Chapter 61. Somebody's Investigation

Two weeks ago I received yet another report of someone claiming to have seen the Hero of the Holy Gods. Those reports weren’t that rare, as almost any girl with the same name as her and even a slightly close appearance would be reported to our branch—mostly by people who used to be under the Tenebreius Alliance.

I had decided to work in a city near the new Leyfallan Empire's territories with the Arretia Interworld Affairs, on the magical branch that dealt with issues of high importance, like countries wanting to use magic to go to war, or threaten others to their will. Thankfully, the Earthlings—or Earthans as I prefer to call them—don’t know how to properly use magic yet, so I’ve been able to quell any idea from any government to use magic as a weapon and not a tool.

There was no desire in me to have another world destroyed by people’s self-centered ideologies and beliefs; just like a certain someone did in the past, who I was certain was already gone.

And I knew for a fact that Althea was dead, even if I wasn’t there in the clash between her and Salrak. I could feel her power at the last moments being completely drained by the Holy Gods—and there was no doubt that it was the Holy Gods, as Salrak himself told me in the past that that was their plan.

There had been some hope five years ago, back in my world, that Salrak would be able to defeat Althea, but I knew that the power that she had accumulated was far beyond that of any common being, and that there was a big chance that she was going to be victorious. I tried everything I could to ensure that she wouldn’t be able to win, but she proved to be much more capable than I expected.

“Ma’am, are you sure you don’t want to look into it? This one comes from someone associated with an important Institute; it’s even an elf, like you,” my assistant said to my back as I looked over the night lights of the city from this stupidly tall building.

“There’s no shortage of fools who think they’re the Holy Hero—or have seen her—but if she was still alive, I would be able to sense her,” I replied without turning to look back at him.

“Oh… I’m not so sure… her name’s strange and her powers are… odd…” my assistant said, flipping his finger on the tablet.

I saw my pale young-looking face turn to a frown in the reflection of the window. I dropped it almost right away, as I wasn’t that young anymore and I didn’t want to have wrinkles appear on my face before their proper time. I turned around, my platinum long blonde hair swinging as I did.

“Okay, fine. Show it to me,” I said and made my way over to the desk.

“Here,” he tossed the tablet across the large desk, which I stopped with my hand as I looked at the screen.

I was momentarily stunned. The girl in this profile looked almost exactly like Althea did when I first started training her almost two decades ago. Her last name as well was… strange. Althea didn’t have a last name, and I don’t think anyone would be willing to have ‘Holy Fool’ as a last name…unless… it was given by a certain God who used to call her that all the time.

Her skills were also quite strange, even if her stats were far too weak for her to be the Hero. A Holy Skill… S rank levels of mana sense and manipulation… This girl was… similar to the actual Althea, almost to the point of making me doubt if it was a coincidence…

But a coincidence it might just be, so I simply shook my head and tossed the tablet back to my assistant. “She does look pretty similar to Althea, but it can’t be. I’m sure that she’s dead.”

“What if… what if she’s reincarnated, or something like that,” my assistant insisted, picking the tablet and turning it off.

I felt like telling him to go back to work, as those fantasies were just fantasies, but I remembered that we’re talking about a woman who was able to stand up to a God and not only give him a fight, but go as far as killing him, so there’s a chance that she could’ve used something to save herself… Although, from what the Holy Gods did to her at the end, I wasn’t sure that she would be able to do something even close to that.

“I don’t think she would look like a grown adult if she reincarnated five years ago,” I said and turned to look out the window once more.

“Hm… I don’t know. This one gives me the vibes… y’know what I mean?” he said and I couldn’t help raise an eyebrow and look at his reflection on the window as if he was talking nonsense.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. Speak plainly,” I said.

He scratched his head with a wry smile. “I just think that maybe you should try looking into it.”

I shook my head. “It would most likely be a waste of time.”

“Well… if anything, you get to take a small break and travel a little. Use the excuse that this is a mission of high importance to the world,” he continued, and I remained quiet, waiting to see if there were other reasons. “And… I know that you feel it. I saw it in your face when you looked at the profile.”

I tightened my lips. It was true that I nearly dropped to the chair when I saw her picture, but it couldn’t possibly be. She can’t be alive. Not in this world.

