Hellgondo

I did even better than I thought. I'd been almost unable to move at all in the immediate aftermath of Alice draining me completely, but within two hours I was well enough to walk back to the inn. I slept like a log during the night. Even Alice was impressed when I popped out of bed ready for the day. Part of it was that I was indeed getting stronger in that respect, but the other part was that my former dread at going to Hellgondo had transformed into excitement. Alice noticed the sudden change in attitude but didn't say much other than to express satisfaction that she had helped me get my mind right. Her phases were fascinating. Now she was fixated on taking credit for all of my progress. She wasn't wrong. The spirits, my state of mind, my sword training, my education in the ways of this world, 90% of that was her.

We went to the Ilias Kreuz HQ as soon as we had breakfast. I spared no expense getting us well fed given where we were about to go. I also stocked up on supplies. There would be no place to do so on Hellgondo until we got to the castle. At which point Alice might be fine, entering the castle as the Monster Lord, but I would not be, entering the castle as a one man invading army. It was strange how the idea of us taking those separate paths into the castle seemed to almost make sense, as long as I didn't think too hard about it. It's amazing what you can get used to thinking about when you've thought about it long enough. When the idea of going to face the Four Heavenly Knights had first occurred to me, it had seemed bafflingly insane. Now it was just the goal I'd been working towards for many weeks.

The egg was of course still there as Alice had promised. Not that I had any reason to doubt her. Her magic was indeed formidable. The entire Sabasan Army wouldn't have been able to move that egg if she said it couldn't be moved. It didn't seem likely that anyone had even tried. Except for the living statue of Lazarus, the headquarters seemed to have been abandoned. As Alice instructed me, I removed all six orbs from my pack and lined them up. Each time I set one down, they began to glow, the glow getting brighter as each one was added. Next was the hatching ritual. It required two people to do the incantation. There was just one problem. Two monsters were required to do the incantation and I wasn't a monster! Alice offered to bring a monster to us. She must really want to go to Hellgondo badly, I thought. It would have seemed completely on brand for her to tell me to go find my own monster, one who was willing to help me.

Alice closed her eyes. What was she doing? Summoning a monster with a spell? After a few moments, she opened her eyes again. "I was able to find someone to come here immediately. You're not going to like who it is. Don't worry, she's not coming to make trouble."

Before I could ask, my unspoken question was already answered. Alma Elma entered the basement with a dramatic poof! "Hello, Luka-boy!" she said cheerily.

"Alma Elma," I responded politely. "Why are you so eager to help?"

"Because I can't wait to see you at the Monster Lord's Castle, that's why! We have so much to talk about! So much to do! In so many ways! It's going to be so much fun! I don't know what I'd do if you couldn't come!"

"Stop pestering Luka, you annoyance," Alice scolded. "The only reason I'm not going to saw your wings off for what you did to Luka in the coliseum is because it was technically within the rules of your stupid contest. That doesn't mean you had to do it. You had him beaten. You could have just finished him and had your way with him. You didn't need to torture him like that."

"Oh, Alice, I just wanted to see what he was made of! Just like Granberia did! Did you know Granberia and I are the best of friends, Luka-boy? How come you don't mind the way she hurts you but you hate the way I do?"

Before I could retort back, Alice shut both of us down. "It's not good to make the Monster Lord repeat herself. You're here to do a ceremony with me. Stop bothering Luka. You'll have plenty of opportunity to torture him in whatever way you please if you beat him in single combat. Until then, you'll extend him basic courtesy."

"As you wish, Monster Lord," she replied, almost mockingly. Alice chose to ignore her tone. They held hands and began the incantation. As they performed it, I saw cracks start to appear in the egg. Dazzling lights appeared from the cracks. The light became blinding. I'd been so trained to expect such lights to affect my mind that I involuntarily braced myself, but this was not that kind of light. As it faded, a magnificent monster appeared before me. It was gigantic, with barely enough room to fit in the basement. The only way that I could imagine her getting out of here was to simply burst out through the roof. I didn't expect that would be a problem.

"Looks like she hatched without any trouble," Alice observed. "She sees us as her parents, so she'll do anything we say."

"Kuee!" agreed the Garuda girl, happily flapping her wings.

"Your name shall be Galda," Alice declared. The garuda girl seemed to like that.

"Okay, get on," Alice said, hopping onto Galda.

