Soon Hakama pulled him aside, and Cedo asked, "So? What is it you want from me?"
"We're almost there," she answered. "You have to defeat the distorted ones."
He asked again whether he had understood her correctly, and she told him he had.
After some time Shandi screamed. He covered his face with his hand and shouted a single word.
"The village!"
They stood on a hill overlooking the village, and the village was engulfed in flames. Shandi, tears in his eyes, rushed forward, shouting, "Dad! Mom!"
Hakama stretched out her hand after him. "Stop!"
A wooden fence, wooden buildings, Cedo noted briefly. It seems their civilization isn't very advanced.
After that they went down into the village, and there they saw an old woman trying to hold back a huge distorted one with a staff. The woman turned around and cried out.
"Hakama! Why did you come back?"
Cedo paused for a moment. "So this is a distorted one?"
"Yes, that's exactly what it looks like," he murmured to himself. "Apparently the name hasn't changed in this era."
"Hurry — get out of here!" the grandmother shouted.
But Hakama did the opposite. She concentrated the energy in her body and declared firmly, "I'm not running. I'm going to save you."
An interesting reaction, Cedo noted to himself. I need to figure this out.
He suddenly leapt aside, was on the monster in the blink of an eye and kicked it away. Then he scooped the grandmother up in his arms, apologized quietly and rushed off, carrying her to safety.
Meanwhile Hakama gathered energy in her palms, and Cedo called back over his shoulder, "Go on, then."
A powerful ball of energy formed in her hand, and she sent it straight at the monster.
Cedo lowered the grandmother to the ground and watched the distorted one. I knew it, he thought. That's the power of the machines breaking through regeneration. He could feel that the distorted one was not restoring itself. She's using the nanomachines suspended in the air — but only compatible people should have that kind of power.
He turned to the old woman. "That fireball of hers. Can everyone do that in this era?"
The grandmother looked at him in surprise. "In this era?" Then she answered. "No. Not everyone. In our village only four people can use the sacred power, including me."
"Sacred power," Cedo said thoughtfully. So that's what they call the ability to control nanomachines.
At that moment Hakama ran up to them. "Grandma, what about the others?"
"I evacuated them," she said. "But something more important — why did you come back? The village is almost destroyed." With those words she looked down in despair. "This distorted one is only a newborn cub. We can't cope with its main body, and after a while a horde of newborns like it will burn down every forest we have."
The next second Sauls came up to the group and snapped, "Enough chatter, old woman."
The grandmother jumped. "Sauls."
He was clutching a staff in his hand. Coming closer, he declared confidently, "These distorted ones are small fry. I can handle them myself."
The grandmother looked at him. "And what about the rest of the villagers?"
Sauls frowned, scratched the back of his head and replied, "Don't worry, they're already in the shelter."
Then Hakama ran to her father and greeted him joyfully. He smiled down at her.
"You disappeared. I was so frightened. Where did you even go?"
Hakama answered that they had gone to the sealed door. The grandmother cried out in alarm.
"Hakama! You went to the forbidden place?"
"You said so yourself, a long time ago," she said quietly. "That behind that door is the god who protects the village, and that when the village is in danger he will definitely come to our rescue."
After these words the grandmother turned her gaze to Cedo. This man, though, she thought. He doesn't look like a god at all.
At the same moment Sauls chuckled. "Don't talk nonsense. You mean to tell me this lesser being is our guardian god? Don't be ridiculous."
"Lesser being?" Cedo asked quietly.
Shandi looked at Sauls and exclaimed, "Brother, he really is our guardian god!"
Sauls seemed to be calculating something in his mind, and muttered, "What?" So that was where his brother had been all that time — with Hakama, when he could not find him anywhere.
Then Sauls stepped closer to Cedo and shouted, pointing a finger at him.
"Look at his ears. It's obvious. He has no animal abilities, no special strength. He's a lesser being. He just happened to be here. You kids got it wrong, right?"
Shandi objected furiously. "You're the one who's got it wrong. The guardian god just defeated a distorted one."
Sauls went on grinning. "Yeah. A cub. I could have killed that with one kick."
Then he stared at Cedo and said coldly, "Listen. We'll sort out our own problems." Frowning, he pointed his weapon at him and added, "We don't need some lowly stranger here meddling in what isn't his. So don't interfere."
He turned around and walked away, but the old woman called after him.
"Stop! Where are you going?"
Sauls only waved a hand. "Isn't it obvious? I'm going to beat that huge distorted one, and you can all sit here and shake with fear."
Everyone involuntarily turned to watch him go. The grandmother exclaimed in pain, "Stupid boy. If he had just left, he could have survived."
She turned to Cedo and said quietly, "I don't know who you are, but you saved us today. If you don't mind, go with my son and take the children to the shelter, and I'll go after Sauls. Let this be our last chance."
Hakama cried out in alarm. "Grandmother!"
Cedo turned sharply and refused, firmly. He had his pride too. He could not allow some upstart to call him a lesser being and then go off and die.
Meanwhile the huge distorted one had gone still in the water. Sauls stepped into the shallows and called out to the monster.
"Hey."
He concentrated the energy in his weapon and proclaimed loudly, "I am the one who will lead this nation and become a paladin. Creatures like you, I will destroy with my own hands."
With those words he rushed straight at the monster.
The next second several cubs threw themselves at him. Sauls swung his weapon, cutting through the attackers, and roared, "Out of my way!"
He came at the largest of the distorted ones and shouted, "I'll finish it with one blow!"
Pushing off from the water, he delivered a powerful strike straight into the creature's face. Landing a little further away, Sauls turned around in surprise and saw that the wound on the monster's body had already begun to heal.
At that very moment a huge clawed paw shot towards him. He instinctively threw his arm up to cover himself — and then stared ahead in amazement. A barrier, raised by Cedo, stood in front of him.
Sauls looked around at him, and Cedo asked, "Are you finished?"
The next moment one of the baby monsters leapt at him. Sauls jumped aside and cried out, "It's still alive?"
Then Cedo snapped his fingers, and a powerful beam of energy pierced both monsters at once.