When Takashi finally woke up, the room was empty.
His stomach roared with a ravenous, hollow pain. The physical toll of the synchronization had drained every ounce of his stamina. He found some food left on the table and devoured it instantly, but it felt like he had eaten nothing at all. He was still starving.
As dusk fell over the village, the door creaked open.
The Legendary Master returned, carrying a large wrapped package. Seeing the boy's hungry eyes, the Master chuckled and tossed it to him. It was a massive cut of deliciously roasted, perfectly seasoned meat. Takashi tore into it, finally satisfying the intense hunger burning in his gut.
Once the boy was full, the Master sat down, his expression turning serious.
"Takashi," he asked. "Do you know anything about the Wolf's Core? When your father sealed the beast inside you, did he leave anything else?"
Takashi paused. A memory surfaced.
A box. A tiny, pitch-black box.
When Hayato had first handed it to him on that blood-soaked mountain, it was heavy, but it had magically shrunk until it could fit inside his tiny palm. Believing it to be his father’s absolute final memento, Takashi had kept it hidden in the pockets of his torn, dirty royal clothes for an entire year in the abyss. He had never let it out of his sight.
Takashi jumped up, ran to his old, ragged clothes, and pulled out the tiny black box. He handed it to the Master.
The old man took it with extreme care. He slowly, deliberately lowered his hand to place the tiny, weightless-looking box onto the wooden floor. Takashi watched in confusion. Why was Grandpa being so careful with something so small?
The moment the box touched the floor
RUMBLE! KRA-KOOM!
The entire cabin violently shook, as if a localized earthquake had just struck the village.
Takashi stumbled backward in shock. The tiny box contained the physical Core of the Legendary Divine Spirit. It weighed as much as a colossal mountain. Even an S-Rank warrior would shatter their spine trying to lift it. But for a Yorishiro the vessel of the Spirit the core felt as light as a feather.
The Master smiled at the boy’s stunned face. "Do not be surprised. This is for you. From this mountain of power, I will forge a weapon. It will be your father’s final gift, the blade you will use to protect the innocent and fulfill his dying wish."
Forging a Divine Core required genuine X-Rank power. Since the Master was a Triple SSS-Rank human, he couldn't melt it alone. He needed the help of his oldest friend.
"Step back into the corner," the Master ordered.
Takashi quickly retreated. The Master waved his hand, casting a shimmering, protective barrier over the boy. He then cast a second, pitch-black barrier that coated the entire interior of the room, ensuring that no one on the outside would see or sense the apocalyptic energy about to be unleashed.
With a deep breath, the Master released his own seal.
FWOOSH!
A blinding, majestic golden light exploded into the room. The sheer pressure of the energy made the air vibrate. Standing beside the Master was a towering, awe-inspiring beast made of pure light and power.
The Legendary Divine Spirit Golden Lion.
"What is the emergency?" the Lion asked telepathically, its voice booming with ancient authority.
"No emergency," the Master replied casually, smiling like an old friend. "I just need to forge a weapon for my grandson. I can't melt the core with my own power, as you well know."
The Golden Lion’s glowing eyes shifted downward, landing on the tiny Black Box. "Is that... the Wolf's Core?"
"Yes," the Master nodded.
The Lion slowly turned its massive, radiant head toward the corner of the room. It locked eyes with the terrified six-year-old boy. But the Lion wasn't looking at Takashi. Through the psychological link connecting all Divine Spirits, the Lion was staring directly into Takashi’s soul, locking eyes with the Wolf trapped in the glass box.
The Lion smiled a majestic, knowing smile.
Inside Takashi, the Wolf stubbornly turned its head away, pretending it didn't care at all.
"Let's begin," the Master said.
The Lion unleashed a torrent of golden, searing energy around the Black Box. The Master unsealed it, revealing the colossal, mountain-sized Core. The rock was breathtaking half blinding white, half pitch-black.
This duality was the Wolf’s ultimate secret. It was the only Divine Spirit in existence capable of a Dual Transformation. Its Pitch-Black form was its Nightmare/Rage Mode, allowing it to unleash catastrophic, limitless power that rivaled even the Golden Lion. In the hierarchy of Spirits, the Wolf’s absolute regeneration, the Lion’s overwhelming Butsurishiritsu (Physical Enhancement), and the Black Dragon’s dark abilities were the three unmatched peaks of power.
But the Wolf’s true abilities had always remained a mystery to humanity, simply because it had always despised humans and refused to ever take a Yorishiro.
The room grew insanely hot. The golden light bathed the walls as the massive core slowly began to melt under the combined X-Rank pressure of the Master and the Lion.
The Master carefully shaped the liquid divine metal. He was forging a masterpiece a weapon uniquely tied to Takashi’s imagination. By injecting a tiny fraction of his Shin-Noa into the hilt, Takashi would be able to shift the weapon’s mass and shape at will. It could become a massive broadsword, a scythe, a chain, or a dagger.
Outside the cabin, the villagers paused in the streets. A strange, heavy pressure settled over the air. It felt exactly like the terrifying pressure from the Day of Salvation six years ago, though contained to just a few kilometers.
Inside, the forging was reaching its climax.
"Your blood, Takashi," the Master requested, panting heavily from the immense exertion.
He made a tiny cut on the boy’s finger, letting a single drop of blood fall into the glowing, molten metal.
FLASH!
A blinding white light consumed the room, followed by absolute silence.
The heat vanished. The heavy pressure evaporated.
Takashi opened his eyes, staring eagerly at the Master’s hands. He expected a massive, legendary, glowing sword of doom.
Instead, resting in the Master's palm... was a tiny, ordinary-looking pocket dagger.
Takashi blinked. He stared at his Grandpa, completely dumbfounded.
"What is this?" the six-year-old asked, pointing at the tiny blade in absolute disbelief. "All that pressure... all that golden light... for this?! Grandpa, I'm not here to chop vegetables! I have to fight evil people and save the world, and you made me a butter knife?!"
The Legendary Master, completely exhausted and drenched in sweat, burst into laughter.
The Golden Lion chuckled deeply. "My work here is done," it said, turning to fade back into the Master’s seal. Before vanishing completely, it cast one last glance at the boy's chest. "I never thought I would see the day you were trapped inside a human child, Wolf. Especially after you rudely refused to help us fight the Black Dragon six hundred years ago."
With a flash of golden light, the Lion was sealed away.
Takashi stood in the center of the room, still holding the tiny dagger with a look of profound betrayal, while the Master smiled warmly from the floor.
It was only the first day of his new life. The road ahead was endlessly long, but for the first time in a year, Takashi wasn't walking it alone.
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