Chapter 304

I wanted to punish the crown prince for daring to capture my sexy angel. I even have several ways to deliver such punishment. But, as I dug a tunnel underneath the capital — easily bypassing the magical defenses built to prevent such a problem — to bring her to the safehouse I had established for emergencies, unable to teleport due to her dangerous state, I ignored that desire.

At this point, revenge wasn’t as important as making sure her problems wouldn’t suddenly explode. The prince was not someone that I would have trouble reaching. I could take him down any time.

My focus was on making sure Mariel was safe.

Even as I created a tunnel to allow a secondary access point to my safe house, I did my best to avoid touching Mariel with my mana, afraid of somehow breaking the fragile balance between the Light and Darkness Sparks.

Usually, even the mana of different natures didn’t play well together, let alone the Sparks, and I didn’t know why Light and Darkness were the exceptions to that.

Not that it was the first time I had noticed that. Mariel had been using their opposing nature to keep her own ill-advised step into Divinity in check, preventing her Light spark from burning her body.

However, I didn’t dare to do anything until I could drag her into the center of the base and activate all the wards. Not just the defensive wards, but dozens and dozens of wards, some arcane while others relied mostly on tantric mana.

Designed especially to address the Divine Spark-related problems. After seeing Helga’s situation, I expected the others to experience similar problems, and was prepared for the worst.

Well, what I expected to be the worst. It seemed that I had to revise that estimation downward significantly. I used the wards to carefully examine her situation, trying to come up with a diagnosis.

There was good news. Well, one of them.

Against all odds, her situation was stable.

Unfortunately, that was the extent of what could be termed as good news. I had been hoping to just remove Darkness Spark from her, which would leave her only with her Light Spark. Unfortunately, the two Sparks were even more intertwined than I expected — or even thought to be possible.

Worse, the Sparks had already mixed with her body, enough to complete her first step into the Godhood, which took the removal of the Divine Spark from her off the table. Divine Spark was not like a mana, and an external source of power that could be added and removed without consequence.

Divine Spark bonded with the carrier on a fundamental, existential level, requiring a mental alignment while changing the physical parts subtly. It was still possible to reverse it when the bonding process was on the level of Chosen or Demigod, but once the vessel reached Godhood, the issue was far more troubling.

Worse, I didn’t even know where the changes made of the Divine Spark started and where Mariel’s angel nature ended. After all, she was the only angel I met under non-combat circumstances, and she was already juggling the two opposing Divine Sparks desperately then.

Making a judgment call about it was difficult.

I needed someone to help me brainstorm. After casting a few spells to make sure the base was secure and no one was following me, I teleported to Helga — finding it annoying that teleporting her back was equally impossible due to the way she bonded to her domain.

How frustrating. No wonder gods used avatars often. Unfortunately, the only method we know was too expensive in terms of Divine Spark for Helga to afford — not to mention the disadvantages of using such a method on System space.

“Still, it’s a good thing that you have found her, right?” Helga said.

“Certainly better than the alternative,” I answered. “Still, that doesn’t solve our problem. Any ideas?”

Helga stopped for a second, her beautiful face creased with a frown. Then, she spoke. “How far are you on forging those beacons,” she said.

I sighed. “So, you have the same idea as me. I was hoping that you would come up with something else.”

“You too. And, don’t do anything to reveal your location even if you receive a message from others. Just send the signal we arranged, and I’ll return. We can’t risk them baiting you.”

“Don’t worry too much,” she said with a wet chuckle. I kissed her one last time, and teleported to the capital. Luckily, the prince’s intervention gave a good reason for the disappearance of the master blacksmith. Still, I left a few letters for the apprentices, writing them like I had prepared beforehand.

Additionally, I had left several messages that could only be read by the girls, using our shared experience as a clue. The messages didn’t say anything other than wait near the capital, in case someone else understood it.

Then, I teleported to my real destination.

To Mariel.

For a moment, I said nothing, examining her beautiful visage and her marred wings. “You’re such a source of trouble,” I said with a chuckle as I started to build the ward Helga had designed around her. “You’re lucky that you’re so pretty. Because you’re the most troublesome one,” I said with a mocking sigh.”

Then, I grabbed her and teleported away.

—

{Strength: 45 Charisma: 45

Precision: 45 Perception: 45

Agility: 45 Manipulation: 45

Speed: 45 Intelligence: 62

Endurance: 73 Wisdom: 45}

{Purified Divine Spark: 58410}

{Pseudo-HP: 15000 Mana: 20000}

{ADDITIONAL SPARKS

Light - Chosen 7.4

Nature - Chosen 10

Knowledge - Chosen 10}

{MINIONS

GODDESSES

Elven Goddess

Goddess of Knowledge}