"Ascend to… Divinity?"
Eleanor's concentration fractured, the rest of the candles burning out all at once as she faltered where she stood.
Only with the last scraps of her strength did she remain standing while a sigh came from Prudentia's lips.
"Fail."
Stretching her hand out, a dim glow manifested itself at the tips of her fingernails and shot towards the wax sticks.
The partially melted cylinders were instantly repaired, forming perfect candles once more, with all dirtied wax removed and replaced with a fresh batch.
Even after that, however, she did not relight them, her eyes returning to the blonde girl who stared with lips still slightly parted.
"You are familiar with the God Slayer, and therefore, the concept of divine death."
She paused, dipping her gaze downward to her left ring finger that boasted a thin, almost invisible ring made of pure obsidian.
"What has been created cannot be destroyed. Such is the fundamental law of all things, and when this is taken into account, outcomes impossible from a mortal perspective can manifest. The remnants of a deceased divinity conform into a single mass, a solidified Divine Authority that is everything they once were, and what they will forever be."
Eleanor narrowed her brow, listening intently while her mentor slowly twisted the object wrapped around her finger.
As the Angel of Justice took a steady breath, she injected a small portion of mana into the band, making its exterior glow with runes that burst to life.
"When a creature ascends to the pinnacle of existence, reaching the heights of Heaven itself and is deemed worthy by the lingering consciousness of the previous wielder, they are able to accommodate the Divine Authority of a fallen deity, and in turn, become an equivalent to what that god once was."
A thick hiss was released by the ring, the black material seemingly melting layer by layer and dripping to the floor in a gentle trickle.
As more runes began to form on the ground from the dark liquid, the stream continued until the band was nearly completely erased, leaving only a burn mark around her ring finger.
"These great beings come to be known as Ascendants, gods who were once mortal, but through accommodation and ascent, became divine. They manifest the former wielder of the Divine Authority within them as an equal, governing the realm they control together as if they were always one lifeform."
The gray-eyed priestess thought back to the conversations with Death and the Old Man, their casual mentions of the fragments of Divine Authority that now bind that God Slayer, now making perfect sense.
The reason that mere cores could hold a being as powerful as the Old Man hostage was that, unlike all other materials in the universe, the essence of a deity itself was forever unyielding, unbreaking.
With a power that cannot be suppressed unless absorbed and accommodated, the prison would be truly perfect.
"Then… Could that be why the names of some deities are fractured?"
Prudentia nodded, a gentle smile spreading across her face as she regarded her apprentice's deductive abilities.
"With only a few exceptions, a deity will only have a single name. Whether that be the God of Death or the God of Sunlight, they are singular, utterly unique. Others that you refer to, such as the Goddess of Life and Fertility or the God of Truth and Equity, were once slain in their original forms and adopted a secondary title to match their reawakening."
Eleanor stared blankly as she thought of as many deity names as she could remember at that moment: the various titles, the gods whom the Old Man had slain, and those whose cores still remained in her homeland.
Then that core under Sea Fallen… It was a portion of a god's essence, and I was only meters away from it… No wonder it nearly drove me to suicide.
Shuddering, she returned her gaze to the ground, where the obsidian liquid, formed into runes, began to shine yet again.
Its surface bubbled, then burst like a boiling bowl of water, the black goo splattering everywhere before condensing into long sticks resembling blades.
Looking up at her teacher with bewilderment, the girl noticed her face was paler than normal, a bead of sweat dripping down the side.
"These… These are training tools that you will use to increase your soul's mana capacity. They will act as containers that can help store a near-endless amount of power, and you will use them to help reforge your own core."
The priestess pursed her lips as she felt it appropriate to give the new training tools a closer look, taking a few steps while weaving around the repaired candles.
Outside the circle, she bent over, picking up one of the black sticks with her right hand and examining it carefully.
Tiny engravings covered the surface, their shapes not as complex as earlier, but rather resembling simple seals, a pedigree below the level of a rune.
