"So this is... a Device."
Noah stared at the incredible magical phenomenon before him.
'Did she really... just pull a physical sword out of her own soul?'
In his current field of magical vision, the fiery "dragon" nature hidden deep within the girl's body had now fully manifested into that brilliant, physical greatsword.
The girl's soul was intimately connected to the sword; even though they appeared separate to the naked eye, they were, in fact, still a single, unbroken entity.
Although the weapon was born from the soul, it was a physical object created by condensing the raw magical energy nurtured within the soul. It wasn't as if she were literally wielding her fragile "soul itself."
No wonder hacking and slashing an opponent with a Device wouldn't permanently injure their actual soul, but merely cause temporary mental trauma.
What was consumed during battle wasn't the soul itself, but only the magical energy stored within it.
The reason a Blazer would faint if their Device was violently broken was simply a normal biological phenomenon caused by the energy in their soul suddenly being shattered and depleted.
To condense a permanent armament from the soul and then physically materialize it through raw magic power—this was the core principle behind how a Device was created.
Because the transformation originated from deep within the human spirit, it was a path of magic Noah had never before conceived in Orario.
The ability to directly manipulate a soul wasn't just about changing its external shape; performing magical surgery on it from the inside was also highly feasible.
Using his Weaver skill to perform this surgery on another living person might be somewhat difficult and highly lethal, but safely using it on himself was no problem at all.
It seemed he had been stuck in a rigid misconception about how his Orario magic worked all this time.
"How is it? This is my Device: Lævateinn, the Empress Dragon's Sinful Sword." Stella held the massive greatsword with one hand, looking completely untroubled by its massive size.
As far as Noah knew, although a Device was a physical manifestation of the soul, its physical weight was very real.
This golden greatsword had to be incredibly heavy, yet the girl held it as effortlessly as a dry tree branch.
'Tsk. She really is a humanoid tyrannosaurus.'
With a certified B-Rank in physical ability, she had already easily surpassed the absolute physical limits of a normal human on Earth, even without using magic for physical reinforcement.
It was no wonder she could do such a thing.
A C-Rank in physical ability was the absolute maximum level of a peak human Olympic athlete, and a perfect, all-around one at that.
B-Rank was a level that could no longer be explained by human biology, it wouldn't be strange for someone at that level to easily run across the surface of water, or even sprint straight up the vertical face of a skyscraper.
If someone had an A-Rank physical ability, make no mistake, that person was basically Superman.
Compared to the high-level adventurers back in Orario, this universe's level of physical constitution wasn't actually that strong—maybe enough to match a Level 3 or a low Level 4.
If it were a Level 5 or even a Level 6 like Finn, they could physically stop an earthquake with a single punch, or trigger a landslide and tsunami just with their terrifying raw stats, all without using any skills or magic.
And Level 6 was far from the absolute limit of the gods' Falna.
It was hard to imagine what a Level 10 adventurer would be like.
Perhaps only the word "god" could accurately describe that kind of world-breaking power.
"What can I say? It is quite magnificent," Noah praised honestly. "It seems to perfectly match your royal status."
As the heart is, so is the appearance.
This old saying was incredibly persuasive when applied to a Device.
Because the soul perfectly reflects a person's true, inner self more clearly than any physical trait, the fact that Stella's Device was such a splendid, heroic greatsword indicated that she possessed a truly noble soul.
To some extent, it also revealed her elegant taste.
So, what about him?
Noah looked down at his own hands.
Under the magical effects of Weaver, he could clearly see the dark, chaotic, calculating parts mixed deeply into his own bright blue soul.
One of the strict conditions for creating a Device... was absolute self-awareness.
Recognizing exactly what kind of person you truly are was a crucial step in naturally condensing a Device.
It now seemed that he, who always prided himself on his tactical self-awareness, didn't truly understand his own heart completely.
"Why don't you give it a try, Noah? I think with your incredible abilities, you will be able to do it in no time!" Stella encouraged him with a bright, supportive smile.
"Yeah. I will give it a try."
Noah closed his eyes.
What he needed to do right now was not to "see," but to physically "feel."
To feel the exact method of awakening consciousness from deep within his own soul.
He had to let a weapon's shape be naturally nurtured within his soul, then bestow upon it his own personal "truth."
This whole abstract "truth" concept was far too troublesome, it left Noah feeling completely baffled.
'I'll just ignore that philosophical nonsense for now.'
'I will just use my Weaver skill to forcibly condense the shape directly! Then, I will just manually connect it to my magic power!'
As Noah's eyes remained tightly shut, a brilliant, blinding glow of blue magic power suddenly condensed over his hands.
The sudden spike in energy caused Stella, who was watching excitedly from the side, to hold her breath.
'Is it appearing?! Noah's Device?!'
She stared nervously at the magical changes happening to Noah's hands, waiting for a long time, but the final step never came.
A dozen or so minutes later, the young man simply opened his eyes.
The glowing magic power on his hands harmlessly receded back inside his body.
It looked as if the condensation process had failed.
Noticing this, Stella quickly stepped forward to comfort him. "It is okay! It is perfectly normal to fail the first time you try to condense a Device! You have already done so much just by watching me summon mine once. That is already incredible!"
