Chapter 11&12

Chapter 11: The Golden Spirits' Doubts

Seeing that the previous devastating attack was not released towards them, the three Golden Spirits all let out a sigh of relief.

To be honest, even from that distance, they could feel the sheer power contained in that attack. Compared to facing a Golden Spirit, they felt more like they were confronting some unknown ferocious beast - an aura of menace even stronger than the Sixth Beast.

Looking at the large hole pierced through the distant mountain peak, the eyes of everyone present couldn't help but twitch.

"Now I understand why Tohka is at the end stage of her personality disorder," Chtholly sighed, holding her head. "Using magic so recklessly, it's no wonder her personality is being eroded!"

"This is just a small sparring match, there's no need to go all out, is there?" Esther said stiffly. "Are you trying to end your life or something?"

"All out? Not at all," Tohka replied. "That last attack was only about 50% of my power. I know this is just a sparring match, but since you're a group of three, I got a bit more serious."

"Sparring is about honing your skills and techniques, not just indiscriminately bombarding with magic!" Esther said with a dark expression. "Newcomer, don't be so absurd!"

Nephren flew over, and although her expression remained blank, there was a hint of concern in her eyes. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," Tohka said bluntly. "That last attack was barely a warm-up for me."

"How is that possible? That strike, even if I'm the wielder of the mightiest holy sword, would require me to open the fairy conduit to unleash," Chtholly said, half-believing. "If there's anything wrong, don't force yourself. Be sure to tell us, okay?"

"I really am fine."

The three Golden Spirits circled around Tohka once more. Seeing that she truly seemed unaffected, with her spirit and vigor intact, they could only reluctantly accept the reality.

But soon, their attention shifted to something else.

"Wait, where are your fairy wings?" Chtholly's eyes widened slightly. "I don't see your fairy wings anywhere."

"Fairy wings? What's that?"

"Huh? What else could it be? The wings on our backs, of course," Esther said matter-of-factly. "Without fairy wings, how are you flying right now?"

"No, I don't have anything like fairy wings. I can just fly whenever I want to."

"I'm not too familiar with Golden Spirits, but is it possible Tohka's fairy wings are invisible?" Willem asked.

"I just felt around, and there's nothing there," Nephren replied.

"That's really strange..." Willem fell into contemplation as well.

The scene before them was even more nonsensical than conjuring armor and swords out of thin air, or piercing through a mountain. At least the armor and sword could be explained by spatial magic, and the mountain-piercing strike could be achieved by a Golden Spirit opening the fairy conduit.

But being able to fly without fairy wings was something the others could not explain.

"Newcomer, are you really a Golden Spirit?" Esther bluntly voiced the doubt in everyone's minds.

The most distinctive feature of Golden Spirits, aside from being able to wield holy swords, was the fairy wings that granted them exceptional agility and mobility in battle. It was an innate magical talent, allowing them to manifest beautiful, butterfly-like wings from their backs, a flexible extension of their magic power.

Under the curious gazes, Tohka scratched her head. "The big lizard said I'm a Golden Spirit, so I guess I am one?"

"Greyson? He should have a decent understanding of Golden Spirits, so why did he consider you one even without fairy wings?"

"It's not entirely unreasonable, apart from the lack of fairy wings, Tohka does possess all the other characteristics of a Golden Spirit."

"But for a first-class officer to categorize her as a Golden Spirit without any doubt, isn't that a bit unprofessional?"

"Have you forgotten? Even for the military, their knowledge of Golden Spirits is severely limited."

While the Golden Spirits worked under the military, being the secret weapons against the Sixth Beast, they were not actually part of the military, more akin to mercenaries.

On a daily basis, they assisted the Seraph Guard in slaying the Sixth Beast, receiving necessities for daily life as payment from the Orland Trade Guild.

Even within the military, information about them was tightly sealed.

Even high-ranking officers knew little more than the average soldier.

No one knew why the identities of the Golden Spirits were so sensitive, nor why the information about them was so strictly controlled.