"All right," I said, timidly climbing onto Galda's back. "Is this safe? There's no saddle. Seems like we'll fall off."

"It's fine. It's a legendary bird."

"How does that make it fine?" I asked.

"Sigh. It means she has magic, idiot. Once she's in the air you can't fall off. It's literally impossible."

"Oh," I said. "I guess it's all right then."

"Alma Elma," Alice said. "Thank you for your assistance. Now go away."

"See you soon, Luka!" Alma Elma sang, vanishing.

"Galda, take us to Hellgondo," Alice ordered. The giant bird girl shrieked her assent to the command, bursting through three floors and the roof of the Ilias Kreuz HQ and into the air.

"Holy crap, we're flying!!!" I shouted exultantly. I'd come to trust Alice completely in this respect. When she said something was so, it was so.

"Of course we're flying, idiot. What did you think was going to happen?"

Even though the wind was rushing past us I could hear Alice's voice clearly though she wasn't shouting. More of Galda's magic?

"I've flown before, but never on the outside! This is amazing!"

"There's no need to shout," Alice admonished. "I can hear you just fine. What do you mean? You've only ever flown on the inside? Do giant birds swallow their passengers when transporting them where you come from?"

"No, they have flying machines that can take hundreds of passengers. I just remembered that! Thank you for this experience, Alice!"

"Your world is really starting to frighten me, Luka."

"So how long to Hellgondo?" I asked.

"About an hour," she said.

That was fast. Judging by the distances I'd estimated since we left, that meant we could fly all the way from the southernmost point on Hellgondo all the way to Ilias Village in only ten hours. I didn't think I'd want to go back except to visit, but it was good to know that if I wanted to get back it would take less than a day. Within 40 minutes, Hellgondo came into sight. The mountains were very tall. I wasn't sure if they were taller than anything on my world, but they certainly had to come close. I realized just then how high up we were. The Galda's magic was really something! It wasn't cold up here, nor was the oxygen low. We could speak and breathe normally and weren't getting blown off by the high winds. What an amazing creature!

Speaking of amazing creatures, another one was approaching us fast. By now I knew to look towards Alice whenever I thought trouble might be coming. Oddly enough, she didn't disappear, but she was hiding under Galda's feathers. I made eye contact with her. She made a swinging motion with her hands and pointed in the direction the creature was coming from. Trusting that Alice knew what she was doing, I unsteadily tried to stand on Galda's back. Sure enough, it was as steady as solid ground, although psychologically I was still having problems with the whole concept. I didn't think that I'd be able to fight with confidence in this position. The creature approached and I recognized it immediately. This was a wyvern, a legendary cousin of the dragon race.

"I am in charge of the air defenses here!" she announced. "I serve the Monster Lord! You will not be allowed to pass!"

Again I thought of how little sense this all made. Alice was right here. She could wave me past this wyvern with ease. But she wasn't going to do that. I had to fight my way across the continent and through the castle without her aid. That was the only way to prove myself worthy of her. Seeing that I was not turning back, the wyvern dove on me. We achieved glancing blows on each other on the first pass. I felt as if I had no leverage. Striking up at her I'd never get a really good hit. But her dives could gut me.

Salamander spoke up in my head. "Call me, Luka! It's your only chance! Your fighting spirit is higher than it's ever been! I don't know where this confidence came from, but I like it! Now use it! Infuse your sword with fire!"

Salamander was right. I hadn't been in a fight since I had decided I was going to prove myself worthy of Alice. Before I'd only been able to make the sword glow a little, and that took a lot of concentration. This time, as the wyvern made her second pass, I summoned the power of fire with but a thought. My sword flared into life. With renewed confidence I dove under the wyvern's assault and rolled, trusting that I could not fall off Galda if I tried. As I dove I struck at the wyvern's underside. The cut that was opened glowed brightly. The wyvern shrieked and started spinning out of control. Oh no! While Angel Halo didn't kill, the fall certainly would!

Alice seemed to sense my worry. I felt her hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry, she'll be fine. See, she's already recovered. She'll return to the castle to report that a strong hero is invading Hellgondo. It doesn't matter, since the Knights already know you're coming. Alma Elma would have seen to that."

"Great job, Luka!" Salamander said."Now you've got a basic understanding of all four elements! The next step is to get you using more than two at a time! You need to be able to use us all at once! Then you'll be unstoppable!"

