The carriage wheels slowed, crunching over polished white stone. I peeked out the window again—and my breath caught.
Golden spires pierced the sky, radiant in the afternoon sun. The air shimmered, warm and filled with the scent of flowers I didn't recognize. Everything gleamed—arched bridges, crystal fountains, marble walls that stretched like they were carved by giants. Even the sky felt bluer, cleaner, as if the clouds themselves dared not linger here too long.
We'd arrived.
The knight riding nearest the window noticed my awe and offered a soft smile. "Your Holiness," he said, "welcome to the Holy Empire of Lux."
Holy Empire... of Lux?
He said it like it was the center of the world.
The gates ahead swung open—not just doors, but towering structures etched with scripture and runes that shimmered faintly. Beyond them, a road paved in silver-veined stone led directly to the heart of the city. But it wasn't the architecture that stunned me most.
It was the people.
Hundreds—no, thousands—lined the streets. They wore pristine robes and elegant garments, flower petals woven into their hair. Banners embroidered with glowing thread hung from every building, each bearing the same crest: a sun cradled in open hands.
As the carriage passed, cheers erupted.
"Glory to the Saint!"
"He walks among us once more!"
"Praise be to the Light!"
I flinched back instinctively. The roar was overwhelming—joyful, but deafening. Women wept openly. Children tossed flower petals into the path of the carriage. Old men fell to their knees with trembling hands. It was like a festival, but it wasn't just celebration.
It was worship.
I stared, stunned, as people reached out—not to touch the carriage, but simply to be close. They pressed palms together in prayer. They bowed with eyes closed, whispering blessings I couldn't understand.
'This... this is insane.'
The pale-haired knight dismounted and walked beside the carriage, his head held high as he addressed me through the window. "They have awaited your return for twelve long years, Your Holiness," he said, his voice proud. "Since the last Saint vanished, they have prayed without end."
I couldn't answer. My throat had gone dry.
The last Saint... vanished? And now they thought I was his reincarnation? Or something worse—what if I really was?
'I'm just Jake. I saved someone in a car crash. I died. I woke up. I'm not—'
A small child ran through the legs of the crowd, slipping past the guards before anyone could stop him. He had tears in his eyes as he looked up at the carriage. "S-Saint...?"
The guards lunged, but I opened the door before I could think better of it.
"Wait, it's okay," I said quickly, stepping halfway out. My legs trembled. "I'm not— I mean... I am. Kind of."
The moment he saw my face, the boy fell to his knees and sobbed, pressing his forehead to the ground.
A murmur rippled through the crowd like wind over tall grass. Then dozens followed. Then hundreds.
The entire street bowed.
I stood there in stunned silence, looking out over a sea of reverent heads. The sun above caught the silver thread of their robes and the white banners, and for a moment, everything was quiet.
And then, just as the silence settled like a warm cloak around the moment, something shifted.
Everything around me—sound, light, even the breeze—seemed to freeze.
A pulse echoed in my chest. Not from the outside... but from within.
The world faded to grayscale, motionless, as if time itself had paused to let me breathe.
Then, it appeared again.
A flicker of light—no, not light. A screen.
It shimmered in front of my eyes, floating in midair, glowing with that same surreal energy as before.
༺═════════════════༻
Name: Yesha (Jake)
Age: 12
Title: Saint
Attribute: Divine Energy
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Strength: F
Agility: F
Holy Power: F - (SSS) Locked
Aether: F - (SSS) Locked
⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯
Skills:
[Heal] – Restores physical and spiritual injuries, cleanses all ailments, poisons, and curses. No casting delay. No material cost.
[Bless] – Temporarily boosts all target stats significantly. Enhances all forms of energy regeneration. Duration: 1 hour. Range: Wide. Can affect multiple targets.
༺═════════════════༻
My eyes widened.
'Wait... that wasn't there before.'
The Attribute section. "Divine Energy"? That definitely wasn't listed when I first woke up. And now the skills—detailed descriptions. I hadn't seen those either.
