Chapter 214

I didn’t push the headmistress about the subject immediately, letting her handle the intense emotional rush it triggered for a long while before she started to answer.

“Gods are ... different,” she murmured. “I don’t know much about them much other than they are intensely linked to the Divine Spark. Some believe that they came from Divine Spark and conjure an existence later on,” she said.

“Like their avatars, only on a larger scale,” I suggested.

“Yes,” she said, not even looking annoyed at the interruption. It was clearly a difficult subject for her to think about.

“Considering just how much Divine Spark you have already merged in your body, I’m going to take a wild guess and say you’re not a believer of that theory.”

“No, I’m not,” she said. “At least not for the current generation of gods,” she said, but I could feel her tensing even as she did so, giving all the signals that it was not something she wanted to talk about, but slipped out.

I believed it to be an accident. First, I saw her trying to deliberately mislead me, and it was certainly not a topic she was particularly competent at. And, as much as someone spilling a critical nugget of information like that sounded unbelievable, she lived in isolation for almost two centuries, with limited contact with anyone, always struggling to hide her true nature.

It was not particularly surprising that she accidentally blurted critical information while talking to someone that she thought she could trust.

And in a way, she wasn’t wrong about trusting me. Not the way she thought, just following every little order of hers obediently, but actively solving her problems.

Of course, those might arrive in the form of some intimate activities she hadn’t been expecting, but he doubted that she would complain about that once they started.

The others were very enthusiastic participants.

“So, you wanted to replicate their achievement by absorbing the Light Spark,” I said, not focusing on that aspect. I might extract more about what different generations of gods meant if I pushed, but that would come in the form of putting her into a defensive pose.

Instead, I treated that as an inconsequential phrase, and focused on topics she was clearly more willing to talk about.

She just nodded, her expression proud yet desolate at the same time, showing that, while she was not proud of the situation she found herself in, struggling to survive, that didn’t change the pride she felt at her decision.

Admittedly, she had a lot to be proud of. I had no idea of the circumstances that led her to find that much Divine Spark while she was under the control of the system, but I was willing to bet that it was a singular event, forcing her to take such a monumental risk.

Yet, not only she did do so, but also she managed to develop a genius way to balance it with Darkness Spark that not only kept her Light Spark under control but also allowed her to hide from the System.

I admired her, though that only tempted me more to finally grab her wings and pull them back while I took her from behind, testing her angelic cries to the limit.

I used the opportunity to focus on the more practical aspects of the plight, and leave the topic of other gods to another day. None of her answers taught me anything I didn’t know from my own sneaky tests, but it was good to have an excuse for my knowledge.

“I think it's doable to help you contain divine spark more, especially when combined with the techniques that I managed to steal from ... her,” I started, the slight pause leaving no doubt about what I was talking about, and her frustration told me the exact nature of her feeling. Then, I asked a question that would bring the discussion to one that I had been searching for.

“Do you have any theory about why my containment spells are working better on Divine Spark?” I asked.

“It must be about the elastic nature of your mana, coming from the Degenerate,” she murmured dismissively. “It’s a problem for the impact of the rest of your spells, but coincidentally, it helps our circumstances.”

I barely held back laughter at the ease she dismissed the solution, her tone reminding me of the nobles talking about their servants. It was not insulting, at least not deliberately, but there was a casual attitude in her dismissal, the absolute confidence in the assessment.

Whether that underestimation was earned or not, it was a different subject.

“Who exactly is this degenerate?” I asked.

Precision: 40 Perception: 42

Agility: 40 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 39 Intelligence: 49

Endurance: 39 Wisdom: 51

HP: 7334 / 7334 Mana: 9000 / 9000 ]

SKILLS

Grandmaster Tantric [114/140]

Master Melee [100/100]

Master Biomancy [100/100]

Master Elemental [100/100]

Master Arcana [100/100]

Master Subterfuge [100/100]

Master Craft [85/100]

Expert Speech [75/75]

PERKS

Mana Regeneration

Skill Share

Empowerment (0/1)

Teleportation

COMPANIONS

[Titania - Level 35/38]

[Cornelia - Level 22/26]

[Helga - Level 22/26]

[Marianne - Level 21/29]