Spurt—!

The sound of blood spurting rang out in the room. However, Sylvia felt no pain.

'Huh?'

Slowly opening her eyes, Sylvia looked down at the blade. She saw that it was held firmly in place by a hand.

She then turned her gaze up and met eyes with Theodore, who, strangely, had gray hair instead of his usual black one.

"What are you doing?", Theodore frowned as he yanked the sword out of Sylvia's hand and threw it on the floor.

"Kill me", Sylvia muttered.

"Wh- What?"

"Kill me"

"..."

She then lets out a self-deprecating chuckle. "I'm a nuisance. No one cares about me. It's better that I just die"

Theodore closed his eyes in thoughts for a few seconds before speaking up. "Shut up"

"What?", Sylvia widened her eyes in surprise.

'Theo has never been so rude to me before!'

Oblivious to Sylvia's thought, Theodore continued.

"It's better that you just die? Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?"

"..."

"Do you know how many days duke Ecertold spent looking for you instead of protecting the border?"

"..."

"Do you know how restless Ria and Krista are?"

"..."

"Do you even know how worried Semier is? He would have exposed himself to the Empire just to request for more people to search for you if it wasn't for me stopping him!"

Although Theodore's words were convincing, they weren't what Sylvia was most worried about.

"Th- That's not the point! I really need to be dead since I'm becoming a Voi—"

"Stop!", Theodore shouted, which made Sylvia shiver in fear. "Don't you dare say anything idiotic!"

"..."

"You don't care about your own life? Fine. But I still can't let you die. Look at me!"

He then stepped back, giving Sylvia full view of his tattered body.

Sylvia widened her eyes in shock as she saw the full extent of Theodore's injuries. 'H- How can he still stand...? No, how can anyone be standing with that many wounds!'

"See how many injuries I got? I spent days rescuing you and I had to fight a <C> rank!", he pointed towards Keith, who was now a mangled corpse.

"..."

"And a necromancer!", he then pointed towards Nick, who died from a clean cut to the heart.

"..."

"So please, don't make my efforts go down the drain. And don't worry,". His tone then got more gentle. "Everything will be fine, I'm here for you"

"..."

"You deserve to live like any others"

Panic then flashed through Theodore's eyes as he realized something. Eventually, he calmed down and spoke with a cold tone.

"So don't be a whiny little bitch and get up!"

"O- Okay...", Sylvia nodded meekly, still confused about what had just happened.

It was then that Theodore moved towards her again, picked her up and carried her on his back.

After a while, Sylvia calmed down and looked at the surroundings, which were full of gore and blood.

'Theo did all this...? Just how much did he go through to save me?'

"Rest for a bit. We won't be getting to the city for a few hours", Theodore said, snapping her out of her thoughts.

Nodding, Sylvia closed her eyes and tried to rest.

'Maybe Theo's right... everything will be fine...'

She didn't know where the sense of security she was feeling came from, but she somehow knew that as long as she listened to his words right now, everything would work out.

Thus, she fell asleep on Theodore's warm back, while suppressing the Void essence that was slowly building up inside her.
***

'Shit! I can't believe I said that cheesy line!'

In fact, I didn't think of the part where I said that I was there for her. Instead, I stole the line from Arthur.

'Of course it's cheesy... and effective considering that it belonged to Arthur'

As to why I decided to say such a line?

Well, I just wanted to calm her down since if she was depressed and decided to kill herself, duke Ecertold wouldn't let me alone, and the plotline would go very awry. You know, a heroine dying and all.

'Why do I have to go through this...?', I was starting to question my decision. 'I just wanted to avoid getting tortured by the duke...'

Duke Evanos Ecertold would definitely try to extract information from me, regardless of whether I was innocent or not. The fact that 'Lyra', or, 'I' was last seen with Sylvia would be more than enough to justify his actions.

'I hope that calling her a whiny little bitch works...'

After all, I still needed to create a distance between me and Sylvia, and me rescuing her really didn't help my case.

'...What's done is done'

I decided that it was no use thinking about it any further.

'I just need to forcefully create a scenario where Arthur saves Sylvia then'

"Argh! Not again!", I winced as pain coursed through my entire body once more.

