-Oliver-

No one moved a muscle, not us, and not these humanoids. I could feel my friends preparing themselves for battle, but... To me... these three humanoids seemed more curious than anything. They just... studied us.

Each of them wore something that looked like dark leather armor with black metal plates attached to crucial spots, like chest and legs. They all were wearing hoods with short, torn capes, and masks over their lower faces. Each of them had one dagger, and one short sword hanging off their hips, and long, wooden staves that looked like tridents with each three spikes reinforced with more black iron.

Their armor and weapons were the same, but they themselves were not. Humanoids, yes, but clearly of different races. The one in the middle was abnormally large, not tall, but his... her...? their shoulders, chest, arms and legs were unnaturally wide, while their lower torso was unnaturally small. The one on the left was only a little taller than I was, and had what looked like a female body, but their legs bent the wrong way, like the hind legs of a horse or a dog, and they had four arms instead of two. The one on the right had the body of a very thin, tall human, but the way they stood, their head hanging like their neck was broken, and their spine bent hard to the left, reminded me of zombies I'd seen in the movies.

These had to be the guardians.

"Hello?" I finally said.

The middle one of the three took half a step closer. "You... Harbinger...?" the guardian spoke, his voice unnaturally raspy and low.

"Yes, I'm Hades' Harbinger," I said.

"Don't know if you should be admitting that..." Jack muttered.

"What... Want...?" the guardian asked.

"We... We need to get to the end," I said. "We need to find a key that belongs to me."

"Key...?" the one with four arms repeated, her voice clearly feminine, but deeper than what I'd ever heard before. "You are here for the scythe."

"Yes. Hades' enemy is after it, so I need to take it to safety," I explained.

"The key is safe here, so you can leave," she said, her tone growing annoyed. "We are the protectors of this realm. We will take care of it."

The third one suddenly scoffed and laughed, then spoke with a normal voice that belonged to a middle-aged man. "And what a great job we did last time!"

"Silence, Ogruk," the female hissed at him.

"Bugger off," this Ogruk said to her, then stepped closer to us. "Ignore her. Go get the key."

"Ogruk!"

"We don't need that thing here, Maev. Now that Master's gone, our powers are fading, and we don't need another enemy invasion! If they take the key out of here, this realm is safer!"

"Wait, another invasion?" Fenrir repeated, and the three of them turned to us.

"Don't tell him anything!" Maev told Ogruk, but the latter completely ignored her.

"Fenrir of Valhalla. It's been long since any god has visited us," Ogruk said and bowed a little. "There was an invasion many moons ago, and we lost–"

"Just shut up!" Maev shouted, interrupting him. "Who says we can trust them?!"

"Harbinger," the third one suddenly grunted, pointing at me, then turned his attention to Jaden, Tilly, and Arch. "Cerberus," he said, and moved on to Fenrir and Jack, then Ben. "Valhalla. Arlona." And lastly, he glanced at my guardians. "Ra."

"Yes. And...?" Maev asked him, crossing arms over her chest.

The big one turned to frown at her, then let out a deep breath that was partly a growl.

Maev snorted and raised all her hands. "Fine! Do what you want! But if they cause chaos in this realm, you get to explain that to Master!"

"We are only here to get the key, then we'll be gone," I said.

"That invasion. What happened?" Fenrir asked.

"The enemy was big," Ogruk said quietly. "We were outnumbered. They reached the end and stole Master's treasures. They tried to find the key, but only Harbinger can touch it. Our numbers are now thin. We cannot defend this realm from an enemy like that."

"Enemy... Same? Now?" the big one grunted.

"Yes, Elari, it must be," Ogruk said, watching us carefully. "But we don't know who it was."

"Adam," Fenrir spat out the name. "It was Adam, Son of God."

"The First Born..." Maev said in shock. "How do you know?"

"He has shown himself to us," Fenrir explained. "So he indeed came here to steal Hades' artifacts. We have seen him use them, so he must be behind the attack here."

