Chapter 16 Soul
The rare protected animal sat on the deck with him in a completely distorted state. The strong, cold smell of the sea filled the nostrils of both of them. The sound of the waves was muffled, as if from another world. The professor stared fascinatedly at the faint light reflected by the waves, as well as the strange shadows of fish flying past them. He subconsciously began to feel for paper and pen on his body.
Azuka had to interrupt him: "Professor, what do you know about the birth of warlocks?"
The other party was quickly diverted by his words: "The more devout the believers, the more likely they are to become warlocks. This is what Bishop Finns said."
Only nouveau riche without aristocratic status would go to church schools and eat from the same pot. Aristocratic families would specially invite senior priests of the rank of bishop or above to personally enlighten their children. The more powerful the nobles were, the higher the level of the priests they invited - they would play a role similar to that of private tutors for aristocratic children, but their status would be more noble.
However, for the less wealthy Brody family, Bishop Fiennes only came to go through the formalities and show his face, and the rest of the courses were still taught by the lower-level priests of the parish.
Fins was a junior apostle warlock, a status high enough to qualify him for the position of Bishop of the local diocese. Nova had listened to him spout nonsense about the glory of our God, until he finally, convinced he could no longer extract any useful information, finally gave up after he had finished his third lengthy speech emphasizing, or perhaps boasting about, how his sincere prayers would one day lead to the blessing of the God of Light and Glory.
"Bishop Fiennes," the five-year-old black-haired child stared coldly and sternly at the priest before him with smoky gray eyes that shouldn't belong on a child's face. "I don't understand why anyone can become a sorcerer simply by being devout enough. Is it because constantly stimulating a certain area of the right hemisphere's cerebral cortex causes some kind of pathology, or is the so-called 'sorcerer' a spiritual orientation?"
Finally, this solemn and great exploration ended with Bishop Fiennes's sarcasm and Mrs. Brody's rage after she sent him away with a smile.
Nova felt that the bishop probably didn't know the answer and was just using fake smiles and eye rolls to cover up his stupidity and ignorance - but his mother obviously didn't think so.
"Why are you—always so weird?!"
"Are you punishing me on purpose?!" His mother in this life grabbed his shoulders hysterically, her sharp nails almost digging into the flesh. "You always have some weird, disgusting, and repulsive bad thoughts in your head. You are not one of those dirty poor kids who say indecent and crazy things every day. You are the eldest son of the Brody family, the future Viscount Brody. How dare you say these things to Bishop Fiennes today? God of Light, what will your ambitious uncle do if he finds out?..."
She collapsed in the gorgeous but old soft chair, leaning on the armrest and crying bitterly.
"I'm sorry, Mom." Then she heard her eccentric only son whisper beside her, "But I don't know why you're angry, and I don't think Uncle will do anything if he finds out."
Mrs. Brody slowly raised her head, and her tear-filled eyes met a pair of smoky-gray eyes that were calm and indifferent like the desolate moon. She even shuddered and felt a kind of fear from the child.
Then she heard him say in a cold and tired tone, a tone that would never come out of a child's mouth: "Uncle would be happy to see that the heir of the Brody family has a bad relationship with the church. Due to the decision of the Royal Court Council on the heir, he will not do anything to us for the time being, but any action contrary to this may stimulate him to take risks - but if you need, I can go and apologize to that unsophisticated bishop now."
Nova frowned at the unpleasant memory, forcing himself to focus on the current topic. After roughly recounting Bishop Fiennes's theory, the professor concluded, "The Vatican and the Academy have controlled the relevant information, and very little documentation has been circulated, so I'm not particularly familiar with the specifics."
The other party listened quietly and attentively without interrupting him, which made Nova feel a little more favorable towards him.
"That's partially true, but I'll start with a brief, systematic introduction." Azuka pondered for a moment, then gently touched his chest. "This is our 'origin,' or soul. When we first resonate with one of the various 'ideas' in the world, the idea resonates with the origin, leaving an imprint on it and forming a fixed circuit. This resonance allows us to store and call upon the power of that idea within the origin."
He spoke those obscure words and sentences like a most responsible teacher, without realizing that what he was describing was knowledge strictly guarded by the Church and the Society, and would never be revealed to ordinary people.
"That bishop only knew the idea, not the reason. The easiest way to become a sorcerer is indeed to choose and believe in a deity. This way, believers don't need to resonate with elusive concepts, but can resonate directly with the deity. Successful resonance will leave the deity's aura within one's being, making it easier to acquire the concepts represented by that deity."
