“Kyaaa! Althea! Althea!” Nicole shouted from somewhere behind me.

But I couldn’t currently turn to look at her and pay attention to what she was dealing with, as right now, I was faced with a horde of Dark Beasts that had suddenly surrounded us.

We had reached the same wide space where I fought the Unholy Dark Beast with Bo’guth before. It was the same as that time, only that this time we weren’t here to rescue anyone. I knew that there was a possibility that the same thing could happen, as after a while, the Tainted Lands and Holy Places of Power would usually refill with the same creatures, or fairly similar ones.

Just like it happened to the group we rescued that time, once we made our way to the middle of it all, Dark Beasts rushed us from every side.

Asteora seemed completely unconcerned as she was floating in the air a certain distance away from the horde, her arms crossed under her chest as she looked somewhat bored at the whole thing.

I could understand her feelings, as even back in our world, if I were to be facing such a weak, but large, group of Dark Beasts that could be taken out with a single flick of my finger, and not being able to do it, I would’ve likely felt either angered or frustrated by it. But right now, with my current power levels, and without using Darkness and Hellfire, this horde of Dark Beasts was demanding most of my focus and strength to not be overwhelmed.

“Altheaaaaa huhuhuuuu!” Nicole cried, desperately throwing fire spell after fire spell in every direction.

I didn’t worry that she could end up hurt or killed, as without saying anything, Asteora was keeping the girl safe. I noticed there was a strange shield surrounding Nicole, one that was imperceptible to the senses, that would allow Nicole to use her spells unimpeded, but that would keep the Dark Beasts away from her, so right now, no matter what the beasts did, they simply couldn’t get closer to her.

However, she didn’t know that, as I hadn’t pointed it out, and Asteora seemed uninterested in saying anything about it, so the girl was desperately fighting for her life.

I thought it was good training for her to feel pressured about the situation, especially after she got arrogant with how easy she was taking down Dark Beasts when they were either one or a handful of them in the caves.

“Altheaaaaa—huuu—save meeee!” she cried once more.

I was currently swinging the large black sword and throwing normal fireballs into the horde of Dark Beasts. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, which made sense, since the only thing that changed from last time, was that I accepted the Darkness and Hellfire Power within me, so if I didn’t use it, then the difficulty would be the same.

“I can’t!” I shouted in response, heaving slightly as I cut down another Dark Beast. “You’ll have to deal with them!”

“Uwaaa!” Nicole cried, and the fire spells kept going.

I empowered the sword with a combination of wind magic and lightning magic, after which I fiercely swiped the blade in a horizontal motion that destroyed a large group of Dark Beast in front of me with a chain of lightning, and sent the few that were standing behind flying, leaving a small clearing in the darkness that surrounded us. I took that opportunity to check on Nicole, so I half-turned my face to look at her.

Despite the tears that were running down her face, she was currently using fire as if it was as easy as waving her hand. There was hardly any effort in the fire spells she was using, even if they weren’t nearly as powerful as what I could do.

Asteora, on the other hand, was just watching both me and Nicole. It appeared that beyond just protecting the girl, she had no intention in aiding me or dealing with the horde at all.

I couldn’t be sure about what her intentions were… On one hand, it was good training for Nicole, but on the other hand, I couldn’t tell what she would do if things didn’t go well for either one of us.

If I were to guess… then she’d likely let me die if I couldn’t handle myself down here, but I’m not sure about what she would do with Nicole.

A deep loud roar coming from behind the horde let me know that the Unholy Dark Beast was likely coming over.

Nicole’s crying stopped as she looked at the Dark Beasts that stopped and were suddenly running to the back of the large zone. “What is happening, Althea!?”

She rushed from the position she was to stand right behind me, using me as a form of shield from the Unholy Dark Beast. I didn’t mind it as I focused on what was likely to pop out.

“An Unholy Dark Beast is coming,” I said, the sword in my shoulder, and a lightning spell in my left hand already cracking.

“Eh?!” Nicole exclaimed. “Shouldn’t we get out of here!?”

“No. I think I can take it. You should take cover and be ready for anything—even attacking it if the opportunity arises,” I said without turning to look at her.

Asteora hadn’t said anything, as she simply floated to be right above us. I slightly turned my eyes to look at her, and yet again, I saw just how unconcerned she was, as she carried exactly the same expression as when this whole thing started.

The only thing that had changed was that her pose went from standing with her arms crossed to sitting as if she was by a desk with her hands holding her chin. It looked somewhat weird to see her do that, since not only was she in the air, but there wasn’t anything around her.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“U-um, Althea? There’s something coming,” Nicole said, pointing a shaky finger at the deeper depths of the dark cave.

Just like last time I was here, the Unholy Dark Beast formed itself out of the many smaller ones that rushed over to it. It crawled its large body on the ground, before raising its skull-like red head to roar once more.

“Ah! W-w-w-we should run out of here!” Nicole shouted, grabbing me by the arm and trying to pull me.

But I was staying my ground, so regardless of how much she pulled, I was going to stay and fight it. I needed to defeat it to become stronger, and this time, I wanted to be awake to know what happened once I did.

From the dark depths of the Unholy Dark Beast’s maw, a hellfire beam started forming. It didn’t take a couple of seconds before it fired, its blood-red light illuminating part of the dark cave as it made its way to where we were.

Nicole dropped to the ground, covering her head with her arms as her scream was drowned out by the loud sound of the Hellfire beam burning the air. However, it didn’t land near to where we were, so I didn’t have to block nor move away from it.

I looked up. The beam had been stopped by Asteora. Not because she wanted to stop it, or because she was protecting us, but because the Unholy Dark Beast had fired it directly at her.

