Living Obsidian

"Can't most mages kill those beasts with a thought?" she asked. "They're still flesh and blood, aren't they?"

"You've never been to the North?" the pope asked.

"No…"

He furrowed his brows. He was starting to realize that maybe he was mistaken about Savine's identity. There was none of the previous piety in his voice, replaced by his usual calmness.

"The beasts from beyond the Great Barrier are deadly to us mages because magic doesn't work on them," the pope explained. "Anything made of mana that comes into contact with their skin disappears into nothingness and even when you try to materialize a spell beside them it fizzles without exception. Though we are unmatched compared to mortals, we're no different from them in the face of the beasts."

'Ah…'

"What do they look like?"

"Every one of them is different. Some are hunched and four-legged, while there are others that stand on their two feet like humans but have nightmarishly sharp faces and bodies. There are even some that simply float in the air, no reason or rhyme to how they're able to do something like that in the first place. But the only thing they have in common is their rough, coal-black skin."

'Living Obsidian…'

Savine heard about the beasts from beyond the Great Barrier, but she only assumed they were animals overgrown due to the existence of mana, like so many of the other worlds. But she didn't expect them to be Living Obsidian, the rarest and most special type of monsters that could exist. Even in the 53 worlds she visited, none of them had Living Obsidian.

But despite all that, Savine found herself not as shocked as she expected herself to be. At this point, Savine was numb to this world's surprises. 'Whatever.'

She sighed to herself and spoke.

"Whatever you may think, I'm not someone from beyond the wall. Perhaps my mother was violated by one such supreme being. But as far as I know, no such thing occurred."

Savine double-checked Ney's memories as she spoke this. Of course, Ney's memories could be wrong, as her parents weren't the type to openly speak about such things to their daughter, but Savine thought that it was highly likely that nothing of the sort happened.

'Wait, maybe this is the reason why Ney's mana capacity is so big…?'

Savine shook her head inwardly. There was no point thinking about this now.

"Is that so?"

"Yep. And before you ask me if I can join your side, I can't. I'm contractually obligated to stay with Fest."

"Is that so…"

"But. I can be helpful in other ways," Savine said. She still needed to get herself some Vasas. "Though the mana motors are going to be monopolized by us for a year or two, I can think up of something else for you all to sell."

"Like what?"

"I don't know. I haven't thought of anything yet. Do you have any problems or worries?"

"…"

"Don't be shy. Shoot your shot. I'm kind of awesome and unparalleled, you know? Don't know about your supreme being, but I'm probably the best human in the entire world, not even kidding."

"…"

"Alright, shy man. Since you're not talking, I'll talk for you. Eh… do you want some trump card against the Sovereign? Since you're getting so influential, I'm sure he's been busy wondering how he could erase you. I can help with that."

The pope furrowed his brows. No matter what, it was a high boast to make.

"How?"

"Hmm… there are various methods I can think of for now. But the most interesting one I have is… to use those beasts from beyond the North."

Since Savine now knew there were Living Obsidian in this world, it would be foolish of her to not use them.

"Foolish." The pope's face was level.

The statement was indeed foolish. Who knew how many people tried the same idea before and failed? Perhaps the two times the barrier was breached was exactly because of fools like them.

But Savine was God's Chosen. She had her ways.

"No, no, no. I don't mean we should remove the barrier and let them loose inside. I was thinking we could capture some of them and maybe try using their magic negating abilities for ourselves."

"Who knows how many tried the same? And so far, I've seen none wearing a magic negating armor. Hunting the beasts to better study them is a doomed prospect. Even if we can let only a small number of them inside through the barrier, we can't guarantee that we'll be able to kill them. They're fierce, bloodthirsty creatures, unaffected by magic and steel alike."

'Steel is probably still useful,' Savine sighed.

"Though you can use magic near them, no one says you can't use it away from them. If you can shoot a rock or a piece of metal at them at sufficient speeds, won't they be hurt?"

Though Living Obsidians were powerful, with their magic-nullifying abilities and hard bodies, they all had a glaring weakness - their extremely brittle bodies.

