I Just Can't Resist a Beam!
"Pah—!"
An effortless exhale—
Srrr—
The moment I opened my eyes, the silver-white pillar of light that had been swirling around me scattered in a shower of sparkles like stardust.
"...That's impossible."
Alicia stared at me, dumbfounded.
"You actually succeeded?"
I tilted my head and asked, "You mean it didn't?"
"Succeeded is putting it mildly. You didn't stop at Resonance—you almost pulled off Focusing as well."
"Focusing?"
"Refining and gathering starlight. It's the foundation of all sacred stellar arts."
"Could you show me once?"
"Of course."
Alicia raised her palm.
"Focusing."
The pristine white light gathered together and formed a round, perfect sphere.
"This is what you use to cast a stellar art."
"For example?"
"Pierce, Stellar Bolt."
BANG—
A lance of light shot forth and slammed into the training dummy.
"That was Stellar Bolt—the most basic offensive stellar art there is. Once you're familiar with it, you can shorten or even skip the incantation entirely."
The dummy, made of thick logs and rice straw, was obliterated without a trace.
She called it the most basic of basics, but it looked more than enough to kill a man.
But hold on.
I think I could pull that off.
I narrowed my eyes to half-mast.
In my mind, I pictured the Celestial Zenith star, towering at the center of the universe.
I crammed its vast, boundless starlight into the narrow confines of my palm.
"Focusing."
Whoooosh—
Silver-white energy began surging into my palm like a mad torrent.
The surrounding air churned violently.
"Huh?"
Something felt off.
The sphere Alicia had made was serene and adorable.
Mine was a raging silver-white typhoon, spinning furiously.
Crackle—
The light compressed past its limit, throwing off sparks.
Was it supposed to look like this?
"Pierce, Stellar Bolt."
I thrust my hand straight forward.
KRA-KOOOOM—!
An ear-splitting detonation rang out.
The Stellar Bolt erupting from my hand split the training ground in a perfectly straight line.
The ground along the beam's path charred black in a neat row, and the blast punched a hole clean through the training yard's thick stone outer wall.
"..."
Silence settled over the training ground.
Rrrrumble—the sound of collapsing stone broke the stillness.
"M-Master?"
Even Luise, who had been diligently practicing her sword drills off to the side, looked up at me in shock.
"How...?" Alicia murmured softly.
Could it be that I'm...
A genius at sacred arts?
Well, if that's the case, this changes everything.
I should definitely study sacred arts whenever I get the chance.
"Holy Maiden."
"Y-yes?"
Alicia, still staring blankly at the devastation I'd created, jolted in surprise.
"I'll be continuing my sacred arts lessons."
I mean, firing beams is something I can do while eating dessert in the back row anyway.
***
The sacred arts lessons resumed.
The bishop had pitched a fit when he saw the state of the training ground, but Alicia promised him adequate compensation, soothed him, and sent him on his way.
'The Angel's sacred arts are extraordinary.'
Sacred stellar arts were the most universal of all sacred arts.
Which also meant, being the field with the deepest roots, they didn't stray far from the established mold.
'If her stellar arts are like this, what happens when she masters the other schools?'
The other sacred arts were somewhat less standardized.
After all, even Alicia's own Virginity Purity was a custom-made sacred art, an adaptation of the existing sacred archery.
Knowing Nirvana, she might well invent an entirely new school—or even restore the long-lost Celestial Zenith arts.
Alicia picked up a piece of chalk.
Thankfully, the blackboard had survived.
"A standard sacred arts practitioner gathers starlight—that is, sacred power—refines it, and releases it in accordance with the formula of the spell."
Tik-tik-tik.
1. Resonance
2. Focusing
3. Alignment
4. Release
"You go through these steps. With you, Angel, Resonance and Focusing seem to happen almost simultaneously. Since you haven't formally learned the formulas, your Alignment is a bit lacking, but your Release is..."
Alicia glanced at the training yard's collapsed outer wall.
"...catastrophic."
"That's a compliment, right?"
"It's an offensive art, so naturally, yes."
What was even more catastrophic, of course, was Nirvana's talent for sacred arts.
