I Saw It with My Own Eyes (2)
What Isaac pulled out was none other than a cufflink — a golden button bearing the crest of the Holy See.
[Isn't that the possession of that filthy priest?! When did you get your hands on it!]
Isaac smiled sweetly.
It had belonged to Elden, the Holy See's priest who'd come to steal his King-rank Holy Spirit. And why, exactly, would it be in his possession?
[You lifted it off him during the interrogation, didn't you, Master?]
Yes, precisely that.
Honestly, a priest of the Holy See who had come gunning for his property wouldn't have deserved so much as a glance — Isaac would have weighed him down with a rock and dropped him straight into the lake. But the man had carried information Isaac needed.
Where did they get the Dead Man's Grass?
That herb had been planted in the garden of the Demon King's castle.
To be fair, acquiring it wasn't strictly impossible. Suppose some deranged holy men crawled into the heart of demon territory — land even high-ranking clergy couldn't set foot in — and then, on a whim, burrowed into a farmhouse that looked like a ruin. Suppose they somehow fought off a horde of 8th-tier-and-above farmers who had nothing better to do, and after all that, what they happened to scoop up was that weed-looking sprig of Dead Man's Grass. And then, after mixing the weed into some random oil on a lark and testing it on a spirit, they gasped — oh my, how miraculous! This weed can disable a Holy Spirit! What a discovery! — well, at that point Isaac truly had no words.
Someone who knew what that herb could do handed it over.
In a word: someone out there was trafficking in his belongings.
Anyway — this trinket was a holy-art amplifier.
And the way to avoid being hauled off by Grandfather? Simple! Show off his ability until people started saying, My goodness, is that man a Saint?! How can House Eshua hoard talent like that?! Aren't the Eshuas going too far?
Then those godforsaken Eshuas would never dream of shutting him up in the territory again.
Having made up his mind, Isaac strode toward the Skeleton King's mana. Besides, that counterfeit had gone out of its way to announce just who the Saint was — throw away an opening like this?
With this, I can deal with all of them in one stroke.
The truth was, Isaac could already wield holy arts up to the 6th tier — but his specialty was lopsided to an absurd degree.
What was his specialty, you ask?
What else? The godforsaken Purification art!
Something about the Holy Spirit latched onto him, presumably — but whatever the cause, it was Purification!
Not a shred of sense in it! GODDAMN IT!!
What Isaac craved was destruction! And then more destruction!
Attack arts, plain and simple!
But with this item, even his lackluster attack arts would get a power boost!
Now, come forth! Attack art!
Isaac fixed the cufflink to his sleeve and unleashed the spell.
6th Tier
In the same instant, a blaze of holy light erupted outward from where Isaac stood.
FWASH!
The monsters caught in the light shrieked as though being torn apart.
At that searing radiance, every guest and priest in the banquet hall let out a gasp of admiration.
"Ooooh! What magnificent power!"
"Good heavens, already at his age...!"
"My lord, you've already taught your grandson holy arts of this caliber?"
"No — I haven't taught him anything...?"
The moment the head of House Blue made a sour face, the priests only foamed harder.
"Then you mean to say he taught himself?!"
"Goodness — I haven't seen light that clean in a hundred years!"
Before the words had even left their lips, the demonic energy in the light's path was annihilated outright, and the priests' robes turned spotless. The cardinals flinched and inspected their own vestments, while the priests murmured in awe.
"Truly a masterful Purification art!"
But Isaac — the very one who had cast an attack art — was seeing red.
WHY is it Purification AGAAAIN!
Furious, Isaac nearly hurled the cufflink across the room. This year's graduates were staring at him as if he were some marvel — but who cared what they thought!
"My Explosive Slaughter! WHY!"
At that, Shuri arched an eyebrow, as if something had just clicked. He was the only person alive who knew how badly skewed Isaac's holy arts were.
"...If you were trying to amplify your art with that cufflink, you did it wrong. That thing amplifies your single strongest specialty art."
"What?!"
And in the first place, wouldn't that thing be useless to Isaac?
This brat has already surpassed Professor Elden.
Professor Elden had been a 5th-tier priest. And that cufflink amplified holy arts up to the 5th tier.
But none of the onlookers could know that.
"Ooooh, young lord Isaac can apparently use holy arts all the way up to the 4th or 5th tier!"
"Heavens! A newly ordained priest — and only ten years old, at that!"
"Isn't 3rd tier the standard?"
"To think Blue could produce such talent!"
"He truly is a Saint candidate!"
Shuri clicked his tongue. The 4th tier? If they knew the brat could cast up to the 6th, they'd all faint on the spot.
Well, that Purification does look about that level, so I suppose it's fair...
But as Shuri turned his head away, he froze. The small monsters bathed in Isaac's Purification light — their eyes were turning blue.
It lasted only an instant, yet Shuri couldn't help his bewilderment.
Soul conversion?
That was a power that soared far beyond the 6th tier...!
Yet amid that flood of praise, Isaac was hurling curses — because of what the monsters struck by the light were doing.
[Stupid priest! This is all you've got?! Khek! This?! Khek!]
