Chapter 379 - Last Enemy

"Ali? Ali? Ali?"

"My love? My love?"

Huh?

Mellow, yet worried voices and gentle pats on her arm pulled her back into consciousness. When she came through, she found herself in her bedroom, once again lying on the bed with her husband and Ivan hovering over her.

"W-Wh-Wha…"

She wanted to ask what happened, but her voice came out hoarse and her throat dry.

"Water," Ryuu ordered, and there was a sound of clinking glass and pouring liquid. In not time, the Koutaishidenka handed her a cup of water. "Drink this love."

With the gentle coaxing, Alinea obeyed and drank mouthfuls of refreshing liquid to quench her thirst. The cool sensation eased the knots in her throat and soon felt soothed enough to talk.

"What happened?" she finally asked.

"Don't you remember?" Ivan countered with a worried expression.

"Remember?"

Alinea frowned. The last thing she remembered was that she went to Stribog's dimension again to train with Ryuu and Ivan. Since she had been injured earlier, instead of physical practice, Ivan made her meditate to become familiar with her borrowed powers. This would help her to wield them faster and more effectively to avoid accidents like earlier.

And she did…

"I…do," she answered.

She could recall the seals appearing before her like clusters of stars. They shattered like jewels before her body – or in this case, her soul's core absorbed them.

Remembering how she successfully managed to integrate the borrowed powers into her soul, Ali raised her palm and conjured electricity. A ball of plasma appeared in her hand. It was not much out of the ordinary for she had been wielding lightning for months now since the Immortal War. However, in spite of that, she could see a very obvious difference from the power she wielded now from before.

It was stronger!

The electricity packed more power than what she was able to conjure previously.

"Nice job, Ali. You were able to integrate the seal to your soul," Ivan commented.

Alinea grinned as she looked at the big brother and her husband. Ryuu smiled at her lovingly and patted her on the head for a job well done.

"How about the others?" Ivan asked excitedly and then paused as he moved back a few feet away. "Er… make sure to suppress the lightning first before you use the other elements, okay?"

Ali laughed. She's clumsy but she didn't have a death wish. She wouldn't make the same mistake and pay attention this time around. The plasma disappeared from her hand and she closed her eyes as she imagined the purple constellation to shatter and hide within her.

When she opened her eyes again, she focused on the blue constellation in her mind as she held out her palm once more. At first, the ball of flames than came out was small – and it was red.

Alinea frowned.

"My love, I thought I borrowed your flame."

"It's fire," Ryuu said in amusement.

"Er… I know. But isn't it supposed to be blue like yours? Why is this thing a pitiful red?

"Ya! Don't look down on red flames," Ivan complained. The Emperor of Kres's flames were crimson. He looked offended as he pouted at her.

"I'm not looking down on it. I'm just confused, okay?" Ali countered Ivan before turning back to Ryuu. "The seal I saw was yours. When I touched it, it broke into shards and my body was enveloped in blue flames."

Ryuu nodded. "My love, when someone makes an elemental pact, he sees the original seal of the deity lording over it."

"What do you mean?"Alinea never heard of it before. She didn't bother asking since she didn't have elementals and couldn't manipulate elementals so it was removed from her education.

"All fire abilities are from the fire god," Ivan stated. "When I first integrated my power to my core, I had to accept the divine blessing first – meaning I had to see and accept the seal of Kresnik within me."

"Eh? So that means…"Alinea's voice trailed off at the realization.

"Yes, seals are the same. Flames vary on the other hand. There are red, yellow, orange, and golden flames that casters can use. But only the Flame Emperor of Heaven can wield the blue fire," Ivan explained and Alinea pouted, a bit disappointed.

Ryuu patted her on the head again before leaning forward to kiss her on the forehead. "Don't be sad. Red flames are the strongest among the flames."

Ryuu actually meant 'flames' that casters other than him could use, of course. It's why Ivan was the strongest in Ged – well, among the demigods at least. His power was still a far cry from the Returners to Ancestry.

Alinea might be disappointed but it's just her being childish. She really didn't take this into heart. After all, she was aware that all her borrowed blessings were downgraded versions of the original ones.

"Anyway, don't wield the wind ability here Ali. You have Stribog's tornado. It will be bad to release that here," Ivan said, and Alinea nodded.

"By the way, I remember now that you two pulled me out of my concentration when I was about to attack the black cloud. Why?" she asked.

"That's your last enemy, my love."

"My last enemy?" she asked, and then remembered what it was. "Oh! It's the spawn – the piece of Czernobog's soul."

"That's right," the two confirmed, and Alinea understood and didn't ask about it further.

This was what they had misunderstood before. At first, they thought that if she killed herself, the spawn would die and she would be reborn without it. They were wrong. Now, they knew that she had to go deep into her soul's core to battle it there to eliminate the curse. If she killed the spawn within her, she'd be able to free herself from it. However, their goal now was not to just end the curse but to be free eternally.

Czernobog.

Alinea's aim was to kill the Black God because she's the only one who had the ability to. Only after then, she would deal with the darkness in her own soul.