The Primitive Mystery

I shook the blood off my fists and walked over to my companions. Goblin blood dripped steadily from the leather armor formed of mana.

"Anyway, it's a relief we won. You all worked hard."

"Thanks to you, it was an easy victory. Your strength is no joke."

"Wow, seriously. Nord, you're ridiculously strong. I completely underestimated you."

Est clicked his tongue in amazement. Between his words, he kept stabbing his short spear into the necks of the fallen goblins. Thorough confirmation kills, as always.

"It's not that I'm strong. This magic did most of the work."

If it had been the old me, I wouldn't have won so easily against twenty motherless little shits trying to close in for melee. I'd even let my guard down earlier and taken an axe to the shoulder.

"Is that so? Just what is that magic? Or rather, is it even magic?"

Paragon asked in open admiration as he wiped down his stone staff.

Aah. Of course they wouldn't know. This world was full of half-finished humans.

"It was once called... a curse. An ancient shamanistic spell."

"A curse? It's not dangerous, is it? You didn't push yourself too hard for our sake, did you..."

Francesca worried as she stroked the mana coating over my body. Even though it was pure mana, the sensation felt exactly like real skin. It was strangely fascinating.

"It should be fine. More importantly, this is the magic Francesca and I discovered on that stone tablet we excavated together."

"What?"

"The stone tablet? You found it in these ruins?! Where?! Show me!"

Est, finished with his confirmation kills, came running over in a panic at my words. His over-the-top reaction made me briefly regret revealing the source, but I quickly changed my mind. This ruin would be swarming with archaeologists soon anyway. There was no guarantee I was the only one who knew about this magic. The Mages' Guild might have already identified it. It did resemble an Ulster shamanistic spell, after all.

So I just told them straight.

"Over here. I'll show you. Though I still have no idea how to undo this magic."

"Isn't that also a form of magic? If you cut off the mana supply, it should dispel."

"I don't know how."

"...You don't even know how to handle mana, yet you used the magic?"

"I read the letters and it just started swirling around on its own."

That whatever-it-was phrase about praying to the sky god had triggered this transformation. The moment I read it, my body changed and the power of some Earth hero took root inside me.

"Ah, perhaps the writing there was the incantation?"

"Activating with such a simple phrase is the mark of low-grade magic. A short incantation couldn't possibly produce such tremendous effects."

As a priest who dealt with divine arts, Paragon declared it with absolute certainty.

But right now, the origin of the magic mattered less than how the hell to turn it off.

"Cut off the mana... cut off the mana..."

I muttered, focusing on sensing it. Let's try feeling for the qi they talked about in that pseudo-oriental medicine nonsense.

Shwaak— Shwaak— Shwaak—.

The moment I closed my eyes, I felt it immediately. No, "felt" was too weak a word. It was overwhelmingly obvious.

I could instantly tell that something besides blood was flowing through my body. Hell, I could feel it even with my eyes open. It was like having surgical catheters wrapped throughout my body, pumping nutrients through every vessel.

"Fuck! This feels disgusting!"

I screamed, ordering the catheters circulating through me to stop.

"Begone, spirit of the bear woman!!!"

Shuuuuuuuk—.Chiiiik.Thud!

With my shout, the catheter-like energy inside me disappeared. Or rather, it didn't disappear completely. It simply shrank, like a dick after one round. It was an incredibly bizarre sensation, as if I could suddenly feel every single nerve in my body.

"Huh?"

My legs were trembling violently. The feeling was different from the usual muscle pain after a hard day of training my lower body. It felt like all the muscle in my legs had literally volatilized and flown away. I couldn't feel a single ounce of power in my normally rock-solid thighs.

"Nord! Your legs are shaking like crazy!"

"You don't say? Thanks for the live commentary. It's my body, of course I know. Looks like this is the end for me. Good night."

"Nord!"

Francesca caught me as my legs gave out completely. Paragon clicked his tongue, watching me with clear disapproval.

"Why are you overreacting so dramatically? That's simply mana exhaustion."

"Mana exhaustion?"

This was what happened when your MP hit zero? My legs, which had faithfully carried me through the heaviest squats back on Earth, were now trembling like they belonged to someone else's mom?

"From what I observe, you don't appear to be a mage?"

"Obviously not. I'm wearing armor and swinging a sword."

"That makes sense. Since you're not a mage and likely never handled mana before, your total mana reserves must have been quite small. Excessive use of such powerful magic simply drained you dry."

"Holy shit."

If Paragon was right, the reason I was in this pathetic state was because I barely had any mana to begin with. Me, a mana premature-ejaculator! It was so depressing I could cry.

