Mirko sat on his shoulder in her small, green rabbit form. Kuro was a patch of absolute darkness on the empty seat beside him.
"You’re both turning over what Vorlagrath told us," Nathan murmured quietly. "About the Shepherd. About what he engineered against your people."
Yes, Kuro replied, her mental voice cool and analytical. But we are also turning over what he said about us. That we are the embers that refused to die.
"Hmph!" Mirko’s long ears twitched indignantly. "This Knight has inherently known she was exceptional from the moment of her manifestation! However, it is admittedly... validating... to have it confirmed by an ancient, monarchial dragon. Even if he did insist on speaking in dramatic riddles."
He was an ancient dragon, Mirko. He was not a middle manager.
"Dragons should still strive for concise communication!"
Nathan let out a quiet, exhausted laugh. The transport rumbled on. Outside the armored windows, the hostile volcanic plains slowly gave way to rocky foothills, and eventually, the familiar, gleaming spires of the capital’s skyline breached the horizon.
They were going home.
---
Celestial Peak’s observatory was bathed in the warm, comforting light of the late afternoon.
Valerie was waiting behind her desk, her TUFF GRANNY mug steaming aggressively, Boris snoring like a chainsaw in the corner. She listened to Nathan’s debrief in absolute silence, absorbing the details of the combined assault, the horrors of the inner sanctum, the truth of Vorlagrath, and the total sublimation of the monolith.
When he finally finished, she leaned back, the old leather chair groaning. "A full clear. S-Rank. And the Tower ceased to exist." She raised her mug toward him in a silent salute. "You shattered every benchmark I set. Take a week. Rest your bones. Patch your gear. Because when you get back, we go to war with the Cleansing."
Nathan nodded. "We’ll be ready."
He didn’t mention the Dragon’s Heart Core. He didn’t mention the third summon. Those were deeply personal milestones that belonged to him and his party alone. Valerie didn’t need to know the details... not yet.
Nathan tried to slip out the back of the guild hall and head to the apartment alone, but His party immediately stopped the attempt.
"Absolutely not," Garrett said, crossing his massive arms and physically blocking the exit door. Red stood beside him like a heavily armored, woolly bouncer. "We have bled through six High-Class Towers and an Elite expedition with you. You are absolutely not rolling a new Bunny Girl without us in the room."
"He’s entirely right," Dillon said, materializing on Nathan’s flank with a crackle of Electricity, Cloudy draped lazily over his head. "This is a mandatory team-building exercise. I have been waiting literally months to see what a dragon-themed rabbit looks like."
Elise stood a few paces back, her expression calm but her eyes unyielding. "We have sacrificed too much to be excluded from the culmination of the effort. Whatever this summoning brings... we want to be there."
Nathan looked helplessly at Mirko and Kuro.
Mirko shifted into her humanoid form in a flash of light. "Hmph! This Knight fully endorses their presence! The new recruit must be introduced to her commanding officers immediately upon manifestation!"
You mean you wish to aggressively assert dominance before the new summon can orient herself, Kuro observed smoothly.
"That is literally what I just said!"
Nathan sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Fine. You can all come. But Lucy is going to be there, and the apartment is tiny. Do not break my furniture."
---
The apartment was suffocatingly warm and smelled overwhelmingly of toast.
Lucy was waiting. The star-shaped nightlight cast familiar, dancing shadows across the walls. She was sitting cross-legged in the center of Nathan’s bed, a half-finished sketch in her lap, something involving a massive dragon and a warrior with incredibly long ears.
She took one look at the party filing awkwardly through the front door and immediately crossed her arms. "Huh? You’re all here?. Even Elise!. Even the sheep!. Something massive is happening."
"We’re... initiating My third summon, Luce" Nathan admitted, dropping his gear bag by the door. "I tried to do it quietly, but—"
"But we actively refused to let him," Garrett supplied helpfully, trying to avoid knocking over a lamp.
Lucy’s eyes went wide as saucers. She scrambled off the bed, abandoning her sketchbook. "A new one!? Like Mirko and Kuro? What color is she? Is she going be to just as soft too?! What class??"
"We have absolutely no idea," Nathan said, smiling despite his exhaustion. "That’s what we’re about to find out."
He stepped into the narrow center of the living room. The party awkwardly shuffled to the edges, trying to make space. Garrett and Red wedged themselves into the tiny kitchen alcove. Dillon leaned against the window frame, Cloudy snapping tiny sparks at the glass. Elise stood near the foot of the bed, her staff planted firmly. Lucy sat on the very edge of the mattress, her legs swinging rapidly, her eyes locked on Nathan.
Mirko stood sharply at Nathan’s right hand. Kuro melted from the shadows to stand at his left.
Nathan opened his inventory interface. With a faint chime, the Dragon’s Heart Core materialized in his palm. The jagged crystal of crimson and gold was heavy, pulsing with the immense, ancient heartbeat of the dead king. The ambient light in the tiny apartment was instantly drowned out, the walls painted in brilliant hues of sunset and dying fire.
Be the ember. Be the fire.
"System," Nathan commanded, his voice steady. "Activate the third summon. Here’s the Catalyst, The Dragon’s Heart Core."
[Ding! Catalyst Confirmed.]
[Initiating summoning...]
The Heart Core violently ignited.
A blinding pillar of golden light erupted from the crystal, flooding the cramped apartment with the sheer radiance of a captive sun. Complex, ancient runic symbols began to violently spiral through the air. The summoning circle etched itself directly into the hardwood floor beneath Nathan’s boots; a massive, intricate mandala of gold and crimson, its outer edges licking the air with ethereal flames that gave off no heat.
And from within the absolute center of the circle, from the deepest heart of the blinding light, a silhouette began to rapidly take shape.
The apartment roared with golden fire as the third summon arrived.
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