GUARDIAN OF THE END

'System, tell me what I have to do now…" Jason said in a deep voice.

His body felt heavier and much harder to control. Jason could feel his mana and blood being affected by the divine energy.

The latter almost seemed alive since it was trying to break out of Jason's body.

[ Mix your mana with the divine energy and placed your index finger on May's forehead. Dispel the divine energy through your finger and send it inside her body. You will form a bond with her this way. ]

Jason did as told and let his mana freely mix with the divine energy. He could feel a resistance going inside his body.

It seemed like his mana and the divine energy were playing a football match inside him for supremacy.

Somehow, he managed to touch May's forehead with right index finger and dispel the gathered energy inside him.

The mixture of divine energy and mana came out of his hand in the form of a black ray and directly entered May's body.

Jason immediately felt something connecting him to May. The connection was similar to his bond with Hestia but instead of a tight rope, a tiny string was connecting him and May.

[ This is going to be a bit painful but what I want you to do right now is to focus on the connection and try sucking leaking energy from her body. ]

'I really wish I didn't have a dirty mind at this moment…' Jason groaned mentally.

[ Can't help you with that. Also, once you have started absorbing the divine energy, leave the rest of the work to me. I will guide the energy to myself automatically. ]

Jason sighed audibly before focusing on the connection. The divine energy leaking out of May's body suddenly started moving towards him and entered his body.

Jason blinked in surprise since he had been expecting some kind of backlash but fortunately, nothing like that happened.

[ You jinxed us… ] The system muttered in a disappointed voice.

As soon as the system got the words inside Jason's mind, the divine energy present in their surroundings started gathering at one point.

'Is it alive or what?' Jason asked with a frown.

[ Its alive in a way since divine energy is basically same yet not same. It varies from god to god depending on his or her personality. Also, you can remove your finger from May's forehead. It will be better if you prepare to run now. ]

Jason didn't need to be told twice. Despite the slight change in his personality, the gears of his mind were turning to figure out the situation.

He lifted his finger of May's forehead and summoned some of his white thunder around his legs.

Jason looked around the room and noticed that most of the divine energy present in his surroundings had gathered in on fixed spot.

It was now taking the shape of a human figure which was exactly twelve feet(3.6 meters) tall.

'Just when I needed a window to escape…'

Jason's eyes roamed around the room yet he couldn't find any other escape other than the door. While gritting his teeth, Jason threw two thunderbolts at the ceiling.

'Hopefully, the red-butt monkey king wouldn't mind me destroying his ceiling in order to protect his entire community.'

Jason jumped towards the ceiling and escaped through the hole he had created. His instincts were telling him to get far away from the humanoid figure of energy lest it attacked him.

[ It will attack you. Divine energy is usually attracted to those who either have the same energy inside them or have anything related to it inside them, like a divinity for example. Since you currently have both of them, you are fked. ] Hestia explained.

'System, I think it would be better for both of us if you increased the speed of the conversion process. I don't think I would like to fight energy that came straight from Sun Wukong…'

[ I am already going at full speed and I don't think I can do this any faster. Plus I think that you will have to either dispel that divine energy or absorb it inside yourself. ]

'Great, one trouble after the other.'

Jason jumped back just in time to see the divine energy shooting out of the hole in the ceiling.

It had taken the form of a humanoid figure, one with a tail and a rod in right hand. It was a dead give away that the humanoid figure was Sun Wukong, the monkey king.

'Does that rod expand?…' Jason thought with a nervous expression. He wasn't the least bit interested in getting pierced by a rod made of divine energy.

[ That figure can use many of Wukong's abilities but it won't really hurt you. Its main goal is to enter your body and get inside your divinity. ] Hestia explained patiently.

'Isn't that what I want to happen?'

[ It is but you are forgetting the fact that the divine energy inside your is slowly being transfered to Erebus's divinity. If you absorb all that energy at once, your body might explode into a thousand pieces so its better to let the previous one vanish completely. ]

'But that… figure is going to chase after me to enter my body. So I basically have to deal with a stalker and avoid getting pierced.'

Jason looked around the village and tried to find a way to avoid the divine energy until the system gave him the thumbs up.

Simultaneously, the figure shot forward and threw the rod in Jason's direction. It expanded by ten times its original size and was aimed at pinning him down.

"Fk…"

Jason cursed under his breath before jumping high in the air. He used the side of the rod as support and climbed it.

Stopping at the top, he raised his hand in the figure's direction and threw a harpoon of darkness.

His harpoon was easily dodged yet the thread he had secretly tied around it went unnoticed. Jason carefully controlled the thread and made it launch towards the figure's legs.

Jason hoped that if he cut the divine energy's legs, he would be able to buy himself some time to get far away without taking any damage.

Unfortunately, he had judged one thing wrongly.

"Huh?"

The moment Jason pulled on the thread tied around the figure's leg, the thread broke apart into numerous tiny pieces.

A sudden pain flared through Jason's hands, making him look down with pained eyes. The skin on his palms looked as though it had been skinned using a knife.

Fortunately, it was slowly healing so there wasn't any major problem that he had to face, excluding the constant sharp pain he was feeling.

'So my thread doesn't work and I have to dodge a weapon that can expand itself to basically destroy the entire village…'

Jason looked down at the village to see that the rod had destroyed a few houses before returning to its user.

[ Jason, there is something I want you to test. But to do that, you have to make sure that you don't get hurt in any manner. ]

'I guess I can manage that. What are we going to do?'

[ Jump towards the divine energy and concentrate on Erebus's divinity, aka the system. Once you are about to be hit by an attack, let me and the system take control over your body for a split second. ]

'What can go wrong?'

[ Worst case scenario, you get hit by the attack and the divine energy enters your body. Best case scenario, that figure can no longer use a weapon. ]

Though the reward wasn't that high, Jason had to admit that his odds would be much better if he got rid of the golden rod.

It would also prevent the remainder of the village from getting destroyed.

'All right, let's do this. System, warn me if we get too closer to May.'

Jason suddenly jumped forward, white thunder trailing around his body. He let the thunder run wildly and increased his speed to the maximum.

[ Jason, why are you interested in saving that child? You can just dispel that energy and leave the child to die. ] Hestia suddenly asked.

'Hmm, I am just doing it so that you don't feel guilty later on. She is Wukong's daughter, right?'

[ Yes, she is. ]

'How is your relationship with Wukong?'

[ Pretty all right. Both of us used to be good friends and fought many battles together. ]

'I see. That's your answer then.' Jason replied with a smile.

The golden rod appeared in front of him in the next instance, its size expanding by an enormous amount.

'I leave things to you both.' Jason thought before letting his body go limp.

[ You can trust us. ]

[ Indeed. ]

Jason's body suddenly exploded with a golden energy. Both the system and Hestia used their powers to such the divine energy directly inside themselves instead of letting it stay inside his body.

Though this caused both of them to feel heavily fatigued, they managed to suck the entire rod inside Jason's soul and save its divine energy.

"Haa!" Jason gasped before entering his body again.

Seeing that the rod had vanished and that the divine energy figure was not making any advances in his direction, Jason's lips curled up into a small smile.

"Now its somewhat fair.

***

AN: Real life update here. My back had been hurting a lot in the past two to three days so I went to a doctor today. Looks like I overexerted myself…

Also, my schedule is getting even tighter. I just wanted to tell you all that the chapters might get updated a bit later than intended.

But rest assured. I will definitely upload them xD

Have fun reading!