"We cannot afford to have him come here again," Ogruk said, giving Maev a swift glance.

She noticed it. "We are supposed to protect that key, not give it to the first person who comes here looking for it," she hissed at him.

"Yeah, except when that first person is the Harbinger, you dimwit," Ogruk said with a snort. "Besides, how are we supposed to protect this realm if we get ourselves killed, huh? That key means nothing to Master if his home is in flames."

They ended up arguing about it a little bit longer. There was something comedic about how these two supernatural undead guardians bickered like siblings, though I made sure I didn't show my amusement.

This is entertaining indeed... Jaden thought.

But in the end, Elari got fed up and growled so loud even the beasts lurking in the shadows of the forest left running. The bickering ended, and both Maev and Ogruk crossed their arms, and turned their backs on each other like little kids.

"Key. Escort. Move."

"Good idea," Ogruk said, and stepped aside to give us room to pass them. "We will walk you to the next shelter. I'm afraid the sun will set long before you reach it, so we'll come with you."

"Thank you so much," I said, feeling both anxious and relieved. "I'm... I'm currently unable to fight, so..."

"Yes... You seem to be..." he trailed off and sniffed the air. "Torn."

I nodded slowly. "Our enemy stole half of my spirit in our last battle."

"The same enemy who stole Master's treasures?" Ogruk asked.

"Yes," I said quietly.

He watched me closely for a brief moment, then nodded and bowed a little. "We will escort you to the nearest shelter. The beasts will not bother you as long as we are with you."

"Thank you," I said, and smiled. "And it is nice to meet you. I'm Oliver."

"Oliver," Ogruk repeated. "Oliver Attwood."

"You have heard of me?" I asked while our little convoy continued moving.

"We have been abandoned here for years. We are bored. Gossips are all we have," he explained.

Maev let out a quiet snort and rolled her eyes.

"Maev, is it?" Jaden suddenly asked with a polite smile.

"Yes?" she said, giving him a dirty look, but my mate wasn't bothered by it at all.

On the contrary, he only smiled wider and gestured at my corrupted guardian. "I'd like you to meet our good friend, Cameron. I'm sure you two would get along just fine."

Cameron scoffed at him with a pissed off look on his face, then turned to Maev. "Ignore him. He's an idiot. They all are, more or less."

"I'm very familiar with that," Maev replied with a sigh, and glared at her two companions.

"See? You two will be great friends in no time," Jaden said with a grin.

I held back my chuckle.

I think we all felt much better with these three guardians escorting us. The atmosphere was tense, especially at first, sure, but my friends forgot to be afraid of our surroundings as they secretly stole glances at the three humanoids and their appearances. I also had this feeling that those who had watched us in the shadows had retreated. The forest seemed more peaceful now.

Ogruk was definitely the friendliest of them. He talked about Adam's invasion, the destruction he had left behind, and even the artifacts he had stolen. Fenrir listened very carefully with an angry expression on his face. I, on the other hand, didn't really pay attention to their conversation. War. Death. Corruption. I was so tired of hearing about it. He didn't even have any new information to share, so I was happier just watching them. Maev kept her distance. She didn't say a word, but she made it very clear she didn't like us at all, while Elari didn't seem to care about us at all. He was much more interested in keeping an eye on our surroundings. Fair, to be honest, and much appreciated.

"So... May I ask...?" Arch spoke once the conversation died down.

"Ask away," Ogruk said with a little bow. Or then his head just tried to fall off on its own. Couldn't really tell.

"How are you... alive? In a place like this? How did you come to be?" Arch asked him.

"We used to be mortals," Ogruk said. "Each of us has traveled down this river to our final destination, but we never moved on."

"And... why is that?" Arch asked.

