that point, the only humane thing was to kill the poor creatures before they could hurt others.

The other obvious sign there were no souls, the Vanth's weren't flying around in the void or crossing out into the battle to watch. They were creatures of his fathers that looked similar to elves, but with wings. Though, that's what you would see if they made their presence known in the present world. In the void, they look nothing like their elven form.

Like him, they are also children of Mortius, the Higher God of Death. But unlike him and their elven relatives, they live in the void. They subsist on death and decay. Because of that, most cultures believe them evil and antagonistic to those alive.

In truth, they don't much care about what any here do. Their only mission is to collect the souls of the dead and protect them along their journey back to the Supreme to live again.

The battle ended, and he returned to looking at the boy. He watched as he spoke to a younger woman with darker skin. A tingle in his mind hinted he should know her, but he couldn't place it. Her eyes showed no active magic use.

But that didn't mean she couldn't be Terrianis in an alternate form. He knew she had a different living form on every continent. But he also thought he knew all those forms. The last time he witnessed her permanent human form living in the lands of Pentaregna Montis, she was in Celestria.

Unlike her primary form, these other forms cannot travel any differently than other demigods. She can become any animal, but she still must travel overland. Only the primary form can travel through the soil, the trees, or the earth itself.

More importantly, if she had the soul of a god, or a demigod, she wouldn't be able to hide it from him. Everyone could use magic with a stone, if they wanted. But it takes a human soul mixed with a godly soul to carry your own magic. In her form right now, this woman appeared to possess an average size soul.

He watched for several days and nothing changed. The boy met and spoke with several others and began helping in the gardens in the morning, then went to the library later on. He was living as everyone else was.

The more he watched people use the healing water, the more intrigued he was to try it out. He could swim out onto land in his avixform and walk to the smaller lake and drink from it. But he didn't know how the people would react to his presence and if they would try to eat him.