Faced with the girl's gentle consolation, Noah didn't look disappointed at all.
He just seemed to be deeply pondering a new problem.
He looked down at his hands and said, "Stella, let's stop here for today. I am not feeling very well; I want to go back to my room and rest."
"Huh? Not feeling well?! No way, do not go back to your room! Let's go to the royal infirmary and use the medical equipment there to check you out!"
"This... uh, alright."
Noah had just wanted an excuse to be alone for a while so he could experiment, but seeing how genuinely worried the girl was, he had no choice but to go along with her.
Besides, he could easily be left alone in a private infirmary bed anyway.
'What "truth"? It's giving me a headache.'
Compared to a natural-born Blazer in this universe, it was surprisingly difficult for him to naturally create his own Device by imitating their principles.
In reality, he easily could have condensed a Device just now in front of Stella.
Not just condense it, he could even actively change its physical shape.
By using Weaver's overpowered ability to manipulate the soul, he could seamlessly reshape his Device at will, anytime, anywhere.
A sword right now, a spear the next second... even turning his soul into a massive sniper rifle would be no problem at all.
However, his Device would simply be something forcibly molded—an empty shape, a cheap look-alike.
Its only function would be to switch between a harmless phantom form and a solid physical form, which would be fine for bluffing in a fight.
The problem was how to fix its permanent form.
Because people are naturally fickle creatures, a Device, once awakened, is not absolutely unchangeable.
A person's "truth" is not eternal, merely a temporary state of self.
When that inner self changes or matures, the Device will also undergo some kind of unpredictable transformation.
And in most cases, it would become much stronger.
As one's self-awareness becomes clearer and more defined through life experience, their Device naturally evolves along with them.
In Noah's unique case, if he constantly changed his weapon's shape using Weaver, no one in the League would ever believe it was a natural evolution.
No matter how fickle a person was, there had to be a strict limit to how many times a Device could change shape.
A Blazer's abilities were a mysterious power that could not be easily observed by modern scientific means, and could only be described as a miracle.
Therefore, even if he displayed some magical peculiarities, he didn't have to worry about being kidnapped by scientists, dissected, and put in a jar.
But it might attract a lot of unnecessary, highly annoying political entanglements.
His political "background" could officially be considered the Vermillion Empire.
Although it wasn't a large nation and was militarily weak, its official membership in the League of Mage-Knights was enough to serve as a legal deterrent against anyone who wanted to kidnap him.
This was a solid form of security.
The simplest way to determine official rank and status among Blazers was a sanctioned 1v1 duel.
No matter how much trash one talked, a single sanctioned duel could prove everything.
In this competitive environment, to get promoted through the ranks, one had to use a Device highly suitable for single combat.
In that case, his sniper rifle seemed entirely unsuitable.
The sniper rifle's functions were built for mid-to-long-range strikes, mid-to-long-range interference, individual support, group support, and wide-area annihilation.
To achieve these, customized ammunition had to be meticulously prepared in advance.
It was a tactical style where the combat effect was directly proportional to the amount of prior preparation.
In a fast-paced melee duel between Blazers, such a slow tactical style was clearly not optimal.
The official Ability he had displayed to the League so far was "a Natural Causality type that can control all elements."
The corresponding tactic for that classification should then be highly mobile, mid-range magic combat.
But as Stella had said, a powerful Knight has no weaknesses, which meant fast-paced melee combat was also a crucial element that could not be abandoned.
...
Sitting alone on his infirmary bed, Noah used the effect of Weaver to tightly mold his soul's energy into a highly specific form, then violently connected it with his own magic power to physically materialize it into the real world.
The very next moment, his bare hands were completely covered by a pair of familiar, heavy, deep gray metal gauntlets.
The physical weight and cold, metallic texture were exactly as he remembered.
And it brought that highly familiar, comforting sense of absolute security.
Raven Feather had appeared on Noah's hands.
"How magical."
Noah carefully examined Raven Feather on his hands, looking closely at every single mechanical detail.
Most Devices in this world had very simple structures, like standard swords or spears.
Among the more complex ones were perhaps basic firearms, but it was incredibly rare to see anything with a more intricate, mechanical structure.
On the surface, Raven Feather was just a pair of heavy gauntlets, but it actually housed a complex series of expansion modules, hidden firing chambers and a vast number of inscribed magic formulas.
Its mechanical complexity was on an advanced industrial level, far exceeding the fineness a normal Device could naturally possess.
If not for the overpowered, surgical precision of Weaver, performing this level of mechanical modification on a raw soul would be completely impossible.
"So this is the 'phantom form'."
Noah experimented with converting the Device between its solid physical form and its harmless phantom form.
"As long as I deploy it in this phantom form, all my physical strikes will only inflict mental damage, without causing any real physical harm... How interesting."
According to the League's strict regulations, all student Blazers under the age of 15 were legally obligated to only deploy their Devices in phantom form during official matches.
This was likely a safety measure to restrain emotional, hormonal teenagers and prevent them from using their lethal powers wantonly and causing irreversible, bloody consequences.