Chapter 201

As the sound of prayers reached his ears, Syd keenly sensed a faint connection forming.

Following this connection, he could even perceive the appearance of the person praying and their surroundings, as if he were physically present there, observing everything from a 360-degree omniscient view.

Syd also had a distinct feeling that he could channel his divine power through this connection.

If he were to perform a small miracle in front of the believer, their faith would undoubtedly increase significantly, and as a result, the power gathered from their belief would also grow, speeding up the enhancement of his divinity.

This was all beneficial, and if possible, Syd wouldn't mind showing a sign when he was in a good mood or had the time.

Unfortunately...

One of the prayers he heard was from a believer asking to restore their sight...

Syd's mouth twitched. He wasn't an all-powerful wish-granting machine, and with his current abilities, there was no way he could restore someone's sight. How could he help with that?

Just as he thought this, he paused.

"Wait, maybe not. It depends on the situation. If it's a normal case of sight restoration, perhaps I can do it?"

"For example, photon energy has the basic ability to accelerate the healing process. Although its healing effects aren't as extreme as Wolverine's, simple wound recovery is still possible."

"If the person's blindness is caused by an injury and not some congenital defect..."

Syd hesitated.

In that case, if he tried, maybe...

With curiosity and a willingness to experiment, he couldn't resist. He followed the mysterious connection to investigate the believer who prayed most devoutly, hoping to regain their sight.

In the next moment, he perceived a scene.

Inside a dim, but very tidy, dilapidated room.

A middle-aged woman, around forty years old, dressed in blue with blonde hair, knelt on the ground, clasping her hands together in prayer.

Syd focused his attention on her closed eyes.

"What's wrong with her eyes?"

He was curious.

As time passed, he gradually understood her situation.

Using his powerful mental and psychic abilities, he observed this middle-aged woman as she left her dark room, using a cane for the blind to navigate through some streets. As she passed by, Syd overheard conversations from neighbors and passersby.

"Audrey is so pitiful, just over forty, and blind."

"If you ask me, it's good she's blind. If she hadn't exposed herself at the hospital, I never would've known she was a mutant freak!"

"Audrey didn't do anything wrong, right? Isn't that a bit harsh..."

"What's wrong with it? Mutants are monsters, freaks. Audrey might seem fine now, but who knows when she'll lose control? When that happens, won't we be the ones to suffer?"

"That can't be true..."

Listening to the neighbors' comments, Syd pieced together the situation.

Apparently, this middle-aged woman named Audrey was once a nurse at a nearby hospital. During a critical situation with a patient, she accidentally revealed her mutant abilities.

Her mutation allowed her eyes to adjust like a microscope, zooming in to see microscopic organisms and even gaining a rudimentary x-ray vision to see inside a patient's body.

Overall, it was a useful ability for medicine.

Unfortunately, even though she saved that patient by identifying the cause of their illness, enabling quick treatment, the hospital still discovered her mutation.

Despite saving a life, the hospital fired her. The patient she saved didn't even thank her, and she became unemployed.

Eventually, some extreme anti-mutant individuals heard about her situation. One night, while Audrey was sleeping, they cruelly blinded her by slashing her eyes with a knife.

When the attacker was arrested, they proudly claimed they were "doing the world a favor."

To make matters worse, shortly after being incarcerated, the perpetrator was bailed out, likely due to the connection with Audrey's mutant status.

Now, with her blindness, Audrey's already difficult life had become even more unbearable.

If not for finding discarded food in the trash and her son occasionally helping her out of guilt, she might have already died in that broken-down little house.

As for why she prayed to Syd, through the power of his mind scepter and his own mental and psychic abilities, Syd glimpsed into some of her memories and figured it out.

Since the Battle of New York, news of Thor, a member of the Avengers, had spread worldwide.

Audrey, already interested in Norse mythology, naturally believed that if Thor was real, then the other gods from Norse legends, like Baldur, must be real as well.

So she prayed to Baldur, the god of light, hoping to regain her sight.

Understanding the situation, Syd's mouth twitched.

He wanted to tell her that just because he controlled light didn't mean he could restore her vision and bring her light.

"Well, that's not entirely true. If my divine speech were at level five, I might be able to allow her to see, even if her eyes were damaged…"

"After all, it's well known that living beings can see because of light. This power really is within my control…"

Syd pondered.

Without light, nothing could be seen. Light is necessary for the photoreceptors in the retina to send visual information through the optic nerve to the brain, forming images. Without light, the photoreceptors are useless, and nothing can be seen, even if there's something right in front of you.

And the colors of things are also determined by different wavelengths of light.

If he changed the wavelength of the light slightly, the person could become colorblind...

"Come to think of it, could I strip away my enemy's vision?"

"Or maybe even distort their perception, making them see chaotic images..."

Syd hesitated at the thought.

The more he thought about it, the more his eyes lit up. It wasn't impossible to accomplish something like this.

But for now, he wasn't confident in his control over light to achieve such feats.

"Forget it, I'll experiment with that later. For now, I need to focus on this believer."

Syd turned his attention back to Audrey.

As the sun gradually set, Audrey finished gathering food, a collection of items she found through touch and smell, and slowly made her way home.

When she sat down before her food, clasping her hands together and praying in desperation once again, Syd's heart stirred, and he decided to try.

(End of Chapter)