The road to Solara cut northward through thick woodland and gently rising hills. Lucius had been on foot for two full days since departing Hancock, and with every step forward, the dimensional compass against his chest grew warmer. Its needle throbbed steadily, pointing the way forward.
[Dimensional Compass: Divine Energy Detected - Distance: 180km]
He shifted the straps of his satchel and pressed on. The woods around him had gone unnaturally still. There weren't any birdsongs, nor movement from the bushes.
For the better part of an hour, his survival instinct skill had been sending quiet signals crawling up the back of his neck.
[Survival Instinct (Passive) - Triggered]
[Warning: Hostile presence nearby. Multiple targets. Divine energy signature detected.]
'Huh?'
He slowed down, his hand drifting toward the throwing axe hanging at his hip. He didn't hesitate to switch on Streetwise.
[Streetwise (Passive) - Triggered]
[Environmental Analysis:]
• Threat Level: High
• Enemy count: 4-5 hostiles
• Positioning: Ambush formation, 50 meters ahead in treeline
• Energy signatures: Divine blessing detected (Holy warriors)
• Recommended action: Avoid confrontation or strike first]
'Four to five opponents, all carrying divine blessings?. How fast does heaven react to hostility?'
Lucius crouched behind a broad oak tree and looked through the leaves. He spotted them quickly, figures clad in white and gold armour arranged along both edges of the road.
He smartly used his appraisal skill on the closest one.
[Appraisal activated!]
[Target: Human Male - Heaven's Scout]
[Level: 15]
[Class: Holy Warrior]
[HP: 280/280]
[Threat Level: High]
[Abilities: Divine Shield, Holy Strike, Detect Evil, Blessing of Light]
[Equipment: Blessed Longsword, Sanctified Plate Armour]
[Note: Sworn to Heaven. Will attack on sight if divine corruption is detected.]
'Divine corruption?' He thought quietly.
It was the same energy he had pulled from the creatures in the mine.
He glanced at his own hands. The faint crimson glow threading through his veins was barely noticeable to the naked eye, but to someone trained to detect divine taint, he would shine like a lit torch.
'Tsk. Going around isn't an option, as it would take a longer time. They'd picked up my signature regardless. The only part now is forward. '
He slid open his status window and checked his current combat resources.
[STATUS WINDOW]
HP: 100/100
MP: 50/50
STR: 53
AGI: 31
VIT: 60
Active Skills:
• Minor Fire Manipulation Lv1]
These weren't common criminals or wild corrupted beasts. These were trained, blessed soldiers of heaven. But so far, he had an experience of killing the essences of a god, five Holy warriors shouldn't be beyond him, after all they're human and can easily be deceived.
Lucius rose and stepped out onto the road.
Every warrior within the area snapped their attention towards him at once, their hands flying to their weapons.
Their leader, a tall man bearing a golden sun crest on his breastplate, lifted one hand in a halting gesture.
"Stop right there! Identify yourself and declare your purpose on this road!"
Lucius kept walking at an easy, unhurried pace. "I'm just a traveller heading to Solara, I heard there might be work in the city."
Their leader's eyes tightened, then he raised his other hand, and a soft golden radiance poured from his open palm. A detection spell of some kind.
[Survival Instinct (Passive) - Warning!]
[You are being scanned for divine corruption.]
The golden light grew stronger, then wavered. Their leader's jaw set hard.
"I have detected divine corruption within your soul. There is residual solar energy on you. You've had contact with tainted divine essence recently, haven't you?." His sword cleared its scabbard.
"Under the authority of heaven's council, you are hereby ordered to submit to detainment for questioning."
The other four warriors moved outward, cutting off every angle of escape he could possibly think of.
'As expected.'
Lucius exhaled slowly. "And if I don't cooperate?"
"Then you'll be forcibly cleansed of that corruption."
There was a calming silence after his words, and then suddenly Lucius wrapped his fingers around the throwing axe on his waist.
