Part 1
As Sphinx kept running with the two girls on his back Ashley started to signal Evlin to stop so they could approach a river she had spotted.
"Evlin look! We can catch some fish over there!"
"Nice! Sphinx is probably starting to get hungry right now!"
"I'm hungry right now too Evlin!"
"Oh, right!"
"Please don't forget about me just because you have a pet now..."
"Sorry, sorry... I won't, promise..."
As they approached the river Sphinx quickly started to make a pile of fish by using his quick claws to fetch them from the water. Evlin had a proud smug look on her face saying 'Look at my boy! Isn't he amazing?'.
"Looks like he got this covered... Let's start a fire."
The three proceeded to finish their lunch and took a few minutes to let Sphinx rest a bit before start traveling again.
"Hey, Evie... What do we do with all these knives...?"
"I'm not sure... Maybe I could merge together and make some sort of weapon or armor... You saw how strong that huntress became when she used them."
"I didn't expect to find a blade forged by the living weapon like this... What kind of armor are you thinking about?"
"Maybe some chain-mail to wear under our clothes... "
"You really want to cover yourself with a material that has the power to cut anything?"
"Ugh! Good thinking... But maybe it won't hurt if I make sure it has rounded edges. Should I just go for the cliche and make a sword...?"
"Are you any good with swords?"
"Not at all..."
As Ashley kept looking at the silver weapons, a memory of the recent event started to haunt her mind.
"... Hey Evie..."
"...?"
"Aren't you scared...?"
"Of your brother...? A little bit... But I've faced enemies stronger than me many times before... Heck... I faced an enemy stronger than me yesterday..."
"... Do you... Always get yourself hurt like that...?"
"Huh... Not always... This time I got a little careless and made some dumb mistakes..."
"But you have got yourself really hurt before right...?"
"Yeah... One time I was fighting this monster that was some kind of spirit riding a horse on fire... While I tried to fight him he kicked me so hard that the bones on my right leg ended up breaking... I healed myself but it hurt a lot at the time..."
"... I was never stabbed before... I mean... I hurt myself with a kitchen knife once but... Never something like this..."
"I'm sorry you had to go through that..."
"It's ok... You fixed my hand after all... But... That feeling... That pain... I can still remember it..."
"..."
"... Do you really need to fight my brother? I can't even imagine how much he will try to hurt you..."
"I need to if I want to enter the city..."
"So you can go home right...? ... Do you really need to go home...?"
"I do... I'm sorry... I met many nice people that treated me really well in here and saw many wonderful things... But I miss my mother, I miss my sister, I miss my house and my life... I also have a goal that I want to find out if I can accomplish..."
"Even if there is no magic there?"
"Magic has been a great help to me so far, but I still think it's something that shouldn't exist... I'm sorry if that makes me sound kinda bad... But I love my world more than yours..."
"... I see..."
"..."
"Can I come...?"
"... What...?"
"I was never good at using magic during my whole life... But you said that your world not only doesn't have it but also that people don't need it... You also said that there are no monsters or knights or anything like that..."
"There is still violence in my world you know...? And wounds take much longer to heal without magic if you get yourself hurt..."
"But compared to your world and mine... Which one is easier to get yourself hurt...?"
"... Well... Considering we almost died literally a day after leaving the city, here I guess...? But this world developed many ways for people to defend themselves to these dangers..."
"Yeah but I'm not one of these people... How many times I would have died already if I didn't had you by my side?"
"I think the reason you almost died was because you had me by your side... These were my problems that you were dragged into..."
"... I want to stay with you... I want to keep being your sister!"
"... In my world there is no magic... I won't be able to protect you like I do in here..."
"If you leave, it would just end up the same..."
"... You sure about this...? You don't want to try becoming a mage anymore?"
"I'll try your method and study 'technology'..."
"Huh... I'm not sure how easy it is to 'study technology'..."
"Is that a no?"
Evlin wasn't sure what to answer.
First of all, she wasn't sure if it was even possible to bring people from this world to hers. But considering that the opposite was true there might be a chance after all.
But if she did bring Ashley with her, what then? Would she be able to take care of her? Ashley would become her responsibility. Protecting her in here was no problem since she had magic on her side, but back at home she was completely dependent of others. Would her mother be ok with letting Ashley be part of her family? Would her actual sister be mad that she found another girl with the same name as her? What was the right approach in this situation? Should she tell Ashley that she wasn't mature enough to make this kind of decision? If so, then who would be?
Ashley kept staring at her with eyes that said 'Please say yes!'. This was something she wanted, but was that what was the best for her?
"... I don't know..."
"You don't know...?"
"I don't know... This isn't like asking me if I can let you sleep at my house or something... This is bringing you to a completely new set of rules for how our lives would work... I don't have a good head to think about this kind of thing... I need time to decide..."
"... Ok... I understand..."
"But I can promise you one thing..."
"...?"
"No matter what world you end up living in... I'll make sure you are happy in it!"
"... Promise...?"
"Promise!"
The two shared a hug and accepted each other's resolves. Sphinx saw the scene taking place after finishing his food and tried to join the moment by pouncing the two of them and knocking both down. Ashley smiled and thanked Evlin.
"I'm glad I have such a cool little sister!"
"You better be! All this stuff I'm doing for you right now, you better be ready to repay me if you do end up coming with me!"
"I will!"
