Part 1"Evlin get back on that bed right now!!"
Lilith was trying hard to stop Evlin"s reckless behavior, something she was never really good at doing despite having to deal with it on a daily basis on the other world during their adventures together.
"Nice to see you too Lilith..."
"Evlin!!"
The silver armored woman was trying to convince her old leader to not go after Mia in her current state considering that she could barely walk right now. But Evlin was acting like she would need to be chained up if anyone wanted to stop her.
"You can"t go after Mia like this! Just leave this to me, I"ll handle everything."
Evlin took a deep breath and stared at her old friend.
"Lilith... She threatened my family right to my face... How do you expect me to just sit here and let her run around after that??"
The woman stood up from her bed and began to look for her clothes but she suddenly started to kneel while holding her stomach due to the pain she received from last night"s encounter.
"Ugh!!"
"Aunt Evie!!"
Ellie was looking at her aunt as if she was made of a gla.s.s that could break at any moment. Seeing her being demolished by Mia so easily yesterday was still haunting her memories, almost as much as the sight of Myriad sending a horde of creatures after her.
Lilith tried to bring her back to her senses again.
"See?? Just standing on two feet is hurting you! Please just stay here. This doesn"t have to be your fight."
"Of course it has to be my fight! It always has to be my fight!! My whole life became about people throwing their messes on my face and leaving me to clean it up the moment I went into that world..."
"Evlin, please..."
"This is just like every other time... I cleaned up our group"s problem and now I"ll clean up this one as well..."
"Evlin STOP!!!"
"!!!"
Evlin was surprised by seeing Lilith yell at her. Among her old friends, Lilith was the most calm and reserved one. Evlin can"t even remember the last time she heard Lilith raise her voice.
The silver knight was staring at her injured friend. She could see it in her eyes, Evlin was about to make a grave mistake if she charged into battle with her current state of mind. She wasn"t thinking clearly due to her anger.
"I know how you feel... I know you want to protect your family and keep them away from Mia..."
"..."
"But if you just go after her like this you will just kill yourself!! How would that help anyone?"
Ellie joined the conversation.
"She"s right aunt Evie!! You can"t go after that weird girl!!"
"..."
Evlin could understand their concern. It"s true that she was nowhere near as strong as she used to be. But every time she wasted on this hospital bed it was a moment that Mia would use to run freely on her world doing G.o.d knows what. She needed to be stopped, and she needed to be stopped fast.
"Mia said she"s bringing magic to my world as well... If that"s true I can just fix my body with some healing magic. I"ll be fine."
"That would indeed fix your body, but what about your mind?"
"My mind?"
"When was the last time you ever saw your expression?"
"...?"
Evlin spotted a mirror close by and came towards it to glance at her face. She was carrying an extremely heavy glare on her eyes as if she was ready to strangle anyone who she crossed paths with. Lilith recognized these eyes, the eyes of someone ready to make a mistake that could never be undone, the eyes of someone ready to kill. The same eyes she had.
"Evlin, please... Making you charge into battle with reckless anger is just what Mia wants... Don"t let her get the best of you!"
"..."
Evlin would listen to the words, but no matter how much sense they made, her feelings were blocking any kind of rational thinking of entering her brain. She realized that Lilith would not stop trying to convince her and decided to just ignore her. She then looked at her niece who seemed to be terrified while shaking and holding her hands against her chest, but considering the heavy glare on Evlin"s face, it was unclear if she was scared of what could happen to her aunt of scared of her aunt herself.
"Ellie, give me my crossbow... I"m going after that little psycho..."
"..."
Ellie then stopped shaking and began to stiffen up her whole body once her aunt mentioned her crossbow.
"Huuuuuuh... About that..."
"... Ellie...?"
"Yeah... How do I put this...?"
"Ellie... Where is my crossbow...?"
"..."
Part 2
"Evlin, slow down!!"
Lilith was once again trying to stop Evlin. Except this time, the woman was charging out of the hospital like a truck despite still being injured.
Some of the doctors looked at her concerned but when she aimed her glare at them they all quickly left her alone afraid she would bite them.
"Aunt Evie wait!!"
"Evlin, where are you going??"
Her niece and her friend were chasing after her but she could run surprisingly fast for someone with damaged bones. On top of that, Lilith"s armor was becoming heavier by the second as she could feel the power of the blessed energy that usually would boost her strength and speed getting weaker since she was no longer in her usual world.
"I"m going home! My crossbow is gone but the rest of my armor is still on my closet."
Ellie a.s.sumed her aunt would be angrier after hearing her crossbow had burned to ashes during the fire last night, but she simply shrugged and released a small sigh as if saying "Just my luck...", almost as if she was used to things taking the worst possible scenario in her life.
She left the hospital is such a rush that she didn"t even noticed something appearing in front of her and fell on the floor after knocking herself against it. She turned her head and realized that it was a strong brown-haired man carrying a baby on his arms.
"Oh, sorry sir... I was kinda in a hurry so I didn"t notice you... my bad..."
The man looked at her and extended his hand to help her get up. He then proceeded to talk to her.
"Still rus.h.i.+ng into things without thinking as usual huh?"
