Guardian Of The End

[ Those are not your tears, host. They belong to someone else... ] The system said in a soft voice.

Jason let the tears fall silently as he remembered that something similar had happened in the past.

'Can you talk to Hestia right now?'

[ I am trying but she is once again locked up inside that temple. However, she can still hear me and has left a message saying that she will see us soon. ]

'I see...'

Through his blurred vision, Jason tried to get a better look at his surroundings.

He was present inside a spacious room with a complete black decor.

Almost everything inside the room was black with the occasional shade of blue or red.

'How long was I out for?'

[ About a few hours. The sins thought that you passed out due to exhaustion from long-range teleportation. They left you with Astryn at the Nightshade family residence. ]

(AN: Astryn is the name of Jason's maternal grandmother while Fel is the name of his maternal grandfather.)

'Nightshade huh...'

Jason flexed his body a bit before making his way toward the bathroom.

He glanced at his reflection in the mirror and noticed that his eyes were puffy and red from crying.

The tears had stopped flowing yet his eyes still felt a bit sore.

With a sigh, Jason used the tap to take out some water. He washed his eyes once before focusing on them in the mirror.

'System, monitor my eyes.'

[ On it. ]

Jason suddenly called his light mana towards his eyes. He slowly guided it towards the white portion of his eyes before letting it spread throughout the eyes.

He used the light element in order to reduce the puffiness and redness of his eyes.

Surprisingly, it worked. His eyes returned to a normal state.

'That was easy.'

[ Your control is getting better. Normally the mana might have dispersed a bit but you kept it bound. Good job. ]

Once his eyes were taken care of, Jason entered the shower.

Half an hour later, he walked out of the room with a curious expression.

It was pretty clear that he was staying inside the Nightshade family residence.

"Nah, you aren't going to explore this place on your own. As far as most of the world is concerned, you are not even supposed to exist." An amused voice entered his ears.

Jason turned around in surprise and was met face to face with Astryn.

"Hello, grandson," Astryn smiled. "Nice to see you are still alive."

"That's kind of the perfect greeting I could get. Even I am surprised that I am alive." Jason commented.

Astryn's smile widened a bit after hearing his response. "You are good at remarks. Something you and your mother have in common."

"My mom is good at this?" Jason asked in a surprised tone.

After all, he had never interacted with his mother to know what she was like.

"Evelyn is quite snarky and tells people off if they piss her. Michael and she had quite a few verbal matches due to that. It was quite entertaining." said fondly.

The more Jason heard about his parents from other people, the more he wanted to meet them.

Unfortunately, one of them was currently staying at some sort of temple to protect herself while the other one had simply vanished from existence.

'What a bizarre family I have...'

[ Can't do anything about that. It's quite expected considering how bizarre you are. ]

'That might have been damaging a few years ago...'

"So what am I supposed to do here? Talk with you?" Jason asked.

"If that's what you want to do, we can do it. Though you can learn more about your demon bloodline and demon powers if you want." Astryn offered.

Being the naturally curious person he was, Jason immediately accepted her offer.

Astryn guided Jason through the halls of the place. Jason had confirmed that it was still daytime because the entire place was quite dark.

No light was entering the halls from any direction.

"This place is so dark."

"That's what will happen when you are roaming underground. The real residence of our family is above this place," Astryn explained. "The sins asked us to do this so that no one will know of your visit."

'It's almost as though they are trying to hide my existence. What's the worst that can happen if someone from the demon continent finds out that I am here?'

[ Are you sure that you want to know that? ] The system asked in an amused tone.

Jason wondered for a few seconds before replying with a no. It was better to leave this stuff to someone else's imagination.

"Welcome to the biggest collection of ancient books you'll find on the demon continent." Astryn suddenly announced.

Both of them were currently standing in front of a pair of huge black metal doors that seemed to be blocking the entrance to the library.

The surprising thing was that there was no lock or handle or anything of that sorts to open or close the doors.

"Let me guess, you need to drip your blood on the door and say something to open it?" Jason guessed.

"Indeed, that's the correct way to open it. But I'm not the one who is going to do it," Astryn replied. "You are going to open the door."

Jason simply sighed and moved forward. He raised his right hand towards the door and planted his thumb on it.

Suddenly, black blood oozed out from his thumb even though he hadn't made any visible cut on it.

"So your blood is black..." Astryn mumbled while lookin at Jason's blood. "Now just say, "I, a member of the Nightshade family, wishes for these doors to be opened."

"Couldn't you guys have gone with something simple like "open' or 'open up'? Why did you go with this entire sentence?"

"I can't do anything about this. This library has been here for many centuries. This method of protection was established a long time ago and we haven't found a way to change it." Astryn shrugged.

Jason simply shook his head and chanted the words to open the doors.

Slowly, the metal doors started opening on the inside.

Jason took a step forward before being hit by a cold wave that sent shivers down his spine.

"I forgot to mention that there is one more thing you have to do." Astryn smirked. "There is a guardian protecting the library who you have to defeat in order to access it."

The moment the words left her mouth, a black lightning bolt suddenly impaled Jason in the chest...