Chapter 84. Reaching a Goal

I heaved heavily, my uniform torn in several places, and my body battered with wounds and bruises. In my hand, the darkness blade I’d been using slowly crumbled into motes of dark orbs that faded into a mist and then nothing, until eventually, the blade completely disappeared.

With the edge of my uniform’s one remaining sleeve, I wiped out the blood that was coming out of my wounded lip, but my body couldn’t hold out anymore, and after a few seconds, I fell to the side, landing on the cracked floor with a soft thud that wouldn’t compare to the thundering fighting that had happened in this place until just a moment ago.

Struggling to lift my head to look ahead, I took notice of the damage of this place.

I was currently inside a closed, underground arena, surrounded by tall walls made out of steel and reinforced by magic, just like the ground under me that was full of cracks, and holes that bent the metal in several ways.

But the place that stood out the most and took the most damage was up ahead, a certain distance from me. It was a crater that occupied about half of the space of the arena. Its edges were that of molten steel that was already cooling down, and the inside was nothing but the ground below the now gone steel.

In the middle of that crater lay the coach, Reeta.

I used what remained of my strength to lift myself off of the ground and limp to the edge of the crater. I had gone all out trying to defeat her this time, but I wanted to make sure that the woman wasn’t dead. Otherwise, I would find myself in a lot of trouble.

With one eye closed due to a wound and the other one threatening to shut, I focused my sight on the woman inside. She was passed out with the whites of her eyes showing and her mouth open wide. But… she was still alive, judging from the soft movement of her chest, and the magic flow that I could sense coming from her body.

“I—I finally did it…” I whispered, dropping to my knees and hanging my head down.

A loud alarm went off for a second and the thick metal door that we used to come here struggled to open. It was half caved in, so to fully open it, the people behind it were forced to pry it open with their own magic.

Rushing in were a group of medics, all carrying several healing equipment; from bandages to rare medicines, and a couple of stretchers. Behind them, Asteora leisurely walked in.

The group of people rushed into the crater, hurriedly looking all over Reeta as they assessed her condition, before using healing magic and moving her body on top of the stretcher. Soon after, people like them rushed over to me.

“Hey! Althea! How are you feeling? Can you respond?!” One of the medics, a woman with short brown hair and a cap on it hurriedly asked as she looked all over me.

“I—I’m okay,” I said with difficulty. “You should—you should worry about coach—coach Reeta.”

“She’s already being taken care of. My job is to take care of you now,” the woman calmly said as she quickly moved her hands all over. “Now, let's get you out of here.”

With a simple move, the woman placed me on my back on top of the stretcher, and a couple of people picked me up, hurriedly moving in the same direction that they came from. As I was looking up at the half-broken lights of the arena, Asteora appeared next to me.

“Good job,” she said with a nod. “But I can see that you didn’t kill the Beastkin.”

“There was no need to do that,” I replied and finally shut my eye.

“Hmm… well, I guess that if you did another move, you could’ve killed her,” Asteora said with a nonchalant attitude.

I couldn’t help a frown from creeping in my aching face when she said that. I’d learned over the past few months a few other things about Asteora. She wasn’t… exactly the kind of woman I used to believe that she was. She was a cold person, who thought mostly about what was the best in the overall picture, and wouldn’t mind the smaller details of the actions that she took; be those betray me for the sake of the world, or killing a few to save a lot.

There had been a strange feeling within me when I thought about her, and I wondered how it was that I couldn’t see her true nature after many years of knowing her. Perhaps it was that I didn’t pay attention, or it might’ve just been that the way I saw her made me blind to those things.

“Coach Reeta is a good woman… it wouldn’t do the world any good to—to kill her,” I replied with difficulty and wiped the frown off my face since it was making it hurt more.

“Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I don’t really care,” Asteora replied, “But at least you managed to meet the conditions I placed on you, so we’re going to be meeting the Emperor as soon as we can.”

“Ugh…” I reacted with annoyance, since I’d nearly forgotten that I had to meet with that boy.

Asteora chuckled. “It’s not that bad. But you’ll need to get a few things ready, like a passport and a Leyfallan Visa. It’s going to be a rather simple task. Just ask my assistant when you’re ready.”

“Okay…” I said with a groggy voice.

