Sachsen swept his hand across the Pantheon Stones as he spoke.
“Your Holiness.”
“Yes, Master Sachsen.”
“When people enter actual combat, do you know how many techniques they usually use?”
“Well? I have a lot of skills, so I use quite a few. Though most of them are buff skills.”
“Excellent. But for ordinary people, even ten is usually the limit. Do you know why?”
“Well......”
After thinking for a moment, Su-ho answered.
“Selection and concentration?”
Sachsen laughed at the answer.
“Correct. In the end, techniques are no different. Only the strongest and most efficient survive. People say there is no useless knowledge in the world, but ultimately, after endless refinement, only the most efficient forms remain. And in Your Holiness’s case, besides the holy arts of the Pantheon, you also have a mountain of other abilities you must use, don’t you?”
“That’s true.”
“So from now on, Your Holiness only needs to learn the most necessary techniques among the things recorded within these Pantheon Stones.”
“Will you be choosing them for me, Master Sachsen?”
“The choice itself belongs to you, but I will make recommendations. Based on my own experience.”
“Sounds good. Your recommendations will certainly be more reliable than my own when I barely understand any of this.”
“Thank you. Then I shall begin by recommending what I consider both the foundation and the final conclusion of all Pantheon holy arts.”
Sachsen lightly tapped one of the embedded Pantheon Stones with his greatsword.
At once, white light began leaking from the touched Pantheon Stone.
“This is the Cleric Stone. There are only two things you need to remember here.”
“Two things?”
“Yes. Clerics are beings who perform healing miracles through holy power. Therefore, there are only two things you truly need to know: restoration and purification.”
Restoration and purification.
Su-ho understood immediately.
Among his current skills, the closest equivalents were Restore and Dispel.
Sachsen continued explaining.
“Of course, Clerics possess many other skills. At Your Holiness’s current level, you likely use things such as Paladian, which grants holy power to weapons, Divine Aura, which enables continuous healing, or Saint Dome, which creates a defensive barrier over a designated area.”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“But in truth, aside from restoration and purification, everything else Clerics possess is merely a substitute for techniques belonging to other classes. For example, if you know how to use the protective holy arts of the Monks, would there really be any need for something like Saint Dome?”
“I use Saint Dome more often to protect others rather than myself. Wouldn’t that make its applications somewhat different?”
“Why do you assume protective holy arts can only be used on yourself?”
“Ah?”
Su-ho’s eyes widened.
Right.
Why had he never thought of that?
“Everything depends on how it is applied. Rigid thinking creates ceilings and limits for anything. Whatever the Cleric Stone lacks can be supplemented by the representative techniques of the other classes, so do not worry too much.”
“I understand. I never thought about it that way before. As expected of you, Master Sachsen.”
“Now then, returning to the explanation. In the Cleric Stone, restoration and purification are enough. In fact, from an extreme perspective, restoration alone would be sufficient. Restoration itself is the act of returning something to its original state, and purification serves a similar purpose.”
“Then why separate them?”
“Because after experiencing things firsthand, I realized my way of thinking had been wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“When my perspective was still narrow, I believed everything in the world originated from something pure and clean. But some things were originally what we would consider filthy and corrupted.”
“Ah!”
“You understand now?”
“Yes. If you apply the concept of purification to restoration, then everything would have to return to what we consider a pure and good state. But if the original itself is corrupt and evil, then restoration loses its meaning.”
“Correct. That is why purification is necessary. Because the standard for purification must be the pure and righteous state we ourselves define.”
For example, if a being’s default state was mental corruption from the very beginning, then even if restoration were used on them, their mind would remain corrupted no matter how many times it was restored.
“That is why, after long experience, I concluded that restoration and purification were the only things worth preserving from the Cleric Stone.”
After pondering for a moment, Su-ho asked,
“I have a question.”
“Yes.”
“Personally, I think your reasoning is correct, Master Sachsen, but during the Conclave, the Cardinal named Antonio used a technique called White Domain. To be honest, I found it rather appealing.”
“White Domain. You mean the domain-type holy art that prohibits everything except holy attributes?”
“That’s right.”
Sachsen smirked.
It was the sort of smile an adult gave a child who had said something immature.
“It certainly is tempting. But in the end, what happened to Antonio?”
“He lost.”
“That’s exactly the point.”
“Hm?”
“White Domain is certainly an excellent holy art. While it remains active, it imposes many restrictions. But did you know this? Once White Domain is activated, the user themselves becomes heavily restricted as well.”
Suddenly, Su-ho recalled Wolfgang standing guard over Antonio.
