"How does Calzress sound to you?" Pallas's voice echoed in John's consciousness. "It means 'the champion' in the draconic tongue," he added with a wide smile, knowing that Kirin were descendants of dragons.
"Calzress, huh? Doesn't sound bad, actually… The Champion. Yeah, let's go with that," John replied, stroking the black Kirin before returning the majestic creature to the shed. He then made his way back to his room.
As he lay on his bed, staring up at the ceiling, John contemplated his next steps. "Hmm, everyone except Geoffrey is too young right now for me to summon them here and ask for their help. Gathering their families would be too complicated and time-consuming. It's better to meet them directly at the academy. As for Geoffrey… a letter should suffice. If I mention time travel, that crazy old bastard will come running for sure. The challenge lies in finding his current location," he mused, sitting up with crossed legs, his hand supporting his chin.
"He did mention working for the Magic Association when he was young, but how young is young? The old bugger never told me his age. After his days cooped up in the Magic Association, he went on a wild adventure, exploring ruins left and right, before finally settling down in the Imperial Mage Tower… damn it," John cursed, frustrated by his old friend's mysterious age.
"Let's see… for now, I'll send a letter to the old man in the tower, asking if someone named Geoffrey is there. We'll go from there," John decided, shifting his thoughts to other matters.
"Hey, you two," John called out as he entered his conscious space. "Any progress on the stars? The war is approaching, and I need to grow stronger. I haven't learned much from you two since my core formed," he complained, wearing a slightly annoyed expression.
"Fuck off, you ungrateful bastard. You damn well know why we haven't taught you anything since your core formed. Your body can't handle the consequences," Pallas retorted, his frustration evident. Costas nodded in agreement, the two of them seemingly more focused on the giant eggs behind them than on helping John.
"For fuck's sake, have you two been obsessed with those eggs the entire time? We'll find out what they are once they hatch. You're wasting our time. I expected this from Pallas, but even you, Kostas. Tsk, tsk, tsk," John scolded, shaking his head in disappointment.
"In all fairness, we Titans are an intellectual race. I can't help but be intrigued by something like this," Kostas replied, appearing somewhat guilty.
Shaking his head and sighing, John voiced his frustration, "Fuck it, what can we do now? I need to get stronger. While I'm making progress and accumulating more mana and divine energy, I have no idea how to use the divine energy. I can handle mana quite well because of my past life experiences, but I'm clueless about what to do with the stored divinity. Right now, it's just taking up space in my core."
"Hah, we knew we'd have to address that at some point, but we didn't expect our experiment to go so well," Pallas said, exhaling deeply. "Fine, we'll teach you about divinity. Your growth has surpassed our expectations. We intended to teach you once you could at least use your intent, but time is against us. We'll have to expedite things," he said, with Kostas continuing the conversation.
Kostas, wearing a serious expression, asked John, who was seated on the floor with crossed legs, "First of all, do you know what intent is? Considering you were what you humans called a Violet Core in our previous life, I'm sure you have some understanding of it."
John furrowed his brow, a hint of confusion in his eyes, as he replied, "I mean, I have some idea of what it is. I was about to break into violet Core, so I started researching it. You're talking about channeling our bloodlust into our aura, right?" (A/N - I edited this a bit, I kinda forgot how the rainbow worked for a minute there.)
Kostas shook his head. "Not exactly. Before we get into that, do you know that every person has a unique property in their aura? For example, the Grand Duke's aura had the property of combustion, or at least that's what I observed. The barbarian chief's aura would destroy things, while that Nicholas guy's aura would freeze them."
John nodded, recalling his previous life. "Yeah, in my last life, my aura's property was cutting. That's what made me one of the stronger humans out there, despite my core not being as powerful as the elites of my generation. It's also why I could cut through the two of you, even though I'm nowhere near your levels of strength."
"Exactly," Pallas interjected. "While I'm certain that won't change regardless of how many lives you go through, the intent one uses is more flexible. It changes depending on the situation. For instance, if you want to protect something, even if the property of your aura is cutting, the intent becomes defense. This causes the aura to become denser and stronger. On the other hand, if you want to kill, the intent becomes thinner and sharper. It's not a perfect description, but unless you have an epiphany about it on your own, it's difficult for either of us to explain. In general, there are three types of intent: to kill, to protect, and to heal. Some people can awaken special types of intent, but that's not our immediate concern. You'll have to figure that out on your own later," Kostas explained in detail.
"Now, the reason why knowing this is important is that if someone has divinity, or as we call it, divine energy, without giving it a well-defined property, you cannot use it practically at all. Those priests of yours give their divine energy broad definitions like healing or protection, but that's not how it's supposed to be used. Yes, you can heal with divine power, but healing doesn't need to be its specific property. You could heal using mana if you used intent properly, even if the property of divinity is purely offensive in nature, that is what healing spells are at the end of the day. The property of divinity should be exclusive to you, something that represents you. Once you figure that out, we can begin training you on how to use it," Pallas continued.
John looked perplexed as he asked, "I see. So, how do I give my divinity a property?"
Pallas shrugged and replied, "By thinking about it intensely and then attempting to change the divinity to match that thought. It's similar to how you coat a blade with aura and focus on it intensely."