"Hard to believe… just hard to believe…"
Kira shook his head as he strolled back home, muttering to himself. Dispel raised an eyebrow. "Hard to believe what?"
"I'm talking about you," Kira said. "A guy obsessed with mastering the sword, sticking around here just because of a few novels? That's what's hard to believe."
Dispel's eyes flicked up from the book in his hands, a rare moment of attention. "I feel like that's not what you were muttering about, but… this life's not bad. No long treks, no fighting, just eating, sleeping, minding the shop, and reading. These past few days? Pretty comfy."
"Hey, I left you in charge of the shop. Don't tell me you haven't made a single sale!" Kira said, narrowing his eyes.
"Making sales is easy," Dispel replied lazily. "Lower the price a bit, and customers—along with all the bored, rich housewives—swarm in like ants to sugar."
"That's… a weird metaphor," Kira said, frowning.
He couldn't shake the feeling that if Dispel kept this up, he'd waste away entirely. As a boss, Kira wasn't about to keep a freeloader who just read all day and didn't sell a thing—even if the guy worked for free.
Thinking about what was coming up, Kira said, "Come with me. I need your help with something."
"In this world, something I can do that you can't?" Dispel set his novel down and gave Kira a knowing look. "Don't tell me you actually took a job from some lonely, rich housewife. I'm not doing that kind of work."
"Do you think I'd take a shady job like that—or let you do it?" Kira snapped, exasperated. "I need to bring something back, and it's big. I need you to chop it down a bit."
Dispel's curiosity piqued. "Chop something down? With your magic, you could probably haul back an entire mountain without breaking a sweat."
Kira packed his gear as he answered, "This is trickier than a mountain."
"What is it?"
Kira grinned. "Heh… the Tower of Heaven!"
---
Off the coast of Karum, on a familiar sailboat under a giant parasol, Kira and Dispel lounged in deck chairs, sipping cold drinks, the picture of relaxation. They looked so alike, moving in sync, you'd think they were brothers. But they both knew the truth: boss and subordinate, nothing more.
"So, what's this Tower of Heaven?" Dispel asked.
Kira gathered his thoughts and laid it out. "About 400 years ago, there was a crazy powerful dark wizard named Zeref. He designed a magic system to bring people back to life, called the R-System."
"Then, about ten years ago, a cult obsessed with dark magic got their hands on the plans. They poured tons of manpower and money into building eight tower-shaped structures, called the Towers of Heaven."
"Eight years ago, the Magic Council wiped out the cult and destroyed those life-defying towers."
"Oh, I get it," Dispel interrupted, cutting off Kira' explanation. "There's gotta be a survivor, right? Otherwise, you wouldn't be asking me to come chop one down!"
Cutting someone off mid-sentence was rude, and Kira wasn't thrilled, but he let it slide. Dispel was sharp, but his manners could use some work.
"Exactly. The Council destroyed seven towers, but one's still out there, undiscovered. It's almost complete—all it needs is a massive amount of magic power."
"How massive are we talking?" Dispel asked.
"2.7 billion units of magic power," Kira replied.
Dispel whistled. "That's not something you just scrape together. Even all your lacrima crystals combined wouldn't…"
"Not even a fraction of it," Kira confirmed.
Dispel leaned forward, his tone pointed. "If anyone—or any group—could pull that off, it'd have to be the Magic Council, right?"
"Bingo," Kira said. "To finish the R-System, the master of this last tower has infiltrated the Council, planning to tap into that power using the satellite magic array to fire off the ultimate space-time destruction spell: Etherion."
"Whoa, that's bold!" Dispel said, impressed. "But to even get close to controlling Etherion's launch, you'd need to be a Council member. Since you're acting now, that means the tower's master is one of the current Councilors."
Having spent years in Earthland, Dispel wasn't some clueless rookie. He was sharp—on par with Kira in analytical skill—able to piece things together quickly and accurately.
"The cult was wiped out eight years ago," Dispel continued. "So this Councilor probably joined afterward. If they were already a Councilor, they wouldn't have leaked their plans. And if their plans did leak, they wouldn't still be on the Council."
"That narrows it down to Siegrain and Ultear," he concluded. "They both joined in the last decade, they're young enough to go rogue, and their simple family backgrounds mean they've got less holding them back."
Kira wanted to applaud. Dispel had nailed the suspect list just from a few scraps of info. That handsome face wasn't just for show.
"The guy who built it is long dead. The one running it now? Jellal," Kira revealed.
"Jellal… so, Siegrain?" Dispel said confidently. "When I first saw his face, I thought he was another prince—they look identical. Being a Councilor's not far off from being royalty."
"But when I heard his name was Siegrain, I knew something was up. The prince doesn't have a twin, so there's no way Earthland's Jellal would either. The odds of two unrelated people looking identical in the same world are lower than you finding true love."
Seeing Kira bristle, Dispel quickly changed the subject. "So, you want me to chop down the tower?" He pointed his slender finger toward a distant island, where a tiny black speck loomed like an inverted nail.
"Not quite," Kira said. "I need you to chop it after Etherion fires. The Tower of Heaven's true form is a giant lacrima crystal. Once it absorbs that magic power, I can…"
"Oh, I get it!" Dispel cut in, their strange connection letting him catch Kira' drift instantly. "You want to claim that magic power for yourself!"
Kira nodded quietly. No point hiding it.
"But honestly, the resurrection system sounds more practical than raw magic power," Dispel said. "And with your magic, couldn't you just take the tower as is?"
"Resurrection requires a sacrifice. I'm too kind-hearted for that," Kira said with a grin.
"Yeah, right!" Dispel scoffed.
"Fine, I think it's a desecration of life, and I don't bother with it," Kira admitted.
Dispel waved him off. "Whatever, keep your secrets. I don't care that much."
Why go for the magic power and not the R-System? Simple: Kira wanted it as a core for massive magical constructs. With that kind of power, he could build mechs, airships, or even crack open interdimensional barriers to connect to another magic-rich world—Eldritia.