Gaien still rembered the scene from that day.
On that day when his body and mind were mutilated by black magicians, Gaien saw light for the first ti.
It was starlight that his friend Roml showed to save him.
Roml took the curse in his place and fell into darkness. Gaien wandered outside to save Roml, with the sole determination to sohow eliminate the curse that had infiltrated his body.
It was in the dead of night when only pitch-black darkness filled everything.
Beyond the horizon, very far away, a massive flash of light that seed to illuminate the world could be seen rising high into the sky.
-That is.
It looked like a signal flare announcing the world's freedom, and also like thrusting a spear to defeat sothing.
Gaien thought the sky pierced by that light had shattered for a mont.
Later, he realized it wasn't the sky shattering, but the sight of countless stars spreading and falling in all directions.
A teor shower engraving countless marks across the sky.
Gaien was captivated body and soul by that beauty.
Though it was a very old mory, the scene from that day was vivid enough to appear before his eyes.
"At that ti, my priority was bringing Roml back, so I dismissed it as so phenonon and didn't pay attention. But later, I learned sothing."
"What was that?"
"That day, countless fragnts of the sky fell to the ground."
Gaien naturally added:
"This might sound like so natural disaster, but in reality it wasn't. Because that phenonon didn't cause any damage. That's what made it even more mysterious. A massive explosion occurred that everyone could see, yet no damage was reported."
At that ti, various stories circulated among people.
So spoke of conspiracies, so of divine praise, so of objective analysis.
But as ti passed, even that gradually faded, and later was forgotten.
"Now it's hard to even find stories from that ti. It's too long ago, and unlike how spectacular it was, nothing particularly notable happened afterwards."
Since there had been all sorts of strange occurrences before, people thought it was just an extension of similar events and moved on.
Thus the world seed to return to normal.
"But that wasn't the case. Even if others didn't notice, I, and other long-lived beings, could feel it."
That spectacular firework was just a kind of signal flare.
After that, the world began to undergo changes, little by little.
"The beginning was extrely subtle. The changes progressed so gradually that people didn't even notice. Even elves were the sa. It took them 100-200 years to notice the changes."
Changes in the world.
Science advancing, nations falling and new ones rising.
New ideologies, new laws, new energy resources, new opportunities.
Like a coat slowly getting wet in drizzling rain, before they knew it, they were already at the center of change.
As if sothing that had been blocked until now had collapsed, and a small water channel that had opened sohow beca a river and overflowed.
"That probably happened because the reign of chaos disappeared. Of course, this is just my speculation."
"So you don't know the exact details either."
"I rely witnessed the results of what occurred. No matter how much I try to find the reason why it happened or what caused it, I can't know if that's the truth."
"Then what's your theory? Surely you must have thought about it."
"Theory? Yes, I have thought about it. For instance, I have a hypothesis about why the world suddenly changed."
Gaien raised his index finger.
"It's that the reign of chaos had been holding back the world's developnt until then."
"Held back the world's developnt?"
True to the na reign of chaos, at that ti there were countless monsters and beings with divine attributes.
There were various types of beings with divine attributes. There were those born naturally in this land with divine attributes, and conversely, there were divine attributes that ca from the 'outside'.
Because of them, the world was truly filled with chaos.
'But in the end, what matters is the final boss.'
Osian recalled the final boss.
The God of Deep Law. Unlike the righteous-sounding na, it looked like a person about 3m tall wearing dark-colored armor.
From the ominous yet stylish armor design, to the spectacular impact of space distorting and all kinds of destruction occurring whenever it wielded its weapon and hands.
Befitting a final boss, the difficulty was considerable, and Osian had quite a struggle with this opponent.
Osian waited for Gaien's next words.
"Chaos was holding back the flow of this world. They fought and cooperated with each other to prevent developnt, trying to maintain the age of myths and legends as it was. They probably wanted to establish their era eternally."
"That's a plausible hypothesis."
While the ga didn't explain the main story in detail, it had the basic premise that the world's reign had been cruelly tainted, and it needed to be overthrown.
Of course, what was different was that the reign wasn't just a simple tyrant, but dragons and monsters, ancient beasts, twisted spirits, and divine beings.
Thinking about it that way, it didn't seem wrong to say that the divine beings had arbitrarily blocked the world's flow.
"So that's how the world developed, but why did I appear in this era?"
"That's ironic too. I believe that scene was surely created when you, Osian, ascended."
"Is that term 'ascension' sothing you ca up with?"
Osian had never heard the term ascension in the ga.
Unless he hadn't properly read the story or item tooltips, but that wasn't the case, so it was even more confusing.
'That setting didn't exist.'
In other words, what Gaien was explaining was information outside the ga that Osian knew nothing about.
'The ga didn't represent everything about this world, so it's not impossible that there are things I don't know.'
So he intended to find out now.
"Ascension. That's what I call it for now. Though I'm not the original creator of the term."
"Then who is?"
"The mayor of Tirna."
A more unexpected entity was ntioned than expected.
"The mayor. I heard there are five of them?"
"Yes. Among them, there is one who has maintained the sa position for a very long ti. His na is Aspirex. He is one of the five mayors who has maintained his position since Tirna's birth."
Aspirex. Osian softly muttered that na.
It was a na he was hearing for the first ti. This ans he wasn't a famous NPC in the ga either.
But given that he maintained his position continuously, he probably wasn't human.
