Part 1
Evlin was in the white void looking in the eyes of one of the many people in this world she never wanted to see again.
"Xadi?? How... How did you..."
"Came back to normal? Well I'm glad you asked! You see, it all began-"
"Aaaaarghh!!"
Evlin started to scream while trying to punch Xadi, but her fist slipt right through him as if he was a hologram.
"... I can see you are still as violent as ever..."
"You piece of trash!! Do you have any idea the amount of hell you made me go through??"
"Did I now? Do tell!! I would love to hear about your suffering!!"
"You bloody psychopath, thanks to you I keep getting attacked by a bunch of maniacs who come after me thinking I know where Marcus is... How are you not a frog anymore??"
"I made a new friend! She helped me get over my little trouble..."
"... Friend...?"
"Here let me introduce you!"
Evlin blinked and suddenly a new figure had appeared besides Xadi inside of the white void. A small girl wearing a black dress with black hair and twin ponytails who shared a strong resemblance to Ria.
"Hi again crossbow girl! How is big sis doing?"
"Mia!!?? You helped Xadi?? How did... Wait... That means..."
Evlin sensed another figure approaching and before she noticed, a small boy with silver hair and a blue shirt holding an extremely angry look joined them in the void.
"Marcus...!"
Evlin was terrified. What exactly was going on? Why were these two working with Xadi? How was Xadi back to normal? How was he tracking her?
"What's going on here...? What are you three doing together?"
Xadi smirked.
"Three?"
Xadi snapped his fingers and six figures in trenchcoats also appeared inside of the void, all of them carrying silver weapons and wearing silver armor.
"The demon-slayers...? Ah!! My gauntlet!! That's how you tracked me!!"
"Correct!! You should be honored, we came all the way here just for you!"
The group of people started to surround Evlin in a circle. She was now face to face with Marcus whith Xadi and Mia by his side while the slayers were behind her.
"You all are working together...?"
Marcus glared at her as if he wanted to snap her neck. Xadi was just enjoying the moment and started to tease her.
"My, my, little girl... Just what have you been up to while I was gone...? Look at how many people you managed to piss off in such a short amount of time..."
"..."
"I mean, I thought I hated you, you know, due to the whole, blinding my eye, stealing my staff and turning me into a frog stuff... But this boy...? This boy right here? He really, really can't stand you!! It almost makes me jealous!! Just what did you do to him? Stole his toy? killed his dog?"
"I didn't do a thing... I didn't gave any reason for any of you to hate me... You all came after me due to your own choice!!"
Marcus approached her while still holding his glare.
"Is that so...?"
"...!!!"
Evlin could not move. Even if that was just a projection of Marcus, all her memories of her battle with him still lingered on her mind.
"So are you not trying to kill my mother using the weapons created by my own father...? Are you not the one who is completely insulting the legacy of my family? Are you not the one who tried to ally yourself with a monster and a cursed human to defy a goddess?"
"I already told you, Marcus, Your mother is not who you think she is!! She turned Marceus into her prisoner and tormented his friends!! Stop fighting for her!!"
"Shut up..."
"She is just using you to win some stupid game and will throw you away once she is done!"
"I said shut up..."
"Could you please stop acting like a spoiled child and just listen to what I'm saying?? She! Does not! Love! You!!!"
"I TOLD YOU TO STAY QUIET!!!"
Marcus began to release the power of his silver energy. Even inside the white void, Evlin's projection still felt the impact of his power.
"I told you... Never speak about my father again..."
"... You really will not listen to me huh...?"
"No... But you will listen to me..."
"...?"
"I want you to know... That you're dead... My duty is to eliminate all evil from this world... And I just decided to put you on the top of the list... I will hunt you down like the wild animal that you are... You and your pack of idiots who took away what belonged to me..."
"...!!"
"I offered you the chance to give up your goal, and you refused... I offered you the chance to surrender and let me kill you quickly, and you still refused... There will be no third chances... The second I lay my eyes on you, I will stab your heart in the most painfull way possible and cut your head off..."
"... Do these sound like the words of someone who's fighting evil...?"
"I told you to stay quiet... You can run, and you can hide... But you will never be free from me... I know you are trying to reach the demon kingdom... I will be going there too... And when I find you, I will never let you escape me again..."
"And he's not going alone by the way!"
Mia decided to join the conversation.
"All of our friends here! They will be joining us!! Everyone can't wait to give a little payback for all the damage you caused!"
Evlin took another look at her surroundings. The demon slayers were carrying new weapons made of silver metal, probably produced by Marcus. And Xadi was empty-handed but he probably was in possession of her old gauntlet right now, a gauntlet with a lot of channeling wood made from combining her old armor with Xadi's staff. These people were more dangerous than ever right now, and they just announced that they would be coming towards the same destination she was going to. Evlin's heart started to beat faster and faster.
Marcus started to walk towards her direction and the rest of them began to approach her as well. Every single one of them was one finger away from her. Even though they were just projections, she couldn't help but feel intimidated while looking like her old appearance from when she was a small girl on a school uniform. She was drenched with a massive feeling of hopelessness. Her chest was tight and she was finding it difficult to breathe.
"Once we come for you and your group... And start to bathe our weapons from a pool made from your blood... I want you to remember one thing, and one thing only..."
Marcus approached his mouth to her ear while she kept breathing heavily from her mouth at an absurd speed.