So that was why Wolfgang had been protecting him?
“Someone once said that no one can do everything alone. I agree with that. But after living long enough, I realized that in most situations, you end up having to handle things alone anyway. That is simply how life works. No matter how much people help one another, when the true crisis comes—when you most desperately need help—you are often alone. Think back to the end of your previous life.”
The end of his previous life.
The betrayal of those he had once trusted as comrades.
Su-ho could not answer.
“The help of others is necessary. If possible, it is certainly good to receive it. But we avengers cannot rely on such sweet hopes. We must live with the mindset that we must accomplish everything alone whenever possible. Since you have already experienced this yourself, I will say no more on the matter. And in that sense, White Domain is not particularly interesting to us. White Domain itself was created to restrict the opponent, but if a mere trick like that works on your enemy, then they would have died by our hands long ago.”
“Ah.”
Every word rang true.
Su-ho nodded.
Because he completely understood.
“You’re right. Looking at it that way, everything besides restoration and purification really does seem unnecessary.”
“Correct. What we are doing now is filtering out only the most exceptional and efficient abilities from each Stone. And as for White Domain, the things it offers can be sufficiently supplemented by techniques from the other Stones.”
“I was too hasty.”
“Not at all. In fact, I’m glad you asked. I could feel your desire to grow stronger.”
Warm words.
The warmth coming from an avenger felt strangely ironic, but then again, Sachsen had not been born an avenger from the beginning.
Sachsen continued his explanation.
“Then next is the Monk Stone.”
When he lightly tapped the Monk Stone with his greatsword, golden light seeped out from it this time.
“There is only one thing worth taking from the Monk Stone.”
“Protective holy arts?”
“Correct.”
As expected.
He had figured as much.
After all, even Pyo had once described the Monks as the armor of the Pantheon.
“If you think the concept of protective holy arts is limited to protecting only yourself, that is a grave misunderstanding. Protective holy arts literally protect everything. Which means there are hundreds of possible ways to use them depending on Your Holiness’s will.”
“When you say applications, you mean protecting others besides myself?”
“You have already seen it once. Something like a barrier wall. That too is a form of protective holy art.”
He remembered.
The shield Wolfgang had erected to protect Antonio.
“Protective holy arts become truly extraordinary at their peak. They almost appear alive, as though they possess their own will. They constantly react to their master’s mana, always seeking to protect them, and according to their master’s intent, they become helmets, armor, or shields.”
“So that’s why you said learning only protective holy arts would be enough.”
“The holy arts of the Monks were created from the beginning to protect others.”
“I see. And after that?”
“Paladins.”
“How many techniques for the Paladins?”
“The Paladins also have only one.”
“Then it must be an offensive technique.”
Sachsen nodded.
“If Clerics are healing and Monks are protection, then naturally Paladins must be offense.”
“What kind of holy art is it?”
“Extermination of Evil.”
“Extermination of Evil... Compared to the previous ones, that name sounds rather grand.”
“It is grand. And it possesses power worthy of such a name.”
“What kind of power is Extermination of Evil?”
“Extermination of Evil is a type of summoning skill. Quite literally, it is a holy art that calls forth a vicious monster willing to use any means necessary to destroy evil.”
At the word vicious, Su-ho’s gaze sharpened.
“I thought about it for a very long time. Among all the techniques possessed by the Paladins, what was truly the strongest? Quite a few became candidates. Holy Flame, the sacred fire, for example. Or Radiance, which gathers holy light and detonates it. Yet no matter what I chose, I could never narrow it down to a single answer. Do you know why?”
After considering it, Su-ho answered.
“Because enemies possess different attributes?”
“Correct. If the enemy itself is a creature of flame, then even Holy Flame will lose much of its effectiveness. In that case, you would need to borrow the power of frost instead. And if things continue like that, you inevitably enter battle carrying countless different options. Of course, for the sake of one’s goal, it is possible to master all of them. But I desired a more efficient power. And in response to my request, the Paladins joined forces to create Extermination of Evil.”
“Then Extermination of Evil was created for you, Master Sachsen?”
“Correct. Thanks to that, Extermination of Evil became the ultimate holy art representing all Paladins.”
“I had no idea. I’ve never seen it before.”
“That would be natural. In the entire history of the Pantheon, there has only ever been one person who mastered Extermination of Evil. Me alone.”
Sachsen smiled.
Then he raised his greatsword and said,
“That is why, from the Paladin Stone, the only thing I wish to recommend to Your Holiness... is Extermination of Evil.”
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