Chapter 114: A Fleeting Glance

Seraphine’s eyes slowly began to flutter open; her mind was a mess. The last thing she could remember was releasing her life mana for Valerian to absorb, and after that was the explosion...

"Valerian!"

She shot up from the ground, and a heavy wave of dizziness and nausea hit her, making her almost vomit. Still, she tried to fight against the urge and tried to look up when a voice reached her ears.

"Worry not, little weaver. Your boyfriend is more than fine."

Sylas stood next to her lying form, his eyes glued to the person standing in the middle of the training room.

Seraphine ignored the last part of what the principal said for now and moved her gaze to where she had seen Valerian previously. The second she laid her eyes on him, the overwhelming urge to bow and worship came over her, and her head slowly moved downwards against her will.

Valerian himself stood in the middle of what remained of the training area. Instead of the wide, even stone floor, a large crater scarred the ground that looked like a heavy meteor had crashed into it, denting the floor in.

Yet his body wasn’t at the center of the crater, but hovered above it in the air. The clothes that he previously wore were destroyed along with the floor, but he wasn’t naked, as a black mist with faint silver constellations covered his form in the rough shape of a person, leaving only his head visible.

Deep purple embers left his body, falling from the mist and floating in the air around him before disappearing.

But the most eye-catching part was the soft golden halo in the shape of a crown that hovered above his head, making him look holy and regal at the same time.

His eyes that were closed began to stir open, as the miniature galaxy glowed in a bright light.

His gaze went to the side, where he felt the familiar mana signature of two people. But his eyes didn’t even give the excited Sylas a second thought as his form disappeared from the middle of the crater.

Sylas looked down to his side, and there Valerian was, kneeling down in front of Seraphine and helping her stand up.

The second his hand touched her shoulder, the pressure and urge to bow disappeared from her, and she was able to breathe again.

"Sera, are you okay?"

When she heard Valerian’s voice, she looked up at him and was stunned for a second by the glowing galaxy. She had always seen it and found it pretty, but now it took her breath away.

The concern in his eyes increased as she didn’t answer, and he turned to Sylas for a second with annoyance, but he didn’t say anything to him and turned back to her.

Seeing her still not answer, he placed a hand on her cheek, and a soft green light that now had a light golden shine appeared around his hand.

Seraphine felt the warm hand touch her cheek gently and the warmth from the life affinity rush through her body. The sudden use of magic brought her out of her trance, and she finally said something.

"I’m fine, really. But what happened to you?"

Mirroring his motion, she placed a hand on his cheek. His skin felt different from before. It was still undoubtedly his, but she felt her mana have a strange connection that wasn’t there before.

Valerian smiled softly as he felt her hand on his cheek.

"Yeah, I’m fine."

"Cough, cough."

The obvious fake cough from Sylas interrupted their moment, gaining an annoyed face from both.

"Right, you were here."

Valerian stood up and then noticed his lack of clothing and the strange mist around his body, as well as the halo above his head. He didn’t need to ponder on it for long, as he realized that it was his mana leaking through his body into the outside world; the halo came from the new properties of his divine mana.

He also felt that he could end the shroud at any time by putting a hold on the mana that was leaking out. While he wanted to dismiss it, he could feel that his clothes weren’t there anymore, and he didn’t exactly want to stand naked in front of Seraphine.

But the halo above his head was still annoying, as it cast a constant light around his head.

’Maybe I can only deactivate this part.’

He tried to focus only on the halo around his head and began to stop the mana flowing there. For a moment it seemed to work, as the halo became dimmer.

’Good, only a little more.’

Taking away more of the mana, the halo disappeared from his head. But unfortunately for him, his control wasn’t as great as he hoped it was, and the whole mist disappeared, leaving him standing butt-naked in front of Seraphine.

Seraphine stopped moving as she suddenly was presented with the naked Valerian in front of her. Instinctually, her eyes moved downward, past his chest, along his abs, and landing on his "dragon" that was exposed to the world.

For a moment neither said anything, as she just stared and Valerian saw her looking down at him. The silence stretched on for far too long, only broken again by the fake cough of Sylas, who stood beside them, begging for this agonizing silence to end.

The cough took both out of their state of just staring, and Valerian moved fast, covering his body in a thick layer of darkness to block her eyes that just definitely saw everything.

A red blush appeared on Seraphine’s face as she tried to process what had just happened.

"I- I should pr- probably g- go! See you later, V- Val!"

She placed a hand on his chest for a second before making her way out of the training room quickly, leaving Valerian standing there speechless.

’What just happened?’

His brain began to catch up to the events as a faint blush appeared on his cheeks, and he buried his face in his hands.

Sylas appeared next to him and patted him on the shoulder like a comrade that had experienced the same fatal trauma.

"It happens to the best of us."

Valerian didn’t even want to punch the annoying elf at this point and just wanted to disappear into the ground.

"Why are you even here?"

"To see you, of course. You don’t see it every day that someone steps into divinity."

Valerian looked up from his hands, and his eyes met with the golden ones of the principal; the silver ring rotating in them cast a soft light on him.

"You speak as if you know what this ’divinity’ is?"

He was always suspicious of the principal; he knew way too much, and the mysteries around him were more than enough to give him a headache. So now that he also knew about this divinity, he had to use this chance to learn more about it.

"Of course I know about it."

A melancholic, soft smile appeared on his lips as he looked into the air.

"I have met God, after all."

Valerian’s eyes widened, and he looked at the principal with a shocked face. Hearing someone say something like that could pretty much every time be written off as someone that is deeply religious thinking they had contact with their god in a dream or through some kind of hallucination.

But it was Sylas Starlight that said it, the strongest and oldest being on Eldoria, and a being that is deeply intertwined with time and space itself. There was no way this was just the rambling of some deeply religious old man.

"God... How?"

The more Valerian learned about the [God Seed] and Gods, the more he wanted to know; it was a hungry maw that consumed him more and more. But Sylas had no intention of answering his question.

"I will tell you when you’re stronger."

It would have been valid for Valerian to become annoyed at him, but he said he will tell him when he is stronger. That could only mean that if he were to learn about this "God" at his current strength, who knows what might happen.

So he just put that to the side, knowing he won’t be able to go further with this. He looked down on his hands and the strength behind them, as well as his affinities that now existed inside his soul, powered by divine mana.

Feeling so overwhelmingly powerful, he had an all-consuming urge to test his strength without holding back. Sylas felt the excitement building up in Valerian and already knew what he was thinking.

"I won’t fight with you."

Valerian’s face dropped in disappointment.

"But she will."

Like on command, the space split apart, and Ravena stepped out of the familiar rift.

"What the fuck happened here?"

---

Seraphine exited the training room quickly and didn’t stop until she reached the end of the large dorm.

’I saw everything. Everything.’

The image burned itself into her brain, making her remember every single detail of what she saw.

’And why was it so big? Is it supposed to be like that?’

Her face became hot and her breathing heavy as she remembered that part, and she increased her pace to leave the dorm and reach her own room.