GUARDIAN OF THE END

"Ha… The chamber really is a strange place." Risa muttered while rubbing her forehead.

She was thankful that no one else was present in the room or else, she would have to answer some questions.

Risa moved away from Jason's body after confirming that everything was fine. Though his body had received numerous changes, it was mostly functioning well.

Risa went ahead and checked the bodies of the other two and was met with back to back surprises.

'For Theia's sake, how can they be so powerful after getting out from the chamber? Not only them but the other children as well.' Risa sighed. 'Did the chamber get super charged after so many years of remaining dormant?'

Risa looked up at the ceiling and closed her eyes. She chanted a few words under her breath before opening her eyes.

'I should start taking care of them.' She thought with a determined expression before starting to help the others.

***

In the passing week, Jason continued to hover between the lines of consciousness and unconsciousness.

He could see the system windows in front of his face yet couldn't read them easily. The more he concentrated, the blurrier his vision would get.

Ultimately, he would pass out.

It took him exactly ten days to fully come back to consciousness. The moment he did that, he could read the words written on the system screen in front of him.

'Uh… Am I dreaming?

[ No, you are not dreaming. ] The system replied. [ Didn't you think that your main was quite low despite of belonging to a family of renowned prodigies? ]

'I did think that but what does this have anything with that?'

[ It has everything to do with that. Basically, your main element could've been a lot stronger but Erebus had to restrict it to prevent you from gaining to much spotlight. The previous you was easily able to blend it with the other prodigies due to that. ]

'I see…'

Jason had to admit that the reasoning made sense. If he had a prodigy class affinity with the dark element as well as the thunder element, he might have been enslaved.

[ You can't get enslaved, dummy. You have Sancus's divinity inside you! ] The system reminded.

'Right.'

Jason started rubbing his forehead while reading the name of his evolved job class. Who thought that naming it as Teenager of Darkness was a good idea?

[ You can complaint to Erebus. He wanted the name to be unique and simple. ]

'Mind telling me about the other changes in my body?'

[ Here is the full report. ]

---

During the time spent inside the chamber of Rebirth, more than four years have passed on the world of Clover. Your current age is fifteen years old and your birthday was a month ago.

---

Your body has grown stronger though you can't be considered a body builder. Your mana flow and mana conversion change have increased at a rapid level. Your mana pool for all three of your elements has expanded ten times its original size.

---

'Wait, three elements?' Jason asked in confusion.

[ Check your dark mana core. ] The system instructed.

Jason closed his eyes and focused on his dark element. When he opened them, he could see a huge black sphere with the letter S printed of it.

However, the western part of the sphere was slowly turning white. Jason roughly estimated that ten percent of the sphere had turned white.

[ This is your light mana. Once your dark mana core evolved, the light mana also got an official rating. Focus on it to check its details. ] The system guided.

Jason stared at the white portion of his mana core and focused. He thought of daylight and other things related to light mana, the most common being light itself.

Once he opened his eyes, Jason noticed a small white sphere which was floating right beside his main mana core.

The white portion of the dark mana core had now vanished and the complete core had turned black.

'Wait, does that say S or am I hallucinating?' Jason questioned the moment he saw his affinity with the light element.

[ You are not hallucinating. Though you have a very high affinity, your mana pool for the light element is basically one-tenth the size of your dark mana pool. ]

'But it does exist!'

[ That's true. However, both of these exist together as one mana core. I don't think I can provide more information on this. You will have to ask your grandmother about this. ]

'I had to do it sooner or later. No one else knows more about light magic than her. But then, she won't be able to teach me due to the curse.'

[ So we help her in removing the curse? ]

'If it was possible to do that, don't you think that they would have done it long ago?'

[ There's no harm in confirming things. Anyways, you should read the rest of the report. ]

Jason agreed with the system. With one last look at the light mana core, he exited the place.

---

Due to the upgrade of your job class, your proficiency in sensing natural sources of dark mana has increased.

---

Due to recent discovery of how the mana core produces mana and absorption of mana, you have made a breakthrough in the field of dark magic.

Side job class 'Dark Mage' has evolved into 'Dark Grandmage'

---

'If I remember correctly, the advancement stages for dark mage are Dark Grandmage, Dark Wizard and Dark Archeon?'

[ Yup, those are the advancement stages. ]

Jason sighed and opened his 'Teenager of Darkness' job class information. The description made him wonder whether he was reading the right thing or not.

< Teenager of Darkness: A person who managed to live until their teenage years with the power of darkness inside their veins. This serves as a proof that survival is possible even if you are a unique specimen in the world of humans. ?>

Jason felt like coughing blood after reading the description. Though no matter how bad it sounded, he had to admit that he was indeed a rare being.

With a sigh, he sat up on his bed with his back placed on the pillow. He took in the rest of the room and saw Amber and Orion sleeping peacefully on their respective beds.

'Huh? What is that?' Jason narrowed his eyes when he saw a ball of white mana floating beside the duo.

The ball of light seemed to be supplying the two children with mana. Their bodies processed the mana as energy and kept them nourished.

Jason was able to perceive this with the help of his vision. He looked on his right to see that a similar ball of light was supplying him with mana.

However, when he looked down at his body with ability, Jason noticed that his body was producing its own mana similar to the white one.

His mana was much more whiter than the one being supplied by the ball of light. In comparison, it could also be referred to as golden colored when compared with his own mana.

'I think this is life mana? Its working like an IV drip but actually supplies one with every nutrition required by their body.' Jason concluded.

"So you can see those particles of life magic I left behind." Risa's voice suddenly entered his ears, making him look around with a surprised expression.

Risa was standing right beside his bed yet he hadn't noticed her. He had been so busy in observing the mana that he had ignored her.

"I, uh…" Jason tried to think of an excuse but his mind betrayed him at this moment. Fortunately, there was no need for him to do that.

"Jason, I know you can perceive mana particles by manipulating the mana present around you eyes," Risa said gently. "There is no need to think of an excuse."

"Huh?" Jason suddenly paused. He hadn't expected Risa to know about his ability. Though he had used it in front of her a few times so there was that.

"I knew that noble demons can see in the dark. Your mother and Astryn made that clear to me." Risa smiled. "As for your mana perceiving ability, I first noticed it back in Kamizel forest when we had been trapped by the mist."

"You have known about it since then…" Jason's voice trailed off.

Perhaps he had given himself too much credit for being able to hide his ability. With a sigh, he shook his head.

"Everyone has their secrets, Jason. I could tell it because I have been doing this for a long time." Risa replied with a sad expression.

This reminded Jason that he had been gone for more than four years.

"I was gone for a really long time, wasn't I?" he muttered.

"You were but there's no need to blame yourself." Risa sighed. "I have waited for much longer and was only met with disappointment. People control their lives themselves so sometimes, it doesn't matter what others try to do."

"Grandma, what exactly happened to Father?" Jason slowly questioned. He had a feeling that Risa was talking about his father.

"Well, you can that he loved his wife and unborn child too much to let them get sacrificed for the sake of appeasing a few petty gods." Risa replied, her eyes containing memories from the past.

"But I am not talking about Michael. All of us knew his decision and what would happen to him."

"Then what who were you talking about?"

"Jason, do you know how many children me and Issac had?" Risa asked back.

"Uncle Ray and my father," Jason replied in a confused tone.

"I guess we never told you about the past. We still are not ready to open the wounds from the past but I guess you have a right to know about things that happened years ago." Risa sat down on the bed and looked directly into Jason's eyes.

"I was talking about our second child, a daughter. If she was alive right now, she would've been your aunt…"