City of Sin

Praise Of Light

Richard sent a message to Macy, asking Prince Tumen whether there could be an opportunity to browse his personal and the royal libraries for information on the alter world. It would take some time to get a response, so he packed his materials and headed to Faelor in secret, suppressing his worries and immersing himself in the world of runecrafting.

Time passed by slowly, and three pieces of Midren were finally completed. Once that was done, he took a look at the remaining materials and started work on Mana Armament. Different materials spawned different magic souls, so each grade 5 rune was rather unique. Even creating the same rune multiple times, Richard could obtain a better understanding of the related laws every time he crafted one. This new one was made with a more powerful core material, so its structure was much simpler and he needed less time to craft it.

With those four runes prepared, the reward point system would be sustained for quite some time. However, Nasia had asked for one more grade 5 rune, and he still had plans to work on that. He was considering something like Stealthwalker or Kingsteel— both were easy to craft yet extremely practical— but as he started designing things in his head he suddenly stopped.

Freezing in place, he stood and wondered silently about all the battles he had fought thus far. What he used most often wasn’t Disintegrator nor Lifesbane, but the power of his elven truename and his understanding of the laws of life. Those had helped him defeat even Apeiron herself, and rescued him multiple times from the dangers of the Eternal Vortex. His truename greatly strengthened the power of Devout Prayer, something that was already enhanced greatly by his laws of life to the point that he could recover almost completely from any injuries. This was equivalent to the most powerful restoration spells of a legendary priest, only surpassed by Nyra’s ability to resurrect.

When he had cast Devout Prayer on Apeiron to heal her before, he had the vague feeling of touching her soul. Not only could he clearly feel the condition of her soul, but he could even tell which parts were damaged and how to repair them. All of his efforts had failed— there just seemed to be no way to isolate the soul-healing power of his ability— but his hearts suddenly fluttered as he thought of a possibility even he didn’t completely believe: was that the true form of Resurrection?

If his guess was correct, then as he improved his laws of life there would come a time when he could use life energy to heal the soul. At that point, he would effectively have the same ability as Nyra.

Thinking of this, he could barely keep his calm. He suddenly changed materials and started on a different design, drawing a brand new array on some high-quality dragon hide. A green moon appeared above his head as the array was completed, its light flowing through his body and adhering to countless motes of milky white light before gathering at his palm. Impuries were slowly removed until it started sparkling like a diamond, a hint of soul energy appearing in its depths. The laws had awakened a minor magic soul that he immediately guided into the rune.

……

After a final flash of bright light, a milky white hexagonal rune was formed in Richard’s hands. He was shocked to find that the power of his truename, moonforce, and laws of life had combined into light energy instead of life force, giving birth to a rune of pure light. He was rooted to his desk in confusion, repeatedly channeling mana into the rune only to find that it was all converted into pure light energy.

The original plan had been to create a rune with functions similar to Devout Prayer, capable of increasing the effectiveness of divine life magic. However, things had gone completely contrary to expectations. What he had originally planned to call the Praise of Life was now the Praise of Light; something had gone wrong, and he couldn’t tell just what it was.

As he examined the Praise of Light, Richard didn’t know how to feel. It could convert mana and energy into pure light, boosting the power of divine light spells, but that seemed to be it. These functions were useless to him and most others; light wasn’t as good at healing as life force was, and inferior to most elemental magic in attacks. Barriers of light weren’t all that great either, so few people focused on light magic.

He shook his head and sighed. This was a disappointment, but fortunately it wasn’t for him anyway. He could just throw this into the reward point system and see if anyone actually wanted it.

However, the communication circle embedded into his desk lit up and chirped once he stepped away, making it clear that one of his servants wanted to meet him and for something big. A mage walked into the lab once he opened it, passing a letter to him before leaving the room.

The letter was from Saint Martin, labelled as a level 1 emergency. He mentioned that he was still looking for clues about the alter world, but in the meanwhile the Pope had agreed to meet Richard. However, his condition was that their meeting had to occur at the Church of Glory, in front of the Radiant Lord.

This was a straightforward condition, but reading the letter Richard suddenly realised something else. Wasn’t this rune just perfect for someone from the Church of Glory? Stowing the rune into a spatial ring, he informed Nasia before leaving for Norland. In less than an hour, he had reached the Sacred Tree Empire.

……

Saint Martin was already waiting for him on the other side, grunting as he walked out of the portal, “I knew you would come over quickly. You’ll die at a woman’s hands sooner or later if you keep roving around without ambition like this.”

Richard laughed heartily. “Then what’s your great ambition?”

“To find the end of the world!”

Richard paused for a moment. This truly was an enormous goal, and having recently been to the Eternal Vortex he understood just how difficult such a task was. He believed Martin was joking, but as he was about to tease the man he realised that the divine child looked quite serious. This looked honest as well; Martin meant what he’d said.

‘Damn!’ He suddenly felt an indescribable sense of absurdity. Even as someone called a divine runemaster with an epic being’s strength, he felt rather insignificant in this world. There were only a handful of people on this entire plane who could rival him in either combat or war, but things like the Godnest, the broodmother, the Eternal Dragon, the Legion of Nightmares, and the Doomsday Imprint all exceeded his current understanding. Finding the end of the world was basically impossible.

Richard didn’t know what to say to Martin’s unusually stoic expression. Unable to find any sarcasm, he had to respect the man’s faith. He eventually nodded, “Well, I hope you succeed.”

Martin suddenly laughed. “Success isn’t important, it’s having a goal at all. If not, life would be so boring. Imagine having to look at a group of old men everyday! I want to be like you, surrounded by beautiful ladies!”