Erica smiled faintly and nodded to Rowan. After exchanging a few more polite words, she turned and left.
Boom!
With a deafening roar, Erica transformed into a bolt of lightning and vanished from Rowan's sight.
That could be considered another useful application of her Authority.
Rowan watched Erica leave, then spent some time studying the reincarnation ritual.
Before long, combining what he had just learned with his own knowledge, he created an entirely new spell.
Naturally, it wasn't some kind of Reincarnation Magic.
It was—
Stealing Magic.
As for how effective this newly created spell was, Rowan intended to find a god and test it.
And the god he had chosen was none other than the other deity currently on Sardinia.
Verethragna.
By the time Rowan found the Persian God of War, Verethragna had already recovered most of his scattered incarnations.
Not only had he regained the majority of his power, but his memories had also returned.
When Rowan suddenly appeared in front of him with a whoosh, Verethragna was not particularly surprised.
"We meet again, unknown god."
"Have you come to fight me?"
Verethragna spoke calmly.
"Unfortunately, I already have another battle promised before yours."
"How about I come find you after I finish that fight?"
"You mean the god-king Mekal?" Rowan asked.
Hearing that name, Verethragna couldn't help raising an eyebrow.
"It seems you've already met him."
"Where is he?"
"That god-king has already returned to mythology."
Verethragna's gaze immediately sharpened.
"Returned to mythology…"
"You killed him?"
Part of his displeasure came from Rowan stealing his prey.
But there was another reason as well.
Verethragna knew perfectly well just how severely he had injured Mekal.
He himself had not yet fully recovered, so Mekal certainly shouldn't have recovered either.
If Rowan had sent Mekal back to mythology in that state, then it meant Rowan had taken advantage of his injuries.
Verethragna didn't particularly like people who fought that way.
In his opinion, battle should be conducted openly and honorably.
Taking advantage of a wounded opponent was hardly something worth boasting about.
And so, whatever favorable impression he had previously held toward Rowan disappeared instantly.
Rowan wasn't an idiot either.
From Verethragna's eyes and attitude, he immediately understood what the god was thinking.
But he didn't care.
Just as Verethragna didn't care about the opinions of humans—
Rowan had no reason to care about Verethragna's judgment.
Sensing Rowan's complete indifference, the Persian God of War instinctively became more vigilant.
"It seems the battle between us is unavoidable after all."
Verethragna laughed.
"Excellent."
"Then let me see what kind of strength you truly possess, unknown god!"
A terrifying surge of divine power began to erupt from his body.
But at that very moment—
Rowan raised a hand and snapped his fingers.
"Time Stop."
The next instant—
time within several hundred meters came to a complete halt.
Everything seemed to have been frozen by an invisible pause button.
The wind stopped.
The clouds ceased moving.
Even Verethragna was no exception.
He stood completely motionless, like a stone statue.
Rowan leisurely walked over to him.
When he arrived directly in front of Verethragna, he noticed that the god's eyelids were trembling slightly.
Rowan wasn't surprised.
Verethragna was still a god, after all.
Stopping time was certainly powerful.
But a technique like this could restrain him temporarily—
not forever.
Given enough time, Verethragna would undoubtedly break free from the restraints of frozen time.
Unfortunately for him—
Rowan had no intention of giving him that opportunity.
He slowly extended one finger and lightly tapped the Persian War God between the eyebrows.
A beam of light burst from Rowan's fingertip and pierced straight through Verethragna's forehead.
The God of War who had spent so long searching for defeat—
finally experienced defeat.
But before Verethragna could return to mythology, Rowan activated the Stealing Magic he had only just created.
In the next instant—
Verethragna's Authorities and divine power were effortlessly stolen by Rowan.
If Rowan wanted, he could even steal Verethragna's very identity.
With this spell, Rowan could enter Persian mythology and impersonate Verethragna himself.
No one would suspect a thing.
But Rowan had absolutely no interest in going into mythology and pretending to be some War God.
So he stole only Verethragna's power and Authorities.
At the final moment before his disappearance, Verethragna saw what Rowan had done and couldn't help commenting,
"What a terrifying fellow."
Then—
he returned to mythology.
Rowan smiled at the remark and simply accepted it as a compliment.
He even waved goodbye as Verethragna disappeared.
After finishing all of this, Rowan did not immediately go searching for another god.
The main reason was simple—
Heretic Gods were extremely rare.
Forget seeing one every month.
Sometimes an entire year could pass without one appearing.
There were even periods when not a single Heretic God emerged for ten years.
One only had to look at Marquis Voban, the oldest Campione, to understand just how rare they were.
The ancient Campione was roughly three hundred years old by now.
Yet the number of gods he had slain could still be counted on two hands.
That alone demonstrated how scarce Heretic Gods truly were.