Stopping for a bit to catch my breath, I continued running towards Leiast city.

'I can barely move my body anymore...'

In fact, if it wasn't for me forcefully moving my body using [Red lightning], I would have collapsed on the spot.

Although I really wanted to just drop to the ground and rest, I knew better than to do so. After all—

'They might catch up any minute now!'

—Arthur had to fight much more knights in the novel than I did. So it was safe to assume that there were still plenty of enemies who were trying to track me down after I wrecked havoc on that weird torture facility of theirs.
...

The Kaiera mountain range at night was serene. However, I couldn't really enjoy the scenery, not when a certain pushover was locking eyes with me.

"What are you doing here?", Arthur frowned as he placed his right hand on the hilt of his greatsword.

"I should be the one to ask that question! What are you doing here?", I said as I tightened by grip on Distorias, my new scabbard.

Although I knew what Arthur was here to do, I still had to ask that question. After all, I didn't want him to misunderstand anything.

"I'm here to find Sylvia!", he said in a righteous tone.

Before I could say anything, however, Arthur pulled his greatsword out and pointed it at me. "It seems like I don't have to go through the trouble of finding her anymore. However—"

He then closed his eyes as if in pain. "—Today I lost more than I have gained. When the officials said that you were the main suspect, I didn't want to believe them. But now, I have to curse my past self for being so naive! I'm greatly disappointed in you, my riva—"

"Wait!", I interrupted him with a shout. "I'm here to rescue Sylvia too!"

"You... are?", Arthur looked at me suspiciously.

"Yes", I nodded fervently.

'Just drop it already! I don't have time to fight you!'

"Then how did you find her?"

Thinking for a bit, I countered. "How did you find her"

Completely caught off-guard by my question, Arthur stuttered the truth without thinking. "G- Goddess Lumaria told me where she is!"

"I see...", I nodded my head thoughtfully.

"B- But that's besides the point!", Arthur shouted. "How did you find her?"

"God Vihar showed me the way", I grinned. "Besides, if I really did kidnap her, why would I carry her out in the open with this much wounds on me?"

'As if I'd be crazy enough to tell you that I tracked her down by her smell and Mana signature!'

Oblivious to my thoughts, Arthur bowed apologetically.

Fwoooooosh—!

"Sorry for suspecting you. I'll c—"

<The first movement of [V- World splitter]: Shredding slash>

Riiiip—!

A violent ripping sound rang out as space distorted in an arc following my sword, which was slashing not at Arthur, but above him.

"Shit! That fucking strand of Light!"

I couldn't help but to curse as my sword bounced right off the thing I was attacking: The strand of Light that was descending onto Arthur's head.

Not wanting to risk getting hurt, I widened our distance.

Arthur's eyes then turned cloudy, signifying that he was now under the influence of the strand of Light.

"I can't believe I almost fell for your tricks, villain!"

BAM—!

He kicked the ground and exploded towards me.

Widening my eyes in surprise, I blocked his strike with my sword.

CLANG—!

Not giving me any time to breathe, Arthur dashed in and swung his greatsword continuously.

CLANG—! CLANG—! CLANG—!...

This persisted for several more minutes, before Arthur got impatient.

"ENOUGH! I'LL END IT NOW!"

<[SSS – The Goddess of Light’s vessel]>

A pillar of bright Light descended upon him, painting the surrounding gold.

After a while, Arthur stepped out of the pillar, glaring at me with his shinning golden eyes.

'SHIT! IS HE ACTUALLY TRYING TO KILL ME?'

Seeing that Arthur had taken a fighting stance, I raised my guards while trying my best to calm down my instincts which were screaming that I had no chance against him in my current conditio—

WOOOOOSH—!

Before I could even finish my thoughts, Arthur had already disappeared from his spot.

'Huh...? Why is my back so light?'

I looked around confusedly, only to see Arthur standing behind me with his back to me while holding Sylvia in a princess carry.

Still facing away from me, Arthur spoke righteously. "Repent!"

Feeling a really bad premonition, I tried to get into a defensive stance. Before I could even get into position, however—

Spurt—!

—Large gashes simultaneously appeared on my chest, shoulders, and legs.

