Chapter 45 - 2.6

The reason Palla was where the churches and sanctuaries were focused at was because of the high Holy power concentration there. It was unknown why this specific region had more energy pressure than the others, but it was easier to connect with the basics of your own self in Palla. This was why nobles baptized their children in Palla, because they would be blessed with a noticeable advancement in their progress. Of course, not just everybody could enter the most magic dense areas.

They took advantage of the people in order to build their authority up, and instilled their rock solid play into the hearts of the people. Creating cultures and advances that went under the name of Goddess Eula, when the real truth was that it was all for their selfish benefits.

Where were the main leads in this crazy mess, you say?

Obviously, the female lead was the soon-to-be Saintess. Her name was Serenia Aubellin, the adoptive daughter of a wizard who held strength comparable to none in her peers except for the male lead. She was abandoned as a baby by her real parents, and had a lucky stroke in encountering a powerful hermit that ended up picking her up and passed down his powerful knowledge.

She was a strong-willed person, but her looks were very delicate and fragile, like a pure and untainted flower. She was sought by many for her beauty, but no one could cross her path without losing an arm or a leg if they offended her because of her strong grip in magic. One of her forte was Holy magic- which was why she was brought to the monastery after having been discovered using a high leveled Holy magic with ease.

She was the only candidate who was personally recruited by the crown prince. When she was asked by the Holy faction's executives the first time, she resolutely refused, but the crown prince later came to bargain and debate with her, which led to their first encounter and what piqued them to get to know each other better from that point on.

After a long session of convincing, Serenia finally agreed to go to the monastery and underwent trials relevant to her position and power in the monastery, with pesky enemies trying to bring her down at any given chance. Naturally, she was made to never falter and would always end up victorious over her nemesis.

Then came the male lead's identity, who was of course the one who escorted and brought her to the monastery- Varadan Empire's one and only Crown Prince, Caelum Eli Vaan Jean-Luc Quinnard , set to inherit the throne if nothing goes wrong. The strongest man and woman in the empire binding together. How lovely, isn't it?

And of course, a lot of thing will go wrong in order to instill the dramatic effect between the two leads' life- however, none of those troubles will be able to successfully take them out. Rather, it would just strengthen their power and solidify their positions as the beloved children of the heavens even more.

(A/N: I know his name is long, it's meant to be long, just remember him as Caelum Quinnard HAHAHHA)

Serenia and Caelum would later be wedded, and she would be the first Saintess who became the Empress, breaking the previous history records where the Holy and Empire faction did not mix or cross with each other too much. This relation would better the ties between those two factions, but naturally, this did not end very well.

Although the two leads were happy and led a fulfilling life, after receiving further grace and power due to being directly related to the Empire's most affluent person, both faction sides of the trade quickly deteriorated. More and more degenerate acts were executed, and crimes began to run rampant behind the public's eyes.

However, not even strict jurisdiction was able to prevent the public from finding out the truth one day. One person who was aware of everything turned to two, then four, then eight, then suddenly, the whole empire's citizens knew about the abuse of power and how it related to their suffering.

The secret was spilled, and it became the perfect fuel for enraging the masses.

One chaos turned into another, and soon wars began to spurt out of what was originally a simple conflict of interests.

In this case, Ariel Maine was able to know all of this before she died precisely because she was imprisoned wrongfully by the Holy faction. She was deemed as an infidel, but she wasn't thrown out or killed, but rather chained up and 'drained' of her mana. As if she was a trivial experimental subject, she was lodged with tubes and magical objects, and she would meet researchers every single day. She was kept in Palla's underground, and through hearing the words of the researchers around her, she was able to  know what happened outside the secret dungeon she was kept in.

She was tortured, fed with strange substances, injected with foreign liquids, beaten down and healed.. exposed to a disgusting series of treatment daily.

However, she wasn't lucky- she never got out and could no longer have the chance to see and feel the warm sunlight for the rest of her life after she was detained.

One day, her body was no longer able to take it, and her mental state was also not far from a dead person's thoughts- devoid of anything. She heaved her last breath in a risky experiment concocted by the researchers, and died a miserable death after being tortured for so long.

She was not the main character, and her life ended as a cannon fodder whose existence was buried.

To this unsettling knowledge, she did not feel threatened or scared, but rather rejoiced.

'..If I was imprisoned and treated like that.. Something must be terribly special about me. What is it? Magical power, my constitution, blood.. There must be something, right?' Xu Jiaqi asked, looking at the System with sparkly eyes as she waited for a satisfactory answer.

'Something I can use.'