Chapter 2: Another Day In Prison. You Are Free But Not. Life Down Here Is Ever So Strange
A simple house. Three used rooms. A warm and comforting looking bedroom filled with cool tempered colors of white and black. The floor for the whole house was made of beautiful black granite and so was the walls. Shrouding the whole house interior into a dreamy look. One resembling of a dark star filled sky.
The furniture, albeit a bit aged in sense as they were crafted by medieval hands,they blended well into the house. Currently, Grant lay sitting on a bleached white stool. His legs crossed while he snacked on his recently prepared breakfast.
With Grant laying in the silent environment while having a little hand sized boy perched on his right shoulder. The scenery all seemed to fall into place. Silent but homely.
"Two to Five years... Isn't that kind of a bit long?" Numen questioned Grant while the little strand of hair atop his head curved into a question mark.
Grant still found that strange little nature of the magical pixie sized kid strange. The ahoge subconsciously moved depending on what the little child was feeling or thinking about. It made reading him a lot more easier.
"That's the best I can do and two to five years is already me being ambitious and optimistic. It might take longer than that but I won't allow such a thing yo happen." Grant feasted on the fried rice consisting of rice, meat and eggs mashed together before being seasoned with a dab of soy sauce. Grant cooked it himself. Numen helped in cracking eggs and fetching little things in the process.
The little white haired boy drooled and Grant only cast him a pitying gaze. The sprite worked weirdly. Since the first day Numen appeared, Grant kept becoming more and more curious about the little thing.
"Grant can't you cook something up for me? I'm starving!" Numen whined while his white hair strand hung down. The man in question stopped for a second. Looking calmly at Numen.
Haump~ And then he resumed eating. Causing Numen to purse his lips in dissatisfaction.
"I can't help it Numen. You said it yourself that you can't really interact much with the physical world except for touching and holding stuff. I tried feeding you before but you just threw up." Grant shrugged before the little floating child became incensed. Steam burst out of the kid's ears while his puffed up cheeks became a bit red.
"That was because you were so bad at cooking back then! I couldn't even believe a being like me had their taste buds soiled by that poor of an excuse amateur dish!"
"Hey I know not of cooking back then. And I never really needed to cook for myself when I was well off enough to eat out at restaurants! I'm a fast learner and thanks to that new gift, I was able to learn how to prepare a passable dish in just one week!" Grant defended himself before finishing his morning meal and downing a glass of clear pure water.
His left hand trailed upwards and felt the annoying presence of the prisoner's collar. Grant's joyful mood plummeted and he stood up. Carefully submerging the plate and utensils into a bucket full of warm water.
His body issued out loud popping sounds as he stretched. The earlier smile that was present before had long since vanished into nothingness. Grant's facial features lost its warmth. Having it be replaced with subtle coldness and calmness of his poker face.
Beep~ Beep~ Beep!
The collar started beeping while Grant headed towards the door. A coat rack laid to the side, hanging on it was a dark hooded cloak. Grant stopped before it and took out the robe. Covering himself in it as he draped it around his body.
Grant pulled up the hood and all his facial features except for his mouth had been concealed. Numen floated up into the air and opened the door to help Grant. The man's lips twitched a little seeing Numens's efforts.
"You really don't have to do all these little things for me..." Grant mumbled lowly as he strolled out of the house. Numen floating behind him. The little white robed boy had smiled cheerily and landed atop Grant's head.
"I am a god. A divine entity while you are just a mortal but just because we are different does not mean I should change the way I act towards you." Numen laid on his stomach, cupping his cheeks while he smiled as his legs beat up and down behind his back.
"You should stop referring to yourself as a god. You're more like a pixie or a helpful spirit. And you are right." Grant subtly nodded under his cloak. He shared the same opinion as the little spirit child.
Just because you are rich, attractive or popular, that doesn't truly mean that you are on a scale above others. It does not mean that one should treat another as inferior or strangely just because they are different.
"All life is equal... Everything can die. Even the gods themselves...." Numen and Grant both uttered at the same time. Making Grant stop for a second and for Numen to freeze up.
"Hey that's my line! I'm the divine entity here!" Numen stood up and complained while Grant shook his head in amusement. He felt a little warmth inside him before he suppressed that feeling.
'No never again...' Grant shivered and frowned as he forced the feeling of warmth to recede and vanish.
Numen pursed his lips before looking back at the house that the two left. A decently sized Victorian style house. A great mix of white and gray. From afar the house looked like a tiny hill of finely carved ash. The house had more rooms inside it but Numen knows Grant locked and covered those other rooms up. The man only cared about what was practical for the moment and a living room, a kitchen and a bedroom was all that he deemed essential.
A wide plains of golden lush green tall grass greeted Grant and Numen. Their little house was situated atop a small hill and what surrounded that hill was a vast field of green growth. Birds took to the skies while the grass parted before Grant as if they were obedient soldiers.
If Grant was viewed closely, he was muttering a strange language under his breath while faint traces of green thin mist wafted out of his clothes. It was mana. The strange power found in the world that allows magicians to project their little musings into reality.
"You'll exhaust yourself if you keep going like that." Numen was a stranger to magic. As an entity that knows not how to use a spell, he still understood that for there to be an effect there has to a cause or some fuel. Seeing Grant waste precious mana by constantly using even a weak cantrip like that would exhaust even a decent magician.
Grant paid Numen no heed and the little boy worriedly glanced up at the sky. The skies were full of winds and clouds while light filtered down to the earth. The grass was green and the earth was rich. Life bloomed everywhere but the two knew better.
Everything around here was artificial. The grass, the mountains, rivers and forests. They were all man made. With the might of powerful mages, they created this false paradise for the prisoners. They created Tartarus. An almighty prison that can even cage creatures that sank islands and leveled down mountains in fits of rage.
The only thing Grant ever found good about Tartarus was the rich mana in the air. To Grant, Numen and those who truly saw beyond the vast richness of Tartarus, It was a huge rectangular box of divine steel.
"The gift that you gave me works wonders. I am just merely abusing it and pushing myself to greater heights." Grant replied before he ceased using the cantrip that moved grass or commanded simple plants. He could feel his mind throbbing while some form of energy was sapped from his very body.
He felt a bit disoriented but he was pleased. Slowly but surely, his mana capacity was increasing from the arduous practice of his. His body was adapting to the wanton usage of mana thanks to the gift of [True Adaptation].
"Just know your limitations and do not seek instant benefits alright?" Numen worriedly scolded Grant who shrugged in response.
"I am not dumb Numen." Numen hearing Grant, nodded faintly.
Grant tapped the side of his collar with two fingers and two fragments broke off it. The fragments flew to his left arm and stuck there until they became a watch. It was already four thirty in the morning. At six, Grant needs to be in that certain place or else he would be in an unfavorable situation.
Grant looked around the skies until he saw it and stopped. The thing he was looking for was still so far away yet it was already visible from the sky. It was a huge tower. A tower that was situated in the middle of the place and it connected both the earth and the sky together.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Aeolius
Aeolius The chapter took me 2-3 hours to make. My apologies if the updates are irregular. I really have to deal with lots of things.
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