22 Miracles

[Al POV]

[21st Floor]

I woke up to the sound of Tsubaki's breathing and the smell of nature. For a moment I thought I was still standing there in the middle of a battlefield with Solaire. But all dreams end. No longer am I in Lordran, or Astora, but Eden. I could faintly hear the sounds of marching in the distance, that must be the expedition approaching.

*Shake* *Shake*

"MMMM five more minutes....." Tsubaki mumbled as I tried to rouse her from her slumber, but seeing it was ineffective, I leaned over the side over her face and blew out a stream of air into her ear. "AAH!" She gasped in surprise and jumped away from me while covering her ear.

I couldn't help but lean back and laugh looking at how flustered she was. After a few moments, her mind caught up with her body and she made a pouting face while remarking, "Now I'm covered in goosebumps....." She took a deep breath while stretching, making a few popping noises coming from her back. "Uuuuuuuu, my back is sore, I hate sleeping on the ground." I snorted, thinking of all the times I would lay on the dirt or ground next to a bonfire for hours or even days when I needed mental respite.

"Besides your sore back, did you sleep well?" I asked while doing a stretch of my own, before standing up. "Eh, well, I had an um....A nice dream you could say." Tsubaki revealed, while slightly blushing. "Oh? What was it about?" Tsubaki just shook her head and said, "I'll tell you later....What about you?"

I shrugged and remarked, "I had a dream as well, it was one with Solaire, so it was good, but it was also one of the bad situations we were in, so it brought up some bad memories. I would have to say it was a.....decent dream."

"Ah...Well, it might seem contradictory, seeing as I just refused, but if you need or want to talk about it, you can always ask me." Tsubaki assured me, to which I couldn't help but smile and walk over to where she was now pulling on her socks with her back to me. I waited for her to straighten up and wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her into my chest. She glanced back with a quirked eyebrow as if to ask, "Okay, what do you want?"

"Good morning, Tsubaki...." I said again while holding her close, she gave a small smile and I gave her a tame kiss. We held that position for a few moments before breaking and she said softly, "Mmm, good morning." We stared at each other for a few moments before deciding to go for another kiss but were interrupted when we heard the tent flap open. We both whipped our heads to the door and saw a green-haired elf with a half-opened mouth standing there.

Rivieria blushed slightly and coughed before remarking quickly, "Sorry for interrupting, the expedition is close, be ready to move out." and retreating from the area in embarrassment. Tsubaki gave a laugh while I felt slightly awkward at having someone see one of my private moments.

"Well, let's continue this later, lover boy," Tsubaki said before pecking me on the cheek and walking out of the tent. I just shook my head and began the laborious task of wearing my armor. First came the black bodysuit, then the thick cloth shirt and my pants...

[10 minutes later] (FYI that is actually the average time for a person to equip plate armor without assistance.)

*Tonk* *Tonk*

My armored feet echoed off the roots on the ground much quieter than the usual stone, drawing less attention from the surrounding people than usual. While I was putting on my armor, the expedition had arrived, and I was now on my way to where Finn and the rest of the upper echelon were located.

"Oya, it's the 'Abysswalker'!" I physically stopped to try and make sense of why Tiona had just called me that, my head might have even tilted slightly.

[AN: I am going to go back and change all mention of the 'Thunderbird' Alias to Abysswalker since it is honestly much better, and I don't know why I didn't think of plagiarism at first.]

Tsubaki noticed my confusion and explained, "A messenger met up with the expedition yesterday and brought the news from the Denatus, your alias was confirmed as 'Abysswalker'. Apparently, Hestia-Sama got a lot of the Gods to support it with Hephausts-Sama's help. Even Freya supported it." I couldn't help but think that I was unworthy of the great knights' title, but if my Goddess wanted it for me, then I shall wear it with pride.

I took a short moment to say a prayer of thanks, the first one since I had arrived in this world, since I was still loyal to Gwyn, despite me trying to kill him. A faint light emanated from my chest, though it seemed that only Riveria and a few other elves noticed it. When I opened my eyes and relaxed my posture, I noticed that Rivieria and Lefiya along with many other elves that witnessed it were giving me questioning looks, while everyone else was still busy discussing our plans.

[Hephastus' Office]

[3rd POV]

"...And would you believe he marched right into the Soma Familia brewery and no one even tried to stop him?" Hestia was so engrossed in her storytelling (Read Bragging) that she didn't notice the white light enveloping her.

