Chaos ensued as all the remaining warriors in the tribe fought tooth and nail with the Troll to protect everyone else.
Among them was a lady who wielded a spear. After seeing the Troll send her husband flying with a single blow, she immediately blocked the path of the culprit.
"Her name is Melissa," said the old Catkin with tenderness. "She’s the bravest and kindest woman I’ve ever known in my life. Someone I greatly treasured and wished to protect."
The two watched as a dozen Catkins surrounded the Troll and attacked it repeatedly from its blind spot.
But the regeneration ability of a Troll was simply too fast. Even with a dozen warriors teaming up to inflict numerous injuries, it still held its ground.
When Melissa saw an opportunity to deliver a deadly blow to the monster, she didn’t hesitate to lunge with her weapon, ready to strike.
Unfortunately, the Troll had deliberately set up this trap by pretending to take a defensive stance from its attackers.
The moment Melissa entered its attack range, it immediately unleashed a powerful blow against her, sending her flying through the air.
"Nooooooooo!" the leader of the tribe shouted as he propped himself up from the ground, abandoning his heavy shield and running to where his beloved lay, dying.
"Melissa, don’t leave me," the leader of the Catkin cried as he begged his wife, whose clothes were dyed with her own blood.
He made her drink some healing potions, but these potions wouldn’t be enough to save someone who had been fatally wounded.
At most, it would only delay the inevitable, giving her enough time to say her final words.
"I’m sorry... Leo," Melissa apologised as tears streamed down her eyes. "Please protect and raise our kids well."
"N-no... you can’t do this, Melissa," Leo insisted. "Kael and Seris still need you. Don’t leave us. Please, I beg of you. Don’t leave us!"
"My... love... my two darlings..." Melissa said with sadness and unwillingness. "I’m sorry..."
With that, the light in her eyes faded. Her eyes remained open, looking at the heavens as if asking them why she must leave behind the people that she loved.
The scene changed once more. This time, it showed Leo and two children, who Alex assumed were between four to six years old.
They stood in front of a grave. The two kids were crying as they called out for their mother.
"Life is truly precious," the old Leo said to Alex. "We only realize how precious it is when those we love part from us forever. Her death devastated me. If not for the fact that I had two kids to take care of, I would have also followed her to the afterlife so both of us could be together."
The elderly Catkin paused as he looked at the two crying children, who had lost their mother at a very young age.
"I am no Hero. I was merely someone who wished to live a peaceful and happy life with my family," Leo stated. "I just wanted to find a place we could call home, so we would no longer have to travel and face the dangers of the world with each passing day."
The scene once again changed, but the location remained the same.
It was night, and the world was lit only by the full moon and the stars.
Leo knelt in front of the grave of his wife, with Everguard firmly planted on the ground before him.
"I’ve never prayed for mercy or salvation," Leo went on. "But on that night, I prayed desperately for the Gods to give me the strength to protect those who couldn’t protect themselves.
"I was willing to do anything, even form a contract with the Devil in exchange for my soul if it meant that my son and daughter would be able to live in peace."
"I begged, prayed, and begged some more to whatever deity, demon, or entity would hear my call. And just as I was about to succumb to despair, they came to me."
A pair who ruled over the domain of true love as well as steadfast bonds.
The Lovers stood where souls embarked, not to offer comfort but to bind fate.
And to the one who knelt in grief yet vowed to protect, they spoke.
"You, who love through sorrow, who swear in the shadow of pain—you are the flame that does not falter. You knelt in mourning, and still, you swore to shield. That is love made immortal."
The world faded, and Leo found himself kneeling in a place beyond time, a quiet meadow under a sky of stars that did not move.
A soft wind carried the scent of something long forgotten—lavender, ash, and hope.
Alex watched as The Lovers gently reached out to touch the side of Leo’s face.
"We are not here to mend what was broken."
"We are here because even in your grief, you reached outward."
"Love, when forged into an oath, does not die. It becomes a shield."
Faint light from the heavens descended upon Leo, bathing him in golden light.
"You weep for what is gone. But what you protect now is what gives your grief meaning."
"Rise, not in anger. Rise, not in vengeance. Rise... because love still lives within you. And because someone must stand when no one else will."
The Lovers then spoke in unison as they gave Leo their blessing.
"Rise, Oathkeeper. Your vow has been heard, and we will bind you to it."
Alex couldn’t help but get emotional when he saw this scene.
He had seen something similar in ELO, and that was when he gained the Hidden Profession of Shield Savant.
Just like Leo, he obtained this power through one of the Deities in the game.
The only one he had met after playing the game since its public release.
’So, the Oathkeeper isn’t just a Hidden Job Class,’ Alex realised. ’It’s a profession bestowed upon by The Lovers. It’s a Hidden Prestige Class!’
However, Alex had never heard of anyone acquiring the Oathkeeper Job Class in the game.
No one in top 200 or in any other Rankings of ELO had the profession Oathkeeper.
In the game, there were NPCs who had unique Job Classes that no one else possessed.
Alex had assumed that the Oathkeeper was one of them.
But now, he understood its origin and how Leo became the very first and probably the last Oathkeeper to grace the world of Arcana.
"The Oath of an Oathkeeper is binding," Leo said to Alex. "It is not an oath that should be done carelessly, for The Lovers would not allow their blessing to be tainted by greed, corruption, and lust for power."
"Unlike me, I know you are only after a profession that might allow you to overcome the danger that haunts the Etherion Domain at this moment. But I am not here to judge you. All I want to know is the reason why you fight. I want to know who you want to protect."
Alex held the gaze of the Oathkeeper, who was looking at him with a calm expression on his face.
He understood then and there that he couldn’t treat this matter carelessly, for the person in front of him had made an oath that he kept until his dying breath.
To take that lightly was to tarnish Leo’s will, and Alex understood that The Lovers would also pay close attention to him if he chose to inherit one of their legacies that had been buried in the pages of history.