"You all brought this upon yourselves!"
For a split second, she saw behind Marcus the image of a blond woman wearing a long white dress floating above him and grinning menacingly. The woman began to move towards Evlin with a terrifying expression. She kept coming closer and closer until her eyes were one step away from Evlin's and she proceeded to whisper a few words.
"See... You... Soon!"
Part 2
"Evlin!!! Evlin!!!"
Evlin woke up from her nightmare and heard Ashley screaming at her.
"Evlin!!! What happened to you!!??"
"...?"
Evlin could not speak. She gazed at herself and realized she was drenched in sweat, her body would not stop shaking, her heart was beating at a crazy speed against her chest and she was having difficulty breathing. She felt like she had been inside of a blender for the last six hours. Her body would just not stay calm.
"Evlin!! Evlin please speak to me!!"
Ashley and the rest of her friends kept staring at her trying to understand what was wrong. She tried to speak but fear was overcoming her.
"... Coming... Is coming!!!"
"What are you saying?? Who's coming??"
"Everyone!!! They all are back!! And they all are coming to kill me!! To kill all of us!!"
Ashley didn't understand what she was saying but before she could ask another question Evlin just started to hug her with all her strength while continuing to shake.
"Its ok Evlin... I'm right here... Everything will be fine..."
Ashley tried to hug her back in an attempt to calm her down but it was barely working. Evlin could not stop thinking about what she just saw. Every person she ever angered in one way or another was now working together to come after her, all wearing armors and weapons reinforced with blessed energy. She kept thinking about the image of all of her friends being killed by those weapons, all because of her.
She needed to warn them but her body continued to not listen to what she says. She couldn't stop shaking and crying.
She tried to take a deep breath to calm down but still kept trembling. Not knowing what else to do, she simply formed a fist and smacked her own face with all her strength.
The group looked in shock as Evlin fell on Ashley's arms after hitting herself out of nowhere.
She realized that the shaking had finally stopped and she could breathe normally again.
"Ahhh... Much better..."
She proceeded to stand up from Ashley's arms and tried to take another deep breath before truly calming herself down. She noticed everyone staring at her as if she was crazy.
"... We need to talk..."
Part 3
Evlin had finished explaining what had happened during her sleep. About how all of her old enemies had joined together, about how they all were equipped with massives amounts of silver metal provided by Marcus, and how they were all coming to the demon kingdom to kill her and her group.
"That's about it... Long story short... We just gained another trouble to deal with..."
Ria looked concerned.
"... Can... Can we beat them...?"
"... I don't know..."
Evlin truly did not know. These people all came really close to almost killing her many times but she always managed to avoid it due to some stroke of luck.
"Xadi is carrying my old gauntlet so he will probably be able to create much larger magic spells than before. All of the demon-slayers will have much more silver metal so their speed and power will be nothing compared to when we last faced them... On top of that, Marcus can blind Lilith's future sight so we can't rely on her to properly ready ourselves. As if that wasn't enough, we still will be dealing with all the demons of the kingdom."
"...!!!" x 6
"I hate to say it... But these are some terrible odds..."
Ria tried to speak again.
"So... What do we do...? Just let them go to the demon kingdom and let both sides destroy each other?"
Evlin honestly thought that wasn't such a bad idea but Gustav interrupted her thinking process.
"We can't do that... They are coming with Marcus, and they will all be carrying tons of silver metal... If they do in fact manage to take over the kingdom, they will receive the gratitude of the south god instead of us."
Evlin understood what he was trying to say. If they lost the support of the south god, West would abandon them, and they would have no means of defending against Marcus and his new pack of Evlin-slayers. They needed to secure the city themselves, as well as facing off against this new threat and still trying to find out how to get the power of curses.
Ashley left out a sight and started to think of a way to solve all their problems at the same time.
"If only we could make a truce with the demons..."
Evlin looked at her confused.
"A truce with the demons...?"
"Well, Ria suggested we let both sides destroy each other but we can't do that. I was hoping that maybe we should try to become allies with one side to help defeat the other..."
Daren understood her suggestion.
"And of course, Marcus would never ally himself with us... Because we threatened his stupid mommy..."
"So a truce with the demons would be our only remaining option..."
Ashley finished his sentence.
"..."
Evlin pondered about the thought for a while. How could she manage to get the demons on her side? She came up with an idea and tried to ask Ashley again if that was their best option.
"Ash, are you sure making a truce is our best chance?"
"Either that or we stay here and wait for them to come. We won't have the best odds but its still better than fighting with a kingdom of demons right behind us..."
"No... It's too risky to fight all of them in our current state..."
"Then yeah... A truce is our best bet... If we can get them to help, them we will have more power to fight Marcus, which will give us a chance to acquire information about the kingdom that we can use for our eventual attack, and might even give us the opportunity to find out about curses..."
"I see... So it really is the best option... Sphinx!! Let's go!!"
"Eh...?"
Evlin approached Lilith with Sphinx right behind her.
"Lilith, I need you to use your future sight... Is there any small nest of monsters anywhere around here?"
Lilith stared into possible futures to confirm Evlin's request and proceeded to give her an answer.
"There is one not too far from here..."
"Perfect... Lead me there."
Ashley rushed towards her sister as she began to move with Lilith.
"Evlin what are you doing?"
"Just hold on for a second... I need to test a theory."