The Last Hope: Chapter 22 - The Guardians Of Hope

As the sweet body plummeted towards certain cremation, the three heroes felt their defeat was almost certain. However, before the corpse splashed into the hot magma, a long thick silky string snatched it up, and swung it away from the danger.
One of the teenagers stared up at a little spider and managed to smile a very hopeful grin when she saw the look of determination on the small arachnid’s face.
“Hercules!” she muttered, which dwindled some her strength. The tiny spider used his two front stick like legs and swung the web that held the body, he let the web break and the corpse crashed to the ground.
A dull pain struck the phantom’s right arm and torso. “Be a little more careful with my body Hercules.” She spoke, an earned a squeak of sorrow in return.
Israphel, whose plan had been foiled, snarled and with an almighty rise of his arms, he summoned sand and aimed it at the ceiling, exactly where the loyal spider sat.
As soon as Hercules saw the danger, he sprinted out of the way, the ball of sand just missed the arachnid and splattered onto the ceiling.
While he was distracted, the male teen used this opportunity and grabbed his friend’s body. However the pale ruler noticed, and again used his sand and stopped the poor boy from reaching his two friends.
“Risk I have an idea” The ghoul spoke, her cobalt locked pal leant in close to hear the plan. “Hercules grabs the body and tries to toss it to me” A groan escaped her mouth before she continued. “If he does not get it close enough, you have to grab it and throw it” The shorter girl huffed but nodded at the plan.
“What do I do if I don’t have to step in?” Risk asked, watching as Toby ran frantically away from the evil sand.
“Shoot at Israphel!” Char gasped, and used her stronger and less see-through arm to drag herself closer to the action.
The older teen had started to get into more trouble. The more he ran with his friend’s body, the slower he was becoming. This meant that the attacks that Israphel shot hit much closer than they did before.
Char had no other reason but to initiate the plan. With all of her might she shouted. “Toby throw it!”
He heard loud and clear. Almost instantly, he threw the body into the air, dodging another flurry of sand from Israphel.
The young ghost gasped as she writhed on the ground but she managed to look at her lovely pet who still hung on the dark ceiling. “Hercules grab the body!”.
All the while, Risk jumped into the action and shot her hand-made arrows at the evil king.
Again her command was heard clearly and the spider skilfully used his sturdy web to snatch the body mid-air. With the momentum, Hercules used it to swing the body. The white faced adult watched the body and the spider and changed his target from Toby to Hercules.
A huge wave of sand rose up towards the poor arachnid and Hercules squeaked in fright.
“Hercules throw my body here!” Char started to fade fast with every move she made. The spider brought one leg and cut his web to let the body fall.
Israphel had seen this coming. He blasted the sand he controlled towards the ghoul and the corpse.
Cries of protest escaped the blue-haired girl’s mouth and she tried to dash towards her best pal, but her taller brother held her back from the danger.
The impact of the sand caused thick dust to spread all over the room, making it hard to see.
No one knew if the body had reached Char in time, or if Israphel had stopped the body and the ghoul had faded away. All they knew was either Charlotte was gone, or she was back.
When the dust finally started to clear, Israphel, Hercules, Gerald and the two teens could make out a person standing up.
The posture was slumped and almost looked in pain. Hope did not fill the teens until the room was clear of sand.
The pale leader gulped and the small living body limped towards him. When it was clear, the eyes of the being opened and it was now clear that the ghoulish teen was now back in the world of the living.
“How did you do that?!” The defeated voice of Israphel boomed, backed up into his throne, fear now consumed him.
A bright emerald glow shone around the young now living girl and a smirk emerged on her face, the pain she had seemed forgotten.
“How dare you try to harm our world and our people Lehparsi?!” A stern, much different voice echoed around the room. The true name of the petrified boss shocked Israphel and terror was all the once intimidating leader felt.
“Melissa?” He stuttered fearfully, watching as a faint outline of the Goddess appeared behind her living counterpart.
“I gave up my immortality for you Lehparsi!” Growled the phantom like image, who kept her furious eyes on him.
The anger that Risk felt towards the white chief caused her body to glimmer the same turquoise as her only shown eye. A slightly taller image of her Goddess counterpart appeared beside her.
“Scum like you did not deserve to be resurrected Lehparsi!” The nature loving deity shrieked. “We all gave up our immortality for you!” Israphel choked on his words as the second divinity and her physical equal joined their sweet pal.
“We Guardians are undoing our foolish mistake.” A brightly glowing Toby and ghost-like God spoke, the weapon the young male held now gleamed with a bright white light. “Lehparsi you shall be no more!”
Through the hole in the ceiling, a heavenly glitter of the full moon sparkled onto the six individuals.
Before the now terrified self proclaimed king could react, the room was bathed in a huge blinding light, the prophecy fulfilling itself.

