Gustaf smiled back at Rose, as he caressed her head.
"How much has it changed? Tell me… Get all those emotions out, dear… You've been holding them for too long."
"I… I've been holding them, I guess. I've been truly caging them inside of my heart… As I saw everybody talk and interact, deep down, I always wished to join their conversations… I…" Ros cried. "Maybe I truly want to go back to them…"
"Then do it, Rose. Without hesitation… You must let me go."
Rose looked at Gustaf one last time, as her tears were constantly being clean by his handkerchief.
"Will I see you after this? Will I ever see you again?"
"I don't know… I don't know if I am truly real or not. But I know that… I will always be there, watching over you, Rose. Whatever you've done in the past, whatever you regret doing… Make sure to make up for it with good and better actions. Always remember… you are a lady raised by me."
Rose's memories suddenly began to blossom, all the memories she lost due to the curse of Red emerged, which were slowly appearing thanks to Drake freeing her from such a curse. The memories of her entire life, of all the things she went through, of all the times Gustaf taught her so many things.
She was awakened from a world of darkness, into the brightness she had been caging down not because of being an Undead, or because she served Drake, but because she thought of herself as someone that didn't needed such petty things.
From that fragile little girl in the streets, freezing to almost death, to the girl that slowly grew, and learned about the world. That was given warm meals, and was taught about the world around her, how to speak, how to read, and how to understand things around her, to the vampire that slowly lost all of what she learned, ultimately dying for the one that brought the death of her father and her own, to a ghost who caged her emotions and used the mask of madness to pretend that she had lost her trues identity… each stage of her "life" was something she learned about.
And now that she returned to the very beginning, she realized that she had even yet to finish her journey. In fact, it had only begun. At the side of someone as adventurous as Drake, a lord she truly wanted to serve after all the good things she had seen him do, there was no way she would remain in one place forever…
CLASH!
Her hand pierced through Gustaf's chest, as light began to come out of his wound, cracks slowly emerged across his body, as if it were made of glass…
"Then… I am going, dad…" She said with tears flowing from her eyes. "See ya in the other side. Can you wait for me until then?"
"Will do, Rose… But make sure to live as much as you can." He said.
"Sigh… I am already kind of dead though…"
Crack… crack…!
Gustaf slowly began to shatter into pieces, his entire body began to disappear, and then his face, slowly…
"No, you've always been alive…"
Crack… crack…!
"A soul is truly something… beautiful, Rose."
Crack… crack…!
"Make sure to receive my gift and use it for your own happiness."
"Gift?"
Rose saw Gustaf slowly fragment apart into small particles of light until nothing more remained. And from within this light, something hit her strongly, bathing her with light.
Unlike other trials, her own was very unique because of her own trial being to simply accept herself and open up at long last, a challenge perhaps as hard as fighting a boss.
FLASH!
As Rose's body flowed with this new energy, she felt like she slowly began to change. Her soul turned as solid as bones, flesh, and skin, as she felt a beating heart, even. Her entire phantasmal essence evolved and changed, turning stronger and filled with spiritual essence now…
When she opened her eyes, her red hair was waving majestically, as she looked at her own hands, and the rest of her body in shock. Her hands seemed not so pale, alive. Her fingernails were red, and her eyes were shining brightly, filled with blood essence, yet with so much life as well.
Her hair waved, continuously growing longer, as if it had turned into a sea of blood. And her heartbeat became faster, making warm blood flow across her formerly cold body. Her legs slowly moved, as her feet touched the cold floor, she felt the coldness as a sharp knife, because her foot themselves were warm.
Although she was completely nude now, she didn't felt like it. For her, it felt as if she had just been born, the nude body didn't made her falter but make her felt freer. She couldn't help but kneel over the floor, attacked by a sudden cascading stream of emotions after emotions. It felt as if all the things she had been holding up for so long came out at the same time.
"Eh? Why… I am… I… I have a body?" She muttered in surprise. "Is this… the gift he said he would give to me?"
Rose couldn't help but feel alive at long last, and incredibly happy, so happy she began to cry once more. This time, these were tears of joy and surprise, and not those of sorrow and regret…
"Thank you… Father."
As Rose cried in happiness and found that her own soul had transformed and given her a new and unexpected life, someone within the Tower looked at her with a warm smile, the faint presence of someone was with her, but quickly dissipated, with a smile as well.
"I've done as you asked me, Gustaf." She said. "I hope that your daughter can find the happiness you want her to experience… Perhaps by the side of the Dragon King and his companions, it might not seem like such a fantasy…"
