Salrak faded in the darkness, leaving me alone once more in the void that surrounded me. I wasn’t certain about what I should do. I could go back to my ‘made up’ memories and try to relive my old life in a way that could bring me happiness, while letting my body go loose in the world… Or I could try to break out of the darkness, go back to reality and confirm with my own eyes if Nicole was somehow saved or not…

But I was certain that she was dead. There was no mistake that she was killed by that new Hero of the Holy Gods, and despite how good I was in the past with healing, those powers weren’t with me anymore, so I couldn’t even try to revive someone that was decapitated. Besides… something like that must be done almost right away, and from that short glimpse that Salrak gave me, it seemed like some time had already passed.

I closed my eyes and drifted in the darkness for a moment. The image of Nicole smiling and laughing in my new home crossed my mind, and I couldn’t help a soft smile from forming in my mouth. But it was immediately shattered when the recent memory of seeing her die in front of me overlapped with it, filling me with an intense rage that tensed my mouth and eyebrows into a frown.

Another image appeared in my mind. It was James carrying someone away… I couldn’t see well enough from where the screen showed me, but it looked like it was Nicole…

Should I risk it? Should I go back to my body and see for myself if she somehow survived?

Though, I wasn’t sure if I could take the pain from doing that; to see that James was simply carrying Nicole’s headless body away from the battlefield… If that was the case, then I would certainly forget about everything and personally burn it all away under my rage.

I opened my eyes and just stared into the darkness, the same questions running in my mind. But I couldn’t stay in the dark forever. I had to do as Salrak said and make a choice. With a deep breath, I decided to risk it… However, I still wanted to make sure that there was a way back into this place, so I tried to do the same thing that Salrak did.

I stretched my hand forward and focused on what I wanted to do. If Salrak was able to do it, then, I, as the current holder of His powers, should be able to do it as well. There was no way to actually know how he did it, so I simply thought about going back to my body, to my real world, while keeping the thought of staying in the darkness lingering in the back of my mind.

A red flame bloomed in the middle of the darkness not too far away from where I was. I focused on the dim light, my mind going back and forth between the idea of staying and going back. As I focused on it, the red flame stretched. Slowly, at first, but then exploding in a wall of red fire.

The middle portion started losing some that red glow, and something else replaced it. I could finally see something from the real world. The dark clouds illuminated by the burning red fires raging in a jungle, people scattering, and finally, not too far away from where I was, the image of James.

Once I saw him, the wall of red flames immediately expanded even more, and this time, covered half of my vision, making it so the half behind me was the same void of darkness that I’d been drifting in so far, and the front half was showing me the burning battlefields.

“Ah…” I unwillingly let out as I gazed down.

A real memory surfaced as I looked. The battlefields here were not too different from the ones of the Final War. Armies falling, people fleeing, burning lands, and broken mountains… It seemed like the past was repeating itself again in this world… It was as if… Again, everything I did ended up in failure…

As those thoughts filled me again, the field of vision shrinked, and the darkness behind me took over my surroundings, leaving me with just a small window into the real world.

From this window, I once more catched James’ back flying away, and the window stopped changing size. I just had to make sure about Nicole’s state, so there was no need to throw myself into it so much.

I approached the window and placed a hand over the hard surface of the image. If only James would turn around, I would be able to know exactly what I should do…

“By Their Holy Light! You shall fall here!” someone shouted and the image turned completely golden.

This was Holy Power from Altheras, being used through Their Hero. Anger filled me once more and the screen widened to show more of the battlefield as it shifted places to show me my enemy once more.

The edges of the image still carried that Holy Light, and I could even feel the burning sensation of its power, but I didn’t mind it; I didn’t care for it. I’d felt worse things, and with the current power flowing through my body, she would need to be at a higher power level to be able to harm me.

Eletha was currently floating not too far away from where I was. She was covered in sweat, blood, and dirt; heaving heavily with a battered weapon and armor. The missing hand and leg were replaced by a half-transparent glowing limbs, but I could tell with a glance that it wasn’t doing anything to aid her.

