Granting Chelsea immortality was something Souta had been considering for a while.
He often joked about her head, but it wasn't just for laughs.
Honestly, he was genuinely concerned about what might happen to Chelsea's head.
That gruesome scene of her head stuck on a pike... it had become a bit of a mental scar for him.
Now that Chelsea was working for him, managing and defending the religious order in his name, he couldn't afford to shortchange her.
"Immortality, huh..." Kurumi, hearing his words, guessed, "Are you planning another trip to the Baccano! world?"
A trace of worry appeared on her face. "That demon... we have no idea how strong he really is. Isn't that too risky?"
"It doesn't matter how strong he is. When we travel to other worlds through the system, our existence is gradually embedded into the world. We temporarily become people of that world. No one notices. As long as we don't directly confront him, that demon won't even know we were there."
Souta recalled the plot of Baccano! as he explained:
"Besides, we don't need to revisit that specific time period to get the elixir. In later parts of the story, others also created the Cure-All Elixir. It's pretty easy to acquire. That said, I'm not planning to go to that world. Let's drop the topic."
Kurumi looked at him puzzled. If not Baccano!, how would he get immortality?
Was he going to use divine power?
Souta saw her curiosity and didn't keep her guessing. He said directly:
"I'm going to use divine power to give Chelsea an immortal body."
"Isn't that... too wasteful?" Chelsea asked, clearly a bit embarrassed.
After all, unlike Kurumi, she didn't have any points to repay Souta.
And it's not like she could offer her body to repay him, right?
"It's not wasteful. Think of it as payment for managing the church," Souta said with a smile. "Besides, compared to spending 500 points on a world travel card to fetch the elixir, I'd rather use divine power. Points are much harder to get than divine power. Once you spend them, they're gone."
Using divine power to grant immortality wasn't as costly as it sounded.
After all, Souta already had the immortal body himself. Based on that blueprint, he could just copy the immortality trait and apply it to Chelsea—it wouldn't take much divine power.
"True... for your current situation, points are more valuable than divine power," Kurumi agreed after some thought.
"It won't just be immortality," Souta added, looking at Chelsea. "I'll also give you permission to use some of my divine power. That way, you'll have a means to attack as well."
"Permission to use divine power?" Chelsea blinked in surprise. "That's a thing?"
"Of course." Souta pointed upward. "The portion of my divine kingdom that I split off is now hanging in the sky. I'll convert some of the faith inside into divine power and make a wish that gives you the right to use it. Then, you'll be able to call upon that power."
Other people could use his divine power—with his consent.
That consent wasn't permanent. It was like giving someone a limited-use loan of power, which he could recall at any time.
If permanent sharing were possible, he might even be able to use that segment of his divine kingdom to make Chelsea his subordinate god.
Unfortunately, that wasn't a power he currently had.
Maybe in the future, once his divine rank increased?
Hearing this, Chelsea instinctively glanced at the sky.
Souta continued, "But there's one thing to keep in mind—you can't leave Jerok City. The divine kingdom doesn't move with you. You have to stay here to use the power."
"There's a range limit too?" Chelsea looked a bit disappointed.
"It's not about range," Souta explained. "Divine power can only remain within the divine kingdom. It can't attach to other things. So, you have to stay in Jerok."
He was a bit helpless about this limitation.
If divine power could bind to objects, then he wouldn't be limited by how much he could contain.
It was like cultivating inner energy in wuxia—your true energy or qi could only be stored inside the body.
The system shop, on the other hand, was extremely versatile—it could forcibly store divine power as merchandise.
Of course, Chelsea couldn't upload divine power as an item.
She merely had usage rights. The divine power was still fundamentally his.
"That's fine. I don't really have plans to go anywhere else anyway."
Chelsea thought it over and accepted.
Having power was good enough—no need to be picky.
Souta gave her a look, then asked, "You still have your Teigu, Gaia Foundation, right?"
"Yeah," Chelsea replied, puzzled. "Why?"
Souta leaned his chin on one hand and thought for a moment. "External items are too cumbersome. How about I give you my transformation ability instead? It's pretty useless to me now."
"Transformation ability?" Chelsea blinked. "You have a skill like that?"
"Isn't it a vampire ability?" Kurumi interjected, looking at Souta. "I remember Shinobu had something like that."
"Yep," Souta nodded. "I got it when I became a vampire. Vampires can turn into mist, darkness, transform their arms into blades—even into trees. It all comes from this ability. But I don't know how to use it well, and after becoming a god, it's been collecting dust."
It wasn't something that could evolve into a divine office. So for him, it was just a useless gimmick.
Rather than letting it go to waste, he figured he might as well give it to Chelsea.
Souta smiled at her. "Considering how well it matches your Gaia Foundation, you might have a real talent for transformation. You could probably develop it to Shinobu's level."
Without hesitation, he uploaded the transformation ability to the system shop.
[Souta uploaded item: Transformation Ability
Description: Skill-type item. Grants the ability to freely manipulate one's body to transform into any desired form.]
After uploading, he used his points to extract the item and handed the card to Chelsea.
Gotta say, the shop feature was super convenient. If he'd tried to do this manually, he would've had to burn divine power just to extract and transfer the ability.
Chelsea accepted the card, but her expression didn't show much excitement.
To her, it seemed a bit... redundant.
After all, she already had Gaia Foundation. What was the point of another transformation ability?
Souta instantly read her expression and reminded her:
"Don't underestimate this power. Your Gaia Foundation lets you transform—but it can't attack, right? Otherwise, why would you lose to Kurome even after turning into a super-dangerous beast?"
"You mean..." Chelsea looked at the card in her hand. "This thing can attack?"
"Of course." Souta thought for a moment and explained, "For example, you could turn your body into extremely flexible and durable steel. You'd control the steel as if it were part of your own body, swinging it freely. You really think your offensive power wouldn't increase?"
He tapped his temple and smiled.
"The bigger your imagination, the stronger your attack. This ability is powerful—develop it well."