GUARDIAN OF THE END

"Today, the first years will face the trial of fear. I request all students to extend their well wishes towards their younger ones who will be fighting death in order to clear the trial!" Albus Jokovic's voice boomed across the fifth year and above arena.

Every single person present in the sect, excluding those on guard duty, had been summoned in the arena by Albus.

The Trial Of Fear would be held on this date and the first years would enter it with high spirits.

Most students had no idea about the trial of Fear. Even fifth years and above barely had any clue about this trial.

Only those belonging to the royal family and highly influential families knew about the trial. Amongst them was the second prince of the kingdom, Hiro Vancouver.

He had been offered the same seat as the teachers and had politely accepted the offer. Hiro was no full and despite being fifteen, he was smarter than an above average adult.

"Hiro, what do you know about the trial of fear?" A feminine voice sitting beside Hiro, questioned.

The voice belonged to Aysel Vancouver, Zilan's daughter. She had been offered the same thing and had accepted it.

"Father told me that the Trial of Fear was closed by him the moment he came to power. It's one of the three trials that students of Vancouver academy could undergo in order to gain access to some special chamber." Hiro replied, not bothering to quieten his voice.

All those present in the teachers area already knew what the Trial of Fear was. All of them had been present during the time the trial had taken place.

"My father told me the same thing," Aysel replied. "Would you want to take part in t his trial?"

"Depends on a lot of things. I don't know what the chamber contains so its not exactly motivating. Also, there are a lot of other things that I would like to do in the meantime." Hiro replied.

His mind immediately went to the Spear of Ataraxia that was safely stored in his storage ring. Since he got the storage ring directly from his father, he could store more things inside it, meaning that the size limit had also increased.

"Now allow me to introduce the first years who will be undergoing this trial!" Albus announced.

Hiro, Aysel, and countless other teachers sighed. They knew that the principal deliberately did these introductions to introduce the potential prodigies and his personal favorites.

Hiro and Aysel both didn't pay attention to the names until class A students were introduced.

When Orion's name was announced, their eyes shimmered with curiosity. He was one of the two heirs of Brian Bloodthorn, the heir of the Bloodthorn family.

They eyed him with curiosity before their attention shifted towards the class Z students.

"What do you think about that silver-haired boy and that red-haired girl?" This time, Hiro asked Aysel a question.

"Hmm… both of them host the strongest guardians of two different realms and belong to the four families. The boy is the grandson of Sir Issac and Lady Risa while the girl is the granddaughter of Lady Ariana." Aysel replied.

Both of them had been taught about the four families in detail. Though they didn't know much about the duo's parents, they knew many things about their grandparents.

Despite the harmful and scandalous deeds done by their grandparents, Hiro and Aysel admired the old people.

"Once they grow up, they might surpass their previous generations who didn't have the support of two apex guardians backing their progress," Hiro muttered thoughtfully. "They might surpass us too."

"I'm not worried about that," Aysel replied with a cold smile. "I'm least bothered by what is going to happen. My only goal is to make you the king so that father and me can be released from the curse that binds us."

"That, my cousin," Hiro grinned humorlessly. "Is guaranteed."

***

'I just had a bad feeling…'

Standing on the arena floor, Jason felt chills passing through his body. His eyes scanned the crowd yet he couldn't locate the source of the bad feeling he had just gotten.

[ Don't worry, host. The worst thing that can happen is death. You might get lucky and take another trip to the bar of gods. ]

'That's reassuring.' Despite being sarcastic, Jason felt his body relax a bit.

Once the introductions had been done, Albus addressed the first years about the upcoming battle.

"All of you will be entering the trial of fear together. You might get banded up with someone else or you might have to take the trial on your own. The place where the trial will take place is going to be random.

Thirty portals will be located all over the place. Only a single person can enter this portal and take on the final phase of the trial. Once you have done that, you will be teleported back to this place."

"Um, is there a chance that we will encounter beasts inside?" A nervous boy from class C questioned.

