novelraw Chapter 205 : Chapter 205
Chapter 205 : Chapter 205
Chapter 205
The first Mana user.
The Gods defined and called ‘me’ that.
But that was not true.
Mana is energy existing in nature.
I was not the first to use this power called natural energy.
The first ones to notice its existence were the long-lived ones.
Dragon race, giant race, monsters, elves, dwarves, etc.
Individuals with keen senses among them realized the existence of Mana and approached it in their own ways to utilize this power.
But they soon lost interest and abandoned it.
Because they, with distinct innate advantages, had no need to rely on a new power.
They were just busy enjoying their own innate advantages.
They were satisfied with feeling awe toward the existence of transcendent Gods.
However, humans were different.
With vague innate advantages for survival, they had to pay a great sacrifice every time.
Even if they used clumsily made tools, they easily lost their lives to the sharp claws of monsters.
To the feet of giants, to the breath of dragons, to the blind arrows of fairies, to the hammer blows wielded by dwarves.
Humans lost their lives for trivial reasons.
[Isn't the name 'insect' truly fitting for such beings?]
[Insignificant among the insignificant. Insects among insects.]
[Truly pitiful creatures to look at. Who created those things?]
[Even Crea shook his head.]
[He said he didn't create them, but they were there from the beginning.]
Gods regarded such humans like toys.
They waged wars using others as pawns, and arranged bloody battles between species.
Nevertheless, humans survived tenaciously.
Despite their low reproductive ability and trivial weapons, they sought ways to survive persistently.
Fearing God more than anyone else.
Regarding that as the answer, they continued their survival by mingling with various species.
Without even thinking about what the one pointed at as an eccentric among humans was researching.
A long time passed.
“Found it.”
The human called an eccentric finally found a way to handle natural energy.
For a living organism to handle that power freely, it was necessary to create it in a tangible form.
Inspired by the heart that any living organism naturally possesses, the first Mana Heart took the form of a heart.
The first Mana Heart he formed was crude.
It was at best holding a handful of Mana, and even that inevitably led to exhaustion after using the power once.
How to refine a proper Mana Heart.
Training the body enough to withstand the artificial heart created.
Training the trained body again to expand the Mana Heart.
Only when those two methods are combined can one use natural energy plausibly.
But his lifespan was already running short.
He, who was once vigorous, realized he had become an old man facing death.
For the first time, he envied the long-lived creatures.
If he were allowed time like them, he would be able to create new changes.
Although he felt bitter, he did not let the results he created go to waste in vain.
In any group, there are bound to be those called eccentrics in every generation.
He found someone who resembled his younger self exactly.
Someone who harbored impious thoughts toward God but did not reveal them outwardly, saying they fear God with their mouth but harboring disbelief in their head.
The eccentric who became an old man accepted the new eccentric.
And quietly passed on his research to him.
“Train your Mana Heart.”
Thus.
“Pass on the realization you found to someone who resembles you.”
He couldn't leave it as a record, but he could pass it on orally.
What couldn't be explained with words, he made him learn with his body.
Time passed, and the young man also became an old man.
The crude Mana Heart had slightly compensated for its flaws.
Following his master's words, he found someone similar to himself and passed on the Mana Heart refinement method.
The age of refining the Mana Heart gradually became younger.
As generations passed, flaws were compensated, and the artificial heart that was once crude took on the characteristics of a quite plausible heart.
Mana flowing through the veins became blood, and muscles strengthened by it were like steel.
Several successors called geniuses developed it greatly, and finally, reaching one human, it led to slaughtering a God.
God-Slayer Adamas.
After the battle like a natural disaster, countless mortals gained new realization.
The death of a God, whom they considered a perfect being, threw new possibilities to them.
On the other hand, the Gods sensed that some change was needed.
There was no guarantee that a mutant like Adamas wouldn't appear again, so it was necessary to prepare for when such a person appeared again.
[To catch one, shouldn't we respond with the same method?]
[I heard Crea is making something anyway.]
[The God-Slayer bastard's words must have been quite shocking.]
Before long, the God of Creation developed a new heart.
[Hollyheart.]
A masterpiece created by a God impressed by the Mana Heart.
He didn't need to repeat generations like humans living finite lives.
Immortal life and transcendent Authority created another heart just like that.
Experiments followed.
Countless mortals forcibly refined Hollyhearts.
It was common for bodies unable to withstand the Divine Power contained in the Hollyheart to undergo necrosis or explode.
Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of living beings were additionally mobilized for the Hollyheart experiment.
Thus, one conclusion was reached.
[Humans are suitable. Other insignificant creatures can reach the stabilization stage, but humans show the most excellent reaction to our signals.]
The God of Creation was convinced and spread the Hollyheart refinement method to the Gods.
Under the pretext of divine revelation, the existence of the Hollyheart was conveyed to believers.
As generations passed, the number of those who refined Hollyhearts increased no less than those who refined Mana Hearts.
Hollyheart created in response to the God-Slayer's Mana Heart.
But now, a scene where a God himself refines a Hollyheart for the God-Slayer.
[If Crea saw this, he would have liked it very much.]
Murus, who muttered, concentrated on refining the Hollyheart.
Not an ordinary heart, but one to contain divinity.
What results his actions would lead to in the future was a matter to think about later.
For now, refining a heart greater than anything else was the priority.
Whoooooosh.