"Does running out of mana usually feel like this?"

"I've experienced it myself, so I know. Your mind stays clear, you can speak normally, but your body has no strength, correct? It's a very common symptom."

"Ah... so the magic does have side effects."

"Side effects? Just mana exhaustion?"

When I looked troubled, Paragon widened his eyes as if I'd said something ridiculous.

"It's the opposite. The opposite. I don't know how strong you were originally, but for someone who's never used magic before to wield it for so long and only suffer mild mana depletion? That's actually an incredible feat. This is an astonishing spell."

He wiped the sweat from the hand gripping his staff.

"I'm extremely curious about its true nature now. Let's go see this tablet."

I had deflated completely, like a promotional balloon with all the air let out. Or a vinyl doll that had danced itself to death.

"Ah! Then I'll carry you!"

"Huh?"

Francesca, who had been supporting me, suddenly scooped me up in her arms. Being princess-carried by someone twenty centimeters shorter than me was utterly humiliating.

"Wait, since you know the location, couldn't you just go by yourself?"

"I can't read the letters on the tablet."

"Ah, damn. Right."

Then there was no helping it. I resigned myself to being carried. It definitely wasn't because of the massive breasts pressing against my arm. The thick leather armor prevented me from feeling much anyway. A truly regrettable fact.

With a slight shift, Francesca carried me piggyback-style to the stone tablet. At its excavated base, the same characters as before remained.

"Huh? This is supposed to be writing? Oh, you mean these squiggles?"

Est pointed at the cuneiform characters with his finger.

I offered my condolences to the poor letters that weren't even being acknowledged as proper text.

"Yes. They're characters from an ancient civilization."

"Strings from the Golden Age. We have holy relics in our church with similar writing."

"Holy relics? Really?"

Francesca's eyes sparkled with excitement as she set me down. She kept stealing glances at my face.

"Nord. Nord. How do you read this?"

"It's yáǵeswō deiwōm dyeus. It ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠means 'pray to the sky god.'"

"Ya... yauge... what?"

Est stumbled over the pronunciation.

I repeated it slowly and clearly.

"Pray (yáǵeswō) to the sky god (deiwōm dyeus)."

"To the village idiot god, one kowtow!"

Mister Village Idiot God. Courtesy of the lady over there. I wanted to pretend I hadn't heard that.

"Francesca? It looks like heavenly punishment is about to strike Est soon, so maybe keep your distance from him."

"W-what did I do?! I pronounced it right!"

"Sure you did. And don't come near me either."

Creeping along the ground, I put some distance between myself and Est. I didn't know what kind of god this sky god was, but it might just shoot lightning through that hole in the ceiling.

"Yau. Yauge. Yage? De? Deiom? Wom? Agut!"

Francesca tried imitating me and bit her tongue. Even though she was a dwarf thief, apparently her tongue didn't benefit from DEX.

"Owowow... I can't pwonounce it... too hawd..."

"Is it really that difficult?"

Well, pronunciation differences between languages were inherently hard to overcome. I'd struggled plenty with English back on Earth.

Whiiiish—!

At that moment, Paragon, who had been mumbling to himself, suddenly whistled.

"—yáǵeswō deiwōm dyeus."

His pronunciation was remarkably accurate. As expected of a priest. Even among fellow idiots, the experience of having read actual texts gave him an edge.

We waited for the result. Would another fucking Vector Man companion appear?

....

....

....

".........Nothing happened?"

"Huh?"

What the hell? I tilted my head at Paragon, who showed no change whatsoever.

"Paragon, don't you feel anything? You should feel like perfectly cooked pasta strands spreading through your whole body with spinach sauce gushing out everywhere."

"What a vivid analogy. I would have been happier if I could have experienced it myself."

His voice was dry. Panicking at the thought of being seen as a con-artist lying graduate student, I spoke quickly.

"But it definitely worked for me."

"Hmm... I can guess why. This isn't a simple incantation. It's closer to the Prayer of Consecration that we priests memorize."

"Consecration... what? Damn it, you've been saying incomprehensible things this whole time."

Est, who had been silent, grumbled while shaking goblin blood off his spear. He'd apparently given up on trying to pronounce the tablet's text.

"A consecration prayer. It means a prayer that bestows blessings."

"So you're saying this is holy magic?"

It was rather funny that the miracles priests performed by borrowing divine power were called "magic," but the translation came close enough that it couldn't be helped. The ominous connotations "shamanism" or "magic" carried in East Asian cultures simply didn't apply to the mysterious powers of this world.

"No, it seems different from ordinary holy magic."

