Almost two days. That was how long it had taken him to be able to reach the village and follow Rita and Kiril. Two days during which Isaac had barely had time to talk with them.
However, this time around things were very different. A beam of light passed over the treetops, emitting a powerful blast and causing many trees to twist.
Isaac soared through the air with his aura shielding him from the mighty winds ahead. During the thirty minutes which passed while flying over the forest, he had not been idle. As he walked forward, Isaac had started to study the strange energy he had felt.
He hadn't managed to fully study it in depth. Nonetheless, he had managed to identify it from what he already knew and from his knowledge of mana and magic.
Although different from mana in form, it is actually the same energy. However, where mana had a certain tolerance of intensity before reaching an unstable state and exploding, divine energy had a much higher threshold of instability. Almost three times that of mana.
From his observations, Isaac was able to identify this energy as being in fact manicles that had been mutated to obtain a whole new unique form of energy. What does that implies? He had no idea. However, if the manicles had been mutated, it gave him a new guess: A manicule is made up of something.
In order for something to be changed, it first needs an underlying principle or composition. Something atomic and which cannot be disassembled into smaller parts cannot be changed. It can be reshuffled with others to form something bigger, but its makeup itself would not change.
If the manicles had been mutated, then it was certain that another form of energy or particle made up the mana. Isaac was eager to experiment now, but alas, he didn't have the time.
Nevertheless, it gave him a lot more information and above all, gave him a new theory. "Would the golden ray that I created also be made of the same energy?" he said to himself, remembering his first real experiment with magic.
Originally, he had tried to concentrate a large amount of mana in one place and observe the reaction of the latter. The experiment had turned into a disaster but had also allowed him to observe a phenomenon during which the mana was transformed under the effect of the enormous energy concentration.
Under these conditions, it was likely that divine energy would initially be created from a high concentration of mana which, over time, would be fully converted. Again, this was a theory but one that Isaac will probably have time to test soon.
Visually, Isaac could see that they were now about thirty minutes from the shrine, the wild plains appearing on the horizon. A smile began to form on his face.
Several minutes passed when at last Isaac reached the edge of the cliffs.
As soon as he arrived, a window appeared in front of him. He then smiled when he saw the window, but he ignored it and closed it immediately. He had more important stuff to do.
Isaac then went to the rock still floating in the middle of the high plains and went to land on it before turning to the great plains in front of him. With a smile, he sat cross-legged before closing his eyes and starting to concentrate.
It was a method he had learned in order to study his own mana circuit. He was unable to see it without having to twist, so he had had this idea some time after studying the golems. If he could focus and focus his attention on his own body using his mana vision, it would theoretically be possible to redirect his vision to his own body.
So he decided to do the same thing again, but this time with his new golden vision. Immediately, vessels of golden colors appeared. The energy grid seemed to be mapped to that of his mana circuit, leading him to believe that his energy had been changed from mana to divine energy.
However, after a second glance with his mana vision, his mana circuit was also present and unchanged. Puzzled, he continued his in-depth inspection.
Several hours passed as Isaac remained seated, his eyes closed, seated cross-legged on his flying ratchet. Most people would probably have cramps from sitting for so long, yet Isaac was too focused on what he was doing to have time to complain about it.
After going through the two networks and mana circuit, he suddenly opened his eyes again before starting to float thanks to his golden aura. Once in the air, the next thing he did was summon a maintenance golem.
A few minutes passed before a golem appeared on the edge of the forest. Seeing him arrive, Isaac descended before reaching the height of the golem's head at about 3 meters. He paused for a moment to observe the rune of logic still on the stone chest.
He had been able to formulate several conclusions as a result of his investigation. Truth be told, it had only allowed him to confirm guesses but nothing else.
In the first place, the very essence of what the Encyclopedia of the Church of the Sun called "divine energy" was indeed a specialization of mana, not a mutation as he had thought. It would be more relevant to call it "spiritual energy" but even that, he wasn't sure.
Where the mana allows to manipulate its environment and the energy which is there indirectly, the spiritual energy is part of the cycle created by a being having reached a rather advanced stage of consciousness. This aspect was still unclear, since he did not have enough philosophical knowledge about what consciousness was and much of it was in the realm of theory.
However, what he could deduce was as such. Individuals with a fairly developed consciousness will convert a certain amount of mana into spiritual energy during their lifetime. Depending on their mood, this energy has a certain wavelength.
During his observation, Isaac had been able to detect that depending on his mood, whether he was impatient, excited or frustrated, the flow of spiritual energy gradually changed.
