Ch. 10 – Today, I’m the Saintess?! Pt. 1
All children of the Holy Kingdom are brought to the Church of Light around the age of 3, from the lowest commoner to the highest noble. Maven, as the only daughter of House Daegal, was no exception. The church and nation took this opportunity to simultaneously complete citizen registration and test all children for the attribute and strength of their magic.
Those who demonstrated a strong aptitude for Light magic would be quickly snapped up by the Church while those skilled in any of the others would be grabbed by the state, pressed into either the military or in service of the country.
As tradition dictated, Duke Finadan Daegal brought his daughter to the Church on Maven's 3rd birthday. Normal commoners would complete the ceremony in large groups about once a month while being served by the lower priests. However, due to the Duke's high station, the Church pulled out all the stops and the Pope himself who came to receive the family - providing a very private examination ceremony.
"Your Grace, I am pleased to see you again. Goddess' Blessings be upon you." Pope Ferdinand said while bowing to the Duke and his entourage.
Duke Daegal responded, with nary a twitch of his burly red mustache, "I am honored to meet you again as well, Your Holiness." Clapping young Maven on her small shoulder, he continued, "I hope you treat my daughter well today. I look forward to the results of her examination."
"Of course," Pope Ferdinand responded as he led them through the resplendent halls of the church to the examination room. "The Daegal House is renowned for producing powerful mages. Even you, Duke Findadan, are quite well known by human and demon alike for the path of destruction you leave with your flame magic."
"Ohohoho," The Duke laughed at the Pope's flattery, clearly quite proud of his battlefield accomplishments. With the Duke now clearly in a good mood, the group finally arrived at their destination - the examination room.
At the the examination room, the Pope held his hand out to wide-eyed young Maven, "Come, my dear, it is time to register your magic."
Leading her forward, he helped place her hand on the focal point of the room - a pedestal marked with a multitude of strange symbols and shimmering with a rainbow hue. Both Duke and Pope looked curiously to an enormous, jewel-encrusted mirror-type apparatus located on the back wall of the pure white room. This was where the attribute and and strength of Maven's magic would be displayed.
Neither man knew what the results would be, but they did have high expectations.
The young Maven was nothing but a simple and naive child at the moment - memories not yet awakened. She merely looked around curiously while her hand was on the pedestal, interested in the strange new place she'd been brought to.
Very quickly, she felt the pedestal exerting a fierce suction - trying to absorb as much magic as it could. The tool was designed to completely drain the examinees magic power, determining their mana affinity and total magic capacity with certainty.
The Duke and Pope quickly saw a white light appearing on the results apparatus, causing the Duke to raise his eyebrows in surprise. Nobody of house Daegal has ever possessed the light attribute, fire or wind being the most common.
Once the attribute had been determined, it was time to determine total magic capacity. Each of the blood-red gems inlaid on the outer circumference of the mirror could store the total magic capacity of your ordinary citizen; there were hundreds of these marble-sized gems placed within the gigantic mirror.
The suction Maven was experiencing strengthened by the second, while gems lit up one by one.
A mere hundred gems would be considered a first-class mage, two-hundred would be a nation-level genius, while past heroes could ignite at least three-hundred. Nobody had ever lit more than half.
Faster and faster, the gems began to glow. The Duke and Pope became a bit breathless as Maven passed the two-hundred mark and rapidly approached three-hundred.
It was at this moment, as the suction strengthened beyond all reason, that Maven felt some kind seal break in her body. Power welled up like a violent, all-consuming hurricane. The hurricane swelled with enough force to blow a planet apart until all the remaining gems lit up all at once.
Mouths agape at this sight, the Duke and Pope looked at one another in pure disbelief. On Maven's side, with the seal broken, her mind became a complete jumble as her memories came flooding back.
Completely befuddled by the return on her memories, Maven didn't have the presence of mind to take her hand off the pedestal even after all the gems were full of magic - so the suction continued undeterred.
With the seal on her memories broken and Divine Gifts liberated, the examination apparatus reached full capacity for the first time since its creation. The suction unstoppable, the mirror on the wall began to overflow with piercing white light. Brighter and brighter it shone, until the room was full of blinding radiance.
*BOOM*
Overloading, the mirror suddenly ejected the excess magic power out the back, piercing through the stone wall behind with a deafening thump. Through the hole in the wall, a white light fanned out from the church. This light coursed through the capital, infused with the attributes of light and life, and poured its way through the hundreds of thousands of citizens in the capital.