Elizabeth wasn’t reckless, she never had been. If her energy had pulled him into her spiritual world, it ant she wanted him here.
The little girl fidgeted, her small hands clutching the edge of her dark dress. She glanced away, then back at him, her voice small but clear.
"I... I want you to see my father."
Leon froze. For a mont, his mind went blank.
"..."
Leon exhaled slowly, his expression unreadable. ’So that’s what this is about,’ he thought, eyes narrowing slightly as the silence stretched between them.
****
Leon knew exactly who Elizabeth’s father was. Ignatius Sol Tarhim—the Dragon Lord of the Void. The devourer of stars. The ruler of the obsidian peaks.
He’d had learned of the na from Elizabeth after she told him, and he instantly understood what it ant after learning fully about her father.
Now, standing inside the desolate realm of Elizabeth’s soul, Leon couldn’t help but feel that weight pressing down again.
He looked at the child version of her, voice steady but edged with tension.
"What is he doing here... No, better yet, how is he here?"
Elizabeth’s small hands tightened around her dress. She hesitated, as though searching for the right words.
"You rember that surge of energy I had... before entering the trial world?"
Leon’s jaw tensed.
How could he forget? That surge had almost killed her.
He’d spent hours forcing it into order, creating her cores from that raw, chaotic power.
"Yeah," he said slowly, "I rember."
Elizabeth took a breath.
"He was the one who sent it."
For a mont, Leon’s thoughts froze. His mind went utterly blank.
"He wanted a way for to grow stronger," she continued, her voice trembling slightly,
"so he sent that energy. Luckily you where there to contain it, If not...."
Leon stared at her, at the little girl who now carried that truth like it was nothing.
His tension faded into quiet disbelief, then sothing colder.
He didn’t care how or why her father had done it; what mattered now was that she almost died because of it.
He straightened, expression sharpening.
"Where is your father now?"
Elizabeth blinked, montarily startled by the question, then nodded.
"I’ll take you to him now."
But she didn’t move.
Instead, she turned toward the decayed horizon and whispered,
"Dad... he’s here."
The ground shuddered.
The sky, already dark—began to twist and ripple like liquid shadow.
Then it changed.
Vast scales of shimring black folded out from the clouds, and the heavens themselves bent into the incorporeal form of a dragon so massive that its wings seed to span eternity.
Leon’s eyes narrowed.
His divine senses swept over the apparition.
’So that’s how he’s here,’ he thought grimly. It wasn’t a true body. It was an echo—an imprint born from the very energy Leon had used to forge Elizabeth’s cores.
The air grew heavy, vibrating with an ancient presence.
Then the vast form in the sky condensed into a figure, a towering man draped in the black radiance of the void, his eyes burning like dying stars.
Elizabeth looked up at Leon, smiling faintly.
"Leo... this is my dad."
Leon’s gaze locked with the her father, the space between them thrumming with silent tension.
****
Ignatius Sol Tarhim, Lord of the Void, Sovereign of a thousand eclipses,.stood in stunned silence as he studied the boy before him.
At first, confusion clouded his gaze.
’A human?’ The thought echoed like thunder through his mind.
’What kind of mortal would dare touch my bloodline?’
His initial instinct had been to crush Leon for the audacity alone.
But when his senses reached for the boy, probing for his aura, they t a wall,.no, a void.
It wasn’t concealnt.
It was absence.
Even for a being like Ignatius, that was unsettling.
He paused.
The threat that had been ready to spill from his mouth died on his tongue.
’I had assud the boy rely possessed a rare talent,’ the dragon lord mused, ’sothing that allowed him to contain my power for my daughter. But this... what even is he?’
"Why did you do it?" Leon’s voice cut clean through Ignatius’ thoughts.
The Dragon Lord blinked, montarily thrown. "Do what?"
"There could’ve been another way," Leon said sharply. His tone was calm, but his eyes burned. "A way that wouldn’t have risked Lizzie’s life."
Elizabeth froze beside him.
Hearing Leon challenge her father left her stunned.
Even as a fragnt, Ignatius’ presence was overwhelming.
Elizabeth, for all her confidence and fiery nature, would never have dared to speak to him like that.
Ignatius tilted his head slightly, realization dawning.
"Ah. You an the surge." His voice carried the calm weight of inevitability.
"If she couldn’t handle such a task, then she doesn’t deserve to be my offspring."
He wasn’t being cruel.
To him, it was simply truth,.an immutable law of existence.
Power was ant to be earned, not coddled. Those unfit to bear it didn’t deserve life.
Leon stood silent for a long mont.
The child beside him trembled, eyes glistening with unshed tears.
She wanted to speak, to plead, but she couldn’t.
Then Leon smiled, it was a quiet and dangerous.smile.
"I see."
He turned to Elizabeth and knelt, resting a steady hand on her head.
"Whatever you do, don’t look back, okay?"
She hesitated but nodded, her small body tense.
Leon rose to his full height, his eyes eting the illusory dragon in the sky. Ignatius frowned slightly, curiosity returning.
"Boy, what are yo—"
The words cut short.
A pressure exploded outward like a collapsing star. The entire soul scape shook.
A psychic force made off pure, concentrated will, slamd into the Dragon Lord’s apparition, driving it from the sky.
BOOM!
The impact shattered the distant ground into craters of black dust.
Elizabeth flinched at the sound but didn’t turn around.
Her little shoulders shook once, then stilled. Slowly, a small smile curved on her face.
Because she knew, Leon had just done what no one in her world had ever dared to do.
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