Ashe still retained a sliver of his consciousness.

It was a peculiar experience. Frankly, he suspected that in the days since his transmigration, he had spent far less time in normalcy than in the bizarre. He could not move, speak, or do anything at all. Yet, he felt no discomfort whatsoever.

He felt as if he were sitting in a movie theater, watching a film that would never end. Naturally, he had no way to interfere with the plot. Thinking about it, he felt a bit of regret. He had assumed that after becoming Aine, he might be able to use divine authority to cancel Annan's wanted status, perhaps by exploiting that fleeting window before his consciousness was overtaken.

Unfortunately, no such loophole existed. The moment Ashe became Aine, he completely lost himself. Or rather, only by fully relinquishing his identity and allowing Aine to ascend could he obtain divine authority. That authority had always belonged to Aine, so he could not even touch it. He could only hope Annan and the others were safe.

Only now did Ashe truly understand the fundamental difference between Divine Spirits and standard spirits, alongside why mortals could never contain Divine Spirits. Divine Spirits possess an overwhelmingly strong sense of self.

Standard spirits had a sense of self as well. Back in the Shattered Lake Prison, Ashe and the others could induce spirits to work for free through knowledge resonance. In a sense, they were pleasing them. Compared to spirits, sorcerers were simply too powerful, so powerful that they did...