Part 1
"So what does she look like exactly...?"
A group of six men sitting on a table inside of a bar discusses a topic among themselves while enjoying their drinks and meal. One of them raised a question only to be answered by a person sitting in front of him.
"According to what that mage said... Apparently, she has short black hair, wears wooden armor and carries around a crossbow. She can use magic but without a wand or staff. She is also traveling with a red-haired girl as well. The last time he heard from them, they were traveling to the city of Emerald Dawn..."
"And this mage... You sure we can trust him...?"
"He's famous for being able to discover information from the most well-guarded places... Even if he is lying, there must be a reason for why this girl, in particular, would catch his attention..."
"And he said that this girl knew how to find the second living weapon?"
"That's what he told me..."
"And he just handed out the information to you...? Just like this...? Asking nothing in return?"
The two figures who were discussing the topic were interrupted by another one of the individuals on the table.
"Sounds like a trap... He's probably trying to trick us to get rid of the competition..."
"Still... This girl he is talking about... Must be the one who became famous for reaching the expert-rank as a mage despite only being twelve years old..."
"I heard that too... If this girl gets her hands on the living weapon... Imagine how powerful she will become..."
"Even if the info about the living weapon is fake... Capturing her and making her work for us would be a great help for business..."
"... So what do you all say? Should we take the chance and see if she might have some value to us?"
After the first figure raised the question, the remaining five proceeded to each give their answer.
"I say we go after her! At worst, we get a strong mage to join our team. At best, we might also end up getting the living weapon as well!"
"Agreed... Business has declined lately... More power on our side would be welcome..."
"I'm curious as to how she uses magic without a wand or staff... I want to try and exchange a few blows with her!!"
"As usual you think about nothing but fighting... Still... This is our only clue on the whereabouts of the living weapon right now... I'm in!"
"..."
The last figure remained silent, thinking about what answer to give. The first man tried to instigate him to talk.
"The vote needs to bu unanimous man... we all go or no one goes..."
"... If you all want to go so bad I won't oppose it... Just remember that if this girl really is this talented, catching her will not be easy... You all better have a plan..."
"A plan huh...? Should we ask Boris for help...?"
"You want to call that maniac... ?"
"He might be a little hard to work with, but he never fails at his job... If we rely on him we will get her for sure!"
"Won't he try to keep the girl for himself in the end?"
"Then we just kill him once he tries... No big deal... If we get our hands on her we won't be needing him anymore..."
"Very well... Let's send a letter to Boris and start searching for this wood-armored girl... If this works out well... We might be standing on top of a gold mine!."
Part 2
"Come on!! Focus!!"
"I'm... Trying...!!!"
Three days have passed since the discussion between Evlin and Gustav. Both groups decided that they would be traveling together towards the southern kingdom. The mood was slightly heavy at times as Evlin would try her best to avoid contact with Gustav and Daren.
"You need to gather energy on your hand!! You need to feel the power flowing towards your fingers!!"
"Fell the power... Feel the energy... Ok... Ok..."
Ashley was mostly indifferent towards the rest of the group. She didn't show any desire to try to talk or get closer to anyone. She was also starting to smile less and less with each day. It seemed like she was really opposed to the idea of joining this team after all.
Evlin, on the other hand, managed to get along really well with Ria and Auren, after all, they were the only two who tried to fight for her to join the team since the beginning. Evlin would often talk with Auren about the similarities with their healing methods. It seems like their powers worked in opposite ways. Auren's power would allow a person to rejuvenate and remove any injuries as if he was rewinding time, while Evlin would accelerate the body's natural recovery process.
One worked by moving backwards before the injury, and the other speed it up so the injury would go away faster. It was unclear which method was the most optimal, but they both seemed to have fun discussing the pros and cons.
"You need to picture the distance between two places as if it was something that could be removed with your power! Imagine the distance between you and that tree and get rid of it with your hand!"
"I... Can't!!!"
As for Ria, she would often come to Evlin with her usual fangirl act and keep asking her how her powers worked. She would ask about things such us, how much energy could she release, how big of an object could she create, could she turn her into a dragon, and so on. If she wasn't talking about Evlin like she was a new game she was trying to learn the rules of, she would talk about Sphinx and how much both of them just wanted to spend the whole day drowning in its fur. Evlin was happy to find a fellow animal lover as it seems like Ashley was also indifferent to Sphinx despite the beast loving to cuddle her.
"Ria, this isn't working!!"
"Yeah... I can see that..."
Ironically, the one thing Evlin wanted to discuss with Ria was what she was the worst at talking about. Whenever she tried to explain how her wind-scar power worked she would only end up making Evlin even more lost. It appears that Ria had no idea how she was doing that honestly.