"ARGHHHHHHHHH!"

A loud scream escaped my mouth as I felt pain all over my body. Eventually, my legs gave out and I fell to the ground.

THUD—!

Finally, turning around, Arthur looked at me with pity. "I will spare your life so that you can repent, villain! Be grateful that I—"

"THEO!"

Sylvia, who had just been woken up by my loud scream, jumped out of Arthur's hands and staggered towards me with one of her legs dragging behind her.

"Wait Sylvia, he's still dangerou—"

"Shut up! Why did you even attack him!?"

It was then that she arrived before me.

Looking over my wounds, Sylvia bit her lower lips and closed her eyes in concentration.

Eventually, she opened them again and gave me an apologetic look. "Sorry Theodore, I don't have enough mana to heal you"

She then placed her hands over my wounds. "This is going to sting a bit"

{Freeze}

Tinkle—!

Ice crystalized on the gashes on my body, freezing them. 

I could feel a piercing pain as layers of Ice formed on my body. However, I managed to keep my scream in.

Eventually, the Ice stopped and the sensation of pain dulled.

Sylvia wiped the sweat off her forehead and sighed in relief. "Sorry for the pain... but you'll bleed out if I leave it be"

In response, I slowly stood up and nodded my head. However, I fell almost immediately after standing up.

"Ah! Be careful!", Sylvia said as she quickly supported my falling body up with her hands

It was then that Arthur appeared behind us.

He placed his hand on Sylvia's shoulders. "Sylvia, why did you help the villain that kidnapped you? I mean... you're certainly benevolent enough to do so. But a—"

"So that's why you attacked him?", Sylvia interrupted him with a cold tone.

"Yes."

"I see...", she then kicked Arthur on his shin. "He saved me! Apologize to him now!"

Instantly, Arthur's eyes were cleared of its cloudy looks.

Arthur then looked around confusedly for a bit before bow to me. "I apologize! I shouldn't have judg—"

Before he could finish his sentence, I walked up to him with Sylvia's help and smacked him on the head.

BAM—!

"Ow!"

With his skill having just worn off, Arthur was no different from a <G> ranked individual now. As such, he could felt pain whenever I hit him.

'Heh... How sturdy', I grinned inwardly.

His head was hard. So hard, in fact, that I wondered if his denseness towards everyone's love to him other than Marie's came from that thick skull of his.

'It could work as a stress ball'

As I was about to continue hitting Arthur's head to my satisfaction, however, I froze on the spot as I realized something.

"Shit! I'll leave relieving my stress for later. We have to move, now!"

"Huh", Arthur, having recovered from being hit on the head, looked at me confusedly. "Why? Shouldn't we rest to heal our injurie—"

"No. Thanks to you activating your Skill, the kidnappers probably know where we are now. So just shut up and follow my directions"

With Leiast city still being a few hours away from where we were, I decided to lead the 3 of us to the place I haven't visited in a long time.

'Let's just hope I can remember the order of the mana circuits'
...

"So... is this where we hide...?", Arthur eyed me skeptically as he stood in front of a shabby wooden cabin, which was in fact, Alicia's old home.

"Yes. Don't ask too many question and just go in already"

Entering the house, I ignored the furniture which were in a horrible state and told Sylvia to help me get to a corner.

I ran my hand across the smooth floor. After a while, I came across a groove. Gripping onto the groove, I pulled my hand up.

Creak—!

A creaking sound rang out in the old cabin as a well-hidden trapdoor was opened.

"Let's get in"

Both Arthur and Sylvia nodded and helped me descend underground to a hidden passageway.

Eventually, we arrived at an old transfer gate, which was the way we would travel to the Hall of Divinity to seek temporary refuge.

Staggering towards the mana circuit board, I closed my eyes to remember which parts Alicia had deliberately messed up.

Opening them again, I rearranged the circuits.

Vuam—!

A distinct sound could be heard as the transfer gate was now working again.

'I'll have to thank my past self for this one!'

After all, if I wasn't that paranoid about Alicia betraying us back then, I'd have not watched her mess up the circuits and instead, prepare my stuff with Krista.

