Before Osirs's fight against Soue began, Oberon was sitting alone in his Godly Domain of Beginning and End. He moved his fingers slowly, faint blue energy, mana, as he called it, dancing around his fingertips like wisps of light.
He tried to harden the mana, to give it form, to materialize it into something tangible. But the more he pushed, the more helpless he felt.
"What am I doing wrong?" he muttered, frustration creeping into his voice. "Is mana never meant to be truly materialized? Is it only ethereal by nature?"
That question weighed heavily on his heart.
Until now, he had only been able to materialize mana within his godly domain. But trying to bring it into reality, was proving to be far more difficult. So difficult, in fact, that he couldn't begin to grasp the deeper concepts behind it.
Still, through his constant failures, he had begun to understand one truth:
Mana wasn't a power to be controlled easily. No, it was something much more complex. More elusive.
Bit by bit, Oberon tried to uncover the true nature of mana, but the search pushed him to the edge of despair. For the first time in his life, as both a god and a former human, he was working tirelessly, day and night, to truly study something.
Back when he was a student on Earth, he had only focused on memorization. Understanding didn't matter. He just needed to recall what the teacher said, not grasp the deeper meaning behind it.
But that way of thinking was flawed.
And now, in this divine world, he was paying the price for it, struggling to comprehend the intricate, abstract forces that defined reality itself.
Oberon had found himself questioning, more than once, whether he should simply give up. Perhaps he truly wasn't ready to understand such complex things.
The idea of resting crossed his mind, until he saw that Osirs was receiving his rewards.
The first was the Blessed Sword, the one Oberon had personally imbued with his Godly Authority.
Blessings were not cheap to create. In fact, he had spent nearly half of his current Faith Points on that single blessing. But the result had been worth it. It was something Oberon could truly be proud of.
The reason he had chosen to create a Blessed Sword was because of the God War that had erupted earlier that very day. Initially, he had intended to reward Osirs with a decent sword for his efforts.
But upon witnessing gods waging war against one another, he realized Osirs would need more than just a normal reward.
He would need a weapon that could help him survive.
So, Oberon gave him the sword, a Sword blessed with his Godly Authory of light, capable of helping Osirs fight beings stronger than himself.
And now, knowing what was happening in the world… he was certain he had made the right choice.
From what he had recently learned, the villages surrounding the Averze territory were on the brink of war.
"Haa... war is really something I never thought I would experience in my life," Oberon muttered, his voice low and weary. "But it seems the other gods have no desire for peaceful coexistence."
A heaviness settled over him.
The thought of a war among gods brought a shadow over his heart. If gods were to fight and die in their pursuit of dominance, how many mortals, people like Osirs, would perish as collateral damage?
They believed in these gods.
And now, many of them would die because of that belief.
The thought sent a cold shiver down Oberon's spine.
He looked down at his own hands. They were trembling, shaking from fear.
He clenched them into fists in an attempt to steady himself, to calm the storm within.
But the thought of war… the looming threat of death…
It refused to leave him.
Oberon could do nothing but tremble.
"Isn't it normal in xianxia novels for the protagonist to kill? Don't they grow used to the feeling of death? So why can't I get used to it too?" Oberon muttered to himself, staring down at his clasped hands. But no matter how many times he tried to calm himself with reason or comparison, it didn't help.
He bit his lip, hard, until it began to bleed.
The blood slowly dripped onto the ground, landing on a blade of grass. But unlike human blood, it wasn't just red.
It was golden, tinged faintly with crimson.
Seeing that golden red droplet staining the grass made him realize once again:
He was no longer just a human.
He reached out with trembling fingers and plucked the grass blade, now wet with his divine blood. Holding it carefully, he stared at the glistening droplet, and then, without thinking, he tried once more to materialize mana into the real world.
And this time... something happened.
Something different from all the other times.
The blue mana in the air began to draw toward the drop of golden red blood, absorbing into it.
Oberon froze.
The trembling in his hands ceased as he watched, completely mesmerized.
The mana and divine blood began to fuse.
