GUARDIAN OF THE END

"The first step to cracking someone open is to not do it literally. Physical wounds don't hurt as much as the mental ones," Risa said in a low tone. "I am sure that this gentleman knows what I am about to do."

The man tried to bite his tongue but the moment he bit his tongue, nothing happened. Risa's smile widened when she saw this.

"Suicide is not an option. I have already deactivated the self-destructive formation placed around your hearts and I have also used the auto regeneration spell on you. You can't die unless I allow it." She explained to Jason.

"You shouldn't be able to use all those…" the man replied through gritted teeth.

"I can now. Don't bother trying to contact your superiors. I already made sure you could do nothing." Risa replied.

The man couldn't help but feel helpless. His eyes moved towards Jason, hoping that he could use the kid to his advantage.

"Kid, don't let her do this to me… I would rather die than let this happen." The man said in a terrified voice.

Though Jason was a teenager, the man knew that he had recently gotten out from the chamber of rebirth and might still have the feelings of a child.

If he could do the perfect acting, he would be able to earn Jason's pity. Unfortunately, he was trying his luck with someone much older than his physical appearance.

"Nope. Grandma, can you do this a bit quicker. I want to see how you do this so that I can go and peacefully start my daily training."

"All right, watch closely. You can do this by mixing light and dark element." Risa explained before placing her hands on both sides of the man's head.

Jason could see the mana traveling from her hands inside the man's head. Slowly, the mana seemed to be merging with the man's mana, something Jason didn't know was possible.

"If you try to this without perfect training, you will create a huge explosion. When two different manas are forced to merge together, they will react and create a huge explosion.

I didn't stop you from curing Zara because you were using her own mana. That was also the reason I couldn't do the same thing to her." Risa explained.

"Hmm…"

Jason's eyes continued to look at the two mana merging together. It tok a few minutes but once it was done, the man released a guttural scream.

"Now this is the interesting part." Risa muttered before guiding the mana towards the man's head.

"You can't see this but currently, I can control his thoughts and imagination using the mixed mana. I can basically show him anything I want and take a peak at his memories."

Jason silently shuddered at this. This was an extremely dangerous form of torture since you could basically make the other person see any kind of vision.

"Now, let's see why they are here…" Risa muttered before sending some waves of her mana into the man's head.

"The king ordered us to go capture the two guardians as well as the other two main prodigies of the four families. We advised to go after the Syrward and Feuer family first." The man said in a monotone voice.

A frown appeared on Risa's face when she heard the man's words.

"Its understandable that they want to attack us. Julian must have thought that we would have been hit with some form of withdrawal after fighting the contract placed on us. But why would they go for the Feuer family…" Risa muttered.

She dug deeper into the man's memories and used her mana to break his mental barriers. Not only that but she carefully manipulated him to make sure that he wouldn't be able to think the same way again.

"We have information that the girl called Amber Feuer recently vanished from the Feuer mansion after returning there. We are hoping to get to her and capture her." The man blurted out in the same monotone voice.

The frown on Risa's face deepened. She removed her hands from the man's head before tapping his forehead with her right index finger.

His body instantaneously turned to ashes that were automatically taken to dustbin. Risa cracked her knuckles a bit before closing her eyes.

Jason watched this silently as he had a a feeling that Risa was contacting the Feuer family.

'Telepathy and teleportation got to be some of the most useful forms of magic out there.'

[ They are. Even I can teach you telepathy to a certain extent. ] The system chimed in.

'Why didn't you tell me this before?'

[ Because you already have so much on your plate. Unless you don't plan on sleeping, I don't think you can fit all of this into your schedule and still remain a human. ]

'Sleep is for the weak.'

Jason patiently waited for a few minutes for Risa to be done with her communication. But once she was done, she looked at him with a grim expression.

"Turns out Amber's family didn't know that she vanished but now that they scourged the entire place, they can't find her. Julian must have gotten some of his high level spies inside the family.

But that's not important for the time being. Amber is a valuable asset for Julian and no matter what, I don't what him to get his hands on her. If he does, its going to be terrible for both her and us." Risa said in a grim tone.

[ She might be remembering what happened to Silvia… ]

'Keyword is might.' Jason reminded. "Do they have any idea where she could have went?"

"No, they don't. For all we know, she is already in Julia's clutches and is being forced to form a contract." Risa replied. "That's why Amber's father is requested you to help us."

"Me?" Jason blinked in confusion.

[ You can sense the other eight guardians. I think that was visible on the pros and cons list. ] Hestia said with a fake cough.

"I am ready to help." Jason replied immediately, earning him a nod from Risa.

"Try doing it in your room. I will quickly go through the rest of them to make sure they can't do anything. Well, they still can't do anything but its better to be safe than sorry." Risa muttered before getting back to her job.

Jason on the other hand stood near the runes and once again activated them. He stepped on them and reappeared inside his room.

'So, what am I supposed to do? Astral project myself and hope that I end up finding her in this huge mass of land?' Jason questioned jokingly.

[ We are going to do something similar to do that. Just sit cross-legged on the bed and meditate. ]

Jason did as told and settled on the bed.

[ Now concentrate on my voice. Focus on the bond between us and imagine it spreading widely. Once you have gotten at that stage, imagine another string that connecting someone with that similar bond.

Since you know how Amber looks and stuff, you can used that as a visual power. Once you find that other bond, just contact her using the same radio telepathy. Hopefully, you can do it. ] Hestia explained.

Jason's jaw twitched a bit after hearing those words. It felt like someone had given him the ingredients for making a dish without actually explaining the entire procedure.

"Here goes whatever that goes…"

Jason soon started thinking about his bond with Hestia. A rope tugged at his gut, making him feel more connected to his guardian.

This was the same rope he had used to meet Hestia inside the temple situated in an unknown place.

'Come to think of it, I never got know what that place was.'

[ It was the first temple I ever received. It was also the most sacred place you could worship me from. First temples are like that for a god or goddess… ] Hestia replied in a dazed tone.

Jason couldn't help but wonder whether he had triggered some memories for Hestia. But since he currently had a task at hand, he didn't pay much attention to it.

Jason slowly thought that his connection was expanding over the horizon. He could feel the tug in his gut getting stronger the more he stretched the connection.

'This takes a lot more mental strength and imagination than I thought it would.' Jason observed.

It took him a solid ten minutes to actually sense another bond similar to his. He immediately projected Amber's image inside his mind, hoping to make contact with her.

His vision suddenly exploded with a bright light

[ Open your eyes. ] The system urged.

Despite the bright light, Jason slowly opened his eyes. In front of him was a beautiful lake surrounded by numerous trees.

Dozens of pink ducks were traveling in the water and if Jason had seen them normally, he would have thought that the scene was wholesome.

'There she is.'

His eyes immediately landed on Amber who was sitting at the side of the lake. Upon looking closer, he noticed that drops of tears were falling down her cheeks.

Jason wanted to say something yet no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get the words through.

That's when he remembered about the telepathy communication. He immediately tuned into the radio and found the right frequency within seconds, having no idea how he did it.

But before he could say something, Jason noticed movement around Amber. One thing connected with other and he finally said his words.

"Watch out! There are four people behind you!"