Chapter 163. One Final Loss

Leaning on James’ shoulder was Nicole. She looked haggard, but overall… She looked alive… healthy. The bruises she had from the fight with Eletha were somehow gone, and despite not using any magic, I could feel a warm flow of Fire Magic inside her body. I wished to activate a Medical Eye to properly inspect her, but the magic didn’t activate. It seemed like Healing Magic was at the moment not something I could use.

Regardless, I could see Nicole looking at me. Her irises had changed from the normal light brown color with orange edges, to fully bright orange, and her brown hair had taken on a similar appearance, being a dark orange instead of brown; though it now had the same length that it had when I first met her.

Finally, the one thing that made me realize that this was indeed Nicole, and that what had happened to her did indeed happen, was the light pink thin scar that went all around her neck, in the exact spot where she was decapitated. Someone had healed her, and… from what I remember, there was only someone else there, so I turned my eyes to James.

He was beaten up, much more than Nicole, with missing pieces of armor and dried blood on his face and armor. It seemed like my gaze was rather obvious as he shook his head and looked at Nicole, so I did the same.

“How are you…” I said, my voice echoey and ethereal, which caused me to look down at my body.

I had that demon-like body that Salrak had, only that mine had my feminine features. I looked behind me, and realized that I wasn’t in the dark void from before. Unknowingly, I had returned myself to the real world, which meant that there was no more running away or hiding in my mind.

“I’m not sure either…” Nicole said, and I turned to look at her while she had her gaze down with a hand softly placed on her neck. “I just remember panicking and doing whatever I could do to save myself—even praying to that fat… phoenix… that I summoned. Things went black for a moment, and next thing I knew, I was scared out of my life with James trying to reassure me.”

“Yeah, for a moment there, I thought that you revived yourself only to die again,” James followed up with furrowed eyebrows. “I was going to take you out of here, but…”

“I woke up in the middle of the air, being carried away, and begged him to take me to you…” she finished what James started and looked at me up and down. “You look different. But I can tell that you’re my Althy.”

“Is that so…?” I said, before looking down at my body once more, and sighing in relief. After a moment, I looked back up to her. “Why did you come back here?”

Nicole paused, tightened her lips and glanced at the side of my body, beyond me. “I wanted to make sure you knew I was okay, but then… It seemed like you were doing something that you said you didn’t want to do…”

On the ground lay Eletha, her eyes closed, mouth open, body battered, and blood pouring from the wounds of her missing limbs and the several places where I attacked her, pooling under her body. As I gazed at her, I was filled with great rage once more, but now that I knew that Nicole was alive, I calmed myself and realized that she was right. I had come here with the intention of saving her…

I took a couple of deep and slow breaths, calmed my rage, and decided to do what I came here to do. I stretched my hand to heal the dying elf, but no healing magic formed on my hands. Surprise filled me, but I remembered that as I was right now, only Darkness and Hellfire was running through my body. I tried to suppress the powers, but they were running inside my body with far too much strength for me to get them under control before the girl died, so I turned to look at James.

“Forget it,” he immediately said, “I have no intention of saving the bitch that decapitated Nicole—and even if she didn’t do that, I never even had the intention to do so from the start.”

Nicole wasn’t a healer, and as I turned to look elsewhere, I noticed that inside this crater, there was no one else that could come help us… not even close, as from the edges, there were only the burning Hellfires of the jungle.

“Nhhgg…” Eletha let out, and I looked at her. She was the Hero of the Holy Gods, perhaps she could save herself.

There was a pained expression on her face, and it seemed like she wasn’t healing herself either, so as I stood above her, I urged her. “If you do not wish to die, then you should heal yourself.”

Her eyes finally opened, looking over to the sky which was already gaining some light of dawn. She stretched her one remaining arm to the sky, slowly and trembling, but I felt no Holy Power running through it, nor any magic, and after a moment, her lips parted.

“A-Altheras…” she said with a rough, raspy voice in a near whisper. “P-please…”

Her body started glowing with a golden light of Holy Power, but… it immediately started burning and she painfully screamed. She couldn’t handle any more of Altheras’ Holy Powers.

