Chapter 21
Elise raised a hand.
A [Holy Light Bolt] streaked toward the gate and burst against it, leaving a trace of spiritual energy on the alchemical mechanism.
The gate swung open with a soft rush.
Tch.
Tymis, floating above Elise's head, was not pleased. To Tymis, spiritual energy was food, and its contractor had just wasted a perfectly good meal.
Elise laughed, tossed Tymis a small cluster of spiritual energy, and looked toward the gate.
Standing before Wylan was a female Awakened a little over five foot seven.
She wore the white robes of a High Cleric, her hair pulled into a high ponytail. A gemstone hung from the circlet at her brow, lending her a distinctive look.
More striking still, her extraordinary equipment openly radiated mana fluctuations.
Aside from the circlet, the bracelet at her wrist was the piece most likely to draw an Awakened's eye.
"High Cleric Vera," Elise said, rising to greet her politely.
"High Cleric Vera," echoed Lina, Anna, and Lia as they stood.
This was Vera Holim.
She came from Holim City, capital of Oakhaven Province. Her family had once produced a legendary powerhouse who also bore the name Holim.
Her name, her city, and her family legacy all carried the same word.
That alone spoke to how extraordinary her status was.
Recently, the Church had decided to establish a new city in the Pyreflame Woods after the Day of Light and launch a full purge of the monsters there.
The Fourth-tier Archbishop sent to Megalith City to prepare that effort—and to keep the influx of foreign Awakened in line—was Vera's teacher.
After arriving in Megalith City, Vera had immediately taken an interest in one of the diocese's spoils.
The [Pure Mana Crystal].
Vera was a Standard High Cleric, and she needed that crystal to craft a transcendent item.
Unfortunately, the Megalith diocese had clamped down on it. They wouldn't surrender it even to the archdiocese. Everyone was waiting for Elise to advance to High Cleric and claim it herself.
Left with no better option, Vera had come to negotiate with Elise in private.
She returned the greeting courteously.
"Cleric Elise. Everyone. May the Light God watch over you."
"Please sit, High Cleric Vera," Elise said.
Wylan, quick on the uptake as always, hurried over with potion drinks and a fresh plate of fruit and pastries.
For a moment, silence settled over the courtyard.
Everyone present knew about the conflict of interest between Elise and Vera.
And they stood squarely on Elise's side.
Which gave Vera a headache.
She couldn't call the Megalith diocese wrong. Reserving the [Pure Mana Crystal] for Elise would better protect this peerless genius of the Church.
But giving it to Vera wasn't wrong either.
After all, she was about to join the grand effort to establish a new city.
The thought firmed her resolve all over again.
She was certain she wasn't in the wrong.
Which meant that even facing a Church prodigy, she could fight for what she needed.
"Cleric Elise," Vera said directly, "I hope you will relinquish your right to exchange for the [Pure Mana Crystal]. In return, I am willing to provide you with another [Pure Mana Crystal] within one year."
"I'm sorry," Elise said seriously. "This is the goodwill of the brothers and sisters of my diocese. I won't let them down."
The Megalith diocese had drawn its exchange conditions so precisely that they had all but carved Elise's name into the crystal.
If she gave up her claim now, she would be squandering the diocese's goodwill.
What—was the Megalith diocese unworthy of keeping this [Pure Mana Crystal]?
Did Elise lack even the confidence to become a High Cleric?
However much pressure she felt, Elise would not betray everyone's expectations.
Besides, advancing to High Cleric wouldn't be especially difficult for her.
At worst, she only had to wait until her Spirit reached 100.
Around the stone table, Lina and Anna blinked their approval.
Even Lia, cheeks stuffed with pastries, nodded happily in support.
"Cleric Elise, I am part of the team founding the new city," Vera said. She had come prepared to argue her case. "In the short term, I need this extraordinary material more than you do."
This Convergence of Planes had come far too early.
The leaders of Aurelia's sentient races had already convened, and everyone tacitly accepted that this Convergence might run a full four hundred years.
