Agatha The Legendary Guild Master

Just as I climbed halfway towards the balloon, I heard a sudden shout coming from above, mixed with some moans of pain. I raised my head to look at the balloon, where I noticed chaos from the voices but couldn't tell what was really going on, until bodies started to fly from there.

Thankfully they weren't on my team, but they weren't similar to the believers as well. I glanced at the dozen bodies who fell from high to get themselves a rough landing on the ground, however I couldn't get any clue from their clothes or the weapons they carried.

"Climb up fast princess, and try to move us away as well."

This sudden shout came from Gen up above, mixed with some roars and the sounds of metal meeting another echoing loudly in the back. I didn't delay to ask about anything, as I clenched tightly to the rope and started to move the balloon.

I didn't know where I should go, neither did I have any vision of the way. I just moved the balloon flying randomly at quite high speed, and due to that the rope began to swing violently that nearly got me off.

Just as the sounds of fighting decreased up above, with many bodies thrown on the ground everywhere along our escaping route, I began to slow down the speed of the balloon.

Once I managed to stabilize myself better, I started to climb up again, with some resistance coming from the movement of the balloon.

If I knew what was going on exactly and how this happened, then I would be able to make the right decision, but as I was flying blindly like this, I couldn't risk taking anymore decisions.

Once the voices ceased to exist, I felt the rope being pulled up above, nearing me to the balloon. Once I reached the brim of it, I tightly grabbed it with one hand, and the other was still capturing the rope, just in case anything new might happen.

"Welcome back princess, sorry for the inconvenience."

Gen stretched out his arm to grab the rope and help me ascend the balloon. Once I jumped into it, I found many marks of the previous battle. There were many scratches on the floor and the sides of the balloon, even there were some scattered weapons here and there. The place was messy and that told me a lot about what happened during this brief period.

"What happened here? How did the enemy reach this place?"

"We- We just don't know, they fell upon us from nowhere," Gen said with some embarrassment.

"What do you mean they appeared out of nowhere? They flew towards you from high above, isn't it?" I tried to better understand what he was speaking of, but he shook his head as he replied:

"No princess, they just appeared above us, like they were hidden from us, like…"

"Assassins?!" I muttered as I finished his words while thinking deeply about this. I glanced around me looking seriously towards the weapons lying on the ground.

"They aren't assassins, as their weapons were mainly swords and knives."

Gen said when he noticed my observing eyes, as this was the thing which confuzed me the most. If they were assassins, then why did I see many swordsmen falling from the balloon?

"Then why did you ask me to move the balloon?" I asked while picking up one sword and observing it closely. It was a well made sword, heavy for me to carry, with a sharp edge and thick blade.

"I thought they might be teleporting to here, through some sort of portal," he replied after some pause as he seemed to find it hard to express why he did ask for that request.

He behaved out of his instincts, and this time he was right. There were no more attacks towards us, and that meant we escaped whatever means these attackers used to intrude inside our balloon.

I sighed, it seemed this world didn't want to let me go off this easily. I recalled my sudden vague feeling of danger, which happened nearly at the same time of these bizzare attacks.

"Here, princess, these are the four artifacts we found back there, and there is the body of the demon you slain."

Gen gave me one of the porins which I gave him. I took the porin and then glanced at its content, where I found four strange objects, plus a huge motionless body of the demon I fought.

What was weird, though, was the four artifacts, as I was promised only three. That was weird, how this treasure hunt started, by aiming for one artifact and now I ended up with four.

'There is no need to take any risk here.' I thought to myself as I planned to move at once from here using the pond artifact. Staying here any minutes more would endanger us by the mysterious powers of this world.

I didn't say anything, as I took out the pond artifact, which was like a deep cup of double my hand in size, made out of rough rocks with strange liquid inside. The liquide didn't move when I moved the artifact, like it was glued to the inner walls of this pond. The translucent liquid seemed not to be present there, which added more mystery to the pond.

I observed the pond closely as I thought about how to use it, and the distant memory of using the prison artifact jumped into my mind- I should use my blood.

At once I cut my finger and let a drop of blood fall over the pond, the external walls of the artifact absorbed the drop of blood and then the liquid inside started to dye, faintly but visibly, red.

Once the liquid turned all red, it regained its clarity again, and this time it shook slightly in my hand and I felt a strange connection between me and the pond, like I could control and give orders to it.

I didn't know how to use it, and there was nothing to guide me, so I started to think about linking this place to the pond, and once did the pond shook again, like it did what I thought of, or it was just my illusion.

I didn't know, and I didn't have time to find out as that same vague feeling started to rise again, I needed to run, and now.

So I thought about exiting here and returning to the sacred world realm, and just as I thought about it, the pond shook again, but this time it didn't stop shaking even when it freed itself from my hand grip and flew in the air at the same level as me.

This attracted the attention of everyone, who looked at the pond and stared silently at it. what they didn't feel was that they got paralyzed, like what happened before, and I was the only one able to move.

I was still in the balloon, where the world around me started to change color into grey. I hoped this would be the effects of the pond, or else I would face a threatening opponent whom I couldn't face.

Just as I was feeling more threatened, especially with the increasing feeling of danger, I saw a familiar scene in front of me, which made me heave a long sigh of relief.

The world that was grey changed abruptly to be pale green, as I was back to the guardian location.

"Welcome to the land of dreams special power holder."

A majestic voice sounded from everywhere as the guardian welcomed me. to be honest, I was startled by this sudden transition, but it seemed I had to go through him before I could leave here.

"It's good to be back," I lied.

"Oh, you aren't that happy, despite the fact I just did you a favor."

"What favor?" I asked.

"You have been targeted by the black portal curse, which wouldn't let you exit here no matter what you tried, even your artifact wouldn't be effective against it."

The name that this guardian used was somewhat catchy, and not common. I thought for a moment before I asked:

"You said a curse, right?"

"Yes, a curse is a higher form of power and authority than the artifacts, so the pond you got would fail you."

What this guardian wanted to say was clear, he helped me escape that attack, which was related to those who were chasing me and attacked my balloon.

"Is the one who did that like you?" I asked the question which was in my mind right now.

"Unfortunately yes," the voice replied.

"And you two want something from me, right?"

"You are clever."

"What makes you think I would give you this artifact?" I asked as I already knew what they wanted. I was told there were three artifacts there, and I got four. So, the fourth one was the one these two holy beings were after, right?

"I know you are clever than that, as helping a friend is better than helping an enemy, especially when you are planning to come here in the future."