"Uh, Hest-" Hephaestus tried to bring it to her attention but Hestia just kept talking, "The guards were shaking! Literally shaking in their boots, even Soma seemed to be annoyed! It was Hilla- Huh?"

"Hestia!" Hephaestus yelled, forcefully bringing her back to reality. "What is happening to you?" She asked in concern. "Huh?" Hestia made a strange sound when she heard the question and looked down at her body, noticing a bright white light, and now even the warmth of it. "EHHHHH?! Heph-chan! What's happening? I feel so warm and full of energy- Huh? Wait, I hear Al talking to me." Hestia kept staring into space before moving her lips but not talking.

"Heph-chan! You won't believe what just happened! Al was praying to me in thanks! This has never happened before, it's so weird! I feel like, fullllll of strength and I was even able to talk to him when he was in the dungeon! I'm going to try and talk back!" Hestia exclaimed in amazement before taking a look of great concentration mixed with 'Ungyuu' noises as she tried to respond to Al's prayer.

This would go on for the rest of the day, with Hephaestus trying to help Hestia understand what had happened.

[Back with Al]

[Al POV]

"Alastair, what was that strange light? I sensed many foreign magical elements Ive never seen before." Riveria questioned me while Lefiya listened intently as well. I quirked a brow under my helmet though she could not see it and explained, "I was praying."

Riveria looked at my visor before saying, "Praying doesn't release magical elements and defiantly doesn't cause a light show like that. It was such a high concentration of pure mana that probably only us elves could see it."

"Hmm, So you say, tell me, are you familiar with miracles, Riveria?" I asked, half sure that I was on the right track. "I assume you do not mean a random event that is associated with divine intervention, but instead an actual event or skill, correct?" Riveria questioned, understanding from my tone I was being serious.

"Indeed, miracles are a school of magic based around faith and belief in their God and the blessings they give you. For example, my prayer was me offering my faith to my Goddess in exchange for transmitting a message to her. Another example would be a healing spell like this," I explained, I noticed Lefiya taking notes on a notepad.

I pulled the sunlight talisman from my belt and channeled my internal energy for a rudimentary healing spell that did not require a scroll. A short chant later and an orb of warmth emerged from the talisman, it would have healed at most a shallow blade cut. Riveria stared at the light intensely until the last particle disappeared. This spell also drew the attention of the others who were looking at us curiously and no longer discussing over the map.

"Amazing, though the chant was so short and the amount of healing mana was less than a low-level healing magic, but the power behind it and the purity of the healing mana particles was at the level of an upper mid healing magic," Rivieria remarked while Lefiya wrote on her notepad without even looking, eyes transfixed on where the particles were before they faded.

I tilted my head slightly in surprise, surely she was over exaggerating. "Truly? That is one of the weakest healing miracles from where I used to live. Would you like to see my strongest one?" Riveria instantly nodded, and those that were in earshot paid attention to see this 'Strongest' spell.

I pulled out a scroll of Great Heal from my box and began the chant while pouring power into the talisman. Once the chant was finished, I released the pent up energy from the talisman and the spell began. First, it drew in golden particles from the air, which were pulled down to the ground directly from where I stood, then the particles formed a triple-layered pentagram with a round edge before the golden particles exploded out both in a sphere and horizontally in a distance of 15x15x15 feet.

I was shocked as well as everyone else when I had healed that adventurer a while back, the strength wasn't even 1/10th of this, did me praying to Hestia have something to do with it?

"A-Amazing..." I heard Lefiya mumble while she stared at the particles, seeing things only an elf could see. Riveria was equally stunned along with most of the elves that were close enough to see it clearly. "T-That was the most powerful healing spell I've ever seen... Alastair, are you an Archmage?" She asked after tearing her eyes from the display.

"Archmage? No, while Miracles are listed alongside the other schools of magic, it is based on faith instead of knowledge, you don't have to understand the spell your casting, you merely need the faith to power it." Riveria nodded and deduced, "So your faith in your Goddess, Hestia, allows you to use these spells?" I nodded, "Indeed, and I have noticed that when I had no Deity to pray to, my miracles were much weaker, even I was shocked in the power of that miracle."

Rivieria was about to ask more questions, but Finn interrupted us. "While your conversation is interesting to listen to, we need to discuss and finalize our strategy for the Lower Floors." I gave a nod and apologized and went to my designated position, while Riveria and Lefiya did the same. Soon we were in the thick of the discussion.