The Arcane Academy of Everveil

Eliot

Eliot had spent a couple days walking around and taking in the sights, just the overwhelming mass of the Metropolis made him dizzy. He had found an inn to sleep in for the time being and decided that he would stop wandering around and find the Academy.

“The Arcane Academy?” asked the guardsman, slightly caught off guard.

“Yes, I'm soon to be a student there,” answered Eliot.

The guardsman smiled and said, “I’ll send Jimmy to escort you there, right away”. Once again Eliot was amazed at the perks that came with being a mage, first he got something called a mage’s premium, and now he was being personally escorted by the guards of the Metropolis. The young guardsman that was named Jimmy ran up to them in a start a couple seconds after the captain’s order.

“Right this way, honorably mage." Jimmy took off at a brisk pace, frequently checking back to make sure Eliot could keep up. Eliot’s eyes were glued to the plate mail armor and pyke that were the standard equipment of the guard. Eliot couldn’t imagine the mind boggling expenses of fitting every single guardsmen with quality identical equipment. However, Eliot was soon confused as he saw a popular shop with an open display, showing glowing pieces of equipment out in the open.

“I mean no offense, sir, but….is security really good enough for shop owners to just leave products out in the open?” Eliot asked Jimmy as he pointed at the particular store.

Jimmy looked over and chuckled, “Of course not, the products aren’t out in the open. That is covered by something called glass, it's transparent but very much there. It is one of the newest creations of the apothecary.” Eliot was skeptical when the guard explained what it was, no way it was there, he couldn't see it, and walked up to test the veracity of his words. Eliot reached with his hand and was shocked when his hand hit something that wasn’t there. Eliot jabbed and poked in awe before noticed that the glass wasn’t one hundred percent transparent, letting him see his reflection in the glass and the sun reflected off of it if he looked at it from an angle. Eliot was feeling trepidation at asking, but his curiosity overwhelmed him.

“Say...how much would something like this cost?”

Jimmy examined the size of the glass for a moment before he answered, “Somewhere near sixty platinums”. Eliot almost fainted when he heard of the astronomical sum. The monetary system used by the entirety of the world, excluding the savage races with little to no intelligence, featured five different coins with one thousand of the previous coins equaling one of the next coin. From least amount of value to the greatest, copper, silver, gold, platinum, and mithril were the rankings for the coins. Most people would never even see a platinum in their lives, let alone a mithril, and this piece of glass that was two and one half by three meters cost sixty of those. Eliot had to distract himself from how expensive that was, or else his brain might explode.

“How far is the academy from here?” asked Eliot after he quickly started walking again.

“It's only some minutes of walking,” answered Jimmy. To Eliot’s dismay, the shops they passed by later on in their walk had larger and grander pieces of glass. Eliot tried his best to look at the ground, but it too was replaced by something other than just stone as there was an intricate pattern detailing something on the ground in different colors akin to a mosaic. Eventually, they came to a stretch in the road and walked to the front of a building that looked more like a castle than a school. Jimmy stopped when they got to the main gate, where there were two people in extravagant robes, seemingly waiting for something. Eliot knew that something unexpected happened because Jimmy’s eyes widened as soon as he saw the robed people. Eliot inquired as to what was wrong and Jimmy was only able to let out a squeak as the robed figures started to walk towards them and Jimmy straightened like a pole while standing at attention.

“Hello, young man, are you Karl Favish’s discipulus?” asked the one on the right. They had bright, royal blue robes with yellow star patterns and was balding. The one on the left wore a deep purple rope with no pattern and looked much younger than his companion, he even sported a mustache. Eliot was instantly alarmed when they asked him this out of nowhere, he knew nothing about his magister’s death and thought that he shouldn’t let his tongue slip when talking to people that might have been involved.

“How did you know?” Eliot asked with a smile that didn’t meet his eyes.

The pair’s eyes lit up with excitement as they exchanged a quick glance and hurriedly explained, “I can sense some of his mana lingering in your aura. Please, don’t be alarmed, we had no grudges with your late magister, in fact, we were his closest friends, did he not tell you about us?”. When they said that last part, Eliot could see genuine pain in their eyes and decided he could let his guard down, just a bit.

