"It seems the first believer of the new ideology has been born," Janna said.
"A believer of the new ideology? You mean not a follower of your original teachings, but a comrade who shares our ideals?" Levi asked, utterly astonished.
He had merely spent the entire night soldering circuit boards and doing absolutely nothing else. How did he inexplicably manage to solder out a follower?
They hadn't even officially started propagating their ideas yet. How did a devout follower suddenly appear out of nowhere?
"But they do exist."
"Furthermore, that person is very special," Janna explained softly. "Their spiritual power is innately extraordinary. The power of faith contributed by this single individual is stronger than that of a hundred ordinary people combined."
"I think they would definitely be suited to become a mage."
"This..." Levi was even more baffled.
When had he ever met such an exceptional person, let alone inexplicably recruited them?
The more he thought about it, the more questions arose, tangling his mind into a knot.
However, the fat Aubrey was not about to give him time to think.
He felt that Levi's previous dodge was merely a fluke, believing it was just dumb luck that allowed him to barely escape.
But regardless of the reason, Levi's nimble evasion made Aubrey look incredibly clumsy and pathetic. The gazes of the onlookers felt like piercing needles once again, secretly laughing at him as if he were a useless piece of trash.
"Bastard..." The Shimmer acted like gasoline poured over the raging fire in Aubrey's heart. "Die!"
He stomped his elephant-like foot heavily against the ground, his swollen body rumbling forward like a charging truck.
Raising an arm as thick as a tree trunk, he unleashed another devastating, earth-shattering punch.
"Forget it, I'll think about this later," Levi muttered, having no more time to ponder where this unknown comrade had sprung from.
He calmed his mind and, guided by Janna's will, carefully felt the new surge of power within his body.
It was a warm and gentle power, like a hot spring or a refreshing breeze, silently nourishing every bone and limb in his body.
It was actually still quite weak and didn't make Levi significantly stronger. At the very least, purely in terms of physical stamina, he was still inferior to the Shimmer-fueled fat man before him.
However, this power was Janna's divine energy, and its profound mysteries were far beyond the brute force stimulated by a Shimmer potion.
Aside from enhancing Levi's physique, it also granted him a special ability—
The power to feel and command the wind.
As for commanding the wind, he couldn't quite do that yet. The divine power wasn't strong enough to allow his mind to manipulate matter, unable to support even a single wind-controlling spell.
But to simply feel the wind, it was more than enough.
"The air currents seem to be speaking to me," he whispered.
Levi unconsciously entered a wondrous state of being.
He could hear the "voice" of the wind and feel the disturbance of every single air current, no matter how faint.
Thus, before the fat Aubrey's attack even arrived, Levi could feel the fluctuations in the air torn apart by that heavy punch, predicting the exact spatial trajectory the strike would sweep through.
The divine power to perceive the wind, combined with the combat instincts forged by the original owner of his body while struggling to survive in Zaun, quickly produced a miraculous chemical reaction within him.
"Ride the wind!"
Following the natural sea breeze, Levi's body drifted gracefully.
Though it was merely a dodge, he was so weightless it looked as if he were flying.
With effortless ease, a simple, slight sidestep caused Aubrey's heavy punch to hit nothing but air.
Aubrey was like a wild boar that had accelerated madly only to miss its target, lunging clumsily into an empty space for quite a distance before finally stumbling to a halt.
"W-What just happened?"
Aubrey vaguely sensed that something was wrong.
But the Shimmer potion rushing to his head was affecting his reason, making him even more irritable and prone to rage. Gradually, what little sanity he had left slipped out of control.
"Damn it... You fucking loach, how the hell are you so good at dodging!" Aubrey quickly turned around, charging back in a humiliated frenzy.
This time, he didn't use his easily dodged fists. Instead, he spread his arms wide and charged with all his might, attempting to use his massive size to cast a wide net and trap Levi in a lethal bear hug.
His size and momentum were indeed as terrifying as a bear's, but...
"Too clumsy," Levi remarked.
With a light tap of his toes, Levi dodged past him once again.
His movements were as light as the wind, a truly pleasing sight to behold.
"Damn it!!" Missing his target again, Aubrey's anger spiraled further out of control. He immediately used brute force to forcefully halt his momentum, twisting his body to swing a fist, attempting a backhand strike to catch this overly agile bastard off guard.
But it was as if Levi had eyes in the back of his head.
Without even looking, he simply ducked his head slightly, effortlessly evading the fist sweeping in from behind.
"Impossible... Absolutely impossible!!"
"How could I lose to a filthy laborer!!"
Aubrey felt as though he were fighting the air, battling a gust of wind.
But Levi was clearly a human.
A lowly Zaunite apprentice, nothing more.
"No, there's no way I can't beat him!!"
One punch, Levi tilted his head and dodged.
"I'm not trash, I'm not!!"
Another punch, Levi stepped sideways to evade, smoothly catching Aubrey's striking arm and gently pushing it forward.
Aubrey instantly looked like a Malphite who had completely missed his ultimate, crashing fiercely into the floorboards.
"Ahhhh—" He smashed his own head until it bled, the pain only further fueling his rage.
The side effects of the Shimmer potion flared up even more.
Consumed by fury and overwhelmed by the drug, Aubrey finally lost his mind completely.
He quickly scrambled up from the ground and charged madly at Levi, like an oncoming tank.
But Levi was no longer in the mood to play with him.
In a game, even if a tank couldn't win, they could still absorb a beating for a while. But a "tank" in reality had vital weak points.
"You lose," Levi declared.
The melody had reached its climax.
The sea breeze brushed past at just the right moment.
Riding the wind, Levi flashed forward, slipping past Aubrey's guard, and then—
He raised his hand, flattening his palm into a blade. Borrowing the kinetic energy from Aubrey's high-speed charge, he delivered a direct, head-on chop straight to his throat.
Precise and elegant, a single strike targeting the fatal flaw.
Finally, amidst a sudden gust of howling wind, the two crossed paths.
"Urghhh!!" Aubrey's body trembled as he fell to his knees, agonizingly clutching his throat.
Levi, bathed in blood, remained standing.
The music stopped.
Levi paid no attention to his defeated enemy. Instead, he immersed himself in the thrilling afterglow of the battle, staring intently at his own fist.
He had actually done it. He had defeated such a monster.
"Is this the power of a god...?"
Levi muttered to himself.
It was his first time being a superhuman, so it was inevitable that it would go to his head a little.
The feeling of standing above ordinary mortals was indeed wonderful.
But the true god, Janna, stood on his shoulder and firmly shook her head.
"No, this is not the power of a god."
Janna used to think it was the power of a god too, that it was her power.
But she didn't think so anymore.
She raised her head and looked toward the distant sky once again. Then, she shared her "vision" with Levi.
And so, Levi sensed it too:
In the sky, there was a faint, indistinct "thread" continuously transmitting a weak yet resolute power to them.
This was the power of faith.
Faith coming from a human.
There was someone silently supporting them.
"Mr. Summoner, this is not the power of a god, nor is it your power or mine..."
"This is the power of the people."
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