Infinity Is My Affinity?!?-Chapter 136: Infinite Mana… Footed by a Literal God

I stood in the corner of the sterile room, crossing my arms as I watched the slow purge with wide and utterly baffled eyes.

My active Domain still couldn’t register a single drop of mana.

[Hey... Tech Support...] I mentally called out, completely unable to wrap my head around what’s right in front of me. [What exactly am I looking at right now?]

-Ding!

{The priestess is utilizing the Path of Divine Invocation.

Core Principle: Strength through belief.

She is not casting a spell; she is requesting her Goddess’s aid and acting as a conduit for her power.}

[You mean she focuses really hard, asks nicely, and a literal god does the heavy lifting?]

-Ding!

{Affirmative. Magi and Cultivators seek to command power. The Faithful request their God to lend them.

And their gods answer.

The radiant energy you are observing is not hers; it is the direct intervention of the Goddess Amaterasu responding to her petition.}

I narrowed my eyes at the glowing Priestess. She stood perfectly frozen beside the cot, her trembling hands clasped tightly together as Amaterasu’s liquid golden light continued to wash over Garek’s chest.

[So, does she even need circuits?] I asked, watching the divine light actively burn away the dark green neurotoxin in his veins. [Or she just gets to bypass the entire system because she believes in her goddess really hard? There’s gotta be a catch... MP?]

-Ding!

{There is no MP cost, as the invoked deity supplies the power. Those of the Faith borrow might from divinity, making their potential limitless so long as their absolute belief endures.

If her faith in Amaterasu holds firm, the blessing remains eternal.}

[Infinite mana... footed by a literal god,] I concluded. But as I watched the Priestess, logic quickly caught up to the mechanics of the scene. [Wait. Look at her. She hasn’t twitched a single muscle since she started whispering.]

-Ding!

{Every blessing within Divine Invocation begins with a prayer, which serves as both a request and a vow to their god.

The briefest prayer requires a minimum of five to ten seconds to initiate. Movement during prayer signifies hesitation.

And hesitation is the greatest sin of faith.}

I watched a bead of sweat slowly roll down the priestess’s pale cheek.

-Ding!

{Should her faith falter, even for a single breath, the divine flow shatters instantly.

A priest would rather die mid-supplication than flinch before anything. Their limitless strength is balanced by complete, absolute dependence on their god.

Doubt to them is death.}

[Let me get this straight...] I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose as the sheer, suicidal reality of her Class clicked into place. [She has an absolutely infinite MP pool and literal gods on speed dial... but she is completely locked into a ten-second, un-cancellable casting animation where she isn’t allowed to dodge, block, or even flinch?]

-Ding!

{Correct. They are conduits, not sources. If the conduit wavers, the miracle collapses.}

I lowered my hand, my gaze slowly shifting from the glowing Priestess to the heavily barricaded doors on every building visible through the shrine’s entrance as the pieces of the puzzle snapped together in my mind.

[No wonder the mine hired a small army of adventurers for this security contract,]

I crossed my arms, actively recalling the dense paragraphs behind the acceptance letter.

The Accursed swarming this place during the full moon were called "Outsiders." They were Tier 3 entities. And worse, they were completely invisible without a direct blessing from a priestess. And even worse, they’re basically razor sharp tentacles connected to a small central body. And even, even worse, they got mind bending abilities.

[F-Rank rookies couldn’t even act as meat shields against invisible Tier 3 tentacle accursed...] I calculated, watching the golden light continue to gently wash over Garek. [We wouldn’t buy her ten seconds in a fight. We’d be turned into red mist in two. But then again...]

The Accursed couldn’t physically phase through a door or the walls of a structure on their own.

They strictly needed someone to actively "Open the Door" for them. They needed an Invitation basically.

And to get that invitation, they didn’t use brute force. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

They projected hyper-realistic hallucinations into the minds of the people inside, using the voices and faces of dead loved ones to trick them into unlocking the gate.

[They aren’t going to fight them at all...] I realized as a massive wave of relief washed over me.

The actual siege strategy was obvious. The entire Vanguard was just going to huddle inside that massive wooden living quarter for the night.

And the priestess would spend the entire night locked in a continuous, stationary prayer to keep the mental interference at bay.

As for the rest of the adventurers, they were probably just there to provide standard, day-to-day security against bandits and magic beasts for the rest of the month.

And Garek?

I looked down at the massive Tier 4 currently sleeping peacefully on the cot.

The dude was naturally immune to Tier 3 illusions. He was the ultimate failsafe, the bouncer.

If the barrier’s mental protection slipped and we lower-tier adventurers succumbed to the hallucinations and tried to open the front door... Garek was there to physically knock us all unconscious before we could touch the handle.

[Okay... the night of horrors aside...] I thought, a deep frown slowly replacing my smirk as I adjusted the heavy strap of the shotgun slung over my shoulder. [I am literally here to just sit back, ignore some ghost noises, and get paid three thousand silver coins to not open a door.]

It was easy money, but it completely ruined my own plans.

[The whole reason I took this quest is that I actually wanted to see an Outsider up close,] I mentally complained. [And more importantly... I needed to use myself as bait.]

Stepping out into an exposed, isolated mine was a deliberate test to see if Entropy was actually going to send assassins after me.

[If they attack me here, then I’d know I got a massive target on my back and I need to cooperate with the General to handle them...] I analyzed, my eyes narrowing at the dense tree line visible outside. [If they don’t, then keeping our stance strictly neutral in Fugen’s little war is the absolute right play.]

But as the tactical reality set in, a much colder, far more terrifying thought crept into the back of my mind.

[Entropy probably knows I killed one of their Tier 4 assassins... and knows that I know about them, and if they still don’t bother coming after me while I’m completely isolated out here... even more in tandem with the fact that killing me will also kill Nom-Nom due to our familiar bond. I mean, Nom is the person who is supposed to take over for Amaterasu’s Crusader...]

I tightened my grip on the shotgun’s leather strap.

[That just means whatever they are cooking up in the shadows is so massive... that my presence, and even Nom-Nom’s existence, is completely irrelevant to them.]

And I didn’t know which would be a better outcome.