Chapter 322
A faint smell of charcoal immediately filled the room, prompting Nick to circulate the air to avoid choking.
He hadn’t laid his eyes on what was left of his wyvern wand since examining it after Sashara’s Descent, but time hadn’t lessened the annoyance he felt when looking at it.
“What a bitch,” he muttered under his breath.
The once-pale bone had turned completely black and seemed coated in a shiny patina, yet when he touched it, it left no smudge on his hands.
Turning [Empyrean Intuition] on it revealed more of its true nature.
The wind affinity that once made it sing was no longer present, having been entirely consumed by the divine fires. Now, it was replaced by an idol of purification, something that gradually filtered through the ambient mana, cleansing it of any remaining taint.
In a way, it was basically a magical charcoal filter, although he doubted the goddess meant for it to be seen that way.
No, she sent a clear message that I shouldn’t interfere with things beyond my understanding. The fact that this still has some utility doesn’t mean much beyond its symbolism, at least to her.
But Nick was not one to throw something away just because it annoyed him to look at.
Tapping a finger against the wand, he sent a spark of mana through it, then quickly withdrew his hand, relieved to find that nothing happened.
In the ether, the mana was released as unaligned, neutral energy, and it was quickly dissipated in the swirling mists.
Nodding to himself, he grasped the handle with more confidence and pushed a stronger stream through it. Still not a real spell, but enough that any alteration would be noticeable.
Once again, the charcoal stick absorbed everything he gave it and released it as pure mana on the other side.
Nick tilted it, examining it under a new light, but couldn’t find any residue inside.
“I guess she is a goddess of purification for a reason.”
Initially, he planned to use the burnt wand as a simple framework, something to give the new focus a purpose, but with how thoroughly it had been cleansed, he might not actually need to. Instead, it would serve well to filter out any extra influence the other ingredients might carry.
With more focus, he crafted a [Wind Blast], something that had once come almost naturally to the wand, barely requiring his input, and pushed it through, expecting to see something.
What happened instead was just more of the same. The spell formed correctly, but when it tried to pass through the charcoal, it disintegrated easily, even though Nick tried to keep hold of it.
Nothing came out of the tip, not even a gentle breeze. Instead, the mana he’d used was once again released in a wave of pure energy.
“Huh.” It wasn’t that surprising, but he would have expected some resistance. Instead, the spell simply ceased to be as soon as it touched the charcoal. It was so quick that there was nothing he could do to keep it intact.
His next attempt was more cautious, yet simultaneously more reckless. The spellform for [Windburst] was significantly more complex than [Wind Blast], and dismantling it wouldn’t just require disruption but actual interference.
He took his time crafting it, ensuring there were no flaws or hidden cracks that could be exploited to breach it.
Yet, the moment he pushed it through, the structure collapsed. The mana flowed into the ether effortlessly, once again as pure as if untouched.
Having observed the entire process with [Empyrean Intuition], Nick had to admit there seemed to be nothing he could do to pierce through the charcoal. He couldn’t precisely divine its inner workings, but it was evident it would keep purifying any mana it encountered, regardless of how shielded or intricate.
This is giving me a dangerous idea…
Summoning the orichalcum again, he paused to see if the two materials would react, but it didn’t seem like they would.
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He even went so far as to tap the wand against the cube and push mana through it.
Unsurprisingly, he lost control of it the moment it passed through the charcoal, but he was able to watch it move through the orichalcum without any trouble.
“So, they are pretty compatible,” he muttered.
The two components disappeared at his silent command, and Nick retrieved the next divine relic he planned to use as a building block.
The golden scales of Eztie appeared, and immediately, he felt something resonate through the ether. The wave shattered against the [Ritual of Abnegation], and Nick thanked his lucky stars for his paranoia.
I don’t know if that was meant to commune with the god or to do something else, but I definitely don’t want it to go through while I am about to start experimenting on it.
Unlike the seemingly inert charcoal, the scales were clearly actively magical. If the golden glow wasn’t a dead giveaway, the constant tilting of the scales, as if trying to measure something, would be enough to know for sure.
| SYSTEM NOTIFICATION! Your Trait [Blasphemy] has prevented a Karmic Evaluation.
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