It's drawing out my mana like a valve…
Releasing her grip and allowing it to tumble to the floor, the drained mana instantly returned as if nothing had ever happened.
"Well then, once you can fill up all these containers, it will mean that your core should have readjusted to the constant flow of mana that you'll experience when you return to your physical body."
Eleanor perked up at the words of her mentor.
"Huh? How am I supposed to fill all of these up? They're nearly infinite!"
Gesturing to the half dozen dark objects on the floor, she heard a scoff from ahead of her.
"That is not a question for me to answer but for you to figure out."
With those words, she turned her back to the girl, allowing her white wings to stretch out wide, their majestic form capturing the priestess's attention.
"Ah, and before I forget…"
She turned her head back with a mischievous smile.
"The candles were simply a test of your balance. Opposed to what you might believe, they were not actually meant for training."
Then, with a single flap of her wings, she lifted off, her body floating through the air and towards the dome that was fitted with large arches with openings leading to the outside.
The Angel of Justice was gone, leaving the girl alone with the six sticks and more questions than she could count.
…
Eleanor sat alone in her bedroom with a single black stick in her hands, the surface rough and prickly.
Even holding one is too much… I needed the help of Huginn to transport them, and even he seemed displeased.
Feeling her chest tighten up, she let go of the object, letting it fall to the table before her, and the mana stored inside was immediately expelled back into her core.
Thinking of the task she was given, she concluded it would be no issue to fill up a single stick over the course of a few days; however, she was incapable of doing such a thing with six at once.
Moreover, through a rough estimate, each one would require exactly one-sixth of her current mana reserves; therefore, in total, not a single drop of mana would be left if she were to succeed.
It's not even a problem that I could die of backlash since I don't have six hands to power them all in the first place!
Sighing and placing her head against her arms that were folded atop the desk, she relaxed, staring outside her window, which let cold gusts of wind blow inside.
Information circled her head, battering her established beliefs and challenging everything she had thought she understood.
She had known for quite some time that the gods were not immortal, the Old Man serving as living proof.
Yet, for their spirits to live on eternally was something she couldn't comprehend with her limited mind.
The examples that her mentor had given seemed like common names that she recognized from either her life or her experiences in the Great Beyond.
The Goddess of Life and Fertility, the same deity that was worshipped by various religions in the Sea of Mystery, had perished once before and was reborn again, in the body of a mortal of all things.
Is that why the God Slayer did not steal their authority even after killing them? He would've either died or manifested a god inside of himself, simultaneously giving up full control of his actions, which would stop him from committing further massacres…
She bit her lip, wondering how it could be possible for such a being to refuse the power of a deity when it had been within his reach on several occasions.
I would've thought him greedy, yet he seems to be the opposite…
Not once did she believe he was innocent in any way—his crimes were far too inexcusable for even the wildest of lawyers to defend him.
The systematic genocide of dozens of dimensions caused by their deities' deaths at his hands meant the universe was a definite worse place because of him.
And Aaron is his pawn…
It was the crux of her will, her desire to save the only friend she had left in the Dimension of Waves, where tragedies seemed to never cease.
If I want to be of use to him, then I'll need to master the power of miracles first. He's working as hard as he can, even throwing away his future for me. I need to get stronger. Then, maybe then, I can cast a miracle. One that can aid him. One that can prevent the certainty of his death, to give him more time…
It was an unlikely future, but she had a duty to try, for that was the decision she had come to, the one she had announced to the God of Death himself.
There was no room for failure, for failure would mean the victory of the God Slayer, and one step towards his freedom would spell a hellish fate for the trillions of beings around the universe.
Eleanor Lynn would strive for even just a weak mastery of the Holy Arts within the shortest period of time ever recorded, a task deemed nigh-impossible by the Angels of the Angelic Order.
Time would pass, and the day of her return to her homeland would ebb closer; however, in those short weeks, Eleanor would train until battered and beaten.
Until fatigued and weak.
Until she succeeded or died, she would go above and beyond to accomplish her goal, for that was the way of the priestess from Sea Fallen, and nothing would ever change that.