Chapter 121

My discussion with Oeyne about the spear consumed the rest of the day, as well as the majority of the night —though we did take several fun breaks that left us pleasantly exhausted in the process of studying.

All work and no play would make me a dull boy, after all. Not a particularly fun outcome.

Ultimately, our extensive study left us with even more questions than we had started with. Or, at least, in terms of the exact way to repair the spear in a way that would function its original function, storage, which sounded rather lame considering the weight assigned by the Royal Family.

Naturally, it was more complicated than that.

After that much studying, we were certain that the spear was designed to capture and contain some kind of energy source, and not let it out until certain stringent conditions were met. The requirements to contain the mysterious energy source left Oeyne scratching her head, as it was many times more intense than even the strongest theoretical mana construct.

I had my own suspicions about the storage target. Divine Spark seemed to be a perfect fit for it.

Though, the fact that I started to find much evidence of the existence of the Divine Spark the moment I started looking for it suggested something very important. They were clearly much more available than I had first assumed. The headmistress, the mysterious organization, and now, the royal family...

Still, the relative availability of it, along with the seemingly widespread knowledge, made sense under the light of the story told by the headmistress.

Since the Eternals were not currently ruling the world with an adamantium fist, there must be others possessing Divine Sparks as well —though, hopefully, not controlling them fully. Otherwise, even with their control over the system lost, the Eternals would have been able to dominate the other powers. And I certainly hoped that the control the Headmistress was displaying as a mythical angel was on the upper range of the scale of competence.

Of course, that raised even more questions about the princess' ultimate aim to be there, especially with the combination of the visit of her thief, whether she was aware of the identity of the headmistress and the fact that she was possessing two Divine Sparks, or that she was just trying to do conduct and opportunistic fact-finding mission in a time it would be blamed to other enemies. Hopefully, after I establish my new research laboratory, I would get a better idea of the situation.

Still, almost every information I had was assumptions and suppositions, strung together from my limited experiences and a few scraps of information I unearthed from the stories. I needed more evidence before I could make a conclusion.

Conveniently, I was going to the Headmistress's tower once more, to finally receive the mark to turn me one of those Divine-Touched of the Light, not that I had any intention of turning into an emotionless, logic-driven little knight for her. Even if the worst happened and she established an overwhelmingly strong node that eclipsed the one Titania possessed, I just could suppress the emotional aspect of it, and that was only an issue if I couldn't trick her to establish the node in my fake soul space, with no connection to my real power.

I was enthusiastic about the opportunity, with the control she had displayed during the earlier ritual, my conversion wouldn't be a simple affair, certainly more complicated than my technique.

Unfortunately, it was likely not going to be as fun as mine as well.

When I arrived at her tower, a minute before the prearranged time, I found the door firmly closed. I waited silently, waiting for the door to open at the exact moment she promised. It did so, unlocking with a dramatic effect. I sighed at her subtle show of power and started walking.

The moment I stepped inside her tower, inside the protective wrap of darkness wards, pure, calming light filled my being, getting stronger as I climbed up the stairs. The walls, normally unadorned with any kind of mark, were filled with silver runes, visually supporting the holy feeling.

Then, a soft melody, one that reminded me of a choir, reached my ears, confirming my suspicions. I barely hid a smirk. She was clearly putting a show to impress me about the significance of the moment. Though the show might have some utilitarian purpose behind it just like my own Companion Process progressing only when a certain amount of trust and reliance developed between me and my beautiful friends, it still didn't change its nature. It was a show to impress.

So, I acted suitably awed, displaying proper amazement on my face. However, when I finally arrived at her room, I hadn't had to fake that expression, though not for the reasons she was hoping.

Both the room and the headmistress had transformed completely from their usual understated manner. I was clearly more interested in the second part. Rather than her usual black robe, she was wearing white and gold armor that encased her torso. Even though the flatness of her plate armor hid the amazing lines of her body, it wasn't too much a deal-breaker, not when I had the perfect memory of her naked body in my memories to refer to. The fact that her armor was limited to a chest plate, but unfortunately she also wore a pristine white robe, hiding her arms and legs from the hungry gaze.

Her wings were fully raised, wide enough to almost touch the walls, shining softly with a silver light, the same color of her beautiful silver hair and eyes. Unlike their previous bare appearance, they had something resembling a weird mixture of armor and weapon loosely wrapped around, gold and silver, adding a sense of danger without hurting their holy appearance. Someone else might have fallen onto their knees and declared their undying worship at the amazing sight.

I imagined the magnificent sight it would create as I grabbed her wings from behind as I bent her over on top of the tallest tower of the school, her hands chained behind, being impaled repeatedly, her pure voice strained to shout as loud as she could manage. What a magnificent sight it would have been...

Compared to her striking appearance, the changes in the room took the backseat. Everything else in the room except the crystal runic platform was gone, replaced by more items made from the same crystal, covered in runes. Still, despite the wondrous sight they created, glowing with an inner light and reflecting the glow of the others at the same time, they faded against the awe of the angelic beauty that stood in the middle of the room, exuding an even brighter glow.