"Told you he could do it," Undine said.

"Yay!!! We're flying!" Sylph said.

Gnome, as usual, said nothing. Nevertheless, I could feel her approval.

Alice ordered Galda to land once we cleared the mountain range. The atmosphere was heavy. I'd assumed it would be hot. The rumors I'd heard about this continent were that it was always oppressively hot, a virtual hellscape, but this was actually a little on the chill side. Not a pleasant chill, either. The kind of chill that makes your soul feel cold.

"So this is Hellgondo," I said. "It feels strange here. Not at all what I expected."

"It feels great, doesn't it?" Alice said. "Ahh, my birthplace is the best."

I looked around at the leafless, bent trees and the grassless ground. This place looked about as welcoming as a cemetery in the fall.

"We go on foot from here," Alice said."You still need time to get used to using the spirits. I also want to investigate Remina. I don't feel comfortable approaching it from the air."

"You said you didn't expect trouble there?" I asked.

"That's what I thought, but my gut tells me something different now. I still don't expect trouble, at least if we go in unnoticed."

"Will Galda be all right here?" I asked.

"Absolutely," Alice assured me. "No humans can set foot here and no monsters will attack her. Even if they did, she's very formidable. Nothing in this area is strong enough to take her on, even if she was born just a few hours ago."

"So where are we now?" I asked.

"Right now we're at the southernmost tip of the continent," she explained. "If we were to head straight north, we'd reach the Monster Lord's castle in a few days. You already know where we're going next."

"Remina," I said.

"Remina," she repeated. "I've been meaning to go there for awhile. I want to see if I can find out more about what happened there."

"I agree," I said. "I'm interested myself. So where is it?"

"Less than a day's hike to the northwest," she said. "I made you navigate up till now, however badly you sometimes did it. But this is my home, so I'll take us where we want to go. Even to my castle. Of course, once there, you're on your own."

"I think I saw on a map once that there was also something called a Sealed Sinners Prison. Is that where you keep criminal monsters?"

"I'm not positive what that is," she admitted. "I think that at one time it was a place where human souls who had sinned against Ilias were kept. It's said she put them there so that their souls would never know peace."

"Oh, well maybe we shouldn't go there," I said. "I know you don't like dead souls."

"Idiot, it's ghosts I don't like. Why would I be afraid of dead souls?"

"I…I…" I sighed. I give up, I thought. "So what would these sinners have done to deserve that?"

"How should I know? Grevious sins, I assume."

"Maybe we should check that place out," I suggested.

"Even here, another side trip?" she said disapprovingly. "Just to satisfy your curiosity?"

"It's more than curiosity," I argued. "If that place really is a place where Ilias seals sinners, we might learn something important about what she's up to."

"That….," Alice started to say. "That actually makes a tiny amount of sense. I guess you need the time anyway, since you're still not ready. I did promise you that you'd have time to get where you needed to be with the spirits. Fine. We'll check that out too. It's a little out of the way, but why not? Even though I'm guiding us now, it's still your journey. I'm not going to tell you where you can and can't go."

Did I just win an argument? With Alice, no less? If I could do that, was there anything I couldn't do?

Of course, we were going to Remina first. Alice had waited too long to check that place out. I was eager to do so as well. I had a feeling that whatever we found there was going to be very important.

On our journey we'd gone to many places. Some places we journeyed to with a song in our hearts. Others to solve mysteries. Others, because there was a job to do. Other places we just stumbled into trouble. The journey to Remina felt like a trip to a funeral. I'm thankful that the journey was so short.

When we arrived, there were ruins as far as the eye could see. This place had been legendary for being advanced, probably the most advanced city on this world. Then in a day of terror it was gone. The place looked like a war had been fought. Buildings were destroyed. Bones were still littering the ground. It didn't quite bring to mind Sodom, since Sodom was completely erased from the landscape, but it sure looked like someone had tried their best to do the same thing. We walked down the main street of Remina. Even mostly destroyed, I could envision what this city must have been like. I've mentioned before that cities on this world tended to range from medieval to late 19th century in their tech, often with a mix of both existing side by side. I even saw some 20th century odds and ends, such as stadium lighting. Remina looked like it could have been Dresden after the bombing. It was just a small step away from a modern cityscape, similar to the kind that existed on my world. What's more, even though Hellgondo was not the most hospitable place for life as we know it, Remina seemed to have been selected as the best possible location for a human settlement. The leaves here were green, the grass was green if overgrown, and healthy looking trees were all over the city. The remnants of a park could be made out near the town center, a broken park bench overgrown with bushes at the west end. There had been a playground as well, with swing sets and slides, now smashed, the broken parts left strewn around.