“Regrettably, I was only mentored by my magister for a short period and he had no room for idle talk. I only managed to learn a single spell before his passing on, however, he gave me this letter of recommendation and assured me that I would be given the best education available,” Eliot explained while he took out the letter given to him roughly half a month ago. It was slightly bent and rough around the edges but was generally fine. While Eliot could just use his portals as long as he knew where he was in relation to his inn to keep it in pristine condition, he never let the letter out of his sight and always kept it on his person. The man in bright, royal blue robes took the letter gingerly and read it over.

When he was done, he smiled and said, “Then, Eliot Relius, as the HeadMaster of the Arcane Academy of Everveil, I welcome you into our school!” Eliot was pleasantly surprised that the man he was speaking to was the HeadMaster and figured that the other man was someone important as well. Eliot also noticed the man in a purple robe flinched slightly when the other called himself the HeadMaster, but Eliot thought he must have imagined it.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have any lodgings available for you at this time, we should be able to work something out, though. Your classes will start in three days with orientation in two days, no student is allowed in the dorms until orientation,” said the man in purple robes. Eliot wasn’t too excited at having to share a room with someone but he let it go, he didn’t want to make a fuss, they were already going out of their way to find him a room in the first place.

“I’ll look forward to it,” said Eliot before he bade them goodbye. Eliot was a little miffed given that the pair didn’t even acknowledge Jimmy’s existence, even when he was standing at attention the whole time next to him.

“Do they always ignore you like that?” asked Eliot.

Jimmy gave a sad smile and said, “Someone like me isn’t important to them, honorable mage”.

Eliot’s opinion of them fell a bit, “Where did they go thinking that ignoring someone wasn’t rude?” were Eliot’s personal thoughts.

“Don't call me honorable mage, just call me Eliot. Thank you for escorting me, I won’t keep you from your duties anymore."

“It was no inconvenience,” deflected Jimmy before running back to his captain. Eliot had bought a map of the town measured in meters while he was sightseeing and marked the Academy on his map. A person dressed in a blue cloak hiding their features tsked in disappointed when they saw Eliot disappear after he summoned a portal.

“I was really going to enjoy killing that guy, now that I know he’s a mage it's going to be troublesome,” grumbled the killer as they activated some Arcane Art and disappeared from sight. While it would usually be no problem for the mana sensitive and observant Eliot to know a killer was tracking them, multiple factors such as the humongous Metropolis with lots of people, and the killer being an expert stopped Eliot from picking up any of their traces.

Eliot spent the next two days in comfort and wondered when he should visit his hometown while sightseeing. In no time at all, he was wandering around the courtyard filled with students looking at a board telling them which class they were in. Eliot struggled at the back of the crowd before he finally said fuck it and made a path by using mana to push people aside. Many people were hostile when met with that treatment, but instantly backed off as they saw that Eliot was using mana to part the crowd, there was only a small part of the people there that could do that with their mana. This was easy for Eliot, however, as he had a large amount of mana and his aura extended farther than most. In fact, Eliot made it appear as if he constantly had mana outside of his aura but it only ever exited when he needed to push someone out of his way. An irritated beyond belief Eliot scanned the board before finding his name and stomping off to find out where his room was.

On the way, Eliot calmed down and wondered if he overreacted but blamed it on the fact that he had never been in a crowd until a week ago when he first arrived at the metropolis and wasn’t very comfortable in them. While he was thinking this, Eliot accidentally collided with someone that he didn't notice. He was properly snapped out of his stupor as he hurried to help the girl up.

“Sorry about that, I wasn't aware of my surroundings,” bowed Eliot. The girl in question didn’t take it seriously at all, relieving Eliot beyond belief because she looked like a noble and he didn’t want to be in that kind of trouble. Eliot walked off after the girl, Penelope, assured him that she was fine.

When Eliot was completely out of sight, Penelope turned to her friend she was walking with and asked, “Who was that? Did you feel what I did?”. Her friend was quick to tease her about a crush but the words got stuck in her throat when she saw the grave expression on Penelope's face.

“I think his name was Eliot,” she provided.

