Chapter 95: Hostile Guardians
"Hey, what are you trying to do?" Terrence spoke up, his eyes darting directly at the Vampire Butler, his former listed beast that he had personally sold to Winter.
Terrence remained completely still, showing no outward sign of worry that he might actually die right here. A strange, focused calmness had taken over his mind despite the sudden, dangerous turn of events.
’She must just be extremely agitated right now. I don’t know what kind of nightmare she experienced in that rift,’ Terrence thought, catching a glimpse of the visible, agonizing worry lingering deep in Winter’s eyes.
Winter, on the other hand, remained entirely hostile toward Terrence. Her mind kept replaying the terrifying encounter with a certain individual she had met inside the ceremonial realm.
Because of that traumatic meeting, she had become deeply wary of Terrence, who coincidentally seemed to know all about the existence of the ceremonial realm.
’Only the true guardian, that protector of the realm, and the rest of those hostile guardians knew about the existence of that place. And because of those hostile guardians, I couldn’t even reach the gem,’ she reasoned frantically.
Winter then connected the scattered dots on her own. Since the hostile guardians had actively hindered her from reaching her goal, and those hostile guardians were operating alongside humans or pretending to be human themselves, Winter concluded that Terrence had to be one of them.
However, completely lost as to why she was suddenly treating him like a mortal enemy, Terrence could only do his best to de-escalate the situation before things turned bloody.
"You are one of them... The hostile guardians!" Winter pressed, her voice trembling slightly, as if she were a hundred percent sure of her accusation.
Terrence’s brows furrowed in pure confusion. He moved his head back a small inch, but the razor-sharp red blade followed his neck instantly.
His eyes met with the cold, stoic gaze of the Vampire Butler, and a sense of heavy tension slowly began to rise in his blood.
’What is going on with her? I can tell Winter isn’t joking around at all, but she’s completely confused about who I am.’
"What you are thinking right now is completely wrong. I don’t even know who these hostile guardians you are talking about are," Terrence said in a steady, serious tone.
"If you don’t know them and you’re truly not one of them, then care to explain how you know about the existence of another rift forming inside a dungeon rift?! How do you know about the ceremonial realm?!"
Terrence swallowed hard, his throat dry.
"I honestly don’t know anything about the ceremonial realm you are talking about!"
Winter didn’t hesitate any longer. That answer was far from what she was waiting to hear.
With a swift hand gesture from its master, the Vampire Butler pressed the sharp crimson blade hovering at the tip of its fingers directly toward Terrence’s exposed throat.
[Passive Skill: Light Body]
Relying on a split-second movement as he felt the cold, lethal intent radiating from the blade, Terrence dropped his stance and rolled his body violently off the side of the bed.
The blood blade sliced through the empty air where his neck had been a microsecond prior, the Vampire Butler taking a heavy step forward to pursue him.
Terrence leaned back hard to his side, his eyes widening as he witnessed the sharp blade thrust downward—realizing he would have been punctured straight through his heart if he had been even a second late with his reaction.
With wide, intensely observant eyes born from hard-earned combat experience, Terrence pushed his body away from the Vampire Butler’s reach, instantly summoning his contracted beast.
In a flash of dark mist, the Shadow Hound materialized before him, growling viciously.
Terrence was now standing on the far side of the bed, and positioned directly across from him was Winter, who still looked physically and mentally exhausted. Her eyes remained deep, dark, and hollow.
The Shadow Hound raised its tail high, locking its glowing eyes on the vampire as it prepared to intercept any incoming threat, completely ready to protect Terrence with its life.
[Due to the massive growth your Mutated Iron Shadow Hound has achieved, you can now share 30% of your listed beast’s full prowess. Congratulations!]
Terrence saw the system notification pop up detailing the good news, but he didn’t have a single second to celebrate the power bump.
’Just how many near-death experiences am I going to face?! This is the nth time I’ve almost died already!’
"Winter, can you at least stop and listen to me for one second?! Why on earth would I be the kind of person you are suspecting me to be?!" Terrence shouted, trying his best to bring Winter back to her senses.
Winter was visibly still suspicious of Terrence, her chest heaving with shallow breaths. But as his words echoed in the small room, she tried to force herself to recall everything she actually knew about Terrence’s past actions.
"Do you see that your logic doesn’t make any sense at all?!" Terrence asked, staring down the silent girl.
Winter’s cold gaze wavered slightly.
"It... it doesn’t make sense that you would casually know about the ceremonial realm," Winter reasoned, her voice dropping into a weak, exhausted tone. "Only the hostile guardians knew about it, except for me, our city’s guardian, and the realm protector... And you are clearly not one of the latter mentioned."
Terrence let out a heavy sigh, slowly shaking his head in sheer disbelief.
"You are completely confusing me with someone else because of a simple misunderstanding. You just assumed I was one of them because I didn’t act shocked when you brought it up, right? Of course I didn’t act surprised—it’s because I already personally discovered the existence of other worlds tucked within dungeon rifts! I already know for a fact that sub-rifts can form inside normal dungeon rifts!"
Winter raised a sharp eyebrow the instant those words hit her ears. Visibly catching the shift in her mood, the Vampire Butler lowered its raised hand, the killing intent radiating from its body lessening significantly.
Terrence finally found space to take a deep, proper breath.
Shaking his head, he decided to show her complete goodwill to prove he meant no harm.
He dismissed the Shadow Hound, unsummoning the dark beast back into his system, and casually sat himself down on the edge of the bed.
"Something terrible happened to you in there, right?" Terrence asked quietly, a specific memory of his own recent struggle replaying in his mind. "You met a guardian... I can assume that this hostile guardian immediately attacked you simply because you didn’t belong to that realm you entered, right?"
Winter’s eyes completely wavered, her hostile composure crumbling into total defeat.
The traumatic events that had just unfolded inside the ceremonial realm replayed violently in her head, and the sudden wave of exhaustion made her knees completely give out.
The Vampire Butler rushed to her side in a flash, gently catching her fading body and assisting her back onto the edge of the bed. Meanwhile, Terrence casually leaned over the mattress toward her side, carefully observing Winter’s physical state.
Her weary, ragged breathing and sunken, tear-stained eyes told him everything he needed to know—what she went through in that sub-rift was not a simple ordeal that anyone could easily recover from.
It was a crushing mix of intense frustration, utter desperation, and a harrowing brush with death.
"How... how do you even know that?" Winter finally whispered, completely surrendering her suspicions.