I pointed out a lamia bone to Alice. Since humans and monsters tended to share a basic human form, with monsters carrying some extra anatomy, it had been hard to tell whether the bones had come from humans or monsters. The long snake tailbone, however, was unmistakable.

Alice noticed the presence of something with us a split second before I did. The thing was large and powerful. I could not have missed the wind warning me of its presence. Turning, we saw the horror. It was not human, nor a monster. It was some sort of chimera, made up of parts from several beasts. It had fur, wings, scales, a reptilian tail, a human upper body with horns and elven ears, and several tongues protruding out of its mouth that had to be three feet long. It was a cruel mockery of life. There was nothing about this creature that could have evolved naturally. Its anatomy didn't look practical at all unless its sole purpose was to catch and kill prey, without even being able to enjoy that prey.

As it charged us, another emerged from behind some ruins and followed its fellow beast into the fray. No, there were more than two. There must be dozens! Alice, to my surprise, slammed into one of them, driving the creature back into the rickety remains of a building, which collapsed on both of them. I was worried for a moment, but Alice soon popped out of the ruins and began slithering with more speed than I thought her capable of towards the largest mass of the creatures. Was she going to take on all of them? I was just facing one and I wasn't sure how easily I'd defeat it.

The creature had so many ways to attack I wasn't even sure what to defend against, so as much as I wanted to rush to Alice's aid, I felt I had little choice but to go on the defensive. The chimera charged me, horns down. Summoning the power of wind, I easily evaded it, striking it with my sword as it rumbled past. Its next choice of tactic was to lash out at me with those tongues. The tongues almost seemed to double as limbs, as one ripped my pants off while the others tried to coil around my penis. A very dangerous pleasure weapon indeed, but also easy to strike at given how huge they were. It withdrew them when I hit them, but not before coiling around my dick and then uncoiling to escape, both of which provided intense stimulation. I wouldn't be able to withstand much of that. I wouldn't have to worry about that for a few minutes, however, as getting hit with Angel Halo seemed to cause them to lose coordination.

I retaliated with a thrust to the chest of the creature, which caused it to rear up on two legs and attempt to drop its weight, claws first, onto me. It was craftier than I'd expected, because this had just been a feint. The real attack was its tail, which sucked in my penis. I immediately recognized the energy drain properties of a succubus. How many things was this creature made of?

I also noticed something else: Despite the fact that it had the intensity of a monster's pleasure attacks, I could feel that wrongness I had felt in Lila's mansion from her artificial creations. This thing could make a man come readily and put him into critical ecstasy, but there was nothing tempting about it. Aside from its horrifying appearance, that feeling of wrongness would make any man want to get away no matter how good it was feeling to him. With real monsters, men were known to willingly submit to their own deaths because the pleasure overwhelmed all other motivations. That aspect of the monsters' magic was not present in this creature, just as it had not been in Lila's creations. Could it be that the technology to replicate that magic came from the same place? I would have to mention it to Alice, assuming both of us survived this battle.

I struck at the tail that was draining my energy, causing it to withdraw. The chimera had plenty more tricks. That same tail simply came around the chimera's body to strike me from the other side, this time with the objective of tripping me rather than draining my energy. Now prone and on my back, it placed its body over mine, to do what I'll never know, because it had exposed a very tender part of its body to my sword. Instead of being sealed, it simply stopped functioning, falling on top of me. Was it dead? Had it even been alive in the first place?

With the help of Gnome, I managed to extract myself from under the thing's deadweight. I frantically tried to look for Alice, then remembered that unless she was hiding herself from my perceptions, I could sense her in the wind. I listened carefully. What I heard was hard to interpret, but I clearly picked up her unique signature. She was being swarmed by innumerable enemies, all copies of the creature I had just defeated. She was creating an incredible amount of violence, both magical and physical. I ran towards the fray.

