Section Fifty-five: The Break (Part Two)

"Divine Command: Hold!" The third-tier divine art was spat from the lips of a grim-faced middle-aged man draped in white robes, their edges embroidered with silver, the Flame of Light emblazoned upon his chest.

Divine arts produce effects similar to spells, but with one key difference: unlike magic, which requires a high level of mana to cast, divine arts can be channeled by those with profound faith, who draw upon the immense mental strength born from their devotion. Throughout the history of the Church, there have been numerous instances of clergymen—who had never engaged in the meditation required for mana—casting divine arts in moments of crisis to protect their flock or sacrifice themselves for the Church’s cause. Typically, such untrained individuals suffer significant repercussions after unleashing such power. Minor cases lead to bedridden exhaustion, while more severe ones result in premature aging or even death through the total depletion of one’s life force.

In short, any devout believer, even without mana-focused meditation, can potentially convert the mental energy derived from their faith into a source of spell-like power. The distinction between them and a mage lies in training: mages undergo systematic development, allowing them to cast spells without self-inflicted harm. Untrained individuals, conversely, risk suffering damage from the very power they channel. Furthermore, high-tier divine arts meant to commune with the divine often require a sacrifice, usually at the cost of the caster's body or life.

Despite these risks, a magic apprentice usually requires at least eight years to become a ranked mage, a process that demands the mastery of both theoretical knowledge and practical casting. Even the fastest in history to achieve this rank took five years. If one were to focus solely on casting while forsaking the depth of magical theory, this timeframe could be reduced by a third.

Yet, neither path can compare to the sheer number of believers or clergymen within the Church who, despite lacking formal training, possess the capacity to cast divine arts. The denizens of the Mage Towers may look down upon the world, considering themselves the most noble and dismissing divine arts as merely borrowed power rather than intrinsic ability, but when it comes to sheer numbers, the Mage Towers must fall silent.

This is one of the most terrifying aspects of the Church: their faith provides them with an immense, latent base of potential casters. While not every believer can cast a divine art, and the vast majority could never undergo mana training, the sheer scale of this base is impossible to ignore—even if any single one of them might be easily slain by a regular mage.

The Church does, however, employ professionally trained casters. The man who cast "Divine Command: Hold" was one such individual. He and his companions belonged to the Third Enforcement Squad of the Church’s Tribunal, the same group that had successfully assassinated the populist reformer Martin in Valencia. The Tribunal is the Church’s sword in the shadows, just as the Order of Paladins is seen as the spear of light; they exist to handle matters better kept from the public eye. The head of the Tribunal is the Lord Inquisitor, who reports directly to the Pope; not even the College of Cardinals has command over them without papal authorization. Beneath the Inquisitor are six enforcement squads, each organized into three ranks: the primary leader is the Inquisitor, followed by three Arbiters, and finally, the Enforcers.

The man who cast the divine art was an Arbiter of the second team of the Third Enforcement Squad. "Divine Command: Hold" is not a particularly damaging spell; its effect is merely to freeze a target for no more than three breaths. Moreover, if the target possesses a sufficiently powerful mind, this duration can be shortened or rendered entirely ineffective. A "Command" spell that produces an irresistible effect is one cast through the direct power of the gods; such a level of divine art goes by another name: the Great Prophecy.

The principle of the Divine Command is the control of matter through the mind. Generally, a Divine Command requires the caster to use their own mental strength to impose the rules of the divine art upon the target. If the caster holds the advantage, the effect takes hold; if the disparity in mental strength is vast, the spell-like effect is amplified. When two individuals have similar mental strength, the one casting the command usually holds the advantage, making the effect almost certain to succeed. This is simple: if mental strength were quantified, and both parties stood at one hundred, the caster has the advantage of acting with intent against one who does not, further bolstered by the rules of the divine art. It is akin to two people of equal physical strength where one has studied combat and the other has not—and the one who has studied is launching a sneak attack.

As mentioned, the members of the Tribunal are trained casters and devout, even fanatical, believers. This means they can easily convert the mental energy generated by their faith. Compared to a mage of the same rank, they possess a far more abundant source of power for their arts and are far more skilled in the art of killing. If they fall short of mages, it is in their lack of deep understanding regarding the rules that constitute a spell. They master only the theories related to killing, which makes it difficult for them to improve on their own. They may become increasingly proficient in the act of killing, but they struggle to innovate the techniques themselves. To use a metaphor: they can thrust a sword faster and harder, but they struggle to make the blade itself sharper or stronger.

As the "Divine Command: Hold" was cast, Grant indeed froze; the sword he had been thrusting toward Wei Wuji seemed to turn to stone, suspended in mid-air. The three gray-robed Enforcers behind the Arbiter rejoiced and immediately launched their own attacks. One cast a fourth-tier divine art, "Weaken Spell Resistance." This, too, operated on the principle of command, using the caster’s mind to influence the target’s, weakening their resistance to spells. It is particularly effective against the Mage Tower schools of Transmutation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Divination, or the new magical schools of Mind, Light, and Dark, as the caster’s willpower exerts a far greater influence in these areas than in Evocation or Elemental schools. Incidentally, the so-called "Mage Tower schools" represent the old magical system, first proposed and detailed by the Great Archmage Hammurabi. He classified magic into Transmutation, Illusion, Necromancy, Divination, Evocation, Enchantment, Abjuration, and Conjuration. This system was long upheld until mages in the south proposed a new system, classifying magic into Light, Dark, Elemental (including Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire), Spatial, Lightning, Simulation, Necromancy, Mind, and White Magic, while grouping less easily categorized spells into Universal and, for the first time, separating Alchemy as a distinct part of magic. These two systems reflect the current struggle between mages.

Following the fourth-tier divine art, the Arbiter cast a fifth-tier art, "Light of the Heavens," and a sixth-tier art, "Web of Radiance." "Light of the Heavens" is an authentic Light-based divine art; divine arts can mimic almost any spell-like effect, but for a mage to simulate a divine art like "Light of the Heavens" is extremely difficult, as the casting requires not only mana but devout faith.

"Light of the Heavens" belongs to this category, requiring the caster to possess firm faith in the gods. This firm faith significantly elevates the power of the divine art’s effect. Although "Light of the Heavens" is classified as a fifth-tier spell, it is not uncommon for a caster with strong faith and a powerful mind to achieve an effect equivalent to a sixth-tier spell; some exceptionally powerful clergymen have even elevated this art to the level of a seventh-tier spell. Meanwhile, "Web of Radiance" mimics the spell-like effects of the Evocation or the new "Lightning" school, creating an electrical net to inflict area-of-effect damage on the target.

If "Light of the Heavens" was aimed solely at Grant, then "Web of Radiance" included Wei Wuji in its scope as well.

However, this was hardly surprising. For the Tribunal, as long as the problem could be solved, the death of one or two extra people was considered entirely acceptable.