It would’ve been better to continue fighting with those missing pieces instead of wasting Holy Power to recreate them. But it didn’t matter. None of that mattered anymore. She had taken Nicole away from me, and if I allowed her to exist anymore, she was only going to get stronger, and eventually, she was going to take everything away from me, while never paying for what she did.

Most importantly, the only reason that she’s doing this was because of the Holy Gods behind her, pushing her in this direction. I couldn’t allow her to bring Them here, and I was beyond trying to save her. This time, I had to agree with Salrak, and do as He did with the previous Heroes: End her.

The image shifted in a sudden blink of darkness, and the face of the new Hero appeared right in front of the screen. She was surprised, but not quite to the point of allowing herself to be open to attacks. My body moved on its own in an unquenchable thirst for blood—her blood—and I simply watched as my claw-like hands swiped, slashed, punched, and created dark beams.

This Hero didn’t want to fall either. I had to respect her tenacity to continue fighting, as even with a pained breath, she continued to block, create Holy Barriers, and try her best to attack any opening that my body could give her.

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And there were some, since my body was moving mostly out of instinct and old memories of combat, but her powers weren’t enough to deal any damage to me. At worst, I would just feel a burning sensation, but it would pass, and the assault would continue.

“A-Altheras…!” she eventually let out, and my mind was momentarily distracted by that name, which was reflected on the movements of my body as it slowed down as well. “P-Please, I—I fear I might not be able to—”

“You must win,” the Goddess clearly spoke in her usual commanding tone, and this time, I couldn’t help but raise my eyebrows, even turning to look up at the sky, just as I used to do in the past. “You cannot falter here. Failing here, would mean that everything would be lost, and even your soul would be consumed by the Icon of Darkness.”

“B-but—!” Eletha tried to argue back against Altheras, but my body, despite slowing down slightly, continued to attack, forcing her to create yet another barrier on top of her chipped blade, “M-my power, it—it’s not enough!”

“You dare doubt Me?” Altheras said with a cold tone as the Holy Barrier shattered and Eletha’s blade was pushed aside. “Have you forgotten your duty? If you cannot bring victory here… then… We cannot keep Our word.”

“Huh?!” Eletha exclaimed, fear appearing on her face for the first time, and an opening for a claw to slash her on the shoulder being taken, causing her to once more regain her focus and glare at me. “Then I shall—I shall give it my all!”

A golden light, different from the Holy Aura, covered the elf. Her eyes glowed with a golden light, and the fake limbs went from being half-transparent to being a solid piece of golden light.

She was… doing something foolish. She was consuming Holy Power beyond what her body and soul could handle, and doing that was only going to destroy her in the end as well. Though, I could understand it. I also tried to do that in my fight against Salrak, but I wasn’t able to tap into my soul.

This elf… This girl… She was just a holy fool, just like I was. And the one pulling the strings were the same Gods that pushed me to go as far as I did. Even while looking at the girl’s golden aura pushing my body away, both my body and my own face in the darkness looked up at the sky.

I’d had enough of these beings controlling everything in my life; of being at the mercy of their whims and losing everything to them, of that girl… This girl doing as They wanted; destroying things as they commanded; and taking things from me however they pleased…

I couldn’t stand it anymore. I couldn’t tolerate that hateful, golden light. I would destroy it. I would make sure there was no more golden light in this world—in any world!

The elf finished whatever she was doing and dashed in the air towards me. But I wasn’t letting my body fight on instinct anymore. I was sending my full will through the ever widening screen in front of me, and my body reacted as it was needed.

Her golden weapon fell on me with the biggest and longest Holy Blade that she had summoned but… in the face of my rage, it could’ve been nothing more than a child’s toy. With my hand raised up, I gripped the burning blade, stopped it in the air between my fingers, and with one final pinch, destroyed whatever light it was trying to summon.

From the tips of my fingers, I summoned as much darkness as I could and consumed the light of the broken blade, then continued spreading it through every piece of the hateful golden light, until our surroundings were as dark as the place I had been drifting before.

But the elf wouldn’t falter either. Her golden gaze was fixed on me just as much as mine was on her. One of us was going to die here, but sadly for her, it wasn’t going to be me.

