Wheelr Star first learhat his daughter had found something that ied her outside of her obligations, he froze in shock for aire eight seds before bursting with tears of joy.

  His daughter, who had closed her heart to life after the death of her sister, had allowed herself to enjoy something.

  The ever imposing Stelr Star, a queror and a warlord and one of humanity’s five s, shed tears he had not shed even when his beloved breathed her st.

  He saw her i in some on born streamer as an indicator that her barriers were finally thinning and minded, not the boy that apparently made things with his hands. Perhaps his daughter was ied iing art herself? Whatever it was, The Stelr Star had missed seeing the signs of emotions on the face that once smiled so readily. He was tent knowing that she was finally crawling out of the b of gloom she’d encased herself within. She even smiled at him st week. He was happy and hopeful.

  Then he saw the evidence of her obsession. The shrio his creations. The glorification of the artist's w form. The posted essays on her personal interpretations of his work and artistic philosophy.

  She worshiped this man.

  The Stelr Star began pns to painfully execute this chartan - rusty nails - when his assistant gave him a brief rundown of things.

  It seemed things had started ily enough with her trusted subordinates merely looking for ways to get his workaholic daughter to rest. No one had predicted her instant fasation or her drastic reas. It seemed the streamer iion had never even ied with his daughter.

  Okay. He could live.

  For now.

  Then he decided to actually sit down and wate of the looping vids iia's church to see if he could better uand the mystery that was his daughter's mind.

  After eight hours, the assistant had to remind the Stelr Star that the little miss was scheduled to return to the tower shortly and if he wao avoid seeihey must depart at once.

  The Stelr Star uood now. He was even a bit upset she had not shared something so iing with him.

  Those movements, although limited to the power of the first sing, could not ceal all of its glimmer. This masked man, bursting with urained vitality, was a master. Perhaps someohat could even speak with him as equals, at least regarding teique.

  He didn’t speak his thoughts aloud, but he believed this person owerful family’s hidden master. No one specific came to mind, but then his circle was as small as it was wide.

  While sidering the families with the resources to develop and hide such a monster, he learhe streamer nning on revealing himself. He cleared his schedule and po watch the live stream himself. He was curious about the identity behind the mask.

  —

  The Stelr Star wasn't prepared for the shocks he felt that day.

  The generosity of the presenter was not lost on him. As a lord over three Gate Cities with Luna Gate City as his ter, he knew more than most of the unlimited potential that was being given and the wordless message that came with it.

  Then the reveal of the practical demonstration of that teology.

  Stunning.

  An artificial garden sculpted and rune-smithed by human hands. A true marriage betweey and fun.

  Wonderful.

  And then the boy.

  Seeing how young the focus of the event had been was utterly astonishing.

  He barely looked twenty.

  Had he been wrong in his estimations of hidden strength?

  The atmosphere was obviously odd. It seemed something had happehe crowds were both in wonder and in gossip. Drone cams circled the different carefully crafted details and picked up bits and pieurmurings through the pleasant jingles of the crystal rune flowers and trees.

  The Stelr Star frowned. With his superior sensitivity, he could hear more. A child abandoned? A great betrayal?

  Although fused, the drone cam finally revealed the main piece.

  She was very pretty and wonderfully crafted.

  He only had a moment to appreciate the masterful craftsmanship before he saw a hand reach out to stroke its cheek where its ey disied into dust. A dust that was instantly purified by the crystal rurees with a gesture.

  Ha!

  The Stelr Star and the assistant on the side both had their jaws drop and eyes widen in a most undignified manner.

  This was the total trol of strength that he’d termed the Shattering Realm. Only a few in the peak third sing could achieve the monstrously difficult level of body trol to even attempt what was just done so casually.

  Eveelr Star was unsure if he could have do as gracefully. When he was in the peak third sing, he usually o meditate for an hour in a specific posture to guarantee success in applying a trated blow taining his erength with a mere vibration of the body.

  In trast, the revetion of the third tier spacial rune was now only mildly surprising.

  But then when he began sculpting...

  The Stelr Star was feeling ashamed of himself.

  He couldn't uand what he was seeing.

  A siapping sound but a thousand forms.

  A sed siapping sound, but a thousand more.

  A third siaping sound but now all was a blur as an untable number of afterimages and partial visions of movement engulfed the giant piece of stone.

