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He nodded and stepped back.

"Not bad as for the first time! Not bad at all! But your fear doesn't let the Force get released in full. You don't have to control the fight. In the end, you'll just die!"

"What do you mean?" I asked, getting up and shaking off.

"You have to unleash your inner demon when you fight. I do not think, do not analyze, but obey my inner warrior."

“That's lovely! You have a warrior, and I got a demon! Why is that?"

"The Guardians are neutral. We're created to serve the Balance. But you're a different creature. You'll have to fill the Force with souls and abilities of the Murky Shadows, demons, and other creatures. You can have only their abilities, so you get the inner demon. Let's go! I'll take you to the library! I need to take care of a few things, and then we'll send you home."

The library of the Guardians was amazing. Multi-level cabinets with numerous shelves and breathtaking stairs led to the cherished goal – ancient tomes, scrolls, and even leather scraps of fabric. All the most valuable works of the ancient literature were gathered here. One had to lift up the head to see the end of the bookcase. The territory of the library could be compared to the football field gathering all the most valuable specimens. But there was no echo as if the architect had specially worked on the sound insulation so that every reader could retire with one of the numerous exclusive volumes. There were also massive tables with chairs like in the reading room of the Royal Library. This library could not even be compared with the Harvard Library, which was considered to be one of the best in the world. All that I saw now was a thousand times more amazing than the university library. I even stopped breathing because I was so amazed by the view.

Since my childhood, I was considered a bookworm, and now I happened to be in the juiciest apple in the world.

Eugene led me to one of the tables, put a pile of books in front of me and said,

"Read this. In these books, you'll find the fundamental information about what's happening and where you're now. I'll be back as soon as possible."

To my relief, Eugene quickly left, and I plunged into reading. All the books, which the Guardian gave to me, were old, but not enough to describe the world's oldest civilization. As soon as I read them, I understood why they confused me. I thought that these were the textbooks for young Guardians. All the ancient information and descriptions were summarized in these textbooks, which were very similar to our own books on history. I snorted at the thought this so-called higher race was not much different from the human race. Perhaps, they even borrowed some of our "useless inventions", like writing textbooks. Most likely, it was true, because these materials were not available for people so we could not adopt this way of presenting information. Or could we? Tol told that some representatives of so-called higher races often lived among ordinary people. What if all the most famous inventors from the beginning of times were not ordinary people? It would be interesting to know whether I was right in my assumptions.

I was captured by the information that I perceived as myths of Ancient Greece. My mother often liked to read them to me as a child, but they were a little far from reality, judging by these books. However, some of the myths were true, which seriously shocked me.

I expected to read about the ancient Greek Gods in beautiful tunics. But they appeared to be naked on the pages of the books. Do they still live on Olympus like this, given that everyone is a brother, a father or a son to each other? Strange traditions…

I recalled the image that I could not get out of my mind.

"Darsy…" someone was shaking my shoulder, except it was reaching my mind from afar. "Darsy, wake up!"

I opened my eyes and blankly looked at Eugene. He pursed his lips sarcastically.

"WHAT? Like you never sleep!"

"If you haven't changed your mind about going home yet, it is high time now."

I nodded and we left the library. Once again we saw the passage that I did not want to enter. My stomach dropped at the thought of a recent trip.

"What are you waiting for? When I enter the portal it will be closed. Don't you want to go back?"

"I want. Is there another way?"

"There's no other way out of here."

I went inside with a dull moan and immediately felt like a sausage placed in a vacuum meter.

"What am I going to tell Jackson?" it was a rhetorical question, said almost in a whisper, but Eugene heard.

"Whoever it is, don't say anything about what's happened today and what's waiting for you in the future."

"I can't lie to him. We've known each other since we were kids. He was the first to know my secrets, and I knew his."

"Spare me the details," he waved. "But remember, as soon as you tell him, if he believes you, of course, this will put his life at risk."

"Will he be killed?"

"No. We have services that make sure that our world is hidden from you. They erase the memories that occasionally appear due to the carelessness of the Murky Shadows or other creatures. But some moments can't be replaced by confusing memories or erased, so the human must be removed. He can live but in a different form. Long-term comas, total memory loss, alcohol addiction and so on – all this is convincing for you and safe for us. Who would believe a homeless man with a sign of the end of the world or demons wandering down the street? Who would believe a drug addict who saw something unnatural? Sometimes the witnesses are simply erased like they never existed. One or two – it doesn't matter, even the mother wouldn't notice. So, I don't recommend telling anything!"

It was hardly a simple recommendation, rather a warning, which, as hard as it was for me, I would have to follow. I never hid anything from Jackson. As children, we were notorious conspirators, often against the entire world. He was always my closest friend. Even when my family moved, we found a way to see each other until he was transferred to my new school for his final year. How was I supposed to keep this secret?

"Why are you hiding? As far as I know, many thousands of years ago, the population worshipped the Gods, and the prayers of the people imbued them with power."

"It was a long time ago. A lot has changed since then. The faith of the people crushed, turned into a religion. Everyone who disagreed invented his own God and forced his loved ones to believe in those Gods. Over the years, different religions caused wars and pestilences. In a moment of fanaticism, people destroyed the temples of the Gods and the ancient reliquiae, making the irreparable damage to themselves and us. They stopped to believe but not to curse. It was therefore decided to bury the truth in oblivion and to cherish the illusion. Things have changed for us ever since. We stopped worrying that insatiability and hostility would destroy the remains of your civilization. The people themselves began to preserve the reliquiae as rarities, without which everything will die. Now, we make sure that things stay the way they are, and people protect what is so precious to us from themselves.

I hardly understood the true meaning of what was said and the motives of the Gods. But if they thought it was for the best, then it probably was so. I myself often noticed the prose of this world and was amazed. But Eugene was right: people carefully preserve all the archaeological findings behind bulletproof glass, fences, and thick walls. It was always never enough for us and, at the moment, Eugene's words seemed right to me – we were like parasites. We had too little faith and too much greed. We tried to get everything out of life, not thinking about the consequences, destroying everything that could prevent us from getting what we wanted.