Knockout

Where... what happened?

I try to move, but a pain shoots up my spine. At the same time, there's a knock on my door and I hear Vol's voice.

"Sebastian, are you okay?? What was that noise?"

I can't speak. I can't move. My whole body hurts. My room is a mess. Shelves are hanging off their hinges, my table is cracked in half, and all my notes are scattered across the floor. In the middle of the room, the light of a large machine is quickly fading. Out of the corner of my vision, I see the door opening.

"Oh gods- what happened?! Elizabeth! Get a healer! Now!!"

Exhausted, my head falls back against the wall and the room begins to fade away, as I fall into unconsciousness.

---

Since my "meeting" with Smile, a lesser god, a lot has been on my mind. He claimed that Gaia - that is to say, Not Gaia - was lying to me; deceiving me. But why would he tell me that? For what reason?

Lesser or not, she's still a god. If Smile knows that she's lying, shouldn't he be the one to do something about it? What, exactly, is he expecting me to do with that information? Why was it so important?

And why now?

Maybe he believes that I can do something about it. Why else would he go through so much trouble? It must be something I've done or found recently.

The celestial magic? That's definitely recent, but I can't cast it. Even if I've remembered the sequence, I can't cast arbitrary spells.

For me to cast a spell, I need Vol's help to engrave it onto the manacaster, but I don't even know what the spell looks like. It would have to be pretty different from what I'm used to, not to mention much more powerful than anything else I've seen. It would stand out like a sore thumb.

Actually, that kind of rings a bell.

I feel like I've seen something that matches that description before.

Something that's recent. It's right on the tip of my tongue. Maybe if I ask Elizab-

Oh. Elizabeth's sword. On the handle, there was that engraving of a spell. A spell that can transform the holder's mana into pure strength. If that's not divine, I don't know what is. To think it was right under my nose.

I'll have to get Vol to lend it to me for research purposes.

---

I open my eyes slowly, letting them adjust to the brightly lit room. I don't think being unconscious this often is good for my health.

I'm lying in a very white bed. I glance to the side. Vol is slumped over in a chair next to me. I wonder how long he's been here. I can't see Elizabeth anywhere. I'm ashamed to say that I'm kind of disappointed. I guess I expected her to be here.

Actually, how long have I been out? I turn my head to look out of the window. It still hurts quite a bit.

Oh, it's night. Elizabeth must have gone back home to rest. I guess I can't blame her.

Just as I think that, however, there's a creaking from a door further down the room. I turn my head to look at it.

"El-" I croak, my voice weirdly hoarse.

She just stands there, staring at me. She doesn't look too different, so I can't have been out for too long, right?

I try again, clearing my throat, "Elizabeth. What's wrong?"

"I don't understand."

Huh? I'm the one that doesn't understand. What's the matter?

"I don't understand. What is it?"

For once, she looks legitimately stunned. I push myself up in the bed to get a better look at her.

"The healers weren't sure you'd ever wake up again. They said your wounds were really bad."

"Must be some pretty bad healers. I don't feel badly injured."

I move some of my appendages around. My neck hurts a bit, but it moves just fine. She walks closer to the bed, slowly lifting her hand and putting it on my face, like a mother might. Looking at her this closely, her eyes strike me as being redder than usual.

"I'm fine. Really."

She doesn't say anything.

"Maybe you should wake up Vol," I suggest.

I wonder if this is the closest I've come to dying. To think that the thing that almost got me wasn't a greater monster, but a spell. Admittedly, it was a celestial spell. Or, maybe more accurately, an attempt at a celestial spell.

I had borrowed Elizabeth's melted sword from Vol with no problems. Copying down the spell, I realized that it seemed to consist of several smaller pieces. Patterns in a messy construction, much like the celestial sequence.

Working on it was a mess. Much less testing it. I quickly realized that it was too inefficient to have Vol make a new engraving every single time my last one turned out to be a dud, so I had him engrave the individual parts onto small puzzle pieces. It made iterating on ideas a lot faster when all I had to do was move them around.

It took quite a while of tinkering to get to a point where I thought I got it right. But no. Instead, I'm in the hospital again. For once, my lacking mana control comes in handy. The AM-store I used for testing wasn't powerful enough to cast the spell in full. If it had been, I might have blown up the building.

But I know I'm close. The spell didn't do what I wanted, but it did do *something*. I have to try again. I bet I can get it right.

Though, somehow, having Vol and Elizabeth looking at me like this. It makes me think.

Maybe it's time I told them the truth.

The whole truth, for once.