After asking Nicole to come with me to visit Bo’guth’s family, we quickly went that same day to see them. She wasn’t quite as tired as Victoria and David, so she agreed to accompany me for a while.
Bo’guth’s house had been mostly repaired by now. The only things that weren’t the same as before, according to them, were the few decorations and electronics that they had, but they didn’t seem to be bothered by it. The house’s surroundings were also reinforced with much better security systems, so it was going to be harder to intrude in their homes. I even went a step further and managed to add magic barriers to the people living in that community, although there were a couple of dwarf families that refused to take it, so it wasn’t forced on them.
The visit itself went rather smoothly. It was still early in the day when we came out of the Tainted Land, so we didn’t have to hurry or rush our way there.
For some reason, Mirlaneth had grown attached to me, as she would smile with her… oddly shaped mouth that opened in four directions. Nicole said that it reminded her of a tiny ‘predator’ when the girl did that, but since Mirlaneth was moving around happily and enjoying herself like a child, it didn’t scare Nicole at all.
As for me, she would talk and talk to me about all the things that she did, from the friends that she made in her school, to the few things that she created with her own hands… some of which nearly prompted my old Hero of the Holy Gods’ habits to destroy them, but I never went beyond just the surprise of seeing them.
Some of those were idols with the faces of demons, red and dark colors when painting, and uneven symbols of Tenebreius were plastered on paper and on some unnerving dolls that also carried the same horns that both her and her parents had.
Being so used to the Holy Gods’ way of seeing the world for some many years made me somewhat uncomfortable to be around these things, but now that I knew that these things were all just their harmless way of seeing the world, I could interact with her easier; even if I still found myself somewhat appalled by it.
I wasn’t sure about how Nicole felt being here, however, as she would look at Igladith with some restraint. I think the tall demoness also knew about it, but after talking about it a few months ago, it turned out that it wasn’t because she was a demon, but because she had a rather stern personality that made Nicole feel like she was being watched by a harsh teacher of sorts.
Regardless, the day passed, and by the time the sun was setting, Nicole returned back home; the tiredness of the expedition to the Tainted Land finally catching up to her. I didn’t leave with her, since Mirlaneth seemed to want to play with me for a while longer, so I decided to stay and teach her a bit of what I knew about Darkness and Hellfire—though, Igladith was still a better master of Darkness than I was. The only thing I could overpower her with was that my power was pure and I knew how to combine it with common magic to create powerful effects.
Still, after a couple of hours, the small demon child finally got tired and was sent to bed. I decided that I had also spent more than enough time with their family, so after having a meal with them, I also left.
I could’ve called a car to take me back home… But this time, I was feeling like I wanted to be alone; to feel the world around me, and try to see if I could get some sort of idea for how to deal with Eletha and her connection with the Holy Gods without killing her. So after stepping outside of the community, I turned to the night sky and flew up into the clouds.
Coldness quickly surrounded me, so I used a few barriers to keep myself warm and stop the strong winds from pushing me around. It wasn’t proper for mages to do this in the city, as it was considered dangerous to fly around without permission or supervision, but I wanted to experience the sky around me without being in a hurry or going to battle once more—even if it was a different world—and as long as people didn’t notice me, and I didn’t cause any problems, then it should be fine.
Surprise filled me as I caught myself in that strange way of thinking. Never in my past life did I ever break the law of the Holy Gods or even the Empire for my own desires, but… after coming to this world, many things had changed in my way of thinking. From the way I talked to demons and dark beings, to the way I treated those that would be zealots of my past beliefs… things had changed a lot.
While thinking those things, I cast my gaze on the bright city that spread below me, full of brightly lit orange paths that went from one side of the city to the other, while spilling into different small paths to create a net of orange lights, all of them surrounding dark buildings that only showed the the lights of the people living in them.
Some of the larger roads had the same rivers of cars that I could see when being on the streets myself, and in this case, I could clearly see how they went almost from one side of the city to the other. It was curious to see at this time of the night how they were mostly all going in one direction—likely people leaving work to go home.
I turned my eyes to the east side of the city, where the tall mountain range stopped the city from spreading into the horizon like it did in almost every other direction. On that side, I could see some parts that had houses and buildings constructed all over it, only stopping half-way up the mountain. They stretched with varying heights of the mountain, until the middle of the city, where tall buildings with bright lights stood up like lighthouses in a dark night. They weren’t quite as tall or as densely packed together as the ones in the city that I fought with Eletha, but they were just as illuminated as those were.
Having taken a view of the city, I started flying south, in the direction where I lived and most of the city was. The wind in my face was being softened by my own magic, but I still allowed some of it to fly past my body, allowing me to feel the world around me.
Slowly, I made my way over to where I lived… and kept going. I still wanted to see more of it, to take this opportunity of defiance that I was giving myself to take in more of the place I’ve been living in.
Soon after, the sound of an airplane started getting closer to me. I stopped in a near panic at the idea that perhaps I was going to cause unnecessary damage to it from this indulgence of mine, but I quickly calmed myself and looked for it. Even in the night, those things could be easily found, as their engines could be heard from very long distances.
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I quickly identified it getting closer to the airport. It was on the west side of the city, so as long as I stuck to the east side, close to the mountain range, then there shouldn't be any problems. I moved to the side, looked at it for a while longer, and then turned my attention back to the city itself as I kept going south.
Eventually, I reached what the people of the city called midtown, despite it being at the easternmost side of the city.
This side was rather strange for me. There were very tall buildings here, but the designs didn’t quite match everything around them, since not too far away from where they were, there would be houses that I could confuse with the same kind of houses I could find in the old Empire, and in between them, there were houses that anyone could mistake for ruins.