A prodigy unprecedented in the history of the Holy Radiance Church. Even Alicia herself, the finest sacred arts practitioner on the continent by talent alone, had needed a full day just to achieve Resonance.
Nirvana had gone from Resonance to grasping Focusing in a matter of minutes.
And on top of that, she'd copied Release perfectly after a single demonstration.
What was she even supposed to call this?
Less a genius (天才) than a natural disaster (天災).
Truly, it was as if the heavens had made a mistake.
"I really like Stellar Bolt. Do you have any applied variations?"
Nirvana shot her hand up and asked.
"I do. If Stellar Bolt is a lesser stellar art..."
Tik-tik-tik.
1. Polarized Stellar Bolt
2. Scattered Stellar Bolt
3. Refracted Stellar Bolt
"...there are also Stellar Bolt variants that count as mid-tier stellar arts. Sacred stellar arts have such a long history, and Stellar Bolt is the most fundamental offensive art among them, so plenty of practitioners devoted themselves to refining it alone."
"Ooooh... as expected."
"While ordinary Stellar Bolt simply gathers and fires starlight, Polarized Stellar Bolt aligns that light in a single direction to pierce through. It's useful for breaching barriers like armor, castle gates, or fortress walls."
"So it's a piercing beam."
"I'm sorry?"
"Never mind. So Scattered sprays it out, and Refracted bends it, right?"
"You learn quickly."
"You know what, I've suddenly developed a burning need to master every Stellar Bolt-related art in existence."
Right up until they'd entered the training ground, she'd been dragging her feet like a cow being led to slaughter.
Now Nirvana's eyes were sparkling with eagerness.
'When she looks at me like that... I can't exactly hold back either, can I?'
Alicia ran her tongue lightly over her lips.
Tik-tik-tik.
She filled the blackboard edge to edge with explanations and formulas.
"Lesser stellar arts can be managed with single Focusing, but anything beyond that requires a more complex technique."
"Complex?"
Nirvana's ears perked up.
"Mid-tier stellar arts like Polarized Stellar Bolt require Double Focusing. You focus the starlight into two layers—a core and a shell. Like this."
Alicia spread her palm open.
"Double Focusing."
The sphere hovering above her palm contracted inward, and then another layer of starlight settled over it.
"Pierce, Polarized Stellar Bolt."
Alicia thrust her hand toward the sky.
FWOOSH—!
The glittering starlight split the atmosphere and streaked into the heavens.
"Ooooh...!"
Nirvana's eyes glittered just as brightly.
For some reason, she seemed to be absolutely in love with Stellar Bolt.
Her reaction was completely different from when she watched any other sacred art.
It hadn't been this intense even when Alicia had shown her the highest-tier sacred arts.
And staring at that adorable face, brighter and livelier than usual...
She wanted to scoop her into her arms and ruffle her hair until it stood on end.
'We're in the middle of a lesson right now.'
Alicia forcibly suppressed the surging impulse.
"Up through mid-tier, Double and Triple Focusing are the main techniques. From high-tier onward, you have to master Multi-Focusing."
"You mean that thing you always draw on the ceiling, Holy Maiden?"
"Yes. Multi-Focusing."
Seven small stars floated up into the empty air.
"From high-tier stellar arts onward... you need applied techniques stacked on top of Multi-Focusing to actually realize the spells. Parallel Focusing, which assigns a different formula to each star. Phase Focusing, which aligns their phases to amplify them. Resonance Focusing, which links the focal points together and makes them resonate. And so on."
"So combining Multi-Focusing with Resonance Focusing is how you form constellations."
"Exactly. Resonance Focusing."
The starlights floating in the air aligned with one another.
Point linked to point became lines, and line met line to form the shape of a constellation.
"This is the very foundation of sacred archery and constellation arts. Which is to say, you need to be at least a high-tier sacred stellar arts practitioner before you can learn them."
"Uuuugh, my head hurts."
"Hehe. Well, with your talent, Angel, I'm sure you'll pick it up in no time."
"Still. A beam fired by a beautiful girl is something I simply cannot resist."
"Hm?"
"Nothing. I'll work hard, ma'am!"
Nirvana steeled herself and drilled her gaze into the blackboard.
