Nateaser: Reborn As My Love Interest

Nati - Ch. 123

Addas disappeared.

Once he led us into his massive castle, he left us alone. Whatever his intentions, I took Gitaut's advice and found a cozy corner to connect with my crystal. My mental fortitude needed reinforcing.

The fortress swarmed with creatures we'd seen before, and ones I was glad we had never encountered. Minotaurs were the most common, but the fairies were the most annoying, and the only ones that bothered us.

The dungeon core must have been close but it promised to be impossible to approach as we were now. First, we had to deal with the green dragon, which was a tall order. I needed ideas and wished the Goddess was here to help me out. But she told us up front, she wouldn't be able to intervene. Emi couldn't do magic, and the two witches were still out of it, thanks to those pixies.

So I did what I do best, and secluded myself to think. The others decided to explore the vast halls instead, rather disoriented. I refused to end up like them and studied up on the defensive spells.

The magic stone at least answered my calls, unaffected by all this chaos. The lingering pressure of the god's aura made spells difficult to cast, even on myself. As the crystal revealed, most of them didn't matter anyway. True Deities were virtually invulnerable.

A fight between two warriors ended when one damaged his body enough that he could no longer fight. For wizards, as long as they imagined a spell and gathered enough mana, they could turn things around. Their defeat came once they couldn't see their victory anymore. But gods were on a different level.

Their spells materialized before they even thought about them. Their power was immeasurable using human standards, and they were never alone. For saint and godhood, one needed to build connections. Magic pacts or enough followers to connect through prayers, creating a two-way channel. Most of the time gods granted their power to their followers, while their mana kept their idol strong.

But this connection was so much more. These mana strings would anchor and surround the deities. Shield them from any possible attacks a mere mortal could launch at them. Dissipated any force between followers until it became so insignificant they wouldn't notice.

The more followers a deity had, the stronger this shield and anchor became. Even gods would struggle to overcome these defenses. According to the crystal, no humans, or group of mages could gather enough force to make a dent in them. But there was a way to manipulate these strings. Four, to be exact, and they came in pairs.

The only four spells that could affect a god, displace them or alter these connections. The most difficult and rare one was Banishment.

It exploited these strings and used the deities' mana against them. It ripped a hole through reality and dragged the target through by these strings. Lambert attempted this against me, wanting to trap me in a pocket dimension, but it didn't work. I didn't have enough mana for such a feat, and he used the wrong True Name for the spell.

I benefited from being weak, but now that I heard more about it from the crystal, I relived the situation. My mental resistance crumbled, and with the fairies still near to keep us in check, it was hard to do my research.

The pair, or opposite of Banishment was the Summon. As the name suggested, it summoned the gods to a place, where enough followers and mages gathered. Again, they had to rip a tear through reality and drag their chosen deity through it, even against their will.

It was a simpler spell but had some prerequisites. Not to mention the tremendous amount of mana needed for it. While Banishment used the god's power, for a Summon, mages had to put their heads together to succeed. The crystal couldn't tell me if summoning a banished god was still possible, so I moved on to the next spell.