The Divine blood began to kneel one after another.

At that sight, Alon realized it.

Another misunderstanding had taken root.

In the meantime, the moment Seollang was brought into the carriage, Blackie quietly slipped outside.

Arriving at the battlefield where the fierce clash had taken place—

[Kyuu—]

—it began absorbing the corpses of the Divine blood that the Descended One had failed to absorb.

Because of the restriction that it could only absorb abilities it had witnessed, quite a number of Divine blood corpses had been left behind on the battlefield.

Blackie leisurely went around absorbing them.

At that moment, it heard a faint rustling sound.

[Kh—haak—]

Turning its gaze, it found the Descended One, its body split in half.

Its condition was far from normal.

From the spot where the fragment had been embedded, red blood flowed, and what remained of its body was only a single right arm, a shoulder, and part of the upper body on that side.

It had lost more than eighty percent of its body.

The sight was utterly grotesque.

[Ugh—ghk—!]

And yet, the Descended One let out ragged, painful groans as it desperately crawled across the ground.

As if it had to reach somewhere.

Naturally, Blackie’s gaze followed where it was heading.

There—

[Kyuu?]

—lay the corpse of a Divine blood.

A corpse the Descended One had seen the ability of, yet failed to absorb.

And the moment it saw that—

tap tap tap—

[!]

Blackie walked over without a care and suddenly stopped right in front of the Descended One, as if telling it to watch.

[W-what!?]

Then it began absorbing the corpse.

[What—what are you doing!? What are you doing, I said!]

The Descended One shouted.

But Blackie paid no attention.

After absorbing the corpse completely, it simply turned its head and looked at the Descended One.

Tilt—

A pure, innocent tilt of the head, with no particular intention behind it.

Yet perhaps it sensed something in Blackie’s gaze, because the Descended One hurriedly shouted,

[Stop—stop that!]

Even as it thrashed in desperation, Blackie tilted its head a few more times as if it couldn’t hear anything, then slowly approached.

Light, skipping steps.

[Stop! I said stop!]

[If you spare me—if you let me live—I’ll tell you what will happen next!]

But the closer Blackie came, the more frantic the Descended One became.

[Do you understand!? This world is already broken! The balance is already collapsing because of the fragments, and Divine blood will begin descending uncontrollably!]

[I know what the future holds! I’ll tell you—!]

It shouted as if convinced the being before it would understand.

Blackie arrived right in front of it, still wearing a calm expression.

And the moment the Descended One stared blankly at it—

it caught it.

Within those clear, round eyes that seemed incapable of holding any hostility—

a faint trace of killing intent.

[Ah.]

At the same time, a dying gasp escaped.

[I still have my avatars left—if you kill me, I’ll use them to torment your master—]

Only then did the Descended One attempt to threaten it.

But its voice would never echo again.

Crunch—!

In the next instant, the remains of its body were completely crushed by a massive hand that formed directly above it.

Soon after, Blackie casually absorbed the Descended One as well.

Tap tap—

Once the absorption was finished, it turned toward the carriage where Alon was without a trace of lingering attachment.

At the battlefield it left behind—

there was truly no one left anymore.

####

Though Alon had been startled for a moment by the sudden proposal from the Divine blood, he decided to first leave the battlefield and discuss things in detail afterward.

The sky was gradually clearing.

As he left the battlefield, Alon realized why the Divine blood had come to hold such feelings instead of hostility.

[Kyuu—]

Just as he was about to move the carriage, Blackie suddenly jumped in and settled onto his lap, as if it had just returned from somewhere.

As Alon stroked it and repeatedly checked the shielding barriers—

“Alon.”

“What is it?”

“...How did it end up like this?”

Penia, who had been checking on Seollang, asked carefully.

“I’d like to know how it turned into this myself......”

Alon was still stunned.

Even the rough truth he had pieced together from what the Divine blood had said was so absurd it left even him speechless.

“...At what point did the rumor start spreading that I can grant abilities to the Divine blood?”

He genuinely couldn’t understand.

Naturally, he had never once given abilities to a Divine blood, nor had he ever said he could.

In the first place, while he had the ability to absorb the abilities of the Divine blood, he had no idea how to give them to others.

No—rather than not knowing how, he didn’t even know whether it was possible at all.

“If we think about it normally, I thought maybe the rumor Sili spread in Divine Land got distorted, but thinking about it, Sili only really spread three things seriously, right?”

“That’s right.”

“...Hmm.”

Penia’s face was filled with confusion.

But soon, she forced an awkward smile.

“...Well—still, at least there are some advantages to things turning out like this, right?”

“Well... that’s true.”

Alon agreed.

Looking at the situation alone, there was nothing particularly bad for him.

Because the Divine blood were mistaken.

They believed Alon had granted power to Seollang, allowing her to defeat the Descended One.

‘...Strictly speaking, it’s not completely wrong.’

It wasn’t entirely false.

However, what needed to be noted was—

what Alon had given Seollang was the power of restriction through his law, not the power of the Divine blood.