“Keep your distance if you see him in the future, I think he’s dangerous. It's like Gaia was warning me to stay away. I’ll go to the church to figure out more later,” instructed Penelope and her friend was quick to nod in agreement.

After that incident, Eliot walked up to a corner of the castle, where a tower was located, and stopped at the attendant waiting by the entrance to the dorms.

“I’m looking for my room, I was told to come here to find out,” said Eliot. The attendant was a male with sunken eyes and black hair, wearing what looked like some royal servant uniform.

Despite looking so haggard, the attendant smiled and said, “Please tell me your name”. Eliot told him his name, Eliot Relius, and the attendant’s eyes widened a little as he mumbled something before looking up from the list in his hands. He handed Eliot a key and told him to step on the engraving to his right. Floor 738, room 2 was what the key had engraved on the handle. It was nothing like Eliot had ever seen before, a small, blue rectangle that resembled a credit card.

“The key is not actually needed in the unlocking process, every student’s room will open if they pass their mana through an engraving on the side, the key was added because some people complained about certain things.” Explained the attendant. “Step on the portal and when it activates, say your floor number”. Eliot waited until the engraving glowed preternaturally and did as he was told. Eliot disappeared from sight with a clap of displaced air.

The attendant turned around to look at his late replacement and complained, “Finally, why are you so late?”.

“Sorry, I got tied up with something. Nevermind that, was he the one the HeadMaster mentioned personally? I’ve never seen him before, but he could just be a shut in,” wondered the late attendant.

The attendant with sunken eyes nodded and said, “Yup that was him, his family name didn’t match any nobility”. The same attendant leaned in closer and whispered. “They put him in the prince’s room”.

The late attendant's eyes widened and he whispered back, “Isn’t it unwise to put a peasant in the same room as the heir to the Empire?”

The man with sunken eyes only shrugged and muttered, “It was a direct order from the HeadMaster”.

Meanwhile, Eliot was bewildered as he appeared in a square room with a door in each corner. He calmed down, slightly numb to the world shattering experiences by now, and walked to room two and passed mana through the engraving adjacent to the door; he grinned as it opened with no struggle. In the room, a boy around his age was sitting near the opened window while reading a book. They had blond hair and pale skin with blue eyes and were dressed in expensive clothing, clearly showing wealth. He was wearing a white jacket with golden buttons embroidered along the left side of it and royal, dark blue leggings. Eliot visibly frowned when he saw his roommate, he had no idea how the noble would react when he saw his clearly peasant appearance. Contrary to Eliot’s conjecture, the crown prince was visibly pleased with his new roommate and got up to greet him with a smile.

“It's nice to meet you, you can call me Henry,” he introduced himself as he bowed and after reached for a handshake. Eliot was startled for a split second before genuinely smiling and returning the hand shake.

“Likewise, you can call me Eliot”.

“I hope you’re not angered, but I took the liberty of choosing the left side of the room, I'm sorry for not waiting for you,” apologized the prince.

“It's no problem at all, you arrived before me, after all,” shrugged Eliot as he walked to the right side of the room. The room was circular with a bed, two dressers, and a trunk on both sides of the room, a window in the middle that split the room symmetrically. Eliot unloaded his minimal amount of possessions into the trunk and was happy to notice that there was stuff on his desk, a stack of books to be precise. Eliot quickly skimmed them and was elated as he realized they were study material of some sort. Eliot dropped and forgot everything he was doing as he sat on his bed and he read the one on top. 'Magic 101' was the title on the first page. Eliot didn’t even turn the page for a couple minutes; he was feeling the paper and rubbing his fingers on the ink in a trance.

“Hmm...is it ok if I ask some questions?” Henry announced his presence, hesitant to interrupt Eliot’s astonishment. Eliot was snapped out of his trance and looked towards the amiable prince.

“Of course,” said Eliot while trying to hide his destitution, he had seen an actual book before, totally.

“I mean no offense, but this is the noble tower, how did you get a room in here?” Eliot grinned and was relieved to know that this particular noble was different from all the stories he had heard of nobles.

"I actually don’t know exactly why, but I think it had something to do with my late entry, I only arrived in the Metropolis a week ago,” answered Eliot.

