lovenovelstory Chapter 621: Once A Guardian, Always A Guardian
Chapter 621: Once A Guardian, Always A Guardian
After dismissing their troops, Eve and Eliya left the large war hall together.
Their footsteps echoed softly against the reinforced stone floor as they walked side by side down a long corridor lined with glowing protective runes.
For a while, neither of them spoke.
The distant sounds of soldiers preparing for deployment could still be heard behind them.
Eventually, Eliya broke the silence.
"Well Ancestor, it seems our time here will becoming to an end soon," she said, her white eyes glancing toward one of the tall windows that overlooked the fractured sky.
"The destruction of the Prime Expanse has begun... which means they are here."
Even after being away from the Lower Framework for over two trillion years—more than enough time for Eliya to see Eve as someone more familiar.
Truthfully, she did feel that way, but she had spent far more of her life guarding the sealed place that once held Adam and Eve.
Much like how Thalion always called Ash "Your Majesty," she couldn’t bring herself to call Eve anything but "Ancestor."
It was something Eve had long grown accustomed to, so she didn’t mind.
She simply walked with her usual calm composure, her soft golden eyes fixed ahead.
"And that means... he’s here as well" she agreed quietly. "Hmm, I wonder what someone like him is truly like...."
Eliya glanced at her.
"Ancestor.... that man, he nearly killed us."
Eve smiled at that notion. Even though Eliya wasn’t wrong from her perspective.... Eve knew she was only being stubborn.
"Hmm, did he?" She paused for a moment before continuing, her voice light.
"Or did he give us the opportunity to grow beyond what we ever thought was possible... while allowing us do to what we pleased?"
----
After so many years, they knew the truth of what had happened in that final battle on Earth.
Back then, the showdown with Lucy and the other invaders wasn’t unexpected.
As mentioned before, Adam and Eve’s sole purpose had always been to protect Earth, and the invaders at the time were foes they had clashed with countless times before.
When the seals finally broke, they saw it simply as an opportunity to end things once and for all.
What they couldn’t have anticipated, however, was the anomaly that was Ash.
His sudden arrival and presence threw their carefully laid calculations completely off course.
On that fateful day, as the white flames swept across the entirety of the lower dimension, Ash didn’t kill the two women.
No, much like Kaguya, he found himself drawn to them.
Eliya captivated him because was among the first beauties he had encountered back then—excluding his own women, of course.
She was also of a race he hadn’t seen at the time, and from their brief interaction, he found himself intrigued by her.
Eve was the very image of the mythical figure spoken of in tales from his mortal life, and with Ash being who he is, well... who wouldn’t want the legendary Eve as their wife?
When they left the Lower Dimensions, unlike Kaguya who ended up in a True Reality, the two women found themselves as Lower Ideas, taking up the roles of Wardens.
Ash hadn’t sent them there empty-handed—far from it.
They were granted Origin essence, something so profound it was beyond the comprehension of such beings—at least, for other Wardens and those just above them.
As one might expect, with the Origin’s essence their progress was unmatched.
However, as mentioned, advancement in this realm wasn’t about personal growth alone; it was more of a collective process.
To ascend and become a Greater Idea, one had to earn the rites from someone stronger within their threshold.
But, when they outshone all other Wardens, they didn’t attract the attention of just a Sentinel.
Instead, they found themselves speaking to a being who could recognize the essence within them—a Domain Lord.
Whether they realized it or not, this made them extraordinary within the first threshold, allowing them to skip entire stations and rise to the rank of Bastion Lords in just two cycles.
And it went without saying that if they received such a gift from Ash, it was special. He had even left messages to let them know exactly when to expect his arrival.
----
Eliya was quiet for a few seconds before she shook her head clicking her tongue.
"Tch, I guess you’re right." She then paused, "Though, I still don’t understand, how could he have given us something so useful... back when he was merely in the Lower Framework?"
It was something the two of them couldn’t stop wondering about.
They had technically spoken to Ash before, yet they still knew almost nothing about him.
All they really knew was that he was impossibly handsome and possessed a level of power far beyond anything they understood.
Still, it didn’t quite add up.
Even though he had bestowed such an incredible gift upon them, they knew the power system here wasn’t something that relied solely on one person.
So... just how strong was he now?
And if he hadn’t been in the Prime Expanse all this time, then where exactly had he been?
They continued walking in silence for a while longer, eventually turning down a narrower corridor that led deeper into the fortress.
The runes on the walls grew denser and more intricate the further they went, until they finally stopped in front of a large, reinforced door.
Without knocking, Eve pushed it open.
The moment they stepped inside, the atmosphere changed completely.
----
It no longer felt like they were inside a military structure.
Instead, it felt as though they had stepped into someone’s personal domain — a realm shaped entirely around the concept of guarding.
The walls were made of a deep, protective stone that seemed to hum with layered defensive concepts.
Floating barriers and translucent shields drifted lazily through the air, and the entire space carried a heavy, watchful presence, as if the room itself was constantly observing and protecting what was inside.
At the center of the room, seated behind a large obsidian desk, was a Domain Lord.
The one who took notice to them early on.
[A/N: At this point, everyone is already massive, so when I say tall, imagine someone even taller—like a 7-footer standing next to someone who’s 6 foot 10.]
She was a tall woman with sharp features and long, dark hair tied into a tight braid.
Her armor was heavier and more ornate than theirs, marked with the insignia of her station.
She looked up as they entered, her expression calm but carrying the weight of someone who had seen far too many battles.
Eve and Eliya stopped a respectful distance from the desk.
The Domain Lord studied them for a moment before speaking.
"You’re early," she said. "I assume the briefing with the troops went smoothly?"