Chapter 9: Swear
Darian took a deep breath — this was pretty much expected. But why was it going wrong? It was probably because he had a ring but no spiritual root.
From what he'd been told, blessings could only be used by Spiritual Guardians, exactly because they had that root. It was essential for connecting to the heavenly laws, letting them even twist reality.
He thought about himself, using what he'd learned from that book.
His power was kinda like a blessing, but clearly different. He could see a person's past, and had the ability to absorb a subtle kind of energy that usually couldn't affect the world directly: Karma.
According to what he read, Karma was just the result of each person's actions. The heavenly laws were the fundamental rules of the world, and those rules gave out a certain type of karma to each person in return.
Someone's karma affected exactly the things they had no control over—like where they were born, or random events depending on luck. Some people called that fate.
In the end, even if someone was the worst person alive, if they were tough or determined enough, they could push through all that stuff.
The protagonist in that book was someone like that. Just calling him cruel and bloodthirsty at the start of the story was way too shallow. But whether it was fate or whatever else the world threw at him, nothing could bring him down.
Karma, though it sounded simple, in that book, could actually be used by powerful people as a source of power. Darian, knowing that, understood a little about his ability — and at the same time, realized he shouldn't even be able to do what he was doing.
So yeah, he was twisting reality, like a blessing was supposed to do.
'These two rings of mine... they must have a power similar to a spiritual root.'