Chapter 1567: She Does Not Make Sense (5)
The vermillion mana core swelled with outrageous volumes of potent mana. It was a greedy thing, in Kintar’s possession. It hurried to tether itself to her new, bold soul, strengthening both her material and immaterial self. (Body and soul.)
But surely there were questions, right? Many questions about Kintar’s prowess and reasoning.
How was she able to conjure the power of Rules? How could she suddenly use the powers only powerful Heralds like Jerthrax and Jiggorrhax could harness?
To this, the answer was as simple as it was frustrating.
Jerthrax had demonstrated his ability to use Genuine Divine energy to create Rules and Jiggorrhax had also showcased an affinity for Rule Runes using said Divine energy.
...But who ever said the relationship between Genuine Divine energy and Rules lied in causation rather than correlation?
The truth of the matter was, powerful Energy Formers like Arch-Mages could touch upon the power of Rules and Divine energy through Runes – through understanding Absolute Magic which required high-level Runes.
It was a staple for Energy Formers, really. Priests were also capable of accessing Divine energy in various forms (Primus, primarily), and those that reached a high enough level could touch upon Genuine Divine energy as well.
But what of a Realm Source Mage like Kintar, the only one Aigas ever produced?
Kintar had harnessed the power of Rule Runes earlier to create a miniature world like Jiggorrhax had, through her ever-growing knowledge of Runes. She hadn’t understood how she’d done it then, though, hence why she cycled through her knowledge of Runes using her three forms of Absolute Magic with the added help of [Manastanding] until it clicked for her.
Runes were a universal concept. They were the highest form of pure control, notable in even such extraordinary collections of power like the Books of Alignment – the conduits from which bearers of Existential Parallels received their powers.
With Runes, it was possible to touch upon divine power. Genuine Divine power.
And that was what Kintar did.
"I, KINTAR ALADASTER, COMMON-BORN, HUMBLE AND ECCENTRIC, HEREBY DECLARE TO THE SKIES, TO THE LAND, TO THE SEAS, AND TO THE UNDER WITH A RULE COMBED BY MY RIGHTEOUS ENLIGHTMENT... THAT I HAVE A NATURAL SOUL EQUAL TO THAT OF THE BAREST OF DIVINES!"
The Unlimited Star grasped Rules through Runes and commanded her soul to become strong enough to hold a vermillion core.
Why?
Because she’d seen it.
Her absurd creation, the vermillion core, was a construct that forced the passive generation of Genuine Divine energy when the mana it produced met a violent action.
When Sila used mana from his vermillion core to attack Rias, Genuine Divine energy sparked out.
When Kintar did the same, siphoning mana from that very core, Genuine Divine energy exploded forth.
Indeed, the vermillion core wasn’t meant for mortal bodies and mortal souls. That was why the Deities of Aigas never intended for there to be a core type beyond a gold one.
...But Kintar had only been wary of this type of core because she feared for her soul. That was a non-concern now.
The vermillion core throbbed inside her, but she didn’t desire it as it was.
Forging nine golden cores around it, she forced the new core to bounce around the cage of nine glowing power sources; a bizarre game of pinball, indeed. With each core the vermillion one struck, a shuttle of Genuine Divine energy – almost 1,000 units each time – was released and siphoned through Kintar’s body.
Rias noticed it when the Genuine Divine energy ignited furiously, and rapidly within his opponent’s body. His scowl might have pried open his mask, intent on showing itself to the world.
Yet, his fury might just have turned Kintar on.
The Unlimited Star’s neck twitched with excitement and...
[You have created the skill ’Hegemon of Theistic Ardor’!]
And a skill it was indeed, for manipulating Divine energy. It didn’t come out of nowhere either.
Kintar’s fascination with Divine energy had started long before this. Her master had showed her his ability to both generate and use Genuine Divine energy before, through the Transcendent grade weapon he possessed: the Fallen Reincarnator’s Shadow.
’Oh...this is just right,’ Kintar thought. Or was it her clone? It hardly mattered.
100,000 units of Genuine Divine energy generated in less than half a second cradled her in a thick blanket... and were then used up at once.
Who needed mana for performing feats of Magecraft when you had Genuine Divine energy for that?
Rias kicked off the air to go after the Kintar he saw building up charges for this power, but he was too late.
Kintar’s actions had been obscure and vexing before, but now, they were horrifying.
The masked man thought he sensed a sea of Kintars appear all around him, all around Aigas as a whole, but they vanished almost as soon as they had appeared.
...?
Had it been an illusion?
Of course, it wasn’t. Kintar had used Typical Matter, powered by Genuine Divine energy, to create ten billion clones of herself. All of them were at least forty times as powerful as before. But then Kintar immediately divided them until only one remained using Infinitesimal Division. And indeed, that one was no ordinary super clone. Its power exceeded that of the earlier super clone imbued with fire empowered by Elemental Overdose. But then Kintar added that too.
All this happened in a sequence and period the masked man could hardly fathom.
By the time he reached his target Kintar, two other things had happened before he could be conscious of them.
Nana, whom he’d left unprotected, was killed through means too swift and absolute to describe.
And then...
Rias had the Kintar he’d been targeting by the neck when he heard it.
Yet another Kintar made a declaration, but this time, it wasn’t a Rule.
Instead, it was a Blessing.
"Make my body an indomitable force, a hard-bred Form Using weapon Aigas has never known before today. Undisputed."
And indeed. Undisputed would be the Blessing’s name.
A new super clone had been forged after Infinitesimal Division was applied, and it, along with all the other Kintars – those Rias could see and those he couldn’t – possessed Undisputed.
But of course, only the super clone deigned to match itself against Rias. She had been soaring in the sky like a saint, when she suddenly vanished, snatched Rias away and flung him high into the turbulent sky.
’She used a Rule!’ the masked man thought.
Behind him, an Eternal Drakken flew down, its head aiming for him. He mistook its intention. By the time he realised the creature only wished to serve as footing, his real opponent was already before him.
...!
Both he and Kintar landed on the Drakken’s head. The latter licked her lips as though feeling unseemly sensations through her nether regions, but her eyes were cold. If murder ever held a form, it surely must have been Kintar’s eyes.
Rias was already throwing up his arms in a guard before he realised what Kintar intended. His Amras (and indeed, it came from his real body, nesting within Aimon’s maw) successfully reinforced him.
’Genuine Divine energy is far weaker than Amras,’ Rias thought to ease his mind. ’Amras serves as a personal energy source, and can’t function flexibly. Deities water it down in order to increase its supply for creating a world. Even if this woman can suddenly manipulate such power, she can’t poss—’
Something proved whatever Rias thought wrong.
An invisible set of blows, a collection of a hundred in rapid succession, struck just below his sternum... and made him vomit blood.
...!!!
The masked man’s guard wavered, and when it did, Kintar was upon him. She pulled both his arms towards her, and whipped up her foot to strike him straight in the chin with a brutal kick. The satisfaction she felt when the masked man’s jaw shattered was indescribable.
’I’m just getting started. You’ll pay a heftier price than this!’ she thought.