Eight years later....
The blue sky locked away by dark clouds, a familiar site for those who witnessed it eight years before. Shimmering silver light in their depths. The only difference being, this time they covered twice the area and released an aura that made any who could sense it cower.
In a cave somewhere on the familiar mountain. The source of the show in the sky could be seen....an older version of Max.
He was now thirty.... cough, thirteen years old. No longer dawning a red robe like Igneel, but a gray one instead. His hair, shoulder length, eyes closed, serious expression on his vaguely handsome but still childish face. Sparks of silver lightning surrounding his body, with a vague golden glow in the shape of a halo above his head.
Boom!
As soon as Max opens his eyes, which glow golden for a moment before going back to their usual silver, thunder loud enough to shake the earth goes off.
.....
{He has made it!} × five
Igneel and the elders all thought at the same time.
...
In the human kingdom...
"This again?, it's even stronger this time, minister are you sure of what you said back then". An older but familiar king asked his minister who also looked older than before.
"That's your proof right there your majesty, this has happened before, and we're still fine, meaning it really has nothing to do with us." The minister replied to his king with a reassuring expression but deep in his heart he couldn't help but feel nervous.
"I will trust you one more time since you've never led me astray, but for both our sakes, I hope you're right"
"Yes your majesty". The minister said while bowing, hiding his not so sure expression.
....
"Huff, I've finally made it to the second stage, kinda pisses me off it took so long but whatever, such is life I guess"
"I wonder what the oldman's reaction will be this time...and when he learns I'll likely break into the third stage within two years, hehehe, it's definitely going to be a fun sight"
With those words Max disappeared from the cave that was close to crumbling due to his aura alone.
....
Igneel was sitting on a familiar chair infront of his familiar house...
"Hmm?!". He made a startled sound looking beside him.
For the first time ever, Max had appeared beside him without him being able to sense him before hand.
"Just broke through and thought you'd show off to your poor old father huh?". Igneel asked Max with disdainful expression on his unchanged face from eight years before.
"Good thing you acknowledged it, now you can't be so easily shameless.... You remember your promise right?, you said you'd tell me what happened to mother when I reach stage two, here I am." Max was unfazed by his obviously fake expression and said what he wanted to as he set on another chair beside Igneel.
"You..sigh, fine I'll tell you, but don't act rushly afterwards" Igneel wanted to weasel his way out of the conversation again but realised that he couldn't this time.
When he noticed Max nod, he continued.
"The story began twenty five years ago. It had been a while since I had broken into stage two and couldn't sense any improvement any time soon. Since I was already the strongest on the continent by far, I saw no point to be as dedicated as I had bee up to that point. So I developed an interest in humans. You'd think I'd know more about them after living that long but I didn't, the only thing on my mind before that was getting stronger."
"Anyway, the interest got so strong that I moved away from the center of the forest. Where I was born, where there's perpetual lightning storms so strong that only I could survive there. Then came to this mountain, which humans call the king mountain since it's bigger than any other mountains around here."
"From then I would sneak into the human territory in my human form from time to time. As a superior being, it didn't take me long to learn their language... I know, I'm super cool, feel free to praise me."
Max who had been seriously listening, couldn't help but cringe for a moment while rolling his eyes. But since he knew it would only inflate his father's already larger than life narcissism he didn't comment.
Seeing him not showing the usual reaction Igneel was disappointed. Even contemplated whether to look for a way to turn his son back into the little kid from before. After a while he continued.
"Cough, okay where were we, oh right. It just so happened that the kingdom I visited all those times was also the kingdom your mother comes from. The kingdom of Madar, that's where I saw her for the first time. The holy maiden of Madar..sigh those where the good days. She was healing a random oldman on the street. That's when I happen to here the story from the people in the crowd. Turned out she was an orphan who survived from the church's charity. When she turned ten and her element was tested, it miraculously turned out to be revered holy element, and to top it off she had a the space element, though with minor affinity. From then the church took her in, and eighteen she ascended to become the holy maiden of the country loved by all."
A/N :(Yeah, I think so too, Igneel was the real old man in that situation, but I wouldn't tell him that unless you want a taste of silver lightning)
"At that time of course I didn't think much of it and moved on. Of course she did stand out among humans to me because of her rare elements so I wouldn't easily forget her."
"A year passed, I was back on my mountain, planning my next trip. I sensed something happening at the bottom of the mountain. There she was, Grace, with her beautiful light brown face flashed pink as she ran from some pursuers."
"As someone who didn't really care much for humans and only interested in the little things at the time. Plus I had learned a bit about them so I was slightly disgusted by their overwhelming greed so I first watched and didn't do anything,"
....Igneel's view point of the scene....
"P-please, why are you doing this?". Grace's melodic yet strained voice sounded as she looked at her five pursuers.
....How Grace got into such a situation....
She had visited the king's younger brother Thomas's mansion. Which stood close to the Great Beast Forest where he was the commander who guarded them against things like beast tides. She was told it was to heal some heavily wounded soldiers to which she agreed.
For sure there were such soldiers, she took care of it within a few hours. When she was about to return to the capital, Thomas stopped her saying she should stay the night and set off in the morning since there was no rush to fly back at night. She naively trusted him and agreed.
She was later on called down for dinner. Things were going fine until toward the end of the dinner were she felt there was something going on with her body. It started heating up for reasons unknown to her.
When she looked up and saw the unbridled lust oozing out of Thomas's eyes as he walked towards her. She got up, sped out of the mansion and flew in a random direction. As anyone with even half a brain could tell he had done something.