Chương 113: Wasn't she a bigshot or something

Breathe in. Air filled her lungs. Air was the wind. Movement. Fleeting and free, unchained and untouchable. In sharing its Divinity, she became unchained as well. Curses that remained from the prison her master had put her in kept slipping off her, one by one. Air was clarity. It was clean, and transparent. By taking that cleanliness in, her Soul was soothed. Unburdened like clouds in the sky. Breathe out. By sharing her air with the world, they became one.

By being one with the world, she could claim its Divinity as her own. The vacuum in her lungs was Emptiness. Emptiness yearned to be filled. One couldn't force Acknowledgement by just wanting it. But the world didn't need to Acknowledge itself, and she was the world. Unbalanced, an empty container in the sea. It was only natural for the balance to return. She didn't force anything. Just picked what parts of the world filled the Emptiness. Like a filter. El'el breathed in again, and became more than she was.

A little bit more herself. A little bit more Divine. Path of Oneness was quite a bit better than just growing apples. Like any path of ascension, it had its drawbacks, but nonetheless it was the one she preferred. Her stomach grumbled. She opened her eyes. Constitution: 15 -> 17 Soul: 52 -> 54 Mind: 36 -> 39 Her recovery was progressing splendidly. After all, reclaiming what was rightfully yours was so much easier than pushing the boundaries of your potential. Her master's curses had no fuel and were weakening.

With rest, the severity of Exhaustion was lessening as well. She stretched lazily, stood up, and went to look for a snack. She was getting fond of oranges. Also, pineapples. They were nothing compared to the fruit grown by the masters of the craft, but there was some raw… wildness in humanity's attempts at growing food.

They hadn't figured out perfection yet, they were still stuck trying to replicate what they had before the Integration, pushing their Skills in weird directions and experimenting in novel, if ignorant, ways. It was like trying a child's first attempt at cooking. No matter the taste, she loved the experience. The kitchen was empty. Come to think of it, she didn't see anyone on the way. A flick of a thought and a simple glyph confirmed her suspicion – she was alone in the building.

Being left out from whatever others were doing was a bit disappointing, but she understood that she was still considered an outsider for them. It would take more time and work on her part to gain trust. The comfortable presence of Dennis' shroud was still somewhere at the back of her mind, so she wasn't too worried. It meant that their Fates were still intertwined. Or, in other words, they were conceptually 'together'. A party.

It didn't matter that Dennis and the other humans had left her alone for some exclusively human business, the shroud was the proof that she wasn't abandoned. Sneakily, she took the last bowl of ice-cream out of the freezer, untouched by Lily simply because the girl didn't have the physical capacity to eat so much. An unrefined giggle left her mouth, forcing her to cast another glyph to confirm that she was alone and no one had heard it.

The breach of etiquette went unnoticed, only the uncomfortable warmth in her ears confirming it happened. She cut up the fruits with the knife like a savage. Juice spilled on the floor, ingredients were mixed without accounting for their history or significance. The meal she was creating would've made her family's Cook faint. The matriarch would've grounded her for a year if she heard of it, forcing El'el to contemplate the importance of proper decorum for the whole time.

She erased the evidence with a simple spell. And anyway, Heresy made her crime moot. Surely she was already excommunicated. Going against the Law had the perks of outshining other offenses. The bowl of ice-cream with fruits was made. The container was created through technology. Fruits were grown haphazardly, offensive to even look at. The ice-cream itself was made with a recipe from pre-Integration, without even a thought put into the Concepts it was made of. It was food only in the loosest sense of the word.

El'el took a bite. It was Divine. She was living the life of an outlaw, and she was starting to understand where the Heretics were coming from. Going against the natural order of the world was… Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Offensive. Unrefined. Undignified. The opposite of enlightened. Plainly shameful. Freeing. Another giggle escaped her throat. Despite her fears, life wasn't so bad. Of course, she would have to live stranded in the middle of nowhere.

Grade three forbidden world that failed an Integration was essentially as much of a dumpster as it could be. As long as it was contained and didn't try to expand, it would be left to its own devices, too unimportant and simultaneously too bothersome to deal with. Not worth the effort to send other representatives. She was coming to terms with her fate. She could help the natives avoid committing the worst offenses, keeping them off the radar.

Technologically advanced worlds were always problematic, but so far she didn't see anything too bad. They had already introduced monsters essential for a healthy ecosystem, so that also wouldn't be a problem as long as she prevented humans from exterminating them. Guiding civilizations without the ability to issue Quests would be a novel challenge, but she was in a good place to start.

In good graces with local rulers, just at the right time when kingdoms were only starting to form, strong enough to not be ignored, and with powerful allies… Yes, she could see herself living a virtuous life, despite her status. Her heart skipped a beat. The spoon fell on the floor, spilling the monstrosity. Just for a moment, the shroud was gone. That wasn't too bad. The concern of being Hunted was a far-fetched one. A precaution more than anything.