After a long staring contest with the board, Nirvana suddenly sprang to her feet.
She pressed her palms together, narrowed her eyes, and puffed out her cheeks.
"Double Focusing."
Hmmm—light gathered together, forging a dazzling core at the center, and then a smooth membrane of starlight wrapped around its surface.
Vmmmm—
With an odd resonant hum, the silver-white sphere began to rotate.
The pebbles strewn across the yard rolled in circles, pushed along by the waves of sacred power.
Even her Focusing was anything but ordinary.
'Ahh... my dear Angel.'
The electric thrill and rapturous euphoria coursing through her whole body made Alicia's knees threaten to give out.
Nirvana raised her arm and murmured softly, lips barely moving.
"Pierce, Polarized Stellar Bolt."
FWAAAAH—!
Blazing light punched through the firmament and cleaved the clouds in two.
"Kind of a workout, though."
Nirvana puffed out her cheeks, frowning.
Well, of course it was.
Casting sacred arts demanded tremendous concentration.
And a person's mental stamina was not infinite.
Alicia stepped up behind her and quietly wrapped her arms around Nirvana.
"Mmh?"
She hugged the squirming girl tighter and whispered into her ear.
"Even searching through the entire history of our church, there has never been anyone like you, Angel. Until the day you become the very god of sacred arts... I, Alicia, will be right there beside you."
***
"Focusing. Double Focusing. Stellar Bolt. Refracted Stellar Bolt. Continuous Projection!"
BANG—BANG!
The twin beams I fired in rapid succession from both hands streaked toward Alicia.
With nothing more than a light flick of her sword, she swatted down every last one of my near-artillery-grade Stellar Bolts.
"Excellent work, Angel. At this point, you don't even need more practice on mid-tier Stellar Bolts."
Clack—sheathing her sword, Alicia came over.
Pat pat pat.
She gently stroked my head.
Sacred arts had turned out to be more fun than I'd expected, and before I knew it, a whole week had flown by without a spare thought for anything else.
Truly, I can't resist a beam.
I still hadn't mastered Multi-Focusing, but forming separate Stellar Bolts in each arm had succeeded on the very first try.
Alicia's reaction when I first pulled that off had been pretty entertaining, too.
She wore the look of someone staring at a bug that should never, ever exist.
"Holy Maiden. One moment, please."
"Yes."
Reluctance written all over her face, Alicia reluctantly pulled her hand from my head.
"Hah!"
Over in the corner of the training ground, Luise was still diligently swinging her sword.
There was one slightly disappointing discovery, though.
Apparently, my talent for divine martial arts was rather poor.
Sacred arts gather external starlight and weave it into spells on the fly, whereas divine martial arts use a mental method to accumulate sacred power directly within the body.
And my constitution, it turned out, wasn't well suited to that.
Above all, bone and muscle matter in any martial art.
And this locked-in frame's slender little limbs seemed constitutionally incapable of building muscle.
To be honest, I'd expected as much.
But did that mean I couldn't fight up close?
Absolutely not.
Thanks to my Combat Kasaya, my close-range defense was already more than adequate.
And sacred arts had plenty of techniques that assisted melee attacks.
For instance—
"Triple Focusing."
Instead of gathering sacred power into my palm, I wrapped it around my entire body, inside and out.
"Wavelength compression. Blueshift."
VWOOOM—
My vision flooded with blue, and the ground at my feet smeared backward.
With the momentary illusion of space itself folding, a afterimage of white and blue stretched out long behind me.
In the blink of an eye.
I arrived in front of Luise, who was still practicing her sword swings across the training ground.
"Hm?"
My hand was faster than the startled Luise could turn her head.
Tap.
I caught her by the collar.
Fast enough that even Luise—blessed with extrasensory perception and growing at a breakneck pace—couldn't react in time.
A mid-tier stellar art specialized in closing distance.
Blueshift.
With this, I could serve up a Buddha Punch to just about anyone.
"...M-Master?"
"Luise. Would you mind holding very still for a moment?"
"Yes, Master."
Luise bowed her head with perfect courtesy.
Vow Power:108 / 108
At last.
The time had come to spend my grinding-boosted Vow Power.
