"I would never think of you badly, even after hearing that."

Orion abruptly shook his head with a confused look on his face.

"She kept telling me that, too, but I simply couldn't bring myself to speak about it."

"The man who could only create a spark of lightning shocked himself millions of times, exploded half a mountain the day he released his blockage, and created plasma. He did all of this because he liked getting complimented by one woman."

"Do you get me?"

Orion smiled at his father. He now understood him a lot better.

Reon worked hard— not to be a great leader, but to be considered the greatest by a single person.

"I do. But what about the fairies? How did you single-handedly manage to become their savior and even protect a Remnant?"

Reon looked at him with a lack of enthusiasm.

"Oh, this story? Even Orianne doesn't know. Since you've found her, I guess I need to explain."

By 'her', he meant the Tree of Life, Tiohr-nam.

"Yes, please. If I can have your side of the story, I would be grateful."

Thinking back on what Orion had said the first time they met, Reon nodded.

"You're interested in learning our history, right? I can understand its appeal, but every so often, there are things that should only stay in the shadows."

The look on his father's face was darker than before.

"What do you mean?"

Curiosity was Orion's worst quality. He was ready to learn even the worst stories in the world.

"How can I say it? Can you forgive an accidental murder?"

"What kind of question is that?"

Orion was left speechless. This was an out-of-pocket question.

"I told you earlier that when I broke the bottleneck of my own power, I released so much power that I destroyed a mountain, right?"

Orion nodded.

"You haven't explained it, but yes, I remember. What of it?"

"On that mountain, well... the tree was there. I reduced it to ashes..."

A sense of nervousness appeared on Reon's face, while Orion just made one terrible face.

"I can't believe it. You brought a Remnant down... Tiohr-nam at that."

The stare of disbelief on Orion's face was priceless. Something Reon printed in his mind to tell Orianne at a later date.

"Is that its name? It isn't the same as the one she had when I replanted it, or maybe it was. This isn't significant to me."

With a nod, Orion focused on the discussion.

"Yes, she died multiple times. I'll explain once you're done."

"Right. I replanted her where there was a lot of nutritious dirt and plenty of beautiful trees. I took it upon myself to protect it and nurture it back to life, but I would never have expected it to create a whole faction by itself."

"Still, I was unable to take care of it soon after. War became a problem, and I had a duty to fulfill."

His gaze fell down, and he felt guilty about his past mistakes.

"Soon after, there were numerous crawling creatures that were birthed by the sprout, which became known as fairies."

"But as usual, humans, in their wickedness, came and killed a lot of these members just for their wings and shells."

"Because they sold well."

The hate he spat at this comment showed that this was one thing Reon couldn't tolerate.

"I could never forgive this, and I most likely never will. It would be the same as us angels hunting humans because their teeth sell well. Truly pathetic."

Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

Orion recalled Monolavir's tale about those humans stealing his eggs. They truly were a shameless faction.

"I was the only one who knew about the fairies. I've never talked about it to anyone, and that was the point. They were well hidden, but at one point, it was out of my hands."

"They kept coming, and I was swamped with defending Eogis with Orianne. The rest, well, you get it. We died."

"..."

A silence fell as they both stood in their spots. Then, Orion nodded and smiled.

"Thank you, dad."

"You finally stopped calling me like a stranger."

Reon smiled in return as his son opened his heart to him.

"The tree you've managed to protect, whose name is Tiohr-nam, remembers everything after you've appeared, and it still considers you the protector of her faction."

"It's funny, isn't it? That wasn't my intention. I simply had to take responsibility."

Reon was a man who understood the impact his choices made on the world. Even though his mistake was an involuntary one, he knew how to act like a man and own his flaws.

"And that's why you deserve my respect, not only because you are my father, but also because you are someone great. You do the greatest things just by being yourself. Isn't that what everyone should strive to be?"

"Orion."

They exchanged a moment of silence between father and son, and Orion took this chance to bring the topic of the ring to the conversation.

"Dad, I get the feeling this is the reason you've been brought out of sleep."

Orion focused on his hand, and he felt the ring in his palm. By sensing it, the ring managed to appear inside the bracelet.

"You've lost this, haven't you?"

Reon opened his eyes wide and, with a trembling hand, received the precious ring.

"My... ring... I thought it had disappeared the day we sealed Elliott. Where did you find it?"

Seeing the ring, he contained the raging emotions inside of him.

"The tree protected it with her life for two thousand years. She avoided it ending in the hands of corrupt beings."

"Ha- Haha. Did I sincerely deserve such kindness after what I've done?"

Clenching the ring in his hand, Reon felt awkward.

"Even after you disappeared, the ring protected her and her faction members. You deserve to get it back."

"Thank you. But..."

Opening his hand, he extended it to his son.

