Part 1"They took Evlin!! We need to go after them!! Now!!"
Ashley was panicking. Her sister had just been slashed in the back by a sword made of the strongest material on the planet and was abducted by six mysterious men, all carrying weapons made from the same material.
They simply vanished in thin-air with an absurd speed making it impossible to know which direction they went. Ria tried to calm Ashley down.
"Ashley stop screaming. We will find her. We just need to wait a little longer and we can use Daren"s enhanced sense of smell to know where they took her."
"B- But... She might be far gone by that point!! What if they kill her? Or if they take her away to someplace we can"t find? Or if-"
"There is nothing we can do right now!"
Daren interrupted her breakdown.
"We don"t have any option but to wait for the sun to go away. If we try to start going after her without any direction we might just make it worse..."
Ashley listened to Daren"s comment and started to lower her voice.
"There is nothing you can do right now..."
"..."
"There is nothing you can do "right now"??"
"Eh... ?"
"When the h.e.l.l was there ever a time any of you could do anything for us???"
"...!!??"
"You all keep going on and on about how you will enter a kingdom full of demons, kill a G.o.ddess, get your revenge... But what the h.e.l.l can any of you even do??"
"..."
"Evlin was so excited to meet you all, she thought you would help her, that you would make her worries go away and keep her safe... But you guy haven"t done a single thing for us this whole time!!"
The rest of the group started to look at her in surprise.
"She was the one who found these silver knives, she was the one who made this armor, she is the one who was fighting to protect us from those guys just now... She"s doing everything!! But all you care about is your stupid revenge plot... It didn"t even dawn on me how useless you all would be without her right now... You were planning on going after a G.o.ddess like this?? What is the matter with you?? You can"t even take good care of one girl!"
Ashley glared at Lilith.
"And you..."
"!!!"
Daren tried to intervene.
"Hey now... Don"t accuse Lilith-"
"What?? Don"t accuse her of what?? Of being useless too? Of making everything worse by acting without thinking? Of letting her stupid trauma allow for my sister to get kidnapped? Let me guess... "I don"t understand her circ.u.mstances"?? Should I go ahead and spend two-hundred years as a statue as well so I can freely speak my mind? You all are acting like idiots and you just keep making everything worse!!"
Ashley fell on her knees and started to cry.
"I just want my sister to be safe... Why can"t my sister just be safe??"
Lilith came closer and bent her knees so her eyes could meet with Ashley"s.
"I understand..."
"... W- What...?"
"Your sister... I"ll keep her safe..."
Daren looked at her worried as she picked up the sword that she dropped during Boris"s attack. She then proceeded to use her future sight to search for all possible futures until she found one where she discovered Evlin"s location. Her nose started to bleed making her friends worry about her.
"Lilith stop!! What are you doing!!?"
"..."
"Lilith...?"
"I know where she is..."
Ashley looked at her as if a miracle was standing in front of her.
"You... You do?"
"They are very far... But I can get there..."
"Wait, Lilith, let"s just wait for the sun to go down so I can use my beast form."
"... Is that how you plan to defeat the G.o.ddess Daren...? You think she will just wait for you to be ready for her...?"
She gave Ashley a small hug and looked at her while holding her shoulders.
"I"ll start doing my part from now on... So don"t worry. I"ll bring your sister back."
Ashley started to cry again and returned Lilith"s hug.
"T- Thank you!!"
Lilith stood up and started to walk in the direction she saw Evlin was located. She then proceeded to turn her head around and speak to her friends.
"I"ll be right back!"
Then, using the immense speed granted by the silver armor, she vanished in thin air.
Part 2
"Ugh... My heead... Huh...?"
Evlin suddenly woke up inside of a strange warehouse. She was still stuck on her golden form locked inside some sort of energy barrier. Both her metal gauntlet and her wooden gauntlet had been removed, which means she had no access to magic. Her back was still in extreme pain from the slash she received so it was hard to move.
She took another glance at the energy barrier and tried to touch it with her finger.
"Ouch!!"
She received a small electric shock and started to lick it with her tongue.
"Where on earth...?"
"Oh good, you"re awake..."
She looked around the warehouse and was greeted by the six silver weapon users that kidnapped her. She was feeling strangely excited for some reason.
"Ah... So that"s how it feels..."
One of the figures looked at her confused.
"Huh... Excuse me...?"
"Oh sorry... It"s just... People try to kidnap me all the time but they never came this far before... This is kind of a new development for me right now so I"m feeling a little refreshed..."
"I... See... Well, anyway... We were hoping we could have a little chat with you."
"I don"t know where Marcus is... I became friends with Marceus for about two seconds but he never told me where his son was..."
"Is that so...?"
"Is that so. Can I have my gauntlets back, please? I want to change back to normal."
"... You will be stuck like this if you don"t use magic?"
"Yes... This isn"t some magic trick or a temporary effect or anything... I literally rebuilt myself. And now I need to do it again so I can return to my regular body."
"Why did you even change into that in the first place? You have these huge wings but you never tried to attack Boris from above."
"My griffin has a lot of magical energy. If I combine with him I can release much larger spells. I don"t fly because I have a bad story with high places... Being close to the ground makes me feel safe, I love the ground..."