A god like Verethragna, who voluntarily broke free from mythology and descended into the mortal world, might not appear even once in several decades.
Most Heretic Gods were actually dragged down forcibly by Campiones.
One of Marquis Voban's favorite hobbies was gathering large numbers of shrine maidens and conducting rituals.
He would forcibly summon a god out of mythology—
and then kill them.
He had done this more than once.
Unfortunately, the last time he performed such a ritual, the god he had painstakingly summoned was stolen by the King of Swords.
That was also why Marquis Voban found that younger Campione absolutely insufferable.
After all—
qualified shrine maidens weren't vegetables growing in a field that could simply be harvested over and over again.
Generally speaking, people with enough talent to participate in such a ritual were exceedingly rare.
Sometimes not even one appeared for several years.
So why hadn't Marquis Voban simply performed another ritual after the King of Swords stole his prey?
Because most of the shrine maidens involved in the previous ritual had died.
Think about it.
The god had been peacefully existing within mythology.
Then suddenly, a bunch of humans forcibly dragged them into the mortal world.
Anyone would be furious.
And the shrine maidens responsible for the ritual were naturally the most convenient targets for that fury.
Therefore—
such rituals required a great deal of preparation and time.
Ah.
That had gotten a little off topic.
Back to the point.
Rowan's main purpose in visiting this world had always been tourism and food.
Collecting magecraft knowledge was merely something he did along the way.
Dealing with Verethragna had also been incidental.
On one hand, Rowan wanted to test the new magic he had created.
On the other, he wanted Verethragna's Authorities.
He was curious about the exact difference between divine Authorities and magic.
Now that he had obtained everything he wanted, there was naturally no reason for Rowan to wander around searching for Heretic Gods like the other Campiones.
There was no need.
With that kind of free time, wouldn't it be better to enjoy a few more delicious meals and admire a few more beautiful landscapes?
Of course—
during his travels, Rowan also spent time researching the divine Authorities he had acquired.
And he soon discovered that Authorities really were somewhat different from the magecraft knowledge of this world.
Authorities were purer.
They also consumed far less energy.
An Authority was essentially a god's understanding of the fundamental nature of the world.
That was where gods differed enormously from humans.
For example—
if a human wanted to create lightning, they would first need to build a machine and then use that machine to generate electricity.
That was essentially what human magecraft did.
An Authority, however, simply manipulated lightning that already existed as part of nature.
No machine.
No complicated process.
No additional unnecessary expenditure.
It simply produced the desired result directly.
That—
was an Authority.
It stood much closer to the fundamental essence of the phenomenon than magecraft did.
That was why Authorities consumed less power while producing far greater effects.
But that was all.
The true reason for the enormous difference in strength between ordinary humans and Campiones wasn't the difference between magecraft and Authorities.
It was magical power.
Or rather—
the power known in this world as spell power.
This "spell power" had nothing to do with the cursed energy from the world of Jujutsu Kaisen, which was generated from negative emotions.
They might share a similar name—
but they were completely different things.
Spell power was simply the unique supernatural energy system of this world.
It was equivalent to magical power in a conventional fantasy world.
Or rather—
it basically was magical power.
People in this world simply called it something different.
Ordinary practitioners cultivated spell power.
Campiones also possessed spell power.
The difference was that the spell power of a Campione was vastly purer and vastly stronger.
To put it simply—
if the spell power of an ordinary human was a castle made from sand—
then the spell power of a Campione was a mansion constructed from reinforced steel.
The sandcastle might only be the size of a palm.
The steel structure, meanwhile, was a luxurious estate.
That was the difference between ordinary human practitioners and Campiones.
Because the spell power of Campiones was so much purer and stronger, the Authorities they unleashed possessed similarly overwhelming might.
But if an ordinary human somehow obtained power comparable to a Campione—
then the magecraft they used would not necessarily be much weaker than a god's Authority.
Unfortunately—
the difference in physical constitution between ordinary humans, Campiones, and gods was simply too enormous.
Unless humanity found some way to overcome that structural gap, expecting ordinary people to reach the level of Campiones or gods was basically a fantasy.
Of course—
that limitation applied only to this particular world.
In other worlds, humans reaching a level comparable to gods wasn't necessarily difficult at all.
But with the magecraft knowledge available in this world, overcoming that problem was indeed almost impossibly difficult.
It seemed humanity here still had a very long road ahead of it.
Still—
Rowan had already passed magical knowledge from other worlds to the Witch of Sardinia.
Perhaps she would eventually bring this world a pleasant surprise.
Unfortunately, Rowan probably wouldn't be around to see it.
Now that he had finished collecting the magical knowledge of this world, he was already planning to leave.
Before doing so, however—
he intended to properly enjoy the scenery of this world and taste its food.
Unfortunately—
the arrival of an unexpected guest interrupted Rowan's vacation.
~~~
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