But others didn't need to know.

To put it bluntly, for the military, the Golden Spirits were nothing more than useful weapons.

Officers like Greyson, who genuinely cared about the Golden Spirits and had more than the necessary affection for them, were few and far between.

Even Greyson, who had collaborated with many Golden Spirits, only knew the surface-level information about this race.

The Golden Spirits themselves didn't know much about their own kind either.

From birth, their activity range was limited to the Fairy Warehouse they were in, under the care of the managers.

After growing up, they had to train themselves, preparing for the eventual deployment to the battlefield against the Sixth Beast.

Hardly any Golden Spirit lived past the age of 20.

This was why the Fourth Fairy Warehouse only had infants, with Chtholly being the oldest at 15.

Born in a daze, dying in a haze.

They knew little about their own race.

"Perhaps Tohka is a special individual born in another Fairy Warehouse?" Chtholly speculated.

"A special individual who can fly without fairy wings? I've never heard of such a thing," Esther said noncommittally.

"Let's go ask Negron, she might have a way to determine if Tohka is truly a Golden Spirit or not," Nephren suggested.

After discussing it, the Golden Spirits decided to seek out Negron, the most knowledgeable person here, to find the answers.

Although Negron was an Ogre, as one of the Fairy Warehouse managers, she possessed a lot of information about the Golden Spirit race.

Perhaps she knew even more than the Golden Spirits themselves.

"Willem, training is temporarily suspended. We're going to find Negron!"

As they entered the mansion, Chtholly noticed that Willem was still standing in place, seemingly lost in thought.

Even after the others had left, he hadn't noticed.

It was only when Chtholly's voice reached him that he snapped out of his contemplation.

His gaze fixed on Tohka, his eyes brimming with obvious eagerness and longing.

"Really, stop staring at Tohka like a pervert," Chtholly said, annoyed, waving her hand in front of his face. "If Tohka ends up disliking you, I won't be responsible."

"Sorry, sorry."

Willem finally realized his emotions were a bit abnormal and managed a forced smile.

"What's wrong? You look a bit off," Chtholly asked with concern. "Did something happen?"

"I was just... thinking about some things," Willem replied hesitantly, after a long pause. "Chtholly, if it's confirmed that Tohka is not a Golden Spirit, what else could she be?"

"Well... even though the lack of fairy wings is quite unusual, I still think Tohka is a Golden Spirit," Chtholly mused.

"After all, the only race that can use magic besides humans is the Golden Spirits, right?"

Chapter 12: Is Tohka Human?

In the infirmary.

Under everyone's gaze, Nygglatho dropped the blood she had just taken from Tohka's finger into a test tube.

Gently shaking it a few times, the blood began to disperse.

But the silver flakes in the test tube still glowed with a pure white light.

"The result is clear, the silver purification test came back negative," Nygglatho said, tapping the test tube, her expression grave.

"Silver purification reacts to distorted death, in simple terms, it's a reagent used to detect the undead. Since the silver didn't turn black, that can only mean one thing."

Placing the test tube back on the rack, Nygglatho looked at Tohka, who was sucking on her own finger. "You are not a Golden Spirit."

While the Golden Spirits had the word "spirit" in their name, they were essentially a branch of the undead race.

This was not big news within the Golden Spirit race.

The moment they dreamed of their past lives, they began to realize their true identity as the undead.

And silver purification was the reagent used by the people of this world to detect the undead.

Normally, if mixed with the blood of a Golden Spirit, it would turn black immediately.

Since there was no reaction, it could only mean that Tohka was not a Golden Spirit.

As soon as this conclusion was reached, the infirmary erupted into chaos.

Whether they were adult Golden Spirits or the young ones who had come to join the commotion, they all started chirping in discussion.

But ultimately, their discussions all led to one question:

"If Tohka is not a Golden Spirit, then what is she?"

In this world, races capable of using magic were extremely rare.

And the only race that could use magic and look exactly like humans was the Golden Spirits.