"Keep it with you. I feel something different coming from it. How do I say it? When I had it, it was made to facilitate the creation of plasma matter, but now, it should locate places with massive amounts of corruption."

"Something like that— I don't know exactly what happened to it, but it should be useful to you. Simply knowing you have this ring puts my mind at ease."

As he handed out the ring, he asked a question.

"What about your mother's?"

"I haven't found it yet. I'm planning to retrieve it too, but I have no clues yet."

Orion answered honestly. This was one of his goals: to retrieve his parents' belongings.

"That's too bad. Please find it; she cherished it as much as me."

"I'll do my best for that to happen."

They then continued to walk forward.

"So, how much time has passed this time? I can clearly see how tough you've become. You don't have the same aura or the same face as before. For me, it's been a few minutes since I've seen you."

Surprised, Orion hesitated.

"Three years. It's been three years."

"After that time, I thought I would never see you two again, but here we are. I also wanted to see mom, but what can I say?"

He shrugged.

"She would have been delighted. You have the kind of body that would make her drool everywhere. You've become so handsome that it's scary."

"Thank you; I got that from you."

Reon shook his right hand from left to right in an attempt to ignore Orion's compliment.

"Right, I'm not that handsome."

He deflected the conversation immediately.

"Anyway, how's your magic? We've managed to free your magic vessels before, but did you manage to properly use them?"

"Yes, I've trained constantly with the two elements you both awakened."

The usual flash of light covered Orion as he focused on his magic, and his hair changed color.

"I don't understand why your hair turns half gold and half silver. Is it because of our blood, or is it because of the seal? Maybe it's because of multiple reasons, but it's weird to see my son like this."

A white sphere appeared in his right hand, and a dark sphere appeared in the left one.

Reon stopped looking at Orion and focused on the two forgotten elements.

"I can't believe it; you really obtained these two elements."

"I talked about it with Amelia, and when we realized the previous wielder of both the 'Shackles' and the 'Key' possessed every element, it made sense."

With a nod, Reon listened.

"The only way to be able to use these elements is by having the 'Shackles', and by having the 'Key', you can use all natural elements."

"Interesting; this is a fine discovery. The one who could describe it perfectly would be the first Hero, but he had already left this world a few hundred years before us."

Then, they kept discussing the finer details of Orion's life for an hour.

...

He talked about the training, the ceremony, the Apostles, the dragons, the fairies, Amelia and Karteira, and even his love life.

Feeling fortunate to have been able to see his father for such a long time, every topic was good to talk about.

As if the place had a sun, the white room began to turn gray with time. Noticing that, Reon had to say goodbye to his son already.

"I said it before, but it takes magic to make this place work. It might have used all of its reserves to give us a chance to speak again."

"It's fine. Simply knowing you are fine inside the bracelet is enough for me."

Orion felt strange. He didn't wish to leave his father's side, but he had to.

"Next time, I hope you see Orianne. It's not going to be pretty when she hears I monopolized you for so long."

They laughed one last time.

"Well, my son. Stay healthy. And please keep that in mind."

"You have to protect your treasures at all costs. Just don't do it like me and die."

Feeling the need to comment on that, Orion walked in front of Reon.

"You're not dead to me yet. Until I say so, what you did wasn't a sacrifice."

"Fine, think how you want. Be careful out there."

"See you."

He waved at Reon, and his body vanished from the dimly lit room.

"Could you send me to Orianne before you shut down?"

The room's light stopped dimming, and it forced its system to stay active for a few minutes.

"Thank you."

His body disappeared too, and he appeared in a room with a bed and a crimson-haired beauty sleeping on it.

Reon touched the bed, hugged his wife, and fell unconscious. The lights lost their shine, and everything turned black.

~

"Don't shake him. He should wake up soon enough."

Amelia was speaking to a panicked Karteira. The moment Orion grabbed the ring, he completely stopped responding to her calls, and he even completely froze.

"But it's strange, isn't it? He was fine a second ago, and now he's simply not there anymore? Are you asking me not to worry?"

"Yes, because it's a good thing for him."

Amelia knew exactly what was happening, as Orion had explained this event to her before.

"How does that make it a good thing for him?"

She was having trouble calming Karteira.

"Don't worry, I'm fine."

Orion suddenly opened his eyes and stretched his body, which had been frozen for almost ten minutes.

"Oh, you're back. How was it? I thought it would never happen again."

"I saw my father. The ring was the reason the system was activated this time. It's another miracle, so let's just stop thinking about it."

"You saw your father?"

Karteira was perplexed. She was sure no one had appeared while Orion was out.

"That's a long story. Like everything else, I'll explain later. Let's just get out of here for now. Can I ask you for help?"

"Of course!"

With a bright smile, Karteira grabbed his waist like Amelia, and they both slowly walked away from the underground.