Alma

## Alma Images

**Alma** (アルマ, *Aruma*) is a freelance Nemesis Hunter and serves as both *Seth's* mentor and foster mother after suffering from amnesia. She is a major supporting character in the series.

## Appearance

File:Alma Profile.png
Alma is an older woman of average height with brown eyes and piercings below her lip, above her right eyebrow and both her ears.

Alma's most defining physical trait is her massive, disheveled head of dark brown hair. Her hair is held together in the form of a massive, unkempt ponytail. She has a white-and-purple scrunchy that sits at the middle, keeping the untamed bush bound.

Alma sports a purple vest over an orange blouse, baggy harem pants, and jester-like shoes on her feet. The woman usually travels with a sash-belt that runs laterally along her body and carries an assortment of potions and other small magical trinkets. Her right arm has been amputated, apparently as a precaution of keeping a strange Nemesis infection from spreading.

## Personality

On the surface, Alma is a very stern, authoritarian figure, who isn't keen to taking nonsense from anyone. While not unable to control her emotion, she is prone to fits of violence, especially toward people she has some familiarity with. On several occasions, Seth has made it clear that Alma isn't afraid of using violence when he misbehaves or disobeys her orders.

 File:Alma scary.png  Her penchant for violence, coupled with her serious persona has the unfortunate side effect of intimidating those around her. This fearsome attitude is so unsettling that even Yaga, a powerful Sorcerer and member of the Coven Thirteen, is frightened at the prospect of getting on Alma's bad side. He famously skips out of town when the elderly Sorceress comes to visit the Artemis Institute.

While the mean-spirited wizard has no issue threatening non-sorcerers, or shaking down her peers, she is more than capable of keeping her temper in check. Despite her short-fuse, she is able to calmly fly away after being pelted by rocks, as well as being falsely accused of crimes by the civilians of Islet 21.

Despite all of these personality traits, underneath all the aggression and anger, Alma is a caring and protective person, especially to those she considers family or friends. While berating her underlings, she tries her best to see the potential good in them and aims to reform those who appear to be capable of change. This compassion is first shown by her interactions with the Bravery Quartet, of which she enlisted to work under her and be given an opportunity to better themselves. She figures leaving them to rot in a cell with the Inquisition would be unproductive.

Alma is fiercely protective of Seth, almost to a fault. She shelters the boy so closely that he fails to understand or recognize common things, such as the identity of farm animals. She also purposely hinders his ability to cast magic, for fear that allowing him to train unimpeded would attract the attention of unwanted guests. While she cares deeply for those she befriends or looks after, Alma almost never showcases any affection, instead opting to use anger or sarcasm to connect with others.

## Synopsis

### History

Long ago, Alma is discovered by a doctor, having suffered grave injuries and holding onto Seth as if to protect him from the mysterious assault. She awakens sometime after, this time within a medical facility where the doctor fills her in on the loose details. Sadly, as a result of the attack, not only has she lost an arm, but her memories have also been wiped out.

 File:Alma and Seth in the past.png
Seeing no further solution, she opts to take Seth under her wing, and the two begin to travel across the globe in search of answers, or clues that can help Alma piece back her memory together. Initially, she sees Seth as a mere burden, and only tolerates him as he serves as one of the only links she has to her past. To that end, she would carelessly leave him unsupervised in order to go search and hunt Nemesis for profit.

One evening, when Alma ventures off yet again, Seth is targeted by some of the younger children in the local village. Despite his insistence on being left alone, the children do not relent. As a result of the torment, the young boy discharges a massive bolt of Fantasia, invoking the ire of the adult villagers, who sees Seth as nothing more than an evil Sorcerer that has to be put down.

As they prepare to burn him at the stake, Alma arrives in the knick of time. Through intimidation and deceptive, she fools the villagers into thinking contact with her will cause them to become infected. As they run off in fear, the woman releases Seth and consoles him. It was in that very moment that she was able to understand just how vulnerable the child really was, and from this her affection for her adopted son began to develop. The traumatic event has a profound effect on both the Sorcerers, and motivates Alma to invest in a floating home, which comes to be her Observatory, all in effort to keep Seth out of harms way

### Pompo Hills Arc

Alma is first seen in Pompo Hills, trying to broker a deal with a local merchant. Unfortunately, the merchant, having seen her fly in a Broom earlier, is unwilling to entertain selling her any goods. After several failed attempts at getting the store owner to act in good faith, Alma snaps, using her intimidation prowess to shake the man down. However, before she can take advantage of this action, Seth comes charging into the plaza, being chased by a stampede of cows.

Before the cows can trample him, Alma steps in, using her halberd in order to blow away the herd, and stack them neatly atop of one another. The villagers are irate, blaming both Sorcerers for the carnage in the village, believing them to be nothing more than bad luck and menaces. After vowing to pay for the damage, Alma, seeing that any other attempt diplomacy would be futile, quickly flies off on her Broom with seth in tow.

