"Alright, I’ll call you father for now. Can you tell me, what kind of world is this? What the hell am I supposed to do here?!"
"I think I’ve already mentioned it in your dreams." The gentle voice was unperturbed.
"No! That’s too vague and stupid! I’ve felt your power, it’s enough to purify the entire world! What exactly do you want me to do here? I need you to tell me personally! In your own words!" Laine shouted towards the direction of the golden radiance, his face flushed. "I don’t want to play a game of Dragon Quest with you! I just want to go home! Go back to that place and continue my life as a salaryman!"
"You can’t go back, neither can I, we’re both trapped here." The gentle voice echoed, seemingly filled with pity: "Since you appeared before me, only two outcomes await you. One is being torn to shreds in the spatial storm or becoming a delicacy for the Evil God. You’re very lucky; you’re the second kind."
"Aren’t you always sitting on that Golden Toilet, enjoying the worship of the masses, father? And now you don’t even want to come out and personally see the son you’ve just recognized?" Laine suddenly laughed, his face full of sarcasm, lacking any respect for his father.
"The corpse on the Golden Throne is merely the shackles that imprison me, my son." The golden figure slowly approached.
He was a man of unparalleled majesty and a grand physique, seemingly exceeding the limits of human height, conservatively estimated at over two meters and eighty centimeters. His black, middle-parted long hair swayed along the golden light, held in place by a laurel-shaped headband.
He wore a suit of golden battle armor, with a golden falcon on its chest spreading its wings, poised to fly. The entire armor was crafted from some unknown golden metal, with intricate feather patterns sprawling all over and extending to the eagle statue on his right shoulder. The man held a giant sword burning with golden flames, and behind his head was another eagle statue, positioned at the back of the armor, rising from behind him, gazing coldly forward.
"Yes, yes, father, you can sit on your toilet and quietly observe the masses, but what about me? You brought me to this place and gave me a little of your power, yet I have to face enemies thousands of times stronger than me!" Laine complained to the black-haired man: "Apart from the genes and the sword you gave me, I have nothing else, and yet you tell me this is my destiny?!"
"This is your destiny, my son. It seems you’ve done well in the past twenty years." The expression on the black-haired man’s face showed no change, his gentle tone resembling a lie: "You are different from your other brothers; you get much less from me."
"So what do I do next? You know this world, you know how conservative this ancient inheritance system is. Heaven knows when the time comes if I can even scrape by as a Count?" Laine paced next to the black-haired man, his tone fast and urgent: "But I must act within order, simply because I am your son!"
"No, my child, you still haven’t understood what your duty is." The black-haired man turned around, looking at Laine who had walked behind him: "If you resort to violence, then the moment you crown yourself will also be your fall. The corruption of Chaos is everywhere... My son, you need to use a wiser approach."
"Bloody conquest will only please and strengthen them." Laine seemed to have recovered from his previous anger, sneering: "Ha, father, I’ve always wondered, why didn’t you give me a system?"
"A system?" The tall figure seemed puzzled: "I cannot deliver such things to you, my son, my body has already decayed."
"No, I mean, just like those crossover stories, father, you shouldn’t reveal yourself and should instead give me a system that constantly issues tasks, and by completing them, I receive the powers you grant? Rather than like now, where you just gave me a seed, and everything relies on me!" Laine’s face showed a faint dissatisfaction.
"I not only gave you my seed, but also a realm of freedom, my son, Laine." The black-haired man seemed to understand what Laine was saying: "I don’t understand why you have such requests, for if so you’d be like a puppet in my hands, lost between running on missions and achieving goals. You’d lose yourself and gradually your heart too."
"My heart?" Laine asked, puzzled.
"When you become accustomed to following orders, when you take completing my tasks as your life’s goal, when you regard my will as your own, you will lose yourself." The massive figure trembled slightly, showing expression and a hint of sadness on his face for the first time: "My eldest son, your brother, he was the same way. When Chaos led him to believe that everything he experienced was just a lie I wove, it completely shattered his will, and he fell to become a follower of Chaos, sparking the most terrifying rebellion ever since, one of Chaos’s proudest works."
"It taught me much, Laine, my son. You must grow on your own, learn how to fight and resist the temptations of Chaos, only then can you remain true under its influence." The golden glow on the black-haired man’s body was as tangible as ever, pouring into Laine’s sea of consciousness. He strode forward purposefully, seemingly wanting to touch Laine’s head but ultimately not reaching out, merely continuing: "If you rely on me, or the system you mentioned, then should one day, a minor accident or a deliberate scheme prevents you from reaching me, and you discover that everything the system told you was a mere ruse, that the achievements you fought half your life for were but a grand deceit, then..."