“Stand up!” shouted the Goddess, the light over Eletha’s body growing stronger. “You shall do Our bidding! Evil is standing right over you! If you don’t stand up, then all shall be lost!”

The light sustained itself, but the girl just grit her teeth and painfully shouted. She couldn’t handle it anymore, so I created a mantle of darkness that ran all over her body, forcing that uncontrolled Holy Power to fade into the sky.

“No!” shouted Altheras. “Get your hands off my—Evil being!”

The Goddess’ voice sounded interrupted, as if the connection was being lost, and just by looking at the pained Eletha, I could tell that it was because the girl was losing her life. This couldn't go on, so I kept trying to force the Holy Light away.

“Let her go,” I said, my eyes set on the screaming girl. “She can’t take—”

“Silence!” Altheras interrupted. “I won’t listen to the words of a—disgusting monster! This is MY vessel, and I demand that she—and fight!”

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I looked down at Eletha, my darkness covering more and more with each passing moment, until eventually, her whole body was covered, and no more Holy Light could be poured into her. Eletha finally stopped struggling, and with her eyes set on the sky, she stretched her hand once more.

“A-Altheras…” she softly said, her hand trembling as she reached up, but the Goddess’ response was just silence. “P-please—”

“Disappointing…” The Goddess finally said with a furious whisper, interrupting Eletha, after which I felt no more Holy Power fall.

I removed my darkness from her body, and the remaining Holy Light followed soon after, fading into the air with a few golden motes. Eletha didn’t look at me, choosing to remain with her hand stretched into the sky. Her body was beyond saving, and without a healer willing to save her, there was nothing I could do for her.

“A-Altheras…” she softly said once more, and a couple of tears streaked down the side of her face. “I’m sorry.”

More tears followed down the sides of her face, mixing with the bloody ground and the mud. A soft sob came out of her, and yet, her eyes remained looking up to the sky, just like the trembling hand. I thought about picking her up and trying my best to find someone to save her, since it sounded like Altheras was no longer looking over her, but as I took a step forward, the life in her eyes started fading. There was no more time.

“Mom… Dad…” she whispered in between sobs. “W-where… where are you…?”

After saying that, her arm finally fell to the ground, lifeless. I looked at the girl for a moment, and regret filled me. I had failed in every possible way. I couldn’t save her; couldn’t save Nicole; and I nearly destroyed everything and everyone around me in the process.

With clenched hands, I closed my eyes and looked down. There was as much rage directed at me and my failures as there was directed at the Holy Gods for doing all of this; be that in my past, or in my present with this poor girl.

“Althy…” Nicole said, and I heard her shuffling from her spot.

“H-hey! Are you sure that you can walk after—”

“Yes, it’s fine, James. I can walk on my own now,” she said, and I heard her coming closer.

I almost didn’t want to turn to look at her, not after everything I’d done… Not after failing her and allowing her to suffer as much as she did, so I remained in my spot. However, I still didn’t stop her when she placed a hand on my own hand. Finally, I stopped worrying so much and opened my eyes to look down at her.

My transformation wasn’t quite done yet, so I was still bigger than she was, even if I was still withdrawing my power and I wasn’t as tall as before. Still, Nicole looked at me with a soft smile. She wasn’t happy about what happened, rather… She was trying to reassure me.

“You did everything you could,” she said, softly caressing my dark, claw-like hand. “Don’t beat yourself up over this. Plenty of times you offered a hand, but this was the response…”

“But—”

“Yeah, who cares?” James interrupted me, and I glanced over to him, before he continued. “Everyone that came here, came here with the intention of killing each other. You’re the only weirdo who thought that you could save everyone—especially that elf.”

“James!” Nicole exclaimed, gripping my hand tightly while throwing a glare at James, who just shrugged. She sighed and looked up to me again. “Though… he’s not totally wrong…”

Again, I turned my eyes over to the dead elf—the current and now former Hero of the Holy Gods—and thought about all the trouble that I went through to not kill her. It was then that I remembered that I was worried about something wrong happening from doing this: the Holy Gods descending into this world, so I urgently looked up to the sky, trying to find any sign of their presence.