Henry was deep in thought and suddenly remarked, “Oh, I understand, you’re a prodigy!"

Eliot laughed and was quick to deny his assumption, “I assure you, I’m no prodigy, I only know one spell and have had no training past my own experiments”

Henry shook his head and argued, “That does not mean you aren’t a prodigy, you just haven’t been taught yet”.

“How many spells do you know?”

“Twenty three.” Henry continued on. “However, that is different, I am a noble, it is unfair to measure someone's ability based on the amount of spells they know”. Eliot just shrugged and didn’t say he was wrong.

“Alright, how about having a duel with me,” suggested Henry.

“A duel?” asked Eliot, intrigued.

“It is similar to a sparring match, only with magic”.

Eliot weighed his options and eventually shrugged, “Why not”. Henry looked more excited than Eliot thought was worth but he went along with it anyways. Eliot was stopped in his tracks when Henry just jumped out of the window.

Eliot jumped up and dashed to the edge and looked down, he saw a floating Henry that said, “Boo”. Eliot was shaken by the prince’s odd personality, reserved and polite the first second, excited and competitive the next second.

Eliot chuckled and came up with a proposition, “How about we race to the sparring grounds?”. Eliot knew how he would get back at Henry when he agreed to race. Henry shot off upwards because the sparring grounds were on the other side of the campus and the swiftes path was to go over the top. Eliot had a mischievous smile as he summoned a portal and stepped through to the sparring grounds. The Sparring Grounds was a warehouse sized building with a dirt floor and white lines detailing a duel’s perimeter. There were a total of eight dueling arenas in the vicinity; it was similar to the Training Grounds at the Town of Flora but with a roof and more detail. Eliot still had a mischievous smile as he waited by the doors and watched the small amount of people already sparring. Not much time later, Henry opened the door triumphantly and failed to notice that Eliot was already there.

“Boo!” Eliot’s voice appeared right next to Henry’s ear. Henry’s reaction left Eliot in tears as Henry yelped and jumped back in alarm. Noticing it was just Eliot, Henry smiled and shook his head.

"You only wanted to race to get back at me,” he grumbled. Hearing Henry’s yell, many people already in the Sparring grounds were looking over and pointing in surprise.

“You must be a prominent noble.” Eliot observed the unusual reaction of the onlookers as they walked over to a rectangle. Henry just shrugged and didn’t answer. Not even a minute later, people were running into the building and crowding around the square taken up by them. Eliot looked at the crowd and frowned, clearly bothered by them. He heard whispers about his work at orientation and frowned even deeper when they started saying Eliot was a hot head, even if it was true. Suddenly, a semi-transparent blue forcefield sprang alive around the square.

“I activated the engravement so you would not be so bothered by the crowd, I can even black it out if you so desire,” explained Henry.

“Thanks, this is enough, they seem pretty excited to see you fight. Who are you exactly?” asked Eliot.

This time, a provocative grin spread across Henry’s face and he said, “I’ll tell you if you beat me”.

“Alright, don’t blame me when I embarrass you.” Eliot started getting ready for the duel. “But I have some questions first. What are the exact rules of the dual?”

“No killing, that's it. You win if one of two things happen. Either your opponent is unable to continue the fight, or if they admit defeat”. Eliot smiled when he heard that physical attacks weren’t off limits.

“Can I use a weapon, then?” Eliot asked next.

Henry said, “Sure, however, you’ll have to go get it” while gesturing at the crowd. Suddenly, a portal appeared in front of Eliot and he reached inside to grab a sword. Henry was thoroughly surprised and disappointed at the same time to see that the one spell Eliot knew was a utility spell that was utterly unsuited for combat.

“I was looking forward to being able to see his magical prowess, shame,” thought Henry. Eliot had no idea that the original portal spell was a long complicated script of symbols that’s only used as transport of a large amount of goods or for traveling really long distances and not in battle. The only reason Eliot learned a modified for combat portal spell was the genius of his magister, Eliot had no clue that the singular spell he could cast was completely unknown to any other mage alive. Eliot unsheathed his rather plain blade, with a brown sheath and handle. Eliot didn’t have much experience buying blades and had no idea they could be so expensive, Eliot thought he could live for a while on his sixteen golds but was surprised to find out that this plain sword cost two golds on its own. Eliot wasn’t ripped off, though, the sword wasn’t eye-catching but it was made with excellent technique, giving it the same sharpness as blades that the royal guard used and boasted were top quality, just below engraved weapons.

