Hey guys, Aidka's here!
As you know, I have resumed both [Science/Magic] and [Hey, Why Are My Skills so Weird!?]. My plan is to continue writing from here onwards without stopping.
The schedule will be five weekly chapters of both series during this month while I get used to writing again. From next month, the schedule will be according to the earnings on Patreon just like before.
About Fourth Prince, the novel already ended on my Patreon, but I think I have not finished posting it on the free channels. I should start updating it tomorrow or the day after, and I will also post on Patreon some extra chapters I have done.
Thank you for your continuous support, and I hope you can continue supporting me from here onwards. If you like and don't mind paying a few bucks, support me on my P@tre*n (patre-on.com/aidnovels). You can read up to twenty extra chapters of every series there, and at the same time, you support me and motivate me to continue writing. It really helps.
With love, Aidka...~
...
In this world, mana was everywhere.
It was a very gentle kind of energy that could be found from the air to the ground. Animal, plants, and even rocks had mana.
It blessed the world with vitality and allowed living beings to become stronger.
But there was a limit to how strong a living being could become through mana.
It was slightly different from species to species, but the highest limit was the same for the sentient races.
The third level of Demigod, Apotheosis.
When you reached the limit of this level, advancing further through absorbing mana became impossible.
No matter how much mana you absorbed, your mana pool did not increase. That was the maximum amount of mana that the body could absorb.
But many demigods were not satisfied with it.
They thought that there was a way to continue becoming stronger. And eventually, someone found it.
Becoming a god.
If living beings at the limit of Apotheosis managed to use a 'concept' to gain the recognition of the world, they could fuse with that concept, shed their mortal body, and transform into a god.
That was like the first gods appeared.
As a god, the concept of lifespan does not exist. In theory, gods share the lifespan of the world.
But soon, the gods found a problem.
Fusing with a concept meant becoming the concept itself and being able to influence it. The God of Fire was the world's fire, the god of light was the world's light, and the god of the night was the world's night.
But just like they influenced the concept, the concept influenced them too.
The gods called this phenomenon 'erosion'.
This erosion slowly erased the god's consciousness. It assimilated the consciousness with the concept until the sense of self disappeared, a process that was not different from death.
There was only a way to fight this process, strengthening the soul.
A stronger soul could resist the erosion for longer.
There were several ways the gods could strengthen their souls.
One of them was becoming stronger. As the gods become stronger, the strength of their souls increases as well.
Another way was gathering faith. Faith could nurture the soul, slowly strengthening it. It could also increase the strength of the gods, strengthening the soul a second time.
The last method was to use external means to strengthen the soul, such as the Heart of the Forest.
But these methods could only delay the inevitable. No matter how strong the soul of a god was, sooner or later, it would succumb to the erosion.
No god had managed to escape that fate yet.
But the gods' problems did not end there.
Despite their titles as gods, they were greatly restricted when they used their abilities. They could not use their abilities as freely as demigods.
It was because every god was chosen by the world, therefore, they needed to follow the world's will. Technically, they were the guardians of the world.
And the world will not allow its guardians to harm it.
Due to it, if the actions of a god brought any kind of harm to the world, that god would face a backlash from the world.
Even harming an insect was enough to cause a backlash.
Of course, the backlash of harming an insect was negligible, the same as the backlash of killing one or two people. It barely affected the gods.
But even the weakest backlash accelerated the erosion. And if the backlash was strong enough, the god could be directly assimilated by their concept.
It was due to this reason that many gods considered godhood as a 'prison' and wanted to escape from it.
After all, there was another way to surpass the demigod level besides becoming a god.
Becoming an Irregular.
The first Irregulars appeared much later than the first gods. They relied on themselves to surpass the limits, creating a path when there was no longer a path and reaching a level comparable to gods.
But unlike gods, Irregulars did not have any limitations.
They could wield their powers freely, and they did not need to worry about erosion.
On the other hand, becoming an Irregular was much harder than becoming a god. Even now, there were only three known Irregulars in the entire world.
Moreover, even if you forged your own path and became an Irregular, it did not guarantee an increase in your lifespan. Some Irregulars didn't live longer than regular demigods.
Likewise, there was a chance that your path would increase your lifespan greatly.
Just like the Great Elven Queen, one of the world's three Irregulars. She had lived for over five hundred years now and still kept a youthful appearance.
Eve told Bloed all this information, helping Bloed to understand more about the kind of existence that gods and Irregulars were.
"What about the treaty of the gods?" Bloed asked.
[It's an agreement that the gods made to not interfere with the world unless it's necessary. It's to avoid conflicts between gods. After all, if two gods fight, the destruction caused by their battle will accelerate their erosion greatly.
[This agreement also binds the three Irregulars, although they sometimes don't care about it.]
Bloed nodded in understanding.
'In other words, the gods are not free to act personally unless they don't mind dying sooner.'
Afterward, Eve told Bloed some other bits of information about the gods, including information about faith and the method to become a god.
She hoped that this information could help Bloed if he met the Sun God, although she did not know how useful it could be.
But in fact, this information helped Bloed a lot.
Thanks to it, he managed to get an idea of what to do if they ended up facing against the Sun God.
[I will tell my goddess about the Sun God's plans. She could help. After all, descending personally goes against the Treaty of the Gods.] Eve said when she finished her explanation. [However, I'm not sure how useful it will be.]
"Thank you. Again, I owe you one."
[Just don't let Aya down.] Eve stared at me expressionlessly. [Be careful, Bloed. Gods are very powerful. Facing a god is not a good idea.]
"Don't worry. With a bit of luck, everything will go smoothly, and we won't be discovered while transporting the Heart of the Forest."
[I hope so.]
…
Meanwhile, in Academy City.
A student entered inside an office where a middle-aged man was seated reading a book.
"Teacher, I brought news about what you asked me to do."
The student said respectfully.
"What happened?" The middle-aged man asked without moving his gaze away from the book.
"The person observing Machine Revolutio confirmed that Bloed Norman is not in the tower. He can't feel the energy fluctuations of some of the other members of the club either."
"Oh?" The middle-aged man finally looked at the student. "Do you know where they went?"
"No. Our men searched the entire city, but they failed to find any traces of them."
"Does it mean that they are not in the city?"
"Most likely. But we didn't receive news of them leaving the city, so they probably disguised themselves before leaving."
"Interesting." The middle-aged man nodded. "You can leave."
"Understood."
After the student left, the middle-aged man curved the corners of his lip up.
"So they left, huh. What a shame, I could have used this opportunity to eliminate Academy City.
"Well, I guess I will have to be satisfied with making the gods fight."
He then looked in the direction of the Boerner Forest and his face broke into a playful but bloodthirsty smile.
"It's not so easy to escape from me, boy." He chuckled
He seemed like a cat toying with a mouse.