Chapter 22

Chapter 22: Coincidence and Inevitability (1)

“...Of course. A promise is a promise.”

Yulia shook her head, clearing away her stray thoughts.

She had no intention of going back on the favor she had agreed to.

He had said something at the restaurant that could have gotten him branded a heretic, but Damon had only awakened to Holy Power not long ago in the first place.

So he had probably blurted it out without thinking. It was not impossible to understand.

No matter how one looked at it, the Holy Power Damon refined was of an extremely high level.

As a member of the Holy Order, there was no loss in confirming just how much talent he had for Holy Power.

“The reason the ‘Holy Light Forging’ you cast yesterday ran wild is simple. You had too much Holy Power inside your body.”

“So you are saying it is not a commonly occurring side effect?”

“Yes. Normally, the refined Holy Power disappears at the same time Holy Magic is used. Even if some remains inside the body, it is only a small amount, so there is no risk of Holy Power rampaging.”

“That makes it sound like it is a bad thing if too much Holy Power gets refined inside the body.”

“Holy Power, unlike mana, has a tendency to bind together. If you refine too much of it, the moment you use Holy Magic, all of that Holy Power can rush into one place.”

“Oh...... I did not know that.”

Damon nodded.

Only now could he guess why his Holy Light Forging had rampaged.

Because the Sacred Mark had supplied his body with an excessive amount of Holy Power, the moment he enlarged the Holy Light Spear, all of that Holy Power had been drawn into it.

That was why he had lost control of it.

“So what you mean is... this happened because the speed at which my mana is refined into Holy Power is faster than other people’s?”

“That is right. In the Holy Order, people train constantly in order to increase the refinement speed of Holy Power. But in your case, your refinement speed is already remarkably fast from the very beginning. Cases like yours are extremely rare, you know?”

As she continued, Yulia’s voice grew more and more animated, but Damon remained indifferent.

“Hm, I see.”

“You could be a little happier about it...... This is really incredible.”

Yulia pouted in mild resentment, but Damon merely shrugged in response.

“I only awakened Holy Power not long ago, so it does not really feel real to me yet.”

“Haa...... I do not know why I even bother.”

Since the problem was not actually the refinement speed but the Sacred Mark, all Damon could do was think, I see.

He was not refining mana into Holy Power, but for now it was better to let her think that.

There was no way he could tell her that he bore a Sacred Mark.

“There is a separate solution, right?”

“You condense the Holy Power not in the heart, but in another part of the body, and store it there separately.”

“......?”

Seeing Damon tilt his head in confusion, Yulia gave a bitter smile.

“Um... I will show you directly. I think that will make it easier to understand.”

When Yulia held out the back of her left hand toward Damon, light rose from her pale skin.

...What?

Damon’s eyes widened, and he shoved his face closer to the back of her hand as though he were about to press his face into it.

“Eek?”

Startled by the sudden movement, Yulia gave a small shiver, but he could not help being shocked.

That was because a sword-shaped emblem formed from white light was softly glowing on the back of her left hand.

That was......

...A Sacred Mark?

No, that could not be.

Had he not clearly seen at the reception desk that her Sacred Mark had been carved into the back of her right hand?

Besides, if a Sacred Mark was cross-shaped, this one was in the form of a sword.

Even if the forms were similar, the engraved patterns were different.

Ah, could it be...?

“Did you store Holy Power here separately by any chance?”

“Ahem... yes, that is right. You understood immediately.”

After clearing her throat, Yulia continued her explanation.

“The name of this Holy Magic is ‘Holy Symbol.’ In terms of casting difficulty, it is considered an intermediate-level Holy Magic.”

The heart refined and stored the Holy Power of one who had awakened Holy Power.

For an ordinary wielder of Holy Power, there was no problem with the heart carrying out both refinement and storage at the same time.

But in his case, his innate Holy Power refinement speed was far too fast, so the heart could not perform both refinement and storage simultaneously.

That was why he needed to create a separate part of the body capable of storing Holy Power.

“...If you activate ‘Holy Symbol’ before casting Holy Magic, then no matter how much Holy Power is refined in the heart, it will not rampage. After all, the Holy Power will still be gathered in one part of the body.”

After hearing her full explanation, Damon let out a breath and rubbed his chest.

Damn, I got startled for nothing.

It had resembled a Sacred Mark, but it was not one.

‘She said it was called Holy Symbol, right?’

In my previous life, I did not even know that a Holy Magic like that existed.

“Um... would you mind moving back a little now? No matter how fascinating it is......”

“Hm? Ah, pardon me.”

Now that his question had been resolved, Damon immediately stood up and put some distance between them, and Yulia, now embarrassed, cleared her throat.

“Watch carefully.”

Yulia set the Holy Light Spear she was holding on the floor and infused it with Holy Power.

RUMBLE!

In an instant, the size of the Holy Light Spear grew to twenty meters.

She had intentionally recreated a situation similar to the one from when Damon’s Holy Power had rampaged.

But the Holy Light Spear did not grow any larger and maintained its current size.

Soon after, she flicked her hand once and dispelled the Holy Light Spear.

“As you can see, if you learn how to create a ‘symbol’ like I have, your Holy Power will not rampage like last time.”

Damon frowned slightly.

It was not because he failed to understand what she was saying. 

Rather, it was because he did understand it that it seemed complicated.

Holy Power was originally refined in the heart.

But the place he drew Holy Power from was the Sacred Mark engraved on the back of his right hand.

The mechanism itself was fundamentally different from that of ordinary wielders of Holy Power, so even if he learned Holy Symbol, it would probably not have any meaningful effect.

“Try raising your Holy Power while concentrating your awareness on a specific part of your body. After that, I will slowly explain the process of creating a ‘symbol.’”