Eliot and Henry counted to three before declaring the dual a start. Eliot instantly rushed forward and swung his blade. Henry easily dodged and slowly formed a line of runes in front of him. Eliot recognized that he was casting a spell and did his best to stop him, to no avail as Henry effortlessly avoided all of Eliot’s attacks. Eliot knew his swordsmanship wasn’t anything to be proud of, but was still shocked that Henry could dodged everything thrown at him while not losing his intense concentration needed to cast a spell. In no time at all, Henry was done casting his spell and a massive fireball shot itself at Eliot, almost point blank range. Henry had a dissapointed frown and the crowd was mocking Eliot for being stupid enough to challenge Henry, the Sword Genius prince, with a sword. Henry was about to cancel his spell so that Eliot wouldn’t get too burnt, but was shaken to his very core when he saw a perfectly clear line of symbols form in an instant and make a portal that shot the fireball back at him. Henry was too slow to be able to put up any sort of defense and was hit directly with the massive fireball, sending him crashing into the rectangular blue force field. Being at close proximity to Henry, Eliot was also shoved back a couple meters by the shockwave of the explosion. Eliot couldn’t tell because the force field was blocking out the sound, but the crowd went absolutely silent as they saw the mind boggling display, how had he cast the portal spell so fast? Why did his portals look so peculiar? Eliot was filled with concern and ran over to the flaming Henry on the dirt floor. Eliot was stopped in his tracks when the flame was put out and Henry’s clothes started glowing and healing his wounds. When Henry’s clothes stopped glowing from the input of mana, he struggled to get up and looked at Eliot with wide eyes.

When he saw that Henry wasn’t very injured, Eliot dawned a shit eating grin and said, “I would have thought that an educated noble would know better than to play with fire."

Henry completely ignored the jab and asked, “What spell did you just use?” Eliot chose to look up then and noticed the astonished faces of the crowd and frowned when he realized he just did something strange.

“The… portal spell?” said Eliot with a pause, unsure of his words. Henry suddenly started laughing heartily and Eliot looked at him with confusion.

“I must apologize for my naivete, the regular rules and common sense don’t apply to a prodigy such as yourself. This time, I’ll come at you with everything I’ve gotm” said Henry. Eliot just shook his head with a smile, he was enjoying the high opinion Henry had of him but didn't think he was anything special. Eliot got into the stance he used to win the sparring match with Cel, facing Henry with the left side of his body while his sword was raised just above his right shoulder. Eliot guided as much mana as possible into the Arcane Stance while observing the multiple lines of symbols that were forming in front of Henry. Eliot eventually felt a bottleneck and could no longer put anymore of his mana into the attack, on the outside, Eliot had arcs of lightning flashing across his entire body and sword. If anyone proficient in mana sight looked at Eliot, he would look like a big gray spotlight, and Eliot could feel how much he was shaking from the mana that was packed together and struggled to get free from its confinement. Eliot saw the lines of symbols in front of Henry disappear and Henry was bathed in a shower of golden arcs of lightning, looking similar to Eliot but golden with no sword.

“Lightning Sting,” mumbled Eliot as he dashed forward at a speed too fast for the naked eye. Henry didn’t say anything as he crouched down before shooting towards the blur that was Eliot. Henry’s fist crashed into the tip of Eliot’s sword, creating a golden explosion of Lightning that even cracked the blue forcefield. Eliot smiled as he could see that Henry was on the losing side of the exchange and was preparing to strike again when his eyes went wide. Eliot’s Thunder Sting was a singular attack and left Eliot after the first exchange, the spell Henry used, however, left him with the golden shower of lightning still hugging his visage. Eliot realized that the spell Henry had used wasn’t an Arcane Stance, but a physical enhancement spell and tried to put up a portal before Henry attacked, to no avail. Henry’s leg already made contact with Eliot’s side and sent him flying across the arena. Eliot left a trail of dirt as he rolled on the ground before slamming into the blue forcefield on the other side of the arena from the attack.