Without proper representatives in the Echo, in a world such as this, chances of one finding her were a matter of luck on their part. Hiding was wise, but not strictly necessary. She just didn't want to depend on luck when it didn't cost much to be careful. Did Dennis consider abandoning her, for but a moment? Did he exhaust his Skill? Was there some sort of emergency? She sighed, resolving herself to ask him when– New Global Quest: Kill Dennis Smith. Immense rewards for both participation and completion.

Oh, they were all dead. A Quest meant that there was an active System Administrator. In other words, this world wasn't as abandoned as she had hoped. Kill Dennis? Immense rewards? Quest rewards were partially–or completely–funded by the Law, but a world-wide Quest that was almost unrelated to an Integration effort would have to be funded completely by the one who issued it. Someone capable of issuing such a Quest was no mere representative. Her master wouldn't have been able to afford it.

Her whole family wouldn't have been able to afford it without ruining itself, and she wasn't some no-name nobody, quite the opposite. Again, she was in the middle of the plot she didn't understand, pulled by the strings unseen." Haste,"she intoned, empowering the glyphs with an incantation." Clairvoyance." Ten Hunters. Elves, around level twenty, bearing an insignia of the Soul King. Too strong for someone of her or Dennis' level, too weak for someone of her or Dennis' power.

It was like the High Authority didn't know who they had sent the Hunters for, despite having a System Administrator on their side. Two parties of five for two Heretics, all generalists with just enough power to overwhelm their target and not a speck more – it was a perfectly textbook response that ignored the reality of the situation in favor of following the guidelines. It didn't make any sense. None of this did. She was an idiot for not prying into Dennis' past more.

She had believed his tale to be madness and discarded it without a second thought, too uncomfortable to think it true. What was more likely, a unique case of being born with a heavily mutated Soul, or one of the Sovereigns ignoring the foundational rules of the universe in a plot that somehow involved her, if only coincidentally? New worlds created unique monsters all the time. Dennis was special, but… Again, she was closing her eyes and ears, as if she didn't learn a single lesson from her teacher's betrayal.

A blind Overseer who saw only what she liked. An idiot." Impenetrable Barrier," she repeated her teacher's favorite spell." Shimmering Form. Half-finished Thought. Ward of Observation." Level-wise, she was slightly stronger than Lily at the moment. Weaker than she had been for a long time, strong enough to feel secure in such a backwater world. Not nearly enough to contend with a level twenty Hunter, less so five of them rushing towards her place of residence. But she wasn't some nobody.

She was born to be a Wizard.

Her environment was tailored to her from her very birth so she would get the Skills necessary to be the best Wizard her family could produce. She had the potential to become an Archwizard one day. She was taught by the High Authority. She was the youngest Overseer in generations. She ignored the bitterness in those thoughts. Maybe she was overly prideful, but she had ample reason to be. Wizardry was always, without exception, weaker than Skills.

A Fire Sorcerer, for the same cost, would create a fireball in a fraction of the time it would take her, and it would be superior in every way. Glyphs weaved around her, shimmering in the air. Markings appeared on the floor. Power flooded the space." A Glimpse into the Future,"she continued." Illusionary double. Mind Split. Gathering Storm." The air grew thinner, losing its coherency. Instead of using mana to summon a Concept, she was unmaking the world around her, turning it into mana.

The first mistake of the Hunters was not spawning right on top of her, before she was prepared. The second mistake was being noticed and not hiding their approach. After all, everyone knew… The walls crumbled around her in an instant, destroyed by five Hunters who didn't even notice they were there. Their swords were bared, aiming for her. It would take only a moment to cut her down." Chain Lightning." Giving a Wizard time to prepare was a death sentence.

The flash of light didn't blind her – she had cast a spell that prevented that. The thunder didn't deafen her – she had protections against that as well. Electricity sparkled through the air, jumping from one body to the next in an instant, even faster than she could perceive with her enhanced senses. Two bodies fell on the burnt floor, taking the brunt of the impact and not surviving. Three others were dazed." Finished Thought. A Storm Collapses." It took time to make the spells.

It didn't take much to finish them. A sphere of wind and force erupted from the point where she stood, pushing outwards and destroying everything it touched. It was an explosion of immense strength. The remaining Hunters were pushed out. So was the building. Debris was falling to the ground. Below her was a crater. Floating in the air, El'el thought that she'd need to apologize to Sydney for destroying her house. Another Hunter died from the blast. Two remained, surviving her initial barrage. Unfortunate.

Half her reserves were gone, and she didn't have any more offensive spells to 'finish'. The remainder of the battle wouldn't be in her favor. Still. She was never a coward.

"You are quite brave, to appear before me," she said, floating upwards. Even at their level, not everyone could fly, and she wouldn't discard a tactical advantage.

"Do you seek death? I will deliver."

"Traitor…" one of them muttered, wiping off the blood from his face. The other picked up their sword from the ground. El'el started casting again.