Chapter 14
In Aurelia, fighting above one's tier was next to impossible.
The reason was simple.
A genius capable of punching above their tier usually advanced to the next stage in short order.
Elise was the perfect example. As a Senior Cleric, she had already wielded the combat power of a Prime Cleric. Twenty-three days later, she advanced to Prime Cleric.
Her strength had dragged her rank up after it.
But even now, as a Prime Cleric, she stood no real chance of defeating a Second-tier Awakened alone.
The quality of their transcendent power was simply on another level.
Still, she was stronger than any ordinary Prime First-tier Awakened.
And besides, the verdict that she couldn't beat a Second-tier Awakened assumed a one-on-one fight.
Awakened of the Church of Light rarely fought alone.
That gave Elise hope.
Mew.
Sensing her mood, Tymis—who had been helping her cast all along—released a matching ripple of spiritual energy.
"Elise, do you truly want Dean Doran's restriction lifted?" Helena asked, leading her back to the sitting area.
Elise poured water for her teacher and let out a faint sigh. "It's not that I'm desperate to leave the city. I just feel like I need to earn the right to break that restriction."
"Because of Sylvia?" Helena knew what Elise had been through that day.
"Yes. I can choose not to leave the city. But if I'd been qualified to leave—to take missions alongside my friends—maybe Sylvia's fate would have been different."
Elise sighed.
She wasn't drowning in guilt.
What she felt was anger at her own helplessness.
But the choice had never been hers to make. And Dean Doran's restriction had been the correct, necessary protection.
That was exactly why she felt so powerless.
I awakened the system, and I still couldn't do anything when it mattered.
Then what's the point?
That frustration, layered over her grief for Sylvia, was what had sent her spiritual energy into violent turmoil—and why she had attempted the breakthrough on the spot and successfully advanced to Prime Cleric.
Now her rank had risen, and her strength had grown enormously.
Did she still need to obey Dean Doran's restriction?
Elise wanted her teacher's answer.
At the stone table, Helena lifted her cup and took a small sip.
Only after gathering her thoughts did she speak.
"Elise, for a very long time to come, most frontier territories will be trying to establish new cities."
"New cities?" Elise didn't follow.
"Yes. Every time the Convergence of Planes begins, the Church inevitably launches a full-scale purge of monsters."
Elise knew that much. "But that should happen during the early stage of the Convergence, shouldn't it?"
"And right now, it is only Light Calendar 7794," Helena said with a sigh. "The signs appearing more than two hundred years early means the deep convergence of the planes will most likely arrive around Light Calendar 8000."
The Convergence of Planes came once every thousand years.
Aurelia had weathered such events even before the Church of Light established the Light Calendar.
Since the Light Calendar spread across the world, the Sentient races of Aurelia had lived through seven Convergences.
By now, every major power knew exactly what had to be done.
A normal Convergence arrived close to the turn of a millennium.
An abnormal one might come decades early—even a full century.
A truly aberrant Convergence, arriving more than two hundred years ahead of schedule, existed only in the archives of the Church's Holy Mountain, the Ancestral Court of the dragons, and the royal capital of the elves.
But whatever the timing, once the Convergence began, every major force had to respond.
The Church of Light's standard doctrine was to unite the Sentient races and powers of Aurelia and purge monsters as thoroughly as possible.
"A normal Convergence lasts about two hundred years," Helena said. "If this one is beginning more than two hundred years early, it may stretch to four or five hundred at its longest."
"Once energy lifeforms from other planes descend, they will inevitably possess powerful living creatures with weak spirituality. Purging monsters is a necessity."
"That is why the Church has begun cleansing the empire's interior, driving cultists and dangerous Awakened toward the frontier."
"Once that step is complete, the Church will expand into monster territory and establish new cities."
"Destroying as many monsters as possible is preparation for war."
Helena laid it out plainly.
Elise understood.
Before the war began, the empire would drive its unstable elements to the border. Then it would recruit forces there and launch its offensive against the enemy that truly mattered.
For every race of Aurelia, the greatest future threat was the energy lifeforms of the spiritual planes.
Many of those beings would choose monsters as their vessels.
So every race would do all it could to purge them, ushering in a grand age of frontier expansion.
But during the years when the unstable elements were being forced outward, the frontier would be the most dangerous place in the world.
Cultists and criminals were massing there. At the same time, the Church needed vast numbers of people from the central regions to push outward and hold the line.
Which meant that in the near term, the Church would struggle to send large Awakened teams to reinforce the frontier.
No wonder Dean Doran didn't want Elise leaving the city at a time like this.
"Give me a few years," Elise said once she'd absorbed it all. "Even if the Convergence lasts four hundred years, I'll have the strength to protect myself."
Then she sighed.
"But right now, I've contracted Tymis. Until I reach Second tier, leaving the city really is a bad idea."
She had once assumed the Convergence of Planes wouldn't truly arrive until around Light Calendar 8000.
Even if it broke historical precedent, it shouldn't have begun before 7800. That would have left her several quiet years.
She hadn't expected those few years to be exactly the ones she'd be denied.
Still, danger and opportunity tended to arrive together.
If she survived this dangerous stretch, then once the Church dispatched frontier teams to the region, the long war between the sentient races and the monsters would begin.
And her system happened to need real combat to farm experience and level up.
When that day came, she could purge monsters while she studied, and her strength would climb at an astonishing pace.
Unfortunately, peace never lasted just because someone wished it would.
Two days later, at noon, Elise sat cross-legged in Helena's meditation room.
[Meditation skill experience +31.]
The moment her spiritual energy recovered, she cast [Holy Light Arrow].
[Holy Light Arrow skill experience +269.]
[Congratulations. [Holy Light Arrow] has risen to LV4.]
The system prompt appeared.
Elise immediately opened her status panel.
---
[Status]
[Name: Elise]
[Spirit: 80.3]
[Mana: 191.7]
[Constitution: 11.2]
Skills:
[Meditation] (LV3: 1,168/10,000)
[Holy Light Arrow] (LV4: 52/100,000)
---
Each [Meditation] session gives about 30 experience now.
And [Holy Light Arrow] has finally hit LV4.
A smile spread across Elise's face.
For the past two or three days, she had poured everything into farming [Holy Light Arrow] experience. At last, the skill had reached LV4.
Now she had [Holy Light Arrow] for offense and [Lightshield] for defense.
Her half-step High Cleric strength finally had a proper foundation.
She was just about to head out and test the spell's power when she spotted someone waiting outside.
"Elise," Celeste said, "Bishop Almus has summoned the teachers to a meeting. Prime First-tier Awakened are to report as well and await mission assignments."
When Celeste said "Prime First-tier," her eyes still held shock, envy, and admiration.
"Thank you for telling me, Celeste."
Elise's heart tightened. She said her goodbyes and hurried to the Church.
When she arrived, only a handful of faces were familiar. Most of those gathered were Prime First-tier Awakened she didn't know.
Something big has happened.
Elise could smell smoke on the wind.
Before she could process it, two people emerged from the rear of the Church.
One of them was Helena.
"Elise, come stand with me," Helena said, her expression grave.
Elise walked over.
Only then did Helena lower her voice. "We're going to Whitemere—to purge a devil from Hell."
Devil from Hell?
And while Elise stood there in shock, two figures appeared outside her hometown of Ignis.
Gullos.
And Lia.