Part 1"So that"s the castle where she"s keeping Ashley?"
"Yes... The old lair of the royal family..."
Gustav and Daren were looking at the place the South G.o.d had informed that Drya had run off to. A huge castle in the very center of the city. Its position was set in the tallest point of the mountain. The towers of the castle were so high up that they could almost reach the clouds. Even from outside of the church, it was possible to get a good look at the building.
The entire construction was looking like it could crumble at any moment due to the amount of damage it appeared to have received over the years, but some kind of dark energy was surrounding it and it looked like it was keeping it together.
"Daren, Lilith... Are you two sure you wanna go through with this?"
"Ashley needs us... She"s probably really scared right now while being held by that plant demon... She is waiting for us!"
"I made a vow to Ashley once that I would keep her sister safe. Now I will make the same vow to Evlin. I will bring back Ashley safe and sound!."
Gustav still didn"t like the idea of letting these go enter the enemy area alone. Every time the team would engage in a heist mission they would always rely on Ria to provide an escape route, Ashley to come up with a plan, and Evlin to be the main attack force. Gustav had no idea how balanced of a team Daren and Lilith could make. But, just like many of the recent situations lately, options were limited and they had to take this risk.
"Then I wish you two the best of luck! The rest of us will stay to take care of Evlin."
Auren and Ria approached them as well to say a few parting words.
"Be careful you two! Lilith, don"t push yourself too hard."
"I won"t! Thanks, Ria."
"Daren, if the situation gets dangerous then escape at the first chance you get... We can"t lose anyone else..."
"Don"t worry Auren, we won"t! By this time tomorrow, all seven of us will be together again just like always!"
"Right! Stay safe!"
Daren and Lilith gazed onto the castle and started to rush towards it with a small group of monsters behind them, the creatures that had fused with the team not too long ago and that were now allied with them due to inheriting their memories after separating.
Gustav watched as the two fastest members of the team embarked on their dangerous mission.
"Ria, Auren, raise a barrier to cover the church. We need to keep Evlin safe at all costs."
"Won"t the barrier hurt Ashley and Daren when they return?"
"Don"t worry, Daren can just contact me when he finishes the job."
"I see... We really are lucky to have your telepathic power on our side at times like this!"
"Heh... Thanks... Sometimes I kinda wish I had a more powerful ability but I guess this is fine as it is..."
Ria stared at Gustav for a moment while an idea came to her mind.
"Hey, Gustav...?"
"...?"
"When I received the blessing from West... I could feel my wind-scar becoming much stronger you know?"
"..."
"I could open much larger portals and hold them for longer periods o time..."
"Is that so...?"
Gustav was glad that Ria had received a power boost but he didn"t understand how that information was important right now.
"So... Did you feel any change in your psychic ability?"
"Mmmm... I"m not sure... Let me check."
Gustav tried to focus and attempted to use his power while concentrating the energy of the South G.o.d over his body. The energy of blue light started to appear covering him while he continued and before he realized, his body was transported somewhere else.
"What the...??"
Gustav gazed around him and realized he was in the middle of some kind of white s.p.a.ce all by himself. He started to panic and released his energy, and the moment he did so, he returned to the outside of the church"s entrance.
"Gustav!! Gustav!! Are you ok??"
Auren was holding him on his arms while they were laying on the snow.
"Wh What happened??"
"We have no idea! You just pa.s.sed out when you tried to use your power. What did you do?"
"I- ... I think I sent my mind to the white void..."
"What...? The white void?"
Ria was intrigued and joined the conversation.
"You mean the place where Evlin is right now?"
Gustav heard her comment and widened his eyes"
"The place where Evlin is right now...!!"
He stood up from Auren"s arms in a hurry and rushed inside of the church.
He moved towards the chair Evlin was sitting on and grabbed a chair to sit next to her. He started to focus again and the blue energy from before began to leak again.
[Evlin!! Evlin can you hear me???]
[...]
He was looking at the unconscious Evlin and continued to try reaching for her.
[Evlin!! Please! If you can hear me! Say something!!]
[...!]
[Evlin??]
[Gustav??]
Part 2
Evlin was getting really tired of staying in the white void.