On the way, I passed bodies of chimera beasts everywhere. In the time it had taken me to defeat one, she had taken out several. I had a long way to go if I was going to be as powerful as she was. Even as I ran towards her, I could sense that the numbers were declining rapidly. By the time I reached Alice, she was the only one standing. She was covered in blood.

"Alice, are you all right?!"

"Hmph… It's their blood." She said, completely unconcerned. "They didn't even scratch me."

"What in the world is going on here?" I asked.

She held up a feather. A harpy feather? No, it glowed a little. "Did that come off of one of the creatures?" I asked.

"No," she replied. "This thing has been here for 30 years. There's only one kind of feather that can glow that long. It's an angel feather."

Realization dawned on me. I'd been thinking of Sodom earlier. I hadn't realized just how close to the mark I'd been. This place had been destroyed by a vengeful god. Or more likely, a vengeful goddess that couldn't stand to see humans and monsters thriving together.

"Oh, no…." I said.

"I take it you figured it out?" she asked. All I could do was nod. This was more awful than anything I could have anticipated. How could this world ever know peace? Even once I'd accepted Ilias was probably real, I'd just assumed she reserved punishment for those who sinned against her in the afterlife. Seeing this kind of Old Testament fire and brimstone made me realize that monsters and humans could only get so far on the road to coexistence. Whenever they got too close, the goddess would snatch it away from them.

"There's no reason to hang around here any longer," Alice said. "I think more of those strange creatures will show up if we do. Time to go."

We put distance between ourselves and Remina as quickly as we could. Our next stop was going to be the Sealed Sinner's Prison. It would be about three days walk.

"Do you want to talk about what we found out?" I asked.

"Not really," she said.

"I just don't know what to do with that information. Angels descended from heaven and destroyed the place? That's insane!"

"Ilias wants to destroy all monsters," she said listlessly.

"Why do just one thing thirty years ago? Why not attack Noah? Or Port Natalia? Why bring me from another world to do her dirty work?"

"I guess we are talking about this now," she said. "Okay, fine, let's have this conversation. The fact is, I don't know. I don't know a damn thing! The crazy thing is, you're missing the most important part of this whole mystery!"

"Which is what?"

"The reason we're traveling together! If Ilias wants you to kill me, why have us travel together?"

"Whoa…. Hold on there," I said, now very confused. "How do you know Ilias wanted us to travel together?"

"I don't know with absolute certainty that it's what she wanted," she replied. "But she did fling me into the forest you just happened to be patrolling."

"Wait, she what? This is news to me!"

"Oh, you're right, duh," she said. Despite the gravity of the situation, I couldn't help but smile at her first adoption of language from my world. "I mentioned it in passing at your house, but it's understandable you wouldn't know who I was referring to. Then when you asked I shut you down. So here's the short version. When I decided to go traveling I waited for Ilias' birthday."

"A goddess has a birthday?" I asked. "I thought gods were eternal."

"No, apparently she was created, or born, or popped into being. So anyway, it was her birthday, and on her birthday she goes to the Ilias Temple to give her blessing to baptized heroes. I ambushed her. Punched her right in the face, too! I MAY have bitten off a little more than I could chew. She flung me halfway across the world, where I just HAPPENED to land in your neck of the woods. There's a small chance that could be coincidental, but I doubt it. She wanted you to meet me in those woods."

"That's incredible," I breathed. "But it doesn't mean she wanted us to travel together. Maybe she hoped I'd try to kill you while you were unconscious."

"There was no way for you to do it," she said. "Trying would have gotten you killed. Which would have made the effort of bringing you here a waste. I'm assuming she chose you for a reason. Which means she must know something about you. Such as you not trying to kill an unconscious monster. So the question remains, why induce us to travel together?"

"Maybe she thought that at some point I'd get access to my hidden power," I speculated. "And that by then I'd hate you. I have to admit, I was pretty upset with you when it became clear to me that you could just let me die right in front of you. Before that you apparently tried to rape me, although it didn't turn out to be rape because I was into it. But it seems to me that things would have only had to go a little bit differently for me to be resentful of you and monsters in general."

"That sounds a lot like my alternate history where I don't meet you and become the next Black Alice," she said. "I'll say the same thing to you that you said to me. It's just not in you to be that person."

