Chapter 3
“ALL RIGHT, if a divine item wasn’t the cause, what could it have been?”
Once again, the conversation returned to why the stigmata had awakened.
Mira came up with a wild speculation that maybe the girl was actually someone important who’d been allowed near the Three Great Kingdoms’ divine items, but that was rejected on the grounds that a cultist would never be allowed near a national treasure.
She also theorized that the presence of an angel like Tyriel might’ve been the cause, but that was rejected as well. Any angel would have noticed signs of the stigmata and gotten far away long before it awakened.
Her wild hypotheses gradually quieted down. After some thought, Mira changed her perspective on the issue, realizing that it might all have begun when the girl went to Soul Howl’s location.
“In that case, perhaps the cause was specific to that locale?”
Soul Howl was in an ancient temple, Nebrapolis, so it wouldn’t be surprising if there was a religious item there. The white castle in Nebrapolis’s depths, the large chamber they’d found, the demon doing who-knew-what within—the site was already full of mysteries.
Mira explained this to the Spirit King and Martel and asked for their thoughts. Incredibly, for the second time, they replied that they had no idea what she was talking about.
“‘Ancient Temple Nebrapolis’…? I’m afraid I have no recollection of that.”
“Sorry, Mira, but I don’t know either. I know a few temples in the lands of the Trinity, though…”
“Goodness…”
These two were like walking encyclopedias, but they seemed not to know much about man-made objects. The Spirit King’s defense was that, since humanity tended to build all kinds of things in all kinds of places, knowing everything they made would be a Herculean task.
In that case, I’ll have to ask someone more knowledgeable, Mira decided. With that, she marched to the shower room. Who would know more about this than Soul Howl, who’d lived in Nebrapolis so long? Perhaps he’d have an idea of what contained divine power.
She called to him, “Soul Howl, I’ve got a question for you. Do you mind?”
There was no answer; Mira only heard the rain-like pitter-patter of shower water. She yelled louder and knocked on the door. That apparently got through to him, since the shower finally stopped.
“What? You have something to ask?” Soul Howl stepped out and faced Mira, unashamed of his naked body. He was toned and muscular, with scars all over his body—truly, the form of a fighter, though his robes typically hid that. Since Soul Howl was tall, he also had to look down at Mira.
A normal woman might blush at this, but of course, Mira was no normal woman.
“Something’s been on my mind. That ancient temple you lived in—was there anything…divine in there?” Mira asked calmly as she looked up at Soul Howl.
She wasn’t interested in male nudity—far from it. She didn’t even notice it. Although the young man and young woman were together under the mansion’s roof, one was actually an elderly pervert, and the other was a necrophiliac. Since they knew each other’s true identities, there was little room to mistake each other’s feelings.
“Divine? That’s kind of vague,” Soul Howl complained, but cast his mind back. “Let’s see…” After a while, he finally answered, “No, there wasn’t anything like that. If pressed, I guess I could say that pure-white castle looked kind of divine. Why are you asking, anyway?”
“Oh, it’s nothing major. I’m just researching and organizing information. I’ll tell you more once I have my thoughts straight. Apologies for the interruption.” Mira went back and lay on her sleeping bag again. There, she reflected on the information she’d gained so far.
That white castle had stood tall and proud, as if it belonged there. If push came to shove, she’d agree that it had looked divine. As she remembered her visit to the seamless pure-white castle, part of her began to wonder whether it was made of the same divine mineral she’d encountered the other day.
“Hey, what if the entire castle consisted of divine mineral?”
That substance was produced by the interference of gods, so a castle made out of it could be as potent as a divine item. Perhaps if that castle was made of that stuff, it had been enough to awaken the divine power inside the girl. So Mira thought, at least.
However, the Spirit King’s answer was less satisfying than she’d hoped. “In terms of internal power, that could be enough to give rise to stigmata, yes. But divine mineral is mostly used for sealing, so its power tends to focus inward rather than radiating outward. Even a structure as large as the castle probably wouldn’t affect divine power within the soul.”
“Uuugh…” Her idea rejected flatly, Mira groaned and fell face down on her sleeping bag.
Just then, Martel’s voice echoed in her head. “Personally, I’m curious about the place where that demon was working.” According to Martel, that cylindrical hole in the underground chamber was awfully suspicious. Perhaps the demon had stolen, or destroyed, something divine within.
“I see.” The Spirit King agreed that, if a demon was involved, something was likely there. “If there are no surface clues, it must be something deeper.”
After much thought, their consensus was that the cause of the girl’s stigmata had likely come from that underground chamber. Unfortunately, they had no more details on that location at this point.
Deciding that they probably wouldn’t make more progress on that front, Mira remembered the original reason she’d been questioning the Spirit King and Martel, and brought the conversation back to that. “So…is it possible for a Holy Grail to stop the stigmata?” Their discussion on demons, stigmata, and what caused it had all sprouted from that one question.
“Ah, right.”
“Goodness, we’ve gone pretty far off topic!”
Their responses were cheerful; apparently, they’d been enjoying this exchange of ideas.
At that point, the Spirit King calmly stated that it was likely possible. “As we discussed before, the stigmata are awakened divine power. Once it awakens, you cannot lay it to rest again. All you can do is wait for your body to reach its limit, or for a demon to hunt you down.”