"Eh...?"
Evlin took another glance at the man and realized that he seemed familiar.
"Have we... Met before?"
The man smiled at Evlin as if wondering what would be the most fun way to answer that question.
"Maybe...? Do you perhaps have a habit of going around punching people in the face while doing a terrible job of taking care of your hair?"
Oh, this is bad. Evlin realized this person now could be anyone she had ever met.
Or so she thought, but then remembered only some people knew about her old habits and only one of them had brown hair. She took another look at the man as if trying to confirm it.
"... Daren??? Is... Is that you???"
"About time... You haven"t changed at all."
"Yeah, and you changed a lot!! What happened to you??"
Daren used to be known for being a very thin young man with a pair of dead eyes on his face and an overall very stiff expression.
The man in front of Evlin however was smiling with eyes full of life and a nice build that could make people mistake him easily for a Hollywood actor.
"You look... You look great!!"
"Hehe, thanks. After I lost my curse my body stopped draining all my strength. A few years with a healthy diet while going on adventures and this is the result."
Evlin felt it was more than that. Daren wasn"t just different because he looked stronger. She could see it in his face, he was happy. Happier than she ever saw him before. Something had happened to him. As Evlin started to wonder what, she quickly took another glance at what he was carrying.
"So wait... This little guy is..."
Daren then changed his position so Evlin could clearly see the small baby. A young two-year-old little boy with the same hair color as Lilith and the same eye color as Daren.
"Meet my son, Lance."
"Aaaahhh!!! Let me hold it! Let me hold it! Let me hold it!!"
Evlin started to jump on Daren trying to grab the baby as if she wanted to eat him. The kid began to look afraid of the crazy woman that was attempting to grab him and started to hide his face on his father"s chest.
"Evlin calm down!! You"re scaring him!"
"Ah, sorry!! I just- Wait!! I don"t have time for this!! I need to go home!!"
"Why? What"s going on?"
Evlin was about to give a short explanation to Daren but she noticed Lilith and Ellie finally managing to catch up to her after Lilith removed some of her armor and gave it to Ellie to help her carry it.
"Don"t worry, your wife will explain everything... I need to go..."
"Huh... We... Aren"t actually married..."
"...!!"
"Yeah, we had an..."
Daren didn"t want to say the words out loud in case it might hurt his son"s feelings so he started to whisper. Evlin tried to read his lips and realized he was trying to spell the word "accident".
"I see... "
It seemed that the boy was just as much of a surprise to Daren and Lilith as he was to Evlin. She raised an eyebrow for a second due to her religion being rather against the concept of giving birth outside of marriage, but Daren just looked so happy carrying the toddler that she quickly realized that as long as everyone was happy there was probably nothing to worry about. On top of that, she had bigger problems to deal with.
"Sorry Daren, I would love to chat, but I really need to get going..."
"Evlin, wait!!"
Lilith tried once again to make her stop after almost burying Ellie with all her armor so she could reach them faster.
"Lilith I told you already... I will go after Mia, whether you like it or not!"
"Fine!"
"...!?"
"But at least let"s go together! If you can"t leave us to carry your burden, at least share it with us a little!"
Daren looked at Evlin with a surprised expression.
"Wait, you were planning to go after Mia alone??"
Ellie finally gave up on trying to carry Lilith"s armor and simply threw it on the floor so she could join the conversation.
"Aunt Evie, please!! I"m begging you! Don"t go after that weird girl!"
Evlin took a look around her. It seems everyone was dedicated on telling her how she should not do what she was planning to do. Her team was already used to their leader being reckless, but she could make up for that recklessness due to being very strong and possessing the ability to heal herself.
But right now, Evlin was just like every other human. Being reckless here could cost a lot, and she had a lot to lose. She glanced at their faces once again and decided to finally give up.
"Ok..."
"!!" x3
She took a deep breath and showed her new resolve.
"We will go after Mia... All of us! Sounds good?"
"Yes!!" x 3
"Cool... Can I please go home and get my armor now?"
"I got you covered!"
Daren said as he placed his finger on his mouth and released a small whistle, which made Lance who was still being carried on his arms start to cover his ears in annoyance.
Evlin turned her head once she heard a sound of two large objects approaching from afar, and before she noticed it, two figures came out from hiding and landed close to them.
"Aahh!! It"s you!!"
Ellie screamed as she recognized one of the figures. A large lion with black fur and red eyes. The same one that found her in the fire during that night in the restaurant.
By his side, there was a similar feline-looking figure. Except this one had golden-like hair, two wings on his back, and an eagle head while also being bigger than a car.
Evlin stood in a daze at the sight of her old pet.
"Sphinx!!!"
She hurried to cuddle the animal who seemed just as happy to see his old owner as she was.
"Oh, my baby!!! I missed you so much!! Look how big you are now!!"
"I promised I would take care of him."
"!!"
Evlin was shocked to hear a voice coming out from Sphinx. She took a small peek and noticed that someone was riding him. A young lad who seemed to be in his early twenties with long silver hair tied up by a single ponytail.
"Marcus!!"
"Nice to see you again Evlin!"