Divine Power and the Great Catastrophe
The Antonio Cathedral in Anton Village.
"……."
Ambling along, one casual step after another.
After parting ways with Estelle, the place Juhan headed straight for was the cathedral in the village.
There was not a shred of hesitation in his steps. He already knew the bell was no longer there.
They said they took it to the Holy Kingdom for investigation, didn't they?
That meant, at the very least, there was no risk of his identity being exposed by the bell here. Of course, that didn't mean he could afford to be careless.
Plenty of Holy Knights still lingered in the area, after all.
"……."
Stopping at the cathedral entrance, Juhan looked up at the building for a moment.
Never thought I'd walk back in here of my own free will…
What he intended to do was obvious: check whether he could accept Divine Power or not.
Judging by the original story alone, it should have been impossible. No—more precisely, it must not have been possible.
Juhan was a being completely antithetical to Helios, the chief god of this world.
But still.
I can at least try once, right? I can't just give up without trying.
Estelle's words kept circling through Juhan's mind—her challenge about whether he would jump to conclusions and quit without even making an attempt.
Those words had stuck with him in a strangely persistent way.
Normally he might have brushed them off. He was the one who knew this world was a novel and who understood the original settings, after all.
But.
If what I know isn't the whole truth…
Gulp.
With that thought, Juhan steeled himself and stepped forward.
Creeeak—
He approached the cathedral doors and pushed them open.
Whoosh.
Cool air and a faint fragrance washed over him at once.
"……."
"……."
Inside, a few worshippers were already offering quiet prayers. The cathedral interior was so still it felt peaceful.
Swoosh.
Juhan slipped unnoticed into a corner, found an empty pew, and slowly closed his eyes.
I have a rough idea of the method, at least.
The process of accepting Divine Power. He recalled the descriptions of the Holy Knights from the original novel.
Prayer, concentration, and faith in the god. Naturally, he had no idea whether the last condition would do anything even if he pretended to believe it.
So for now he simply focused on earnestly following the first two.
Ssssss—
Steadying his breath, emptying his mind of distractions, turning his consciousness inward—Juhan gradually drifted away from the noises around him.
The soft murmuring of the worshippers at prayer.
The whisper of wind seeping through the window cracks.
All of it faded into the distance.
"……."
How much time passed like that?
At first Juhan felt nothing at all. The thought that it had been hopeless after all rose naturally.
But then.
…Huh?
Whooosh—
A mysterious warmth began welling over his chest—like sunlight settling on the back of one's hand on a winter day.
It was so faint that at first he thought he must have imagined it.
Yet the warmth was unmistakably real.
Ssslip.
Very carefully, as if observing him, that warmth circled around him.
Could it be…
The moment he grasped the situation, Juhan's heart beat a little faster. No matter how he looked at it, this warmth closely resembled the Divine Power described in the novel.
That power one could receive from the god was now gathering around him.
I-Is this really working?
Gulp.
Swallowing hard in unconscious tension, Juhan soon offered his body naturally, as if telling the Divine Power to do as it pleased.
Ssslip.
And as if it had read his will, a portion of the Divine Power carefully began seeping into him.
There was no rejection. No pain. Instead he felt only warmth.
…It came in.
Barely able to breathe properly, Juhan observed the energy. The Divine Power slowly flowed through his body as if meticulously examining every inch of him.
Even though it was clearly just energy, he couldn't shake the sense that it was somehow alive.
But the change came in an instant.
Halt—
The Divine Power that had been roaming freely inside him suddenly stopped dead.
"……."
As if it had seen something. A flustered feeling seemed to radiate from it.
Twitch.
Juhan's eyebrows jerked. The shift was so abrupt. Moments earlier the thing had been circulating without issue; now it had frozen in place.
The Divine Power remained motionless.
The instant Juhan felt puzzled and tried to observe it once more…
Flash!
The Divine Power suddenly went wild, whipping around and racing in the opposite direction.
"…Huh?"