“I shall take my leave now. That Deviant child still has a way to go,” Asteora replied, and before I could say anything, I felt her presence vanish.

I sighed and allowed myself to pass out and be quietly carried over to a hospital.

* * *

When I woke up once more, I was in a clean room with a few things to eat resting on a small table next to the bed. I was covered in a few bandages over my limbs and head, but overall I was almost completely healed. The only thing that hadn’t completely recovered was both my mana and the Darkness and Hellfire Power within me, but it was just a matter of time while resting to get those back. Although, I could hunt something with magic power, absorbing their energy to recover much faster, but there was no need to do something like that.

My phone was somewhere close to the snacks on the table, so with a lazy movement due to how heavy my arms felt, I reached for it. There were a few messages on it, from Nicole, Victoria, David, one from Bo’guth, and a couple from someone else I met when I reached the A ranks, James. The only one who didn’t send a message was Steven.

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First I answered Nicole, letting her know that I was okay and alive, since a few of her messages were panickingly asking if I died and needed three days to revive… a joke that she liked to use from time to time where she compared me to a man named Jesus.

I gave a quick reply to everyone else.

I could call them to let them know that I was okay, but I still wasn’t feeling up to it, so I put the phone aside and reached for the snacks. They were a simple soup, and a few small pieces of peach cut next to it on a plate.

While I was eating the pieces of peach, I heard a muffled ruckus coming from outside the room.

“E-excuse me ma’am! You can’t just—”

“Outta my way!” shouted a female voice that was getting closer.

There was no need to get into a fighting stance since that was a voice I knew very well already, so I calmly ate my peaches and waited for that woman to burst right in. With a slam, the door of my room was opened, and at the entrance stood a heaving Reeta with the gown that they give people in hospitals nearly falling from her body. Behind her, a couple of nurses stood with awkward and fearful expressions on their faces.

Reeta was covered in a few more bandages than me, and her hair was a complete mess, but judging by the energetic expression on her face, I knew that she was okay.

“I see you’re doing fine,” I calmly said while biting down on a small piece of peach.

“Like hell I am!” she shouted, storming inside the room to stand on the other end of the bed. “You gave me quite the beating!”

“I held back… didn’t want to kill you,” I said, reaching for another piece of peach.

“Grrr…” she growled, and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say that she was angry, but her expression changed to a wide smile and a thumbs up. “You’ve finally beaten me! And you even held back!”

“It wasn’t easy…” I admitted, since it really had taken me nearly six months to beat her, months in which she sent me to a hospital a few times after each fight, while I had never done so until now.

She laughed heartily. “I was hoping it would take you at least a couple of years to beat me… but I guess you never really know!”

“E-excuse me, ma’am,” one of the nurses fearfully said as she walked into the room. “You can’t go into another patient’s room…”

“Hah?!” Reeta replied, giving a fierce glare to the nurse, causing her to cower.

“It’s okay,” I said to the nurse, “as you can see, we’re both fine.”

“But according to protocols, we can’t—”

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” a woman in a white doctor’s coat said, calmly walking inside the room. “I’ll take care of this. You can leave now.”

“Thank you,” the nurse said, followed by a sigh as she left the room.

The woman was Doctor Vera, the same one that did a medical assessment on me the first time I came to the academy. She was looking calm, quite unlike the first time Reeta sent me here, but by now, she had gotten used to me being here after training with the coach.

“I’m going to give you one last look, so if you don’t mind…” she said as she approached the bed.

It was a signal to let me know that she was going to use an appraising spell to see how my body was, and to not let my mana react to it, so with a nod, I lowered some of the magic defenses of my body.

Her eyes glowed green for a few seconds, after which they turned back to normal. She had refined her spell to make it much faster, since from the time I activated my defenses, she decided that it was better to use something less intrusive and more effective. Thanks to the knowledge I had for the use of mana, she was able to improve much more.

Doctor Vera nodded. “You’re perfectly okay. You should be able to leave whenever you want.”

Reeta scoffed in response while shrugging. “Of course she’s fine. She managed to knock me out.”

The doctor threw a quick glance at Reeta. “I would assess you too… but without even using magic, I could tell that you’re doing just fine…”

“I’d have to die for me to not be fine!” she exclaimed, flexing a muscle of her arm—the movement nearly dropping the hospital gown to the floor.

