“Fire Dragon Slayer Magic, huh…” Hestia repeated the words slowly, trying to process the sheer magnitude of the power she had just heard about.
“That’s right,” Igneel snorted softly, tiny sparks of fire escaping through the gaps in his sharp fangs.
“It is a magic specifically created to pierce a dragon’s scales and destroy its internal organs.
One of the absolute unique traits of this magic is that the user can consume external fire elements to instantly restore their magical power and physical stamina.”
Hestia’s eyes widened once more.
Consuming pure elements to replenish energy was a concept completely nonexistent in Gekai.
Magic in this world always consumed Mind (mental stamina), and if the limit was exceeded, the caster would faint or even die.
Knowing Natsu possessed a magic with such energy-regenerating capabilities left Hestia in awe.
“Now it is my turn to ask, Goddess of the Hearth,” Igneel said, shifting the topic.
“The power system in this world is very foreign to me.
That boy just mentioned that he doesn’t have a Falna yet.
What exactly is a Falna?”
Hestia straightened her back, preparing to explain the most fundamental aspects of the Falna.
“A Falna is a blessing of sacred blood from a deity that unlocks the hidden potential of a mortal,” Hestia explained in a serious yet enthusiastic tone.
“How it works, if I were to give you an analogy, is very similar to a stat-tracking system or the board games we often play in Tenkai to kill boredom.”
Seeing Igneel listening quietly, Hestia broke it down into its three main points.
“The process is divided into three stages.
The first is the Bestowal.
When a deity drops their sacred blood onto a human’s back, that blood generates status text called hieroglyphs, officially registering that human’s soul into the deity’s Familia.
From that moment on, they are bound.”
Hestia held up a finger.
“Second is the Update.
When an adventurer fights, trains, or kills monsters, their body and soul absorb invisible experience points we call Excelia.
However, that Excelia doesn’t immediately alter their strength.
We gods have to update their status by manually reading the hieroglyphs on their backs so that those points are distributed into actual stat increases.”
“And the last one is Leveling Up,” Hestia continued, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
“If an adventurer manages to accomplish an extraordinary feat, like defeating an enemy that is far stronger or breaking past the boundary of life and death, they will earn High Excelia.
When that happens, the adventurer can level up.
This process locks all of their old strength stats into a permanent foundation, enhancing their physical limits to an entirely new level.”
Igneel closed his eyes for a moment, analyzing Hestia’s explanation.
The Fire Dragon King understood immediately.
This Falna system was a highly efficient growth catalyst, designed to shatter the natural limits of living beings.
“A very fascinating and well-structured system,” Igneel commented, acknowledging the brilliance of the gods in this world.
Hestia smiled proudly.
However, that smile slowly faded, replaced by a streak of worry that had been lingering in her heart.
“Igneel…” Hestia called out hesitantly.
“After hearing your story about the Eclipse Gate and your home world…
does Natsu-kun have any desire to return to Earthland?
Can he even go back?”
The question caused the sea of magma around them to churn softly.
Igneel looked at the petite goddess before him with an unreadable expression.
“For now, I don’t know,” Igneel answered honestly, his voice echoing heavily.
“The temporal storm that threw us here was an anomaly.
Whether there is a way back or not is not something we should be worrying about right now.
We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it in the future.”
Hestia nodded slowly, feeling a bit relieved.
At the very least, her first child wouldn’t suddenly disappear and leave her anytime soon.
“Very well, I believe our time here is up.
Let us end this meeting, Hestia,” Igneel said, his aura beginning to fade and meld back into Natsu’s soulscape.
“I am entrusting Natsu to you.
Please take good care of the boy.”
“Of course!
Leave it to me, Igneel!” Hestia replied with a bright smile and a confident nod.
Along with that promise, Hestia’s spiritual form slowly faded before finally vanishing completely from the Dragon Slayer’s soulscape.
Now, Igneel was alone once again amidst the boundless sea of lava.
The Dragon King raised his massive face, gazing up at the rolling ash-filled sky.
Silence kept him company once more, giving him room to reflect.
There was one thing he hadn’t told the goddess.
Ever since Natsu landed in the forest after passing through the Eclipse Gate in his childhood, Igneel had noticed a slight shift in his adoptive son’s personality.
There was an uncanny maturity, an unnatural caution, and a dark side that had never been seen in Natsu before.
Igneel knew there had been a massive shift within Natsu’s soul, caused by the violent collision when the dimensional anomaly occurred.
However, Igneel smiled faintly, flashing his rows of fangs.
He didn’t care in the slightest, nor was he overly worried.
For a battle-hardened dragon like him, the most important thing was that Natsu survived and was able to maintain his sanity.
In fact, seeing the sheer magnitude of Natsu’s current power and tactical maturity filled Igneel’s chest with immense pride.
Now, a burning curiosity began to ignite within Igneel’s mind.
Natsu was a being who had mastered his E.N.D.
Demon form, had Dragon Slayer magic coursing through his veins, and possessed five years of combat experience in the wild.
What would happen when that terrifying foundation was combined with the blessing of a Falna—the absolute evolutionary catalyst of the gods in this world?
Just how strong would Natsu become if he kept leveling up?
Igneel closed his golden eyes, letting his aura settle back down amidst his soulscape.
I’m really looking forward to it, son, the Dragon King thought, chuckling softly.
“Hestia.
Hey, Hestia.”
That casual call snapped the Goddess of the Hearth’s consciousness back to reality.
Hestia jolted hard.
Her eyes blinked rapidly, adjusting to the dim glow of the magic stone lamp in the basement of the abandoned church.
The scorching magma landscape was gone.
Before her now was Natsu’s broad, muscular back, while she herself was still kneeling on the worn-out sofa.
“Why are you zoning out in the middle of a ritual?” Natsu asked, turning his head slightly to glance back at the goddess.
Hestia hastily wiped a bead of sweat sliding down her temple.
She hadn’t expected that her lengthy conversation with Igneel in Natsu’s soulscape had only taken a few seconds in the real world.
“A-ah!
S-sorry about that, Natsu-kun!” Hestia said, offering an awkward smile.
She decided to keep her meeting with Igneel a secret for now.
“This is my first time granting a Falna, so I was just a little nervous and overthinking whether I was doing the procedure right.
Let’s start over!”
Without wasting any time, Hestia repositioned herself.
She picked up the silver needle from her lap and pricked the tip of her index finger again.
A drop of divine blood radiating a warm blue glow fell, landing right in the center of Natsu’s back.
This time, there was no pull on her consciousness.
The sacred blood reacted exactly as it was supposed to.
Hestia’s blood spread rapidly, seeping into Natsu’s pores and creating a pattern of mystical black lines.
Rows of arcane text written in hieroglyphs began to emerge, arranging themselves neatly across the young man’s back.
Right at the center of the text formation, a sacred emblem formed perfectly: the symbol of a blazing hearth, the official crest of the Hestia Familia.
The ceremony was complete.
Natsu had now officially become a member of the Hestia Familia.
Hestia leaned in, preparing to read Natsu’s initial stats.
Normally, a beginner at Level 1 always started all their parameters at “I0”.
However, as Hestia’s blue eyes began translating the hieroglyphs etched onto Natsu’s back, the goddess’s breath caught in her throat.
Her mouth slowly fell open.
Her pupils trembled violently as she tried to process the numbers and text that completely defied the logic of the gods’ blessings.
“W-what…
what in the world is this status…” Hestia muttered, her trembling voice sounding almost like a terrified squeak.