Sacred Arts

«Sacred Arts» (神聖術) are System Commands in Project Alicization that residents of Underworld believe to be magic rituals. In reality, they are just words used to arrange thoughts and guide the emotions of the caster to make use of one's imagination power. Because of this, the imagination of the user may either improve or decrease the effectiveness of an art.

Requirements
Using Sacred Art rituals requires a certain level of «System Control Authority» depending on what ritual is being used. The SC authority also seems to have an effect on the success rate of the rituals used. Sacred Arts also requires a conductor for the user's imagination, linked to the consciousness. The usual conductor is the user's fingers, though more advanced users can also use their toes or even eyes as conductors. Each conductor in use requires the user to retain the image of a chosen element connected to the conductor for the entire duration of the incantation. Thus, the more experienced a user is, the more elements they can generate and maintain simultaneously.

Sacred Power
Each ritual also requires a certain amount of a "space resource" called «Sacred Power» (神聖力), which is provided by the Sun and Earth. Advanced rituals require a large amount of Sacred Power which cannot be easily obtained from the environment, and since the available resources in the city are low and weather dependent, catalysts (触媒) are used for extra Sacred Power. Catalysts are produced from the dried ball-shaped fruits born from wilted flowers. They produce Sacred Power in the form of green light once crushed by the caster's fingers. The four main flowers that produce the most resources are Anemones that bloom in the Spring, Marigolds in the Summer, Dahlias in Autumn (Fall) and Cattleya in Winter. Roses produce far more resources than the main four, but are forbidden from being grown anywhere except for the Axiom Church.

Sacred Arts Syntax
All Sacred Arts are initiated by saying System Call! (システム・コール) and then the appropriate command for a specific ritual in English. The more difficult the ritual, the longer the incantation of it is. When the activation command of a ritual is called out, the caster's fingers, toes or any other chosen conductor are covered in a faint light, which indicates that the system manipulation system is on standby.

Elemental Sacred Arts
Elemental rituals require generating one of the eight existing elements (素因), which can be done by using the command Generate [ element ] element. Manipulating elements also requires subtle fingertip movements, with each finger being able to generate and control one element each, though more than one different element can be generated for more advanced rituals and this does not require repeating "System Call" for each element.

The eight elements are:
 * «Aqueous» (水素).
 * «Aerial» (風素).
 * «Cryogenic» (凍素) for defensive and flame-countering rituals.
 * «Luminous» (光素) for producing light, and healing wounds.
 * «Metallic» (鋼素) for generating metal items.
 * «Thermal» (熱素) for flame-type offensive rituals.
 * «Umbral» (闇素) for finding the location of items or scrapping of the entire surrounding space.
 * «Crystalline» (晶素) for generating glass barriers and cups.

After an element is generated, further instructions, for example, the shape (Form element, [ shape ] shape) and movement (for example, Fly straight; Counter [ element ] object; Adhere possession, [ Item ID ]) of the generated element, can be provided. A usual elemental command is usually ended with certain common phrases, such as Discharge (解放) to execute most commands, Burst Element (バースト・エレメント) to cause the generated elements to explode, or Adhere to attach the element to an object.

Using a generated element, one can continue to feed instructions to a Sacred Arts Ritual, until all available elements are destroyed, or resources are depleted. One may even hold off on giving instructions for a long period of time, so long as the user can retain the image of the element. Elements created from Sacred Arts naturally have a lower durability than their naturally occurring form.

Even though these commands seem to take on a simple appearance, some commands may span many paragraphs. This was shown when the Dormitory Supervisor, Azurica, used a "luminous element" object to heal Eugeo's destroyed eye, with a command that likely held a number of complex instructions.

Command List
A list of all available Sacred Art rituals can be called out by using the "Inspect entire command list!" command, but this specific command requires a large level of SC authority. At the bottom of this list is a command that allows the caster to assume Administrator rights from the Cardinal System of Alicization via raising their SC authority to the max (the level of the Cardinal System). However, this command is only meant to be used in case of an emergency that requires immediately adjusting the balance of the world from the inside. Some of the administrator-only commands include terrain manipulation, directly affecting the maximum Durability of a person, resurrecting a dead resident and even manipulating the Fluctlights of the residents of Underworld.

Other Commands

 * Weather prediction - A command that allows the caster to predict the weather up to several days or even a week in advance. This is a command that requires a lot of preparation and the exact syntax of the command is unknown.


 * Armament Full Control Art - A high-ranking command that allows the caster to unleash the hidden power of Divine Instrument-class weapons.


 * Synthesis Ritual - A supervisor-level command that allows the manipulation of an Underworld resident's Fluctlight and is mainly used in the creation of Integrity Knights. This command can only be used on Fluctlights stored within the Light Cube Cluster, meaning that the ritual is ineffective against real humans. The ritual's execution requires the removal of core protection of the targeted Fluctlight, which can either be done by a voluntary synthesis by having the target used the core protection removal command, or a forced synthesis that involves rituals that take 3 days to be cast by several Sacred Arts users due to a large number of parameters that need to be set for the ritual. The Synthesis Ritual can only be used on targets within the caster's line of sight. The exact syntax of the command is unknown.


 * Full recovery art - A command that restores the caster's Durability to the maximum.


 * Wound healing - A command that seals the target's wounds by using a luminous element. This ritual is only used to stop the decrease in Durability caused by bleeding, but it does not restore lost Durability.
 * Unnamed Surveillance Art - A command that allows the caster to remotely view a targeted location. While active, the caster is visible to outside observers in the targeted location due to the resulting window that appears, depicting the caster. Senators of the Axiom Church were able to effectively target locations within seconds of a crime occurring by detecting human units with an abnormal Transgression Quotient. The exact syntax of this command is unknown.
 * Consciousness Sharing - A command that allows the caster to create observation units. The caster must be within range of a living being that does not possess its own Fluctlight. The caster then gains control over the new observation unit and the ability to communicate with the unit, regardless of distance. A given caster can have multiple observation units active at the same time. The exact syntax of this command is unknown.

Trivia

 * The Sacred Arts command "lit small rod" was "enlight object" in the web version.
 * The command was once again changed in the anime into Generate luminous element. Adhere, an Elemental art of the Luminous variety.
 * In the published light novel, Umbra and Luminous elements can be used to locate objects and heal wounds respectively. However, in the web novel, one would use "System Call! Search Position Place! Object ID, [OBJECT ID]" in order to locate an object, without the need for an element. Meanwhile, healing arts did not require a light element; instead, commands such as "System Call! Recover Partial Damage" were used to stop one's bleeding.

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