Solid Divine Power, no less than the Mana Heart refined by Killian Eurasia, settles in the body.
The work was proceeding smoothly.
***
It feels like needles are pricking the body.
‘Is the rough process similar to a Mana Heart?’
So far, he has refined a Mana Heart himself twice.
As the ancient human Adamas.
As the reincarnated Killian Eurasia.
During his days as a sword life, rather than refining a Mana Heart, it was closer to imitating the Authorities of Gods using his partners' Mana Hearts.
Just that was enough to be called a Magic Sword, but it was a method with somewhat low efficiency.
‘A Hollyheart in a God-Slayer's body. And a heart refined directly by a God at that.’
Not even a hollow laugh comes out.
How long did he concentrate like that?
He felt his senses becoming faint.
Senses becoming faint means consciousness is being cut off. It wasn't a good symptom at a point where the refinement work still had a long way to go.
‘I must stay alert to notice if Murus does anything strange.’
Just because conversation is possible doesn't mean they are a trustworthy bunch.
When he was concentrating his mind to awaken his faint senses.
“What a surprising sight.”
“……?”
At the sudden voice, Killian opened his eyes.
Pitch-black vision covered in darkness.
There was a brightly shining existence there.
A man with impressive silver hair, wearing armor engraved with the image of two dragons facing each other.
The one called a hero of national salvation and the undefeated Knight was looking at him.
“Edan?”
In his gladness, Killian uncrossed his legs and stood up.
Grab.
Approaching, he felt his friend's body.
The texture made of bones and muscles, blood and flesh is felt vividly.
It wasn't a dream.
“Edan!!”
“You welcome me too fiercely.”
Edan smirked and patted Killian's shoulder.
“8-star in less than 5 years since reincarnation, at this rate, you'll reach 9-star in less than 10 years.”
Edan maintains the appearance of Killian's age, not the middle-aged appearance he met his end with.
It's definitely not a dream.
But he could guess that the current situation wasn't happening in reality either.
“You, you really didn't die?”
He confirmed the fact he heard from Murus.
“I died.”
“…….”
“But I wasn't extinguished.”
Grin.
Edan's lips twitched.
It was a face full of playfulness.
“Does a joke come out even in this situation?”
“Why not.”
“This...”
“Not having a body also means freedom of mind. It means countless possibilities are open.”
“…….”
“What was the name of the Magic Sword who used to say that habitually?”
The appearance of his friend using his past admonitions as a shield was no different from before.
His eyes are firm, and his voice is confident.
That's why he couldn't help but ask.
“You, are you okay?”
“Why wouldn't I be okay.”
“I heard you are enduring the Grotesquery's curse alone?”
“…….”
Pausing for a moment, Edan nodded.
“I see. Did you hear it from the ‘God of Barriers’?”
He said it seems there are more stories to share because the rank has risen.
He said he didn't know he would be able to unravel part of the prohibition so quickly.
“That's not what's important! Is it true that you are handling the Grotesquery's curse?”
“It somehow turned out that way.”
“You foolish bastard!”
Killian raised his voice.
Blame was carried in his voice.
“Why did you foolishly volunteer for sacrifice!”
“I thought that talk ended long ago.”
“Back then, I really thought you died.”
I didn't know you would be enduring pain without even being able to die like this.
Really.
“It was something someone had to do.”
“You could have waited for the foolish Priests to step forward.”
“Thanks to that, I could reach transcendence. Well, I couldn't reach ‘perfection’ because I couldn't refine the power.”
He cut the Monster Lord considered a 9-star existence and the Grotesquery evaluated as above that.
Since the birth of the Mana Heart, he would be the one who accumulated achievements greater than him, the God-Slayer.
Edan smiled as if boasting.
“Crazy bastard.”
“Don't be like that. Because I have no regrets about the choice back then.”
Edan, hardening his face, continued.
“The Hollyheart being refined in your body. Is it okay?”
He knew he was asking with the conflict with the Mana Heart in mind.
“I don't know either.”
“What...?”
“I said I don't know either. I'd know if I had ever refined one.”
“Ha.”
Edan looked at him with an absurd face.
“What kind of foolish...”
It is evident that he wants to say something but can't.
Seeing that appearance, he wanted to tease him.
“I opened my eyes and the Kingdom is fallen, my body is not just abnormal but wretched, war with monsters and the Empire is around the corner, the Grotesquery is running wild in pieces, Gods are itching to eat me alive, and in the meantime, the guy I thought died with the Grotesquery is sealed in my original body enduring the Grotesquery's curse? You try being in my situation. What choice would you make.”
He retorted sharply involuntarily.
“I thought you had some plan since you use Authority with Mana.”
Edan, laughing hollowly, sighed.
“I'm sorry.”
“Huh? What? I can't hear you well.”
“Anyway...”
“Is it because I'm a foolish 8-star Knight, I can't hear the voice of the great 9-star Knight well.”
“For someone who lived thousands of years, you are childish.”
“Who started being childish first? And if you argue like that, you've also lived hundreds of years now.”
“Thousands of years and hundreds of years are different.”
“Living through it, it wasn't much.”
It was when they were bickering like that.
Swaaaa.
An uninvited guest came to the space where they were.
The faces of the two Knights hardened.
“Edan, this...”
“Yes.”
Nodding, Edan opened his mouth with a heavy voice.
“It's the Grotesquery.”