novelraw Chapter 227: Only Just The Beginning
Chapter 227: Only Just The Beginning
Ignotus didn’t waste any time.
The high of the victory was fine; the fame was whatever, but that little glass vial in his pocket? That was the only thing that actually mattered.
"Alright, everyone out."
Ignotus was standing in the middle of what appeared to be a luxurious inn while waving a hand dismissively at his cohort.
"I’ve got things to do, and none of them involve listening to the pup complain about his blood pressure."
"I am literally worried about our lives!"
Lykos yelled, but he followed the others toward the exit anyway.
Gaia lingered at the door, looking torn. She had been "missing" from her family’s sight for a while now to stick by Ignotus’s side, and with the apocalypse announcement he’d just dropped, her father was likely minutes away from sending out search parties.
"I... I have to go see them, hubby. They’re likely terrified after what you said on the platform."
"Probably."
Ignotus agreed.
"Tell them to buy a bunker. Or join House Calamity, we can help them out."
Gaia laughed, though it was a bit shaky.
She stepped in close, surprising him by grabbing his collar and pulling him down for a quick kiss.
It was sweet, ending before Ignotus could even figure out where to put his hands.
"Be safe."
She whispered, then turned and ran to catch up with the others.
Ignotus stood there for a second, blinking repeatedly.
’Don’t let it go to your head.’
Eris chirped from his shoulder.
’You have a date with a vial of liquid divinity, remember?’
"Right. Power first, romance later."
Ignotus sat down and crossed his legs in a perfect lotus position.
He pulled the God’s Tear from his inventory and stared at it.
It truly looked beautiful.
Eris hopped off his shoulder and stood on the floor in front of him, her crimson eyes glowing.
She gave a soft nod.
That was his signal to go ahead.
Without a second thought, he popped the seal, tilted his head back, and downed the drop.
Immediately, the world went white. A blinding, searing flash of absolute light erased the walls, the floor, and Eris.
Then, the pain hit.
It wasn’t a "stab" or a "burn." It was as if every single cell in his body was being grabbed by a pair of pliers and twisted in a different direction.
His veins felt like they were being filled with molten lead. His Soul—the very core of his being—began to scream. It felt like his essence was being stretched across the universe and then snapped back into place.
"Nngh—!"
Ignotus collapsed out of the lotus position.
He curled into a tight fetal position on the floor, his fingers clawing at the ground until his nails bled. He was blind, his vision a flat white, trapped in a cage of pure agony.
Unable to even think, he reached out to grab something, anything, but his hands continued to claw at the ground. The God’s Tear wasn’t just purifying his Divinity; it was remodeling him.
Breaking every bone and rewriting his very Soul.
Ignotus screamed until his lungs were empty, and then he screamed some more until his throat felt like it was bleeding.
But then, all of a sudden, in the middle of the white storm...
He felt something soft and warm.
Eris had collapsed onto him.
He felt her wings embrace his shaking shoulders.
Ignotus couldn’t see Her, but he could hear the faint, wet sound of Her crying.
’I’m here, I’m here...’
Her voice whispered in his mind, cracking with an emotion he didn’t have the strength to process.
’I’ve got you. Just hold on. The pain is receding.’
Eris’s words were true.
Eventually, thankfully, and finally, perhaps a minute later, Ignotus began to see again.
The white in his vision slowly faded away, returning his sight to the room.
’Your Divinity... Ignotus, look at your system.’
Ignotus focused on the internal screen that appeared through his foggy vision.
—
[GOD’S TEAR CONSUMED]
[DIVINITY PURIFIED]
[SOUL CAPACITY EXPANDED]
[NEW TRAIT UNLOCKED...]
—
"Yes..."
Ignotus muttered, his head hitting the floor with a dull thud.
"That was well worth it."
...
Ignotus blinked his eyes open.
The pain was completely gone.
In fact, he felt strangely light, like he was made of nothing but air and stubbornness. He sat up and realized he wasn’t in the training room anymore.
He was in his own Soul.
It was a vast, endless white expanse, but it wasn’t empty.
Way off in the distance, miles away across the white floor, he could see Eris’s gothic manor. I
But it was the sky that made him stop.
The last time he’d been here, the sky was a mess of cracks and fractured, reflecting the great damage he’d taken. Now? It was beautiful. The cracks were gone, replaced by a crystalline clarity.
