I was taken aback from hearing Asteora’s answer, so I couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow as I looked at her. Perhaps she didn’t know what these zones actually were either. However, she noticed the kind of look I was giving her, prompting a half-smile in response.

“I know what you’re thinking. But, it is exactly as I’ve said. The only difference is in the reason behind it,” she replied.

“Wait,” Nicole interrupted, causing us to look at her. “When you say a God, you mean… like an actual God? Aren’t those things just theories?”

Asteora chuckled. “They are very real.”

“But… there’s no proof of them…” Nicole argued back, looking at us as if we were talking nonsense.

“We have seen them,” I replied, Asteora nodding along.

“Really?” she asked, her expression showing that she was not quite believing what we said. “How do you know they were Gods? Maybe… Maybe they were just someone acting like that—I mean, Asteora is pretty strong, maybe it was something like that?”

“No,” I denied her. “We are certain about them. They were each of them—in their own right—powerful enough to destroy a world.”

“Well… I’m sure that with enough training… and gathering of magic… you could get strong enough for that… Right, Lady Asteora?” Nicole replied, looking at my master.

“Not quite like that, no,” she said, shaking her head slightly, and bringing a hand up to summon a ball of bright blue mana. “Mana and magic aren’t quite the same as the power of the Gods.”

The mana in her hand started shifting shape, turning from the ball to a cube and then an arrow.

“We can give shape to reality with the mana contained in our bodies, by directing it to turn into the things that we envision,” saying that the mana arrow changed to a small rock with the same arrow shape. “It can go from turning into pure mana, and then into something else we can use; like this arrow.”

She swiped her hand in the air, and the arrow flew for a short distance, turning afterwards into a flaming arrow that covered the same distance there was from where we were to the already gone Unholy Dark Beast. Once it landed, it exploded into a ball of fire that suddenly spiraled and turned into an ice flower.

“Oooh…” Nicole exclaimed, looking in awe at the icy sculpture that shone in the darkness of the large cave.

“However, in the end, regardless of what shape we give to mana, it is nothing more than that, just mana. It doesn’t carry the same purity of the earth, the fire, or the ice that you’ll find in nature. This is nothing more than just a very close imitation,” Asteora continued, snapping her fingers in the direction of the ice.

The flower burst into several blue motes of pure mana particles that floated in the air as they dispersed into every direction, eventually turning into nothing, leaving the darkness of the cave to take over the place where the ice flower stood.

“I see, I see,” Nicole replied with a nod. “Then, what you’re saying is that those Gods don’t have mana? And that the elements that they command are like the real thing?”

Asteora calmly nodded. “That’s exactly it. Their powers belong to the category of creation, which means that their earth is real earth, their fire is real fire, and their ice is real ice, not mana transformed to turn into an element, and as such, their elements are easily able to overpower the magic that we wield, to the point that if they wished it, they could turn all creation in the world into their own power.”

“Oh! Then the ones that you met were like that?” Nicole asked.

“Yes. Salrak’s power was pure Darkness and Hellfire. It isn’t mana turning into darkness, but simply, just darkness,” Asteora replied, giving me a thoughtful look for a moment.

I ignored her look as I was still thinking about what the Tainted Lands and Holy Places of Power were. “Then, what really are these zones?”

“Hm…” she replied, looking at me with one raised eyebrow. “I thought you already knew.”

“I… I’m not sure…” I said, turning to look at the darkness surrounding us. “I used to believe these were just corrupted lands—Tainted Lands—created by Salrak to destroy the world… while the Holy Places of Power were supposed to be for… training, but I’m not sure anymore.”

“Hm… quite odd that you don’t know about that, but I guess that until the very end, you were a believer of the Holy Gods,” Asteora said with a sad smile.

“You were a believer of the Holy Gods!? Like those Followers of Leyfall or the people from the Leyfallan Empire?!” Nicole exclaimed, looking at me with widened eyes.

“Yes… I was… but that’s in the past now, and it was my biggest mistake. It doesn’t matter right now… I know now their true nature,” I said, frowning as I looked down and away.