Evlin had decided to make sure Ashley would live a happy life no matter what decision she took. If she was to come with her to her old world, she would just handle it with her family. But if she was to keep living here, then she needed to wrap up one loose end.
"But we still need to deal with your brother by the way..."
"Just call him Xadi... I don't consider him my brother anymore..."
"All right... We need to strategize. I recently developed this bad habit of jumping into things without thinking... To take him down we are gonna need to bring our 'A-Game'!"
"... We!?"
"I can't do this on my own... Every time I try to handle everything by myself something always goes wrong. That guy is a pig but he knows more about magic than me and is much more skilled with it too... I'm going to need both you and Sphinx to help me on this one..."
"O-Ok... How can I help...?"
"First let's revise what we have on our side and come up with a plan."
"Right... Right now we have Sphinx, our newest addition... A bunch of silver knives that we got from those hunters... Your new spells that allows you to perform transformation magic, and you old spells, the earth, healing and modeling combo, all of which always work really well with your extra levels of wood."
"And, we have you!"
"Me...?"
"You probably know more about Xadi than anyone out there... If we want to win this, we need to use all the information we have, any possible weakness we can exploit! On top of that, you have some creative ideas on how to handle magic energy, now that we have more assets on our side you can probably figure it out some new creative combos!"
"I think you are giving me too much credit... You do know that I spent the whole time with my face down on the floor during our last crisis right?"
"You were the one who informed me about Xadi's tracking spell and made me find a clue to getting home, you were the one who helped me when I was suffering after losing Dalla, you were the one who knew how to get to Emerald Dawn, you gave me the clue about magic affinity, you told me about Xadi's usual form of combat with water magic and you tried to warn me about not picking a fight with those hunters! I don't know if you noticed but I think you kinda turned into some sort of genius after spending so much time listening to the stories from other adventurers, you always know what is the right decision to make!"
"Evlin I don't-"
"I trust you! This is my fight, but this is your world and your brother! So please, use your big brain to help me find a way to win this one!"
"You are putting too much pressure on me you know..."
"It's the job of the younger sister to trouble the older one!"
"... Right... You're right... It's time for me to act like the older sister for once..."
"So you ready?"
"... I'm ready! Let's plan your path to victory!"
"Our path to victory!"
"Right! ... Gather all those knives... I want to test something..."
Part 2
Sphinx suddenly stopped running when Ashley gave the signal to Evlin once again. The two girls got off the golden griffin and stared at the city that finally appeared in sight.
"This is it Evie... That's Emerald Dawn... "
"Why is it called like that by the way...?"
"It seems that the light of the sun during the sunrise makes a green crystal that's located inside of the lake start to glow, and the bright light starts to cover the whole lake making the water shine in a beautiful green."
"Wow... Must attract a lot of tourists... Wish I could have come here under less dire circumstances..."
"... You remember the plan?"
"Go there, find Xadi and punch him in the face!"
"If you can joke like that then that means you got this..."
"I got this... I'm not going to let that weirdo meddle with us anymore!"
"Then let's do this!"
Part 3
Evlin approached the gates of the city entrance by herself and found Xadi sitting on top of it waiting for her.
He looked the same as before, a young black-haired man wearing a dark-green cloak and reading a book of spells with one hand while holding his magic staff with the other.
The only difference was that now he had an eye-patch on the spot Evlin attacked with her rock-bullet.
"You kept me waiting... Little girl..."
"You talk as if it was my intention to meet you... You do know I have a better reason to be here right?"
"Don't be like that, I even took care of the little gift you left me with."
Xadi pointed to his eye-patch with an smile trying to hide his anger.
"Couldn't you just heal that? Or could it be that after acting like the bad guy for so long you now also want to look like one?"
"... It won't heal... This wasn't a wound... Your modeling magic somehow affected my body and blinded my eye... I'll have you turn me back to normal after this is done!"
"...! I... See..."
"Where is my dead weight of a sister? Did she run away scared of her big brother? Or maybe you finally got sick of her as well and just threw her away in the garbage where she belongs?"
"... Is that how you talk about your own family...?"
"Spare me... I haven't considered that idiot as my family for a long time... I just kept her close so she would keep bringing me adventurers to take advantage off..."
"... So just to be clear... You have no emotional attachment to your sister whatsoever...?"
"None at all... To me she might as well drop dead for all I care..."
"I see... That means I can move forward with no regrets then..."
"Mmm...?"
Suddenly a gigantic rock spike raised from the ground right below the spot where Xadi was sitting on, completely destroying the city gates.
Xadi managed to dodge it at the last second and jumped out of the way.
He landed on the ground and stared and Evlin for a moment. Xadi was completely lost. He did not take his eyes off from Evlin for one second and she never made any gestures indicating she was using magic.
"... How did you do that without moving your crossbow??"
"You are the genius who spends the whole day reading those stupid books... Figure it out..."
"Fine then... Let's do it your way! Do try to last more than five seconds this time!"
Xadi raised himself with wind magic and started to prepare to release a lightning attack from his staff.
He unleashed his powerful move and a wave of electricity started to fly towards Evlin but the girl did not try to dodge it, in fact, she did not move at all.
The lightning was about to fry her up but suddenly a giant stone shield appeared from the ground and blocked the attack, leaving Evlin completely unharmed.
Xadi was at a loss of words after seeing her once again using magic without lifting a finger.
"How in the world...?"
Evlin released a smug smile and mocked him.
"Hey... It's been five seconds! What else you got?"