The beam spread in every direction around Asteora, whose expression remained as nonplussed as if nothing had happened. She didn’t even change from the leisure position she had.

“Lady Asteora?!” Nicole exclaimed, quickly turning her head upwards.

“Why is that thing attacking me? Aren’t there a couple of easier prey right below me?” she said, sounding just like someone who wasn’t interested in what was going on.

The Unholy Dark Beast—obviously unable to hear her—charged yet another beam. I couldn’t exactly tell where it was going to fire, but judging by the way it was moving, it was likely going to repeat the same thing.

With a heavy sigh, Asteora dropped her resting position and stood up straight in the air. From the front of her forehead, a few white particles started gathering, slowly forming into a large white ball of energy.

A couple of seconds later, the Hellfire beam was fired, and at the same time, a pure white beam was fired from Asteora’s forehead. Both beams crashed with each other in the air, but it didn’t take even a split second before my master’s beam broke apart the Hellfire beam, reaching the Unholy Dark Beast, who was unaware of what had happened as it crawled at the back of the zone.

Her beam split the Unholy Dark Beast in two like a hot knife cutting butter, leaving two parts of the Unholy Dark Beast to slowly toppled over to each side. They fell with a loud crash, lifting rocks and earth all over the place, before bursting into a mist of darkness and hellfire that dissipated in every direction.

I frowned and looked up to my master, whose expression hadn’t changed. “You didn’t need to do that. I could’ve handled it.”

She looked down at me for a moment before slowly floating down to be close to us. “It attacked me, so it was more than obvious that I should retaliate.”

“Yes! That’s a very good way to live!” Nicole exclaimed, quickly standing from the ground as she placed a hand on her chest and sighed. “I’m so glad that you’re here. I thought we were going to die for sure this time.”

“Wasn’t she supposed to train here? And weren’t you supposed to be here just to watch me?” I asked, placing the large sword on my back.

“Hm…” Asteora considered me, looking at me with her usual unreadable expressions. “You didn’t seem to be taking it seriously, and the child wouldn’t be able to handle it, so I just got rid of it.”

I frowned yet again. “I was taking it seriously.”

“Really? I’ve only seen you use common elemental magic; none of the special powers you’re supposed to have,” she replied, slightly tilting her head. “I don’t see the point in doing that.”

“I just—”

I quickly shut myself as I turned to glance for a second at Nicole.

“Hmph,” Asteora scoffed. “Why do you care so much about that? Don’t a few people already know? From those demon friends of yours, to the dozen or so Tenebrians you pulled out of that cult? I’m sure that if this child knows, nothing will change or happen.”

I remained quiet as I looked back at Asteora, turning after a moment to look at a confused Nicole, who was looking between me and my master.

“Know what?” she asked, her expression the same one as before.

“I’m…” I tried to say what Asteora was suggesting, but it didn’t feel right to say it in the middle of the Tainted Zone, so I turned to look deeper into the darkness. “I’ll tell you later.”

“Okay…?” Nicole replied, and she followed behind me, her steps somewhat uncertain. “Though, shouldn’t we go back now? I feel like we’ve been in here for hours, maybe a day.”

“You want to go back so soon? You’ve barely just started your training here,” Asteora replied, flying a couple of times around Nicole. “Surely, as a Deviant, you should be able to handle much more than this. Besides, Althea and I have taken care of most hard things while you’re just coming along—no, you’re going deeper.”

“B-b-but! I fought bravely against that horde! I think I’ve done great!” Nicole argued back.

“Heh,” my master mocked. “If you call having tears running down your face while crying for Althea to save you ‘brave’, then everything you’ve done before this must make you a hero.”

“W-well… I was just… it was…” and so Nicole replied with a pout while mumbling things.

I sighed, before shaking my head. “Master’s right, we can still go for a while longer.” I turned to look at Asteora. “And I need to fight another one of those Unholy Dark Beasts, so we should go deeper until we find one.”

“E-even deeper?! But we’re already so far away from the entrance! What if we get lost!” Nicole exclaimed.

“We won’t,” Asteora confidently replied before I could do it. “The… ‘Magic Red Zones’ are designed to not get lost. All roads eventually lead to the core, and all of them to the edges of the zone—the entrance of the caves in this one.”

“Wait, huh? How can you be so certain?” Nicole asked.

“The core is the thing that creates the zone,” I replied this time, “As it tries to expand, not only does it fill the place with magic, it also creates paths, like a worm trying to dig its way out of the ground.”

“Then… What are… those Red Zone Monsters, or ‘Dark Beasts’ as you call them?” she asked.

“They are the power of—the power of…” I trailed off, doubting the information I was about to say.

They were supposed to be either the power of the Dark God corrupting beings that were trapped in the zone—like adventurers, explorers, animals, or beasts—whose essence got turned into mindless monsters, which left unchecked, could corrupt the land, making it important for me as the Hero of the Holy Gods to come in here and completely cleanse them.

Or they were trials by the Holy Gods, who used their powers to form their zones, and make the tests that would improve my abilities and increase the power they gifted to me as their vessel in the world.

But now that I thought about it, I couldn’t see Salrak doing those things, and I couldn’t understand why the Holy Places of Power were also deadly for anyone that stepped in them—even if by accident.

“Althea?” Nicole asked, bringing me back to the conversation. “They’re the power… of what?”

“Of…” I started, but trailed off once more, since I actually didn’t know.

Seeing me frowning deeply, Asteora turned to answer Nicole’s question. “Of the God of Darkness and Hellfire, Salrak.”