Though, the crystal platform grabbed my attention. Realizing that she was more focused on controlling her own mana, I decided to take the risk of touching the platform once more with a mana probe. However, after the previous time, I didn't let the platform connect with my mana completely, just examining its outer structure instead.

A cursory examination revealed that its nature was not too different from the spear. It was a very complicated artifact that would require days of effort to understand its proper functioning principles of course, but ascertaining its basic nature was simple after studying the spear in much detail.

It was like identifying a sword easily after getting familiar with a dinner knife. Not only was the strength and usage potential of the platform eclipsed the spear, but also its principles of design were much tighter. But ultimately, they were the equipment of the same nature, designed to contain and channel the Divine Spark.

As she looked at me, I expected her to launch an extensive, complicated ritual to sell the overwhelming holy expression further, but she chose a different part. "Kneel before the platform," she simply said as she stepped on the platform, the glow filling her body.

[Divine Spark Identified! Please absorb it to continue to support the operations of the System]

The familiar notification popped again asking me to devour the source. Too bad that my earlier attempt almost resulted in my destruction, preventing me from acting hastily. After examining the design of the broken spear for a while, I had realized that I had underestimated the complexity of the process far too much. Divine Spark was far too volatile just to be controlled like mana.

"Are you ready?" the headmistress asked as she put her hand on my head.

I tensed my body, grabbing my mana tightly, my muscles tensed, ready to lash out in case she noticed my deception and decided to react violently. "I'm ready," I said, not exactly needing to fake a worshipful expression, though she probably wouldn't have appreciated knowing that it was not directed to the holy ritual she was conducting but to her beauty. Her serious expression hid the cuteness she otherwise would have displayed, but that just tempted me to make her moan cutely.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the time for that.

Yet.

Then, her power slammed against my body, forcing me to focus on the moment to prevent a crisis. Her power outlined my body first, furious as a flood, threatening to drown me. If it wasn't for my overwhelming strength, the power would have eviscerated me in less than a second, not even leaving a sliver of ash.

The nature of the power was interesting. It wasn't pure Divine Spark like I had been expecting, but instead it was mostly her own mana, mixed with a dash of Divine Spark, though that sliver was enough to turn her calm mana into a furious river threatening to destroy everything in its path. More interestingly, she wasn't actually spending the mana, but pushing out of her body to rotate in my body, only to pull back again, making it a repeated activity, grueling to resist.

Luckily, I wasn't weak, so that I could grit my teeth and ignore the painful sensation as her power invaded my body mercilessly, as if t was cleansing my body by fires, painfully sharp. Every inch of my skin burned as the fire slowly infused deeper, pain intensifying.

But it wasn't without its benefit. My sharp senses, working in conjunction with my Biomancy and Tantric abilities, gave me the ability to monitor my own physical condition unfailingly, and I could feel that despite the pain, my body was getting stronger. It was a subtle thing, but also it wasn't something that could be just copied by Biomancy. Mana was not something that could be used as that trick. The improvement was subtle, but permanent.

And, it was completely unrelated to my stats.

Then, before I could consider the extent and the implications of that transformation, the power finally reached the fake soul space. The power of her mana mixed with a sliver of Divine Spark, effective despite its small amount, filled my fake soul space to the brim almost instantly, cracking its borders dangerously before she could exert enough control to gather it into one glowing vortex, forcing me to spent a lot of mana to repair my fake soul space.

[-2186 Mana]

The intensity of her power was wilder I had expected, making it more destructive, but paradoxically, it made me feel safer. After all, I had more than enough mana to maintain the soul space and repair it continuously, and even if the worst had happened, its destruction would mean nothing more than a temporary inconvenience.

The implication of the aggressive power flow was much more interesting. The uncontrolled flow of power revealed just how little control she had over Divine Spark, so much that even the small portion she was trying to control rebelled against her touch. The best she could do was to act like a riverbed, allowing the power to flood into my body, and gather it into a self-contained entity once it arrived at its direction.

It was important, because it meant that she couldn't notice the tricks I might pull on it. I carefully extended a line of mana, creating an alternate route for the power to flow in, and several other mana constructs to separate her mana from the Divine Spark, and infusing the same spark into mine before rerouting her mana back into the main flow.

It was a complicated mana structure, inspired by the design of the spear I was tasked to repair, refined further by the way she manipulated the Divine Spark to tame it by her own mana, but it worked. It even worked more successfully than I expected, not getting the slightest reaction from her.

[-316 Mana]

I started to feel my true soul space filling with the Divine Spark...

[Divine Spark Absorption Started! Please absorb it completely to continue to support the operations of the System]

My lips quirked with anticipation as I read the notification. Finally, my improvement could continue after the initial break...

[Level: 30 Experience: 447193 / 465000

Strength: 41 Charisma: 53

Precision: 35 Perception: 37

Agility: 35 Manipulation: 40

Speed: 34 Intelligence: 44

Endurance: 34 Wisdom: 46

HP: 5370 / 5370 Mana: 4192 / 6600 ]

SKILLS

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Tantric [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

Advanced Craft [50/50]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (1/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Cornelia - Level 21/25]

[Helga - Level 17/21]