The golden red hue shifted, deepening, brightening, until it transformed into a radiant gold blue color.
The drop began to ripple, liquefying into something smoother. It started to resemble a perfect, shimmering droplet of water.
At least, that was Oberon's best guess.
He stared at the strange substance, utterly captivated. Whatever it was, this golden blue energy, it wasn't ethereal like normal mana. It was real.
He didn't know what to call it yet, or even fully understand what it was.
But one thing was certain.
This energy… this fusion of mana and divine blood…
It belonged to reality.
Time passed, and the golden blue droplet slowly began to regress, returning to its original golden red hue. Oberon watched this carefully, his mind racing.
He believed he was beginning to understand something, something important about this golden-blue energy and mana itself.
"Mana became real the moment it touched something that already exists in reality… and since I'm real, not something ethereal like my godly domain, it could fuse with my golden red blood, right?"
Oberon spoke aloud, sounding more like a scholar now, someone slowly uncovering the truth behind a long studied mystery. A satisfied smile appeared on his face as he looked at the blade of grass once more.
"But what does that mean for mana?" he asked himself, his eyes narrowing in focus as thoughts flooded his mind.
Some ideas made sense. Others didn't. But after thinking for a long while, he finally arrived at a hypothesis that felt… logical.
"What if mana was never meant to be wielded or controlled directly? What if it's meant to support and empower things that already exist… like my golden red blood?"
His eyes widened at the thought, and without hesitation, he bit down on his thumb.
Blood dripped slowly onto the ground, golden red, warm, divine.
It stung, but he didn't stop.
He had to test this theory.
Oberon began gathering mana around his injured thumb, letting the blue energy swirl around it, and just moments later, the mana was drawn into his body.
At the exact moment the mana was absorbed, a cold sensation spread through him.
It started in his thumb.
Then his wrist.
Then his arm.
His torso. His legs. His other arm.
Finally, it reached his head.
It all happened within the span of thirty seconds.
His entire body felt as if it had swallowed a shard of ice. A deep, unnatural chill seeped into every inch of him. It wasn't painful, but deeply unsettling.
Still, Oberon endured, his teeth clenched, determined to see this through.
After a full minute, the ice cold sensation gradually faded, and Oberon felt something shift in the lower half of his torso.
It was a strange mixture of warmth and cold, both comforting and unsettling at the same time. Slowly, his body returned to normal, just as it had been before he absorbed the mana through the bite on his thumb.
He glanced at his thumb and saw that it had already healed.
A wave of relief washed over him.
Encouraged by the result, Oberon decided to try again. He began to gather mana once more.
But something unexpected happened.
A much smaller strand of blue mana emerged from his fingertips, far thinner than the usual mana he was able to summon in his godly domain. But this time… it was different.
This mana wasn't ethereal.
It wasn't just a vision or a wisp of energy fading into nothingness.
Oberon could feel it, clearly and tangibly.
This was real mana, in the real world.
It was weak, and he could barely manipulate it, only able to move it in a straight line, but that didn't matter.
It was real.
His eyes widened in awe, and a slow, almost disbelieving smile spread across his face.
With trembling hands, he opened his status window.
[God System
Godly Name: Oberon
God Titles: The Hope of All Beings, The End of All Beings, Pioneer of Civilization
Divinity Stage: Newborn God
Soul: 325
Spirit: 325
Body: 405
Vitality: 1010
Believers: 0
Faith Points: 20
Godly Authorities: Absolute Darkness, Absolute Light
Skills:
-Blessing of Absolute Darkness:
Allows the god to bless believers with Darkness using Faith Points. The more Faith Points spent, the greater the blessing.
-Blessing of Absolute Light:
Allows the god to bless believers with Light using Faith Points. The more Faith Points spent, the greater the blessing.
– Mana Core (Initial Stage):
A Mana Core allows the user to store mana within their body. With a Mana Core, one can control and absorb mana according to the core's current stage. There are seven known stages of Mana Cores, with each stage increasing the capacity for stored mana and unlocking unique traits and abilities specific to the individual.]