She was no stranger to the concept of spending many hours doing nothing, but she would usually have something by her side to help time flow faster.
Her cellphone, her notebook, her reading novels, her videogame. Anything to drive her boredom away. But in the white void, she didn"t have anything.
She a.s.sumed she would be glad to have some peace and quiet after all the G.o.ds finally finished taking their turns talking to her, but now that she was alone, she was starting to miss them again.
Evlin started to think about it and realized she never has been alone after coming to this world.
As soon as she came here she spent two years living with Dalla, and when she wasn"t with Dalla she was joining other adventurers as a bodyguard during their missions.
Then she decided to become sisters with Ashley and they spent practically every day together after that. Shortly after she also joined Daren"s group and turned into members of their family and continued to go on adventures as a team of seven.
This was the first time she was truly by herself for such a long period of time. Which wouldn"t be so bad under normal circ.u.mstances, but right now she couldn"t stop thinking about how things were going on in the real world.
About her sister who was being tricked by the dryad. About her friends who were exploring the demon kingdom. About Marcus who would arrive at any moment. About this superweapon that she needed to create to defeat East. About how apparently she should prepare for some kind of huge fight with Mia in the future according to the north G.o.d.
So many things she needed to do and she couldn"t work on any of them. She felt like she was about to explode at any moment.
"I want to wooooooork!! I"m so sick of just staying here doing noooooothing!!"
Having nothing else to do she decided to try and do something she hasn"t done in a very, very, very long time, unlocking a new skill for her magic.
She started by sitting down on the white floor with her legs crossed and closed her eyes so she could focus.
She began to think about her affinity, the ability to transform things as she saw fit. Modeling magic, earth magic, recreation magic, and healing magic, all worked under the law of allowing her to dictate how the base structure of something should be.
Healing magic worked by fixing the injuries of the body, earth magic worked by combining the grains of sand around her and combining into larger pieces of earth, modeling worked by giving an object a new shape and form, and recreation worked in a similar method except it was meant for living beings.
By working oh exploring the potential of recreation she obtained the ability of fusion, where she could combine two beings into one, a skill that she would often use on herself to combine with her pet griffin and gain access to his ma.s.sive pool of magic.
Similarly, healing also unlocked a secondary effect, where when used in large doses it would grant her body with a boost in speed and strength, although not nearly as much as Daren in his lion form or Lilith wearing silver armor.
With earth magic, she wasn"t just able to gather the material but also move it with her will. That was great for shooting bullets or arrows made of stone and throw it at her enemies, as well as being able to make an entire platform made of rock float in the air.
Each of her spells had some kind of deeper form of power that she could unlock if she tried to concentrate.
Healing would lead to strength boost, recreation would lead to fusion, and earth would lead to geokinesis.
She now needed to further improve into another spell as well, the secondary effect of modeling magic.
During her battle with Daren, she discovered a new ability by accident when she tried to change the base structure of her rock fists to something that could harm his lion form. Because of that, she somehow managed to change the earth into diamonds and finally got a few hits on Daren.
The secondary effect of modeling, alchemy. Not only changing the shape but also changing what it was made of.
She had come to realize lately that because of her opponents always using blessed metal, many of her earth attacks ended up simply being stoped by the swing of a blade. If she could master her alchemy ability and reinforce her attacks, she would be able to fight on even ground against that kind of threat.
[Evlin!! Please! If you can hear me! Say something!!]
"...!"
But just as she was starting to focus on her new ability, she was interrupted by a message from Gustav"s voice inside her mind.
[Evlin??]
"Gustav??"
She stood up in a hurry and looked around to see if she had really heard him.
"Gustav?? Is that you???"
[Evlin!!! Yes! It"s me!!!]
Evlin continued to look into the white void and all of sudden, she saw the image of a blond man appearing right in front of her.
"Gustav!!!
"Evlin!!!"
The two hugged each other in relief after being separated for so long. Somehow she could touch him in the white void.
"G.o.d! It"s so good to see a friendly face!! I"ve been stuck in here for so long!!"
"Same!! You have no idea how much we miss you!!"
Evlin then remembred about her conversation with North.
