Chapter 10
Lia was a dual-aspect spellcaster of death and darkness. She had also spent years traveling with a Fourth-tier grandfather, which meant she knew far more about the dark side of the Awakened world than most.
Once she decided to turn informant, the criminals hiding in Megalith City were in for a very bad day.
That afternoon, outside a rebuilt house in Foulwater Alley—the same alley where Wylan had once lived—
...
Elise casually laid down four [Lightshields], then nodded to Roland.
Roland, in leather armor and gripping a knight's warhammer, nodded back. Then he kicked open the door of the supposedly abandoned house.
Mana surged violently inside.
Two vicious-looking middle-aged men and a fairly attractive woman sprang up from the bed, all three naked. None of them bothered grabbing clothes. Their hands went straight for the weapons they'd kept within reach.
"Morden Hark!" Roland shouted.
One of the men's faces twisted into a savage snarl. Instead of attacking, he kicked his male companion toward Roland, then retreated several steps, hunting for a way out.
[Holy Light Arrow skill experience +106.]
Elise cast [Holy Light Arrow] without hesitation.
"Agh—!"
"Damn it!"
"Who sold me out?"
The swordsman named Morden Hark cursed at the top of his lungs after the spell caught him in the groin.
The other two Awakened huddled together, weapons in hand, eyes darting nervously between Elise and her teammates.
"Drop your weapons," Roland ordered, leveling his warhammer at them. "Or you declare yourselves enemies of the Church."
Perhaps they had no serious records. Perhaps they believed the Church hadn't uncovered their crimes. Either way, the man and woman cooperated.
Elise let out a breath.
Another arrest without needing a potion.
Then she felt a little deflated.
Most fights inside the city were simple. Nine times out of ten, the outcome was decided the moment both sides laid eyes on each other.
She really didn't get many chances to cast.
After Roland bound the target, Elise sent Telynia to notify the priest waiting outside.
Father Kilian soon entered with several colleagues. At the sight of the captured target trussed up on the floor, they couldn't help murmuring, "Light God above."
The mission had gone far too smoothly.
Someone had reported the fugitive's alias, new appearance, and approximate location. With the Church's deep information network among the common folk, drawing up an arrest plan had taken almost no time at all.
"Honored Cleric, I barely know this man," the naked woman blurted nervously. "I only knew him as Narlick."
"I'm a believer of the Light God..." the male Awakened tried.
The moment he said it, every member of the clergy present—Elise included—fixed him with a stern look.
A believer of the Light God?
The three of you were doing that in here, and you dare call yourselves believers?
"The Hall of Discipline will verify your identities," Elise said, unwilling to waste words.
What she really wanted to know was whether these people had any connection to Lia's disappearance.
To her disappointment, Morden Hark, a Senior First-tier Swordsman, was just an ordinary criminal.
Back at the Academy, she drank a Spirit Potion, spent some time farming spell skill experience, then took another mission once her condition recovered.
The second target had nothing to do with Lia's disappearance either.
The next day, she completed three more arrests. None of them yielded a word about Lia.
By the third day after receiving the report, Elise had investigated and arrested every target in the letter who could still be found within Megalith City.
She did learn that Lia had appeared at a certain tavern.
Afterward, Lia had left the city with a mysterious cloaked figure.
And that was where things got awkward.
At Elise's current level, leaving the city was out of the question. She had contracted Tymis, and if she ran into a Second-tier cultist beyond the walls, the other party would absolutely make a move.
But staying inside the city left her no way to dig further.
After weighing it over, Elise passed the remaining targets to Sylvia and Anna, while she stayed at the Academy to farm experience.
Meanwhile—
Light Theology has passed 9,500 experience. One more day of effort should push it over.
Elise opened her system panel and studied the skill, anticipation building in her chest.
[Light Theology] looked like a knowledge skill. Most of the time, it drew no attention.
But it granted subtle boosts to every ability tied to the Light God.
Elise strongly suspected the skill's true essence was the study of divinity itself.
And the ultimate goal of studying divinity was to grasp divine power.
Divine power was a transcendent force in its own right.
So what kind of modifier would appear at LV4?
With that thought, Elise decided to rest for a day.
The following night, after dinner, she buried herself in study until the system prompt finally appeared.
[Congratulations. Your Light Theology has risen to LV4.]
She immediately opened the panel to check the new modifier.
[Light Theology: The theology of the Church of Light.]
[LV4 Effect: Increased learning speed, increased skill comprehension, divine power perception.]
"Divine power perception?"
Elise nearly froze.
Just a few words—but the meaning behind them was staggering.
In the Awakened world, most people held that First-tier Clerics weren't much different from mages. But once a Cleric reached the Second tier and became a High Cleric, their spells outstripped those of an ordinary Second-tier mage by a wide margin.
The reason was divine power.
A Second-tier High Cleric could perceive divine power. By praying to their god while casting, they could borrow that power, and their spells would take on a touch of divinity—beginning the transformation from magic into divine art.
Elise hadn't even reached Prime First-tier, yet she could already perceive divine power, something normally reserved for Second-tier High Clerics.
"Holy Light."
She cast [Holy Light] at once, holding the modifier active.
In an instant, before the spell even took shape, she sensed the Light God's presence in the spiritual plane.
And when she cast, she truly borrowed a trace of the Light God's divine power.
[Holy Light skill experience +204.]
The system prompt appeared.
"That experience... can't be real."
Elise almost thought she'd misread it.
Two hundred and four?
She'd merely instant-cast a [Holy Light] with a spell strength just over one hundred.
No.
With divine power woven in, this [Holy Light] could no longer be measured by the old math.
It was no longer a simple spell.
It was a spell touched by divine power.
The beginning of a divine art.
I'm learning Second-tier casting at First tier. No wonder the experience is pouring in.
Elise was satisfied.
Then a thought flashed through her mind.
If I can perceive divine power, does that mean I have a new path to Prime Cleric?
At the thought, her heart pounded so hard it nearly leaped out of her chest. Far away in Whitemere, Lia's heart was doing the exact same thing—only out of sheer terror.
She pointed at the monster standing before her and Gullos, barely able to form words.
"Gu... Gullos. Is that the aura of Hell?"
"My dear Lia, so you did know my name."
Gullos loosed several sharp, ugly laughs. Then he turned toward the monster before them, and his laughter grew even more feverish and unhinged.
"The descent of Hell is destruction. And I am a believer of the God of Destruction!"
"Quack... quack..."
The monster facing them made a sound no human throat could shape.
Lia couldn't help looking up at the sky.
In her eyes, it was as if the coming tragedy were already unfolding.
Lifeforms from the Infernal Plane were nothing new to her.
But an infernal creature bold enough to reveal itself and strike at the Church of Light during the early stage of the Convergence of Planes?
Lia knew exactly what that meant.
The Convergence came once every thousand years.
Would this one merge the planes more deeply than any before it?
If so, it would be a true catastrophe.