Chapter 320 Ximatra
"How are Divinities created?" Nial asked in the classroom he had just entered. His expression was overflowing with curiosity and he flashed a bright smile to everyone.
Nial was subjected to confusing gazes since he joined the class way too late, just to start asking a question that was the most fundamental piece of knowledge Elves were taught at an early age.
Of course, Nial had no idea how Divinities were created because he was just a normal human from Jundra. Their knowledge was scarce and they had little to no knowledge about the vast universe.
Jundra was already problematic enough for the human race to survive and thrive, so why should they make their life even more difficult by adding more trouble to it?
Master Crevian looked at the Royal Princess, who had followed Nial to the class but she could only smile wryly.
Not a single word escaped Princess Evalyne's mouth as she sat down next to Nial. The Royal Princess received special lessons and was usually taught separately from everyone else because her schedule was filled to the brim with other things. However, there were times when she had joined the ordinary Elves when the teacher's schedule overlapped with ordinary classes and the private lessons of the Royal Princess.
Evalyne was rather flexible and did not fuss about being made to sit among commoners. If anything, she liked being amongst others. Thus, with a pretty good excuse that allowed her to join the ordinary classes every now and then.
The others wanted to approach Nial and Evalyne but they didn't dare to. The atmosphere around them was rather intense. Both were connected to Yggdrasil, which was easily noticeable due to the golden light that shrouded their veins but there was something else that attracted everyone's attention.
"Why are Nial's veins black?" One of the High Elves asked with furrowed eyebrows. He had once seen someone with black veins similar to those of Nial but unfortunately, she had died just minutes later. Nial, on the other hand, was perfectly fine. He was healthy and in fact brimming with vigor.
"No idea…but let's not discuss that…" Another High Elf said, eying Nial carefully.
She didn't have anything against Nial, especially since he had received the approval of Yggdrasil and Mana, but he was human nonetheless. Being careful around an unpredictable race was always best.
Master Crevian cleared his throat to quiet everyone. The Elves and Nial turned their attention to the Old Elf, who created a faint gust of wind to change the blackboard's title.
"I guess talking about Divinities is a great way to connect to the topic we talked about earlier such as the Mana core's rank, how the Mana core changes while advancing, and much more. Divinities weren't in the schedule for today but I guess that this is also a very important topic," Master Crevian tried to connect the former topic with the current one without making it seem as if he was doing it only because Nial had asked about Divinities but he was not very good at hiding the obvious attempt.
Nial needed as much knowledge as possible if he wanted to survive in Ximatra without being deemed as a weirdo. His situation was different from anyone else and the Elves needed his help. This was something all of them understood clearly.
Thus, nobody complained even if they wanted to continue with their lesson.
"What exactly are Divinities? How many different Divinities exist? Can everyone create their own Divinity or are the wielders of Divinities pre-determined?...." Master Creavian spoke in a mysterious tone and he kept asking questions.
Nial couldn't answer any of them but most Elves around him seemed pretty eager to answer. He never really understood why they were so eager to answer Master Crevian's questions but it was quite helpful that he was gaining knowledge. Thus, Nial was quite grateful, even if they didn't answer the questions for his sake.
"Please write down what you think about Divinities, and the questions I just asked. I will collect the papers and combine the answers until we come to the best conclusion.
In the end, even the Empress cannot answer all the questions I asked just now because all the beings in the Universe keep evolving with the passage of time. That being said, don't hesitate and simply write what you believe to be the truth. You may not be entirely right but that doesn't mean you will be wrong either!" Master Crevian encouraged everyone to share their honest thoughts. With this, he wanted to make use of this opportunity to get a rough understanding of everyone's knowledge about Divinities.
Divinities were a complex topic and even the most knowledgeable Elves didn't know the entire truth.
Thus, he might even be able to improve his knowledge using the comprehension of everyone around him.
Nial didn't even think of answering the questions because his knowledge of Divinities was basically non-existent. He used his range of perception and [Mana Sense] to his advantage and peeked at the answers the others were scribbling hastily. This made things a lot easier for him.
Nial tried to club all the information he could take a peek at but it only added to his confusion instead of clearing it. Master Crevian collected all papers in the end before he delivered his own answer.
However, even that didn't really help Nial because he was baffled. He raised his hand when Crevian was done explaining what he had comprehended and began to speak moments later,
"So…basically when you want to attain Godhood, you have to create your own Divinity. A part of your soul will be fused with the Divinity you created either on your own or the Divinity of a deceased God that you've picked up…
Everything about your entire existence will be linked to the Divinity…and you will have some…problems if your Divinity gets destroyed or severely damaged…but dividing it on your own is possible and you can change its shape if that's one of the Divinity's functions…
But doesn't that mean Divinites are evolved versions of runic armaments that were created with a tight net of numerous runic constellations?"