Nova nodded thoughtfully—I understand, the gods are middlemen.
The God's Favored One chuckled with an ambiguous tone. "However, at the same time, because it doesn't resonate directly with the ideal, believers who wish to unleash their power can only create new circuits through various media, such as chanting, spells, and magical tools, thereby guiding the ideal away from its source and into the outside world. This is also the most orthodox basic form of magic today. The method I mentioned earlier, directly resonating with the ideal, is now considered fanciful and heretical by people."
"So, non-believers can also become sorcerers—but the major churches don't allow non-believers to exist." The professor quickly discovered the key point: "Why? Will the lack of believers affect the gods?"
"Perhaps, but I don't know the specific reason yet." The God's Favored One said softly, "For thousands of years, countless small sects have been swallowed up by more powerful sects, which also means that countless gods have become unknown, until they completely disappeared into the dust of history."
"...I've got that. Next question." The professor nodded slightly. "The definition of a God-favored One is someone who has been blessed by the gods and can exert their power without the aid of a medium. In other words, a God-favored One is actually—"
Those without faith.
The word was blocked by the sudden flow of air into his mouth. Nova frowned and realized that a circle of wind wall had appeared around the two of them. The other person smiled at him and gently touched his lips with his index finger.
“…”
The black-haired young man expressionlessly twitched his silly, open mouth, indicating that he would keep it a secret. But the religious leader of the Natalin people, the favored one of the storm god Utoska, was actually an unbeliever? This world was truly absurd.
The air finally escaped his mouth, and the professor coughed softly for a long time, which made Azuka feel a little guilty. He was just thinking about whether to help pat his back when the other man finally calmed down his breathing and slowly raised his head to stare at him.
"One last question - can my essence resonate with a certain philosophy? Can I learn your... magical, idealistic, and non-principled magic?"
“…”
Azuka gazed deeply into those smoky gray eyes. They were still slightly darker from lack of sleep, the whites of the eyes bloodshot, but the intense, pure emotion they held shone with a terrifying brilliance like molten iron.
It is a dazzling ambition and desire, but its object is not any material thing in the world that can be measured by money. It is more like a child's obsession with the desolate wilderness and chasing the rotating starry sky - it is a very primitive, human curiosity and desire for the unknown.
"...Your soul is extremely, extremely powerful." The God's Favored One spoke softly, as if afraid of awakening something. Nova noticed that the golden lines around the other's pupils were converging towards his eyes at a visible speed, dyeing them a dazzling gold that was difficult to look at directly. At this moment, the God's Favored One looked more like an inviolable god.
"The Okansele River cannot leave any trace on your soul." At this moment, he acted as if he had seen the soul of another person through their eyes—or perhaps he really had seen something: "Our origin, or soul, is born bound by seven shackles: birth, intelligence, language, movement, emotion, death, and transcendence. As people are born, grow, and die, they gradually release the first six shackles from themselves. Only the seventh shackle, 'transcendence', cannot be shaken off."
"But I don't even see any shackles on your soul. It is extremely active and full of vitality."
Nova blinked, leaning back a bit uncomfortably. Perhaps because he was trying to see the "soul" more clearly, the other person was a little too close to him, and he felt uneasy about this unfamiliar pressure. But the next second, someone held the back of the professor's head, forcing his cheek to press against the other person's chest.
"—like now."
Amidst a sudden and immense tremor, he heard the voice of the God's Favored One echo in his ears: "As a Saint Warlock, King Corentin burned his very soul to successfully create the Wall of Sighs. The concepts he chose were 'wind' and 'protection'."
"To pass through the Wall of Sighs, one must collide with his ideas. My essence is constantly vibrating under a similar resonance. The power of the ideas of others will also make it difficult for their essence to break through the barrier of 'protection'. However, your soul has not reacted at all, as if it has not been disturbed at all."
The ship rocked violently, a mournful cry echoing from the hull as if about to disintegrate. The God-Favoured One shielded the back of his head with his hand. Nova could clearly hear the other's heartbeat, steady and without any hint of "trembling."
Then he heard the man's sighing reply.
"So I'm sorry, because your soul is too powerful, I judge that it will be difficult for you to resonate with certain concepts - in other words, you cannot become a warlock."
Nova Brody in the comics was just an ordinary person until he chopped off his head.
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