The Four Guardians

"IFER! WHERE IS HE?!"

Inside the Demon Realm's Tower, Sagitta ran around as fast as she could. To the average person, they would be exhausted but for someone who trains in focus and breath manipulation, this was nothing.

"Relax… I'm sure he just went out… He'll be back in time. He's never missed it before."

"BUT WHERE WOULD HE GO? HE HASN'T BEEN TO THE HUMAN WORLD IN YEARS? WHY WOULD HE SUDDENLY GO BACK?!"

"OK… first… please stop screaming… in case you haven't realized I'm still in bed and you barged into my room without asking…"

"Oh… I apologize… but you must have heard from Tempus, right? He tells you everything."

"Not really. I just listen to him because, unlike you, I treat him with respect. Regardless of his race."

"Tsk… I'll ask Mane…"

....

"Thank god she's gone… she's like my mother…"

Ifer laid staring at the b.a.r.e ceiling, thinking about Tempus.

"I wonder where he went… Hey, Hreit…"

"What is it Master Ifer."

Out of the shadows popped a small Imp dressed in a tiny suit that seemed almost too tight for him.

Hreit along with Thorit and the Other Guardian Imps, serve the guardians. Hreit watches over the South Sector when Ifer is away. Hreit completes all the same jobs as Thorit and will never betray Ifer or the other Guardians.

Along with managing the South Sector, Hreit is also in charge of the Demon Realm's Economical status. Thanks to him, he managed to rebuild the Demon Realm's economy after the war and is trusted by the Demon King.

"Has Thorit's Spies found anything on Tempus? I'm sure Thorit knows… he is in charge of information gathering and the North Sector whilst Tempus is away."

"Apologize Master Ifer. Although we serve the Guardians we are sworn to secrecy. Unless Tempus has allowed his whereabouts to be known then there is nothing I can do."

"Hmm… I see…" Ifer went back to staring at the ceiling as Hreit stood in the doorway awkwardly.

"Yeah… I don't believe that. BRING THORIT HERE NOW."

"As you wish."

Ifer jumped up from his bed and prepared himself. He dressed in his finest and lightest clothes as he was always ready to fight if needed.

"What is it you request from me, Master Ifer?" Thorit stood in the doorway to Ifer's room and bowed down.

"I know you've been spying on Tempus… I know you currently have someone watching over him, right?"

"Indeed I do. However, Master Tempus has currently entered an area we cannot access. Even our finest spies couldn't get close."

"Somewhere you can't spy on him? That doesn't sound like you? Where exactly is he?"

Sweat poured down Thorit's face. Not only was he concerned for his Master but he was also disappointed to have spied on him.

"I-i… cannot say…"

"Hmmm… Very well, he's clearly gone to the human world. I'm sure he will be back soon enough… I'm sure you'll make sure he isn't late for the meeting, right?"

"Of course. Master Tempus is aware that the Meeting of the Kings is approaching and he shall return in time."

"I hope he brings me back some sort of fun game to play… I've already gotten bored with those cards that Sagitta won."

"Is that everything, Master Ifer?"

Ifer moved from his bedroom and moved to the connecting control room where he monitors and manages everything, looking down on the South Sector below him.

"No… I think that's everything… Oh… if you see Sagitta then tell her that Tempus will return. She seems to be stressing out for no reason again."

"Oh dear… I shall inform her right away…"

Thorit left alongside Hreit, closing the door behind them.

"Now then… Tempus is in the Human world… I wonder why… I'll have to question him when he comes back…"

# # #

"Ok, so time for training!" Tempus and Tia moved towards a training ground located within the academy. The grounds were designed the same way as the ones in the Demon Realm.

"I-is it going to be hard?"

"Hard? Depends, I think you'll be fine. But before we start we need to wait for Eva to bring the supplies."

"Supplies? What for?"

"Are you aware of the Magia Scale?" Tempus asked.

"I-i think so… it's a way to tell how strong a mage is…"

"Correct! First, we are going to test your Magic level, then your spells Magi points."

"Ah… o-ok…"

A few minutes later Eva ran into the centre of the arena holding various boxes full of magic crystals.

"Ok… I got them… what do we do?"

"I'm surprised you haven't done this before. It's simple. You take a crystal out of the box… go on… pick one up…"

"Oh… ok…"

Eva picked a crystal from the box at random. Holding it in her hand caused the crystal to emit a bright red colour.

"It… feels warm… but it doesn't hurt."

"That's because of your natural element. You are fire so that's why it is red, it uses your mana, you see? The light shows how powerful you are. It was pretty bright meaning you are strong. Go on, Tia. Your turn."