She berates the young Sorcerer sometime after, and punishes him by making him clean the outside of her Observatory with a mop. Sometime afterwards, a Nemesis crashlands onto Pompo Hills while Alma is out on another Islet hunting a Nemesis. She arrives at the end, just in time to save an exhausted Seth from a regenerating Golem Nemesis.

Sometime after, once Seth gets the grand idea of finding the Radiant, and destroying it once and for all, Alma directs the teen to head towards the Artemis Institute. She instructs him to locate Yaga to gain assistance in learning the basics of Fantasia manipulation. She sees him off, hiding her tears and sorrow of seeing her young boy heading off all alone on a new adventure.

### Rumble Town Arc

Alma arrives in Artemis in order to speak to Seth, who has been feeling regret and miserable as fallout from his adventure in Rumble Town. It's there that she reminds him of all the good he's been able to accomplish, even though he was unable to save everyone. After reassuring Seth that he wasn't a monster, the two head off, with Alma seeing him halfway towards Cyndafir.

## Manga Differences

### Pompo Hill Arc

Seth is originally being chased by a mob of villagers, with the cows being on a rampage on another part of the village. In this version, Alma stops the villagers from trying to harm Seth, and uses a Repulse in order to gain the needed distraction for escape.

After she punishes Seth by having him clean the Observatory's exterior, Alma scolds the boy much like in the anime. However, in this version of the event, after the scolding, the Nemesis arrives on the same day. As opposed to being on a far away islet, Alma is instead suffering from a headache, and simply remains ignorant of the Nemesis' presence.

Shortly after the Golem's defeat, she arrives in order to rescue an exhausted Seth from the Bravery Quartet. In this version of events, she makes use of a special parchment seal to trap the villains in a birdcage. She provides healing for all of those harmed in the Nemesis's and the Bravery Quartet's villainy, and calls Doc from the Artemis Institute to retrieve the Nemesis' remains.

At night's fall, Alma and Seth engages in one more conversation, with the elderly woman offering to finally take him on hunting trips. Nevertheless, Seth denies the offer, now resolving to hunt the Radiant and stop the source of Nemeses all together. While taken back by the sudden proposal, Alma supports his ambition and instructs him to head towards the Artemis Institution and seek out Yaga in order to begin his journey.

### Rumble Town Arc

After Piodon meets Seth, and subsequently weakens the seals placed on his bandage, Alma's body violent reacts in Pompo Hills. She becomes pained, and visibly struggles to maintain her strength. By the time Seth undergoes his transformation, Alma has fallen unconscious for some reason related to the berserk form's emergence.

She arrives after the event in Rumble Town, and offers Seth words of encouragement. Prior to the boy heading off for Cyfandir, Alma helps get him some supplies for the trip, and reveals that the Bravery Duet now work under her.

## Abilities

As one of the de facto guardians of Pompo Hills, Alma is undeniably a very powerful Sorcerer in her own right. She's been noted to know a plethora of different spells, and seems to have qualities that fall under multiple different classes or specialization. These range from abilities of a Tracker, and even a Researcher.

While powerful, as a result of her curse, Alma suffers from intense, chronic headaches. Oddly enough, her headaches sometimes flair up when Seth's strange power takes over, and makes him go berserk.

### Physical Ability

As a Sorcerer, Alma's physical parameters are much higher than what can normally be achieved through natural means as a human. As she has been rarely shown in battle, the extent of her physical abilities aren't well known. In addition, she possesses the ability to touch Nemeses and survive.

### Sorcery

Alma's bread and butter appears to be the use of her *Feather Blade*, in the form of a massive halberd, to cut into opponents and slay them. In the anime, she was able to gather a massive surge of Fantasia and unleash a wave that was effortlessly about to blow away a massive stampede of cows, all while stacking themselves up neatly atop of one another. In addition, she was shown to be able to send a plethora of throwing knives with a spell to slice and slay the Golem Nemesis in the anime as well.

In the manga, Alma's display of Fantasia Manipulation for conventional spellcasting is shown only in her generation of a Repulse. This particular iteration was superior to the version normally seen by younger, less experienced Sorcerers like Melie or Seth, and seemed to be able to send the angry mob skidding back in recoil. All of this suggests that Alma's prowess with manipulating Fantasia for spells is elite.

### Other

Beyond conventional spellcasting, she seems to be proficiency in using parchment and seals. In the manga, she was shown to be able to release an enlarged birdcage to trap the Bravery Quartet, being able to summon it from its parchment with little effort. In addition, she's verified to be the person to apply the bandage onto Seth's cheek, utilizing some strange sealing method to keep his special power at bay.

Later on, it's shown that Alma possesses the ability to create magic potions for healing or forcing amnesia, suggesting that she has some form of knowledge as a researcher.

## Reference

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 RADIANT Manga: Chapter 22 - Page 12. (Seth's explanation touches on the cause of Alma's missing arm.)