With an echoing shout, the girl flew through the air, leaving a trail of golden light in her path. The golden arm that was replaced glowed even brighter than everything else, and a large beam of Holy Power was fired from it.

I simply raised a Darkness Barrier and her Holy Light was consumed by it, spreading its annoying glow in every direction around me. However, the girl wouldn’t give up, as she crashed with the barrier, and with several shouts and just as many punches of golden light, she managed to crack it.

I flew right into the cracked barrier and did for her what she wanted to do, breaking it into pieces and then flying through it to stab the girl in her stomach with my right claw-like hand. It pierced her skin, but it wasn’t deep enough to hurt her, which allowed her to use her hands to grab onto my arm.

“You shall die here, demon!” she shouted, and Holy Power gathered in her hands.

I couldn’t help but grind my teeth at how righteous she made it all sound, and most of all, at the idea of how much Altheras was laughing behind it all. I couldn’t help but glare through the screen as I shouted, “Altheras!”

“A…A…Altheras…!” the sound came out of my body’s mouth, with almost the same rage that I was feeling.

“Disgusting!” Altheras shouted back, “Eliminate that monster. My name shall not exist in its mouth.”

My rage boiled over and the screen expanded even more, making it seem like I was in the real world myself once more. I felt the burning sensation of the Holy Power in my arm, and yet, I couldn’t help but look up at the sky, right where She was supposed to be. I glared, as if such a thing could make Them appear.

“What do you mean ‘monster’, Altheras?!” I shouted, despite myself, “I did everything for you! I worked hard for you! I gave everything for you! How could you do this to me!?”

“W-what the—”

“Do not speak my name, demon,” she replied, and my eyes widened, since it sounded like She was replying to me. “I would never have spoken to something evil like you. I’m only doing what must be done.”

So She was indeed hearing me. Then, I would have my answers for what she did to me.

“I am not evil!” I shouted, ignoring the pain that was now spreading through my gripped arm, “I was your chosen one! Your Holy Hero! I was—I was your Althea…!”

“Althea…?” Altheras asked, and I hoped that perhaps she now realized what was going on. “I know no such name.”

But any hope that I had for demanding answers from her vanished completely. Salrak said before that this was the case, but I’d always carried the hope that She at least recognized who I was, but right now… it seemed like I was nothing more than another puppet for Her to do as She pleased.

“Child, eliminate this demon,” She commanded to Eletha, who had not stopped trying to spread Her Holy Light, “Do so, and you shall have whatever you’ve asked of Us.”

“I shall!” Eletha shouted, and with another shout, focused more of her Holy Power in my arm.

I felt rage at this girl for not realizing what just happened; for not knowing how she was being manipulated by the Goddess. I desired nothing more than to do to that Goddess what She did to me, and right now, the only one that could feel it, would be the one representing Her; this foolish girl.

So I turned my attention back to her with a burning rage, reached with my other hand to her new arm, and with my claw-like hand infused in Darkness and Hellfire, I ripped it right off.

The elf girl screamed in pain, but withstood it by returning a glare of her own to me, and another golden arm replaced the one that I took out.

If that was the case, then I was going to leave nothing of her. With a powerful shockwave of darkness, I forced her to let go of my arm, and like my body had been doing before, I resumed an assault on her, throwing as many slashes, punches, and kicks as I could.

She tried her best to keep up with me, using her new-grown arm to block whatever she could, but that Holy Power wasn’t enough. Eventually, I managed to destroy one of her arms, rip her remaining leg, and wrap my hands around her neck as I threw her back to the Hellfire burning lands.

A booming explosion occurred when we crashed down, leaving a crater in our place of impact, but I didn’t let go of the girl’s neck. She struggled, clawed at my arms, kicked with her golden leg, summoned Holy Power to her body to try to get me to release her, but it was all for naught. She wasn’t going to stand up from here again.

I saw the golden light in her eyes start to fade, and I felt happy to see that nothing of it would remain.

Soon… Altheras was soon going to lose her precious puppet…

“Althy…”

I heard a sweet and familiar voice, and I widened my eyes, lessening my grip over the no longer struggling elf, as I turned to look over at who had called me, someone I thought I was never going to see again.