[A measly little light like this! Khek! won't kill me! Khek!]
"......"
Purification carried no attack power — but it did deal damage to demons. Because Purification was, at its core, an attribute-conversion art that forcibly turned the demonic into the holy.
In other words, it hurt demons precisely by wrenching their nature out from under them.
The catch was that Purification was, by design, a slow and methodical art — meaning the damage came as a merciless, ticking drain.
[Keep going, then! Khek! Stupid priest! Khek!]
[The likes of you! Kkwek! could never stand against the great Skeleton King! Kkyek!]
Should I just snuff these bastards out with magic?
Isaac's knuckles cracked.
The monsters, slowly wilting under the ticking damage, had begun to clump together and swell their bulk — and that was when it happened.
"Move. Your arts can't handle those things."
"!"
Kina Berith materialized in front of Isaac. Apparently he had been gauging Isaac's current level this whole time. And now, evidently, he had rendered his verdict.
"Reaching for the 5th tier, are we? From the look of you, you haven't yet mastered the Eshua esoteric arts."
Truth be told, Kina had been interested. There was the treasury incident ten years ago, for one. And the boy had suppressed the Skeleton King's curse and grown his body on top of it?
That was not something ordinary skill could manage — of course he'd harbored expectations.
And after watching closely, his conclusion:
5th tier.
The 5th tier at age ten was impressive enough. Weren't we talking about a genius who appeared once in several centuries?
And even so, he's no match for me.
Kina Berith's gaze sank cold, faintly tinged with boredom — with disappointment.
Kina Berith had reached the 5th tier at the age of five. He was already operating in the field as a top-rank priest, no less.
Other high priests addressed him as Little Pope, as teacher, as professor — he was already being treated as the next Pontiff.
Against brats who had only just received their ordination, neither the starting line, nor the track, nor the finish line was remotely the same. It was no accident that he refused to mingle with the other Saint candidates.
Because rank existed!
— Still, I do feel a bit sorry for him. With power like that, he'll only grow lonely.
He had hoped, once, that Isaac Eshua might prove a worthy opponent — but that was simply how the world was.
The Saint's seat.
The throne, in other words, had been decided from the very beginning.
Having settled the matter in his mind, Kina Berith clicked his tongue at the monsters.
"That one's a durable breed — no mere Purification will finish it. You'd have to strike it from multiple points simultaneously."
Kina Berith raised a destruction art to blast the thing away.
But against all expectation, Isaac burst out laughing. Pffhat!
"Multiple points, pfft, simultaneous strikes."
"......?"
"Are you an idiot? It only feels stubborn because you're swinging at empty air."
"......??"
Empty air?
Kina Berith raked his eyes over Isaac from head to toe, profoundly disappointed.
"Did they teach you nothing at Eshua — not even what that monster is?"
Meaning: for a house whose entire trade was exorcising demons, the boy had a head full of nothing.
"That's a Roly-Poly Dust. A tenacious monster with fearsome regeneration — you'd need power that outstrips its regeneration to—"
"Puhet!"
"??"
Kina glared at him as if to demand what, exactly, was wrong with this lunatic.
But Isaac simply could not contain his laughter.
This absolute dunce.
Fine, whatever. It wasn't even a living creature, and letting the damage spread would do no one any good — so this elder would graciously provide the correct answer.
Having decided as much, Isaac sidled up to Kina and whispered.
"Child, watch closely. That is not the main body. It's bait."
"What?"
"Yes... so, what was it you said? Fell it by striking multiple points at once? Oh, for crying out loud. The moment it could be felled, it would already have accomplished its purpose and vanished."
"What?!"
"And that thing's true purpose is..."
Isaac tilted his chin subtly toward the wall. There, along the shadowed stone, was something that looked like part of the pattern.
Kina Berith went rigid.
A mimic bug.
It masqueraded as a motif identical to the surrounding decor — but something within it writhed. The thing was lying in wait for the students sheltering along that wall.
"It means to poison them. That skeleton said it earlier, didn't it — that it would dry up this country's seeds. And this country's seeds are the students who just received their ordination."
That was doubtless what the fake Skeleton King was after. The flamboyant entrance was the decoy; the true target was the students. And while it was at it, it would plant spies through the poisoning, free of charge.
Some of them have already been bitten, I'd wager?
Well — nothing escaped Isaac's eyes.
"Anyway, if you're going to do something, burn that bug."
Kina Berith gave a hollow laugh and snapped his fingers.
"A little insect, thinking it's something special..."
Still, it was an irritant, so burn it he would.
Tak! Whoomph!
[Khek!]
The instant Kina Berith incinerated the bug, the monster swelling before their eyes collapsed into ash in a heartbeat.
Aghast, Kina Berith seized Isaac by the shoulders.
"Where on earth did you learn this strategy?!"
"Where, well—"
But as Isaac moved to answer, he cocked his head.
No, wait. Hold on a moment.
Come to think of it — wasn't there a far easier, far more convenient way to be acknowledged as a Saint than swatting pathetic little monsters?
What if I poison the students here myself, then cure them? Done and done!