Seeing that Sylvia and Arthur was looking at the transfer gate with amazed gazes, I sighed. "Let's just go through it already"
...

What appeared before our eyes was the mesmerizing Hall of Divinity with its shinning Holy aura.

Watching Sylvia's and Arthur's eyes sparkle at the pure white building, I smirked. 'What a bunch of country bums'

Although my reaction was exactly the same as theirs the first time I saw the Hall, I had to admit that calling them country bums felt good when I'm the one doing it.

'Well... it doesn't matter. Let's just buff them, rest for a day, and then go to the city'

And with that thought, I woke Sylvia and Arthur out of their trance and urged them to go inside.

As soon as we walked in, we were greeted with the sight of the overly-decorated door of Goddess Lumaria's room.

'She's still pretentious alright...'

And as expected, Arthur didn't share my thoughts. "Wh- What a great door! Truly befitting of the Goddess I follows!"

He then rushed into the room as if he was drawn towards it.

CLANK—!

As soon as the door was closed, Sylvia looked at me with a confused gaze.

Sighing, I decided to just satiate her curiosity now. "This is the Hall of Divinity. Basically, you can make a covenant¹I'm replacing 'bond' with 'covenant' now since it sounds a lot better with the Gods and Goddesses here"

Sylvia's eyes sparkled at my words.

"So... see if you can make any covenants, I guess..."

"Okay!"

Crack—!

She then bent her broken leg back to its natural shape and excitedly walked deeper into the Hall, completely ignoring the pain.

'H- How did she even do that so nonchalantly!?'

I then decided to not care about it any longer for the sake of my sanity. Thus, I just excused her behavior to 'typical Sylvia stuff'.

Seeing that I had nothing to do, I decided to follow Sylvia and see if she would make a covenant with the God of Ice like in the novel.
***

Sylvia walked through the Hall of Divinity with rushed steps while completely ignoring the pain that was coursing through her body. After all, she had always wanted to visit this place after reading about it in an old book.

'The Hall is supposed to be lost... how did Theo find it?'

Before she could think about it any further, however, someone suddenly materialized in front of her.

|Hello!|

"Ah!", Sylvia fell onto the floor in surprise.

She then turned her head up and locked eyes with the person that had just made her fall to the floor.

"Wh- Who are you...?"

|Is that the way you talk to a Goddess?|

Cold sweat suddenly formed on Sylvia's back as she heard those words.

Eventually, she calmed down and scrutinized the figure before her closer.

She had silver hair just like Sylvia. However, her eyes were platinum inside of light-blue. And, most noticeably of all, she was beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that the only word to describe her was 'divine'.

Sylvia was soon snapped out of her thoughts by the self-proclaimed Goddess' somewhat playful voice.

|Done admiring me? I know that I'm very pretty and all but I'm not into girls|

'You call yourself... pretty?'

Sylvia wanted to scream out loud. After all, 'pretty' was a massive understatement. If someone like her was merely 'pretty', then Sylvia would have looked like the pebbles on the side of the road.

However, she couldn't say that out loud since she wasn't sure what would be this self-proclaimed Goddess' reaction to her saying that.

She might be flattered, or she might smite Sylvia down for trying to butter up to her.

'I- It's better to say nothing'

Sylvia turned her gaze up again, only to see the Goddess' face being just mere inches away from hers.

|Do you want to make a covenant with me?|

Flustered, Sylvia answered almost instinctively. "Y- Yes"

|Great|, the Goddess grinned and then moved closer to Sylvia, not giving her time to regret her decision. |Then let's make a <IV> graded one, shall we? I have a lot of spare divinity after all|

Before Sylvia could react, the Goddess lightly placed her lips on her forehead.

Instantly, Sylvia could feel a surge of power running through her entire body. And the translucent blue screen that appeared before her only confirmed that she had indeed gotten stronger.

=====

Name: Sylvia Ecertold

Race: Dragon (Part-angel)

Rank: D+

Strength: D+

Agility: D+

Stamina: E+

Intelligent: D+

Mana capacity: C

Profession: Sovereign of the Stars (Lv.1)

--

Affinities:

[Perfect - Ice magic]

[Perfect - Star magic]

[High - Water magic]

[Low - Lightning magic]

[Low - Time magic]

[Low - Space magic]

--

Skills:

[SS - Authorities]

The user can infuse Mana into her throat to let out a voice that carries certain <Authorities>.