“...Does that thing called a ‘symbol’ come out with the same pattern for everyone?”

“The pattern of a ‘symbol’ manifests differently for each user of Holy Power. In the first place, unless someone’s refinement speed is abnormally fast from the start, like yours... there is almost never a situation where they would need to use the Holy Symbol.”

“All right. I will give it a try.”

Damon opened his right hand, still covered by a leather glove.

Fwooo......

Holy Power responded to his earnest wish and rose in the form of a heat haze.

Originally, the heart was the center that created and stored mana, and the source for casting magic.

If the ‘symbol’ had to take over the role of storing Holy Power, that meant the ‘symbol’ had to take over the role of the heart.

But.

‘I do not refine Holy Power in my heart in the first place, and I do not store it there either, do I?’

Yulia had said that the heart originally refined and stored the Holy Power of one who had awakened Holy Power.

But he drew out and used Holy Power from the Sacred Mark engraved on the back of his right hand.

He did not go through a process of refinement or storage.

In that case... what if he simply sent the Holy Power created from the Sacred Mark straight into his heart and stored it there?

‘...That might be worth trying.’

Damon slowly closed his eyes and moved the Holy Power generated from the Sacred Mark.

Saaaa......

The Holy Power produced from the Sacred Mark moved toward his heart.

Preserving the very sensation with which he had once stored mana in his heart, he gathered the Holy Power sent from the Sacred Mark into his heart.

And then......

Damon slowly opened his eyes.

A warm energy wrapped around his heart.

Holy Power had settled inside it.

“...Like this? This is kind of fascinating.”

“You gathered the Holy Power together. Then now you simply need to keep that state......”

“No, there is no need to explain any further.”

Damon curled his lips into a grin.

“I already made the symbol.”

“...What?”

Blinking, Yulia soon furrowed her brow.

There was no way that could be true.

“Do not say ridiculous things......”

Holy Light Forging.

Holy Light Spear, Single Forging.

“Are you even listening to me?”

Whether Yulia was horrified or not, Damon dropped the Holy Light Spear to the floor without the slightest hesitation.

Because there were times when showing something directly with one’s own eyes was more certain than a hundred words.

Holy Light Spear, Giantification.

RUMBLE!

“No, honestly, Brother......!”

Exasperated by Damon’s lunacy, Yulia pulled one arm back in order to knock him unconscious.

Gathering Holy Power into one part of the body? 

Of course that part was easy.

But creating a ‘symbol’ in that state without even hearing a detailed explanation?

That was close to impossible.

Unless one possessed talent in handling Holy Power that bordered on instinct.

For an ordinary wielder of Holy Power, simply hearing the explanation and creating a symbol would take at least a month.

...Which was why— She froze.

In that brief moment, the Holy Light Spear Damon had created grew to twenty meters in size.

But only that far.

Wooooong.

The Holy Light Spear, which had been growing with terrifying force, stopped getting any larger.

Saaaa......

The Holy Power flowing out from his hand was neither excessive nor unstable. 

It remained steady.

The Holy Power was not rampaging.

...How?

Yulia’s vacant eyes shifted from the Holy Light Spear to Damon.

And Damon snickered as he waved his right hand, from which Holy Power was flowing.

“Would it kill you to trust what people say?”

“......”

Holy Symbol was an intermediate-level Holy Magic.

Creating a ‘symbol’ from nothing but a simple theory, without any explanation at all, was close to impossible.

...Right.

Unless one possessed, like Yulia herself, talent with Holy Power that bordered on instinct.

She stared at Damon’s right hand, which was still radiating Holy Power.

‘...I was not mistaken.’

Yulia Yupiter.

Even at a young age, she had been talented enough in Holy Power itself to receive a Sacred Mark from the Holy Order.

Because she was innately sensitive to Holy Power, she could see through it at once even though Damon wore leather gloves.

Wooooong!

Whenever Damon raised Holy Power, Holy Power condensed on the back of his right hand at an extraordinary rate.

In truth, she had vaguely noticed it from the moment he fought monsters in the Artificial Rift.

At the time, however, the situation had been what it was, so she had not been able to confirm it properly.

If that was the case......

‘Had he been instinctively trying to create a ‘symbol’ from the very moment he first awakened Holy Power?’

If so, that would also explain how he had created a symbol immediately after hearing only her explanation.

There was a tremendous difference between instinctively producing something and creating it after understanding the principle.

‘...How remarkable.’

Yulia became certain.

Damon David—this man had been born gifted.

Gifted enough to join the Holy Order right this very moment.

***

I looked down at the Holy Light Spear, which was maintaining its form, and let out a satisfied breath.

“That was easier than I expected.”

“Easier?”

“Yeah.”

Well, I did use a trick, though.

There had been no need to create a separate area to store Holy Power in the first place.

Holy Power had never been refined in my heart from the start, and it had never been stored there either.

All I had needed to do was store Holy Power in my heart the same way I handled mana.

It was a shortcut I had only been able to think of because I bore a Sacred Mark that generated Holy Power.

If there was one troublesome point......

“Where did you create the symbol?”

...it was probably the fact that answering that question would be extremely awkward.

Because I had not created any ‘symbol’ at all, not having used the proper method.

I gave an improvised excuse.

“I made it somewhere on my back.”

I thought she might let it pass if I said I had created the symbol somewhere vague, but at that moment I had overlooked one thing.

Ten years ago, Yulia knew more about Holy Power than I had expected.

And when it came to anything related to Holy Power, she could easily tell when I was lying.

“Hm?”

Yulia tilted her head, then pointed at the back of my hand.

“I can plainly see that you made the ‘symbol’ on your right hand, so why are you lying?”

“...What?”

All sorts of uncomfortable emotions swirled through my head in an instant, but the conclusion was simple.

Was I completely screwed?