“Right then, as you know, divine energy is very different compared to mana as it is not only more powerful, but it is also much more diverse than mana. What you can’t do with mana is mostly achievable with divine energy.” Hades immediately started the lesson as Shiro listened carefully.
“For example, with mana, controlling souls has its limits but with divine energy, I can use souls as a different fuel source.”
Snapping his fingers, Shiro could see two malevolent illusionary figures appear as their astral bodies writhed before being forcefully transformed into two wolves.
“These are soul corrupting wolves. Using the malevolent energy stored within them, they can cause the victim of their attacks to feel great pain during an attack as they harm the soul directly. With mana, performing this task would be rather hard due to its limitations.
“Another key note that you have to remember is that being a god is to transcend normality which you seem to have no problem with. You are still constrained mentally as you are too used to using mana. Your thought process is stuck on the line of what mana is able to accomplish rather than what mana is unable to accomplish. For example, I want you to think about what mana is unable to accomplish right now.” Hades asked with a smile.
Hearing this, Shiro nodded her head as she thought about the question.
With mana being so diverse, it was hard to pick out what it can’t do but with the way Hades had put it, it seemed like there were quite a bit of restrictions when it comes to mana.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro opened her mouth.
“Would turning back time be one of them?” Shiro asked.
“A little but not quite. Mana is able to turn back the time within a single object if your mastery is good enough. You are also able to turn back time in an area should there be enough mana and mastery but doing so has its drawbacks and backlashes.
“However, with divine energy accomplishing something such as turning back time is possible. Of course, there are still certain restrictions you have to abide by otherwise the system backlash would be harsh but compared to the restrictions when using mana, it is much better. Of course, if you’re like Chronos, turning back time is quite a simple task as he has the divinity for it.” Hades explained as Shiro nodded her head.
“What am I able to do with my divinity then?” Shiro asked as she summoned a mass of nanobots.
“That’s for you to find out as you know your element the best. Otherwise you wouldn’t have gotten the divinity. Though a tip for you is that you should think about what was difficult or impossible for you do when you had this element before.” Hades replied as Shiro nodded her head.
“The first thing that we’re going to have you master is how you’re going to make use of divine energy without entering your Demi God form.” Hades smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
The training consisted of Hades injecting some of his divine energy into Shiro as she would try to sense where it is being stored and see if she could tap into it. However, doing so was actually much harder than what Shiro had expected since sensing divine energy was much harder than what she initially thought.
With her large reserve of mana, it was quite hard to single out the small amounts of divine energy that Hades injected as her body couldn’t handle too much.
For Shiro who had a rather easy time doing everything mana related, she was now stuck at the first step in using her divine energy.
“Don’t rush it. Demi Gods who can freely wield divine energy are quite rare as they are not full god yet. Once they are, all of their energy will be turned to divine energy so it becomes much easier to sense it at that stage. But for you, you’re only tier 5 so it could be a while before you become a god.” Hades said as he could tell that she was becoming a little restless.
Hearing this, Shiro took a deep breath and calmed herself down since there was no point trying to force her way through everything.
Days turned into weeks but Shiro continued to struggle as it felt impossible for her to grasp the feeling that Hades was talking about. When she ascends into Demi God form, all of her energy is converted so that wouldn’t be what she needed as it didn’t reveal the true location. All it did was convert her mana into divine energy.
Taking a break, Shiro sat by the side and closed her eyes.
Trying her best to understand her own body, she only grew more and more frustrated as this seemed to be outside of her reach.
Sighing heavily, Shiro scratched her hair.
{Maybe you need to relax more. After all, you are challenging an unfamiliar concept.} Nimue said as Shiro furrowed her brows.
‘I guess but I only have two months in here and weeks have already passed. If I don’t grasp it soon it’ll only get more annoying to do later since I won’t have this kind of leisure time with everything else I need to do.’ Shiro replied.
{Do you want to try something risky then?} Nimue asked as she took a deep breath. She had an idea but doing so was rather dangerous. However, with Shiro’s healing skills, it should be possible.
‘What idea is it?’ Shiro asked.
{Break your links again.} Nimue said with a serious expression as Iziuel widened her eyes.
{Nimue! What are you saying? You know that if Shiro does that there’s a chance that her body could collapse!} Iziuel frowned.
{I didn’t say it without thinking. With Grace and her other healing skills, repairing her body is a simple task. The only thing we need to be careful of is maintaining her body while she breaks it. If she breaks her mana links, mana won’t be able to circulate properly which means that your body will stop being reinforced by the passive circulation of mana. With this, you should be able to focus on sensing the divine energy.} Nimue explained as Shiro considered her logic and nodded her head.
‘That does make sense. I’m having trouble searching for the divine energy since my mana is simply too overwhelming. If I cut it off for a short time, the void should allow me to find divine energy’ Shiro muttered as she took a deep breath.
‘Nimue, I’ll need your help when I break my links since my mind will be focused on not killing myself by accident. Since I’m level 300+ the chances of me just exploding is rather high. While I carefully break the links, I’ll need you to make sure they don’t go rampant from the energy that’s released. Can you do that?’ Shiro asked with a serious expression.
Nodding her head, Nimue only chuckled.
{I’ve been doing that for a while now with how reckless you can be.}
Hearing this, Shiro smiled as she glanced towards Hades.
“I’m going to try something that could help me find divine energy. I’ll need you to inject it into me while I’m doing this.” Shiro said as Hades raised his eyebrow.
“Oh? What are you planning?” He asked curiously as he understood that she had been having some troubles in the past week when trying to use divine energy.
“I’m planning to break my links so that a void is formed. With the absence of mana circulating my body, my senses should be focused on the next thing that can keep me alive which would be divine energy.” Shiro explained as kalus frowned.
“Absolutely not. Breaking your mana links at this stage is akin to suicide. I’m not letting my granddaughter do this.” Kalus shook his head as Shiro sighed.
“Gramps trust me. I’ve done worse. So will you help me?” Shiro turned back to Hades who was silent.
“. . .Sure. But if I sense anything that is wrong, I’ll heal you immediately.” Hades said as Shiro nodded her head.
Adjusting her sitting position she signalled to both Hades and Nimue as she took a deep breath.
Biting her lips, she slammed her palm against her abdominal area as a surge of mana crashed into her body.
Gritting her teeth, Shiro tried her best not to cry out as the pain of having your links broken was beyond anything she had experienced so far!
This was akin to ripping out her own bone one by one as her links made up for her foundation as an adventurer.
Controlling her mana, she could sense the invisible hand had grabbed her links. Focusing her mind, she destroyed her links in an instant as Nimue immediately started to make sure Shiro didn’t die.
