During the Dark Ages

As the sun disappeared from the sky and the city turned dark, a shadow could be seen sneaking towards the Sanctuary.

'This is stupid, so fucking stupid.' I thought as I landed on the ground, but I didn't stop despite every instinct telling me to. I activated my [Aura Vision] and I could see a dome of golden energy surrounding the mansion, I also noticed that it seemed wider than yesterday stretching past the wall a bit which was perfect for me. I walked over to the dome and hesitantly stuck my hand in it. Almost immediately, I could feel excruciating pain spread throughout my hand and black smoke rose from it as my hands started turning red before burn marks started to appear. I resisted the urge to scream and pulled back my hand but I kept my eyes wide open and observed what was happening to my hand. I could see my skin start peeling off and new skin regrew over my hand, red, tender and felt like it was inside an oven.

Seeing what happened to my skin, I contemplated how I could protect myself from the effects of holy energy or at the very least lessen the pain in some way and gain a resistance to any attacks containing this energy. As I wracked my brain on what to do I came up with a few ideas, and I briefly wondered if my severe lack of knowledge will get me killed, but I could not afford to wait. Patience was a virtue, and Demons are anything but virtuous, so it was time to experiment.

First test, let's see the reaction of the [Holy Territory] to demonic energy. I used the knowledge of demonic energy provided by [Demonic Energy Manipulation] and covered my hand in a layer of red demonic energy. I then put my hand in the dome of holy energy and the reaction was instant. A large amount of black smoke, much more than before, rose from my hand instantly and the territory reacted more violently as it started to vibrate and I quickly removed my hand hoping that Synthia didn't notice anything wrong with the territory. The [Holy Territory]'s violent reaction to holy energy meant that using demonic energy to protect myself against holy energy attacks might be counter productive. The first experiment is a resounding failure.

For the next test, I'll try and stop the demonic energy from leaking from my body, which should at least slow the draining effect it has on me and give me some resistance to the effects of holy energy, or at least I'll have the knowledge to. The entire idea hinged on how strong my [Demonic Energy Manipulation] skill is, and how effective it would be while inside the [Holy Territory], which means prolonged exposure might be needed. I hesitantly placed my hand into the golden energy dome and tried to block out the excruciating pain but that was virtually impossible. So instead I tried to concentrate on the task at hand, I focused on the black smoke leaving my hand and tried to pull it back into my body but it wouldn't stop and continued to float into the barrier and dissipate. I quickly retracted my hand and allowed it to heal before trying again, and again, for the next half hour. No progress was made and so I deem this experiment a failure as well, a very painful failure.

The last idea I had was to try and get a trait for it. So far whenever I got a trait I always experienced something akin to a revelation so in theory I should be able to get something to help with holy energy…in theory. So I revised what I knew, or rather the few assumptions, I had about holy energy. One of them was that it seemed to react more violently when it came into contact with demonic energy. The fact that it only affects Demons makes me think that it has something to do with the demonic energy in our bodies which makes it react so if I were to hide the demonic aura in my body it shouldn't hurt me….in theory. For the first time in a while I focused my [Aura Vision] onto myself and what I saw was very different from last time. The last time I did this my aura was purple but now it was a dark red colour that surrounded me like a flame. I concentrated and tried to retract my aura and it started to become smaller and smaller, retracting into my body but when only around half of the aura was left I felt an increasingly strong headache but it was nothing compared to what I felt when I came into contact with holy energy.

When it only reached a quarter of it's original size I instinctively knew I couldn't retract it any more. I put my hand into the holy dome and I felt pain in my hand but it was a lot less than before but still painful nonetheless. It means my theory was correct, or at least held some merits.

'Now comes the hard part.' I thought before stepping into the [Holy Territory]. The pain shot through my body, and it felt like someone had placed me in an oven, my entire body felt like it was on fire, and I almost lost control of my energy, but I steeled my will and continued to suppress it. If I am to get a trait from this, I need to commit, I need to put my life on the line.

[You have entered a [Holy Territory].]

[Your power has decreased by 50%.]

[-10 LP]

[+10 LP]

[- 10 LP]

[+10 LP]

[- 10 LP]

…..........

These notifications continued to appear in front of my eyes for who knows how long but as I lost LP ,the [Regeneration] skill regenerated it and thus a cycle began. That is until a new problem occurred.

[15/31 DP left]

[14/31 DP left]

[13/31 DP left]

This was the first time I got notifications about my DP even when I knew I exhausted a lot of it. I didn't even know what would happen if my DP dropped to 0 and to be honest I didn't want to find out. My mind and body was overcome by exhaustion and I could feel my grip on my aura slipping once more, making me grit my teeth and keep suppressing my energy.

[5/31 DP left]

[4/31 DP left]

I started to panic and I could swear my vision was going black.

[3/31 DP left]

I felt my skin burning and my vision has become completely black and I could feel my thoughts become slower.

[2/31 DP left]

I could feel my consciousness floating in a dark empty space and I felt like I was losing control of my body and my instincts were taking over and I could feel my self slowly crawling out of the dome.

[1/31 DP left]

But that's when I felt something deep inside me, something dark and primal, almost sentient, but it was only there for a second before it disappeared again. It might have been my imagination due to the pain and exhaustion I was feeling, but it felt so real. Like something, someone was there, far away, yet within

[Congratulations you have unlocked the Trait, [Holy Resistance].]

When I saw this notification, although my mind felt blank, I subconsciously let go of all resistance and my body climbed out of the territory with surprising speed and I quickly lost consciousness soon after.