The priestess extended her hand to Kyle, her voice soft yet commanding.
"Please, place your hand in mine."
Kyle complied with an unreadable smile, sliding his hand into hers.
At the same time, he carefully withdrew all his mana inward, tucking it away into the deepest crevices of his core.
He knew what was coming next.
And just as he expected, the priestess sent a wave of her divine mana coursing into his body, probing and pressing against his internal state like gentle fingers brushing along the strings of an instrument.
Had he not prepared, it would have set off every alarm in his core.
Any ordinary person with a decent control of mana would have instinctively fought back—an unconscious reaction of rejecting foreign energy.
Kyle knew that. That's why he let himself fight back.
Not truly.
No, he carefully allowed just a sliver of resistance to surface.
He nudged his mana, coaxing it into mimicking a defensive reaction.