Yes! Why go to all the tiresome trouble of running around on my own two feet?!
POISON!!
Hadn't this body been born with a talent for Purification — the art with a heavenly affinity for poison?!
Hit the priests with poison magic easy enough for a Demon King to cast — not kill them, mind you, just nudge them right up to death's door!
And if the poison was potent enough to give even high priests trouble with the antidote, the cure would shine all the brighter, wouldn't it?
Kah! Becoming a Saint is f—ing easy!
The moment Isaac began grinning at the students like a shark, the head of House Blue flinched. What new catastrophe was that brat cooking up, smiling like a deranged pervert?
But heedless of all that, Kina Berith clutched Isaac's shoulder in urgency.
"Hey — are you listening to me? I asked where you heard it!"
But Isaac, fighting down another puhet of laughter, brushed him off entirely and scooped up a stone.
"Ah, forget it — just grab that one!"
"??"
Isaac hurled the stone at yet another bug lurking in hiding.
Tak!
The grazed insect jolted in alarm and bolted.
Kina Berith ground his teeth and traced the holy sign for an attack art. If it escaped now, he would have to cast over an even wider area.
At the sight of it, the bug gave a stricken creeeak, its whole body shuddering—
[It saw me!]
Isaac's eyes curved into delighted crescents.
Yes, that's it!
Spotted!
I deliberately let the stone graze it — of course it would notice!
That particular monster, you see, vented a cloud of poison gas upon its destruction — but only if its main body had been discovered. The genuine counter-strategy was to erase it in a single, unperceived blow. But there was no reason on earth to teach Kina the real method, was there?
Besides, if Isaac cast poison magic himself, every priest in this hall would clock it immediately — unless they were complete idiots.
Which meant, in a single sentence—
Nothing beats exploiting somebody else's poison.
Even if something went wrong here, it would simply read as the Pope's grandson's misfire.
So then — now!
Everybody, enjoy the poison gas! BOOM!
Before the words had even fallen, the bug struck by Kina Berith's art detonated, spewing its cloud of poison gas—
9th Tier
KUGUGUNG!!
...before it could, it was wiped away by the Pope's holy art. Son of a—
As expected — it doesn't work where high-ranking clergy are present.
Well, the primary objective was achieved, and this outcome was anticipated, so fine. Back to the original plan.
Isaac clenched his palm, and his eyes flashed. Then something extraordinary happened.
FWASH!
A tide of holy light, centered on Isaac, rolled across the entire banquet hall — surging through the hall, the corridors, every corner of the building — and annihilated every last trace of the Skeleton King's mana in hiding.
KUGUGUNG!
In one clean sweep, the demonic miasma shrouding the sacred emblems and the architecture itself was stripped away.
Well — there had been a few stubborn bastards.
[Those who defy the great King...! You will not be forgiven!]
Ah, for crying out loud. I admire your patience, but know when to call it quits.
The ones lingering nearby seemed to be fairly high-ranking, refusing to scatter easily before the Purifying light. Proof enough: the slick shadows along the wall were still covertly stalking the students. One even slithered up Isaac's leg.
[Damn priest! By the great King's command, we'll drag off as many as we can!]
The little brat is climbing me?
Just end it.
The instant Isaac blinked and locked eyes with the thing—
SHINK!
[!]
The shadow froze solid.
[Th-this power...?!]
As though it had realized something, the ashen-white shadow trembled violently and fled.
Kina Berith, the only witness, flinched hard.
He just drove a demon out with nothing but his eyes?
And just as Kina Berith moved to confirm it properly—
FWASH!
At last the light swept every monster away, and the crowd marveled. The students, too, buzzed among themselves.
"Commanding the power of Purification to this degree!"
"Isn't that on par with the Pope's grandson?"
"Shh!"
The students clamped their own mouths shut the moment they spotted the Gold Cardinal.
But it was the cardinals who were truly staggered.
"That would be a level reaching toward the 6th tier, would it not?"
"I find myself quite curious which faith he will end up in."
"You think so too, don't you, Cardinal Verith?"
At the Red Cardinal's remark, Cardinal Verith wore the expression of a man chewing on a bug.
The 6th tier? These glass-transparent snakes.
Judging by Purification alone, the boy was already at the 8th tier. Look at them — every last one of them had noticed, and yet they were deliberately talking it down.
They plainly intend to poach him into their own faiths.
Which was why they were even now laying down smoke and feeling out one another's true intentions.
But did they honestly think he would play along with such a paltry ruse?
"Indeed. Children gifted in one specific art have appeared from time to time — but to think there existed one who rivaled Kina. I confess I'm astonished."
"Well, even so, Kina is already gazing upon the 8th tier, no? The next Pope is already decided. Hahaha."
Hearing those words, Kina Berith bit down hard on his lip.
His hand was trembling.
No.
That boy — he isn't something that can be sorted into tiers at all...!
He had watched that moment with his own eyes, every detail burned in. Isaac, driving out a demon with his gaze alone!
And that was the ultimate realm Kina had ached to touch — ten years ago, and to this very day.
That is Grandfather's technique.
The one said to be possible for the Pope — and the Pope alone.