Savine reached into her pockets and picked up a small copper coin. She then held her Vasa against it and blew it away at extreme speeds towards a chair. Hit by the pebble, the chair crashed into millions of small pieces.

"See? Easy. And there was zero need to mess with mana near the target."

The pope stared at her flatly. He seemed more surprised by Savine's spellcasting, rather than her meaning.

"Since their bodies are so sharp, it's extremely easy to shatter them. Maybe you've seen them fight, pieces of their body should be falling off with each collision, right?"

"How do you even know this?"

"Your description sounded like obsidian – pitch-black, sharp and rough – so I just assumed they were that. And since you didn't correct me at all when I described how to kill them, well, I guess I was right."

The pope nodded.

"Even so, it's impossible for me to convince anyone to remove the barrier so we can hunt the black beasts," he stated calmly.

It wasn't that odd. Sure, everyone wanted to make use of Living Obsidian's magic-negating abilities, but many were scared of them. There were also two cases of them breaching the barrier and wreaking havoc in the Sovereignty, so people would be exceptionally wary of obsidian hunting ideas.

"Well, that's unlucky," Savine sighed. "Alright then. I actually have a favor to ask from you, is that fine?"

"Please."

"Do you have spare Vasas?"

"?"

"They're scarce in our duchy, see? I was wondering if you've got some spares lying around here somewhere. Don't worry, I'll pay you back handsomely. In fact, I daresay no one else can best my gift."

"I'm quite curious about this gift of yours."

"First, tell me how many Vasas you can give me."

"The amount is small, I'm afraid," the pope shook his head. "As you know, the Sovereign's breath is always on my neck. Naturally, the matter of Vasas is monitored extremely meticulously. At most, I can muster up six or seven Vasas at the moment."

'That's about 30% of my total mana. And since I can't tame them all at the same time, it'll take around a month for it to finish…'

It was a reasonable amount. And Savine could think of ways to get more in the meantime.

"But I'm not going to give you all of them for nothing," the pope added. "That would depend on your gift."

Savine walked up to the table full of her products and picked the recorder up. She removed the lid and rewound the tape.

' "Are they really so helpless that they need to offer 70% of their profits?" '

' "I know. I feel like we can push them for more!" '

The conversation the bishops had after Savine and the rest walked out played. It took a second for the pope to realize what was going on, but when he got it, his expression finally changed.

"What is this?"

"A little something for Your Eminence," Savine smiled.

She removed the magnetic tape from inside the recorder and switched it out for a new one that she just created. She then whipped out her Vasa and made the pope five extra tapes for the recorder.

"When you need to record something new here, just press this button and close the lid. You can record up to an hour on it. After it reaches that, it's going to stop automatically. Naturally, it'll make no sound whatsoever, so just keep it running while you bait the other party to say something wrong, I guess. You're a smart man. You'll get the hang of it."

There was no need for Savine to explain the recorder's uses to the pope.

"When you need to play a recording, spin this till every bit of the tape's on this side. You can do the same with all these extra tapes," she explained. "Good luck! I'll come by in the evening to collect my Vasas."

The original plan was to get the Vasas for a percentage of the profits, but that trade was a little too imbalanced. If Savine asked for 10 of them for 5% of the profits, the church would be curious as to why she needed so many of them. The recorder, on the other hand, was the perfect thing to exchange the Vasas for.

Savine walked out of the room, and her expression returned to her default. There was none of the arrogant, brave genius left, and in its stead, the tranquil, authoritative, and somewhat-mocking expression returned.

Outside the Grand Chamber, Head Temple's people were standing on one side, while the duke and Eliseline stood on the other. It was amusing, seeing the two completely different moods that engulfed the two parties.

"What did the pope speak to you?" Eliseline asked.

"Some stuff about white-haired supreme beings on the other side of the barrier," Savine shrugged. "You two can head back to your inn. I'll visit the palace and afterwards, we can go back home."

Some of the bishops' ears perked up, hearing the word 'palace', but they couldn't open their mouths to ask. They could only stare at Savine intently, trying to bear into her head and see her thoughts.

Eliseline and the duke nodded, and the group separated.