The usual sounds of wooden swords clashing had been replaced by a frantic tide of whispers.
"Did... did that actually just happen?" an examiner muttered, his jaw still hanging loose. "Philip? The Strict Philip just handed a mastery token to a F rank girl!?"
The examiners were no less stunned. They traded uneasy glances, their eyes darting between Maddy and Philip. One man examiner with a glasses, muttered
"I’ve seen him fail even S Rank applicants for having a weak grip or a stutter in their step. For him to pass an F Rank... it doesn’t make sense. What did he see in her?"
Maddy knew they were talking about her, but she didn’t care. Her eyes remained fixed on the final step. She followed the dim corridor until it opened into a vast, circular chamber.
The room was steeped in darkness, save for its center. There, a massive, roaring pillar of fire spiraled upward toward the ceiling, casting long, shifting shadows across the stone walls.
The successful applicants who had arrived before her were scattered around the fla. It was a bizarre sight. A seasoned warrior was kneeling before the heat, weeping openly; a young mage was laughing hysterically, her hands outstretched; others stood in a trance, whispering secrets into the roar of the blaze. They were talking to the fire, and the fire seed to be listening.
"Lucy... what is this? Why are they talking to a... fire?"
Maddy thought, her hand instinctively drifting toward the hilt of her sword. She waited for the familiar chi. She expected an answer.
But Lucy did not respond... Soone else.
"So..." the voice spoke, dripping with a terrifying, amused curiosity. "Has a monster crawled into my sanctuary, or am I finally seeing sothing interesting?"
Maddy stiffened. Her hand gripped the hilt of her sword until her knuckles turned white. She spun around, her eyes darting through the darkness, searching for a physical body, a hidden speaker, or a lurking shadow.
"Who’s there?! How did you... what do you an, monster?"
She felt a cold sweat prickle her skin. She had stripped her magic and might. She was suppressed to the baseline of being an F rank. To any scanner, any mage, or any examiner, she was nothing but a dusty girl from a village.
"I concealed everything...Even my soul is masked. How could anyone possibly see through ?"
The voice laughed.
"Hide? Mask? You can drape a shroud over a star, little one, but the heat still remains. Did you truly think an ordinary species could lie to a... Primordial?"
Maddy’s breath hitched. Her blood turned to ice as the word echoed in her mind.
"Primordial?"
She whispered, eyes widening as she turned back to the towering fla. Then she froze. The other successful applicants... were gone. Understanding struck her all at once. The way they had wept... the way they had laughed...
They hadn’t been speaking to a fire. They had been judged by a god.
"You don’t an..."
Maddy’s voice trembled as she addressed the pillar of light.
"Are you... Protheus?"
The fire flared, turning a brilliant, blinding white that forced her to shield her eyes.
"I am the Thief of Fire. I am the spark in the stone, the roar in the forge. I am the Primordial Mortal—Protheus!"
The flas twisted and coalesced, forming a figure that moved with fluid grace toward her. The heat didn’t burn Maddy’s skin; it vibrated against her soul.
"And you... F-Rank... are the first to step into my presence in a thousand years who does not reek of mortality. I see everything. I see you."
The flas leaned closer, their gaze piercing through the physical plane.
"Tell ... why does a chira worm seek to beco an adventurer?"
Maddy froze. For the first ti since her rebirth, she felt the raw, primal sensation of being completely exposed. Her body locked in place as a single, terrifying thought surfaced:
She’s been found out.
But Maddy was more than just a girl in a guild hall. She was a mother who had fought across lifetis for the children she wanted. Protecting them was her absolute priority, and that resolve acted like a cold anchor in the middle of Protheus’s inferno.
She didn’t flinch. Instead, she smiled—a thin, dangerous expression that held no trace of fear. She removed her a girl from nowhere act.
"I guess any lie won’t work against a primordial, a God like you."
She leaned closer to the flaming manifestation of Protheus, ignoring the searing temperature and the threat of being turned to ash. She t his gaze directly, eye to eye.
"Yes... I am a chira worm. A monster. A monster that your adventurers want to kill."
Protheus tilted his head.
"Kill? Worm... that is the nature of the world. Monsters are a threat to civilization; they feed on innocent lives, driven by nothing but hunger. Adventurers are simply doing what any man would do to survive."
"Nature? I guess that’s what you call it from up here, looking down at the board."
She straightened her spine, her Presence Concealnt fully deactivated, letting the raw, predatory mana of the Chira Mother flood the room.
"Well, to answer you question, Primordial Mortal—I beca an adventurer to kill the threats to MY CIVILIZATION."
The silence that followed was a physical thing. For a long, tense minute, the only sound was the breathing of the person who is reading this.
The Thief of Fire and the Mother of Monsters—anyone who witnessed this scene would think they were on the brink of a clash.
But then... Protheus threw his head back. A rumble started deep in his chest, growing into a roar of laughter that shook the darkness. He backed away, his form flickering wildly as he clutched his translucent chest, laughing until it seed he might burst into a thousand sparks.
"Impressive! Truly impressive!"
Protheus bellowed, his voice echoing with genuine delight.
"I never thought a little worm could ever beco THIS. You did not just steal a body; you took the form of a demigod!"
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