Tia approached the box looking into it before choosing the largest crystal she could find.

The crystal emitted a powerful blue light before exploding into thousands of pieces in her hand.

"W-what happened…"

Tempus stared at Tia in surprise. He had no idea what to say as no matter what he tried the words wouldn't come out.

"Errr… how do I explain this…

So… the crystals use a bit of your mana to tell. Don't ask for the specifics because it's complicated. If the crystal emits a dim light it means you either have no mana or very weak mana. The brighter the light means the more 'pure' your mana is. Depending on how 'pure' your mana is it can tell us how powerful you are. Although you can be born with naturally pure mana most people would train to increase their mana pool along with the purity of their mana."

"Right… so what does the crystal breaking mean…"

"Well… It kinda means that her mana is off the scale…"

"WHAT!" Tia and Eva were shocked at the revelation that they had heard. They believed it to be a lie at first but after breaking all the crystals they had they accepted it as the truth.

"S-so… I have good mana?"

"Yup! I'm glad we did this. I thought the problem was something completely different but now that we've done this I can figure out a way to help you improve. We couldn't have figured that out in the Demon Realm."

For the first time in her life, Tia felt as if she wasn't useless. She had people helping her improve and people that believed in her. Although the training had begun. She felt as if she could win the battle.

"About the Demon Realm?" Eva asked. "What you said before, about the Guardian of the North? Were you telling the truth?"

"Of course. Why would I lie about something like that?"

"I see. It makes sense now… the reason as to why you are so powerful… Hey, if you did one of those crystals what would happen?"

"Last time I checked it broke. Haven't bothered since."

Eva recalled all the memories she had of Tempus using magic. Creating the link between his power and his position. Realising how blind she was being.

"Arrgg… I'm so stupid… How could I not see it?"

"Don't beat yourself up over it. Anyway… next step… Magi Points. Do you know what that is?"

"I do!" Eva jumped out of her moment of despair to answer.

"It's a way we measure spell powers. Each spell regardless of the type is given a numerical value to determine how powerful it is. We learnt that the average spell is around 100. 500 if it's offensive. But some people study their whole lives to get it into the thousands!"

"Nice… good thing they teach you stuff here…"

"I'm smarter than you think!" Eva stood triumphantly.

"So there are a few ways to test how powerful a spell is. There are even spells to test. Which is what we'll be using. There was a famous analytical spell developed which allows us to see the mana within a spell and its purity out of 100. From these values, we can work out how powerful a spell is."

"Ok… I think I can do this…"

Tia stood in the centre as Tempus and Eva walked back to watch from the wall. Tia closed her eyes and pulled out her wand and started to create the same water spell Tempus saw before.

"How long does she need to hold it for?" Eva asked.

"About 5 seconds…"

"And what if she can't?"

Tempus didn't say anything in return and instead watched Tia closely. Her body began to shake and her arms looked as if they were about to give up. Her legs collapsed but Tia kept channelling the spell.

She knew she needed to keep it going but was unaware of how long.

"It's been 5 seconds get her to stop it… it's hurting her."

"No… this will help her…"

The large ball of water started to become deformed. What was once a perfect sphere slowly started to drip onto the floor around Tia's feet. Rapidly flooding the arena.

"Ok… that's enough… Any more and we'll drown."

Tempus launched forward a large avalanche of cold air. Freezing the water on the ground and the sphere in the air with just a turn of a page. Tempus jumped up to the large sphere floating above Tia. as it slowly began to fall Tempus held his hand against it, creating a powerful shockwave that pulverised the ice into tiny particles that slowly drifted down.

"It's almost like snow…" Eva smiled.

"Well… we got what we needed. Let's see… I've just got to do a quick calculation…

Ok… This times this… add this… carry the 2… don't forget to square it… Okay! Done!"

Eva and Tia were on edge waiting to hear the answer.

"So the average offensive spell is typically around 500 - 1000 as mentioned before. This spell was…. 1529."

Tia collapsed to the floor from not only shock but also because she had used up all her mana.

"I'm surprised she lasted this long," Eva said catching Tia in her arms. "Normally she would be out of mana by now."

"Oh… she ran out ages ago. She ran out around the 700 mark. I kept flooding her with my mana which allowed her to keep going."

"What? Isn't that dangerous?"

"It could be if her body couldn't handle any more mana. But now we know it isn't a physical problem."

"WHAT IF YOU KILLED HER?"

"Huh... hmm... I guess that was a possibility..."

Eva was displeased with Tempus' methods. Although he put her friend in danger, she couldn't help but admire him.