“E-eh… well… I guess that I won’t ask about it…” Nicole replied, quickly turning her face to look at Asteora. “So these Magic Red Zones are all supposed to be the Gods’ creation? They made them all either dark like this one, full of fire like some others, or a mix of both?”

“Not exactly,” Asteora answered with a shake of her head. “Every single zone on Earth comes from Salrak’s power and not the Holy Gods, but they’re the same as they were be in Arretia… Nothing more than a Godly mistake.”

“A Godly mistake?” I asked, frowning as I looked back at Asteora.

She nodded. “That’s right. If you ever bothered listening to Salrak, you would’ve known exactly what that means, but I’ll give you the short version of it.”

“Isn’t the theory that they’re simply just a dense zone of their powers?” Nicole interjected, and Asteora looked at her with some surprise.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“Yes… that’s quite what that is… the only thing I’d add to that is that these zones are just imbalances of power, and in this world, the only imbalance comes from Salrak, as he was the only one that made contact with it,” Asteora said.

“Then… the Holy Places of Power…” I started, but trailed off.

“What about them?” Asteora asked, yet again refusing to finish what I was thinking.

“They weren’t placed there by the Holy Gods for training?” I finished my question.

Asteora chuckled and shook her head. “No. They were there from the very creation of Arretia. They said that to you not only to hide their mistake, but to push you in the direction that they wanted.”

“‘They said’? How did they speak to you?” Nicole interjected, looking at me with one eyebrow raised.

“I would hear whispers of their words from time to time,” I replied, quickly realizing that I had just indirectly confessed to being the Hero of the Holy Gods to her.

“Eh…” she replied, giving me a pitying look. “Are you sure that it wasn’t just imaginary friends… or maybe someone playing a trick on you?”

I was amazed to see how heretical Nicole was about the Gods, even with Salrak. If she were to question these sorts of things just a couple of months ago, I would’ve deemed her a traitor—regardless of whether or not she was Deviant.

“I… I’m sure of that…” I replied, still feeling awkward about her reaction.

Asteora noticed how I was feeling and laughed. “Well… that’s quite the unexpected reaction from both sides…”

“Hm? What do you mean?” Nicole asked, her head slightly tilted.

“Oh, we’ll see soon enough, child,” Asteora replied, flying higher in the air. “I think we’ve had enough chit chat. Let's keep going.”

“Agreed,” I said, turning my back to the both of them as I walked in the same direction where the Unholy Dark Beast was defeated.

I didn’t know exactly where the next zone of the Tainted Land was or would lead, but it was the best place to start looking. Behind me, I heard Nicole jog to get closer to me, eventually standing next to me as she looked in the direction that we were going.

“I, hehe, I was so engrossed in what we were talking about that I almost forgot we were going to keep going deeper…” she said, quickly looking up to me with a forced smile. “Are you sure it’s a good idea if we keep going?”

“Yes. I think we’ll be fine, even if another Unholy Dark Beast appears,” I said, remembering right after what Asteora did to the last one, which meant that if I wanted to get stronger by defeating one of those, then I couldn’t hide my Darkness and Hellfire Power from Nicole anymore. “And next time, I’ll make sure to take it down myself.”

“You’re super duper sure that you can do it, right?” Nicole asked with the same forced smile. “Because… you didn’t seem all that… ready… on the last one.”

“I was holding back,” I said as I approached the zone where the Unholy Dark Beast fell, looking around for a Magic Stone.

“You were? But, you were heaving and stuff…” Nicole continued, stopping with me as I looked around.

“I can do much more than that,” I countered, throwing a light spell to illuminate the surroundings, only to shake my head when there was no Magic Stone anywhere.

I sighed and walked further in to see if there was another path to follow.

If there was no Magic Stone, and the Unholy Dark Beast disappeared, then that meant that I didn’t absorb the power from the monster and it was likely dispersed in the Tainted Land.

Still, that didn’t mean that I had lost the opportunity to absorb another one, so there was no point in lingering here. The faster that we find more of those the better.