Ogruk shrugged. "We all have our reasons, but I happened to meet a guard on my way down and struck up a conversation with him. Turned out, he was great to talk to. Knew so much about so many things. He was heading down to the exit as well, so he offered to keep me company on my last journey. When we reached the end, I... I just didn't move on. I enjoyed our conversations too much. Master ended up finding out about me after I'd spent days lurking in his garden, but instead of kicking me out, he offered a permanent place for me here. He even made this cool body for me!"

"So your body is supposed to look like that?" Jaden asked.

Ogruk glanced down at his very wonky posture. "What's wrong with my body?"

"No, no, nothing at all," Jaden hurried to say. "I was just wondering because you all look so different."

"Master let us help to create our own bodies," Ogruk explained. "I loved those first zombie movies when I was still alive. I was already old when movies became a thing, so I got to watch only a few films, but man, those zombies were fantastic. When Master asked what kind of body I wanted, I, of course, chose this."

"Right. It's a really cool body," Jaden said. "You look just like a zombie."

"Thanks!"

"So... You wanted four arms?" I asked Maev tentatively, hoping to get on her good side.

"So I can strangle two people at once," she said with a scoff.

"Fair enough," Jaden said with a grin.

She rolled her eyes, then sighed a little. "I was a naga in my life. I will never understand how anyone can get anything done with only two arms."

"So nagas have four arms as well?" I asked.

"Indeed. But we don't have legs, only serpent tails, and I..." she trailed off, gave us an annoyed look like she was mad at us for tricking her to talk, but then she looked away, her eyes turning almost... sad. "Everyone always fears us because to them we look like giant snakes, so... I wanted to know what it was like to not look like one."

"I must say, even though you do look fantastic now, I wouldn't mind if you looked like a giant snake," Ogruk said, patting her upper shoulder. "I mean, what's wrong with giant snakes? I think nagas are awesome! Some people just suck. It doesn't matter how we look! What really matters is what's inside."

"We are also pure evil and want to rule the world and enslave all other races," Maev said.

"Details, details!" Ogruk said and laughed loudly. "Pure evil or not, I enjoy your company."

She snorted, but it was softer this time.

"So what about you, Elari?" I asked.

"Big. Strong," was his reply.

"Fair enough," I said with a chuckle, but my mate didn't want to leave it at that.

"So how come you chose... not to speak well?" he asked, trying to sound polite while dying from curiosity.

Elari turned to Ogruk, who cleared his throat. "We believe Elari was an animal in his past life. He could speak normally, but he's..."

"Simple," Maev offered.

"He's not simple," Ogruk said to her sternly. "His vocabulary is vast, but I guess he just doesn't feel like using sentences. It's not part of who he is."

We all glanced at Elari, but he still didn't give a damn about us, even though we were talking about him.

"We think he was a cat," Ogruk said quietly.

"That would explain a lot," Jaden said with a grin.

"Since you had a question for us, you wouldn't mind if we asked you a question in return?" Ogruk said.

"Of course not," I said. "Ask away."

"Since you are Master's Harbinger... Have you... Spoken with him?" he asked.

"I have, yes. He and I share a connection, so he can talk to me whenever he wants," I explained.

"How is he?" Ogruk asked, and his two friends turned to me as well.

"He hasn't complained," I said slowly. "I saw the corruption latched onto his side. It's draining his energy, but he's still on our side."

"That is a relief," Maev said. "If that thing gets out of hand again..."

"How did it happen?" I asked. "How did a god become corrupted like that?"

Ogruk let out a deep sigh and glanced at Maev. It was clear this topic was hard for them, and I regretted asking about it.

"Light... and shadows," Elari suddenly said, staring into nothingness. "Good, evil."

"The corruption is made of the darkness of this world," Ogruk explained. "Darkness is present in us all. It's stronger in some than the others. We believe someone learned to harness that darkness. It lurks in the shadows, searching for hosts, and it hops on like a tiny little leech and makes its nest in the darkest part of your soul. There, it grows, slowly infecting that soul, changing it so slowly that by the time someone notices it, it's too late."

