[Prepare yourself, demon,] Leon said to Xaphan, [for I’m on my way…]

[Oh no…] Xaphan responded sarcastically, [whatever will I do…? A young human is coming, oh woe is me!]

[Waiting there for my arrival is what you’ll do!] Leon responded, his mouth curving into an excited smile. He could almost hear Xaphan shrug; it wasn’t like the demon could do much else within his soul realm except wait, after all.

But then, Leon ran into a bit of a problem: he had no earthly idea how to enter his soul realm. He knew he had to use his magic body, but in that respect, he had yet to figure out how to control it. He couldn’t ask Xaphan for assistance, either, given his declaration.

Leon quickly sat down and began to concentrate, to analyze his current abilities. If he concentrated, he could feel his magic body, but when he tried to move it, he ended up moving his physical body instead.

[Having some difficulties?] Xaphan mockingly asked, the smile on his face as clear as the midday sun in a cloudless sky from his tone.

Leon didn’t respond; he just continued to experiment with his new magical form.

‘There have been countless sixth-tier mages before me, this shouldn’t be that hard!’ Leon thought to himself as he closed his eyes in concentration and tried to throw the right arm of his magic body above his head.

This time, he felt something different, something a bit surreal. When he opened his eyes, he saw nothing unusual about his physical body, and the strange feeling quickly, though not immediately, vanished. It was almost as if something had peeled off from his arm and had been dangling in the air, though it clearly hadn’t been anything physical when Leon inspected himself.

With a smile, Leon closed his eyes again and concentrated as hard as he could on his magic body. With as much willpower as he could muster, he commanded his physical form to stay motionless and his magical form to rise into the air.

When Leon opened his eyes, he found himself floating about a foot over his own corporeal head. After a few more minutes of playing around, he found that not only was he completely invisible to the naked eye—though not from magic senses—he could also fly through the air, albeit agonizingly slowly if he concentrated enough.

But these things interested Leon not a bit; it was his soul realm and the Thunderbird that lit his blood on fire. Or so it felt to him, at least.

Leon slowly floated back over to his fleshly frame and began to sink into it. It was more than a bit surreal, sinking back into his body like some kind of ghost, but Leon took in stride knowing what was to come.

He had an inkling of what to do now. Once he had returned to his physical body, he kept his eyes closed and tried to sink further down, essentially trying the reverse of what he had just done. And for the briefest of moments, he felt like he was falling into an endless pit; his stomach felt like it dropped through the floor. The sensation passed quickly, and Leon felt himself sitting in a position he hadn’t been just a moment ago, upright as if in a chair rather than somewhat hunched over with his legs crossed and a griffin pressed up against his thigh.

Opening his eyes, Leon saw bright gray clouds almost as far as his eyes could see. He was sitting in the black granite chair in the center of his soul realm, the white marble steps just in front of him and beyond, the blazing inferno that perpetually surrounded his demonic partner.

Xaphan said nothing upon Leon’s arrival, so disappointed was he that Leon figured this out so quickly. Leon, however, wasn’t so reserved.

Rising from his throne, Leon raised his arms into the air and roared in triumph. This had been a long time coming, from the first time he’d been sent here during his bloodline awakening, his second due to Bran’s attack, to his third following his fight with Lewis, and he let out every second in that one howl. By the end of it, he’d risen to his feet and dropped to his knees, but his arms remained raised and his fists closed.

“Hmm. Had to happen eventually,” Xaphan said in mock derision. Leon, however, was so ecstatic that he was finally within his soul realm that Xaphan’s words rolled right off him like water off a duck’s back. He just kneeled there, reveling in his achievement.

It took him almost ten minutes to finally stand back up and face Xaphan.

“I’m finally here, demon,” Leon proudly stated.

“Really? I had no idea, I must’ve missed that somehow,” Xaphan sarcastically replied.

“I recall making quite a few promises…” Leon said, his proud smile turning slightly sinister. “I seem to remember making a few threats, too…”

“Oh? Do you plan to do me harm in some way?” Xaphan asked with growing interest, his orange fire growing more intense.

“Don’t bother flexing, you’re still in my soul realm,” Leon responded. He then conjured a silver-blue lightning spear and hurled it faster than Xaphan could react—he was still faster than the demon, and there were only about thirty or forty feet between them.

The lightning spear, however, only grazed Xaphan’s cheek, parting the flames before it and revealing the demon’s obsidian skin for a fraction of a second. The lightning itself did no discernible damage to Xaphan, merely giving him a few light jolts to the cheek that barely even made him twitch.

“Mm,” Leon mumbled as he nodded in satisfaction.

“Are you done?” Xaphan asked in annoyance.

“I am,” Leon definitively stated.

The two stared at each other for what felt like hours, then both burst out laughing. Xaphan was ecstatic as Leon’s increased power meant he could heal faster and keep them both safer, and Leon was joyful for reasons that ought to be obvious.

Once they were finished, Leon said, “I have a great many things to discuss with you, demon, such as that technique for mental communication you promised to teach me way back when…”

Xaphan quietly cringed when this was brought up, as he’d completely forgotten.

“… but for now,” Leon continued, “my priority lies with my ancestor. Where is the Thunderbird and how can I contact him?”

“Don’t know,” Xaphan confessed, for every admission of his lack of knowledge was a confession rather than a mere statement of fact. “Haven’t seen that oversized pigeon since you last asked that question.”