"Are you sure this is how you do it?"
"Pretty sure... I just think about removing the distance about where I want to go and then, boom! Wind-scar!"
They would often spend hours trying to have Evlin learn how to open a scar by herself so she could try and open a portal to her own world. But, big shock, Ria was actually a really bad teacher.
"Maybe we should take a break for now... Let's go grab something to eat..."
"Ugh... Fine..."
Evlin had spent the whole morning swinging her hand up and down trying to copy Ria's movements but to no success. She looked like she was calling someone from a distance which made Sphinx constantly come over thinking Evlin wanted to pet her. This would often result in Ria getting distracted wanting to play with him and just making it even harder to continue her training.
They joined Ashley who was enjoying a meal with Lilith. The boys had all gone out to catch some creatures to eat. Evlin was strongly opposed to the idea but she gave up when realized how hungry she was. Evlin was worried if they would be ok since it was still the middle of the day and Daren couldn't use his power, to which Ria tried to respond.
"After your 'If you want to stop being useless, then stop being useless' speech, they decided that they wanted to try and rely less on their power and fight on their own."
"I see..."
"It seems like they are feeling really bad about the way they treated you after all... I was used to seeing Marceus bullying them all the time but I guess they never really tried bullying someone..."
"Marceus was a bully...?"
"Maybe not a bully... But he would often take every chance he had to make fun of his candidates for always taking everything so seriously... ... Man... I'm really going to miss him... "
"Yeah... He seemed like a cool guy... I wish i could've talked more with him..."
Ashley finished her food and joined the conversation.
"So how did the training go today?"
"No luck... Again..."
"You still can't open a scar?"
"I'm starting to wonder if I even can... I'm doing everything Ria tells me and imitating all of her gestures but nothing happens..."
"Maybe only Ria can do it...? Ria, where did your powers came from?"
"I'm not really sure, to be honest... One day I was feeling nostalgic thinking about my old home while I was travelling... I was riding a horse at the moment and he stumbled upon a rock. I got scared and tried to grab something by reflex to avoid falling... And before I noticed a huge scar was floating in mid-air like a window with my old house on the other side..."
"... So it just happened..."
"It just happened... I tried to discuss it with some other candidates but nobody knew what the heck that was all about..."
Evlin started to look down.
"This might be hopeless then..."
"Hey come on!! If a clutz like me can do it, I'm sure a genius like yourself can do it as well!!"
"Thanks, Ria..."
Evlin looked around and noticed Lilith sitting quietly eating her meal. She wondered if she was feeling left out of the conversation.
"What about you miss Lilith...?"
"Huh...!? Me...?"
"Yeah! Where did you get the power of future sight?"
"Oh! Well... Huh..."
Lilith was not prepared to become the focus of the conversation. Evlin wasn't really sure how she felt about Lilith yet. She didn't try to push her away like Daren and Gustav but she really didn't try to help either. She was basically just... There. She was hoping that talking more with her would help her figure it out her feelings.
"Well... When I was a kid I would always go to the church to pray for my family so that they would be safe... One day when I was on my way, I meet a small black-haired girl dressed in white who was starving in the middle of the road... I looked around and everyone was acting like they couldn't see her... I came closer and offered a little bit of food that I had."
The three girls were listening in silence to Lilith's story.
"After that, I kept meeting the girl every day for a whole month. Every time I would go to the church she would be on the street being ignored and I would offer some food. My mother started to get angry since we didn't have that much food to afford to share... But I kept doing it anyway..."
"..." x 3
"One day I had no food to share anymore and just gave her my share to eat. I starved for a whole day and almost passed out. But then... The small girl revealed that she was actually a goddess trying to test me... She became my friend and helped my family with their financial problems. One day she told me that she needed to leave since gods can't get too attached to humans or they will lose their divine powers... But before leaving she gave me this future sight ability so I would never forget her. She told me to use it to avoid any danger that would come to me in the future."
Evlin heard that last part and made a small remark.
"And yet you still turned into a statue..."
Lilith started to blush.
"Y- Yes... I think because I was in danger from another Goddess... The future sight didn't activate and I couldn't see it..."
Ashley tried to bring out the idea Evlin had suggested the other day.
"You think divine powers don't work on divine beings? So maybe Evlin's theory about Marceus's divine energy being able to hurt a divine deity might be wrong after all..."
"I'm not sure... I was friends with that little girl but she never really talked much about herself..."
"Well, it's nice to know that not all gods want to turn you into statues or use you as their personal toys..."
Lilith agreed to that remark.
"I think... