Picking up the stained piece of paper, Eldrian looked at Ayden in confusion. "What's this?"

The page was filled with scribbles as if someone's pen hadn't wanted to write so they had scribbled to get the ink going. Only, the ink was everywhere.

"A Tier 1 holy spell, Divine Cleanse." Ayden replied seriously as Eldrian stared at him in disbelief.

"But this is just random scribbling."

"You are correct. Yet, it is still the spell module."

"That makes no sense!"

Ayden nodded, "It doesn't. But it is how it works. Why do you think divine magic users are so few?"

Eldrian paused hearing this, he had never thought about it. Now that he did, he realized that most big temples, while full of people, only had a few dozen people who could actually cast divine magic. Most of which were also below Tier 5.

Compared to other types of magic, this was pitiful. This was the clearest during their travels where a few hundred had been responsible for protecting a hundred thousand.

The entire Kynigo probably only had a few thousand at most. If even that many.

"If it was that easy to learn divine spells, everyone would do so. The healing spells far surpass all others, the holy spells countered the undead the best. And those are just the two most common areas of divine magic."

"Then," Looking at the random scribbles on the page with seemingly no rhyme or reason, Eldrian asked, "Then how do you do it?"

"You pray, you hope your faith will be rewarded. As we previously talked about, I still think there should be a way for others to also cast divine spells. However, I agree that it would no longer be divine at that point. It is named as it is precisely because it requires a god's help and allowance to use."

'This makes no sense!' Eldrian started at the scribbles, and try as he might, he failed to see anything other than a waste of ink.

Finishing his mug, Ayden smiled at Eldrian who was so focused on the page, "Let me show you, maybe that would clarify things for you."

Following Ayden to a grassy field without any tents nearby, he told Eldrian to observe him as closely as he could. To use Magic Inspect and Colorful lights if he knew it.

Eldrian used mana sense, and the sight shocked him.

Elemental mana was like mist. Small but visible particles filling the air, everywhere. Death mana instead appeared like a gray smoke, and what he saw now. Divine magic, or divine mana, it was pure light. No single color, rather all the colors Eldrian could think of mixed together. Forming a blinding white in the center and a twirling river of rainbows around it.

"This..." Where the mana went, nothing happened. It passed through the air and grass without hindrance and disappeared into the ground as if it had never existed.

"That is divine cleanse, albeit the Tier 4 version." Ayden said, "Do you understand now?"

Eldrian shook his head as he was more confused than ever. "Please, cast it again."

Ayden agreed and repeated it as many times as Eldrian asked. Even using a divine healing spell on Eldrian per his request so he could try and feel the mana.

Hours flew by as the day turned into night.

'This, no wonder Ilpas thought...' Eldrian smiled as he realized something.

"Once more," Eldrian said, Ayden by now covered in sweat and breathing heavily.

"Last one, I can't... Anymore." The young man said as he moved his soaked blond hair out of his eyes. "Heal!"

A simple command, and upon it being said a small ball of pure light, smaller than someone's nail, appeared before Eldrian. Expanding suddenly and covering him in a soft white light.

'That's it, this strange feeling. Like it isn't mana.' Eldrian thought and focused on it, willing for it to gather before him. Slowly, the white light moved from him. Yet, it was constantly fighting to enter his body.

'No, it is mana, but not the normal type. Right, it is more like an aura.' Eldrian thought, looking at Ayden and saying, "Give,"

Suddenly, the light darted from him and into Ayden, filling the young man with energy and making his eyes bulge in shock.

"Wha-w-wh-wa-what?"

Eldrian laughed seeing his shocked expression as he realized he wouldn't be able to do more than that.

"What did you- How did you?"

"I finally figured it out." Eldrian replied with a smile, "I get why Ilpas and everyone were so confused. It is our obsession that magic needs to be all about mana."

Ayden stared in disbelief as his confusion grew. "What do you mean? Of course, it is about mana."

"Not quite, it is about will, about thought." Eldrian replied, suddenly moving his own mana with far more efficient as it clicked that he did not need to order it to move. Nor did he need to ask it to move. He simply needed to think for it to move. It was his mana, so why would he need to do anything more than think?

"Mageia, Mageia Avyssos... A place where the will of a person can be heard and find form." Eldrian mumbled, 'Where I thought my soul would be me, and after it became injured all that remained was the heart. What I consider the center of a person.'

'I knew it was based on your subconscious belief, but...' Eldrian smiled as he said, "Thanks, this helped."

"Hey, aren't you going to explain what just happened?"

"It is quite simple, a spell is simply mana given a task." Eldrian replied, "Then what is a divine spell?"

"Divine mana given a task?" Ayden replied, confused by the question.

"No, what is divine mana then? Where is it?" Looking around with mana sense, all that filled the air was light green (nature), red (fire), white green (wind), dark blue (water), a little earthen brown (earth), a bit of light yellow (light), a small amount of pitch-black dots (dark), and then just a tiny amount of soft white (raw mana) which more often than not changed into one of the others. Making it the rarest. Yet it was the mana that Eldrian circulated in his body.

There was no blinding white dots or anything close in the environment. Nor, at least here, was there any gray smoke.

"We can't see it, it is hidden from us," Ayden replied and Eldrian shook his head.

"No, it isn't. I can't prove it yet, I realize I have nowhere close enough control over my own mana. Not to mention the mana in the surroundings, but... It is not a different type of mana. Mana is mana."

"Mana is mana?" Ayden echoed and Eldrian nodded.

"I can purify my own mana, but not that in the surrounding. Go ahead, use Magic Inspection."

After a bit of back and forth, Ayden did just that. Eldrian tried his best to not hide anything, knowing that his hidden class normally faked what people could see. Else everyone would be capable of not just seeing his strange mana flow, but also how it was just raw mana.

"H-h-h-how?"

"My mana has always changed between elements, I had thought at first it was ineffective and so I suppressed it till I managed to keep it in the form you see. But, this isn't the true form of mana either."