“Come on… I know that you want to look into it…” he teasingly said with a smile.

I heavily sighed and dropped my head. “Okay fine… I’ll personally go look into this girl, but if she turns out to be just some other common girl with the name Althea then…” I turned to look at him and he looked back at me with a concerned smile. “You better be prepared to work extra hours to make up for the time I’m wasting.”

* * *

A day later from that report, I was already in the city that she was supposed to be living in. It was a rather pleasant city, in the middle of the mountains, with a weather that wouldn’t get too hot nor too cold. It was, however, a rather large city, full of traffic jams, which is why I refused to take any of their transportation mediums, and just flew from up high, close to the clouds.

Most governments didn’t like it when mages flew without permission, since it could cause trouble with airplanes and other such artifacts, and they didn’t want some wanna-be hero to destroy a plane and kill several innocent people; but for me, they didn’t have the authority to deny me, so I was freely able to move about. Besides, even if a plane was likely to collide with me, I had more than enough magic and talent to not only dodge it, but to save the people in that thing.

It had taken me a while to identify the woman in question as her power wasn’t too different to every other common mage, but I did eventually find her in the locations given to me.

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To make sure that she didn’t detect me—if this really was Althea—I used my most powerful concealing spells. There was still a chance that she might notice me, but there really wasn’t anyone powerful enough in this city to do so; not even her.

“She’s wearing a school uniform…? What for…? She didn’t really enjoy her time in the Leyfallan capital academy. I don’t see why she would do it again…” I whispered from the sky as I followed her.

She was also keeping company with young people from that Institute, but her attitude… It was so closely resembling that of Althea in the Final War, that I wasn’t sure if it was an act, this random girl’s personality, or the real thing. I had to follow her and see what else there was.

That same morning, they were tasked to go into magic training inside some barriers, and—as I had been doing the whole time—I snuck inside the building and watched. It was a rather crude way of training, but it wasn’t too different from how most countries did it, so I didn’t really pay much attention to it.

What I did pay attention to was how the elf that did the report looked at Althea, the latter who appeared to be rather uninterested in any of the magic training people were doing.

The other people in the room trained their meager magic—nothing so special that I should waste my time looking at them. However, when a girl messed up her magic and went into a panic, I was surprised to see this Althea lookalike go and comfort her. I even managed to sneak myself into the dome that she created and was surprised to see her recreate something that I did for the real Althea in her early years of combat.

It wasn’t quite as lifelike as what I did back then, as I was able to create a full peaceful forest with Mana Beast birds chirping, but the concept was the same. That, and that the situation in which Althea went into a panic back then was when faced with a large demon and not some failed magic.

I was amazed to hear her hum a tune that only the real Althea would hum, as it was something that was taught to her by her mother. However, once more, I could say it was just a coincidence, as with the ridiculous amount of people there were in this world, more than one person was likely to have the same idea at some point, or could've heard that tune from someone in our world.

Once that was done, she easily dropped everything and was called to use her own magic. This elf did something rather clever—as if he knew I was watching—in that he asked her to do a Sacred Cut; some weak Holy Spell that the system makers paid a crooked Holy Knight to register into the system.

This Althea seemed confused about the skill, which somewhat disappointed me and made me think that this was nothing more than a believable imitator, but after she looked into the Watch, she understood what was asked of her. I watched with an uninterested feeling, expecting this girl to do something silly that couldn’t be called Holy Power, but when she used the spell, I immediately recognized that kind of mana manipulation.

It wasn’t pure Holy Power, but she was handling it just as the real Althea would’ve done. And just like real Holy Power, she crushed the defenses that this building had.

An alarm sounded out, the elf rushed to fix it, and everyone went back to their own thing.

But I didn’t, I was left stunned. She had used mana to reproduce Holy Power; something that no imitator should’ve been able to do without proper Holy Knight training, which this girl wasn’t supposed to have.

The only thing that concerned me was that she was completely exhausted after doing that, and she appeared to be in some form of discomfort from the spell, something that shouldn’t happen, as Althea used to say that Holy Power felt warm and comfortable, like being embraced by someone you love.

This near-perfect imitator also looked confused about that feeling as she looked at her own hand as if it was on fire.