"Henry wasn’t kidding when he said he would come at me with everything,” thought Eliot as he wiped blood from his mouth and struggled to get up. Eliot thought of a plan to try and catch Henry and readied his sword while concentrating with every brain cell. Henry was frozen like a deer in headlights as he saw hundreds of lines of symbols appear all around Eliot. In the next moment, the symbols disappeared and a massive amount of portals appeared in the arena; Henry looked in bewildered astonishment as every direction was filled with portals that were three meters in diameter. Eliot gasped from the amount of mana leaving his body to power the portals and fought against the strain that accompanied it. Eliot wasted no time as he jumped into a portal and slashed at Henry, who was still admiring the fantastical scene. Henry only snapped back to his senses when the blade connected with his skin and jumped back directly into a portal. Henry appeared in the flight path of Eliot’s blade and could do nothing but put up his arms to protect his chest. Henry did his best to ignore the pain of his injuries and counter attacked by slapping the blade out of Eliot’s hands and rushing forward to attack Eliot. Eliot just smiled and pointed to Henry’s left. Henry was left in a cold sweat as he was barely able to dodge the sword that appeared directly next to his head through a portal. Eliot stepped back and sunk into the ground as he passed through a portal, putting Henry on edge as he spun to find the direction Eliot was going to attack from. Henry was left in the middle of a portal mine field as he spun dizzy searching for Eliot, who hadn’t shown his face in multiple seconds. Suddenly, a piercing pain came from Henry’s leg and the only thing he could see was the tip of the sword and splattered blood before it retreated back into a portal. As Eliot’s sword appeared multiple times, giving slight injuries that added over time, Henry realized that this wasn’t Eliot just being proficient in magic but Eliot was also predicting his movements. That was the only explanation for the portals always being in a favorable position for Eliot, otherwise Eliot would have randomly connected portals and have to rely on luck to make something happen. Convinced he figured it out, Henry quickly thought of something Eliot wouldn’t take into account. When the sword appeared next, rather than recoil from it, Henry dove into the portal after it, and smiled as he saw an unprepared Eliot. However, that was when Henry’s mana pool got dangerously low and he had to cancel his spell to not pass out from mana fatigue. Seeing the golden arcs of lightning disappear, Eliot sighed in relief and he canceled his portals. Henry and Eliot were both gasping from exhaustion and looked at each other, locking eyes for a split second before Eliot dashed forward.

When Eliot’s blade was practically touching Henry’s neck, Henry said, “I give up.”

Eliot lowered his blade and smiled triumphantly before saying, “I hope that you honor our deal”

“Of course.” Henry grew near and leaned in to whisper in Eliot's ear. “I’m the crown prince”. At first, Eliot wasn’t able to register exactly what that meant and just started blankly at Henry.

“YOU’RE THE PRINCE!?” screamed Eliot in disbelief. Eliot’s mind blowing revelation was cut short, however, as the doors to the Sparring Grounds burst open and a familiar voice sounded.

“Who was it! Who were the two idiots that used that much mana!” screamed the headmaster while flying above the crowd and looked into the arena. The HeadMaster and a team of people in white robes entered the arena before the HeadMaster did a double take and some of the people in white robes gave an audible gasp.

“Prince Henry?” exclaimed the HeadMaster before noticing Eliot. “Eliot?” Eliot and Henry were still gasping from the mana usage and glanced over in confusion at the HeadMaster.

“HeadMaster, sorry to worry you but I'm used to using a lot of mana, it won’t be a problem,” waved Eliot like it wasn't a big deal, before he dropped and his vision descended into darkness. The prince didn’t lose conscience but he collapsed in exhaustion and both young mages were picked up and carried off by the people in white robes. The HeadMaster scattered the crowd before following after the mages in white robes to the school infirmary.

