"Hey… are you okay?"
Ash offered his hand of assistance to the kneeling girl, allowing himself to express concern for her since she was yet to rise on her feet.
Despite her incredible ability and the high potential she had, she was still a teenager in his eyes. In this world, that meant she was an adult, but since he was from Earth, his sensibilities made the whole situation appear to him as bullying.
He didn't allow that to stop him from doing what was necessary, but there was no doubt about the shitty feeling that engrossed him afterwards.
'I may have shattered her confidence alrea—'
"H-how… did you do it?" Elma whispered, her voice still shaking. "How did you defeat me, perfectly unscathed?"
Ash smiled to himself.
He wasn't surprised that she was asking how he managed to pull off such an impossible feat, and he was also impressed that she could humble herself to curiosity and attempt to learn from her defeat.
'I used my Wind Magic to deprive the air around me of any oxygen, so her flames would lose intensity and go out. I also shielded myself with Wind Magic, so the remnant heat wouldn't reach me before the fires went out.'
As for how he was able to cause the entire area to vibrate, he simply supplemented the power of his Lesser Wind Spirit with his incredibly large pool of Magia. It was technically cheating, since he was only supposed to use the Familiar's power for Spirit Arts of their current level, but it wasn't like Elma would ever notice.
All in all, he had perfectly dominated the battle with his power and wits—something he had planned on from the very start.
Of course, he wasn't going to tell her any of this.
At least, not yet.
"If you help me out with something, I'll answer that question." He calmly responded. "Until then, you'll just have to satisfy your curiosity with the fact that I'm simply stronger than you gave me credit for."
"...."
Elma finally raised her head and looked at Ash with a conflicted expression.
"Does that mean… back then, when I beat you in the Promotional Exams… you let me win?" She whispered. "Why?"
"I won't answer that either." He stated.
"Why are you hiding your strength if you're so powerful? I don't understand you, Ashfelt!"
At this point, Ash sighed and retracted his helping hand.
"You keep asking questions that you aren't going to get any answers to." With a cold gaze, he responded to her questions bluntly.
There was only one way he would even consider taking her queries seriously.
And that was if she helped him.
'If I consider her trustworthy and resourceful enough, I'll throw her a bone and keep her close to my side so I can use her for future endeavors…' He thought to himself. 'Still, I have to make her integration as organic as possible.'
That meant she had to agree to his terms and assist him in this situation.
"I understand."
Elma finally spoke up, grunting as she rose to her feet. "You did this to humble me, didn't you? To show me that you could easily climb to Alpha Class if you want, but you have your reasons for not doing so…"
Ash remained silent and let her arrive at whatever conclusion she wanted.
"I totally misjudged you—no, I misjudged myself too." She smiled sadly. "I thought I reached Alpha Class based on my merits, but I was wrong."
He still remained quiet.
"Fine!" Her eyes gleamed as she looked him straight in the eyes. "I'll help you with whatever you want."
'Good!' Ash nodded to himself in relief.
"In exchange, you'll tell me everything I want to know about today… and your true power."
"I'll answer all your questions." Ash smiled. "Deal?"
His outstretched hand slowly moved towards Elma, and she swiftly grabbed it with hers.
The two of them smiled at each other, both with their respective agendas and motivations behind this uncanny alliance.
"Deal!"
*************
[Later That Night]
Ash lay peacefully in the comfort of his bed, his eyes shut as he went over the events of the day and his path forward.
'I've told Elma what I need her assistance for, and just as I expected… she had already started looking into the White Death murders and had even secured some clues of her own.'
Based on her estimations, there were two likely instances when it came to the methodology of the White Death's killings.
First was that the culprit activated their Spell at a completely different location than the site of the murders, which was why the Alarms didn't go off. If no Spell was activated at the location, and was instead activated in one of the few places without Alarms, then it would explain how someone was able to cast a Spell and there were no triggers to one of the Academy's most flawless security systems.
'The Dorms—or more specifically, a student's room—doesn't have that Alarm, so it's possible that the student could activate the Spell from his room.'
In fact, it wasn't just a possibility in Ash's mind.
'That was the methodology of the White Death in the novel.' He thought to himself. 'It's probably the same methodology here, but with a different individual.'
He just had to determine who it was.
"The second likely instance is that the White Death isn't real, but rather an illusion somewhat conjured by a remotely activated Spell. If it is an illusion, it would explain how it leaves no trace and how it can seemingly appear anywhere without triggering any system alerts."
It would also explain how it hadn't been defeated yet, even with two Academy Instructors fighting against it with considerably powerful Spells.
Of course, this didn't surprise Ash as well.
'In the novel, this is exactly what the White Death did.' He sighed. 'In essence, the true instance combines the first likely and second likely scenario into one.'
The Beta Student remotely cast a Spell that projected a ghost-like entity and made it wander around campus.
This entity was known as The White Death.
However, all of these explanations didn't explain the killings that occurred, and how they happened to take place.
'Death by the violent twistings of someone's body… an intense and brutal death.'
In the Novel, the deaths only occurred when the targets touched the projection of the White Death. That allowed the Spirit whose power projected the ghostly figure to activate its unique ability and interfere with the Magia flow of the target.
This would cause the body to act in strange ways—often taking the form of the irregularity that was being wrought to one's Magia.
If it ended up being tangled up, that would mean… the bodies would end up tangled and warped.
That explained the twists of every victim's body.
"Unfortunately, there's one thing that doesn't add up." Ash sat upright, scratching his chin. "My interview with Justin tells me something different from the events of the novel. It seems the first victim didn't touch the White Death before his body twisted, which means this White Death can cause death without touching its victims.'
But how? How was that even possible? Ash could think of a few ways, but it didn't make any sense to him.
'It's either the White Death is now stronger in the body of its new host and can display abilities not seen in the novel, or this is a completely different Spirit with completely different abilities that are similar but superior to that of the White Death.'
If the latter was the case, why would the culprit go through all the trouble of disguising as the White Death and utilizing very similar methodologies to the novel when they could easily kill their targets in some other way?
The whole thing was suspicious to Ash, almost to the point that he began to get paranoid.
'What if… I'm not the only one in this world with knowledge of the Novel?' His eyes widened as soon as he had the thought.
It wasn't an impossible proposition, was it?
'There could be another transmigrator in this world!'