I didn’t push the headmistress about the subject immediately, letting her handle the intense emotional rush it triggered for a long while before she started to answer.
“Gods are … different,” she murmured. “I don’t know much about them much other than they are intensely linked to the Divine Spark. Some believe that they came from Divine Spark and conjure an existence later on,” she said.
“Like their avatars, only on a larger scale,” I suggested.
“Yes,” she said, not even looking annoyed at the interruption. It was clearly a difficult subject for her to think about.
“Considering just how much Divine Spark you have already merged in your body, I’m going to take a wild guess and say you’re not a believer of that theory.”
“No, I’m not,” she said. “At least not for the current generation of gods,” she said, but I could feel her tensing even as she did so, giving all the signals that it was not something she wanted to talk about, but slipped out.
I believed it to be an accident. First, I saw her trying to deliberately mislead me, and it was certainly not a topic she was particularly competent at. And, as much as someone spilling a critical nugget of information like that sounded unbelievable, she lived in isolation for almost two centuries, with limited contact with anyone, always struggling to hide her true nature.
It was not particularly surprising that she accidentally blurted critical information while talking to someone that she thought she could trust.
And in a way, she wasn’t wrong about trusting me. Not the way she thought, just following every little order of hers obediently, but actively solving her problems.
Of course, those might arrive in the form of some intimate activities she hadn’t been expecting, but he doubted that she would complain about that once they started.
The others were very enthusiastic participants.
“So, you wanted to replicate their achievement by absorbing the Light Spark,” I said, not focusing on that aspect. I might extract more about what different generations of gods meant if I pushed, but that would come in the form of putting her into a defensive pose.
Instead, I treated that as an inconsequential phrase, and focused on topics she was clearly more willing to talk about.
She just nodded, her expression proud yet desolate at the same time, showing that, while she was not proud of the situation she found herself in, struggling to survive, that didn’t change the pride she felt at her decision.
Admittedly, she had a lot to be proud of. I had no idea of the circumstances that led her to find that much Divine Spark while she was under the control of the system, but I was willing to bet that it was a singular event, forcing her to take such a monumental risk.
Yet, not only she did do so, but also she managed to develop a genius way to balance it with Darkness Spark that not only kept her Light Spark under control but also allowed her to hide from the System.
I admired her, though that only tempted me more to finally grab her wings and pull them back while I took her from behind, testing her angelic cries to the limit.
I used the opportunity to focus on the more practical aspects of the plight, and leave the topic of other gods to another day. None of her answers taught me anything I didn’t know from my own sneaky tests, but it was good to have an excuse for my knowledge.
“I think it's doable to help you contain divine spark more, especially when combined with the techniques that I managed to steal from … her,” I started, the slight pause leaving no doubt about what I was talking about, and her frustration told me the exact nature of her feeling. Then, I asked a question that would bring the discussion to one that I had been searching for.
“Do you have any theory about why my containment spells are working better on Divine Spark?” I asked.
“It must be about the elastic nature of your mana, coming from the Degenerate,” she murmured dismissively. “It’s a problem for the impact of the rest of your spells, but coincidentally, it helps our circumstances.”
I barely held back laughter at the ease she dismissed the solution, her tone reminding me of the nobles talking about their servants. It was not insulting, at least not deliberately, but there was a casual attitude in her dismissal, the absolute confidence in the assessment.
Whether that underestimation was earned or not, it was a different subject.
“Who exactly is this degenerate?” I asked.
“No one really important,” she said dismissively.
“As you can imagine, it’s not entirely true for my case,” I said, yet deliberately not mentioning why she needed to care about the Degenerate more in her condition. Her underestimation worked perfectly for my aim to hide the true capability of Tantric.
She seemed disinterested in spending time on that while she had bigger issues to focus on, but catching my determined gaze, she actually broke her habit of not speaking more than a few words and actually started talking.
“First, you need to understand, despite the power the name implies, not all gods are the same. There are strong gods, and there are weak gods. Then, there are bottom feeders, the kind that only technically counted as gods due to their nature of power depending on Divine Spark.”
“Is this about the nature of the Divine Spark, or just something about the user?”
“Both,” she answered, though not looking particularly happy with my interruption. “There’s a reason that Divine Spark is the greatest treasure of the gods, the kind that they are willing to destroy entire planes to get a Spark of correct nature. It’s the reason that, for most of the concept, there’s only one God.”
“Because they fight until the strong devour the weak,” I guessed, earning a nod.
“Exactly,” she answered. “The power and the potential Divine Spark represents is simply makes impossible for a rival god of same nature to appear.”
“And, I’m guessing that’s the reason about the origin,” I interrupted. “After all, fewer rivals would appear if they were unaware of the possibility in the first place.’
“Yes,” she answered, but the angry glare on her cute face showed she didn’t exactly appreciate my growing interruptions.
Too bad for her that I had no intention of stopping. “And, how about the nature of the Divine Spark, how does it factor in.”
“That’s more complicated,” she answered, her voice trembling just enough to display her lack of confidence in her statement. Not that I was surprised. Divine Spark didn’t seem like a topic that a lot of notes lying around, and I doubted the people that knew about it would be simply sharing their findings.
Especially the gods who relied on their Spark for supremacy.
“How complicated?” I still asked, probing her more about the subject.
“It’s possible to talk about tiers between divine spark, but that’s usually about the range of the domain and the way it could be applied. Some, like Light and Darkness, restrict each other, and it’s hard to argue which is stronger than the other. Some, like Storm and Chaos, cover aspects similar enough to imply a hierarchical relationship. And there are some Divine Natures that are simply worthless…”
“And I’m guessing Degenerate is one of them,” I commented, only to receive a nod.
She left me with an interesting question. I wondered whether the Degenerate she was talking about actually used Tantric, or used something similar that she was mistaking. Not that it mattered much, as her theories didn’t include many facts. They were barely enough to provide a starting point.
“How about the four cardinal elements, fire, water, earth, and air,” I asked. “Where those four lie in comparison.”
“That’s the domain of elemental lords, and it’s best left untouched, especially when compared to Gods,” she answered, quick to squash that aspect. And seeing her fear, I decided not to push the situation too much. “As a mage, you can use it, but never in a location that can actually contact with Primordial Aether without the protection of the Planar Shadow.
I still remembered Aviada’s disappearance, and the elemental monsters followed it, making clear that it was something that was best left untouched.
“I understand,” I said as I looked at her. “Thanks for the explanation. Now, I feel much more confident in containing Divine Spark. Are you ready?”
She nodded, and I raised my hand toward her…
—————
[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 630000
Strength: 46 Charisma: 63
Precision: 40 Perception: 42
Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45
Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49
Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51
HP: 7334 / 7334 Mana: 9000 / 9000 ]
SKILLS
Grandmaster Tantric [114/140]
Master Melee [100/100]
Master Biomancy [100/100]
Master Elemental [100/100]
Master Arcana [100/100]
Master Subterfuge [100/100]
Master Craft [85/100]
Expert Speech [75/75]
PERKS
Mana Regeneration
Skill Share
Empowerment (0/1)
Teleportation
COMPANIONS
[Titania - Level 35/38]
[Cornelia - Level 22/26]
[Helga - Level 22/26]
[Marianne - Level 21/29]