After reiterating that, he explained the potential of the Holy Grail of Heavenly Light. Power that had simply manifested would just run wild, but what if one could suppress that wild power? The Holy Grail of Heavenly Light was the tool to do so. Soul Howl’s conclusion was essentially correct, it seemed, yet wrong in one regard: the Holy Grail wouldn’t heal, but correct, the stigmata.
The Holy Grail was the ultimate healing item, acquirable only through an incredibly arduous process. Upon completing that process, one wielded power close to a god’s. However, that power wasn’t exactly versatile; it was focused on healing. Fortunately, that fit the bill in this case.
The stigmata tore through the skin, and because divine power inflicted the wounds, no traditional treatment healed them—not even the most powerful elixirs or holy magic. But the one healing item that shared a common power source with the wounds, the Holy Grail, could close them.
When the physical wounds healed, the divine power would lose its form. Of course, it would never lie dormant again, so it would try to rematerialize. But by pouring the grail’s power into it, one could intentionally redirect it into healing, like the Holy Grail itself.
“If divine power acclimates to the body’s soul and mana, it may give the bearer any number of blessings and abilities. The downside of using the Holy Grail is that it collapses all those possibilities into miraculous healing.”
Divine power was too much for humans to bear, as a rule, but humans were extremely flexible beings. If they learned to control the power, they could master various fields. Using a Holy Grail to adjust divine power restricted the bearer to the art of healing, removing other possible abilities.
“That’s a minor flaw, though,” Mira said. “Only the most foolish wannabe hero would throw their life away over such a slim chance.”
There was just a chance of gaining abilities through divine power; it wasn’t a given. Most people died under the power’s weight, since it wasn’t something willpower alone controlled, so taking measures to stabilize it was clearly the wiser option.
Sometimes people bit off more than they could chew. They resisted wisdom and recklessly pushed on. That was all well and good if they succeeded, but tragic when they failed. Only success stories got passed down, though, which inspired those who held foolish ambitions.
The Spirit King had heard of such events playing out countless times, and he sighed, “Harsh, Miss Mira, but you’re correct.”
***
Knowing that the Demon’s Blessing was actually the stigmata didn’t change the fact that it could kill the bearer. Still, discovering that there was a cure for it was a blessing indeed.
At any rate, we know now that making a Holy Grail isn’t a waste of time. In fact, it’s certain to help. That’s a relief to hear. Mira was elated that Soul Howl’s efforts hadn’t been in vain, but she happened to remember something. Come to think of it, did he know about that chamber?
Had Soul Howl even been aware of the mysterious space hidden beneath the white castle? Its proper entrance was underground, and it was well hidden, but he’d lived there long enough and surely had many opportunities to notice it. If he’d reached that chamber, maybe he knew what was inside: something that had caused the stigmata’s appearance, potentially.
The cause might be less important now that they knew a solution, but Mira couldn’t help her curiosity. Deciding to question Soul Howl again, she stood and moved to knock on the shower room door.
“Something’s weird!” Soul Howl screamed as he jumped out of the shower room.
“Nwah?!” Mira managed to whip around, but he’d charged out so suddenly, it took all her reflexes just to dodge. Her momentum caused her to trip over her own legs and fall right on the floor. She caught herself, but her skirt flipped up completely. Rather than fixing it, she whined, “What the heck’s wrong with you?!”
“Oh, my bad. Anyway, this is an emergency!” Unbothered by Mira’s complaints, Soul Howl started getting dressed, glancing at her in a panic. He stared at her bare panties for a moment and chuckled to himself, but tension quickly returned to his face. “It seems like you’ve got your own emergency, Elder. Still, mine is more important.”
“What? Out with it.” Judging that this was a genuine emergency, Mira stopped complaining. She jumped to her feet and stretched.
Soul Howl took a mana potion out of his Item Box, gulped it down in no time, and explained, “All my golems were just blown away at once.”
“What…?”
Soul Howl had left fifty golems to attack the Machina Guardian at regular intervals. They were the lowest-level necromancer golems, so it wasn’t unusual for them to be destroyed; after all, this floor was for A-rank adventurers. Even so, a Wise Man himself had made the golems. If more than forty of the remainder had been destroyed instantly, that really was an emergency. It was no small feat to destroy that many in the blink of an eye, yet it had happened. How come?
One possible cause appeared in Mira’s and Soul Howl’s minds: the Mechanized Wanderer.
“Did the Wanderer pass by, you think?” Mira asked.
“Maybe. Still…”
“The fact that they died instantly still seems odd, doesn’t it?”
The Mechanized Wanderer was a monster that wandered the entire seventh level, mercilessly obliterating all but the monsters inhabiting the level. Besides the Machina Guardian, it was the strongest enemy in the Ancient Underground City. It was the enemy that players least wanted to run into in that dungeon—truly an infamous machine.
The Mechanized Wanderer was a foe that would demand even Mira and Soul Howl attack carefully, but it wouldn’t overcome them as long as they were smart. Still, that explanation left them uncertain. Even the Mechanized Wanderer wasn’t known to have attacks that could obliterate over forty golems at once.
“At this rate, we won’t be able to keep the Machina Guardian from recovering. Either way, we’ll have to check.”
“Right. I just hope we solve this problem before it starts healing.”
No matter how odd this was, they needed to head to the scene—cautiously—before the Machina Guardian recovered from the damage Soul Howl went to such trouble to deal.
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