“W-what’s wrong?” Nicole asked with a worried tone, following my gaze up to the sky.

I didn’t answer her as my eyes darted from one place to another in the partially clouded sky that was already being illuminated by the few rays of sunlight. But no matter where I looked, I couldn’t sense the power of any Gods, nor see any sign of golden lights that showed their descent into a world, like they did ours.

After making sure that nothing strange was going on, I looked down. “Just… Making sure everything was okay.”

“Right…?” Nicole said, tilting her head slightly.

“Oh yeah, everything’s fine,” James sarcastically said, looking at the jungle. “Save for all the burning trees and people trapped in there. Think you could do something about that?”

I nearly forgot that I’d done that, and he was right. So I carefully removed my hand from Nicole and turned to the jungles. “I’ll try to put it all out.”

I took to the skies, and right behind me, Nicole followed. I couldn’t help but to look at her with raised eyebrows, but she just smiled. “Hey! I think that my Fire Deviant Magic is stronger now! And if it’s about putting out fires, then I should be able to help!”

I would've preferred that she didn’t strain herself after everything that happened, but if she thought she could do this then… I was going to allow it while keeping an eye on her.

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” James said, flying close behind Nicole’s fiery flying spell. “Wouldn’t want this Fire Chicken to get cooked.”

“H-hey!” she exclaimed, pouted and then looked forward. “Chickens are tough…”

* * *

After flying all over the jungle, I was able to take control of the burning Hellfires and put them out. Nicole was also able to somehow help with that, but she wasn’t controlling the Hellfire, rather, she was pushing it away until it was gone. Quite the strange way to go around it.

James didn’t help with the fires, and just made sure to keep a close eye on Nicole, nearly picking her up whenever it felt like she was getting too close to the fires. After being told off by Nicole, he also started helping with healing Knights and soldiers that were wounded, but still stayed as close to Nicole as he could.

We returned to the same place where Eletha died once we made sure that the fires were under control, and by then, I had retrieved most of my Darkness and Hellfire powers, so my my magic normalized and my appearance was almost the same as how I was before… except for the dark hair color, and red eyes that still lingered on me.

“What should we do about her?” Nicole asked, standing a short distance away from me and Eletha.

I didn’t know what to do. Former Heroes of the Holy Gods were usually buried in very sacred places, with tall buildings and statues to remember them, but in this case… I wasn’t sure if such a thing should be done… either for her or for me. Though, I also didn’t want to leave her here either, despite the rage that she induced on me.

As I was considering these things, I noticed a group of people approaching from the sky to where we were. It didn’t take too much to realize that it was Feng Liu and his group, accompanied by Reeta.

The group landed a short distance away from us. Feng Liu had furrowed eyebrows as he looked at me, but after a couple of steps, his eyes turned over to the fallen Eletha. “I take it that it was done?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty obvious, isn’t it?” Kang Hana said, leaning her body slightly forward as she looked at Eletha as well, before clicking her tongue. “Too bad we weren’t the ones that dealt with her.”

Qin Yue refused to say anything as she looked at the body, expressionless as she usually was, and keeping a certain distance away from Reeta, who was looking around the place and not at Eletha.

“Where’s that skeleton? Super-Demon?” she eventually asked, and I raised my eyebrows, remembering that I left him behind inside the base.

“He was at the base the last time I saw him,” I said, turning around to go find him.

“Don’t bother,” Reeta said, and I looked at her with surprise. “I’ll go fetch that stupid thing.”

She didn’t linger for long as she took to the sky and in the direction of the base. I looked back down at Eletha, and once more, wondered about what I should do with her.

Feng Liu seemed to have noticed my concerns as he walked closer to Eletha. “We should just… bring her body over to your country's officials. I’m sure that they’ll have something to say and do about it…”

“Okay…” Nicole said, and then grabbed my hand. “What should we do now?”

I looked over at the rising sun, and firmly grasped her hand. “We… go home now.”