Albus's expression didn't change as he replied to the boy in a firm voice. "You can encounter anything inside and there is a chance that you die during the trial. If you died, you will restart with a temporary disability inside the trial."

"This means that we can't escape until all of the portals have been used up." Jason sighed.

Albus confirmed his theory to be true. "You can only leave the trial once all the portals have been occupied. Beware, the more you die, the more disabilities you will have. You will also need to take care of your food and water."

"So its basically like taking the trial with our bodies with an restart option?" orion questioned.

"Yes and no. You will be taking the trial with the help of your soul. It will be like a dream. Your real bodies will be taken care of." Albus replied.

The children continued to ask a few basic questions. He answered them patiently before staring at the sky.

"All right, noon is slowly approaching and the trial is about to begin. I request you all to stand still in your spot and not utter a single word." Albus commanded.

Not only the first years but the rest of the arena went silent too. The principal of Vancouver academy nodded his head in approval.

Albus rummaged inside his storage ring, his hand finally grabbing onto the object he needed.

He summoned a black cube the size of a standard rubrics cube. Albus bit his right thumb and smeared some of his blood on the black cube.

It started humming with power as Albus tossed it towards the students. The black cube slowly grew in size until it covered the entire arena floor.

"Good luck." Izzy whispered to her students and stepped back.

The giant black cube slowly descended downwards before changing into a dome-shaped structure. All adults standing on the arena floor slowly backed away.

The trials could only be taken by those under twenty years of age. Only people below twenty could access the special chamber, hence the age limit.

Jason's eyes were fixed to the dome-shaped structure which was slowly falling down towards the arena ground. He could tell that the dome-shaped structured held a lot of mana inside it.

He had briefly used his special eyes to verify this. The mana contained inside the dome-shaped structure rivaled the mana provided to Jason by Hestia.

'System, can you do something that will allow me to keep an eye on the others?' Jason questioned

[ I can do it but it will cost you eighty system points altogether. This tracker will also last till the time they become eighteen. ]

'Do it.'

< Eighty system points have been deducted. Trackers have been placed on four people. >

Jason suddenly felt four mana sources popping up in his aura. Upon questioning the system, he learned that he could turn this constant location finder on and off.

This tracker would also work as long as his friends and him had mana inside them. Jason realized that since he and the others would barely run of out of mana, the tracker would work infinitely, until they turned eighteen.

In the next five minutes, the dome had completely surrounded the arena floor, leaving only a tine amount of space to prevent the audience from touching it.

"This dome will ensure that your bodies remain healthy in real life. Furthermore, this dome can't be tampered with since I have used my own mana to make sure that it remains top notch." Albus glared at the audience.

He could tell that there were a few troublemakers who wanted to test things with the dome. Infusing his own mana inside the dome was the only thing he could do.

'This trial would've been held two days after the initiation ceremony if the cube had contained mana inside it. I had to keep it with myself and fill it with my mana for the past few weeks.'

Truth be told, Albus wasn't a fan of trials or the chamber that was given as a gift. Ever since he had been a student, he had wanted to close the trials.

When Julian had issued the order to close the trials and the chamber, Albus had felt victorious. He didn't know what to anymore.

"I wish you all luck and I hope that you all are able to find the portals as soon as possible. I don't want this trial to last for an absurdly long time." Albus said at last.

The dome touched the ground and the mana inside was released with full power. All students, except Jason and Amber, were overwhelmed by the huge amount of mana swirling around them.

The duo weren't overwhelmed because they could potentially wield the same amount of mana, albeit with a huge price.

Suddenly, the mana entered their bodies. It invaded their bodies through their nostrils. The students started feeling sleepy and were knocked out one after the other.

Class A and Class Z students seemed a bit resistant against the mana but they felt drowsy as well.

"The trial of fear begins!" Albus boomed.

Those were the last words Jason heard before he felt his body dozing of to sleep. His body hit the ground with a thud, his soul entering the first trial.