The manipulation of this flow allowed, among other things, to modify the intrinsic energy of his body and allow him to strengthen or change. It was thus possible to increase his physical capacities and even, with enough energy, rejuvenate and strengthen his body.
This discovery had given Isaac a rather big blow since it had the effect of decreasing the chances that a god could exist. Indeed, according to him, the effects that Rita had been able to obtain on her body thanks to the celestial prayers were in fact due only to her great amount of spiritual energy.
The reason why Isaac was a little sad was simple. His goal in this world was to find out why he was here and find his old world. The easiest way was to find his predecessor, the former Administrator. Now, among all the beings who inhabit the world, who had the most change to know him?
Indeed. The gods.
Nevertheless, the hypothesis of the existence of the gods was not entirely abandoned. Indeed, unlike mana, spiritual energy cannot survive outside. It cannot be transferred through air, not without a great amount at least. Isaac had tried to manipulate it and send it out of his body, but the instant it left his mana circuit, the energy immediately began to dissipate before gradually fading away.
However, when he had discovered this energy, he had also acquired the vision of this energy and had been able to observe a strange celestial phenomenon. Northern lights charged with spiritual energy hovering high in the atmosphere.
If spiritual energy were to break down outside of a mana circuit, where did all the energy he saw in the aurora come from? He wasn't sure and had no theory that stood out more than others. He therefore decided to put the research of this hypothesis later.
For now, he had something to test. As he had previously noted, spiritual energy has a golden signature similar to mana but in much greater intensity and focus. With that given, it is therefore possible to theorize that this is a mana power-focused upgrade.
With that in mind, if it keeps the same behavior as mana, then it would be possible to use it as a substitute as well as gain a new, much more powerful energy source.
Isaac then put his hand on the rune inscribed on the golem's chest before closing his eyes and concentrating. He had been manipulating his spiritual energy all night long, as well as he could now begin to redirect it. Within an instant the bluish lines of the rune then began to change and began to take on a golden hue.
Gradually, Isaac's spiritual energy seeped in before becoming fully part of the golem and its mana circuit. Once enough energy had been injected to fully fill the vessels, Isaac decided to stop then stepped back and watch what was happening.
Unlike in his own body, the golem's spiritual energy was almost overflowing from the circuit nodes and the runes, leaking out and creating a golden aura around it. To the same extent, the concentration of spiritual energy diminished proportionately. So he didn't wait any longer.
- "Make this shrub grow as big as you can" he ordered pointing to a shrub.
It was something he had noticed from the maintenance golems. In order to maintain and repair the damage done, they had the ability to regenerate and accelerate the growth of plants, in part by giving mana to the Regeneration Rune. Usually, the operation would take a few hours when several golems set about.
Isaac wanted to know if the boost of spiritual energy he had given would be able to have a significant positive effect on the performance of the golem.
Obeying his command, the golem turned to face the shrub before leaning forward and resting his hands on the ground. A moment of silence passed before suddenly, the golden energy present in the golem was suddenly injected into the ground.
The young man immediately activated his vision and took to altitude to observe what was happening, curious to know what the rune would do with the energy. No sooner had he had time to activate than he closed his dazzling eyes slightly.
In front of him, the ground was completely white and glowed with a powerful light illuminating an area about thirty yards around the golem. At first surprised, Isaac turned off the vision before looking at the area again and widening his eyes slightly.
Around the golem, the shrub suddenly began to grow in front of his eyes at great speed. First from a shrub, then a small tree before reaching three meters and then exceeding the height of the standing golem, the tree continued to expand while below, the grass, flowers and plants present also grew. .
All over the area, the grass grew until it completely covered the golem and completely surrounded it to make it disappear under the greenery. Gradually, the energy dispersed and more and more plants joined the area as the rune of regeneration began to disperse the received energy.
Seeing the intense plant growth, Isaac ordered the golem to stop. The latter then stood up as best he could, tearing the grass that surrounded him before finally being able to stand under the tree, now standing five meters high, its foliage running all around for almost fifteen meters.
Isaac hissed lightly as he saw the efficiency of the energy as he nodded. He activated his vision again to see if there was anything left of the light, but he found nothing. The energy had completely dissipated, there was no trace of it left. Satisfied with his experience, he ordered the golem to resume his daily chores then returned to his floating rock, an idea trotting in his head.
Once his feet were on the rock, the young man started walking towards the center of the rock platform and walked towards the bush of blue flowers planted in the middle of what looked like a flower bed.
He had a big smile on his face and an excited expression.