For the next few days the same scenario kept occurring: Leo would come visit me after my work hours were over to try and convince me to go outside.
I ignored his request and kept working until exhaustion, making slow progress on the project to make a sentient weapon.
"Come on, it's fun," he would often say.
"They made this new place in XXX Island; it has many cool new things such as…" Whenever something new appeared, he would keep rambling on and on without end to try and convince me to get out.
Other times he used a different excuse.
"There are a few nobles who wish to see you." He would say.
"Lots of people are waiting for your debut."
"Are you even listening to me?" He would complain whenever he realized I wasn't listening to him.
Some other times he tried to use shame tactics.
"Your room is starting to look like a dragon's lair; there are too many artifacts here. Can you even breathe here?"
"A breath of fresh air will do you wonders." He would say at the end with a wicked smile.
One day he came with a triumphant look in his face, a proud smugness that was telling me, "I've got you now!"
"It's Elvis's birthday." He announced the moment he got in my room.
"Ah, did I say that, Elvis? No, I mean Michael." He quickly corrected himself.
He quickly lost his confidence once I corrected him.
"Ah, Michael's birthday was a month ago? Well, it doesn't matter."
Every day he would come up with a new excuse.
"At least the tournament." He suddenly mentioned one day.
"Huh?" I was confused.
"Your sling is the prize of an incoming tournament; I'm sure you can spare some time to go spectate it." He explained.
"I'm not too sure; is the uncle also going to spectate?" I asked him.
"Yes." He answered.
"Then yes, I will go." I replied.
More than likely, if Uncle were going there to promote my artifact, I would've had to as well. Showing me as the creator would only boost our family standing.
The first steps to rebuild the family's lost status.
This didn't stop him from pestering me every day with the same request up until the day of the tournament.
On the day of the tournament he took the effort of waking up before sunrise just in order to wake me up.
To do so, he picked a large pot and placed it over my head while I was still sleeping, only to repeatedly beat it with a metal stool.
My first reaction was to use my power to create a cube, one I used to obliterate the pot against the wall.
"What the hell was that?" I complained to Leo.
My ears were still ringing from the chaos.
"You wouldn't wake up any other way." He replied.
As if that justifies this, fuck. I swear if you do this shit again, I'll restrict your access to my floors; no early visits allowed.
"What do you want?" I asked, still annoyed at him for his stupid prank.
I grabbed a demonic artifact nearby; I didn't even bother to check. I was ready to punish him in case he said something stupid.
"You forgot?" He asked.
"Forgot what?" I asked confused.
I was still half asleep; my mind felt hazy, so I couldn't quite recall what was programmed for the day.
"You totally forgot! Today is the day of the tournament," he announced with open arms.
I don't feel like hugging you after the stunt you pulled earlier.
"So, we go there in the evening, don't we?" I said as I turned back to get back on the bed.
Suddenly I was surrounded by flames.
"You're not presenting yourself to the public in that state; we need to fix you up real good."
"Huh? Let—" Before I could finish my sentence, I was dragged out of my room.
I was still half naked, wearing only a set of boxers. Eventually, Leo covered the rest of my body with his soft flames to spare me the humiliation.
When he finally let me go, we were back at his house, in the guest room.
He threw me onto a chair and used his powers to lock my neck, arms, and legs onto the chair to keep the same posture.
"Aren't you exaggerating a bit much? It's not like I'm going to flee." I tried to reason with him.
"Who knows, you spent so much time hidden underground you might do it." He answered, glaring at me.
Come on now, let's not be unreasonable…
"I'll leave it up to you; make sure he is spotless." He said before opening the doors and letting the maids inside.
They immediately got to work; they had many of the tools ready at hand. All of this was premeditated.
Fine, fine, I'll admit, maybe I let myself go a little, but was there really a need to kidnap me so early? The uncle assured me we would depart after lunch.
They sprayed my hair with many different bottles as they used many combs to straighten it out and cut the excess.
Then put a strange bag over my head and began working on my face.
"Young master." One of the maids looked at Leo, and he removed the restrictions.
It took them a total of an hour to bathe me, clean me properly, add special creams onto my body and face, apply some makeup, and lastly, style my hair. They were extremely coordinated, sometimes doing more than one task simultaneously.
"Oh, wow, how did you fish him out of his little den?" Ilay asked while I was checking myself in the mirror.
Mhh, wow, I look completely different with makeup on, but why the red thing over my eyes? Is it to complement my red hair? Do I also have to wear red contact lenses?
"Shh, don't point it out; it's already a miracle he allowed me to drag him out of the facility. You wouldn't want him to hole himself back into the facility. " Leo whispered to his older brother.
I can hear you… jerk.
"Now, everything is ready; we can depart now," Leo said as he clapped his hands.
"What do you—"
Flames once again surrounded me. I wanted to fight back this time, but I realized I couldn't. Leo was holding the rings I had made to boost the power of his flames.
"Aren't you being a little too much now? I'm small and frail; if you mishandled me, you could break a bone or two." I asked him.
"As if, during our training, I saw you come out unscathed from worse attacks." He replied confidently as he began dragging me away from the facility.
"That was in my other transformation; right now I am as frail as a normal human." I specified.
My protests fell on deaf ears; he kept charging forward, pushing past the front gates of his mansion towards the edge of the floating island.
"You know, I always wanted an excuse to do this, and the elders said that if we jump at this exact hour, we should be able to land on our destination in no time!" He happily announced while runnig towards the edge of the floating island.
No way.
Leo then poured all of his flames onto his legs to propel himself forward, ignoring the safety rails that would prevent people from falling out of the island.
You fucking psycho.
"Don't worry; I've already got permission from Father. He'll join us later." He said as we plunged towards the ground.
"Let me go!" I screamed.
He was laughing his heart out, screaming in pure ecstasy while we plunged straight into the sea of clouds below the floating
To avoid getting wet, Leo used his artifact to clear an area and allow us to pass through the cloud with ease.
Beneath us, I saw a large rift, floating in the skies, emitting a green hue, as if space itself were ripped apart.
Is that an opening to the fracture? How can there be a floating one?
"Leo, quickly! We need to alter—"
He pulled me closer and further accelerated, diving towards the large floating rift in the sky.
No! No! No!