"I was counting on that answer."
The leader's expression shifted. "He's going to—"
Lucius released the axe from his fingers, and it spun end over end, catching a warrior on his left in the throat. The blessed armour turned away a fatal cut, but the blow rocked the man backwards hard.
HP: 280 → 245]
Lucius was already in motion, closing the gap to the staggered warrior at a sprint, fire building around his right hand as he moved.
"Heretic!" The leader surged forward, his blade blazing with Holy light.
'Tch!'
Lucius ducked the first swing, slipped beneath the second, and drove his burning palm flat against the wounded warrior's chest. The sanctified steel resisted the heat, but it couldn't stop what came after.
"Absorb!"
[Absorption skill activated!]
[Target: Human - Holy Warrior]
[WARNING: Target contains divine blessing. Absorption may trigger Heaven's attention.]
[Continue? Y/N]
"Yes!" He screamed
The familiar cold flood poured up his arm, but this time, it pushed back. The divine blessings inside the warrior clawed against his absorption skill like something caustic. The warrior cried out and fought to break free, but Lucius's grip and the pull of his absorption skill was just too powerful to resist.
[HP: 100 → 92] his HP dropped
Lucius clenched his teeth and held his grip. The man's resistance ebbed, and the golden sheen faded from his armour.
[Absorption complete!]
[HP recovered: 92 → 100]
[Divine energy absorbed: Minor]
[+3 STR, +2 VIT acquired]
He yanked his hand back a heartbeat before another warrior's blade came slicing down. The edge caught his shoulder, shearing through leather and biting into his skin.
[HP: -12]
Lucius pivoted and drove his boot into the warrior's knee. The joint snapped inward with an ugly sound, and a pained cry followed. The man buckled, and Lucius seized him by the face on the spot.
"Absorb!"
This one went into him faster as the blessing was thinner and easier to pull apart.
[Absorption complete!]
[HP: 88 → 98]
[+2 AGI acquired]
Two neutralised, three remaining.
The leader bellowed and ignited his blade in sheets of golden fire.
"Heaven's judgement falls upon you now!"
He brought the sword down as Lucius raised his arm to meet it
The blade carved through his forearm as though his limbs were little more than cloth. Sacred fire sank into his muscles and bones, igniting them in burning flames.
[HP: -26]
[Status Effect: Holy Burn - HP decreases 2 per second]
The pain tore a shout from his throat. He staggered, his left arm dropping uselessly to his side, blood sheeting down his fingers.
The leader closed in, raising his weapon for the finishing blow. "Your corruption ends here, heretic!."
Lucius's thoughts moved fast within that second. He was clearly outmatched in raw power. The leader outleveled him, his armour was impenetrable, and his divine blessing hit like a battering ram.
But there was one place Lucius had the edge in this fight. It was the fact that he was prepared to do what they would never do or think of doing.
Instead of retreating like a normal person, he threw himself forward. The leader's sword descended, but Lucius was already past his reach, pressing in close. He slapped his good hand against the exposed skin of the man's neck, the narrow gap where his helmet came in contact with his gorget and shouted.
"Absorb!"
The leader's eyes went wide. He wrenched backwards, but Lucius latched on with everything he had. The blessing inside their leader was immense. It scorched him from the inside, thrashed against his hold, and refused every attempt to yield.
[HP: 70 → 58 → 45]
But Lucius held on. 'You…will….yield!!'
The leader's golden aura flickered and stuttered. Slowly, colour drained from his skin, his hands came up to claw at Lucius's wrist.
[Absorption in progress...]
[Target contains HIGH residuals of divine blessing]
[WARNING: Continued absorption may cause severe damage]
The leader tried reaching for his sword to cut his wrist, but Lucius used his leg to hold his hand down by the wrist with all his strength.
[HP: -13]
The leader's eyes went glassy, and his whole body shuddered.
[Absorption complete!]
