Guardian Of The End

Jason and Risa remained silent for a few moments. The silence was only broken when Hestia appeared beside Jason and walked inside the room.

"She doesn't trust your words." Jason muttered before he too followed Hestia inside the room.

Risa stayed back and looked at the body of her friend with emotionless eyes. She had seen many people dying in front of her.

Risa only stayed calm and emotionless due to a single thought that she had accepted long ago.

One day, everyone would die. Not even the gods could  escape from this, no matter how old or powerful they were.

History had shown countless kings, emperors and even gods dying. One day, she would face the same thing.

'I should tell the rest of her family about this.' Risa thought silently. She turned her face away from the room and made her way to the upper floors.

Inside the room, Hestia and Jason looked at Ariana's body from a safe distance.

[ It's really her aura… ] Hestia's wolf-cub jaw slightly opened. She could feel Hecate's aura coming from Ariana's body, something that the ex-goddess considered impossible.

"Looks like your divine attack wasn't divine enough to prevent her from coming here." Jason commented while asking the system to run a thorough scan of Ariana's body.

[ No, I am sure that I sent her away. She shouldn't have been able to send even a bit of her power here. ] Hestia protested.

"Yet here we are." Jason finished. His purple eyes stared directly into Ariana's wide-open, mist covered eyes.

His body shuddered once as he remembered the incident in the forest. Looking back on it, Jason couldn't help but wonder where he had pulled that insane amount of courage.

But then, the same thing had happened with him on Earth. When a person knew that they were close to dying, they could do things they couldn't have done normally.

[ I am sure you can still do things not considered normal for ten years old. ] The system reminded.

'Did you find anything wrong with her body?' Jason inquired. He didn't bother to think about the system's comment since he knew that the system only talked once it had done its job.

[ Just like Risa said, there is nothing wrong with Ariana's body. However, she missed one thing. ]

'That is?'

[ Ariana's mana core, the place from where every living being receives their mana, is surrounding by a mist covering. The mist is supplied throughout her body.] The system informed.

'I guess that's the reason she is in this state.' Jason commented before relying the information to Hestia.

[ Damn it… Something strange is definitely going on. ] Hestia sounded angry. She had thought that having banished Hecate, she had reduced one problem for both her and Jason.

Turned out that she was completely wrong.

"Let's go. There's is no point in staying here." Jason said and walked out of the room.

Hestia spared Ariana's body one last glance before she too followed Jason out. Both of them encountered Risa as well as two other figures outside the room.

One of them was Matt, who was Andrew and Amber's father. The other figure was a woman who had the same fierce burning eyes like the twins.

Her skin was much whiter compared to the Feuer family and her hair were jet black.

Neither of them paid any attention to Jason and stormed inside the room. Risa spared him a momentarily look before she followed the husband-wife pair inside the room.

'System, is Amber still inside the mansion?' Jason inquired silently.

Hestia merged with him once again as he walked away from the room. Jason had a feeling that if no one met Amber soon enough, something bad would happen.

[ What a wonderful feeling. ] The system mused. [ No, Amber left the mansion a minute before. Fortunately, she's present in one of the nearby allies. ]

'Guide me to her location.' Jason ordered. He walked through the hall ways of the mansion and appeared at the entrance.

Jason stepped out and directly headed to the alley where Amber was present.

'There she is.' Jason's eyes fixed on Amber who was curled up beside what looked like an ex-dumpster.

It had been closed off by concrete and no longer served any purpose.

"Amber?" Jason slowly called out since he didn't want to surprise the girl.

Amber slowly lifted her head up and her bright red eyes met Jason's eyes. Much to his surprise, the girl wasn't crying.

Instead she looked angry. Jason had a feeling that she was keeping herself in check or else the alley would've been turned into molten waste.

"How did you find me?" Amber asked in a surprise tone. She hadn't been expecting anyone to find her before a few hours and by then, Amber would've pulled herself together.

"I have my own ways to find girls in distress." Jason replied with a smile. He sat beside Amber and stared at the sky.

A silence built up between them until Amber broke it.

"You aren't going to say something?" she asked in a confused tone.

"Mhm, no. If you want to say something, I'm willing to listen." Jason shrugged.

Amber felt even more confused. She had ran off a few times in the past and had been found half of the time.

Normally, her parents or grandmother would be the one finding her and they would try to lift her mood by talking to her.

They had always talked to her yet now, someone was willing to listen to what she had to say.

"Its just that I have never seen grandmother in such a situation. She is the one I'm closest too…" Amber's voice slowly trailed off.

Jason turned his body such that he faced Amber. He looked completely serious and active which made Amber continue.

"She is also the strongest in our family and usually keeps all of us together by her cheery mood. But seeing her lie there and not respond to anything, I suddenly felt panicked. During such situations, I usually  like to escape the company of people."

Jason slowly nodded but didn't say anything. He instead remembered the times he had felt helpless both on Earth and in Duphia.

It had happened way to many times yet Jason realized that the things that came after that hadn't been that bad.

It was a cycle of balance where both things went hand by hand.

"Amber, do you know something about my parents?" Jason asked curiously.

"Your mother is a very important figure from the demon race while your father was some kind of prophesied person. That's all I know." Amber answered.

"Something like that. I have only seen my mother for a few minutes whereas I never met my father. I had been raised by my grandparents, aunt and uncle alongside my cousin. I don't want anything bad to happen to them but I know that I can't control things.

In the end, you can't really tell what would happen in the future and the only thing you can do is keep living without worrying about the future." Jason smiled again.

"But how can you not worry about the future?" Amber asked while tilting her head.

"Its simple. You enjoy and live in the present, no matter how good or bad it is. Its just how life is." Jason finished.

Amber slowly nodded as her ten-year-old brain processed everything.

"You sound mature for your age…" she muttered.

"I know." Jason agreed. It was expected since mentally, he was much older.

"We should go back now. No one could've noticed that we were missing." Amber stood up and dusted her clothes.

Jason did the same and the two of them started making their way back to the mansion.

"Its a good thing no one noticed that you both are missing. It would've made my job harder." A voice suddenly arose from further down the alley.

Both Jason and Amber immediately turned around and summoned their guardians. Flamey and Hestia appeared around their respective vessels.

The two guardians expanded their senses  all around the alley as a figure emerged from the shadows.

"Little Syrward, did you really think it was that easy to get rid of me? But I have to say that Hestia is the one who overestimated herself." A familiar voice cackled.

When Jason's eyes finally saw the figure, he froze for a minute.

The figure was a woman that Jason knew well. It was none other than Zara.