Stigmata with Awakened and Luminous potential always had a simple activation condition — a single understanding. And, as it turned out, most Stigmata at that Tier had already been directly recorded by both the Academy and the Empire.
As for the Radiant tier, the requirement was sometimes just understanding, but sometimes it demanded something more specific — though still something achievable.
All of that changed once it came to the Transcendence tier and above. From that point on, the requirements grew brutally difficult, bordering on impossible even for the most stubborn of people. In short, the conditions themselves were extreme.
That was why Eiros steered clear of Stigmata at that level and chose to look instead at Radiant tier and below. So what he’d actually spent the whole day doing was simple: he spent his time observing the students who happened to be gathered around him.
Moments like this were rare. He wasn’t about to waste it. Quite a few of them had Stigmata that looked genuinely useful, but Eiros refused to let himself pick something carelessly just because it was strong.
He was looking for something that covered his weaknesses, and after spending a good deal of time on it, he finally settled on what he wanted.
[Stigmata Profile]
Name: Swan Without a Shore
Activation: Travel a distance without letting a single step touch the ground.
Potential: Radiant [Tier Three]
This Stigmata didn’t grant Eiros any additional power, but it gave him extremely useful Mobility. For instance, he could create a foothold in midair for a split second using his Soul Essence.
That foothold wasn’t limited to the air either — it could be used on walls, floors, and even ceilings. It would give Eiros far more momentum in battle.
Even without granting extra speed, this was already remarkable and useful.
[Does the Host wish to imprint Swan Without a Shore?]
’Yes.’
Eiros didn’t hesitate for even a second. He wasn’t about to waste a single moment on his way to becoming stronger.
The next instant, Eiros saw his ankle light up with a faint glow, revealing a small tattoo shaped like a white swan.
He stared at it for a moment, then glanced around. The students seemed thoroughly excited, chatting away in their little groups, playing by the water’s edge, shouting about this and that.
For a moment, Eiros simply watched them, then quietly blended into his surroundings and slipped away.
"Where are you off to?" Valkas noticed him, but Eiros answered right away:
"I’m going to the bathroom."
"Oh, alright."
After that, Eiros was finally able to leave the group behind. He headed in the direction of the villa, but he didn’t actually go up to where it stood on the rocks. Instead, he made his way to the base of the cliff, where the darkness and shadows blurred his silhouette into nothing.
After that, Eiros leapt upward using his Soul Essence, his body shooting forward
Whoosh!
past the boulder that served as a barrier. He found himself hanging in the open air, beneath the soft moonlight, the wind blowing as his long white hair whipped wildly.
A small, gentle smile appeared on his face, his eyes curving into crescents as he looked out at the city of Augusta, its night lights flickering below.
The White Swan was here.
***
Swan Without a Shore had an activation condition Eiros could fulfill easily enough. Sure, he was confident he could do it, but there were a few things he needed to figure out first.
’How far exactly do I actually need to travel without stepping on the ground?’
That night, amid the busy crowds of the city’s residents, high above the rooftops of the houses, a silhouette shot through the air at speed.
Just as the stigmata required, Eiros moved without ever using his feet. He relied only on his hands, swinging from place to place, never once letting his feet touch the ground.
He’d already covered over a hundred meters, but there was no sign the stigmata was about to activate. Well, of course — Eiros had already accounted for that.
He was just running a small test.
’Seems like I was right.’
It wasn’t about the distance he had to cover. Even though he knew the stated condition for this stigmata’s activation, that didn’t mean the stigmata would just switch on the moment he fulfilled it on paper.
It was the same as when he’d activated the Remnant of Red Light. What had actually happened back then?
Eiros thought it over, and he always arrived at the same conclusion. Just as the world believed that activating a stigmata required understanding what the stigmata was truly trying to convey — they weren’t wrong at all.
That, in fact, was exactly where the answer lay.
Whether it was people who stumbled into a certain situation by accident, awakening their stigmata while fulfilling its activation condition at the same time — it wasn’t really because they had fulfilled the true condition itself.
Rather, it was in living through that stated condition that they came to grasp what they needed to understand.
The world of Stigmata expressed its concepts symbolically. The Activation condition forced its owner to experience that concept in reality. And Awakening happened the moment the owner truly understood its meaning.
So then, what did the activation Eiros was going through right now actually represent?
Eiros remembered — aside from spending his time watching the other students, he’d also asked them about their own experiences activating their stigmata.
And one of those students happened to be the owner of Swan Without a Shore. So what had he said?
—Ah, I was totally panicking back then because my dad’s guard dog was chasing me and I was running through the trees. I wasn’t running with my feet, but with my hands! I swung from tree to tree, and that’s when I finally realized what my Stigmata was trying to tell me. Oh, right! I wasn’t running because I was scared — it’s just that the dog was way bigger than me! I wasn’t scared!
Ignore that last part and focus on what actually mattered here. That student had awakened his stigmata after living through the condition the system had stated — something that made him understand the meaning his stigmata was trying to convey.
That was the same as what happened with Eiros, wasn’t it?
He had died for the Remnant of Red Light, and understood that what the world wanted to tell him was this: don’t let death be the thing that limits you.
And he had risen because of that.
So then, what was this student meant to understand under these conditions?
Eiros hadn’t asked, because back then he hadn’t been sure of any of this. But now, he might finally find the real answer.
He ran through the acrobatics again. Moving forward without letting his feet touch the ground — if this really did have something to do with his feet never touching solid ground, and since this really was tied to mobility, then...
"Ah."
Eiros smiled. On the face of the White Swan, it came out as a gentle, soothing smile. Almost immediately, the atmosphere around him shifted, and the whole world turned impossibly bright.
Eiros found his consciousness pulled into the world of the stigmata. He found himself standing in the middle of a white lake that had no edge in sight.
There was no ground to be found, no mountains, no sun or moon. There was only a pale blue-white sky and a lake surface so calm it looked like a giant mirror.
When Eiros tried to take a step, he found his feet sinking, his whole body along with them. But the next instant, he was back where he’d started, as if nothing had happened at all.
He waited for a while, and then, a white swan appeared. A swan far off in the distance, not turning to look, not doing anything of particular meaning — it simply glided across the white lake and slowly drifted away into the distance.
Its movement left no trace, didn’t disturb the lake at all. It simply moved in silence, soft and unhurried.
Every so often, a white feather drifted down from the sky. One of them landed in Eiros’s hand, and he went still, lost in thought for a moment, then smiled.
"Yes, of course."
He looked around, then took a step. His foot touched the surface of the lake, and unlike the swan, it left a brief ripple behind. Then he took another step, walking across the lake as though it were solid ground.
A door appeared before him. A door adorned with soft, delicate swan feathers.
The meaning this world wanted to convey was...
"Movement doesn’t have to follow ground that’s already there to stand on."
***
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