The Guardian gods-Chapter 239

The door to the palace opened to show Iris with her wings spread out, holding a small golden plated chest. Erik, seeing that, immediately walked down from his throne before he quickly asked "Is that it?"

Iris nodded but she didn’t look to happy "Inside the chest is the culprit but before we start, I have to Inform your majesty Erik that those who have been compromised can’t be saved"

Erik heard her words but didn’t pay much mind to it as he was too drawn to the chest ready to find out the source of his trouble, Taking the chest away from Iris.

Erik took a deep breath before opening it, looking inside the chest all Erik found was something similar to a piece of hair. Enhancing his vision with mana, Erik noticed it was hair but a creature that looked like a hair and this one is dead.

Iris chose to speak up this time "What you see there is what I call a parasite, most living beings have some kind of parasite in them which lives in symbiosis with them"

"The parasite you are holding, I can proudly proclaim, is very uncommon in our world except for those compromised by Silas. Silas somehow got his hands on such a creature that is able to live in symbiosis with its host, altering their behavior and making them loyal to him, Worst part is that nothing is out of the unusual until Silas decides to activate the parasite" Iris explained, her voice tinged with frustration and a hint of fear.

"My comrade made a hypothesis that Silas relationship with the creatures are similar to a hive mind like bees and their queen. In this case Silas is the head of the hive mind able to easily influence other parasites’’

Erik’s brows furrowed as he looked at the tiny, lifeless creature. "So, Silas has been using these parasites to control my people, activating them at will?" he asked, a mix of anger and disbelief in his tone.

Iris nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty. Those who have been compromised by these parasites are beyond saving. Once the parasite integrates with the host’s nervous system, it becomes impossible to remove without killing them."

Erik’s face darkened with fury. "Then we must find a way to stop Silas before he decides to activate them and cause more chaos"

Iris shook her head at Erik statement "It will be impossible to catch him off guard, during out time dissecting people, there was always this creepy sensation of being watched and we all concluded that this was Silas"

"The parasite can transmit maybe images or information of their current surroundings to him so wanting to find and stop him is impossible besides he should know by now that we have found how his manipulation works" Iris said as she took a step back.

Erik raised a brow at her action "what are you doing?"

Iris gave Erik a lady royalty bow before she answered with a subtle smile on her face "I believe we have help have help you and the humans enough"

"This is where we take a step back and leave mortal problems to mortals, don’t you think so your majesty?" Iris asked as she looked at Erik.

Erik’s eyes widened in disbelief. "You can’t be serious. You’re abandoning us now, at our most critical hour?"

Iris straightened, her expression calm and resolute. "This battle is yours to fight, Erik. We have provided you with the knowledge and tools you need to face Silas. The rest is up to you and your people."

Erik’s anger flared, but he quickly suppressed it, realizing the futility of arguing. "Very well, Iris. Thank you for your assistance. We will handle this from here."

Iris nodded, a glint of respect in her eyes. "I believe in your strength, Erik. You will prevail."

Before walking away, she said "I wish you a happy cleansing." With that, Iris turned and walked away, her wings shimmering in the torchlight. Erik watched her go, a mix of frustration brewing within him.

"Cleansing?" Erik thought to himself in confusion as he looked down at the small chest he was holding, it was then it clicked.

For a second everything turned blurry for Erik, the implication of the word was something Erik doesn’t like or want to see happen but from the way things are going it seems he has no choice but to do that.

Erik stood in silence when the palace door was opened again to show a guard who came in a hurry, Jonas who knew his father needed a moment to get things together met the guard halfway before asking "What is it?"

The guard bowed "The priest from the sun kingdom met with the Harpies envoy after a short unknown discussion, the sun priest made a request to head back to his kingdom"

Jonas hearing that stood wide eyes ashe looked at his father, Erik sighed before saying to the guard "Let him go, keeping him here will send a bad message to the sun kingdom"

The guard nodded before leaving, Jonas walked towards his father "Do you think the Harpies informed the priest of our lies to him, father?"

Erik took a moment to think before responding "I don’t think so, the Harpies seem adamant in letting humans solve their problems themselves . Even though they are in cahoot with the sun kingdom, there is no benefit for them to sow discord between us and the sun kingdom"

Jonas nodded to his father’s words "Then what do you think she said to the priest?"

Erik walked back to his throne while holding the chest "I think it has something to do with a new religion the godlings race are trying hard to keep at bay but from the recent news from the Northern part, it seems it can be held much longer"

"If possible, I would like to tackle the Silas problem before the outbreak of the new religion reaches our side but from the way things are going, we are about to have two waves of problematic issues weighing on us. The harpies must have shared the news with the priest of this so that they can prepare themselves’ ’.

Iris who was now in the sky took a look back at the humanity kingdom. If possible she would have liked to stay and help them much more but Kael message to her before she left and made her stay away.

Kael informed her of how since the beginning of this, their actions against the humans have been pushing the ethical boundary of the humans, like the sky drop and the convincing of the human leader to give away some humans as test subject, even though the second one was mostly of good help to the humans, it still doesn’t excuse what they were doing.

Later, their backhand play in all this would be known but that is something they can still deal with. The problem now is that after Iris found the problem of Silas, the solution to the problem isn’t something the harpies should put their hands on.

The only way to end the Silas problem is by killing those who have been compromised, there is no other way to end it. From the look of things, it is unknown how many have been compromised in Erik’s kingdom but estimation shows that one third of the people in Erik’s kingdom are compromised not to mention those of important standing in the human kingdom.

Kale told Iris that the first two problems can be solved but when it comes to mass killing of humans, the Harpies should not have a hand in dealing with it as the blame can be easily shifted to them on the reason that they are not humans.

Iris informed the priest of the possible cleansing about to happen and at the same time, on the order of Bernard who still has his suspicion that Silas may have played a hand on the sun kingdom but he doesn’t dare to use that hand, nevertheless it doesn’t make it any better if there was ever a chance of that.

"Good luck" Iris said as her body was covered with golden flames as she penetrated through the cloud in a burst of speed after she swung her wings.

Erik sat in his office with the chest on the table in front of him, "How was he to find other parasites using the one in front of him and what was he to do once he found them?"

Iris already told him there was no saving of those hosted with the parasite as it has become an essential part of them living, so extracting the parasite or killing it can’t be done without the host dying in the process.

If possible, Erik would like to get his team of researchers to start finding ways to locate other parasites but since now one in his castle or kingdom can be fully trusted, it will be all up to him to do it alone.