Meriel looked at the pulsing barrier, feeling the magic dissipate slowly. The dungeon heart in front of him finally lost its juice. It's previously dim light began slowly, but visibly, turning almost completely dark.

  It'd be over soon, he knew. This torture. This terrible plague that has been holding him here. Who knew how long? It must have been months. Maybe years. Maybe decades. He lost track of time after two months locked in here, spent sitting, walking in a small circle, and wondering about whether he'd ever get rescued.

  But nobody ever came.

  What turned what was a hope at the start into complete despair was the fact that everything he tried resulted in a failure. A failure to bring himself out of this damn cage. He didn't try attack spells, not truly, not at their full firepower, although he did consider using them several times a week. Just one spell and it would all be gone. The pain. The silence. But he couldn't bring himself to do so.

  He wasn't even sure he was completely sane anymore. The boredom and hopelessness were sometimes just too great of an enemy. He did read the book that Elsa gave him several times over, the pages feeling soft to his touch now, some corners falling out. But the content, a simple fairytale of love and opening a restaurant together, made the memories of the outside world all the sweeter.

  He hungered for the taste of a good meal, or even a bad one. Who better to give food ratings than him? He didn't even remember how food tasted.

  Ziggy stirred on his lap as he sat up. The little dragon was not so little now. Replacing the stomach with mana absorption was one of the smartest things Meriel had ever done, even though he wasn't completely in there mentally when he made the dragon.

  Ziggy had grown several times his previous size in his captivity, now probably as large as a large dog, though Meriel couldn't even remember how a large dog was supposed to look like anymore. All he knew was how the rocky ravines around him looked. How the dark crystal nearby glowed in its malicious purple light every 1.3 seconds.

  He wasn't even sure what the interval meant; he never got to discover. He longed to learn some new magic, to explore his possibilities, but all of his spells were almost completely nullified by the fact that he was in a barrier. How could he cast something when all around him was a barrier and a small rock underneath?

  He did use the Summon Small elemental spell several times, creating two miniature soldiers who either fought each other or served as playthings for Ziggy, but after reaching level 80, the small amount of rock inside with him just simply wasn't enough. And so he focused almost completely on one spell and one spell only.

  Dragonmancy.

  The spell wasn't limited to just summoning dragons like he initially thought it would be. No, using magic with the Intent of empowering Ziggy was just enough. The dragon himself was a cheery little fellow. He truly was inspired by his dog, whom Meriel remembered from his childhood, though Ziggy’s intelligence was easy to see by the spark in his eyes, the way that Ziggy cared for Meriel, the way he nudged him with his snout whenever Meriel thought of ending it all.

  Sometimes the dragon even began breathing more rapidly whenever Meriel looked a bit pale, probably realizing the connection between their symbiotic breaths. Meriel never had a partner like this, and he'd grown to be accustomed to Ziggy's presence as time moved on.

  He wasn't a pet; he was a companion, more than anyone ever was. What drove Meriel to not just simply kill himself with a spell, and Ziggy in turn, was something else, however.

  Jonathan was out there, somewhere, and Elsa, if fate permitted, was still waiting for him. The fact that he didn't know what happened to those two hurt him more than anything else, tortured him more than any device could.

  The fact that he would soon get to find out pushed him forward. Ziggy finally stood on all fours, shaking himself like a dog, and looked at Meriel questioningly. Meriel nodded, agreeing to his silent idea.

  "Yes, Ziggy. I say it's time!" He looked at the barrier, his worst enemy. The damned barrier spell leveled up to level 100, completely locked in its progression now. No mage he'd ever known reached spell level 100, not even in the historical books he loved reading long ago.

  The fact that he was the first one didn't make him happy at all, however; there was little happiness to be had in this damned bubble. He motioned Ziggy forward towards the edge of the bubble, preparing to test the only solution he came up with after years of staying here: taking a sharp object, imbuing it with very dense mana, and trying to push it into the barrier.

  The first attempts were completely useless. The talons of Ziggy just bounced off from the bubble, repelled by its magical qualities. But as the spell has gotten stronger, and Ziggy grew in power and size, it started having some small effects: a small dent here, a small scratch there.

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  Nothing they did would manage to get either of them out or cancel the effects of the bubble. But with the dungeon heart itself starting to grow weaker, Meriel could only hope for the fact that they would finally get outside.

  He cast the spell, feeling the mana go through him and into Ziggy's claws. Ziggy himself stomped in place with excitement. The poor little creature had never even tasted outside air, never seen anything but Meriel, the damn heart, and the rocks around them. But Meriel swore that he would show him all the pleasures of the world.

  He owed him that much as his creator, and as his de facto father.

  He owed him that much for saving his own sanity.

