GUARDIAN OF THE END

"Haaa… when did you get so hardworking, Zeke?"

"Tsk, you are not using your full power, Jason. Its not right that only I use my full power!" Zeke complained.

Icicles shot out from his hand repeatedly. Jason was dodging them one after the other with the help of his thunder element.

It had taken him a week to develop a movement technique which wouldn't destroy his limbs or internal organs due to excessive energy usage.

"You asked for it." Jason replied with a grin.

He pushed more of his thunder element towards his feet before jumping in the air. He managed to reach a whooping height of fifteen feet with the single jump.

'Hmm, let's see if harpoons can be used in some other way as well.' Jason thought silently.

A harpoon of darkness shot out from his right hand, directly going in for Zeke's head. The latter immediately moved away from the path of the harpoon.

The temperature in the area started lowering. The harpoon froze in air before hitting the ground with a loud clung.

Crystals of ice circled Zeke's body, acting like bodyguards. Jason had already fought against Zeke once and knew that the icicles would automatically move towards any attack released by him.

'He can freeze my thunder attacks with those crystals. I can try outrunning them but that would give Zeke the time to increase his defense.' Jason observed while shifting from place to place.

The last battle between him and Zeke had happened four days ago. Much to everyone's surprise, Jason had lost.

Zeke had managed to slip one of those icicles into the wind. Even with his low level wind affinity, he had managed to make the icicle come in contact with Jason's face.

If the latter had made any move, the icicle would have frozen his face.

"Gonna go full power or not?" Zeke raised an eyebrow.

"Fine." Jason sighed.

The thunder that was being restricted by his body suddenly went out of control.

Jason vanished from Zeke's line of sight and appeared beside him in the a mere second. Zeke had anticipated this and had made a shield of ice around him.

'Thunder might be my flashiest and most-used element but dark element was the thing that I was naturally born with.' Jason thought with a smile.

Suddenly, dark particles of mana gathered around his feet. He came in contact with the shield of ice and managed to shatter it easily.

The shield might as well have been made from thin glass. It cracked into numerous pieces and didn't affect Jason's speed in any possible way.

Jason removed the dark mana from his feet with a single thought as his foot came in contact with Zeke's face.

The latter was blown away by it and skidded to the ground. Though he did get up soon, his face looked dirty.

"So that's the size of my shoe." Jason muttered, his right hand pointing towards the shoe mark that had been stamped on Zeke's face.

"I'll get you for that!" Zeke shouted. He propelled himself forward using wind magic and shot towards Jason.

Ice appeared around Zeke's body like an armor, ending up in a pointy end.

'That's a good move. I can do the same thing with both of my elements. Perhaps I should try combining them.' Jason wondered silently.

Their battle continued to go on and in the end, Jason won. Both boys, however, weren't tired and fought for several more rounds.

In the following two weeks, Jason fought against all of his friends. He managed to learn many new things and even developed the concepts of new skills.

With some practice, he would have a bunch of tier 3 skills in his arsenal.

[ You only need one more tier 3 skill to move to the next rank. You will be a ruby(A) ranked person than. ]

'What about the advancements of my job class? Though becoming stronger is a goal that I have to achieve, advancing in my job classes is one of the three limits.' Jason reminded.

[ Hmm, according to my calculations, Thunder mage job class should evolve soon. I think there is only a minor concept that you haven't learned yet. ]

'Minor concept…'

Jason had no idea what he could have left out since he had been training for so long. Perhaps he had to do some kind of weird dance or some voodoo magic to advance?

[ Wait, that's it! ]

'I have to perform voodoo magic?' Jason frowned.

[ Fortunately, no. You just have to pray to some god and you'll advance. ]

'Huh? You are telling me that to advance to the next level of a job class, I will need to pray to a god or goddess?'

[ In cases of special classes, the advancement requirements are different. However, all of them have one thing in common. Once all the other requirements have been made, the person would have to pray to the god that their family worships.

Either that or they will have to pray to a god or goddess related to their element. ]

Jason nodded mentally, closed his eyes and sat on the ground. Midnight had already passed and only five children were present in the ground.

The other four had already seen Jason do the same thing numerous times and didn't question his actions. They simply focused on themselves.

'I have someone in mind. If that person doesn't qualify, I will think of someone else.' Jason replied to the system.

[ Then repeat the words after me. ] The system ordered. [ "May the thunder pave a path towards my victory. In the end, I will end up at the end of the road and with blessings from a god of *insert element* I will climb to new heights." ]

'That's kinda cringe but then, most prayers and chants are like that.' Jason shrugged before repeating the words mentally.

[ Now think of that person similar to how you thought of Hestia. Maybe less physical features. ]

The system would be lying if it said that it wasn't curious to know the name of the person Jason was thinking about.

Unfortunately, neither it nor anyone else would be able to know the name of the god that the silver-haired boy had chosen.

This was done to ensure that conflicts between deities governing the same thing didn't happen.

Jason focused on the details of the figure he had in mind. 'A fallen goddess who, according to what I know, isn't related to lightning or thunder but can still use both expertly.'

He went on to think about the said person before ending it with a smile. 'In the end, she was an Olympian so when it comes to power, she is strong.'

The moment he finished, his mana core burst with mana. His entire body was engulfed in thunder mana from head to toe, covering him in thunder.

"Did he just copy me?" Zeke questioned while his jaw twitched.

"It looks cooler and deadlier," Orion pointed out. "With enough practice, all of us can do this with our main elements or even our less powerful elements."

"Damn, it would be cool to be standing in the middle of a cyclone." Mila daydreamed, or nightdreamed since it was night.

Soon enough, all of them started thinking of creating their own skills. Zeke grumbled about reporting them to the copyright god but unfortunately, the god was currently busy fighting against other websites.

As for Jason, his consciousness was no longer present in the ground. He was currently seeing his core expand to twice its size, similar to that of a spiritual core in cultivation.

"Its been a while since anyone thought of me as a goddess of thunder." A sweet voice entered his ears.

"Hestia," Jason murmured.

"Yes, it's me." Hestia materialized in front of him and smiled.

"That was quite simple. I just had to pray to you and boom, you appear?" Jason questioned.

"No, I am still trapped in the nightmare. This is just a small version of my consciousness that I managed to cast here to help you advance." Hestia replied in a sad tone.

"So you are a goddess of thunder."

"Yes and no. Zeus gave me the power of thunder to protect not only myself but Mount Olympus and humanity as well. I still remember that he said, "lightning destroys, thunder protects" to me after handing me thunder." Hestia explained.

"But isn't thunder just the supreme and purest form of lightning?" Jason asked in a confused tone.

"Theoretically, yes. The Zeus back when we were fighting the Titans was quite different. According to him, lightning gives you the ability to fight back and destroy things. But thunder is something even stronger.

With it, you can not only protect yourself and destroy your enemy, you can also protect those around you. That is why I gave you the different types of lightning. Maybe I should evolve it." Hestia feel deep in thought.

"That Zeus sounds like a cool person." Jason commented.

"He was but after so many years of existence and power, even he changed. His scandalous side is quite famous due to those reasons." Hestia sighed. "I miss my old self as well."

"You must have been strong back then." Jason marveled.

"I was one of the original twelve Olympians before giving out my seat to Dionysus. I was there when everything else failed and when all gods abandoned their home to fight.

I was there when humanity was passing through the dark ages and I provided my flames and warmth to them. I am blessed with many powers and I protected not only mine but other gods' homes as well."

Hestia's eyes started glowing with power. Her words contained a divine energy which resonated with Jason's soul.

"I am Hestia, goddess of the Hearth and a protector of what one might call home. I am the last Olympian goddess.