Meanwhile, Penelope was walking through the doors of a church and doing her best to traverse through the crowd before reaching an area restricted to the core members of the church only. Penelope smiled when she saw nobody was in this area and walked up to the statue of the Goddess of Life. She dropped to her knees and raised her head to the roof while her arms were out to the side. After a couple of seconds of mumbling, Penelope was engulfed in a blinding green light, lifting her off her knees and into the air. Penelope prepared herself for the intrusion of a small amount of divinity when her patron God supplied her with answers, what would always happen whenever she divined. Suddenly, the green light was replaced by a pitch black aura that ate any light that it came in contact with. Penelope started screaming a blood curdling scream that was luckily contained inside of the room thanks to the engravings in place. The amount of pressure she felt when she was gently touched with a small amount of divinity that had good intentions was already almost too much for Penelope to handle, making the rough entrance of a bigger amount of hostile divinity rip at her sanity as it overwhelmed her personal threshold for divinity that was already insanely higher than average. Along with the mental strain, her body reacted almost instantly when the black aura replaced the green light: Penelope had blood leaking from every pore and outlet it could possibly get through. Her mana was being emptied faster than she had ever experienced as the place where her mana pool was, that was even larger than Eliot’s, was impossibly filled with even more blood. It would be safe to assume that because of the amount of blood being removed from Penelope’s veins, she would be running low, however, the opposite was true as her heart did its best to pump the blood and disperse it throughout the body while her veins were on the verge of exploding.

Divining worked by getting information from a certain deity, if the deity wanted to give the information, which is why diviners are rare and only found in the church or cults in the case of an evil God. This also made it possible for a different deity to intervene in the process to ensure the divining failed. This is exactly what happened to Penelope, only a case this severe hasn’t been recorded in human history, probably because this was the only time in human history when one of the original three Goddesses intervened. The black aura only stayed for a split second and left as soon as it came, any more and Penelope might have died, and she would have still died if green mana didn’t rush into her instantly after the black mana left. It was clear that Penelope was unusually important to her patron God because the God went through a lot of trouble to nurse her back to health and even risked angering one of the three original Goddesses. Gaia, Penelope’s patron God, was actually unusually pleased with the outcome. Gaia knew that Eliot had a certain connection with the original goddess that intervened, but now Gaia was sure that Eliot was going to be their future champion, they wouldn't have resorted to such a display if that wasn't the case. That important piece of information wasn’t the greatest benefit, though. The greatest benefit was the fact that Penelope was now qualified to be a champion of Gaia. From young, Penelope showed a connection with Gaia and worshiped him while Gaia cherished her because a human like Penelope, as in a human so connected to Gaia, had only appeared once before in human history. Gaia was inordinately miffed over the fact that Penelope was only just a step away from being able to withstand the divinity that came from being his champion; the recent overwhelming of divinity pushed Penelope well past that step needed and Gaia was able to heal her with the diviness that was supposed to be used previously when divining. A human's threshold for divinity is something decided at birth and unalterable by conventional means, what just occurred was by no means conventional. A human's divineness threshold can be compared with a closed container, usually extremely small, and can only hold so much without bursting and killing the human. In some exceptionally rare instances, the threshold can grow if the amount of divineness just barely exceeds the amount it can hold, effectively stretching and enlarging the container without exploding it; the process is excruciatingly painful, though. Unfortunately for Penelope, she had the displeasure of being awake during the whole process, making her mental health Gaia’s main concern. An experience like that was enough to drive even some monks mad. A couple minutes later, the green mana had faded and a mostly healed Penelope was left on the ground as the experience she just went through was removed from her mind and she started wondering what happened.

“The last thing I remember was trying to divine, then whichever God is backing Eliot intervened, and I can’t remember anything after that,” Penelope took stock of her memories while holding her head and trying to contain the encroaching migraine. She used a spell that easily cleaned up the blood.

“I need to stay away from that Eliot, he’s too dangerous,” Penelope told herself as she got up from the floor before she walked to a pwey and collapsed into slumber. Penelope didn’t even notice the changes her body underwent when being overloaded and tainted with divinity. Her hazelnut eyes had been replaced with golden saucers, she had grown six centimeters taller, her blond hair had a small amount of green start to grow on the edges that will quickly overtake the blond, and any possible impurities, like health issues, birth defects, scars, or blemishes, were rectified.