"That's..." Jack said quietly, looking almost sick. "My pack got possessed by shadows. Our job was to infect the people in our town... And I... I was the carrier."

"They are gone now," I said soothingly. "Your pack is free now."

"So you understand how terrifying the corruption is?" Ogruk said.

"Yes. We have seen what it does. I know how horrible it is," I said.

"Hmm..." Ogruk said and stopped. "And you still brought it here with you."

I frowned at first, but I quickly understood he was talking about Cameron. Suddenly, the atmosphere turned colder.

"Cameron can fight it," I said. "I have no doubt about it."

Ogruk let out a short, humorless chuckle, then stepped closer to me. "You see, we have our concerns. I don't know if you know this, but this river leads straight into the Spirit Realm. If your phoenix friend loses that battle here, and that corruption gets into the Spirit Realm, we will lose millions and millions of souls to the enemy. The First Born will have such a vast army of shadows that he can put ten of them in every single human on earth and he still wouldn't run out of them."

I stared at him. He stared at me with his black, dead eyes over his mask.

"Didn't occur to you, hmm?" he asked.

"Cameron can fight it," I said with a steady voice. "He is the Son of Ra, after all. He is strong, and he has us."

"That corruption was strong enough to possess our master," Maev said, her voice growing angry again. "What do you think a mere Son can do against it?"

Jaden stepped forward with his hands raised. "It's fine, it's fine. Cameron has shown us time and time again that he can control it. He's not going to lose to something like that. Right, Cam?"

"Of course not," Cameron said, holding his head high.

"See? It's all good," Jaden said with a smile.

All three of the guards stared at him in disbelief.

"Yeah, he gets overly confident sometimes," Jack explained.

"Cameron will not lose," Jaden said with a stern tone that told us all that this was the end of that particular discussion.

"Well I guess that's it, then," Ogruk said, and continued walking. "It's not like he can leave."

"I am sorry we are taking a risk like that, but we have faith in Cameron," I said as Jaden started pulling my wagon again. "He is my guardian, so he comes with me wherever I go."

"Your guardian? I thought he was my guardian now," Jaden said.

"He's only staying with you until I get the other half of my soul back!" I retorted.

"I am not your pet!" Cameron hissed. "I can stay wherever I want!"

"Please, not now," Jack begged. "If there's a moment when you can't poke the age-old evil shadow lord, it's now."

"Thank you," Cameron said with a snort.

I smiled at his annoyance. The guards gave us looks, but the atmosphere was getting warmer again. I hoped they could see we were speaking the truth. We had faith in Cameron. We knew he could do it. He could keep the corruption at bay. He was strong enough to do so. And... I strongly believed Jaden and Jack were making it easier for Cameron to keep fighting. Those two seemed to know instinctively how to make Cameron feel better. Annoyed, but better.

He likes the attention.

I smiled wider at Jaden's thoughts. Cameron indeed deserved attention. I hoped that helped him to feel more connected with our group.

"Again, I am sorry we didn't consider the possible danger," I told the guards because they had not replied to me.

I needed us to stay on their good side...

"I guess we all need to start taking bigger risks in order to end this war," Ogruk said. "Because this is it. Even we know that. If the First Born wins, this world will end. You need the scythe, especially now that your spirit is torn in half."

"We really could use all the weapons and help we can get," I agreed with a sigh. "Adam's army is big and old, and we've only now started to build ours."

"What do you mean, only now?" Ogruk asked.

"We learned about Adam's plans only a few months ago. We have peacekeepers and human armies from all over the world on our side, and a few werewolf packs and one vampire family, but that's it," I explained. "Spirits and gods, of course, but that's not–"

Ogruk stopped again and gave me an amused look. "You are Death, are you not?"

"...Yes?"

He bowed a little and pressed his fingertips on his chest. "Then that means we are your army," he said.

"You... As in...?" I asked in confusion.

"We, the guardians of this realm. The army Master has been building for centuries."