Novaris: Adventure in the Shattered Fang Continent

Novaris. Decem. 904. AGC.

Nodel. New Moon 🌑. Day 2.

After their dream, the twins understood more about their shared life. It wasn’t something the World Crystal had said directly but more something they had felt as they watched it work.

Now, they knew that the fake soul the crystal had wrapped around their true soul was the reason for many of the oddities in their lives. Though Arelion had played a part in her unemotional state and some of the mental distress she had endured, it wasn’t entirely his fault.

The fake soul was created with the sole purpose of suppressing their divine attributes and keeping them hidden. However, even it could only do so much, and their ability to read essentially all languages and their dark vision managed to leak through. This leak was addressed by causing those around them to ignore the facts after they learned about them.

Another of its effects was Jasmine's shyness. It wouldn’t have been a problem for another being, but they were essentially a literal manifestation of their soul, which meant suppressing their soul also meant suppressing them.

Usually, most creatures had two connections to their soul: their heart and mind. This meant that the soul and body were, in fact, two separate things. The soul could do its job of taking in mana by teleporting it inside. And the body held all the feelings and mortal things while also being a conduit for magic. This also meant that the reason why they had so much trouble healing was that hurting their bodies was like hurting their souls. And normal or godly magic couldn’t heal their souls. Only time could, and maybe some actual soul or time magic.

Either way, that brought them to magic. Their magic was innate magic, meaning they didn’t need words, gestures, or magic circles but only willpower and imagination. However, that’s not what made them special since a lot of people had innate magic. What made them special was that their magic came from entirely pure godly mana and the amount of divine mana they had access to.

They were essentially celestials, running around with unlimited mana, which is why their state also had the setback of not allowing them to absorb ambient mana. And through that setback, they couldn't dilute their godly mana and use it without killing themselves or, at the very least, doing significant damage. The other setback was that their inner core created by the World Crystal would only store so much ambient mana. This storage size would increase with their rank, but it was still a limiting factor, keeping them from doing too many high-rank things with their godly mana.

Another setback was that if they used Language of Creation magic, it would be much weaker as they could only use it with their ambient mana instead of their godly mana. That particular problem was something mortals, whether clergy or not, didn’t have, as they could both have their pure mana as well as their gods.

Moving on, they learned that the way they gained mana was true to the feeling of draining they had gotten when fighting the bear. They had tested this a day or so before their escape, and it had its own limitations.

One, it could only be done with Arelion’s dark mana as it was made to consume. This upset Jasmine, but considering they shared one body, it wasn’t a big deal. She, at the very least, had another goal to reach for. The second limitation was that they had to touch the creature and keep in contact with it for at least one minute for it to work properly, meaning they couldn’t do it mid-combat. The third limitation, at least for Jasmine, was that doing so would rip the mana from the creature’s soul, doing massive damage to the soul in the process. Arelion, of course, had no problem with using it on anything, but Jasmine didn’t want to rip the soul out of people. There was also the fact that they had to be careful when using it because if a high ranker saw them using it, they could probably detect them, and it would cause all sorts of problems.

So, with the first part of the plan completed, they returned the creature to the ring. The plan was to sell it before taking the ring back to the orphanage.

From there, the next step in their escape plan was simple and something they had been slowly working on.

At first, they hadn’t been allowed out of their little room complex. However, security began to come down after the church learned of their inability to gain mana. It was simple things at first, and they weren’t allowed to leave the inner temple area. Then it was that they couldn’t leave the temple, period. Finally, they could go outside in the temple's perimeter but had to be guarded by a C Rank Cleric or above. Of course, even being allowed outside wouldn’t be enough to escape as unless they jumped ranks again, they couldn’t lose the C Ranker watching them. And even if they did jump ranks, it would only last a few seconds before they did too much damage to themselves. Arelion had suggested killing the C Ranker but had taken the idea back. They already had Setiel's kin searching for them, they didn’t need Luxana's as well, or at least not with the same enthusiasm.

Instead of murder, they had discovered something else entirely and had been able to confirm it after gaining access to mana.

