Guardian Of The End

\'Ugh, is there no other way for these things to work? No matter what happens, I always end up blacking out and then when I wake up, something weird is happening around me.\' Jason grumbled mentally.

His eyes slowly opened up and just like he had guessed, he was not in Zara\'s room. He was lying on the ground and staring at a black night sky.

Jason slowly lifted himself and stared at his surroundings. A dimly lit city was visible in the distance whereas a desert throughout the other sides.

\'I am pretty sure that there is no desert area in the Vancouver kingdom or in fact, any of the other kingdoms that are present on the human continent…\'

Jason slowly started walking towards the city since that was the most logical decision he could think of for the time being.

\'System, can you tell me whether this is the real world or not?\' Jason suddenly questioned.

[ No host, this is not the real world. Also, you are present in a cold desert instead of a normal one. This could only mean that you are present on either the demon continent or the northern parts of the western continent. ]

\'So we are still on Clover yet are far from our hometown. Then this is either a dream world or I am seeing something from the eyes of another person.\'

[ No, this isn\'t a dream world. Its more like a memory real that you are seeing. Once you reach certain locations, you will see certain events unfold. I just analyzed the surroundings and that seems to be the most logical explanation. ]

\'Hmm, I am guessing that the city is the certain place we need to reach to trigger the memory real. I wonder what we will discover there.\'

Now that Jason knew where he was and what he needed to do, he could simply use his powers to speed up the process.

Jason summoned the white thunder and dashed towards the city. He didn\'t care whether someone saw him or not since it wasn\'t reality.

\'Now what?\' Jason questioned once he had reached the city entrance.

Two huge black metal door stood in front of him and they were shut tightly. Jason could simply jump over them but his instincts told him that he should not do that.

[ There must be a sign somewhere around here. Try to look for it and you might be able to trigger the memories. ]

\'So now it turned into a clue searching game. The things that happened in my life…\' Jason sighed before trudging around to find the supposed clue.

After five minutes of looking around Jason finally found the \'clue\', a bright spot of light present in the entire area.

\'Is this the free hint power that such games have?\' he wondered silently before going towards the light.

Once he touched it with his hand, he suddenly rose in the air. Jason found himself flying towards the entrance of the city where two figures had suddenly made their appearance.

\'Isn\'t that Nero?\' Jason asked with a frown as he recognized the demon commander.

But when his eyes fell on the other person, his heart skipped a beat. The figure was one of the most beautiful women he had ever met.

Jason couldn\'t help but feel attracted towards her. Even though what he was seeing wasn\'t real, his body seemed to disobey him.

[ She has a divinity. ] Hestia silently commented.

The guardian could sense divine energy coming out of the female alongside something else, something more sinister.

Hestia couldn\'t exactly tell what it was but she was sure that she had sensed the same thing before.

\'Wait, if I remember correctly, the demon named Amon who lives in Duphia also emits a similar aura. I didn\'t check whether he has a divinity but the aura is similar.\' Hestia thought with a mental frown.

Since she still hadn\'t confirmed her theory, she didn\'t reveal it to Jason. Only after finding conclusive proof would she tell Jason about it.

"You should have directly taken us to the palace." Nero commented. "The demon king is definitely going to beat the crap out of you once we get back."

"No worries, I am sure that I can charm him," the beautiful woman smiled. "After all, the number of people who can avoid my charm are very less."

"Except that our king is the sin of pride and can easily avoid your charm. But I don\'t care about that. It will be fun to see the clash between you both." Nero snorted.

The woman didn\'t say anything and simply pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. She looked at the metal doors and leaped over them.

Nero followed her example and the duo entered the city.

Jason\'s body automatically followed them while he wondered what was going to happen inside the city. It was pretty clear that the two demons weren\'t visiting the city to party.

[ You don\'t know that for sure. ]

\'Let\'s just wait and see what happens.\'

Jason followed behind the two demons and saw them slip inside a strange bar. Perhaps they really were there to party.

But once he had entered the bar, not by choice, he got to know what the real purpose for visiting the bar was.

Nero was currently tied to a chair with runed black metal chains. The blue-haired woman stood in front of him with an apologetic smile on her face.

"Sorry Nero but you know I have to do this. There is no knowing what the humans might do with a king like that. I am afraid you might have to experience some pain before I confirm that you are the real Nero."

"Don\'t worry, Diana. I already expected this to happen," Nero replied with a smile. "In fact, I was surprised that you didn\'t do this the moment we left that island."

"I will do it now." Diana grinned.

For the next few hours, Jason wondered whether he should even be watching the duo. Diana had performed some pretty questionable methods of \'torture\' that he definitely shouldn\'t have seen.

[ Who knows, they might be helpful in the future? ]

\'Maybe. Information is sometimes the most important thing that anyone needs to win a battle.\'

Jason calmly waited for the torture to get over. Once it was over, he saw Nero looked at Diana with an arrogant look on his face.

"Anything else you might wanna try?"

"Hmm, that\'s all. After looking through your memories, I confirmed that you really are the real Nero. The rest of the torture was just done to remove that smug look off your face." Diana grinned.

"It didn\'t work though. I am afraid you bruised me a bit too much in certain regions." Nero muttered before he suddenly stood up.

The chains around his body broke easily and were stained by his black blood. Pools of blood had formed all around the bar\'s floor.

Nero\'s body was badly wounded yet he didn\'t seem to be caring about the wounds. He simply flexed his shoulders and looked at Diana with a raised eyebrow.

The latter summoned a pair of clothes from thin air and tossed them to Nero. He simply changed into them without bothering one bit about Diana.

"Glad to see they didn\'t do much with your body." Diana commented in an amused tone.

"Oh trust me, they could have done a lot of things. Humans are pretty creative and interesting."

"You always say that but do you really mean it?" Diana questioned.

"I do and I don\'t. Its similar to how you can say that demons are both brutal and gentle even though thats true for every species out there. Did you ever wonder why we got stereotyped that way?" Nero asked.

"Its because it makes the perfect sense for us to act like the bad guys. All those hero stories read by humans to their children degraded us. But then, I was never one to talk with you on philosophical level." Diana sighed.

"You were always the one interested in talking anatomy or lust." Nero pointed out before fixing his hair. "Let\'s go see the king."

"Yeah, we have already tested his patience too much. I am afraid that if we wait any longer, things will get complicated."

Nero and Diana exited the shop together but before their feet could touch the ground, they vanished.

All of the mess they had made inside the bar automatically vanished, leaving no trace behind.

The doors of the bar also closed up as though no one had tempered with them. If Jason hadn\'t seen everything with his own eyes, he wouldn\'t have believed that someone had been tortured in the very same bar.

\'The question is, why am I seeing these memories when I have literally nothing to do with either of them.\'

[ Though Nero did try to kidnap you, you don\'t know him well enough to view these memories so it doesn\'t make sense. ] the system agreed.

\'What is the thing connecting us here?\' Jason wondered. \'How is all of this connected to the mist, or rather, how is this connected to Hecate…\'