Afterward, the two halves of the body fell to the ground and scattered into threads all over the floor.
Isaac stepped out from the shadows nearby, his expression complicated.
The good news was that he was now fairly certain this Gwen was genuine. The Holy See's Transcendents could not imitate her appearance or her power.
The bad news was that Isaac found he could not quite see through her anymore.
"Gwen, have you undergone any rituals with Nora?"
"I have. Nora baptized me a few times—the traditional kind of baptism from the Northern Territory. She nearly scrubbed my skin off."
"No, no, no. I mean rituals involving Transcendent power."
"That was a ritual involving Transcendent power! She scrubbed me with Transcendent power!"
Isaac questioned her again and again for a long while, finally confirming that Gwen had never come into contact with anything related to Transcendence—neither the Transcendent rituals of the various Churches nor the oaths of Knights.
Of course, that was assuming she was not lying...
Isaac lowered his head and looked into Gwen's clear eyes. A strange sense of guilt rose within him. How could he suspect a friend like this? "Anyway, I still suspect that you may already be a Transcendent. If it wasn't something that happened later, perhaps it had to do with your childhood experiences? For instance, before you left home..."
"Are you saying I'm a Transcendent? But I don't have any Transcendent power, do I? Could it be that my slash just now exceeded the bounds of an ordinary person?"
"You could say it didn't..." Isaac's expression twisted. "That attack just now, including your reaction speed, was practically the limit of what a human could achieve. I mean an ordinary human... You could even match half a Transcendent."
"Half a Transcendent? That's an interesting