After the grand, world-shaking resonance of the imprinting subsided, a heavy, expectant silence filled the sanctum.
Leon and Eir stood frozen, staring at one another with wide, blinking eyes, waiting for a cosmic transformation that would surely turn the tiny fairy into a god-slaying entity.
They waited. And waited. But... nothing. Not a spark, not a glow, not even a change in the color of Eir's wings. Just two confused individuals standing in a very quiet room.
Meanwhile, the Dragon God watched them, his massive golden brow twitching with a mixture of anxiety and disbelief.
" Are these two truly the ones who passed the Trial of Godhood?" he wondered, his divine ego taking a bruised hit. He watched the "Pathfinder" and the "First Apostle" look at each other with blank expressions, completely forgetting that an Imprinting doesn't just explode—it requires the user's will to ignite.
" I am teaching a pair of absolute idiots", the Dragon God thought, burying his face in a massive claw. I am leaving the fate of the world to a man who treats a divine contract like a broken lightbulb. Am I raising a savior, or a walking Calamity? Actually, even a Calamity has more common sense than this.
"Eir, try it! Just focus!" Leon urged, his voice cracking with a mix of desperation and encouragement. "The Book of Valish was a total disaster when I tried to use it—it nearly blew my mind apart—but for you, it should be different! Come on, show me something!"
Eir squeezed her eyes shut, her tiny face turning a bright shade of pink from the sheer effort of thinking. Suddenly, a minuscule, flickering speck of light appeared on the tip of her finger. It was so faint that it didn't even cast a shadow on a nearby leaf, let alone shake the foundations of the world.
"Master! Look! I did it!" she squealed, her wings buzzing with pure joy.
"Oh! Eir! Wow!" Leon erupted, clapping his hands like a crazed fan at a concert.
"You did it! You're a genius! A natural-born archmage!"
He scooped her up and patted her head with exaggerated care, his eyes misting over with unearned pride. "I feel like a father watching his daughter say her very first word. Good job, my brilliant little fairy! As a reward, you can ask me for anything in this Tower. Anything at all!"
Eir snuggled into his palm, her tiny heart fluttering. "Eir doesn't want anything, Master. Eir just wants to stay with Master forever."
At this, Leon's emotional dam finally broke. "Eir... I'm going to cry.
My little fairy baby has grown up so much! But wait—what if one day you leave me? You can't do that, Eir! You're forbidden from leaving! If any jerk tries to take you away from me, I'll use every Black Magic spell in my arsenal to turn them into—"
"Master? Turn them into what?" Eir asked, blinking innocently.
"Nothing, Eir," Leon coughed, quickly regaining his composure. "That's not something for children to hear. Let's just say they would experience a very... permanent... retirement."
In the background, the Dragon God stared at the ceiling, wondering if it was too late to find a different hero. The fate of the world is in the hands of a doting, overprotective maniac and a fairy who can barely light a candle, he puzzled, his ancient heart filled with a new kind of terror.
"It's going to be okay... right? Please tell me it's going to be okay."
" Leon! Enough with the chit-chat!" the Dragon God barked, his voice booming with a feigned roughness that couldn't quite hide the strange, paternal softening in his tone. "Do you think the heavens wait for a man to finish coddling a fairy?"
"He loomed over them, the sheer resonance of his voice eclipsing the light."
"Listen well, boy. I shall be waiting for you on the 200th floor. Do not dawdle. That is the apex, the final ceiling of this god-forsaken tower. You understand the weight of my words, don't you?"
Leon bowed, his expression shifting from a doting father to a focused warrior.
"I understand, Master. The final stage."
"Hmph! Then move! I'm getting gray scales just watching you move at a snail's pace.
Come quickly... I am weary of this solitude," the deity grumbled, his silhouette beginning to flicker and fade into the ether.
"I shall descend upon that peak," Leon vowed, the words hanging in the air even as the Dragon God's presence flickered into nothingness. "
But as soon as the presence was gone, Leon's eyes gleamed with a different, more dangerous light. So, only two hundred floors? he mused, a cocky smirk tugging at his lips. I truly hope there's something up there with a pulse strong enough to survive me. I'm sitting on a mountain of Divine Magic I haven't even unsealed yet. My patience is wearing thin; I need a punching bag that doesn't turn to dust in three seconds.
He turned to his tiny companion, his cape snapping in a sudden, dramatic gust of mana.
"Eir! Let's go! We're going to speed-run the rest of this tower until the gods themselves beg for a commercial break!"
"Ready, Master! Eir is ready!" she chirped, hovering with newfound determination.
They stepped toward the shimmering portal to the next floor, Leon already visualizing the destruction he would unleash. But just as his boot touched the threshold, his body locked. A cold, visceral shiver raced up his spine, pinning him to the spot.
"Eir... wait," he gasped, his hand clutching his chest. "Something... something is calling me. Not from the tower. From inside."
"Master?
" Eir's voice wobbled, her joy replaced by instant terror.
Deep within the resonance of his soul—beneath the Stigmas, beneath the Black Mana, and beneath the Earth attributes—a sound began to echo. It wasn't a roar of power or a surge of magic. It was a hollow, haunting wail—a sound of infinite, ancient sorrow that seemed to bleed through the very fabric of his being.
"Master... Master... please..."
The voice was a jagged shard of grief, echoing from a place Leon hadn't realized existed within his own heart.