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...
Soma opened his mouth to speak, but Takumi clamped a hand around his throat again.
"Since the small test worked, let's do a big one!"
The Boosted Gear manifested in an instant, emerald jewels blazing.
"BOOST!" x20!
Takumi's power surged madly; yet under the suppression of his god-core, none of it spilled outward to reduce Orario to rubble. In a blink his strength spiked past the chief-god class. He took out the Philosopher's Stone he had once seized from a Demon King's body in the Redo of Healer world.
"Push Recovery to the extreme—reset everything to the origin!"
With Takumi's low growl, Soma's body unraveled at once into motes of light. This was his most primitive state: a pure aggregation of divinity. Takumi struck while the iron was hot, stripped away Soma's godhood, and made it his food.
[DING! Cross-World Gate progress +100%]
[DING! Randomly looted trait: Authority: Wine (Gold)]
[Authority: Wine (Gold): You wield authority over wine, granting drinkers longevity and extraordinary power.
Having absorbed Soma's divinity, as Takumi's own rank rose further and his god-core grew more solid and radiant, the plundered trait etched itself onto the god-core as filigrees of law. Power over wine—an Authority—surged forth upon him.
That did not mean Soma was dead. Unlike Takumi, who had become divine via terms, Soma was not disconnected from this world. A god by birth, from his first moment his source belonged to this heaven and earth. Now Soma had effectively died once and would be reborn up in Heaven. The only problem was the time—his rebirth might take hundreds of thousands of years.
His god-core spun furiously, and after taking in the Authority's power, it strove to suppress the power raging through him. Takumi, quickly calming the turbulence within, let out a long breath.
"Whew~~~"
The whiplash from that rise and fall was so sharp it left his body with no small amount of strain.
"A third of the Philosopher's Stone's mana gone in one shot… better be sparing with this trump card."
Looking at the stone, now reduced in size, Takumi felt a stab of pain. Good thing he had been doing some of the lifting himself; otherwise he probably would've burned through the whole thing at once. What was more of a pity—this chance to slay a god got spent on Soma. That wine-god really was trash; his Authority had no combat power at all.
Still, as a support power, this Authority seemed pretty useful.
"[Divine Wine—Brew]!"
Takumi tried channeling the Authority of Wine while pairing it with Alchemy. In a flash, the raw ingredients Soma had left behind gathered under the Authority's force and condensed into a mass of golden liquor. After decanting it into a vessel, Takumi drew off a few drops and mixed them into Soma's finished divine wine.
What he had just made was divine wine in the truest sense—the potency was too high. Dilute it, and mortals could drink it.
Liliruca was now his Divine Envoy; her body held a thread of his divine power. So she would adapt decently to a few drops. If it were any adventurer below Lv.3, even half a drop of divine wine mixed into a whole vat of water might kill them on the spot.
As the golden concentrate fell into the cup in a few drops, the formerly clear liquor gave off a faint golden glow.
"Lili, have a taste of my brew."
"Ah—Takumi-sama, you're not using me as a test subject, are you…"
Staring at the cup of faintly gleaming liquor in her hands, Liliruca swallowed. The fragrance alone nearly unseated her self-control. If not for her fear of divine wine, she would have downed it already. But this was Takumi's order; she never thought to disobey, and drank at once.
The instant the liquor passed her lips, Lili felt as if her soul had soared into the sky. Every inch of skin seemed stroked by Takumi's palm. Happiness, delight, bliss—every bright emotion came flooding in and left her floating as if immortal.
At the same time, the tempered divine-wine concentrate was reforging her body. Lili's aura rose without pause; her very life tier underwent an ascension.
In Takumi's view, Lili's terms shifted.
[Name: Liliruca Arde]
[Class: Divine Envoy Adventurer]
[Level: 10 (Upper)]
[Traits: Immortality (Purple), Divine Envoy (Purple), Cinder-Ella (Purple), Pallum Bloodline (Blue), Master-Servant Contract (Blue) …]
[Immortality (Purple): After drinking a supreme divine wine, your life force is vastly extended and your potential greatly amplified; even after tens of thousands of years, you remain youthful.]
[Cinder-Ella (Purple): You can transform into any race you have seen, and even mimic that race's inherent traits.]
"This divine wine is busted. Paired with my Divine Envoy chess piece, it even pushed Lili's trait up to purple." Takumi looked genuinely taken aback—seemed he had underestimated this Authority. Anything called an Authority was never weak. With the top build stacked to the limit, he could turn an ordinary person into an immortal top-tier prodigy.
Seeing Lili still sitting there giggling "hehe" in a daze, drunk on the divine wine, Takumi stepped up and flicked her on the forehead.
Thwack!!
With that, the boozy haze dispersed from Lili's body. Her gaze cleared at once, and her aura abruptly fell back to the mid-tier demon level. Even so, with her current potential and power, a period of training would likely give her the true strength of an upper tier.
"Takumi-sama~~ Lili was rude." Her cheeks still flushed with a wine-pink glow, Lili's voice turned soft and sweet.
Those liquid eyes brimmed with worship and love for Takumi. The wonder of the divine wine and the change it had brought—Lili could feel all of it. Power this great—once, she wouldn't have dared to dream of it. And yet all of it had come to a tiny pallum like her.
Everything flowed from Takumi; everything was his gift. In Lili's heart at this moment, Takumi's place stood higher than the gods.
Looking at the coquettish, lovely girl before him, Takumi leaned down and covered her lips with his. The fragrance of divine wine twined with Lili's natural sweetness; the taste was intoxicating.
Space-time flipped in an instant; the two of them slipped into the Time-Space Realm. Takumi cupped her firm, perky rear with one hand; the tip of his finger traced her fever-flushed cheek. In the next heartbeat he let go.
Plop. With her legs gone weak, Lili dropped and landed in a kneel. "Sitting won't do; not high enough like that. Stand, Lili—stand steady. I'm going to impart some of the experience I've gained as an adventurer."
Staring up at that beautiful face from her kneel, Lili pushed herself upright. Shyness and humility were written across her face, but her eyes shone with hunger for knowledge.
"Please teach me, Master~~ It will be Lili's honor."
Faced with that daunting shadow, Lili's gaze flashed with fear—yet in the end her devotion and love for Takumi defeated that fear. "I did get stronger now; I should be able to learn this… I should…"
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