“I’ve never had the chance to investigate a Lightborn before.” Dana said as the two appeared from the void of space, quickly entering the twenty-eighth layer of Fyor. “This will be my first time with a purely mana-created being.”

As an Unbound Aeon, Dana had simply never had the need to analyze the existences known as the Lightborn in too great of detail. It wasn’t until she was in the process of making Gerard that she truly wanted to look into them. And by that time, with her body being composed of a shadow-element energy, she was afraid that her interference would have caused harm to those existences.

“You can think of them as rather normal beings, they are merely more in tune with the thoughts of others.” Tsubaki said with a smile, glancing around. This was the first time in a while that she had been on this layer of Fyor, so it was taking her a moment to find her bearings. Once she noticed a fortress in the far distance, she quickly sped over with Dana, having the people there transport them to their final destination.

Upon arrival, it was… truly something that they would not have missed, had they been in any position to see it. Just outside the fort was an utter mountain of a man, sitting with his legs crossed and still towering easily over the fort. When they arrived, a trio of Rainbow-Eyed humans that had embraced the system walked up to them, nodding their heads politely.

“You must be the envoys from the Citadel.” The one in the center said. “Thank you for taking the time to see to this matter.”

“It’s fine.” Tsubaki said with a shake of her head, glancing to the mountainous figure easily seen beyond the fortress’s walls. “I assume that everything was covered in the report?”

“That is correct.” The man responded, having wanted to be as accurate as possible when submitting the report to both the Researcher and the Sky Citadel. However, the Researcher had already responded that he wasn’t particularly interested in this event, so he would let someone else take care of it.

“Then, we will handle things from here.” Tsubaki said, gesturing for Dana to follow her as she flew up over the wall, heading for a better vantage point to speak with that giant.

“A-Ah! We shall accompany you, so that you will be able to converse--”

However, Tsubaki cut the man off. “There is no need.” She said simply, glancing to Dana as they ascended. “What do you think?”

“If it’s a translation spell, I can do that easily. I’m not the Apostle of Magic for nothing.” Dana said with a proud grin, before her expression turned somewhat more solemn. “As for the rest… its body is too large. I can’t sense anything from here. I can only confirm it if I lay a hand on it.”

Tsubaki gave a small nod of her head, watching as Dana arranged an intricate, overlapping spell of the fourth tier. The spell shattered, and then entered into the bodies of the two. Once done, Tsubaki looked up at the giant figure. “Can you understand me, Stone Father?” She asked, to which the giant being nodded.

“I can.”

“Good. In order to begin assessing what exactly we can do to help you, my associate will need to place her hands on you.” She did not ask for permission, or even thank it for its understanding. Instead, she merely informed the Stone Father what was happening.

After she said that, Dana flew forward, her entire body coming to rest on the shoulder of the Stone Father. The moment she did so, she blinked slowly, as if lost. He has no soul. That’s… weird. If he’s such an advanced product of the world’s laws, shouldn’t he have a soul?

Not necessarily. Tsubaki countered, keeping the discussion private for the moment. Although he was created by a mass of mana similar in theory to Gerard, it was a far less refined process. If anything, I expected this possibility. At most, the Mana Siphons would be the equivalent of a second tier spell effect, incapable of producing a soul.

Then… what can we do to stabilize his existence? Right now, he’s being powered purely by the Mage Heart embedded within his body. If the energy from those run out, and they will, he’ll simply disappear.

Tsubaki pursed her lips, closing her eyes for a moment. Then we will simply need to give him a soul. Dana’s eyes went wide when she received that message. I am the Apostle of Death serving the God of Souls, and you are the Tyrant Queen of Hell. If we can not give him a soul, who in this world can?

It’s a challenge… and a risky one. I like it. Dana’s lips spread into a wide grin as she nodded.

Tsubaki looked up at the giant, her gaze firm. “We’ve decided what we need to do. However, it is likely to be quite uncomfortable for you. We need to make sure that you do not resist us.”

There was a deep, rumbling sound as the giant nodded its stone head, rocks the size of people falling off its chin. “I understand. I will make no move to fight. Too many of me have perished seeking this.”

If what the report said is true, though… what’s to stop the next Stone Father that appears from trying this same thing? Dana asked, feeling somewhat worried. We can’t be expected to do this for each that appears in the future, can we?

No. Once we are done here, I will be paying a visit to these Ashen Dwarves. There was a determined glint in Tsubaki’s gaze, and Dana couldn’t tell whether the kitsune planned to talk with the dwarves, relocate them… or just outright exterminate them.

Dana let out a long sigh, closing her eyes and shaking her head. There wasn’t much she could do to help the Ashen Dwarves either way. She knew that Tsubaki wouldn’t do anything that she thought might upset the Keeper at the very least, so she trusted her not to cross a line. Okay. You’ll need to get the power of Souls. You haven’t trained with that power to the same degree he has, so I’ll take the lead once we have enough spiritual energy. And I mean a lot.