“The problem is... there are benefits, but the aftermath is a bit more frightening.”

“......”

At Penia’s remark, Alon fell silent.

...That was exactly the issue.

‘We said we’d talk after leaving here... but what should I do.’

Alon thought it over.

By nature, he wanted to clear up the misunderstanding immediately.

In the first place, using others with something he couldn’t even do wasn’t to his liking.

And even if he revealed the truth, his group could still escape.

All they had to do was buy time until his ability returned, and that wasn’t difficult.

But the reason he couldn’t easily do that was—

because the ones who were passionately believing this misunderstanding were the Divine blood.

Even if they managed to get through the current situation somehow,

if the Divine blood, after realizing the truth, later expressed irrational anger and rampaged through the Allied Kingdoms—

“......”

Just imagining it was enough to make him hope it would never happen.

So after thinking it through from multiple angles—

“...I suppose there’s no choice.”

Alon finally came to a decision.

By then, they had already left the battlefield.

He stepped outside the carriage.

[......]

And the sight of the gathered Divine blood came into view.

Seeing them holding # Nоvеlight # their breath, waiting for his words, Alon let out a quiet sigh and shifted his gaze slightly.

His eyes turned toward where the Darkness-Eating Sword and the Burning Vegetation were.

Unlike when he first saw them, both were now covered in wounds.

Yet Alon instead felt impressed.

Despite fighting on the front lines against the Descended One, they had not been killed.

When Alon’s gaze landed on them, the two Divine blood approached him at the same time, as if by agreement.

After silently looking at them for a moment, Alon spoke.

“Those who wish to newly join will be entrusted to you two. Judge them well.”

[I understand!]

[We will carry out your command.]

The two bowed deeply without any question.

Though the sight felt somewhat burdensome, Alon spoke the words he had prepared.

“I know why you have gathered here.”

At his calm voice, all the Divine blood focused on him at once.

With an expressionless face, Alon continued.

“However, regrettably, you are still lacking.”

“If you wish to receive power, grow stronger first—not by relying on ‘tools,’ but on your ‘essence.’”

And then—

“Now, disperse.”

He ordered the Divine blood to disperse.

Silence settled over the surroundings.

Feeling that stillness, Alon thought to himself—

‘Ah... was that a bit awkward?’

To be honest, even as he spoke, he had worried it might sound clumsy.

After a moment, a quiet murmur began among the Divine blood.

Just as Alon seriously wondered whether he should change his approach and borrow a different “setting”—

[I understand!]

[We will follow your command!]

The Darkness-Eating Sword and the Burning Vegetation spoke first.

The other Divine blood soon followed, bowing their heads and echoing the same.

‘...What?’

The atmosphere settled all at once.

Alon was bewildered, but he accepted it calmly for now.

‘...Well, somehow... did it work out?’

Thinking that to himself, he turned around.

As soon as Alon disappeared back into the carriage, the Divine blood dispersed as ordered.

####

In truth, when they had first gathered for the punitive force, the state of Starlight Root had not been very good.

The reason was simple.

Most of its members had joined not by their own will, but purely by external pressure.

The later someone joined, the more doubtful they felt about belonging to Starlight Root—and there were quite a few like that.

That was only natural, since many had been forced into joining.

But that was only before participating in the punitive force.

The Divine blood who survived the subjugation of the Descended One—

[Did you see that? A mere beastkin became strong enough to suppress a second-stage Divine blood the moment they received power from the Star Eater.]

[Hah... no matter how I think about it, it’s shocking.]

[Even now, just thinking about it makes my entire body tremble.]

—now felt boundless gratitude more than anyone else for belonging to Starlight Root.

First of all, it was because the rumor that the Star Eater’s power was real had spread.

And more than anything—

[If we just work hard, the Star Eater will grant us that kind of power as well...! It feels like a dream.]

[I think so too.]

[To think we would have a chance to become stronger as well...!]

—it was what Alon had said that had the greatest effect.

From Alon’s perspective, it had only been a way to buy time, something he had even worried might sound a bit awkward.

But to the Divine blood, those words sounded completely reasonable.

No—beyond that—

[Indeed, even that beastkin’s body was slightly breaking apart just from using that power...!]

[Hmm—but objectively speaking, that’s only because it’s a mere beastkin. If that power were given to us—]

[Don’t talk nonsense. That tool—no, that beastkin—is no ordinary one. Considering it used power strong enough to kill the Descended One while only suffering slight strain, it must have already been prepared to receive that power. If it were you, your body wouldn’t have endured it.]

[...That’s true.]

[So that’s why he said not to rely on ‘tools.’ It seems the ‘body’ is more important.]

[!! Then is that why the Star Eater doesn’t use humans?]

—another strange misunderstanding was being born once again.

[Training... it all comes down to training...!]

At that moment—

relieved that things had somehow passed without issue, Alon was resting by a campfire for the night.

The sound of burning wood echoed quietly.

Then—

“...Teacher.”

“Seollang...?”

At some point, Seollang had awakened and was approaching Alon.