A few hours later, I was hovering with Accalia in the empty reaches of space, the location having been suggested by Accalia herself when I requested training. Her incarnation, a lycan woman looking very similar to her appearance in the Admin Room, smiled and nodded at me. She had long since ascended to become a goddess, much as Aurivy’s incarnation, or the more publicly known incarnation of Udona.
The ability that you want to train is quite powerful. I dare not say that it would destroy a planet, but its range can surely exceed what you can unleash when bound by such concepts as the horizon. Accalia informed me mentally, flicking a wrist to create an exquisite longbow in her hand. This was the iconic weapon of the Goddess of the Hunt.
I nodded my head, focusing. With the skill system, I ‘borrowed’ a crafting skill, using my own divine energy to make myself a bow. I knew it would not be something that would match one of Tubrock’s masterpieces, but it should be more than enough for me to test these abilities. I understand. Do you see any problems with this ability?
While she was primarily helping me here as the Goddess of the Hunt, it could not be understated that Wisdom was similarly one of her domains. When she heard my question, Accalia smiled. Let’s see, shall we? She asked, and the empty space around me suddenly shifted.
Now, I found myself atop a tall building, overlooking a vast city that seemed to spread throughout the horizon. Accalia stood next to me, still clutching her bow while her eyes scanned the city below. “This is a power I created. I call it the Wisdom of Experience. In it, you can use a variety of different powers, and the world will attempt to find their faults. For instance…”
Accalia pulled back the string of her bow, creating a basic ki arrow and targeting a building just a hundred meters away. It was clear that she was not putting much effort into this attack. When she released her arrow… it felt like my eyes had blurred. Numerous phantom images overlaid themselves on top of the arrow. However, this was not a result of her own attack.
I could see arrows launching in from the distance, magic blasts of light, even lightning bolts raining from the sky to all strike the arrow. In the end, the only image that solidified was that of the lightning bolts, which shattered the arrow halfway through its flight. Accalia nodded her head, as if it were expected. “Following the rules of this power, this demonstration revealed that it would take a lightning bolt to stop me from striking that tower with my ki arrow. But, that’s a pretty obvious answer, right?” She stuck her tongue out, before pulling the string back again.
“I desire an arrow that will hunt its target without fail, guided by an endless wind until it has shattered their mind.” This time, the arrow that was produced was shining gold, its body fully solidified. Her bow lowered its angle, aiming down towards the street, and I saw that she had singled out one of the civilians wandering the path.
The moment that she released her arrow, time seemed to freeze. Or… maybe it just seemed that way. Maybe my mind finally activated the ‘battle mode’ that I had not utilized to its fullest for so long. All I knew was that endless images began to overlap, forming everywhere from the arrow that had been launched straight to the target itself.
I could see buildings topple over, divine shields appearing, and even the figure of the target flickered in and out of existence as if teleporting. The target released numerous powers all at once, until finally one image alone solidified. In this image, the arrow flew straight and true, without a single obstruction in its way.
Just before the arrow struck the target, they abruptly tilted their head to the side, raising their hand clad in golden light to catch the arrow as it passed. Looking closely, I could see that the ears of the target carried a faint aura of magic. Once again, Accalia nodded as if this was all within her expectations.
“This time, you could see that there were a lot more simulations run on the attack. However, this power only selects the single most likely downfall of a tested ability. That is… it chooses the one that is easiest to perform with a wide array of skills. In this case, the target was using enhanced hearing, able to identify the path of my arrow. The moment before it struck, they moved their head enough to avoid a direct hit. Had they moved sooner, the arrow would have corrected its course. Finally, they used a hand wrapped in divine energy to serve as a buffer to prevent my ‘mind shattering’ effect from harming them. Theoretically, this is something that any god could achieve.”
I gave a nod as I heard about all of that, before furrowing my brow. “Surely this power can’t create endless scenarios, can it? What is it’s limit? Is it just your imagination?”
Accalia giggled slightly at that, shaking her head. “No. I’ve linked this ability to the wisdom of all living things. As long as it’s a skill or ability that a creature possessing wisdom can use, then it is a possible countermeasure to be deployed here. They say that hindsight is twenty-twenty. The goal of this power is to perfect abilities through the use of that hindsight.”
I wasn’t entirely sure I understood, but at the same time I was able to get the gist of it. Standing upright, I took a deep breath, focusing on summoning the domains of Mirrors, Archery, and Tracking. Just as before, I made them take the shape of the ‘trinity’, forming a mirror between the three domains. Accalia looked over with interest, as if this was her first time seeing this. “I see… there’s a bit more resonance like this, isn’t there? Good to know.”
With the mirror I created, I focused on another individual roaming the streets below, designating them as my target. As they rounded the corner, the mirror immediately showed their appearance. However, just like before, the image blurred with numerous powers. This blurring, though, lasted only a moment before the man in the image turned to look straight at me through the mirror.