[S - Magic Eyes of emotions]

The innate skill of Estellare/Sylvia Ecertold. This skill <passively> makes the user's facial expression of emotions 'infectious'. When in high-stress situations, the user can use the skill <actively>, directing the 'infection' of emotion into herself, effectively raising her power up to a major rank at maximum. However, the skill may be entirely deactivated for a varying period of time if used beyond its limits.

[S - Polymorph]

Innate skill of every pure-blooded dragons. Allows the user to turn into his/her own counterpart of most other sentient races.

[A - Mana sense (Superior)]

The user is granted a sense of Mana superior to most lifeforms

--

Battle arts:

[V - Cosmomancy]

Magic art created by Goddess of the Stars Serolris. It allows the practitioner to harness the power of the Great cosmos to rain attacks down onto enemies. Upon certain levels of mastery, the Magic art can recreate extremely destructive events that had and will happen in the Great cosmos, albeit on a much smaller scale.

=====

Sylvia widened her eyes in surprise. 'I'm <D+> rank now...?'

Not just that, she had just gained a <V> graded battle art, a powerful yet infamous one at that.

However, there was one detail that confused her.

"Serolris...?"

|Yep|, the Goddess spoke as she lazily floated on the air. |That's my name. You're meeting a Goddess of the Stars in the flesh... well it would be more correct to say 'in the Holy mana'|

"I- I see...", not knowing how to respond to that, Sylvia defaulted to one of the most generic responses.

Seeing this, Serolris sighed. |Look, I was going to carefully lead the conversation to the topic that I wanted to talk to you about. But seeing as you're obviously not good with maintaining conversations, I'll have to put it bluntly|

Her tone then turned serious. |You're turning into a Void fiend soon. No, with the amount of Void essence building up inside you, it's more like you're turning into a Void lord|

"I see...", Sylvia nodded her head.

'So Iferus was telling the truth after all'

|Hm?|, Serolris looked at Sylvia with intrigue. |You don't seem all that surprised|

"That's because I'm already aware of it..."

|And yet you dared to venture into the Hall of Divinity? I don't know whether to call you brave or reckless|

Thinking for a while, Serolris eventually sighed as she placed her hands on Sylvia's shoulders. |It would be embarrassing if the mortal I made a covenant with became a creature of the Void so I'll have to give you this|

She then snapped her fingers. Almost immediately after, a white snake appeared out of thin air and dropped onto Sylvia's head.

'Leil...?'

However, Sylvia soon shook such thoughts off her head. After all, there was no way Leil could live that long.

'All snakes look the same I guess...'

She then turned towards Serolris to look for an explanation.

|This right here is a God beast|, Serolris explained. |I'd have liked to give you a more combat-oriented one but you're in need of something that can stop the Void essence from spreading any further right now|

'Now that I think about it... I could feel the Void essence stop building up as soon as the snake appeared'

"At least the snake's cute", Sylvia muttered.

|I know, right? I would have gone with a cockroach but I figured that girls nowadays don't like them anymore. Aren't I trendy?|

"Ermm...", Sylvia was deliberating on whether or not to say anything.

However, upon seeing Serolris, who was expecting her to say something, Sylvia sighed and decided to take a risk.

"...You are indeed trendy!"

|Of course I am!|, Serolris laughed.

She then turned her gaze towards the snake. |By the way, what are you going to name it?|

"Leil", Sylvia answered almost immediately.

|That's a good name|, Serolris nodded her head. |Anyways, as long as you stay within 30 meters of Leil at all time, you won't be turned into a Voi—|

She suddenly paused her sentence and frowned as she looked towards a certain gray-eyed halfling who was staggering towards them.

|Oh, an intruder?|

|It doesn't matter|, Serolris said as she concentrated Star mana on her hands. |Let's get back to our conversation after I deal with the insolent bug. Don't worry too much about me, I have more than enough divinity to spare after all|

<[Starlight shot]>