  The sound tio resound as if a single hammer tapped at its chisel in a slow and steady rhythm while visual blurs of thousands of powerful arms holding gleaming hammers came up and down, up and down, pounding at thousands of gripped chisels.

  The Stelr Star could think of many movement teiques meant for battle that could produce simir feats, but there were great differences.

  There owerful i in the flow of power, but none of it held a speck of killing or destructive i. This wasn't something designed for war.

  Then the fmes.

  It started small as a spe the hammer, but with so many visual images it was obvious as it appeared and grew as it engulfed whatever was inside.

  Sometimes vibrant reds and warm yellows, then all shades of cool blues and purples, the colors of the fmes that flowed not up but in all dires, including down and to the sides, harmonized into a single clear ethereal fire that engulfed the world. Then it was white.

  He was awakening.

  “Sir,” the assistaated, “this must be a prompter geed vid. I'll have it iigated. If everything so far is also prompter geed, it would be - “

  “No,” The Stelr Star said firmly, eyes locked on the white dispy.

  The assistant spoke no more, having overstepped himself.

  “This is a real awakening.” The Stelr Star spoke into the silence. “But it was much...grahan most.”

  That was an uatement. Even the most formidable peak Hunters, with solid foundations and ample experiences of life ah, would at most engulf their own bodies in their awakened spirit fire. He’d never even heard of an awakening spirit fire of that scale, nor could he expin its behavior, which expined his assistant’s misception of duplicity, but he k was true. It was just different.

  It was then that the whiteness dissipated and a new sculpture sat in the pce of the old.

  The Stelr Star smmed his desk in his haste to stand, disiing it, but he only had attention to the figure he thought he'd never see again.

  How was it possible?

  Was it possible that she still lived?

  What was their retionship?

  He heard nothing else and didn't think about the absurdity of such a young and talented child awakening his spirit fire that dwarfed any other awakening he'd seen.

  Even as the stream ended and the dispy cut off the shaken Stelr Star raised his hand and made a gesture that restored the proje back to the moment where the perfect recreation of the woman that once bewitched the world, stood in a dress that only vaguely resembled the dream it had once been. But she looked happy.

  Was she happy?

  After all she had suffered?

  After her father, that vile man, had cast her out to die?

  The Stelr Star ched his fists. Was it still possible to make up for the mistakes of the past?

  He finally turo his assistant, ready to give orders, when he saw the man scrutinizing something rge in his hands. It was a beautiful bouquet of crystal rune flowers, not unlike what he had just seen. They shone and tinkled as they swayed with natural movements, like actual living pnts and not one’s made of crystal.

  “Where did you get that?”

  The assistant, eyes wide and gleaming, looked up and remihe Stelr Star of their invitation to watch through his at.

  “So?”

  “Well, he sent out gifts to everyone he invited.”

  “Why did you get invited?”

  The assistant didn't answer immediately, which surprised the Stelr Star.

  “Cough. Everyone who’s been on his live streams as a loyal fan got an invitation to the unveiling.”

  “Didn’t we only just return from Celestia’s ‘club room?’ When did you have time to bee a ‘loyal fan?’”

  “….Since I visited the little miss's tower for some paperwarding the stru of the ‘club room’, I have bee the vice president of the Silent Sculptor Fan Club.”

  There was a silence.

  “And how much have you donated?”

  “...My tributions rank sed after the little miss.”

  The silence was heavy.

  Salvation came when the beautiful crystal rune flowers spontaneously busted with a fsh ht light.

  White ethereal fmes engulfed the flowers ond vanished with , the assistant havi nothing but a warm sensation. In his trembling hands, the crystal sculpture remained unged in form, but everything was different.

  Sculpted crystal petals made slightly soft and durable with minuscule rune engravings now had the impossible textures of a real flower petal, and the quality of the purified air it emitted had grown vastly. Each breath was like inhaling fort.

  The Stelr Star's eyes gleamed in wonder as he saw the flows of energies flow in a rune nguage that differed from the demon ruhat were inally inscribed.

  He reized these runes.

  It was the same rune nguage found in that wondrous pce.

  Seeing his assistant protectively embrag the flower from his covetous gaze brought him out of his daze.

  Sigh.

  He was too old for this.