"You are... Kinda weird aren"t you...?"
"... I have golden fur all over my body and a G.o.ddam tail!! Of course, I"m weird!! Now, can I please go??"
"Before that... We have an offer for you..."
"Not interested..."
"Can you at least hear me first?"
"Sorry... Please go on..."
"We would like you to-"
"Not interested..."
"..."
"What...? You never said I had to hear you until the end..."
"Look, I"m sorry we brought you here in such a rude way. But we really need you to listen to us."
"Let me guess... You want to use my magic for something stupid?"
"We want you to join our demon-slayer group."
"Eh...?"
"We saw the armor you built for that girl. You turned her into a killing machine on the battlefield. We want you to do the same for us. Travel with us collecting pieces of silver metal and turning into weapons for us to fight the demons!"
"... Wait... You all already have silver weapons."
"This is barely enough. Just look at this gauntlet you made during your fight with Boris! This thing is a piece of art! And you made this mid-battle! You are a genius blacksmith!"
"..."
"Divine weapons are the only material that works against demons. If you join our team we will be unstoppable! Even without the living weapon, we can defeat them with you on our side!"
"... Before I answer... Do any of you have any skills related to teleportation?"
The man talking with Evlin looked at his teammates and each answered in order.
"Not me..."
"Nope..."
"Don"t think so..."
"No..."
"Sorry..."
"People can teleport...?"
The man then returned to his conversation with Evlin.
"Sorry, guess you are out of luck..."
"Guess so... look I appreciate the offer but I don"t think i have anything to gain by working with you..."
"But don"t you want to help rid the world of the threat of demons? Don"t you want to be a demon slayer?"
"As of right now, I could not care less about demons even if I tried... All want is to learn how to use teleportation so I can go home..."
"Really... And how"s that been going so far?"
"It"s... A work in progress..."
"You know... If you can manage to slay a large number of demons... There is a G.o.d that will grant you any blessing you want."
"... ... ... Beg your pardon...?"
"There is a G.o.d wors.h.i.+ped by the church of the southern kingdom who"s asking for aid from adventurers to help recover his home for him from the demons that invaded the place. If we help him he will grant us one blessing of our choosing!"
"... And this blessing could be... The ability to teleport... Maybe teleport to another world...?"
"Exactly!"
"... And I should believe you, why...?"
"We have a device to detect lies if you feel unsure about it. I can bring it over if you want."
"Oh, that thing from the magic exam... How nostalgic... Nah, it"s ok... Even if it"s not true you guys are probably so fanatic that you would believe it anyway..."
"Huh... Thanks..."
"Mmmm... I need to think about this now... Honestly, I have not been enjoying my current group that much..."
"Really?"
"Yeah... They have often been really mean to me, keep judging me for being a mage and all... They even forced me to fight their leader to prove myself worthy of being in the group..."
"Wow... That"s not very nice..."
"Yeah... But on the other hand... Going around collecting a bunch of silver weapons and slaying a kingdom"s worth of demons sounds like a ma.s.sive pain..."
"..."
"So yeah... I think I"ll try my luck with my regular team if you don"t mind..."
"Is there anything we can say to change your mind?"
"Unless you have a portal to my own world hiding under these tacky trenchcoats, I"m afraid no..."
"I see... That"s a shame..."
"Yeah... It really is..."
"Guess we will have to resort to "plan b" then..."
"Plan... "B"...?"
"Those friends of yours... You said you didn"t like them right?"
"Huh... Well... There are two I"m on bad terms with right now, and two that are all right. One I"m still on the fence thought..."
"Really? That"s just five thought... Aren"t they a group of six?"
"Oh, the last one is my sister... I could never hate her..."
"Ah, that will do! You heard her boys, let"s go!"
"Eh...? Go...? Go where...?"
"We will meet your sister and cut off her arms and legs..."
"WHAT!!!???"
"Hey calm down, calm down... We will only do it if you don"t cooperate with us!"
"..."
Evlin slammed her claws on the energy barrier. Her hands were being electrified and started to burn, but she didn"t care. Hearing these men say that they would harm Ashley was enough to flip a switch inside of her.
"Let me make it simple so you will all understand... My sister is the one thing right now that is keeping me from snapping and going crazy in this stupid garbage world... "
"..."
Evlin then proceeded to smack her forehead against the barrier and glared at the entire room with eyes filled with killing intent.
"If you hurt her, if you offend her, if you so much as direct an ugly look towards her, I swear for all that is sacred that there is no G.o.d, demon, or amount of silver metal on this planet that will keep you safe from me!!"
"..." x 6
The entire room went silent for a moment before the man tried to talk to Evlin again.
"Those are some bold words, little girl... I like your pa.s.sion... But you can"t ignore the fact we have the upper hand here... You are stuck in there... And there is nothing you can do about it!"
Suddenly, a silver blade emerged from the wall directly behind Evlin and reached towards her, slicing the barrier and freeing her. She turned around surprised and saw Lilith coming from a hole in the wall she had created as the barrier started to dissipate itself.
She walked into the warehouse and stood side by side with Evlin staring at the six men that kidnapped her.
"Evlin... Your sister is calling..."