It was surprising for me to see it like this, as not too far away from all of this was the Presidential house. It was normal for rulers and kings to ensure that everything surrounding their places of living were just as elegant and taken care of as the place they were living, but for some reason, that wasn’t the case in this city.
I couldn’t possibly know why that was, as my understanding of this world was hardly anything, and it was much lower for the history behind it, so I could only contemplate their differences and nothing more.
Close to it all, was also a rather curious building. It was a church, constructed at the very top of the mountain range, allowing it to overlook most—if not all—of the city. I looked at it for a while, at its white walls, the cross at the top, and the rock roads surrounding it that led down the mountain in a winding path.
It was constructed for a God of the people of this world, before me and the people from mine appeared here. In a way, it was similar to how it was for us; with people coming over to pray to their God for the things they hold dear in life… be that their families, or their own selfish interests.
I wondered… if there was anyone that heard the voice of this God. If this God’s words caused the same destruction that I caused in the name of mine… If… this God could perhaps cut the voices of the Holy Gods away from this world… but with a shake of my head, I threw away that notion. It wasn’t good to rely on Gods, and if I were to simply look at the way the people of this world lived, it didn’t seem like a lot of them expected their prayers to be answered like they were in my world.
After looking at the church for a while longer, and following with my eyes the carts that were moving up and down a line in the air, I decided to move on; further south.
I noticed some differences as I went on. There were a few tall buildings here and there, but nothing like what I saw in the middle of the city. Most of the houses were rather small and tightly packed together, with no yards, gardens, any space between them besides small public parks, and the road itself; and those roads weren’t quite as large as they were everywhere else. Still, it didn’t change much from how it was with the rest of the city.
Eventually, I reached a point where I could see the edge of the city, from where the darkness of the night stretched into the horizon. I stopped and looked behind me, to everything I already covered. It had been a while already, and some of the heavy traffic that I could see when I first started this was already fading.
I pulled my phone out and looked at the time. It was already pretty late, and there were a few messages from Nicole, Bo’guth, other people that I’d been working with over the past few months from the Empire, and a promotion to buy a new phone. Nothing from Salrak. If he needed something, he could call at any moment, so he was likely just watching as I flew around. I ignored most of the stuff that I didn’t care about, and moved my fingers to reply to the ones that mattered to me.
As soon as I opened one of those apps, I felt something strange in the place below me. Someone was using magic, but… it wasn’t quite right. It wasn’t the common use of mana, but it wasn’t completely foreign to me either. I put away my phone and focused on what and where that magic was coming from.
It stopped shortly after I sensed it, so all I could do right now was try to find it in between all the small usages of magic there were in the city. My eyes shifted from street to street; from places with a lot of people walking, to others where the only thing that could be seen was just the street lights and the occasional cat or dog running by.
I waited for a while longer, and after a few moments of looking everywhere, I sensed it once more, much clearer this time, and my eyes quickly shifted over to where it was being used. It was a dimly lit road that went up a hill with small houses surrounding it. There were a handful of people in the middle of it, with one person in particular wearing strange clothing.
This person had rather colorful clothes, with a bright yellow top, bright blue pants, and what appeared to be red underwear on top of said pants. The head was covered by a hood, and from where I was, I could see a mask that covered the face, only revealing a pair of white glowing eyes.
The person in the strange clothes was in a fighting stance, while the other group of five people were all dressed in the common clothes of the people of this world, with a few of them covering their heads with a hood, while others not bothering to do so. It was easy to tell, even from up here, that one side was trying to attack the other, since a few of the men carried knives in their hands.
Not too far away from there, I also noticed a girl with straight black hair that was hiding, carefully looking at what was going on. She could be mistaken for someone that was either spying on the whole thing or being part of it, if it wasn’t from the terrified stance that she had and the ragged breathing she was recovering from, looking as if she had just run away.
I didn’t want this opportunity to go to waste, so I quickly flew over to make an assessment of what was going on, and while I was getting closer, magic from the person in the strange clothes was used once more.
A beam of bright purple light was fired from this person’s hands, melting the road under it, but somehow missing as it went over the heads of the other group of people, who just dropped to the ground while covering their heads.
I stopped myself a certain distance away, surprised at what just happened. That kind of magic shouldn’t be possible to be used by common mages, much less in such a seemingly random place.
That was Soul Magic. The people who were able to use Soul Magic were even fewer than the people that could have any insight into it. Not even Asteora had a proper understanding of Soul Magic, as there were only a handful of sages and powerful beings in the world that could use it—a certain dragon in particular being one of those. Beyond that, the soul was something that was left to the Holy Gods and nothing else.
The men that were threatening this person in the colorful clothes quickly realized that they were outmatched, and after scrambling to stand up, they ran away as fast as their feet could allow them, eventually running into the darkness of some houses, and disappearing out of my sight.
The person with the colorful clothes turned around and looked in the direction of the hiding girl, jogging over to her as she fearfully took a step outside. This person handed over a bag to the girl, and with a sharp nod, turned around to run somewhere else. I followed closely behind from the air, but this person with the colorful clothes just stopped after turning around a corner, only to return and glance from the corner.
I followed the direction of the gaze and realized that the look was directed at the girl that was clutching her bag and moving with hasty steps in another direction.
This person proved to be interesting to me, not only for the way they were acting and dressing, but from the magic being used. Perhaps, it was with this kind of magic that I might find a way to cut away the Holy Gods from Eletha without killing, so I carefully and silently descended to stand behind this person, ready to have a conversation.