"Did he ntion anything about ascension?"
"Among various races, especially among humans, individuals with outstanding potential are sotis born. They are known as 'those who possess the qualification for ascension', and they have a great influence on the world."
Similar people ca to Osian's mind.
He thought that hero-class NPCs might be that type. If it ant using multiple characteristics simultaneously rather than just one given characteristic, it was entirely possible.
"Among those who possess this qualification, only an extrely small number can achieve ascension. And from what I've heard, so of those we used to call gods were once people of this earth who achieved great deeds and ascended."
"That's sowhat unexpected."
But at the sa ti, it made sense.
Besides the outer gods trying to dominate the Slithering Sisters, there are various faiths in this world.
Among them, there were sotis beings who seed so human-like you'd wonder if they were really gods.
Thinking that they were once human like himself made Gaien's words extrely rational.
It ant that the divine attributes, the crystallization of faith, were divided into innate and acquired.
"Simply put, ascension is the process of becoming a god. Or it's sothing that beings living on this earth can reach when they transcend sothing. By ascending like that, they can transform into stronger beings."
Gaien stared intently at Osian.
"The problem is that if you ascended, you should have surely beco a god, but you, Osian, remained human."
Ascension is the process of becoming a god.
Osian was the only case of soone who ascended but didn't beco a god.
"Does anything co to mind?"
"Sothing that cos to mind."
Osian recalled how his previously usable skills were locked.
And simultaneously, the knight's power scattered throughout the world and those trying to use it.
"My power is scattered throughout the world now."
"That ans, as I thought, the teor shower I saw that day wasn't just a natural phenonon."
Gaien nodded, saying he roughly understood how the situation had played out.
"You tried to ascend but fell to earth. Your power was scattered and dispersed throughout this world."
"Can ascension be interfered with?"
"...Even after you, Osian, there were several ascenders. But even such ascenders never failed at ascension. Moreover, their ascension process wasn't as spectacular as yours."
"So there's a difference in degree."
"I don't know the details about that part either, so I have nothing to say."
"Since I don't know the reason either, we'll have to make assumptions about that part."
Still, the conversation with Gaien provided Osian with a lot of information.
He was particularly interested in the changes in the world after he cleared the ga, especially the stories about ascenders.
"What kind of people were these ascenders?"
"They were beings who transcended their race. Ancient ascenders beca gods, but after the law collapsed, the direction of ascenders changed sowhat."
Gaien was once a knight, but over the long years, he beca a historian recording the traces of the world.
He witnessed how the world flowed during the void of ti when Osian didn't exist.
"While we dare not attach the na of god to them, they beca beings who reached so kind of state. Their power, whether big or small, left footprints in history."
"Are there any ascenders remaining now?"
"I don't know. Because at so point, news about them suddenly stopped. I suspect they probably no longer appear."
The cessation of news ans the ascenders disappeared.
If there's no exaggeration or lies in Gaien's words, ascenders must have been very powerful beings who stood out even in this age overflowing with mutants, mana users, magicians, and black magicians.
Just by being active, such beings couldn't help but influence their surroundings.
Osian recalled the appearance of the Holy Emperor.
A man who created the illusion that the world was being drawn into him just by walking quietly.
'Even such a Holy Emperor is not an ascender. Did the qualification for ascension disappear as the era changed?'
Osian nodded.
"That's disappointing. If there were any ascenders, I would have liked to ask them so questions."
"However, there is a religion with similar tendencies. [Bells of Heaven], they're people who believe that all beings can transcend weakness through training. Though few in number, they consist of very outstanding elites."
"It wouldn't be bad to go find them."
"Right now there's sothing more important than that. After you ca to Tirna, various things happened. Among them must have been incidents related to the knight's power."
"Yes. That's right."
"This is my speculation, but I think your power that was scattered throughout the world is reacting and awakening as you've awakened."
That was sothing Osian had suspected as well.
"Perhaps if you gather all of it, you might soday be able to regain your pri form. And those forgotten mories too."
"That would be nice."
Osian smirked.
"You know about many events happening on earth. Then do you also know where my power is?"
"Regrettably, I don't know that much. Your power is sothing very abstract, so its form isn't fixed and its locations are too scattered."
Moreover, even when sothing happens because of Osian's power, in the current era it's impossible to distinguish whether it's because of the knight's power or sothing else.
Gaien knew of such news coming in, but he didn't know all the detailed circumstances hidden within the news.
"Is there anything else you're curious about?"
"Are there any other knights remaining besides ?"
"No. At least not in this Tirna."
However, Gaien continued.
"They might be alive in far-off places outside Tirna. There are actually examples of this."
Asr said sothing similar.
The celestial bodies began to move, and he followed their guidance to Tirna.
Osian thought he should talk with Asr again when he returns.
"There's one more thing I'm curious about."
"I'll tell you as much as I know within my knowledge. Since that was the request."
"This is sowhat different from what I asked before. What I'm curious about is the [White House] guys."
Normally he wouldn't have cared, but recently there have been too many incidents related to the White House guys.
Having a good relationship was out of the question.
After all, they used fragnts of Osian's lost power, Moonlight, on test subjects.
Moreover, since their leader openly said they would experint on Osian, they had essentially beco enemies. He needed to prepare thoroughly.
"How much should I tell you?"
Gaien knew a lot about the White House.
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