"She is a goddess," I mused. "Maybe she just doesn't understand people. I find it hard to believe that she could want to destroy all monsters if she actually knew some monsters. Sure, there are a lot of bad monsters, but there are bad people, too. Shouldn't she want to punish the evil and reward the good? Why define good and evil according to what race or species you were born as?"

"We really don't know much about her," Alice explained. "We have our legends just like the humans do. Our legends are probably closer to being accurate than the humans' because we have a longer historical memory and better records, but no one really knows what her deal is."

"The Lord works in mysterious ways," I said quietly.

"What's that?"

"It's something that just came to me from a religion where I come from," I replied. "The Lord works in mysterious ways. It's just a way of saying that mortals can't understand gods."

"That's fine when a god is just someone people pray to and it doesn't directly affect anyone's lives," she said. "But you saw Remina. When a god commits genocide, it becomes essential to know what she's about. When she pulls a man from another universe to kill the Monster Lord, it's pretty important that we figure out why she did that."

"Maybe that's just a ruse," I said. "Maybe she doesn't want me to kill you at all. Tamamo said that when it comes to Ilias, what we're doing could be what she's always wanted us to do. After all, couldn't she just kill you herself? If she can fling you halfway around the world, it seems she's capable of killing you."

"I don't understand that either," she said. "She's been sending heroes to kill the Monster Lord for hundreds of years. They've only succeeded twice. Even after she brought you here, those efforts have continued. It's clear she's willing to take a direct hand in things. Remina proves that. I just don't know. Can we stop talking about this now?"

"Sure," I said. "It doesn't sound like we'll figure anything out anyway."

There were a lot of monsters on the way to the prison. Most of them just provided me with good practice. Unless I was in trouble, I focused on learning how to better control the elements. I knew I was taking a chance by not just fighting all out to begin with, but the monsters I was facing out in the wilderness were nothing compared to what I'd face inside the castle. There were only two battles that ended up being worrisome. A vampire got its teeth into me while it had me wrapped up in its cape. Between the energy drain and the cape holding me, I feared that I might be helpless. The only thing that saved me was that the vampire, in yet another case of a monster being impatient, became annoyed at my struggles and tried to use eye magic. That went about how you'd expect. We found the vampire's unconscious and tattered form about a half mile from the location of the fight. Another battle was with a behemoth, which ended up being the strongest monster I'd faced in terms of sheer brute force. Brute force against the elements was not a good matchup for her. Still, that meant I had to use everything I knew without taking any chances on trying anything new. My power with Gnome was clearly getting stronger, as I was almost able to overpower her during the many times we ended up grappling. She was a grabby one. I never did seal her. Like a typical musclebound bully, once she realized I could match her strength she decided that she had an urgent appointment elsewhere.

We arrived at the prison a couple of days after leaving Remina. It too was in ruins. There didn't seem to be anyone around. However, Sylph sensed something. She said that her former master was here. Heinrich? Had she had other masters? Why would Heinrich be here? But sure enough, his name was inscribed on a tablet. Heinrich had defeated the Monster Lord! Why would Ilias place him in an eternal prison?

"Alice, do you know anything about this?"

"This is one of the few cases where the humans should know more," she replied. "All we have in our history books about Heinrich is that he killed the Monster Lord with the help of the spirits. We never knew what happened to him after that. Do the human histories have anything to say on that?"

"Just that when Heinrich killed the Monster Lord, Ilias took him to heaven," I said.

"That sounds like a fairy tale," Alice noted. "Something to append to the story to give it a happy ending. Clearly Ilias had a change of plans. The seal on this prison is strong. The kind of seal only a god could create. Whatever he did, it was so serious she wanted his soul to never have peace. There's only one thing that would cause her to do that: rebellion."

"Why would Heinrich rebel?" I asked. "The Monster Lord he killed was undoubtedly evil. She wasn't like your mother. There was no reason for Heinrich to repent what he had done."

"There's a lot of troubling issues here," Alice mused. "I guess this trip wasn't a total waste, but this one fact is the only thing you're going to learn here."

"Still, it's a pretty big deal," I said. "Is this the fate Ilias intended for me if I were to kill you?"

"Seems sadistic even for her," Alice replied. "Why bother? Why not just send you back where you came from? We won't get those answers here. Let's go."

As I turned to leave, Angel Halo started to glow brightly. The effect was very brief. So brief I wondered if I had imagined it or perhaps unconsciously made it glow with the fire element.