It looked exactly like it was fleeing from something—and desperately so. As if it had wandered into the wrong place entirely.
Flash! Flash!
The noble, mysterious air from before had already vanished without a trace. From its frantic movements, Juhan could sense only one thing.
It's afraid…? Of me?
Fear. Clear, unmistakable terror. The Divine Power was thrashing madly, trying to escape his body.
Wait—could this be…
Juhan's expression hardened as a thought flashed through his mind.
Hey.
Unconsciously muttering as if speaking to the Divine Power itself, he continued.
Where do you think you're going?
Flash!
At those words the Divine Power thrashed even harder. Unfortunately for it, it was already far too late.
Perhaps because it had entered his body, Juhan instinctively knew exactly how to seize it and how to control it.
Grab!
In a single instant his consciousness clamped down on the fleeing Divine Power.
As if clenching a small animal in his fist, he pinned it in place.
You can come in as you please…
he murmured inwardly—whether it understood or not was anyone's guess—
but leaving isn't up to you.
Whoosh!
And in that moment he felt it: the captured Divine Power thrashing inside him like a person on the verge of tears.
But as he'd already realized, the situation was decided.
An irrepressible joy began rising across Juhan's face as he felt that energy.
Quiet down a bit.
Flash…
Having given the Divine Power a brief scolding, he focused even harder, pouring his will into it.
How much time passed?
From a certain point onward the Divine Power stopped moving altogether.
It had settled into a corner of his body and crouched there as if it had given up every last struggle—as if it had finally realized escape was impossible.
"……."
Juhan observed that subdued Divine Power for a moment, then closed his eyes and steadied his breath once more. He was finally starting to understand what he needed to do.
Just as when he had first called the Divine Power, he concentrated in the same posture and prayed—as if nothing unusual had happened at all.
And before long.
Ssslip—
Another strand of Divine Power began approaching him.
Whoosh.
The same warm energy as before. It circled him for a moment as if examining him… then slipped straight into his body.
Grin.
Feeling the flow, Juhan merely tugged the corner of his mouth upward into a small smile.
The underground of Anton Village.
Carlton's workshop.
"Hmm, this word seems to be…"
As usual, Carlton was examining the metal plate Juhan had brought him. Books were stacked nearby as he worked to decipher the writing on its surface.
There were still quite a few words he hadn't figured out. Even after witnessing that spectacle with his own eyes, he couldn't be certain no additional information remained.
But his concentration was soon shattered with a crash by a sudden racket.
Bang bang bang!
"Wh-What?"
Someone was pounding on his workshop door like a madman.
Flinching involuntarily, Carlton hurried over.
"…Hey, what the hell are you doing?"
"Carlton, open the door already."
Through the little window he saw a familiar face—the guy he'd grown thoroughly sick of seeing these past few days. The very person who had brought him the metal plate.
Creeeak—
"What is it? What's going on?"
"Carlton."
But the guy looked a little different from usual. His gaze wasn't even on Carlton.
He was scanning the workshop this way and that as if searching for something.
"The metal plate—where did you put it?"
"The metal plate? If that's what you mean, it's right here."
What the guy was so desperately hunting for was none other than the metal plate he himself had delivered. Normally he hadn't seemed to care how Carlton handled it; had he suddenly changed his mind?
"Hand it over already."
"…Well, sure."
Swoosh.
Thinking little of it, Carlton held the plate out.
Grab.
The guy took it. Yet something about his manner struck Carlton as odd.
Why is he staring at it so hard?
For all the fuss he'd made to get the plate, he wasn't doing anything with it. He simply held it and quietly looked down.
If this was all he planned, why bother asking for it? Had he been worried Carlton might have broken it or something?
Just as Carlton opened his mouth to speak—
he saw it.
Grin—
The guy's face, still gazing at the metal plate, curved into a suspicious little smile.
"……."
And the metal plate in his hand didn't so much as twitch.
Just like when Carlton himself had held it.