Chapter 145: Rising Faith
Leaving a golden trail in its wake.
Unaware that he had solved one of the ancient secrets hidden by the beings who reside in the Eternal Realm.
Leon arrived at the location—it took less than half a minute to reach here.
What could be seen in front of them?
People were present, but not only in one place.
They were lying on the ground, scattered across the area, with their ears bleeding and injuries on their bodies.
Without waiting, his figure streaked from one place to another—whoosh!—blasting through the still air. Each time he stopped, a soft thud followed, the ground pulsing beneath his feet as he landed just gently enough to avoid harm.
Wherever he stopped, green light surged from his palm with a soft hum, flowing into wounds with a warmth that made even the air shimmer faintly around them.
Dust lifted briefly around him, then stilled, as if the air itself dared not interfere.
One by one, he started healing them with his Life element. He would have liked to do it in one go, but they were too scattered.
It was lucky that the crater he had created with the stomp of his foot had stopped 100 or so meters before reaching them, yet the shockwave was too devastating for them to withstand.
As he healed, there were not many with serious injuries like broken bones or heavy bleeding—only a few.
He healed them in no time. His pure Life energy mended their wounds to their previous state.
After disappearing from one place to another, he saw the faces of those he had healed. He could see the endless gratitude in them, thier faith was rising even more.
But not only that—they had questions to ask or pleas to make. But he didn't have the time to wait before he healed everyone.
He had found Rudy's mother, protecting Rudy in her embrace. There was nothing more than a scratch on Rudy, but his mother had a couple of broken bones. Her right forearm had a cut that was bleeding—it seemed as if she had blocked a fast-moving object.
Rudy, who had tears in his eyes, noticed their God only a step away from them, still bathed in his ethereal golden glow, making him look even more grand in everyone's eyes.
"God, please—"
Leon didn't let him finish and quickly healed both their wounds.
Seeing his mother fully healed, Rudy knelt and bowed his head.
He didn't know what they might think when they realized he was the cause of this devastation.
Before leaving, he wasn't able to hear the boy's words, but he knew they should be words of gratitude.
His Holy energy was accumulating at a quick pace as he healed them one by one.
After healing a couple of serious ones, he had now arrived at the scene where the young Lisa was lying, conscious. There were not many wounds on her body—
Other than the fact that her head was bleeding. She seemed to have been hit on it.
Yet, in her hands—
The very dagger he had given her—she was holding onto it closely, clutching it tightly near her heart.
He wondered if she had used those scrawny hands of hers to protect her head. She might not have been in this state and remained conscious at this moment.
Yet she chose the dagger.
An object.
Was this foolish?
Yes, in his eyes, this act was of complete foolishness.
She only survives because whatever hit her was not big and very fast
Yet there was a chance of death; it was slim, but there.
Even then, she chose the dagger, knowing she might die.
This faith… it really makes people take decisions they'd never take themselves with a right mind.
It was mesmerizing in its own way.
Was it good or bad? He had no answer to that question right now.
He would never have such faith in anything. He was a selfish and cautious person who placed himself above everything besides the people he cared about.
Yet now, those people who had faith strong enough that he could feel—that betrayal to him was even unthinkable in their essence itself—
He could give them some priority and not just treat them as labor for his world.
Because they had earned it through their faith.
After healing her, he left without waiting for her to wake up.
When Lisa did wake up, she had a blossoming smile on her face—as if she knew he had healed her.
The same feeling she had felt before.
The feeling of having no wounds and bruises on her—
Which was something new for a slum rat like her, as she couldn't remember a time she hadn't felt pain. Whether it was pain from hunger or literal wounds on her body, they were ever-present.
But her God made her feel so free, taking worry and pain from her.
She remembered his breath—hot, sour—on her neck, the sharp crack of knuckles against her ribs. Ugh, her body used to flinch at just a shadow.
Now, the very idea of fear had been burned away, like rot purged in fire.
She felt clean, as if the weight pressing on her ribs had lifted for the first time. Her skin no longer flinched at the wind.
And now.
How could she ever forget what her God had done for her?
Her God's place had been immortalized in her heart. She was going to make herself useful in the hopes that she could repay what he had done for her.
For the first time in her life, Lisa felt so free.
And she had even discovered a purpose in her life.
She wanted to achieve it by doing everything she could ever imagine.
Even if it meant feeling pain she had felt her whole life, but this time it would be her choice, so she could become someone who could be a help to her God.
Five minutes had passed.
The last one he had healed was James.
He was done now.
He did have the power to teleport, but in his current form—where the Holy energy was gathering over his body—he didn't risk it. He had no proper control over this element.
There might be something wrong that could happen. Space element was not something he could fuck around with and find out.
When the Holy energy was out of his control, he didn't even have a little bit of control over it.
He even feared he would become a walking light bulb soon, as with their faith rising, its intensity was increasing.
But there was a limit. He felt it—not because there was a barrier he had to break.
Because the Holy energy was enhancing his strength itself—he was not the one controlling it, and it was being spent continuously.
With the only source of its supply—his followers.
He didn't know if he could generate it himself like the other elements, but he would find that out later on when he trained with it.
No explanation was given to anyone. No one even asked him anything about the cause of this massive crater in front of them.
As his presence is closer to them—
Their God gave them a sense of security—even if something went wrong, he was here to take care of it all.
Standing in front of the massive crater whose length was a kilometer from the center—meaning more than 2 km in length and depth—from the edge, you could see the outline of the ground deep below.
But as your eyes looked further, there was just a dark, massive hole.
It wasn't just a hole. It was a wound carved into the world itself.
And anyone who fell into it would ask the same question—
Not whether they could survive, but whether they'd ever return.