"Where to next?" Alice asked.

There didn't seem to be anyplace else to go except her castle. There were still a few days until we reached it. I was eager to get it over with but also aware that I was not ready. I still couldn't use more than two elements at a time. The best compromise I could think of was to just take it slow getting there and hope for the best. As plans went, it was pretty lame.

As we left the prison, I suddenly had a thought. "Sylph, do you know what happened to Heinrich?"

"Not really," she said. "After he defeated the Monster Lord he sent us away. He rebelled against Ilias and didn't want us to be a part of it."

I relayed this information to Alice. "Rebelled, eh?" she said. "I wonder why? At least that's one worry you can put to rest. As long as you do as she says and kill me, you won't be punished."

That didn't sound comforting at all given that I had no intention of killing Alice.

"Prepare yourself, Luka," she said about halfway through our hike to the castle. "The fights in the Monster Lord's castle will be difficult."

"I'm not as ready as I hoped I'd be," I said.

"You're not ready, period," she noted. "But taking on random monsters and training at camp isn't going to get you any further as you are now. In every case where you made a great leap in your ability to learn to use an element, it was in a crisis situation. It's do or die for you. If it helps, I have complete confidence that you'll rise to the occasion again."

"Is the offer to enter the castle as your guest still on the table?" I asked.

"It is," she said, but I could tell by her tone that she didn't want me to make that choice anymore. Given what I thought I knew, that made sense. She wanted me as her husband. If I took her up on her offer, that would never happen. I'd just be her cook and her lover. I was already that in practice, if not officially.

I was beset with monsters frequently. None were a challenge. Nor did I improve very much. On one hand it was encouraging that as a human I was now more powerful than almost any monster. On the other, I feared I was a lot less powerful than the opponents I was delivering myself to. At this point, the only monsters that mattered were in that castle.

We camped a few miles away from the castle on day four of our hike from Heinrich's prison. Alice seemed sad, although she was clearly trying to hide it. She had to know I wasn't ready, and yet I knew of no way to get ready just by wandering around this continent. I'd communed in my head with the spirits all through the journey. Salamander had agreed with Alice. Sometimes I just rose to the occasion when I needed to. If there was a rabbit to be pulled out of a hat, I could find it. But I was also aware that didn't always happen. I'd won a lot of battles on this journey. I'd also lost my share. There were times where no matter how badly I needed it, a miracle didn't come. Other than the monster simply not wishing to kill me or someone else bailing me out. No one would be bailing me out in the castle. Whoever I lost to, I'd be at their mercy.

"This will be our last training session," Alice said. "I'm having trouble reading you lately. You seem depressed that you aren't ready yet, but also still eager to get on with it. Please don't tell me you have a death wish."

"I don't," I assured Alice. "I've just realized that I'll either figure out how to use the spirits together or I won't. "

"That's not the only way for you to win," she said. "There are other paths. You could gain access to that power of yours. You've seen it. Has Undine figured anything out?"

"Not yet," I said glumly. "She can see it but she can't touch it. She believes I'll have to do it. But it takes a different kind of serene state than the one I achieve with her. I'm not really sure what that means. I achieved that state in her cave, briefly, but it doesn't seem like the kind of state I can achieve during a battle. It's almost a state of emotional completeness. The serene state I use with the power of water, I take all my turmoil and set it aside. But that other serene state is the absence of turmoil. I don't know how that's going to happen while I'm fighting."

"Remember what I told you about the Knights?" she asked. "They are powerful but their power isn't the reason they are the four Heavenly Knights. It's also their intelligence. It's their creativity. Their resourcefulness. I know I insult your intelligence a lot, but you aren't really stupid. Too, often, things just fly right by you, but if I'm being fair that could just be you being in a strange world and having your memory erased. You could beat them by outsmarting them. Do you think you're the only one to have ever lost a fight? They all have from time to time. Even I have."

"When did you lose a fight?"

"To a kitsune bullying me when I was ten," she said. "I had a lot of magical ability then but my physical combat skills weren't anywhere near where they are now. Even my magic wasn't what I thought it was. I had power but all I knew to do was lash out with it. This kitsune was not only physically stronger than I was, she could also counter my magic. I was soundly beaten. I learned from it, though. I worked hard to develop my physical combat abilities, as well as how to use more sophisticated magic. Any fool can learn to throw massive fireballs or freeze an enemy. My true power lies in my ability to use my magic in ways an enemy would never think of."