Nial tried to connect the dots and the most logical explanation he could come up with was that Divinities were Unique runic armaments.
They were given life when the soul that was approaching Godhood entered the Divinity's body. By advancing to Godhood, these unique runic armaments would evolve and become Divinities.
In Nial's opinion, this made sense, but it was also somewhat crazy because the Divinity would also turn into someone's means to advance further after attaining Godhood.
Without divinity, one would never be able to advance in the ranks that followed after one attained Godhood, which basically meant that it was as essential as the mana core; the energy vessel every being possessed.
"Runic armaments being Divinities? Nial…I think you were connected with Yggdrasil for a far longer time and your mind is getting fuzzy…" Princess Evalyne blurted out, shaking her head as she stared daggers at Nial.
Nial didn't care about her outburst, let alone the fact that everyone looked at him weirdly. He had read through the answers everyone had provided and reached that conclusion.
Maybe he was not right but if a Divinity was basically an evolved and sentient runic armament, it would explain why so many different types of Divinities existed. Dead Divinities had basically lost their wielder, which meant that their soul died with the God that left them behind.
Awakening them was only possible if someone close to ascending to Godhood was compatible with the Dead Divinity, which would mean that the Soul wasn't unfavorable or hostile to the Divinity.
The more Nial thought about it, the clearer everything became but a sudden doubt caused his eyes to widen in shock.
"Wait…so you mean someone else's mana core is in m-...." Nial was just about to reveal to everyone that he had a Lesser Divinity Fragment inside him when he suddenly bit his tongue in time to hold himself back. His mind raced and he hastily thought of something midway and changed the end of his sentence, "...is in the portal that is located in the Forest of Life?"
It was obvious that Nial meant the Empress, with 'someone else', and he was frowned at because of the way he phrased the question but that was not something Nial could care about right now.
He had just escaped creating a huge mess by exposing one of his secrets, which was of much more important than others' opinion of him!
'The Lesser Divinity Fragment of Life was dead when it entered my body, right? Or do I have a fraction of someone else's soul inside me? Is the Symbol of Life just a runic armament? If so, it's not a solid one but one of the Unique types of runic armaments…and what about the Odyssey seed?!' Nial's mind was running wild with all the possibilities, each weirder than the other.
He could tell that his own comprehension confused him even more. If the Symbol of Life was still alive, then the fragment of a Lesser God was still inside him.
As for the Odyssey seed, Nial knew that it was a Fragment of the Darkness God. What exactly this meant was still not something he could say for sure but Nial began to believe that it was similar to a Divinity Fragment and that his soul had been bound to it when he was three.
'Will I even be able to create my own Divinity if I was already given the Fragment of the Darkness God, or will I have to search for all the other fragments? No, I want to be different than Damian…I don't want to live the same poor life as he did and suffered…' Nial nibbled on his lower lip as he was thinking hard.
The others were looking at him but they quickly figured out that Nial wouldn't answer them even if they were to ask him some questions.
Master Crevian was interested to know why Nial would think that Divinities were evolved runic armaments because he felt that Nial's conclusion may not be entirely wrong.
There had been a few theories about Divinities, and some comments stated in Ancient Books made it seem like Divinities were somewhat comparable to runic armaments.
However, at the same time, this was not everything.
"Nial might have a point but it is definitely not the entire truth. It is possible to compare Divinities with evolved runic armaments but they shouldn't be the same. At least genuine Divinities cannot be compared with any runic armament that has ever been created by Elves.
If someone can create such terrific runic armaments, it would destroy the balance of the races all over the Universe!" Master Crevian simply explained and everyone nodded their heads in understanding.
Their gaze was drawn away from Nial, who was still deep in thoughts and they accepted his weird theory.
Master Crevian said that it was not weird for Nial to think that Divinities were evolved runic armaments because they were similar in various ways. In a way, it made sense which was why the Elves averted their focus once again.
The class ended not long after, and Nial returned to the wooden hut. In the following days, he visited the library in Yggdrasil, finished the frame of the third Ancient Origin ring, and learned a lot more about runic armaments from Master Crevian.
The week he was supposed to stay in Yggdrasil passed in a blur, and Nial ended up in front of the portal in the Holy Hall once again.
It was time for him to leave and disconnect his link with Yggdrasil.
"Thanks for helping me out so much. I hope we'll see each other again!" Nial spoke to Yggdrasil and everyone else, who bid him farewell.
The Royal Princess would follow him to Ximatra to check the situation of their territory on the huge planet and to make sure that he would directly go to the Golden City without accidentally taking a detour.
"May you return healthy and fine!" Master Crevian said with a bright smile on his face.
To him, it was more important that Nial would come back healthy and with all limbs attached rather than focusing on the Grand Prize of the U21 Runicier tournament.
"I will give my best," Nial reassured him before he activated a bunch of Runic armaments to be fully prepared to jump through the portal.
'To Ximatra!'