The halls of the gloomy castle were quiet. The fight had stopped, nobody dared to move.
A young woman, who sported a simple blue t-shirt and light grey trousers, used her trusty owl-like hat to shield her eyes from the light. When she dared to look back, the one she had been battling now lay on the ground. She rushed to the side of the body, the tears she had threatened to fall.
“Lewis don’t die on me” She muttered as she hugged the body tightly. “Xephos! Wake up!” She half-screamed.
Bright blues eyes shot open and instantly fell on his love. “Hannah?” He muttered.
Lomadia’s face turned to his before her saddened tears became those of happiness and the two lovers stayed there, they never wanted to separate again.

The throne room became clear once again. As soon as the glow drifted off of the young brunette girl, agony engulfed her and she collapsed straight into the arms of the male. She smiled widely and took a sharp breath to confirm to herself that she was now alive.
“Did we win?” She winced, watching the droplets fall off of Toby’s face as he held her carefully. He nodded happily and embraced Charlotte as carefully as he could. Their sky-blue haired friend joined in the cuddle and the trio breathed a sigh of relief.
“You three did it!” The soft voice of Mel brought the three to turn to the Guardians, who were still see-through.
“You protected Minecraftia!” Diana excitedly cheered, jumping up and down, causing some sneaky vines to creep up the walls. When she had realized what she had caused, she stopped the growth of the plants, muttering an apology to her older Guardians.
“You have proved yourself worthy of the title Guardians of Hope” Aaron huffed and nodded at Toby, his living equal.
Char herself, was confused by what the light deity had said. “What do you mean?” She sighed, pushing herself into a comfortable sitting position. The three Gods looked at each other, each of them trying to persuade the others to tell the mortal trio what they meant.
Finally the peaceful Goddess spoke. “We mean you are much better Guardians than we are, and we want to grant you the position of Guardians of Hope”
“Is immortality involved?” Risk curiously queried, her counterpart grinned and nodded quickly.
The three youths looked at each other, all making the same decision. Char, even though pain flurried through her, chuckled. “Sorry you guys, we’re going to have to refuse” All three deities opened their mouths in utter shock. “You guys have been ruling the world for many years, albeit you have not been living you still have shaped this beautiful world into what it is today. Why change it?” The brunette asked.
“Leh- I mean Israphel fooled us and we were the cause of the destruction” Mel answered, her head staring down at the ground.
“One guy fools you and you are ready to replace yourselves?” Toby cheekily butted in, Aaron sighed from his counterpart’s sneaky saying “I agree with Charlotte, you’ve done well up to now, we’ll stay as mortals”
“We’ll be the mortal Guardians of Hope!” Risk chimed in and grinned widely when the Gods laughed at her comment.
“Very well, thank you for everything” Aaron bowed slightly, and used one hand to tug the charming female Goddess.
She stood up and smiled. “Go live your lives Guardians.” The three images faded away along with Gerald the ram as a cheeky cloud sneaked in front of the moon’s light.

“Wait where’s Arth-” Char spoke as her friends helped her up. The door swung open, showing a very burnt immortal God.
At the sight of the trio, the winged male hobbled over, his face beamed with a grin. “You’re alive!”
“How are you not dead?!” The worried girl panted, she still leant on Toby, who was horrified and confused by the stranger.
“Immortality…” He answered, and allowed Charlotte to giggle before he continued. “Also there was a lot of panic flying” He spread out his almost spotless wings, grimacing when he remembered the state they had been in when he had flown himself out of the magma pool.
“Are you going to be staying?” Charlotte asked, and used a lazy and weary signal that told Risk that Arthur needed someone to lean on. Before the petite girl could stand next to the deity, the loyal spider Hercules jumped onto him, which caused Arthur to nearly topple over. But the cobalt haired girl steadied the boy before he could fall.
“Well, since I am the only God that has a physical body here on Minecraftia, I guess I have to” He declared and they group cheered on for their new friend.
Charlotte checked her pals and happily huffed. “Let’s go home!”