Paragon stamped his staff on the ground.

"If this were holy magic, my mana of abundance should have reacted. But there was no response at all."

"Then what is it?"

"I don't know either?"

Hey, you fucking monk bastard. You act all high and mighty just to say that?

"I'm not a mage, remember? If you want proper answers, find a learned wizard. Or put in a request at the Mages' Guild if you're desperate."

"Damn it, forget the origin. I just want to pronounce it correctly."

Est flopped onto his back. Francesca rested her chin in her hand, tilting her head. She was actually propping her elbow on her own chest to support her chin. Incredible. How was that physically possible?

"Hmm— Maybe this tablet contains a special enchantment that only grants that magic to the first person who reads it?"

"That doesn't seem likely. If so, Gold Class adventurers would have noticed something. Their mana sensitivity is sharper than ours."

I agreed with that assessment. When I'd recited the text, the sensation had felt like mana erupting from within my own body.

"Why did you mention the consecration prayer earlier?"

"Because of the wording. Didn't you say the tablet's text means praying to a god?"

"Pray to the sky god."

Francesca repeated it. Not in the ancient pronunciation, but close enough.

"Exactly. If Nord's interpretation is correct, then magic that gains power through worshiping a god is a primitive form of consecration prayer."

"Primitive...?"

I read the text at the base of the tablet once more.

It spoke of ancient shamanism, the primitive mystery, and a druid's secret art that granted humans the power of beasts.

The person who wrote this was likely an Erin from the ancient civilization. In other words, the magic called Beast Regression was so ancient that even they had described it as a "primitive mystery."

Fuck, of course it was ancient. It might be thousands of years old.

"Before faith became established among humanity. In eras even older than the Golden Age civilizations, there was no distinction between magika and faith," Paragon explained.

The primitive era he referred to was when the people of this world were still essentially homo isekai-tus.

"Primitive era faith... so animism or totemism?"

"What are those?"

"If I could move my body right now, I'd smack you in the jaw."

Fuck, the conversation wasn't flowing at all. It was just everyone smashing spikes with no proper rally.

Come to think of it, this was typical ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠otherworlder behavior. Only saying what they wanted and showing off their knowledge. The worse ones even charged exorbitant prices for actually useful information.

"Basically! Humans back then worshiped not just gods but monsters and any powerful being they came across!"

"Ah, so that's what you meant."

It felt like trying to discuss medicine without using any technical terms. Why did I have to explain every single concept?

"This magic appears to be a remnant from that time. Some of those misguided faiths eventually evolved into the current evil god worship."

"Wait, what?! You're saying this is an evil god worship spell?!"

"Eek! Nord, are you going to get dragged away by the inquisitors?!"

I nearly fainted from the shocking revelation. Fuck, I was screwed! A pagan spell! It meant those even more barbaric religious fanatics from Romania were coming to kill me!

"N-Nord? In my opinion, biting your tongue and ending it now might be better..."

"Y-you think so? Suicide would hurt less than torture, right?"

Francesca worried about me with genuine kindness. Even a child knew it was better to die here than be taken to those crazy bastards' torture chambers.

"Ah, don't misunderstand. As I said, this isn't about receiving power by praying to a god. It's a spell that imitates gods to strengthen oneself. Therefore, it's essentially just magic."

"...So what you're saying is?"

"It is not pagan evil god worship."

"You fucking bastard!! Then why the hell did you bring up pagans in the first place?! You just wanted to show off what you knew!!"

"C-calm down! Nord! Please calm down!"

I forgot about my mana exhaustion in my rage and started flailing around. This damn monk bastard kept yanking my heart up and down. Now my heart had nearly stopped because of a guy instead of a beautiful woman. So fucking annoying.

"Tsk tsk. In any case, it is truly blasphemous."

"What is? Your behavior?"

"Not that. I mean those primitives who tried to imitate gods."

Paragon clicked his tongue in clear disapproval.

"Most ignorant primitives desired the power of the creatures they worshiped. Among spells created with that intent, this one coincidentally became a spell of worship toward the true god, the sky god Uranus."

"Th-the sky god ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is Odin, right?"

"It's Uranus."

"Oh..."

"Uranus."

"Heeng..."

I kept my mouth shut and watched the otherworlders' argument. It was generally one-sided, but this was a matter of faith. Getting involved would only get me cursed at.

In this world where many gods existed, deities gave the impression of dictatorial yet unavoidable kings or politicians. In short, they were this world's Putin and fantastic Mao Zedong. The argument between the dwarf and the priest of the god of abundance could be seen as Mao Zedong versus Putin.