With a sigh and a shake of her head, Doctor Vera turned to the door of the room, stopping momentarily to look back at us. “Don’t forget to sign the papers when you leave.”

“Yes,” I replied, and Reeta simply nodded.

Once we were left alone in the room, I continued eating the couple of peaches that were left on the plate, but I could still notice Reeta’s gaze on me. “What is it?”

“So… what are the plans now that you’re the strongest one in the Institute? Planning to leave with that annoying old woman?” she asked.

“Annoying old woman? Asteora?” I asked, since she was the only one I could think of when it came to age, despite her not looking old at all.

“Yeah that one!” Reeta followed up. “I don’t know the details of your relationship with her, but I can tell that you’re connected.”

“You already know that we were former master and disciple,” I said, putting aside the plate and reaching for the soup that was nothing more than flavored chicken water with a few chunks of carrot and chicken in it.

“Hmph, I still don’t believe that lie. The actual Hero of the Stupid Gods would’ve been able to kill me the first day,” Reeta replied, crossing her arms under her chest.

“Well... Believing or not is up to you,” I said and took a sip from the soup. “But yes, as you know, she asked me to defeat you, and I’ve done it.”

“Argh,” she grumbled, scratching her head in frustration with one hand. “It’s going to be a shame to lose such a nice combat partner.”

“Hmm… you could always come with us and see for yourself the kind of things that Asteora probably has in store for me,” I said, taking another sip from the soup and getting a chunk of chicken with it.

“I can’t say that it’s not tempting but…” she trailed off, frowning and looking down for a moment. “Well, now that I think about it—”

The door to the room swinged open once more, and a young girl stood at the entrance. Behind her, a couple of young men and another girl.

“Althea!” exclaimed Nicole as she walked in. “That was so cool!”

Nicole had changed slightly from the first time I met her and started training with Asteora. Her appearance was much more defined, giving her a much more fit body than she had before, and most of all, her hair had grown a bit more, with the tips of it carrying a hint of orange, just like the edges of her irises—a result of her Deviant Magic getting more powerful.

David stood by the entrance behind her, sighing as he did. “You can’t just barge into the Institute’s hospital like that, Nicole…”

“It’s okay, it’s okay. They already know me. See?” she dismissively replied, pointing back at Victoria, who was apologizing to the hospital’s staff.

Both David and Victoria had changed as well, although their appearances didn’t change as much as Nicole’s. They were both simply in better shape, even if David was already in a good shape from the moment I met him.

The last person standing somewhere between David and Victoria was James. He was a tall, good looking young man, with fair skin, blonde hair that was neatly combed to the side, sharp eyebrows that matched his sharp dark eyes, a well sculpted nose, and strong facial features that made him look like the ideal knight for the Holy Leyfallan Empire, if it wasn’t for one thing…

“I can see the biggest dumb fuck is okay?” he asked, throwing a mocking smile.

His foul language didn’t fit his good looks.

Nicole frowned and turned to point a finger at him. “Why are you here?! You’re always so rude!”

“I had to make sure that the only person capable of beating me and the coach was still alive,” he said, shrugging while shaking his head. “But it’s obvious that someone whose mind was designed for one thing wouldn’t fall that easily.”

“Well, you’ve seen enough, you can go away now!” Nicole said, one hand on her hip as she dismissed James with the other hand.

“Eh, I think I’ll stay for a while, just to spite you, Fire Chicken,” he mocked.

Nicole narrowed her eyes in a glare, but turned around to show me a bright smile. “Never mind that loser. Let's focus on better things.”

“Huh? That’s grand, coming from someone that’s yet to hit the A—”

“I’ll look for something we can all share to celebrate!” Nicole loudly said, speaking over James as she took her phone out, “I’m sure that we can eat something really tasty and—huh?”

She suddenly stopped while looking at her phone, her expression changing from confusion to a frown.

“What is it?” I asked, putting aside the bowl of soup.

“This… it can’t be… right?” she whispered, her eyes focused on the phone. “It’s—it’s a message of condolences from the institute and…” her face paled and her eyes shook as she looked at the phone. “It’s for Steven…”