Occult Awakening: From Commoner to Archmage

The next spell he would try out was Starpath Eyes. He held up the glass vial of Starmetal Dust to his eyes and studied it curiously.

He had never heard of Starmetal before, but it's significance to the spell was obvious.

Starpath Eyes was also an Astromancy and Divination spell like Scrying, but it fell more into Astromancy as it tapped directly into the stars, while Scry was more broad.

There was a very big difference between Starpath Eyes and Scrying, which lay in how both spells worked.

While Scry allowed one to see a distinct future that was almost set in, Starpath Eyes allowed the caster to see all the possible paths and possible futures.

It was contradictory, and Luca didn't understand it much. How could fate be set in stone but also be endless? He racked through his brain for an answer but eventually chose to set the line of reasoning to the side.

He currently felt like his magical knowledge wasn't sufficient to answer that question in a way that actually encompassed the meaning.

Starpath Eyes required two catalysts, which were the Dust and his blood. It was the first spell he had ever used that required blood as part of the process.

If you asked any commoner what their definition of magic was, they would certainly bring up all sorts of descriptions about blood and sacrifices, but from the little he had learned so far, Luca knew that wasn't the case at all.

Magic was methodical and even tedious at times, with the number of glyphs and catalysts one had to account for mentally. It was why so many mages kept logbooks and journals to write things down.

Luca was no different. He still had notes left over from copying spells, glyphs, and potion formulas written in Count D'escoli's journal.

But it wasn't as if a regular person's understanding of magic was completely wrong. They were just narrow-minded about it. After all, he had seen with his own eyes the ritual circle the Count drew, which had been made with human blood.

Even after that, the Count had mentioned that he would sacrifice Luca to appease Pestewind.

Those thoughts floated around his mind, but he simply shrugged.

'It was necessary to gain more power.'

That was all the justification that was needed.

Without wasting any more time, Luca grabbed the Count's ritual dagger, since his previous one had been completely turned to rust when he cast Rust Hand on the corrupted knight.

He drew a thin line across his thumb, causing small drops of blood to appear on the surface. With the same finger, he dipped into the vial of Starmetal Dust, causing the tiny dust particles to cling to him stubbornly because of the blood.

The dust particles were a mixture of black and blue, glistening like stars when under a direct light source.

His dust-covered finger traced thin lines on his forehead, drawing a simple glyph at his temple, just between his eyebrows. The glyph was similar to the one used for the Scry spell. It was a singular half-opened eye, with long lines extending out of the iris in all directions.

It was also a bind-glyph, and it meant 'To see the paths'.

A small rush of cold energy flowed through his body, then converged on the spot where he had drawn the glyph. It glowed with a mysterious blueish-white light that engulfed the whole cellar.

Luca only saw that briefly, as his eyes grew heavy and fluttered closed before he could react.

SWISH.

The world unfolded in front of him. Stars lined up, forming paths that stretched in every direction.

Each path represented a distinct option, but he could not choose which one to see. Instead, they all came at him at once. Scenes with him that had never happened, and some that never would.

In some, he saw himself kneeling in front of the altar in the church. In others, he saw figures burning. In some, he was right beside enemies like Finley and Haider.

It was entirely different from what he expected. In some paths, it appeared as though he was no longer even a mage, and instead worked for the Church.

Starpath Eyes revealed all the possible branches the future could take. On the surface, it wasn't that useful, but Luca found a way to make it so.

He focused all his mental energy and mana, channeling two outcomes into the Star Paths.

'The path to the holy water. The outcome of my advancement.'

Instantly, all other futures overwhelming his mind were discarded, leaving two sets of closely interconnected paths that led toward a single unified future.

For the holy water, each path in that branch pointed toward the same area: the Underground Parish, the halls hidden beneath the city.

That was all the answer he needed. He discarded the branch and focused on the other outcome he desired.

The Star Paths flared brightly at his observance, then suddenly expanded past anything he could comprehend. A sea of information came at him all at once, not in singular paths like before.

His brain threatened to explode from the overwhelming nature of everything he saw. None of the paths had any defining similarities or characteristics.

In some, he was lying lifeless on the ground. In others, he was still alive but on the verge of death. There were some in which he lived but was completely devoid of stellar energy, and others where he was filled to the brim with mana but had lost something vital, such as his vision.

All positive outcomes were few and far between. Even the ones where he was blind counted among the better results.

Eventually, Luca couldn't take any more. He hastily withdrew the energy from the glyph on his temple.

POP!

The scene shattered into a million pieces, and the familiar sight of the cellar returned.

Luca's heart slammed against his ribs as he fell to his knees.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Something tapped against the stone floor at a steady pace.

'What the hell is that?'

He reached for his eyes to wipe the warm tears away. His fingers were stained with a crimson red liquid.