DanMachi: Annihilation Maker in DanMachi World!

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"That's a pretty good proposal."

Lucian looked thoughtful.

Are you kidding me? You're actually considering it?

Hephaestus was completely speechless.

But whatever. She had already made her decision long ago. She just wasn't used to it yet, and seeing him with other women always made her sulk a little.

Lucian's entirely unapologetic and self-assured attitude drained whatever anger she had right out of her.

"I want to go to the Colosseum,"

Ais interjected awkwardly, having no mood for idle chatter.

She couldn't understand what Lucian and the others were talking about, but the atmosphere felt weird, and she wanted absolutely no part in it.

"You can't just run away, Ais~"

Lucian said softly. "Revenge is important. You could even say it's completely justified. But you can't make revenge your sole purpose in life."

"For you, surpassing the One-Eyed Black Dragon is only a matter of time. What will you do after that?"

Ais fell silent. She honestly didn't know what she would do once she defeated the Black Dragon.

Her family was gone. What was the meaning of her existence?

"No running away, Ais,"

Lucian said softly. "I'm sure your family wouldn't want your life to be reduced to nothing but revenge. That would be far too tragic, both for you and for them."

Ais's desire to go to the Colosseum wasn't just because the atmosphere felt weird; at its core, it was an attempt to escape.

Although the atmosphere was strange, it wasn't tense, nor were they fighting.

To Ais, it actually felt a little warm.

But it was exactly this warmth that made her want to run away.

She enjoyed this kind of warmth deeply, but if she allowed herself to enjoy it, what would happen to her revenge?

What Lucian was telling her right now was that seeking revenge and enjoying warmth were not mutually exclusive.

If possible, he wanted Ais to grow up surrounded by "love," rather than drowning in dark vengeance...

...like in the original story, where she cried until her tears ran dry, sealed her heart in ice, and faced life as nothing more than a sword.

Constantly lashing out, but also constantly wearing herself down.

Although her blade hadn't shattered in the end, if it could be avoided, it was better she didn't have to endure such an experience at all.

"Come here."

Seeing Ais fall silent, Lucian smiled gently. He withdrew his arm from Hephaestus's waist and pulled Ais into an embrace.

The warm embrace caused her emotional defenses to instantly crumble.

She relaxed, leaning against Lucian's chest, her facial expression instantly softening.

"To continue our previous topic," Lucian said. "I've discovered the essence of Authorities. What you call an Authority is actually an aggregate of countless rules woven together."

"My Third Magic is known as Rule Creation—"

Because of this, Lucian could even replicate the Flame of Heaven.

He first used the Flame of Heaven as a prototype to construct the core rules.

Then, he injected the Flame of Heaven's energy into those core rules. Under the influence of the rules, a new fire seed was formed.

The core rules then interacted with his Magic Creation. By using his imagination to alter the function of those core rules, he changed the seed's properties, forming a flame that shared the same origin as the Flame of Heaven but possessed an entirely different nature.

If one were to separate the divine power of the Flame of Heaven from its Authority—leaving no energy behind—the pure Authority was simply an aggregate of the rules of heaven and earth.

"Your concept..." Prometheus paused, speaking with evident surprise. "Earlier, I was wondering how I should construct my first world. Seeing how you utilized the Flame of Heaven gave me some inspiration."

"If I could construct a world specifically dedicated to compiling Authorities, it might just allow us gods to achieve progress as well."

Seeing Lucian derive the Wrath Flame from the Flame of Heaven right before her eyes had sparked an idea in her mind.

Since Lucian could construct the Wrath Flame and create a new sub-species divine power, he could naturally compile Authorities as well.

And if Authorities could be compiled, they could also be perfected.

"It seems great minds think alike."

Lucian rubbed his chin against the top of Ais's head and said, "However, what you need to do isn't build a world meant for compiling Authorities, but rather a world that physically manifests your own Authority."

"This world could be a library, a volcano, or an icy planet... The form doesn't matter. What matters is manifesting your Authority as physical rules."

"I see. I understand now," Bheara exclaimed in amazement, looking at Lucian. "If an Authority is essentially an aggregate of rules, you mean we can use the world itself as a container and our dismantled Authorities as the contents. That way, we can intuitively comprehend the composition of our own Authorities."

"And building upon that foundation, we could expand our Authorities by writing new rules into them," Hephaestus picked up the thread. "Authorities are the core of our divinity. Only with powerful Authorities can we enhance our divine majesty."

"The rules of Heaven only birthed us gods—the avatars of Authorities—after they were thoroughly perfected," Prometheus added. "Therefore, the weak remain eternally weak. An ordinary god could never become a Great God. The disparity in both physical strength and divine majesty is insurmountable."

Prometheus had once carved a Falna onto herself. However, because gods inherently possessed no growth potential, her status values started at zero and remained at zero till the very end.

When scaled down to the level of a normal human, her resulting physical constitution was incredibly poor. She could only exert a meager amount of strength through the blessing of the Flame of Heaven.

On the other hand, Great Gods like Zeus, Martial Gods like Takemikazuchi, or the Goddess of the Hunt, Artemis... even with their divine power and physical abilities sealed, their very physical structure dictated that they could output far more power.

Combined with their martial techniques, a weak little loli like Prometheus couldn't even begin to compare.

But now, with Lucian bluntly revealing the essence of Authorities, she finally realized something. The so-called lack of growth potential actually just meant they couldn't grow through conventional means.

And now, Lucian had found an unconventional method.

"I really want to crack open your skull and see just how your brain is wired," Bheara marveled.

"To be honest, I was the first to learn about Lucian's Authority, but even I never imagined this magic could be used like this," Hephaestus shook her head. "Even with the same magic, the potential it can unleash varies drastically depending on whose hands it's in."

Even if this ability were given to a god, there was no telling how long it would take them to discover this specific application.

It didn't necessarily require creating a world from scratch. Simply unfolding the Authority within a space was viable too; the area where the Authority manifested would automatically become a separate dimension.

"I stand to gain from this process as well," Lucian smiled. "The manifestation of the Sea of Illusions requires not only energy, but also rules."

"After constructing the central hub, the Sea of Illusions' computational power became independent, allowing it to replicate the rules of the Flame of Heaven into the Sea itself."

Rules did not affect the scope or carrying capacity of the Sea of Illusions, but they directly impacted how effectively the Divine Avatar and World Will could utilize mental power.

Any rules that appeared within the Sea of Illusions would be recorded by the Divine Avatar, including the Authorities of the gods. In this way, Lucian's Divine Avatar would gradually approach true omnipotence.

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