Chapter 43. A Special Kind of Magic

The explosion and fire from the spell left Victoria in a shock as she refused to move from her cowered spot.

“Well then… this is unexpected…” Stormwind said and softly touched the girl’s shoulder. “Come on, you’re okay.”

I had seen many inexperienced and young warriors in the past suffer from something like this. Especially so in the days of the Final War, when the clashes between me and Salrak would shake the earth and people wouldn’t know where to go and how to react. At the time, I could only hope that the holy light of the Gods’ power would inspire them to stand up again and fight, but there was hardly anything else I could do back then.

This time, however, I decided to approach both people, since Victoria didn’t seem to be snapping out of it, and thought that the best solution would be to simply calm everything down around her; more so because the other people training were still creating powerful sounds.

“Hm? Miss Sanctus, there’s no need for you to—”

I gestured to Stormwind to be quiet, and created a rock dome around us, making it as dense as I could so the sounds and the light from everything else would dim. I went as far as coating it with extra magic to make sure that there was nothing else besides us. Once that was done, I quickly reproduced a dim blue light that would swirl around the dome along with a current of water, making it so it would seem as if a calm river was washing at our sides as a few motes of mana floated in the air, just like blue fireflies slowly moving around us.

Stormwind quietly watched what I was doing, allowing me to approach the shocked girl. I sat by her side and started slowly and calmly humming a melody that my mother used to sing when I was a child as the soft sounds of the water magic washed around us.

Victoria slowly moved her head up to see around her. Her expression of terror slowly fading as her eyes trailed the movement of the water and softly floating motes around the dome.

After a few minutes, she took a couple of deep breaths and closed her eyes.

“Sorry…” she softly said, “I was just so scared when the magic exploded, that I didn’t know what to do and could only think that I ruined everything.”

“Yes, it is a scary thing,” I replied, matching her tone of voice. “But it’s not dangerous. You’re a strong woman.”

Victoria was quiet for a moment, as she looked down at her own hand, where a mote of mana softly drifted and disappeared into her open palm. “Am I?”

I softly chuckled in response. “Yes, there’s not a single scratch on you—as you can see for yourself.”

“But what if… what if I wasn’t? What if in the future everything goes wrong?” she asked, deeply furrowing her eyebrows.

“Anything can happen in the future,” I said while shaking my head. “But as long as it isn’t happening right now, then none of those things you’re worried about exist.” I paused for a moment to let the girl think about it, her eyebrows lessening slightly. “Right now, you’re okay. Everything’s okay.”

“Everything’s okay…” she repeated.

“Yes, everything’s okay.”

Stormwind remained quietly watching us, listening to us as I repeated a few times more that everything was fine, until after a few minutes, the girl was back to normal.

“Should we go back?” I asked.

“Yes. I think I’m fine now,” Victoria replied with a smile.

“Okay. I’m bringing everything down now.”

After saying that, the rock dome around us started slowly coming down, as if it was chipped away at the top, turning it into sand that whirled around us as the water and the mana motes all danced with the sand as if they were washing away the dome. In a short amount of time, everything was cleared and the hall we had been standing in before appeared just as it had been before.

People were watching what had happened on our side, whispering between each other. The ones that were already training inside a barrier, however, didn’t seem to have noticed what I did, while Steven, Brian, and David were standing right outside the field with concerned faces.

“What happened? Is everything okay?” Steven asked as his eyes focused solely on Victoria.

“Yes, everything’s okay,” Stormwind replied before turning to look at Victoria. “Good job. You may rest now.”

“Yes…” Victoria said and moved outside the field.

“Hey, what you did there was awesome,” Brian said with a smile.

Victoria returned a forced smile and nodded. “Thank you.”

After saying that, she moved over to sit by a wall, quietly watching me with a soft smile. Brian and Steven moved to go over to her, but Stormwind grabbed them by the shoulders.

“You kids aren’t done here yet,” he said with a stern look towards them.

“What? But why would Victoria get to—”

“She’s on a different rank than you. You’ll stay here with me until we’re done,” he said with the same stern voice.

They grumbled as if they didn’t agree with it, but still stayed and remained quiet while stealing glances at Victoria.

David, on the other hand, wasn’t stopped by the instructor, so he went over to sit by Victoria. I worried that perhaps he would tease her and stress her out even more, but judging by his expression, it appeared like he was just going to accompany her.

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“Well then,” Stormwind said while giving me a confident look. “You have quite the talent—and not only with magic.”

“Thank you,” I said with a nod. “Is there something I should do as well?”

“Well… I was going to ask you the same as I did with the other kids… but I can tell that you’ll have no issues with doing that,” he said and swiped his finger on the phone. “However, there’s one skill that I’d like to see you do. It’s called ‘Sacred Cut’.”

“Sacred Cut…?” I asked while slightly tilting my head. “I’m not sure I know what that is.”

“You don’t?” he asked with his eyebrows raised before looking back down to his phone. “But it is within your Skills. Please check your profile.”

I did as he asked and used my Watch to look into my profile. After going down a bit, I found that I indeed had such a skill, but I wasn’t sure about what it really was. Thankfully, this system would show the descriptions.

[Sacred Cut (B)]

‘A powerful weapon slice composed of weak Holy Power. It is one of the basic skills used by the Holy Knights of Leyfall.’

“Ah, I see,” I said with a nod.

This must’ve been from the time I transformed my mana to imitate a meager amount of Holy Power. I never thought that such a basic skill had a name, but judging from all the skills that there are, the people of this world seem to have given a name to anything one does with magic; regardless of how tiny or insignificant it is.