They had learned that during a new or full moon when one of them was completely in charge, their body and soul received such a boost that they became more resistant to the damage caused by the use of godly mana. At a new or full moon, they could effectively become minor avatars of their gods. And becoming minor avatars of their gods meant embodying the deity's very concepts and existence. As such, they planned to use the New Moon to become darkness itself.

So, Arelion could embody darkness during a new moon and gain some rather powerful concealing abilities. Essentially, due to the new moon, their body or his body became untraceable to any and all magical senses below S Rank. Now, that was just their body, so the physical aspect of their existence. Their soul was still visible to any ranker who was higher in rank than them. This meant a High Cleric of Sol could still sense their soul. However, those who couldn’t sense their soul were Luxana’s and Setiel’s clergy or the goddesses themselves. Meaning that once the new moon came, they could easily escape.

The night of the new moon came, and surely enough, Arelion quickly made his way outside under the supervision of a cleric. His hair matched the complete darkness of his eyes, which also oozed darkness. Jasmine’s usually soft and more triangular face became much more rigid and square. The most significant change was seen in the rest of the body as it lost Jasmine’s curve and other developed areas.

Even Jasmine’s lithe, well-toned, and muscled body became slightly bulkier and taller. Arelion also wore black-dyed cloth apparel with traces of deep purple for adornments. His outfit was fitted to allow better combat movement and show as little of his deathly pale skin as possible.

Also unnoticed by the cleric was that he wore two rings. One was the monster ring, while the other was their personal ring with clothes, armor, and weapons, as given by the church.

Arelion, who was walking up front, had a light smile on his pale face.

He could faintly feel and hear them as he approached the temple's door. Then, as he walked outside and the temple's magic stopped interfering with the darkness, he heard their murmur as they called out to him. He even felt as if the darkness and its shadows were dancing in greeting, like they knew about his impending freedom.

And they were right, of course.

Only a minute after coming outside to enjoy the moonless night, he began the plan by slowly walking to the nearest spot of true darkness.

Then, he began calling forth the mana from their core and using it to dilute his dark mana. The cold, dark mana made its way out of their soul and passed through his body. He knew he had to push his body much more to escape effectively, so he released even more dark mana. As he did, the cool sensation that had been passing through his body increased to a frigid coldness that made his breath release puffs of dark mist. He could feel the godly mana burn his inside. He had diluted it a bit, but only enough so as not to cause long-term damage.

Finally, once he felt the mana had spread entirely through his body, he locked eyes with the cleric, and a malicious smile appeared on his face. Then, with a tug of his will, he was enveloped in darkness and shadow and disappeared from sight.

The World Crystal watched as Arelion exited the temple and began to channel his dark patron’s mana.

It had one job, and it began as soon as Arelion disappeared from the temple area.

A faint translucent shield enveloped the entire temple.

No one would leave the temple for a few days, at most.

Next, it found Setiel’s S Ranker, who had come to the Kingdom to catch the twins.

Arelion had not noticed the individual watching him outside, and right as the S Ranker began to move, the World Crystal struck, knocking them out, and proceeded to teleport the individual across the planet.

Once that was done, it considered its job complete, and it was entirely up to the twins to survive from then on.

Arelion appeared from a dark alley some distance from the holy district and immediately began running towards Keepers Keeper.

There, he sold the remains of the worms and their gear, including their ring, in case they had some tracking magic. Then, with the funds, he bought a new storage ring, some simple magical daggers, a magical staff, and some decently enchanted yet basic leather armor. He also purchased a simple illusion ring, hair dye, and rations for the road.

From there, he quickly made his way to the orphanage and snuck in through an unlocked window. He then left Aunt Emy’s borrowed ring with a note telling her they would see her again someday and to tell Rose goodbye for them and that they were sorry.

After all of that, he changed his hair, eyes, and skin color into shades of brown and headed to the Seafarer’s Guild to find a ship off the island. There, he was able to book passage on a ship leaving the island early in the morning.

Hopefully, the next time his sister came to, they would be far from their home and prison.