So far, I wasn’t fully convinced that she was the real Althea; at least, not from this little thing. I still had to watch over her to see what else she did, and most importantly, if she still carried that same pure Holy Power in her body.

* * *

Over the next few days, I watched her go from a small apartment near the Institute; where she would sometimes share the night with a young Fire Deviant girl as they either trained, talked, or simply watched a movie; to go to the institute where she just half-paid attention to whatever the elf said—who hardly hid his fear of the girl.

I had taken my time to watch her from outside the windows and the sky without taking my time to sleep or anything like that. I was at the pinnacle of magic, and as such, I didn’t need to do a lot of those mundane things. I watched almost everything she did, from the way that she interacted with the Deviant girl, to the things that she would do on her day to day.

I even watched her get beaten up by a rather feisty Beastkin woman, which was a pretty amazing thing to see, as I hadn’t seen her get beaten up in years after she became stronger than Grey—her old blade and combat master. However, even during this beat up, she displayed a level of mana control and combat awareness that no normal person in this world should have.

The more I watched, the weirder it felt. She looked no different than either a grandma using technology or just like an Arretian that just came to this world; her complete focus on the movies as she sometimes tried to shove her hands into the screen; the slow way that she would use a phone; and even the way that she would talk and interact with other people… It was all too similar to Althea—too impossibly similar to the real one.

One thing that she did that I found rather impossible for the real Althea to do, was that she was willing to drink something like beer. But, she always appeared to hate it, which I wasn’t sure if it added more to her being the real woman or not.

However, the one critical aspect of the real Althea was still missing: she hadn’t displayed any kind of pure Holy Power. She had only done that one simple Holy spell reproduction a few days ago, and nothing more.

I was at a loss of what to do with this girl. I was nearly convinced that she was the real Althea, but without Holy Power, she was just someone that was very similar to her without actually being her. I still had to watch a while longer to make sure that there was no Holy Power within her.

If there wasn’t then I would close this case as either nothing more than a coincidence or… as being the real one but without any Holy Power, and therefore, no threat to the world anymore. If there was, however, Holy Power… then I would have to make contact and ensure that she wasn’t a threat, which would be nothing more than to see what she was planning to do.

I couldn’t see Althea still being friendly with the Holy Gods after they took everything from her, but if she was still being friendly, and if the Holy Gods are involved in any way, then I’d have to sound the alarms in every institution in the world and prepare to face both her and whatever the Holy Gods have in store for us.

It would be a complete loss if that was the case, as this time, there was no Salrak to protect us. The Holy Gods would be able to enter Earth and take whatever they want, unopposed.

Hopefully, she wasn’t with them, and judging from the way that she interacted with the fools from a certain cult, it seems like she’s not on their side. But that could still just be an act.

* * *

A couple of weeks later, nothing of particular note happened. She had kept coming and going from the Institute, talking with the young people that had gathered around her, and training the Deviant girl that was slowly becoming more capable.

I was glad to see that this Althea wasn’t willing to get rid of the young girl like she would’ve done in the past.

I had met Deviants before. They were powerful beings that could use a pure element just like Althea could use pure Holy Power. I even wondered at one time if Althea was nothing more than just a Holy Deviant, but she could use all sorts of mana and magic like a powerful magic user, so that wasn’t the case.

And Deviants weren’t being used by the Holy Gods either, as none of them ever heard the whispers of the Holy Gods like Althea could.

Regardless, it appeared that this Althea wasn’t interested in following the words of the Holy Gods anymore, but she did train hard, and would usually get into sparring sessions with the Beastkin woman.

And… she also appeared to be short on money.

I was close to dismissing her case as nothing of importance, and leaving this girl to live her life in whatever way that she wanted. But on one particular night, something quite unexpected happened. She was attacked by those Followers of Leyfall, and to make matters worse, she was already spent and drained from a particularly intense training session with the Beastkin woman.

There was some fear in me that this girl was going to die tonight, as these zealots were using Holy Artifacts—likely acquired from the black market—to overpower her.

There was some desire in me to save the girl, but while I was considering jumping in, something impossible happened.

A blood-red fire surrounded by darkness covered Althea. It was no normal power. This was the power of a God, just like her old Holy Power.

She had Salrak’s power. Pure Darkness and Hellfire.