“I need a sword to do it,” I said while looking at a rack of weapons.

“Please, go ahead and pick the one that suits you best,” the elf replied, gesturing with one hand towards the rack.

I went over, and just like last time, I picked the largest sword there was. It was no different than the one that I used on the first test in this academy, so I rested it on my shoulder and calmly made my way to the field.

As expected, the barrier was raised and I readied myself to reproduce Holy Power once more. There was some hesitation to actually do it, since doing it would drain most of my mana, but I trusted that there was no danger to me or the people around me, so I took a stance.

With my right hand holding the sword, I pointed the tip of the weapon forward, keeping the sword parallel to the ground, and close to my face. With my left hand, I began transforming my mana into a copy of Holy Power. It would never be as pure as the Holy Power that the Gods granted me, but with the knowledge and the many years of wielding Their power, I could do something similar.

A dim golden glint slowly covered the edge of the blade as I moved my hand up the sword. With each bit that I covered, more of my mana was being drained, and I could feel the sweat drops rolling down the side of my face.

A few seconds later, the blade was already glowing with a distinct golden glint; so dim, that in my previous life, I would’ve deemed it useless in a battle, since not only would it leave someone with a small mana pool like the one I currently have manaless, but if one didn’t land the swing, it would prove to be fatal. It was better to use one’s mana for other things.

Regardless, in this case, it wasn’t a battle, and there was no apparent danger so I did as I was told, and with a dash, I swung the weapon with a horizontal slash, right at the barrier. The barrier exploded as if someone shattered glass as the blade cut right by it, splitting the pale blue mana in half.

There were a few seconds of silence as the pieces of mana shattered and disappeared in the wind, time in which I laid the tip of the weapon on the ground and used it to support myself, heaving due to the effort it took to reproduce Holy Power.

The silence only lasted for a couple of seconds, as right after, there was a loud ringing resounding within the building, just like someone hitting a bell as fast as they could. All the other barriers suddenly lowered, and both the people training inside, and the ones watching from outside, stood confused about what happened.

I was no different, as I didn’t immediately understand what was going on, but it didn’t take long for me to raise the weapon and prepare for anything.

It was then that I saw Stormwind rushing to one side of the building and desperately press a few rocks engraved on the side of the wall. After a few seconds, the loud ringing stopped and I saw Stormwind sigh in relief as he made his way back to us.

“By the Holy Gods…” he quietly exclaimed, stopping for a moment to look at the other students before he loudly clapped his hands. “Okay! Nothing to worry about! Just a little incident with the shielding! Go back to training!”

I laid the weapon back down to use it as a support once more as I recovered some of my breath. It was then, when things had somewhat settled down, that I noticed something strange with my body. My hands felt like they were burning. I looked at my shaky open palm, but I didn’t see anything weird, it just felt like they were on fire; something that I had felt before many times, but usually it would be from real fire, and not just the feeling.

Never before when using Holy Power had I felt that way, and I likely didn’t feel it last time when I used it simply because I passed out.

“That was much more impressive than what I thought it would be,” Stormwind said from outside the field. “I didn’t expect a B ranked skill to have that much power, especially when your magic power isn’t that high either… but perhaps those skills weren’t properly measured when they were submitted to the System—which wouldn’t be surprising, seeing as how secretive the Knights of Leyfall are.” He paused for a moment as he looked at my haggard state. “Are you alright?”

I nodded with some difficulty. “Yes… I just need to rest for a moment.”

“Do you need someone to—”

“You have been chosen by the Holy Gods! I knew it!” Daniel exclaimed as he hastily approached the field, stopping a few short steps away from it to kneel with his head down. “This is a sign that They’re coming back! Please, you must join us and light the path!”

I scoffed in response, lifting myself up straight. Daniel looked up at me with a bit of surprise, but his expression didn’t turn hostile like the other times as he lowered his head once more.

The words that he shouted I had heard many times before in the past, more so during my time as a Holy Knight trainee. They reinforced in me the belief that I was doing what was best for the world, but I wasn’t about to fall for it again. This time, I was going to do what was right from what I saw, not from what someone else told me.

“I told you before, and I’ll say it again: I’m not interested in the Holy Gods,” I said and started slowly leaving the field.

Daniel quickly lifted his head up to look at me with a mix of surprise and desperation. “H-how can you say that?! You—you’ve been chosen! It is clear in the—” he suddenly stopped ranting as he frowned and nodded his head. “I see. I understand now.”

As I was walking back with some effort, Victoria quickly rushed her way to me, grabbing me by the arm to help me walk. “You don’t seem to be in great shape. Let me help you.”

I didn’t have the strength nor the desire to refuse her, so I supported myself on her and slowly made my way out of the field, passing by the still groveling Daniel.

“We’re just not good enough for Them yet,” he said in a serious tone before lifting himself up to look at me. “We’ll prove it to you. We’ll show you that we’re worth Their love.”

I stopped for a moment to look at him and his serious stance. It was a foolish endeavor to follow the words of the Holy Gods, but I currently didn’t have the energy to try to convince such a zealot of doing otherwise, so I just shook my head and kept on walking.

Once I reached a chair, I dropped myself on it like a sack of potatoes and heavily sighed. I turned my eyes back on the man, who now carried a look of determination.

“He’s going to be a problem…” I whispered.

“Hm? What was that, Althea?” Victoria asked as she also sat by my side.

I shook my head and saw Daniel leave the hall. “Those Followers of Leyfall… believers of the Holy Gods… they’re nothing but fools.”