“Mmm…”
Lintis groggily opened her eyes, just in time to see Shilo holding a blanket. She gave him a smile.
“Mister Shiro, good morning~”
“Saintess, it’s almost noon…” Shilo’s mouth twitched.
Hearing this, Lintis sat up with a little “heave-ho,” straightened her clothes, and smiled at Shiro.
“Now, now, don’t worry about such details. If you go along with a girl’s way of thinking, you’ll be more popular with girls, you know~”
Shiro sighed, feeling like he’d heard this kind of talk almost a dozen times already.
“Saintess, please don’t bring that up anymore. I have no plans to get married in the future.”
“Huh? Why?” Lintis leaned in curiously.
Shiro glanced at the girl beside him, took a few steps to pick up the wooden sword he’d placed nearby, and then said:
“No particular reason. In the end, there’s no reason I have to get married. I just don’t want to, that’s all.”
“More importantly, my holy power is exhausted. What is this shortcut you mentioned, Saintess?”
Seeing Shiro’s expectant look, Lintis blinked, looked up at the sky, and muttered.
“Hmm… about right, it’s just about time to start cooking.”
“What?” Shiro was taken aback, thinking she was talking to him.
“Nothing~” Lintis said with a smile, tilting her head, then reaching her hand out to Shiro.
“Mister Shiro is in such a hurry, so let’s speed things up. Please hold my hand.”
Shiro looked at the Saintess’s outstretched hand. He knew full well that if he made any strange moves now, he’d definitely get teased. So, he simply and openly took it.
Lintis blinked, feeling a little surprised. She thought she could tease him a bit more…
Mmm… disappointing!
She glared at Shiro unhappily. Under his utterly bewildered gaze, she slowly began to speak:
“Normally waiting for holy power to sublimate on its own is indeed a very slow process. What I’m going to do is actually the same thing you do when you fight corruption.”
After she finished speaking, Shiro didn’t understand.
“Are you going to spar with me?”
“Hmph, I wouldn’t do something so inefficient! And that’s tiring, you know?”
Shiro: “……”
“Alright, alright, I’ll stop being cryptic.”
“Simply put, the reason fighting promotes the sublimation of holy power is essentially because the body is constantly in a dangerous situation. The body senses the danger and continuously stimulates the production of holy power.”
“In other words, it’s like someone whipping you from behind—you naturally run faster~”
Shiro raised an eyebrow, giving Lintis a strange look.
“You’re going to whip me?”
Lintis, who had been cheerful a moment ago, immediately looked deflated. She stomped on Shiro’s foot. Hearing him suck in a sharp breath, she snorted coldly.
“Of course not! Mister Shiro, can you please not wish for such nice things?”
“Huh?”
Ignoring Shiro’s confusion, Lintis continued:
“What I’m going to do is just apply external pressure to you, stimulating your body to produce holy power on its own.”
“As for the process… bear with it.”
“Huh?”
With that, not waiting for Shiro to react, a mass of holy power had already slipped from their clasped hands into his body.
The sudden sensation of a foreign object entering his body put Shiro on high alert immediately. Upon realizing it was the Saintess’s holy power, he instinctively relaxed his guard.
However, the very next second after he relaxed, that mass of holy power suddenly began to riot. Intense pain instantly spread throughout his entire body.
The sensation came too fast; he had no time to prepare and was completely defenseless when he endured it.
A piercing scream tore through the air. The pain made Shiro collapse to the ground, curling into a ball, his body trembling uncontrollably.
Along with it came a sense of suffocation, forcing him, despite the sweat pouring down his face, to gasp for air like a drowning man.
Several times, sweat flowed into his mouth, causing him to cough violently.
Looking at Shiro on the ground, Lintis felt worried but didn’t step in to help him. She just tried to speak as calmly as possible.
“Mister Shiro, please use your holy power to envelop it. Otherwise, the pain will continue.”
Shiro, his vision blurred by sweat, couldn’t see who was speaking. But that familiar, calm voice was like a flame ignited in this boundless sea of agony.
Focusing his constantly scattering attention, Shiro checked his body again. Just as the Saintess had said, his previously empty body had now given birth to a great deal of holy power.
That was his own holy power!
And in the center of this holy power, the Saintess’s holy power was like an extremely ferocious magical beast. Just by being there, it made his own holy power shy away.
This won’t do!
Shiro gritted his teeth, clenched his fists, and tried to drive his holy power to envelop it, but he met with an extremely strong resistance.
This… is it fear?
In the process of contacting his own holy power, he seemed to sense their thoughts…
He had no time to think about why holy power could feel fear. Right now, Shiro only knew one thing.
He had to subdue this “beast” immediately, or he would die!
Shiro clenched his fist and slammed it into the ground, letting out a hoarse roar.
Move, damn it—!!!
Finally, under his constant urging, the holy power began to move, starting to advance towards the “beast” at the center.
But… it was too slow…
At this rate, he would definitely be the first to fall.
And indeed, during this process, his consciousness had nearly slipped away more than once.
If he let that “beast” run rampant inside him, he would be devoured in seconds.
Wait!
Suddenly, Shiro thought of something.
If I can sense the emotional fluctuations of my holy power, then can it also sense my emotions?
From another perspective, what I’m doing right now is essentially forcing them to commit suicide, isn’t it?
“I see… I understand…” Shiro murmured.
He abandoned the idea of continuing to force them. The moment this thought was born, his holy power immediately scattered like frightened little animals, hiding in the corners of his body and trembling slightly.
Sensing their actions, Shiro sighed.
‘Are you afraid?’
The next second, the words “afraid” flooded his mind in overwhelming waves, almost causing his consciousness to snap.
Shiro hurriedly grabbed his thigh hard, using a different kind of pain to pull his consciousness back, then tried to connect with his holy power again.
‘I know you’re scared. I’m scared too, terrified…’
‘But I still have many things I want to do. I can’t die here. Absolutely not!’
After conveying these emotions, the holy power clearly calmed down a lot. The amount of information transmitted back wasn’t as overwhelming as before.
Shiro breathed a slight sigh of relief. It seemed to be working. But what should he do next?
Then, a scene of bickering with the Saintess flashed through his mind, and he couldn’t help but curl the corner of his mouth.
Right… I need to apologize…
‘I’m very sorry for treating you so roughly just now. I was too impatient and forgot about your feelings. I’m truly very sorry.’
Sure enough, the fear dissipated by another large margin. At the same time, a few scattered feelings of happiness came through.
Really… this is just like taking care of a bunch of kids, isn’t it?
But it’s something I’ve been doing a lot lately.
‘I understand you’re afraid, but… this is our home.’
‘This “monster” has barged into our home, occupied our space, driven us into a corner, and let fear spread in our hearts.’
‘Why should we endure this? Why should we put up with this?’
‘This is our home. It’s ours!’
‘It’s the one that needs to get out!’
‘We will drive it out! If it won’t leave, we’ll destroy it! Eat it!’
Shiro felt a bit ridiculous, giving a motivational speech in his heart to a bunch of beings he didn’t even know if he could call “alive.”
But fortunately, the effect was remarkable.
The fear completely dissipated, replaced by a soaring fighting spirit and anger.
Shiro smiled. He didn’t actively urge them on but simply gave one command.
‘Eat it!’
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