That was why, here at the close of Light Calendar 7794, the major powers had already begun preparing a joint purge of the monsters.
Even now, Megalith City hosted not only a Fourth-tier Archbishop from Holim City but Awakened of the elves and dwarves, all waiting to enter the Pyreflame Woods and raise the new city.
Someone like Vera would see heavy combat in the days ahead.
Naturally, the [Pure Mana Crystal] mattered enormously to her.
As for Elise?
The path the powerhouses of the Megalith diocese had charted for her was clear.
First, become a High Cleric.
Then study at the Academy of Light in the kingdom's capital.
After that, the imperial Academy of Light.
By graduation, she might well be a Fourth-tier powerhouse.
Even by the most conservative estimate, with Elise's talent, five years at the imperial Academy of Light should carry her to Senior Third-tier or Prime Third-tier without difficulty.
Give the crystal to Elise, and if she ran into cultist attacks or evil Awakened down the road, she'd have that much more power to protect herself.
At first glance, giving it to Vera looked like the sensible choice.
But look closer, and one fact outweighed everything else.
Elise was eighteen.
Vera was twenty-three.
Give Elise five years—would she still be a mere High Cleric?
Not a chance.
Which meant Vera's importance fell far below Elise's. For the future of the Church, Vera ought to stop coveting the material.
That was the truth.
But Elise couldn't be the one to say it.
After Vera laid out her reasoning, Lina stepped in.
"High Cleric Vera, Elise personally took part in the purification of the clawbill devil and made a major contribution."
"Elise has been a Cleric for less than three months," Anna added. "She'll be a High Cleric before she turns nineteen."
Vera had memorized Elise's file before coming, but hearing it spoken aloud still astonished her all over again.
Eighteen years old.
Three months in the Church.
A commoner who had vaulted straight to Prime Cleric.
If she didn't trust that the Megalith diocese would never falsify something like this, Vera would have wanted to report them for fraud.
But it was precisely because Elise was so gifted that Vera believed there was room to negotiate.
"Elise, please consider my proposal carefully," Vera said. "The Light God is watching us."
Lina's and Anna's expressions shifted at once.
They looked to Elise in a hurry, words on their tongues, holding them back.
Elise knew exactly what her friends were thinking.
The logic was simple.
Elise cultivated light-attribute magic. The faster her progress, the more "light" she must carry within her. Which meant she might now be caught between a short-term benefit and a long-term benefit.
The short-term good was Vera.
Vera urgently needed the [Pure Mana Crystal] to craft a transcendent item and raise her strength.
The long-term good was Elise herself.
Elise was a genius. A transcendent item forged from the crystal would blunt future dangers and let her give the Church far more in years to come.
Either choice had its argument.
It all came down to whether Elise would be too kind.
But no one present had considered a third possibility.
Elise wanted to take part in the new city's construction too.
Everyone assumed she would walk the Academy path.
They believed that if she studied and trained in safety, she would grow into a powerhouse as a matter of course.
But her recent training had taught Elise something: raising spell skill levels demanded a great deal of real combat.
If she stayed in the safety of the Academy of Light, she might still reach the Third or Fourth tier.
And then what?
If her spell skill levels lagged behind by then, wouldn't she have to march into battle anyway—as a Third- or Fourth-tier?
So why not start fighting now, while she was still in the lower tiers?
As for the danger...
Everything she'd been through recently proved one thing.
There was no perfectly safe place in Aurelia.
Besides, she had the system.
And she was a peerless genius of the Church of Light, the strongest power in Aurelia.
Even if she joined the new city's construction, no one would hand her the deadliest missions.
Elise had planned to announce her decision after becoming a High Cleric.
But since High Cleric Vera had come to her door...
Elise took a sip of her potion drink, then lifted her head.
Her eyes shone as she met Vera's gaze.
"I will take part in the construction of the new city," Elise said. "And I will temper myself through battle."