And floating above him, like a ceiling of stars, were his Runes.
The golden Arcane light of the Runes shimmered in the air, slowly rotating.
Calling it beautiful would be making light of such a gorgeous sight.
"You’re remarkably calm for someone who just nearly died."
That sudden voice didn’t come from Eris.
It sounded much deeper and more... filtered.
Ignotus turned his head to the source of it.
Standing a few feet away was a figure shrouded in fog.
He knew who, or rather, what this was almost instantly.
"A Blessed. You’re the representative of the God who cried into that vial, aren’t you?"
The figure didn’t confirm or deny it.
Its fog shifted slightly, revealing the figure’s eyes.
They were blindingly gold, with a perfect cross centered in each pupil.
He wasn’t looking at Ignotus’s face; he was looking through Ignotus’s Soul, reading the history written in his divinity.
Ignotus stared back with his grey eyes.
"You’ve been doing this for a while. Is there a point to this?"
The Blessed figure remained silent for a few more beats until finally, he spoke:
"Not the living, but the dead will conquer your obstacle."
As soon as the words left the figure’s mouth, the fog began to dissipate.
He faded into nothing, his golden eyes being the last thing to vanish.
"Wait, that’s it?"
Ignotus called out to the empty space.
"You came here to tell just that?!"
"..."
"..."
"..."
No one replied.
He stared at the spot where the figure had been for a solid minute.
Giving up, he let out a long, annoyed sigh that echoed across his Soul.
"I hate oracles. I really, genuinely despise them."
In his experience, eyeing the threads of Fate was just an annoying way to waste time. People who looked into the future usually ended up causing the exact disaster they were trying to avoid.
It was a messy, inefficient way to live.
"Fine."
Ignotus looked up at his golden runes.
"Whatever. I’ll keep its damned words in mind."
He closed his eyes, focusing on the feeling of his body back in the real world.
His sight returned, the light finally fading into the familiar, now half-broken room.
’Ignotus? Are you back?!’
Eris’s voice sounded incredibly worried.
"Yeah..."
Ignotus whispered as he pushed himself back up.
"I’m back."
He looked at the bird and reached out, patting her small, feathered head with a single finger.
"Don’t worry too much. I’m not dead, it worked."
Eris let out a long, shaky sigh of relief that sounded far too human for a crow.
’Well done. I thought your Soul was going to shatter. You’re... you’re truly different.’
Ignotus stood up, and as he did, he began to notice the changes.
The God’s Tear had acted like the ultimate sealant, patching every fracture in his Soul, no matter how tiny. And so, with those injuries healed, the missing puzzle piece was finally found...
The dam had finally broken!
A surge of refined Divinity roared through his marrow.
He didn’t need to chant or meditate. The prerequisites were already there. He had the Soul Fragments. He had the Runes. The only thing holding him back was a broken container, and now the container was reinforced.
The transition was instantaneous!
Ignotus crossed the threshold.
No longer a mere Priest—a Class Nine commoner in the eyes of the divine—he had ascended to Class Eight!
A Shepherd!
This was a Class that enabled the Runebearer to fully guide the Divinity within them.
He could feel his Will sharpening into a tool, a tether that could dictate how his power manifested with far more precision.
—
[ASCENSION COMPLETE!]
[CURRENT CLASS: SHEPHERD (CLASS 8)]
[STATISTICS CAP REMOVED!]
[+5 STAT POINTS TO ALL ATTRIBUTES!]
[FIFTH RUNE UNLOCKED: GAMBLER’S ARCANA (RANK 5)]
—
Ignotus looked at the floating text and gave a satisfied nod.
’Good. Now I can actually start doing some damage.’
He pulled up the description for his much-awaited Rune.
—
[Fifth Rune: Gambler’s Arcana (Rank 5)]
[Description: The journey from nothingness to the world, bound in twenty-two echoes. The bearer may manifest a singular archetype of the Major Arcana. The deck acts as a mirror to the Root; the card’s alignment with the bearer’s intent is determined entirely by Luck. As well as its conjuring success.]
—
Ignotus’s smile widened further.
Finally, he’d climbed a most massive wall.
But indeed, as hard as it was, his journey was only just beginning.
The ’beginning’ of raising his House to the Heavens and fulfilling his revenge!