The mythology describes the first five guardians of purgatory.
The first guardian of purgatory was a fire crow. Many years later, it was challenged and killed. The challenger became the owner of the purgatory, earning great blessings from the world.
The poems composed in that era describe prosperity under the guardian, when Undead ushered in an unprecedented development.
For a keen observer, the tone of the poems kept changing. They were less optimistic, less carefree as time passed. There was more tension, fear and despair.
And then suddenly, Purgatory's rich land turned into hell. The vast resources in the land could not stop the guardian's desire to watch everything burn.
The new guardian who challenged the old to rewrite the rigid rules of the place and give everyone a beacon of hope behaved just like the old guardian. In some cases, he was worse.
The next guardian, the third, was deemed as the hero. But he quickly turned insane, torturing Undead and destroying entire species.
The fourth guardian was even more genocidal. Half of the entire population in purgatory was wiped out under his tenure.
The fifth guardian, the one where the mythologies seem to end, had no description attributed to him. He was neither good nor bad, neither logical nor emotional, neither caring nor indifferent.
But the hell called 'guardians' ended with him.
Since his time, a guardian would not intervene in the workings of undead inside the purgatory.
They only enforced the rules when necessary and appeared when challenged, to kill or get killed. It was a thankless job in a lot of sense. And while the guardians stopped abrupt massacre on a boring tuesday for fun, they were not the sanest minds of the region.
They stayed in utter isolation, were treated like tools by purgatory and as a blockade by challengers. In essence, the guardians hated everyone equally and didn't mind unleashing violence when they were summoned.
That's why, any challenge to guardian was usually done in an empty space. That was until Varian came along.
Now, the guardian descended into a full crowd. "Demon!" Parasite Queen's face was solemn. Exuding bloodlust that surpassed anything ever experienced by those in the crowd, the creature seemed to glance at everyone before settling its sight on the queen.
Its body was covered in a black light and they could not sense how it looked. Instead of a head, it seemed to have just an eye which was only visible part of its body. The rest was wriggling darkness with bits of scarlet.
"You killed all my children last time. It's time you pay for your sins." Parasite Queen's body blurred and a beam of red ligth shot at the guardian.
The attack was so fast that when Varian noticed her hand rising up, he was blasted away by a powerful shockwave.
Then it seemed like the world flashed, twisted and blurred before everything started to make sense again.
When he came to his senses, half of his body was eaten up by the death energy and his aura reserves were hitting rock bottom.
Entire purgatory was shaking with massive explosions blasting their wave throughout the region.
Varian got up from the rough soil and spat the blood rising in his throat. It was pitch black, corrupted from the death energy that lingered all around.
Looking down, his body was losing its fight against the zombification. 'Up?' Isadora's voice rang in his head and he replied with a weak 'Yeah'.
'We tried to take you out but…' A sharp pain came from the inside and Varian peeked inside his soul with an omnious premonition. There it was. A twisting red mark. 'Damn it!' He's marked by the purgatory, now becoming a native. A native cannot leave purgatory, no matter what.
This shouldn't have happened since an outsider would have to spend a lot of time and turn into an Undead to be marked.
But Varian failed to consider something.
Challenging the guardian was something only a native could do. If an outsider does it, he'd be turned into a native.
So, when he challenged the guardian to salvage the situation, he ended up creating a difficult situation for himself.
"Urgh!" Groaning as he blocked further intrusion of death energy, Varian tried to dissolve the mark using the power of slivers.
The red and green lotus reached into his soul, drowning the mark it its power.
The slivers were very helpful so far and Varian hoped for them to work.
…They did not.
'What am I going to do? If I stay here, I'll turn into an Undead one day or another.'
[Control the mark.] Logos spoke up.
'It's not working.'
[If you are the guardian, you will gain the authority to control the mark to some degree. Using the slivers alongside the authority, you should be able to temporarily deactivate the mark and get out of here.]
Varian's eyes lit up and he sighed in relief before he suddenly raised his head in shock. 'How the hell am I going to kill the guardian?' [Dunno, don't care.]
"Okay."
Varian was happy that Logos even helped him to this extent. Usually, the incarnation of laziness wouldn't even open its mouth.
'Fall back from the frontline and regroup.'
Varian spoke in the communication channel.
The women who were following the grand battle between the parasite queen and the guardian were surprised for a moment before they did as requested.
Even though they all suffered injuries to varying degrees, they were definitely in a better condition compared to him.
The obvious reason might seem like their strength but a very significant reason was them not having to endure continuous days under this hostile environment.
'Do you have a way?' Sia was nervous. 'I don't really mind living with you but this place is not suitable for having babies.'
"…" Varian wanted to spank her badly for joking in this situation.
[You know she's not joking.]
Taking a brief breath, he said. "Let them kill each other. I'll help the weaker one with my slivers. While I do that, help me block the attacks from the other."