Chapter 336: Grasping the Process

While Eve and Arianne were training (?) inside their own instances, the other girls were starting to wonder if they could figure out their essence soon.

It had been three days already, but aside from those two, none of them had managed to succeed at all.

[Everyone has an essence.]

Like a patient teacher, Sekhmet continued to prattle on, giving riddle-like hints to everyone.

[It might be unique, or something others already have. You're lucky if it's unique, but even if someone else already has it, it's not like you'll fail to grasp your own essence.]

But even with that, they still failed to realize anything at all.

Fenrir, for one, was starting to feel rushed.

They'd already wasted three days out of their one-week deadline, after all.

Also, she wasn't exactly idle either.

Borrowing from Sekhmet's knowledge, she was trying to figure out how to regain her full strength without having to undo the last remaining seal of Gleipnir. However, she didn't have much luck with it.

[I don't have the answer to your question.]

That was all Sekhmet could really tell her.

As such, Fenrir was trying all by herself, in her own way, to figure out some sort of loophole or any method that could grant her a power boost.

That was all she was doing, aside from watching over the rest's slow progress every now and then.

During a moment when she was resting, stuck on new ideas to try, someone quietly approached her and asked.

"Fenrir... What is your essence?"

"Hmm?"

Turning, Fenrir found that the one asking was none other than Teruria.

She looked curious, but at the same time, anxious—unable to figure out her own essence for three whole days now. Thus, the idea of asking someone else for clues had finally come to her.

And the one she decided to ask first was Fenrir.

"My essence?" Fenrir raised a brow, before frowning slightly. "Well, put simply enough, mine is Devouring."

Fenrir was a mythical creature, foretold to remove her chains and devour the top seat of the gods, the chief, Odin, during Ragnarok. This alone was a big clue as to what her essence really was.

And that was to devour everything, without any limits at all.

Not the same as merely "eating" something, as with gluttony, but rather, devouring everything down to absolute nothing.

"...as such, with my rather special case, I don't think my situation would help you much," Fenrir apologized lightly after explaining.

"But you should really try asking Sekhmet instead. I think she'd answer you directly, same as she did with me."

"I... see..."

Hearing this, Ria nodded slowly, but still felt somewhat averse to the idea.

Sekhmet was someone helping them, sure, but technically, she still wasn't "one" of them. Thus, there remained a weird distance between her and the rest of the girls.

However, it had already been three days, and still none of them had figured anything out.

And desperate times, after all, call for desperate measures.

Ria, thinking that she'd lose nothing much just by asking, moved over to where Sekhmet stood unmoved since the very beginning. Then, she bowed her head lightly, carefully avoiding staring into the goddess' bright figure—literally—for too long.

"Goddess Sekhmet, can you please tell me what your essence is?"

[The Sun.]

"...Huh?"

Her answer came in a flash, without even a single gap to think it over. As if she'd been ready to answer the very moment she was asked.

"Sun...?"

[Yes, my essence is the Sun itself.] She nodded once, clarifying further. [I heal others, control temperature, and create or diffuse flames at will. I have more than enough power to be called the most powerful among us. All of these abilities are rooted in my one essence—the Sun itself.]

Right.

Just because someone has a fixed essence doesn't mean they don't still have the liberty to diversify its interpretation.

For example, the sun might seem like just a simple, gigantic, hot ball of fire. But in reality, it's a perfect cycle contained entirely within itself—of destruction and creation, of nuclear fission and fusion both. This could easily be interpreted as healing in some way, forming the very root of Sekhmet's own healing abilities.

"The sun... Devouring..."

Ria, hearing this particular answer, started to think it over.

Normally, the clues she got from Sekhmet were nothing but vague pointers. Not really something she could use as is, at least not directly. But Ria wasn't an idiot by any means. Her mind quickly dug a little deeper, understanding what was truly similar between the two, and what she could use to finally grasp her own essence.

And then...

"Eureka!"

It clicked, all at once.

Ria smiled wide, rushing back over to her sister, and began whispering excitedly.

After hearing her out fully, Nina's eyes went wide with shock. Then, a small smile crept up her lips as she slowly nodded.

"This... this might actually be it! Let's go tell everyone else, quick!"

"Yes!"

The two of them didn't monopolize what Ria had understood, of course. They quickly moved to share what they'd realized with everyone else in the room.

And thanks to their small nudge, everyone's understanding of what exactly they needed to "understand" became a little clearer.

Enough that...

"I-I did it... I actually did it!"

Just twelve hours after that, Ria's body slowly started to release a faint golden glow.

"Finally, I've discovered and understood my own essence!" She roared out loud.

"Congratulations!"

But only Fenrir's voice echoed back, congratulating her warmly.

It wasn't that everyone else felt bitter about her achievement, but rather that everyone else was still deep in their own minds, unable to process any external stimuli at all.

They were locked in a state of deep meditation, completely unbothered by the world around them.

Ria felt a little sad at that, but still felt more than happy to have finally reached this step.

[Very good, little one.]

Sekhmet's voice rang out warmly, a hint of surprise and relief mixed together in it.

[With this, I can finally send you off to the same place the other two went.]

With a slow wave of her hand, Ria's whole body suddenly burst into flames.

Then, a moment later, she simply disappeared from sight.

Like Eve and Arianne before her, she was sent off to her own private instance of the same space, allowing her to "practice" there while remaining uninterrupted by anyone else.

The other girls, though still deep in their own meditations, did manage to register that Ria had succeeded.

This didn't exactly make them rush, but instead, it added a quiet confidence within them all—that Ria's "method" was indeed correct, and that they too should be able to find their own essence soon enough.

And true to their expectations, in the next twelve hours that followed, one after another, the girls each succeeded in grasping their own essence.

Four full days in, and finally, all of them had taken their first real step toward godhood!