[HP recovered: 32 → 85]
[HIGH Divine Energy absorbed!]
[+8 STR, +5 VIT, +4 INT acquired]
[New Passive Skill gained: Divine Sense Lv1]
[Divine Sense: Detect divine energy signatures within 100m radius. Sense blessed individuals and holy artifacts.]
[New Active Skill gained: Smite Lv1]
[Smite: Channel divine energy into a devastating strike. Cost: 20 MP. Cooldown: 60 seconds]
'Freak!'
Lucius released the shrivelled remains and lurched backwards, dragging ragged breaths into his lungs. His left arm still bled freely, holy flame gnawing at the wound.
The two surviving warriors hadn't moved yet. They stood fixed in place, their eyes locked on the dried out husk that had been their commander.
"What….what in the world are you?" One of them stammered.
Lucius looked up at them. His eyes shimmered faintly gold, lit from within by the stolen divine energy.
"Someone who doesn't give a damn about Heaven's judgement."
They both shook, turning their feet to run. "You're a demon!" They both turned and ran.
Lucius let them go. After all, he was too wounded to chase after them. He slid down against a tree trunk and fumbled through his satchel for his waterskin. He sloshed water over the wound, sucking air through his teeth as it hissed and steamed against the burning.
[Status Effect: Holy Burn - Cleansed by water]
[HP regeneration resuming]
He stayed there a long while, breathing steadily, his eyes moving across the three bodies lying in the road.
He had just killed Heaven's own field agents. Not twisted creatures or outlaws, genuine divine warios carrying genuine divine blessings.
And he had taken those blessings for himself.
He pulled up his status window and studied the new entries.
[Divine Sense (Passive) Lv1]
[Smite Lv1 (Active)]
'Divine abilities drawn from heaven's chosen soldiers.' he chuckled softly beneath the haze of pain.
'If i keep doing this….'
The idea sharpened into something clear and deliberate. He had been chasing gods and pulling corrupted power from tainted beasts. But these warriors had carried something fundamentally different, that is, pure divine gifts granted directly by heaven itself.
And he could strip them away with his absorption skill.
A grin pulled at the corner of his mouth despite everything that hurt.
'I'll gain sss-rank skills if I absorbed enough divine essences from divinely blessed sources…'
He looked toward north, toward Solara, where the sun god waited for him. Where a palace full of holy warriors, ordained priests, and consecrated paladins stood between him and his goal.
'Heaven will begin dispatching its finest warriors to bring me down. But every warrior they send will just leave me stronger than before.'
Lucius pushed himself upright and tested the wounded arm. It was healing slowly but well enough to function.
He moved through the scene quickly, gathering what was useful from what was left. Like the blessed Longswords he couldn't comfortably wield but could trade, the symbols and coin purses that were always worth having around.
Then he hauled the bodies into the trees line and buried them under the leaves and fallen branches.
Let heaven spend time wondering what became of its scouts.
He walked back to the road, and the dimensional compass pulsed against his skin, steady and warm.
[Dimensional Compass: Divine Energy Detected - Distance: 178km]
He activated divine sense, testing out his new ability.
[Divine Sense (Passive) - Triggered]
[Scanning area...]
[Divine signatures detected: 2 weak sources, 15km northwest]
[Divine signatures detected: 1 moderate source, 8km northeast]
Just ahead of him were more scouts. Meaning more divine blessings walking toward him through the trees.
Lucius settled his satchel across his shoulders and headed north for Solara.
He wasn't going to avoid them this time. This time, he was going to be the one doing the hunting.
Because every divine soldier he absorbed carried him one step further up the ladder, closer to the kind of power that didn't have a limit.
And when he would finally stand in front of the Sun God in the halls of Solara, he wouldn't arrive as a desperate man scraping by on borrowed abilities.
He would arrive as something the heavens had never had to contend with before.
A mortal who had learned to consume divine essence itself, a force to be reckoned with.