  The mana coalesced around the claws of Ziggy and the dragon chirped, though the sound was much deeper than Meriel remembered it sounding in the past. While, before, his companion was a small hand-sized creature, now it was a true fearsome dragon, though not quite as big as it could be.

  He knew that outside, if it could feed on more mana, not only the one filtered through the dungeon heart, the dragon would grow strong quickly. It would probably grow stronger than the one he and his party killed, outgrow it really fast. Maybe under a year or a few at least, he'd be the strongest ally he'd ever had. But Meriel didn't intend to fight anymore.

  Well, not after he found Jonathan.

  Ziggy's claws dug into the barrier, deeper than ever before. The barrier around his claws shot away, leaving space. Like a tidal wave receding, it continued to go away from his claws, letting them completely sink in. The one-inch talons, sharp as blades all three of them, were getting completely through.

  This was better than any of their tests yet. The dungeon core nearby blinked faster than before, its light losing even more color than it had already. Soon, it would be out of juice. It was now or never.

  Meriel breathed in, focusing on letting even more mana imbue Ziggy's claws. Ziggy himself turned his head, looked at Meriel's face, a question in his intelligent little eyes. Meriel only nodded, not trusting himself to say any words, not at the stress he was putting himself through.

  Ziggy took it in stride and looked back at the barrier, inspecting it as if saying goodbye, and then he swiped.

  And the barrier burst into motes of light.

  They fell to the ground like snow, their light quickly growing weaker and weaker. Meriel felt his breath taken away. He watched, his mind failing to comprehend what just happened. He knew that it was everything he built towards for the last who-knew-how-many years, but it was unbelievable.

  This cage surrounded him for what felt like several lifetimes. He actually wasn't even sure if he spent more time inside or outside of the bubble, and now he could go... out again? The shock was replaced by pure happiness and ecstasy almost immediately.

  He grabbed Ziggy, pulling the heavier dragon on his chest. The dragon responded by wrapping himself around him, and the two shared a tight hug. “Finally, Ziggy! We can go out! We can find my Elsa! We can go, and I'll let you roam the forests, the cities, and so much more! Oh, I have so much stuff to show you, Ziggy! You have no idea! So much!”

  Ziggy only chirped again, looking at him quizzically. The dragon couldn't even understand what a leaf was, of course, much less understand what a forest was. But he'd understand soon. Meriel would teach him all.

  Meriel looked at the crystal again, the dungeon heart that was responsible for this whole situation, for the endless time spent in pure agony. He approached.

  And smashed his fist into it.

  The dungeon heart itself didn't change at all, and the only thing that actually hurt was his left fist. Nothing was broken, thankfully.

  He didn't want his other arm to be gone as well. He got used to only having one after all these years, but sometimes he still reached out for something with the stump. Realizing that smashing the dungeon heart with his fists would be a dumb thing to do, he stepped backwards, creating space like he always did when testing new spells.

  This wasn't an open environment, of course, and a lot of things could go awry, but he didn't have the patience to test out only the safe methods.

  “Come, Ziggy!” He called, and the dragon responded immediately, following him to the other side of the ravine. With enough space, Meriel finally took a deep breath, tasting the sweet air tinged by the moisture from the mountain itself. And prepared a spell. He considered all of these ones that he could use, but he ended up with one.

  [Dragonmancer's Fire Breath level 1 activated]

  The spell was weaker than a fireball, of course, especially since he never even had the chance to use it properly. But that didn't matter; it felt symbolic to use it now, casting the wretched away with fire. The Taker, if he existed, would thank him for getting the world rid of such an evil thing.

  The fire streaked out from his arm and aimed straight towards the crystal. It was a small flame at first, but he continued feeding mana into it, Ziggy letting him eat almost everything around them, just keeping a small portion so he could sustain himself.

  The spell level continued rising; the attacks on the Dungeon Heart registering as successful enough for it to do so. It went up to level 5. Level 10. Level 15. And continued rising.

  Beads of sweat pebbled Meriel's forehead, and yet he continued. The rocks around the dungeon heart turned orange, glowing and melting from the heat, turning to lava, but that didn't stop him either.

  He wanted to see it gone. Leave nothing left.

  He wanted to eradicate it himself.

  Another minute passed, and he was stumbling, the fire evaporating the oxygen from the bottom of the ravine from the pure heat. He considered stopping the spell, but finally, the dungeon heart cracked, and burst into a mist of purple light.

  He stopped the spell at that very moment, falling onto his knee, quickly reinforced by Ziggy, snooping his torso with his head. A concerned sound came from Ziggy, but Meriel reassured him, "It's okay, Zig. We're done." He stood up carefully, looked around one last time, realizing he wouldn't miss this place at all, looked up, and prepared to ascend.