That's when the silent Willem next to them opened his eyes.

"Human."

He said solemnly, "Perhaps Tohka, like me, is one of the few surviving humans from five hundred years ago."

In Willem's era, the human kingdom had gathered all the champions from various fields, bestowing upon them the title of Heroes, with the task of slaying the Demon King and saving mankind.

Willem was one of the almost-Heroes in the field of swords, known as the "Obsidian Sword Demon".

His opponent, the one who nearly died with him, was one of the three Demon King's Guardians, the "Black Lilin Baron".

Five hundred years ago, Willem had gathered the remnants of his strength to kill the Black Lilin Baron.

But he himself also fell into hibernation due to an accumulated curse.

Only a few years ago, when a group of animal foragers found him while searching for human ruins, the hibernation curse was finally lifted.

When Willem woke up and learned the history of this world, he was truly devastated.

Although mankind had defeated the Demon King, making his efforts not in vain, the emergence of the Seventeen Beasts had destroyed human civilization, leaving the surface uninhabitable.

All that he had once valued had vanished without a trace.

Not even a single blood relative remained.

The time gap and the shocking facts caused Willem to lose his identity at the time, living like a walking corpse.

He even sought death, longing for the empty peace of the afterlife.

Perhaps in that empty afterlife, he could reunite with his family and comrades from the past.

However, after being immersed in the past, Willem was given the opportunity to work at the Fourth Fairy Warehouse, where he met Chtholly. This finally gave him a glimmer of hope for the future.

Here, in this familiar yet strange world, he had formed new bonds.

He was no longer a rootless driftwood.

Finding a new purpose in his life, his obsession with the past gradually began to fade.

But the appearance of Tohka has reignited the embers within him.

"No, Willem..."

Knowing Willem's history, Nygglatho found it difficult to speak, as she was one of the miners who found the petrified Willem.

She knew what Willem was like in the past, and what the emergence of a potential blood relative meant to him.

But she had to say it.

"Tohka is not a Golden Spirit, but she is not human either."

"How can you be sure?"

"Because my race is Ogre," Nygglatho said with a complex expression. "The scent of humans has a strong allure for us Ogres, which is why I used to always cling to you. But with Tohka, I don't feel any lust at all."

Faced with this irrefutable reason, Willem's lips moved, but he couldn't find anything to refute.

In the silence, the hope in his eyes slowly faded.

He sat helplessly, as if he had suddenly aged ten years older.

"Willem..." Chtholly bit her lip, standing beside him, wanting to comfort him but not knowing where to start.

During the time she spent with Willem, she gradually understood what kind of person Willem was.

As a young girl in love, falling in love was an experience that had never been experienced by the Golden Spirits, but Chtholly was fortunate to have this opportunity.

She was attracted to Willem and hoped she could be his support, and Willem could also be her support.

Seeing Willem's desperate expression, her heart couldn't help but be moved.

Tohka, who was standing beside him, also couldn't resist comforting him.

Although she could hide her divine armor and her angels, she could pretend she couldn't fly, and she could control her mana output during sparring sessions, she didn't do any of that.

Because the real Tohka wouldn't do such things.

As the dumbest character among all the Sephira Spirits, with intelligence even lower than Kaguya who ranked second, she was a typical stupid character who wouldn't accidentally hide her abilities and uniqueness.

It's true that the girl was just acting, and could hide her identity for a while.

But for how long could she maintain it?

In this dangerous world where the Seventeen Beasts roam, her combat abilities would surely be revealed someday.

Rather than being suspected by others later about why she was hiding her special abilities, it would be better for her to showcase her trump card from the beginning, playing the role of a simple girl who is not good at lying.

So the girl wasn't hiding anything, revealing her differences from the Golden Spirits in front of everyone.

She just didn't expect that Willem would consider her as one of the extinct human members.

"If I were to play the role of another spirit, he wouldn't be mistaken," the girl thought.

"Too bad, the role I'm playing this time is Tohka, the most special among the ten Sephira Spirit girls."