Antagonist Protection Service-Chapter 227 Real Blessing
227: Real Blessing
227: Real Blessing
All of a sudden, my eyes snapped open.
‘Ah…
When did I fall asleep…?’
Immediately realising I was lying down on the settee I was previously sitting on alongside Lucretia, I pushed myself up.
“…”
Looking around, the aforementioned princess was nowhere to be found in the immediate living space, however I could sense her presence in the next room over, seemingly lying down similar to myself just now.
‘Must be sleeping…’
I wasn’t sure what the time was, and there were no windows anywhere in this hidden hideout to help with that, but that wasn’t particularly important anyway.
Turning my attention back to myself, I couldn’t help but notice a few things, all starkly different from before.
Firstly, continuing from just before I passed out, the everlasting chill within my heart was no longer present.
I could instinctively realise that was because the core of the Winter Mother’s Blessing was no longer condensed in one spot.
That didn’t mean my body wasn’t cold anymore, however.
Just, rather than having the sheer cold constantly permeate my body by emanating from that one spot in my heart, it was more or less equally spread out to every inch of me, and seemed to only emerge when I strongly willed it to.
In other words, the Blessing’s natural state had now become ‘inactive’, or perhaps simply primarily dormant, and whenever I wanted to empower my body with divine energy, all I had to do was will it.
‘Hm…
I wonder how much stronger it actually makes me.’
I was able to get a rough idea thanks to Heightened Senses, and it certainly felt impressive, but I would never be able to know for sure how strong I was without an equal opponent.
My curiosity was also piqued in regards to how the augmentation of magic energy and divine energy interacted, wondering whether or not they had synergy and amplified each other further, or if they were more along the lines of simple, linear increases in power.
Although, unfortunately, that wasn’t something I could accurately evaluate when magic energy was constantly empowering me.
“…Well, whatever.
It worked, so that’s all that matters.”
Rising to my feet and stretching, I felt a sudden surge of desire to go out and try to see just how much the divine energy was capable of, but I knew I shouldn’t.
I didn’t think there would be any more Demons running rampant around the city, but there would undoubtedly be guards and Imperial Knights searching every nook and cranny to try and locate Lucretia.
Not to mention, of course, me.
In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if they issued an emergency Imperial Directive, requiring even adventurers and other privatised investigators to scout and probe around for any information.
I was already a wanted man before, but now, even a single step outside could warrant death.
Even if that wasn’t the case, it certainly wouldn’t make things better, that’s for sure.
‘…I should wait until the others return.’
In this situation, caution and patience were even more key than usual.
I hadn’t the opportunity yet to ask Lucretia where the former love interests were during my execution, but thinking back on how she explained the original plan, I think I had an idea.
‘She said the Demons “hijacked” the portal.
That means they probably went somewhere outside the city to capture some Demons to send over.’
I wasn’t sure what the range of Joádin’s teleportation magic was like, or if he could even transport the three of them all at once, but regardless, considering the distance they must have travelled, I wouldn’t be surprised if it took a while.
“Oh, that’s probably why I was held in prison for a few days first, huh…”
Suddenly, it made a bit more sense to me.
Anyway.
It wasn’t a smart idea to risk going outside alone, and to be honest, I didn’t feel comfortable leaving Lucretia here alone also.
Thinking for a moment to see if there was anything productive I could do in the meantime, particularly regarding my newfound divine power, I abruptly remembered.
‘Oh!
Right.’
Without hesitation, I summoned the Holy Sword.
“Hey.
I’ve done it.”
Immediately speaking to the spirit of the Ancient Hero Eligos, his voice was quickly returned to me.
[Indeed, I can sense it!
…Although, I must say, this divine energy…
It truly is different from that of the Goddess I know.
This precious Holy Sword that was created and handed down to us by Her, I’m not confident it will take kindly to the intrusion of another deity’s power…]
Raising an eyebrow at his words, I couldn’t deny that I felt a hint of hesitation.
He was right in that the Holy Sword and the Winter Mother didn’t exactly match when it came to properties, but honestly, I didn’t think it mattered much.
In the description of the Holy Sword, even after it Awakened it only possessed Holy, Anti-Evil, and Anti-Demon properties.
There was nothing like a Solar or Fire property attached, and there was certainly no Anti-Lunar or Anti-Cold property, so in theory, there really should be nothing to fear.
Or well, in my eyes, the only reason to have even a slight bit of suspicion was due to the one property I had yet to explore with the Holy Sword.
Not because I didn’t want to, but because I couldn’t without infusing it with divine energy.
Sunlight Spear.
I was only concerned that the name contained ‘Sunlight’, and thus was oppositional to the Winter Mother.
Although, that still wouldn’t stop me from seeing what would happen.
“It should be fine.
The sword doesn’t contain anything other than Holy, so there shouldn’t be any conflicting properties, at least.”
[I-I suppose so…
This Holy Sword contains divinity, yes, but not my Goddess’ divine energy.
That is why it is divine, but not biased.
It should accept all divine energy equally, certainly…]
‘Oh, I see.
Is that how it works?’
The Hero did sound nervous, but he was probably just paranoid.
Glancing down at the Holy Sword in my hands for a few seconds, I narrowed my eyes.
“…Well.
Fuck it.”
Gulping down all prior worries, I manifested my newly-tamed divine energy.