Seeing my confusion, Accalia smiled and explained. “Your current use of the Mirror domain to track like this creates an invisible, intangible mirror of divine energy to follow a target. That is the ‘sensory device’ used to create their image within your own mirror. However, it’s not uncommon for people at the upper levels to be able to detect the use of such invisible energies spying on them. Once they’ve detected it, they’ll employ their own countermeasures to locate the spying device.”
“So this attack won’t work…” I muttered, staring back into the eyes of the man in the mirror. It’s hard to think that Tsubaki overlooked something like that. Then again, she was listing abilities to be used in the heat of a battle. My current attempted usage of it was more akin to assassination, which goes against her design. “What if I change it slightly?”
I shattered the mirror that I had created, before making another one, targeting a different individual within the city. This time, the mirror displayed only a still image of their face, causing Accalia to watch in confusion as I drew my bow. Soon, the image changed, showing a wide street with the target walking down it. Once again, numerous images began to overlay themselves on the target.
I took a deep breath, waiting. Clearly, Accalia’s power had to cycle through far more possibilities to crack this usage of my power than before. As soon as the image began to solidify, I let loose the arrow I was holding. Like before, the possibilities converged, and the man raised his arm in front of his head. The arrow struck true, burying itself in his arm.
“Interesting… instead of creating an extrasensory organ to link with the mirror, you linked it with existing reflective surfaces, right? This way, your divine power wouldn’t be felt following the target, and would only read their reflection on the different surfaces. According to the Wisdom of Experience, the easiest way to bypass the tracking ability is for the user to constantly have a third-tier counter-detection spell. As for the arrow, you did not infuse any particularly powerful abilities into it, so the attack was considered defeated as long as it didn’t land a fatal hit.”
Hearing Accalia’s demonstration, I gave a small smile. “Can you make it rain here? I’d like to test this out a little bit more.”
She blinked, nodding her head. There was a crack of thunder, the sky immediately darkening as a heavy downpour fell over us. “Are you doing what I think you are…?”
I simply grinned, choosing another target. Like before, their image appeared in the mirror. However, this time it was different. There was a look of unease on their expression, which was projected like a hologram in front of the mirror itself. Taking a deep breath, I focused on the Archery domain, imbuing my arrow with the power of ice.
Once the arrow was fired, a strange scene unfolded after the possibilities cycled. The target was surrounded on all sides by toothpick-sized arrows, their eyes widening. Hundreds of arrows pierced their body, freezing it solid in an instant and turning it into an ice sculpture. However, the scene shifted a moment later, showing that individual unscathed. Scared, admittedly, but unscathed nonetheless.
Accalia clicked her teeth when she saw that. “You used the water of the raindrops as the reflective surfaces for your power. It divided the size of the arrows, but increased their overall lethality when used with an elemental power.”
“How did they evade it?” I asked, having not seen what method the target had used to survive my attack.
“As soon as the arrows appeared, they split the outermost layer of energy from their body, turning it into an avatar as the rest of their body teleported to safety. This way, your attack would hit the avatar, and it would appear for all purposes as if you had destroyed your target.”
I couldn’t help but be surprised when I heard that. “You said that this power pulls from the wisdom of living beings. There are actually people that can pull off something like that?”
Accalia simply chuckled, nodding her head. “I can only think of about a dozen. Tsubaki could, in theory. Her control over her own energy is more than sufficient. However, the most famous user of this goes by the title of the Immortal Bounty. He’s an otherwise low level criminal that specializes in petty thefts. You know, stealing divine tokens out of storage spaces, making off with the higher-value items in big businesses, things like that.”
“The only thing really special about him is what happens when he gets caught. You see, at first it looks like he’s prepared to fight to the death. He throws spell after spell at his assailant, leading them to use their most lethal powers against him. Then, at the last moment, he uses this ability. He refers to it as ‘shedding’ an avatar.”
“The first few times this happened, people truly thought that they had killed a petty crook. One poor soul even turned himself in to the cops and confessed out of guilt. But, the Immortal Bounty would just change his face, move to a new location, and get right back to work. It took a few years before the different ‘extremist thieves’ were linked together when someone tried to clean up the evidence by destroying the remnant soul.”
“Once that link was discovered, someone put a bounty out on the thief. It was the wife of the man who had turned himself in for murder in one of the very first cases. She wanted justice for her husband, even though he was released once the truth came to light. Ever since then, the bounty just kept increasing with every stunt he pulled. Sometimes, he even raised it himself. Any time a bounty hunter found him, he would once again shed an avatar and start over elsewhere.”
I blinked in confusion, looking towards Accalia. “Wouldn’t an ability like that have its own flaws? Like you said, there are others that can do it, so surely someone can beat it, right?”
“Oh, definitely. But those that can beat it don’t really pay attention to petty thieves. It’s like sending a special forces team to attack a baby just because that baby found a stolen jewel. Don’t be like that team. Don’t attack a baby.” She said, looking at me with a serious face, causing me to roll my eyes with a smirk.
“Anyways, now that you’ve tested the usability of your technique, it’s time to experiment with its range and power. Back to space!” She called out excitedly, the endless city vanishing once more to be replaced by the cold and empty expanse.
