Upon returning to the my world from the Type-Moon Universe, Souta felt a wave of weakness wash over him.
Frowning slightly, he took a moment to assess his condition and immediately pinpointed the cause.
"Divine power... it's almost depleted."
Souta exhaled, feeling somewhat uneasy.
Due to his lack of a Divine Authority, his strength was entirely tied to the amount of divine power stored within his divine domain.
Now that his divine power had been severely drained, a profound sense of weakness took hold of him.
The Holy Grail War alone had consumed the majority of his power.
On top of that, he had been recklessly wasting divine power on various trivial matters, leaving his reserves nearly empty.
When Souta focused his consciousness into his divine domain, he found that the golden radiance that once filled it had faded significantly—almost to the point of vanishing entirely.
A handful of "believers" lived peacefully within a designated area, quietly offering their faith.
But their numbers were too small. The daily influx of faith energy was pitifully low.
Under such circumstances, it was impossible for his divine power to replenish at a meaningful rate.
"Kuang San and the others are still stuck in the past, and if I head to the Akame ga Kill world now, I won't be able to collect faith energy in Path of Peace either..."
Sitting on the couch, Souta muttered to himself.
It suddenly dawned on him that his strength had a glaring weakness—once depleted, it couldn't be replenished on demand.
If an emergency were to arise, he would be left completely powerless.
There were only three possible solutions to this problem:
Stockpile a massive amount of divine power in advance and upload it to the system marketplace, so he could retrieve it whenever needed.
Gather a large number of believers within his divine domain to ensure a steady influx of faith energy.
Acquire a Divine Authority.
A Divine Authority was essentially an infinite power generator—far more effective than the other two methods.
"It looks like I need to hurry up and cultivate a Divine Authority."
Thinking back to how he had wasted divine power on cleaning his room, Souta couldn't help but curse himself—what a waste!
He didn't even know how much divine power it would take to cultivate a Divine Authority, yet he had been using it so carelessly.
His lack of crisis awareness was appalling.
With that in mind, Souta silently asked the system:
"System, how much divine power is required to cultivate a Divine Authority?"
[Based on the Host's current demigod-level divine power... approximately 100 million units.]
Souta pondered for a moment but still had no clear concept of what that number truly meant.
He wasn't accustomed to thinking in terms of numerical units of divine power. He preferred to measure it in terms of destructive power—such as how many cities he could obliterate with a full-force attack.
Currently, at his demigod level, gods ranked 1 to 5 were classified as city-busting level, ranging from the ability to destroy a small city to wiping out a large metropolis.
If he had a Divine Authority, his destructive capacity would likely increase several times over.
...Wait a minute. Did this mean he was secretly a violence enthusiast at heart?
Shaking off that thought, Souta asked the system again:
"If I convert all 100 million units of divine power into a single attack, how much damage could it cause?"
[You would erase Earth from existence.]
"...Wait! That much!?"
Hearing the system's response, Souta was utterly shocked.
The divine power required to cultivate a Divine Authority was astronomical!
At full capacity, his strongest attack could only erase Fuyuki City and the surrounding mountain range.
How many Fuyuki Cities would it take to match the mass of Earth?
Souta wasn't sure, but he knew the number was beyond comprehension.
With just 200,000 believers in the Akame ga Kill world, it would take thousands of years to accumulate that much divine power...
Of course, divine power didn't always have to be used in raw destructive attacks.
For instance, if he used divine power to disrupt Coulomb forces, a planet could be self-destructed with far less energy.
"...Is there a shortcut?"
Souta rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.
Fortunately, the system provided an answer:
[Yes. The Host can directly comprehend the laws corresponding to a Divine Authority. The deeper the Host's understanding, the less divine power is required. For example, if the Host wishes to cultivate a Time Authority, the more profound the Host's understanding of time, the exponentially lower the divine power cost.]
"Understanding the laws..." Souta murmured.
It sounded simple, but he had no clue how to actually do it.
"How exactly do you comprehend a law?"
[The best way is to actively engage in activities related to the law. The depth of comprehension depends on individual talent. Additionally, the system can provide assisted comprehension.]
"The system can assist?" Souta immediately asked, "How does that work?"
[The feature will unlock once the Friends Group reaches 10 members.]
Hearing this, Souta let out a sigh of relief.
After all, comprehending laws on his own sounded way too mystical—it wasn't something he could just brute force.
He pulled out his system phone, opened the Friends Group, and checked the member list.
Kurumi, Shinobu, Altair, Rin Tohsaka, Illya, Shiroyasha, Chelsea, Kamado Tanjiro...
Including himself, that made 9 members.
That meant the assisted comprehension feature would be unlocked soon.
With that, he no longer needed to worry about the insane divine power cost of cultivating a Divine Authority.
"...Speaking of which, what is Kamado Tanjiro even doing?"
Souta stared at his phone, deep in thought.
It had been so long, and Tanjiro hadn't spoken a single word in the chat.
Even if he was terrible with technology, the system had transmitted operational knowledge to him—he should have at least figured out how to use the phone by now.
For him to remain completely silent for this long... that's suspicious.
"...Could it be that the one who received the invite wasn't Tanjiro, but his sister, Kamado Nezuko?"
A sudden bold hypothesis emerged in Souta's mind.
He recalled that after turning into a demon, Nezuko's intelligence regressed to that of a young child.
If she was the one who got the phone, it would make sense why she hadn't spoken in the chat.
As for the nickname, the system likely asked for her name, and her first thought was of her brother—so it automatically registered as "Kamado Tanjiro."
...Wait. Why did this theory sound so shockingly plausible?
Could it actually be true?
Did he just lose his only male friend in the group!?
No, no—this was just speculation. It wasn't necessarily true.
Shaking his head, Souta forced down his curiosity and set the matter aside.
He could investigate later—right now, the Divine Authority issue was more urgent.
Refocusing, an idea suddenly struck him.
Yes—he was about to exploit another loophole.
With a trace of excitement in his voice, he asked:
"System, is there a limit to what abilities can be cultivated into a Divine Authority? For example, if I use divine power to wish for a simple supernatural ability, could I then cultivate it into a Divine Authority?"
If that was possible...
Once the assisted comprehension feature unlocked, wouldn't he be able to pick and choose whatever Divine Authority he wanted?