Yes, I had seen that with Cassandra. Although I was pretty sure that not just any fool could throw massive fireballs or freeze enemies solid. Maybe it would come down to me having to outthink the Knights. Isn't that how it usually went in fantasy novels? The hero, near defeat by the final enemy, has a sudden realization and pulls victory from the jaws of defeat? I had to hope that I'd come up with something. There had been too many coincidences and lucky breaks on this journey for me to discount the role of destiny. I'd just have to be serene about it all.

Alice interrupted my thoughts. "Since this is our final training session, allow me to contribute something to your cause. An ultimate skill. It's an attack that uses all four spirits at once."

"But I can't use all four at once," I objected.

"It's not the same," she explained. "Just trust me, I'll show you how it works. First, point your sword at the sky and summon the power of wind into your blade. Just like you do with fire."

I did as she said. Although I'd never infused my sword with wind, my comfort level with the element made it fairly easy to do. "Next," she continued. "put the power of earth into your blade at the same time. Without letting the power of wind dissipate."

Using Sylph and Gnome together had also become routine for me, so this also wasn't too difficult. However, my sword didn't seem to like it and was starting to tremble.

"Next is water," she instructed. "Like the wind and earth, mix them together in your sword."

Now it was getting tough. Aside from my sword not appreciating the strain, now my brain was straining as well. It wasn't as hard to keep all three elements in the sword as it was to keep them together in my brain, at least not mentally. But it still took concentration to keep the sword's power from dissipating. Angel Halo really seemed to want to release the power within it. I knew the sword was enchanted, but could it take the strain?

"Next, the power of fire. Concentrate all four elements in your sword."

I did as she directed. Now my sword wasn't just trembling, it was bucking and swinging, as if trying to escape my grip. Flames and spurts of water were leaking out. The power of earth was making the sword heavier and the wind was causing it to move around randomly. It was becoming hard to grasp.

"Now slash with your sword!" she shouted.

I swung my sword down towards the ground. The ground split as a large fissure opened in the earth. A loud boom made the trees sway as if in a hurricane. This was at least as powerful as anything my strange inherent power had ever done.

"This destructive force," Alice explained. "Not as powerful as I was hoping for. The elements need to be balanced in your sword for best results. Because you were straining, you imbued more force into each one as you went, so that wind was the weakest and fire the strongest. That's what was causing the leaking. Too much fire and water. If you can get them balanced it will be easier to control. Anyway, that move is called Quadruple Giga. It's powerful but it requires some setup time. Any interruption in your concentration would cause it to fail."

"That sounds even worse than when you first taught me Demon Skull Beheading," I noted. "Too much setup time."

"Yes, but you've seen how Granberia uses that same technique and you got pretty good at it as well. There's a way to make Quadruple Giga work quickly with practice. It's not going to help you in the heat of combat now, but you could use it to finish an enemy that's reeling."

"Does this move have a horrible back story?" I asked.

"The worst," Alice said, grinning. "It's the move Heinrich used to kill Black Alice. I haven't just taught you this skill for the coming fight. You'll need that skill to bring peace to the world. Once you've mastered it, no monster or human will ever dare to stand against you."

"That's the first time I've heard you say anything out loud about what happens after all… this," I noted.

"We're getting close," she explained. "The only way the world will know peace is if there's a powerful human that can be counted on to fight against injustice. Having a monster lord isn't enough. Humans hate the Monster Lord, and too many monsters see her as remote and uncaring. A human hero could unite the human kingdoms in peace. I know that you'll fight injustice against monsters as well. You'll create a better world almost singlehandedly with that power."

"And your help, of course," I said. "You want that world too. With a powerful human hero and the Monster Lord working in public for coexistence, how can we fail?"

"Hmph," she said noncommittally. "Who knows? We'll see. First you have to survive the castle."

The castle she spoke of was in view from our campsite. I slept that night thinking that I'd probably hear from Ilias. I'm not sure why I expected it, given that she hadn't contacted me in a long time. It didn't happen. I woke up on the morning of the biggest day of my life ready to get on with it. I made Alice a great breakfast to remember me by. There was no fear, nor doubt. I would either succeed or fail. At the very least I would have no trouble achieving a serene mind to use Undine.