Enigmas

"...an! Yoan!"

Yoan furrowed his eyebrows, a faint gentle voice calling out to him. His eyes fluttered open, and he blinked rapidly, coming face to face with Hilia's concerned expression.

"Hi...lia?" Yoan winced out, slowly sitting up as Hilia withdrew, settling back down beside him.

"You are okay, that's good," Hilia sighed out in relief, putting her staff away as she thought she had to use it once again. "I was afraid that he might have struck you too hard."

Remembering the previous events that led them to this situation, Yoan grimaced, feeling sore at his arm and his stomach as he groaned out softly in pain. Hilia shifted closer to him, worried and Yoan just shook his head, waving it off.

"Don't bother wasting your energy on these minor injuries, we need to find a way out of here."

"I know, Yoan, but it's impossible," Hilia closed her eyes, resigned. "Just take a look around you."

Yoan investigated his surroundings, realising they were in a dungeon and locked in a prison cell, he recalled Mino saying to arrest them, unable to believe that Mino actually had them arrested. The concrete ground was chilly, and Yoan noticed Hilia rubbing at her arms, noting how cold it was. The only source of light in here was the lanterns mounted on top of the walls beside each cells. There was a musty smell in the air, and Yoan scrunched his nose, wondering if this was how every dungeon smelled like.

The bars were made out of steel, and unfortunately, Yoan wasn't at that level to cut through steel. In the land of Aeriola, spiritual energy exists in every single individual, however, only those who has the potential would be able to channel the spiritual energy within them. Hence, those people would be the fighters and soldiers, imbuing their weapon with spiritual energy. Yoan was one of those individual who had the potential to unlock that spiritual energy, sadly, he never once succeeded in unlocking it.

Priestesses are entirely different, their spiritual energy doesn't come from within them but they come from the many goddesses. Priestesses are also known as the 'vessel' or 'messengers' of the goddesses, and they draw their spiritual energy from the synergy between them and the goddesses. Thus, the only way a priestess could expand its well of spiritual energy that are drawn from the goddesses would be increasing the synergy between them both by intense training.

Alas, increasing the synergy would mean allowing the goddesses to take control of the vessel, resulting in them being wiped out from existence. Hence, priestesses that survived through an arduous experience are extremely sparse.

"Are you able to cut through those metal bars?" Hilia questioned.

"No, not right now."

Hilia blinked in surprise at his answer. "Do you mean, you are planning to cut through steel one day?"

"Definitely." Yoan grinned and she just chuckled at his confidence.

Knowing Yoan, he'll definitely be able to do it one day.

Hilia mused to herself, knowing that if she said this out loud, his ego would only grow bigger.