I turned my eyes to look up at Asteora, who had returned to the same leisured pose while flying, appearing as if she was lounging on a large chair. She didn’t seem at all concerned about what we were doing or where we were going, so I put aside my complaints about her killing the Unholy Dark Beast and picked up my pace; Nicole trying to keep up with me.

* * *

“Humhum, let me handle this,” Nicole confidently said when a group of Dark Beast surrounded us.

We had found a large cave a certain distance behind where the Unholy Dark Beast died. It was much larger than the paths we had taken before, but not so large that I couldn’t see the walls and the ceiling with a bright Light Orb. Because of that, Asteora was flying a short distance away from us in the air.

Nicole summoned a couple of fireballs to her hands, and with a smirk, she threw them to the group of Dark Beast. I noticed that the fireballs had grown in size, and that their light was much brighter than how they were when we first started exploring this Tainted Land.

They hit a couple of Dark Beasts that had the shape of werewolves, which exploded in a mess of darkness and fire in every direction, throwing to the ground the other Dark Beasts that were surrounding the explosion.

I didn’t move from my spot as I rested the large black sword on my shoulder and just watched Nicole fight.

This was supposed to be an exploration for both power and money, but I had grown interested in watching Nicole’s development. It was curious to see her switch from being terrified and crying, to seeing her destroy these small Dark Beasts with a confident smirk.

After the explosion, the Dark Beasts didn’t linger around and all rushed to get over to us. Nicole’s expression faltered slightly, but she still raised her hand and summoned a large fireball to her hands.

“Who needs magic when you have a flamethrower!” she exclaimed and from the large fireball, a thick torrent of fire with a bright orange core was shot.

The Dark Beasts that were in the way were shredded under the fire, leaving behind nothing more than a mist of darkness. The same thing happened to the ones that were next to those as she moved her hands from one side to the other, spreading the torrent of fire in every direction.

Suddenly, for seemingly no reason, Nicole stopped the fire, bringing her hands to her mouth as she looked mortified at the fire that was still flying all over the place.

I tilted my head slightly with an eyebrow raised as I looked at her. “What’s wrong?”

“U-um… I hadn’t thought about it… but isn’t it really bad if I use fire inside a cave…?” she asked with a wavery voice. “Wouldn’t we run out of a-air at this rate?”

“What?” I asked, since I didn’t understand what one thing had to do with the other.

Asteora, on the other hand, seemed to have completely understood what Nicole asked as she lowered herself to be close to us while nodding. “Under any other circumstance, you would be absolutely correct.”

“T-t-t-then! We should get out of here fast!” she exclaimed and turned around, ignoring the remaining Dark Beasts that were still looking this way.

“No need. This is not ‘any other circumstance’. We’re in a Magic Red Zone. The density of power in the air maintains the zone as much as it can to the ideal conditions that it needs, including air, water, fire, and anything like that if it has it. So you don’t need to worry about that—besides, if air was a problem, then you can simply use magic to produce it,” Asteora replied, her eyes on the rushing Dark Beasts instead of us.

“B-but! I can’t do any other magic besides fire!” Nicole exclaimed, “What would I do otherwise!?”

“Well,” Asteora said, unconcerned about the Dark Beast as she gave me a soft smile. “You’d bring a really close friend to supply it for you.”

I would answer her, but right now, the Dark Beasts were just a couple of steps away from us, so with a wide horizontal swing, I slashed at the couple of ones that had reached us first.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I think you should focus on the task at hand,” I said, creating a large Rock Spike in my left hand and launching it in the direction of the Dark Beasts that were behind the ones I split in half.

The Rock Spike crashed with a handful of them, leaving a hole in the middle of their humanoid bodies, before hitting a wall, where it exploded into several pieces.

“Well… if you say so… then I guess I’ll keep trying as hard as I can!” Nicole exclaimed, creating more fireballs in her hand and throwing them to the Dark Beasts as I dealt with the ones closer to me. “But if I feel like I’m running out of air, I’m running away!”

As we were doing that, a couple of red lightning struck somewhere in the middle of the horde of Dark Beasts. Nicole screamed, and stopped throwing fire for a moment as her eyes turned to the place where they struck while I readied myself for the enemy that was likely coming: A couple of large Dark Beasts.