Chapter 271: Sacred element used by the Church

I dive onto the bed in the room, grabbing the safe with the information. From the movement out there, I gather that Amiya has already arrived with the two girls, which was much faster than expected.

But I don’t have time to think about that, I simply break the safe with my bare hands without caring about the fact that I already have the password. I don’t know if using the password has any triggers, so I used solid mana to ensure my safety while opening the safe.

What’s inside are just some papers. It seems my extra caution was just a waste of time it was just a regular safe with nothing special.

I take the papers from inside to read and see what’s interesting for me. I hope there’s something at least minimally useful, as I know that black market markers aren’t very reliable.

I start reading the paper. The first one is about the church, but it talks more about the church’s architecture than anything really useful, as it’s just mentioning the already known part and a little bit of the unknown part of the church’s architecture.

So it’s like an incomplete map that’s only slightly better than a normal map of the church, which really doesn’t help, until I get to a really interesting part that talks about the faithful.

A large number of faithful, mainly children and adolescents, have recently disappeared and have been disappearing for some time, and they all have one thing in common: an affinity for sacred magic.

It seems that even some students from the academy have disappeared on the streets while on vacation after the school year ended.

This reminds me of something. The saint has already done this test, she tested my class to see which students had an affinity for sacred magic, and she also did this in several other classes.

The heroes must not have disappeared, so they must have been ignored while focusing on other students who had an affinity for sacred magic, and they also seem to have focused on students who didn’t have great nobility or influence.

’Why is the church after people with an affinity for sacred magic? And why are these people disappearing?’ This is interesting to use to my advantage, both for normal negotiation and for blackmail.

I move on to the next information, throwing the paper on the bed and reading the other one. It also seems to inform about the church itself rather than the Pope, which may not be as useful to me.

Reading the beginning quickly, it seems to be an “entry” and continuation of the previous topic, and the use of these people, it seems something the Pope himself is doing, although it still cites the church.

However, the church cannot do anything without the Pope knowing, so obviously everything is being managed by the Pope himself. From what I see in the papers, it seems to be very well hidden and has been going on for several years.

“Hmmm… Next.” I throw the paper aside and grab the next one. It’s interesting, but without knowing what he’s using these people for, it’s completely useless to me at the moment.

“Hey, Violet,” I call Violet to see if she responds.

“What do you want, Pandora? I’m busy eating,” she says irritably.

“I have a question about sacred magic.” The sacred element is one of the most confusing, not because it’s complex, but because its usefulness is a real mess.

You can use it to heal, to attack, to form defenses, to compete against various other elements, to give buffs, to give debuffs, and even to apply sacred curses that don’t work on everyone, but still, it’s a curse.

However, this is what makes this element strange why does it have so many uses? Most elements focus on specific uses, whether they’re good at defending or good at attacking, and so on.

“Tell me what your question is, but I might not be able to answer,” Violet says, making it clear that she may not know.

“Sacred magic, do you know why it has so many different uses?” I even have the knowledge of universal laws, but it’s not like that serves to tell me what each element can do. That knowledge only tells me what each universal law is and how they are applied.

Of course, it’s very useful knowledge that even helps me with magic, but it has its limited uses for specific things.

“Sacred magic, huh… It’s complicated to explain, maybe it’s because it’s an artificial element.”

“…” I remain silent at this.

“What do you mean ’artificial’?”

“Elements generally follow a specific base, usually linked to the 4 primordial elements, and various elements are subclasses of other elements, and so they form a line that divides without stopping.”

“With various branches like a family tree, but of course, every family tree can be altered if someone decides to do what they shouldn’t with it.”

“…Incest?” I question, as that seems to be the only thing that makes sense to me given her explanation.

“More or less, they’re elements, it’s not like they can have children, but it follows that logic of mixing what shouldn’t be mixed.”

’Sacred element… if it’s a mixture, then it’s derived from which elements?’

“Can you tell me which elements are actually composing sacred magic?”

“I have no idea. New elements can always be discovered, so I guess you’d only know if you found out who discovered the sacred element.”

“I don’t think that’s possible.” Probably that person is already dead.

“Why the curiosity about this subject?” Violet asks.

“It’s because I might know what the church is doing.” There’s something that in theory could be what they’re doing, after thinking of hundreds of possibilities, this is the craziest of them all.

However, if you make an elimination in the choices until only the most suitable one remains, then it must be true, no matter how crazy it is. If the church wants people with an affinity for sacred magic, it means that it is essential for what they want.

However, the sacred element, although very versatile, is relatively weak in several aspects, not being good at dealing damage and being better at healing or forming barriers.

As Violet mentioned a family tree, it makes me think, and what if they’re trying to create something new? In theory, it’s possible, but what would this new something be? A new element? A new magic? Or maybe a biological weapon?

There are many options, but of course, they are probably trying to create something, I just don’t know what they want to create.

“Thank you for the help, Violet, and how’s Mesumari?” I ask in a suggestive way.

“… She hasn’t shown up anymore, they’re probably getting ready to fight, and you should do that too,” she says.

“…”

’She’s right.’ I shouldn’t focus on the heroes or Delphina now; Mikael is more important at the moment.

“Violet, have you ever wondered why they never use the strongest attack first?”

“No, and the reason is obvious, Pandora. It’s because your strongest attack probably won’t kill the target, and in the end, it will just cause a lot of damage, but it can debilitate you, which is a disadvantage, after all, being unable to fight is bad for you,” Violet gives the right answer.

“Yes, you’re absolutely right, and that’s why I’m going to start the fight using my strongest attack.”

“W-What!? Are you stupid or something? Do you want to exhaust your mana in a single attack?” She says, shocked by this.

“No, I’m going to use the mana from my angelic aureole for this magic, and I’ll recite the incantation beforehand, and as soon as we start fighting, I’ll use the magic and detonate everything. This won’t kill Mikael, but it will make him cautious and cause some damage.”

“And do you know why?” I ask Violet.

“… Because no one uses the strongest attack first… this idea… is actually really good. If he sees you using your strongest attack right at the beginning, he won’t know that it’s truly the strongest, and he’ll be cautious about more powerful attacks.”

“And since you’ll be spending one of your mana reserves, you won’t be debilitated and will be able to fight just as if you hadn’t used it, although this could be a double-edged sword, since you’ll instantly lose one of your mana reserves.”

“So in the long run, it could be bad.”

“Yes, but life is risky. I’m willing to bet and hope that luck is on my side,” I say with a smile, grabbing the next paper.

“Haaa… you can be so crazy, you know? That’s your ’Gate of Hell’ magic, isn’t it? That’s the name, right? It’s your strongest magic, right?”

“Yes, you’re right. [Gate of Hell] is my strongest magic, and it’s also very costly and has an incantation, which makes it difficult to use in a fight without my original form.”

“That’s also one of the reasons why I’m going to recite the incantation beforehand and only use it later.” I can’t leave two incantations recited and waiting to be used, that would be a mess.

I can even recite an incantation to use at the moment, even if I’ve already recited another one, but I can’t leave two incantations recited and waiting, as one would interfere with the other.

That’s why I think starting with [Gate of Hell] is a good idea to make the fight more cautious. Caution can hinder in some points, but help in others.

“Now you can go back to eating, I want to review these papers one last time and then go to sleep.” The other paper seems kind of useless, it has the Pope’s routine, which is practically public knowledge.

Except for the fact that it mentions some extra places he passes by, but it’s not like it’s a big deal. In the end, the information is quite mediocre.

It’s not completely useless, but it’s not a big deal. Maybe the ones that were sold had more value, but now I’ll never know.

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