Since they were inside Hephaestus's private workshop, there was no need for secrecy.
August lay face down on the sofa.
Hestia straddled his back, raising her smooth left hand. Holding a needle, she pricked her own finger.
A single drop of Divine Blood fell onto August's skin.
In this world, adventurers received their Falna through a unique contract with a God—the Divine Blood acted as a catalyst to unlock their latent potential.
But the exact second the blood touched August's skin...
Two enormous waves of energy slamd into each other. The shockwave hurled Hestia off August's back and sent her flying.
Seeing the situation turn bad, Hephaestus rushed forward at once and caught her.
By then, August had already closed his eyes, sinking into a deep sleep.
A prismatic pillar of light burst from his back, throbbing with overwhelming power.
"What the hell is going on??"
"Isn't this just a standard contract?" It was the first ti Hephaestus had ever witnessed an awakening like this. By all logic, forming a contract with an ordinary human like August should not have caused any kind of anomaly.
And yet, that single drop of suspended divine blood was violently resisting him. It was as though sothing deep within August's body was fighting back, refusing to let the divine energy rge with him.
"My blood is being rejected!"
"Could it be that August has so sort of hidden power inside him?" Hestia gasped, equally bewildered. She had never encountered anything like this either.
anwhile, the radiant shockwaves in front of them were only growing larger and more intense.
"Hey!"
"Lady Hephaestus, what in the world is happening in here??"
Tsubaki Collbrande, the Captain of the Hephaestus Familia, burst into the room—only to freeze in her tracks at the jaw-dropping spectacle before her.
"Tsubaki? What's wrong?" Hephaestus hadn't expected her Captain to just barge in.
"Lady Hephaestus, have you not seen the outside?"
"THE ENTIRE WORKSHOP IS COMPLETELY ENGULFED BY A MASSIVE PILLAR OF LIGHT!"
"It looks like two gigantic balls of energy are literally fighting in the sky!" Tsubaki pointed frantically toward the window.
The situation outside was rapidly spiraling out of control.
"What??" Hephaestus rushed to the window and threw it open. A massive crowd had already gathered on the streets below.
A blinding column of light had pierced straight through the sky, illuminating the skies above Orario for all to see.
Realizing just how bad this was, Hephaestus slamd the window shut.
"Dammit... We are in massive trouble." Hephaestus muttered, knowing full well the chaotic storm this was going to bring.
Seeing her Patron Goddess looking visibly panicked was a rare sight for Tsubaki. The Captain knew a few of the background details—she was the one who had personally escorted August in after all.
But that didn't an she had a single clue about what was currently happening.
"Wasn't this guy just coming here to form a contract with Lady Hestia?"
"How the hell did it escalate into THIS?"
If her mory served her right, this human kid had specifically requested to join Goddess Hestia's Familia to beco an adventurer. How did a simple Falna ceremony turn into a city-wide light show?
Tsubaki's words suddenly clicked in Hestia's mind.
"The contract..."
"I get it now!"
"A divine contract is ant to unlock the latent potential within a human child."
"August has that unique ability to travel across dinsions!"
"My Falna must be trying to pry open and unlock the full potential of his dinsional powers!" Hestia rembered August claiming he was just an ordinary guy who accidentally stumbled upon a world-crossing ability.
The primary function of a Falna was to activate the user's hidden potential.
If the person's latent power was already horribly vast—or if a pre-existing power was being forcibly upgraded—that ant his dinsional ability was currently experiencing an exponential, skyrocketing enhancent.
"That... actually makes perfect sense." Hephaestus nodded, realizing the high probability of that theory.
August had already admitted that he ca from another world and knew of them only through works of fiction. In other words, at his core, he was still just an ordinary mortal. And when an ordinary mortal gains power on the level of a god, it is only natural for him to look for ways to grow stronger. Seeking them out was simply the logical next step.
But now, it seed like the Falna—a power system entirely unique to their world—was violently clashing with his portal ability, attempting to force it into a new evolution.
"No wonder it's causing such a massive scene."
"A power capable of piercing through alternate dinsions... There is no way sothing like that would go down quietly." Hephaestus massaged her temples, feeling a headache coming on.
"Tsubaki! Mobilize the entire Familia right now and lock down the periter! Do not let anyone near this workshop!" Hephaestus barked out orders without skipping a beat.
"Understood!"
Listening to the two Goddesses converse, Tsubaki realized that this kid's hidden power must be horrifying. Just the re act of unlocking it was enough to trigger a city-wide phenonon.
Thinking about it made her head spin—it was way too absurd.
Tsubaki imdiately sprinted out of the room. The only thing she could do right now was manage the chaos this anomaly was bound to cause outside.
With a pillar of light that bright, every single God in the vicinity had likely already been drawn to the spectacle like moths to a fla.
As the Captain of the Hephaestus Familia, stopping those nosy Gods from interfering was her top priority, dealing with curious adventurers ca second.
And Tsubaki and Hephaestus were exactly right.
At that very mont, across the entirety of Orario—every single God was staring wide-eyed at the radiant beam tearing through the sky.
—•——•——•——•——•——•—
High up in the Tower of Babel, Freya gazed out of her window.
"What is that?"
"I sense a divine aura... but what on earth is that second presence?"
As a Goddess, Freya could vividly feel the sensation of sothing being forcefully pried open.
To the divine senses, the aura of a God was unmistakable.
But the second energy was sothing entirely incomprehensible—an entity that felt as though it contained infinite depths. And the divine aura was currently trying to crack that boundless entity open.
"Ottar. Co with to investigate."
Even with her divine insight, Freya couldn't see through the phenonon. If she stared too deeply into that light, her Eyes of Truth might literally burn out. She wasn't an idiot, the only way to find out what was happening was to head directly to the source.
"Yes, Lady Freya." Hearing his Goddess's command, Ottar instantly prepared to escort her.
If even the notoriously observant Freya was personally stepping out to investigate, it went without saying what the other Gods were doing.
The very second that light pierced the sky, the Gods of Orario could practically sll the entertainnt brewing.
The radiance was blinding. The divine aura was too powerful.
Just like Freya, all the Gods could clearly sense that a divine presence was cracking open the lid of so unfathomable treasure trove.
A spectacle like this was a once-in-a-millennium event. Naturally, they all dropped what they were doing and rushed toward the epicenter.
However, Hephaestus's orders had been deployed faster.
Tsubaki Collbrande had already mobilized the entire Hephaestus Familia to secure the periter, establishing an ironclad blockade to keep anyone with ulterior motives from getting close.
The Hephaestus Familia owned an expansive private estate.
Every building in the surrounding area belonged to its mbers, making the entire district their territory. Obviously, they locked the area down completely.
Tsubaki's instructions were brutally straightforward: ignore the ordinary adventurers, just form a wall and intercept the Gods. Do not let them take a single step closer.
Because of this swift action, the chaotic situation was temporarily stabilized into a tense standoff.
—•——•——•——•——•——•—
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