Tsubaki nodded her head in understanding, silently praying. My Keeper, I require access to the power of Souls. Mere moments after she had made the request, she could feel the domain having been unlocked within her, a grateful smile forming over her lips.

Lifting one hand, she gathered the power of this domain, opening a portal to the Underworld. This portal took the form of a large black circle in the air, constantly releasing a downpour of silver mist. Dana could naturally open a portal herself, but to get the amount of energy that she needed while also controlling what was coming through would require too much of her focus.

As such, the Queen of Hell flew down below the portal, stretching out her arms to mentally control the tide of spiritual energy being released. I need a bigger portal if we want to get this done any time soon! Though she said that, the spiritual energy was swirling around her, gradually condensing in front of her body as a growing ball.

Tsubaki’s brow furrowed, and she clenched her fist, causing the portal to abruptly expand by over ten times. Dana let out a hearty laugh as she felt the energy increasing like this, her shadow growing on the ground beneath her as she began to release her true power. Strands of energy rose from her body, spreading out for hundreds of meters to catch the falling mist and bring it to her.

As more and more energy poured into the ball, it kept growing larger, soon being bigger than Dana’s entire body, and yet she was not satisfied. She kept greedily taking in the power, fueling the growth of the sphere as it became bigger and bigger. How big do you need this to be? Tsubaki asked in wonder.

As big as this guy’s head! Dana responded in a sing-song tone, clearly excited by the prospect of handling this much energy all at once. Her mind raced, mana flooding from her and heading straight for the Stone Father.

The mountainous figure seemed nervous, but did nothing to resist as the unfamiliar mana circled him, forming complicated shapes and patterns that made him dizzy just looking at them. Dana fully tapped into her power as the Apostle of Magic, exerting the highly expanded mana capacity that Ryone had gave her. And what she did with it was create a fourth-tier spell array that encompassed the entire figure of the Stone Father.

Dana’s power only seemed to grow stronger as more spiritual energy was released, until more threads emerged to hold the ball from all sides, preventing it from ‘popping’. The Stone Father’s head alone was larger than the entire fortress behind the two of them, so she had to ensure that none of the energy escaped before he sphere reached the required size.

For her part, Tsubaki had little to do but hold open the massive underworld portal. Only when an unfortunate monster soul noticed it and tried to pass through did she get the chance to lash out an attack and destroy them. At that moment, their own energy joined with the spiritual power rushing downwards.

However, eventually, the sphere was destined to become large enough for Dana to use. Once she was hovering before an enormous sphere of rippling silver gas, she shouted for Tsubaki to close the portal, capturing what came out in the last few moments to add to the mix. “Now… for the fun part!” Dana grinned, using thousands of threads to guide the sphere into the magic diagram that she had previously created.

Your job now is just to make sure that none of the energy gets out of the spell diagram. Aside from that, leave the rest to me. Dana grinned manically, the sphere dispersing as soon as it was within the field of the spell. Without Dana compressing the gaseous energy, it expanded outwards, entirely surrounding the body of the Stone Father and filling the space within the diagram.

“Activate!” Dana called out, the spell diagram lighting up. At the same time, Tsubaki began flying around the exterior, using the power of Souls whenever she saw a wisp of smoke leaving the spell’s area. For the most part, the energy seemed to be pushed inwards, into the body of the living mountain.

The Stone Father grit its granite teeth, feeling an intense pain and discomfort as the strange mist rushed into its body. However, it still forced himself not to resist. To do so now would be to ruin everything that had happened so far, and it was likely not to get another chance with these two if it destroyed their progress now. This is for the sake of my existence. It muttered to itself, body tensing.

Dana kept her body outside of the spell circle, using her mental control of the magic diagram to monitor its progress. She herself wasn’t entirely sure that this would work, as it was a spell that she had created on the spot. However, she trusted the training that Ryone had given her over the years, training which allowed her to even be able to construct fourth-tier magic diagrams like this without any outside help. Everything that she had put into the spell had been for the purpose of allowing a purely mana-based entity absorb spiritual energy and create a spiritual core.

The problem came when the spell was complete. Though, it wasn’t really quite a problem so much as it was a surprise. After the spell had run its course and caused the Stone Father to form its spiritual core with the energy that had been injected into it, the entire diagram shattered, revealing the Stone Father’s form looking no different than before. However, Dana could clearly sense a powerful spirit within the mountainous body now. Despite this, her jaw was hanging open, eyes wide in shock. “Eh?!”

Congratulations, you have successfully formed a pact with the Aeon: Stone Father!

“Ehhh?!”