“Really…” Leon muttered as he turned away from the demon. He still stood atop the marble platform by the throne, and he glanced around at the island. The island itself hadn’t changed since he’d last visited the place, but he thought that his soul realm as a whole felt bigger. The mist that surrounded the place seemed much farther away from the edges of the island than Leon remembered, and the air surrounding the island was much denser with Leon’s stored magic power, all of it just waiting for him to call upon it.

Scattered around the marble steps were the various items that Leon had stored within his soul realm, making quite the large mess. Among these items were Leon’s repaired armor and his ring of invisibility, both of which had been finished and delivered to him about a week or so after the triumphal games had concluded. Leon had to spend some extra time re-applying his enchantments to his armor, though he took it as an opportunity to refine the enchantments a bit. He was about halfway finished with a number of enchantments that he estimated would double the armor’s effectiveness when dealing with most types of elemental magic, though actually quantifying that was essentially impossible to do, so his estimate couldn’t be easily verified.

But examining his property wasn’t why he was here; Leon’s eyes wandered around the island and its surroundings, taking in every detail they could, not that there was much to see—mostly just grey mist and the tiny island.

“So, then… what now?” Leon wondered aloud. He had no idea how to find the Thunderbird or if the bird was even still around. He couldn’t sense anything, and his magic senses could barely even reach the edge of the mist about a half-mile or so in the distance.

There wasn’t so much as a hint of black storm clouds within that mist.

“Wait,” Xaphan simply stated. “Nothing else you can do.”

Leon was a patient man. He accepted the situation and took a seat on the top step of the marble platform and waited.

‘The next step is the formation of my mind palace,’ Leon thought, taking the opportunity to consider what came next for him, magically speaking. ‘And then the expansion of my soul realm. From sixth to seventh, the soul realm grows from one mile in diameter to ten, then seventh to eighth ten miles to one hundred. Eight to nine one hundred to one thousand, and nine to ten one thousand to ten thousand. But first things first, the mind palace…’

Leon had no clue how to construct his mind palace. His knowledge on the subject was mostly limited to philosophical discussions and practical information about what the mind palace was, but not so much on how to build one.

It was meant to symbolize him, to be the center of his soul realm and the nexus of power within him. It was the harbor of his magic body, and in more archaic times, it was believed to be the true resting place of the soul and a person’s real home.

Leon wasn’t sure how much of that he could believe, but it was a place to start, at least.

“Leon…” Xaphan suddenly muttered.

“What?” Leon asked, slightly annoyed at the interruption, but concealing it to the best of his ability.

When no answer came, Leon turned his full attention towards the demon. He saw the bright yellow eyes within the orange blaze, but they were not looking at him. Instead, they were turned a bit higher, somewhere over Leon’s head. His curiosity piqued, Leon twisted to see what had captured Xaphan’s attention and found the Thunderbird perched on top of his throne, staring back down at him.

The Thunderbird Leon now saw was only a fragment of what it had once been, but it was still more than powerful enough that when Leon’s eyes made contact with the Thunderbird and momentarily felt its immense power, he froze in terror and almost fell down the marble stairs. The Thunderbird imperiously glared back down at Leon, like it was a proud god looking down at a petty human, which wasn’t that far off from the truth.

Golden lightning flashing through the Thunderbird’s gorgeous brown feathers, the thousands of gold flecks among its feathers glittering in the light of the mists around the island, and its yellow avian eyes locking on Leon. A powerful aura emanated from its body, pressing down upon Leon so much that he found it difficult to breathe, which, if Leon weren’t currently distracted, would’ve raised some questions in his mind about whether he actually needed to breathe or not within his soul realm.

There had been no indication of the Thunderbird’s arrival. No storm clouds, no thunder, no flashes of lightning, nothing. It had seemed to simply appear above Leon, and not even Xaphan saw where it had come from.

As he sat there desperately trying to maintain his composure, Leon heard a voice echo throughout his mind so deep and powerful that it felt like it had come from the depths of the underworld.

[YOU’RE LATE,] the voice neutrally stated.

Leon breathed deeply for a few seconds before mustering the will to rise to his feet. This was his soul realm, and here he was the ruler. The Thunderbird was his Ancestor, and Leon would afford it all the respect he could offer, but he wasn’t going to be pushed around due to something as impractical as filial piety.

“I’m here,” Leon croaked, his voice weak and shaky. But he managed to struggle to his feet despite the Thunderbird’s towering aura and glared right back at the massive bird of prey that towered over him, at least as large as five grown men. After steadying his shaking voice, he then said, “If anyone was late, it was you.”

As it wasn’t human, the Thunderbird was unable to express emotion in the same way humans were, its eagle-like head seeming like it had been carved from stone for how little it moved. It didn’t react to anything in any way that Leon could understand. However, Leon saying that it was late finally got something that Leon could recognize as a reaction: The Thunderbird clicked its beak and stood there, perched atop Leon’s throne, and glared at him without making a sound.

The two stared at each other like this for almost an entire minute before the Thunderbird spoke again. It retracted its heavy aura, softened its gaze, and said in a far more relaxed tone, [Good… good… I was afraid you might have set your pride aside after suffering a few losses, no descendant of mine should ever give in so readily…]

Picking up on a tone of approval, Leon relaxed, but he didn’t take his eyes off the Thunderbird.

Ignoring Leon’s behavior, the Thunderbird quickly hopped down off the throne and onto the marble platform, and only once it had gotten settled did it turn back to Leon. It had no speeches planned, no explanations ready. Rather, it wanted to know what Leon wanted before beginning what was sure to be a long conversation.

[Now, then, I assume you have questions?]