I reread them.
Once.
Twice.
A chill rolled down my spine, and not from fear—but awe.
Bless... was insane. No casting time, no limitations, and it lasted a full hour? For everyone I chose? And it boosted everything?
'This isn't a buff. It's a miracle.'
And Heal... It didn't just fix wounds. It erased all illness, any injury, even curses? Just by... casting it?
I suddenly understood why those knights treated me like walking gold. These weren't normal spells. They were absurd. Overpowered. Unreal.
Even at F-rank, they could shift the tide of a battlefield. At their peak?
I didn't even want to imagine it.
'And yet... it's all locked.'
My eyes lingered on the (SSS) seals beside Holy Power and Aether. The potential was there. Sleeping, waiting.
The system faded just as suddenly as it had appeared, and color returned to the world.
The breeze touched my face again. The petals continued to fall. The people still knelt. But everything had changed.
Because now I understood.
They didn't worship me.
They worshiped the power of what I could become.
And for the first time since I arrived in this world... I wasn't just confused.
I was afraid.
Time flowed back.
The colors of the world returned in a burst—bright banners fluttering in the wind, petals still falling from the sky, and the roar of the cheering crowd echoing like a heartbeat.
But they weren't cheering anymore.
They were bowing.
Tens of thousands of people, kneeling in absolute reverence. Like the breath of the world had been drawn in... and held, just for me.
I didn't understand it.
But something stirred in my chest. A strange pull. Not fear this time, but a quiet call—like instinct.
'I should... do something.'
I didn't know why. I just felt it. Like if I stood there doing nothing, I'd be betraying their faith in me—even if I never asked for it.
So I reached inward.
"[Bless]," I whispered.
I felt the pulse the moment I said it—different from when I tried it before. This time, I thought of everyone. Not one person. Everyone here. All the bowed heads, the knights, the priests, the people in the distant balconies.
I didn't understand limits. I didn't understand range.
I just wanted to give.
And the moment I did—
༺═════════════════༻
[Warning: Forced Overcast Detected.]
༺═════════════════༻
༺═════════════════༻
[Target Quantity Exceeds Current Power Capacity.]
༺═════════════════༻
༺═════════════════༻
[Holy Power: F → SSS (UNLOCKED)]
[Aether: F → SSS (UNLOCKED)]
༺═════════════════༻
༺═════════════════༻
[Emergency System Override Complete.]
༺═════════════════༻
The screens flashed one after another in rapid succession. But I didn't see them.
I felt it.
Something inside me broke—no, not broke. Unsealed.
A rush of heat and light burst through my limbs, racing through my veins, flooding every inch of me with a purity I couldn't describe. It was like standing under a waterfall made of sunlight. Too much. Too fast. Too divine.
And then—
The world lit up.
A golden glow erupted from my body, so blinding that gasps echoed even through the silence. Light burst from beneath my feet in radiant circles, expanding outward in runic rings no one could read but everyone felt.
The wind lifted my hair. My body rose slightly into the air.
A pair of massive, ethereal wings—shimmering white, shaped from raw energy—spread behind my back in a blinding arc of light.
The air trembled.
I raised my hand.
"[Bless]."
The spell surged.
Like waves crashing over the crowd, light exploded outward in concentric rings. Everyone touched by it gasped—some cried, some screamed, some simply knelt lower as the warmth enveloped them.
Sickly men straightened. Old wounds mended. Even the knights' armor gleamed brighter, their auras thickening with purified strength.
The energy of the world changed.
And I just floated there—staring at my hands, at the wings behind me, at the spell I didn't understand but had somehow just used.
Gasps turned into cries of joy.
"The Saint...!"
"He blessed us!"
"Miracle! A miracle!!"
And somewhere deep within the Holy Empire, I could feel it.
The moment I cast that spell... something ancient had stirred.
Something had awakened.
But everything went blank at the same time.