"Gustav! Is everyone ok? What happened out there?"
"..."
"Gustav...?"
Gustav made a difficult expression as if he had just eaten a sour dish and was trying to hide his distaste.
"Something... Something happened with Ashley..."
"... ... ... What...?"
Evlin"s eyes started to widen up and she was beginning to feel her chest tightening. The last time she saw Ashley she was stomping a giant horse demon as if he was made of cardboard. But she also knew after talking with South that she was in danger because of the dryad in her brain.
"Gustav..."
"..."
She took a deep breath and held her chest with both hands while carrying a look of fear as if she didn"t want to know the truth.
"What happened to my sister...?"
"..."
Gustav continued to hold his sour face and looked at her.
"The dryad kidnapped her..."
"What...?"
"The dryad used Ashley to feed on our negative emotions and locked her inside her mind. She has total control over Ashley"s body..."
"No... Please no..."
Evlin feel on her knees and covered her mouth so she wouldn"t start crying. Her sister was the most precious thing she had in that world. She would not be able to bear it if something happened to her.
"I- I- I need to come back!! I need to get out of here now!!! I need to save her!!"
"Evlin calm down! Were working on it!!"
"How can I calm down??? My sister is being held prisoner by a demon!! All because of me and my stupid idea!!! I need to bring her back to normal!!"
"You can"t!! Not while you"re in the white void..."
"Ugh!!! Then..."
"Don"t worry! We have a plan!"
"... You do...?"
"Daren and Lilith are on their way to recover Ashley"s body. Once they do I will use my power to return her to normal!"
"Your power...?"
"Yes! I"ve been blessed by the south G.o.d. I can bring Ashley back!"
"You... You are a champion too?"
"Ah, no... It"s just a small blessing... I don"t have an immortal body nor am I a servant to him."
"I- I see..."
Evlin still wasn"t comfortable with the idea. This situation was her fault, she fused Ashley with the dryad, she was her sister, she should be the one out there saving her.
"Evlin..."
"...?"
"Do you trust us?"
"Eh...?"
"Do you believe in me to save your sister? Do you believe in us to save you?"
"..."
The words from the North G.o.d returned to her. She realized that she did in fact had difficulty relying on others to carry her duties. She needed to learn to place more faith in her teammates or she would end up burying herself with responsibilities.
"I do... You guys are my family... And I know you would never abandon us!"
"Thank you for your trust."
"..."
"I promise you... We will return Ashley to normal, we will free you from this place, and when we do, we will take on Marcus and the east G.o.ddess together!"
"... Together...?"
"Together!!"
Evlin felt a sense of relief. The truth was, she always pictured in her mind that she would end up somehow having to face Marcus and East alone. She knew that this was a fight that belonged to all of her friends but she couldn"t help but feel her place was always on the frontlines, always taking the biggest risk, always jumping to protect everyone.
She did that during her fight with Marcus. Instead of trying to work as a team to take him down, she tried to hold him off while everyone escaped.
But now, the team had grown, it was stronger and more reliable. She didn"t need to carry everything by herself anymore. She felt she was finally free to just play her own role instead of doing all the roles.
She came closer to Gustav and gave him another hug.
"Thank you Gus! I needed that so much!!"
Gustav was surprised by the show of affection but was happy that he could put her mind at ease. Gustav had for a long time now resolved himself to always be there when Evlin needed someone to help her sort her feelings and ease her suffering.
"I need to return now... But I"ll be right there by your side! If you need me just call!"
"Thanks Gus! I will!"
The image of Gustav started to fade and Evlin was once again alone in the white void.
But this time, she decided she would no longer feel sorry for herself or try to worry about things she could not do.
Everyone had a role to play. And her role right now was to wait.
"Everyone is doing their best... I can"t stay behind..."
She started to concentrate again.
Right now she couldn"t save Ashley, she couldn"t protect her friends, and she couldn"t fight against the demons. She was stuck in there and there was nothing she could do about it. But there was one thing she could do to prepare for once she was free.
Evlin continued to focus and kept trying to reach the deeper meanings of her magic so she would be better prepared to fight once the battle started.
"I"m counting on you, everyone..."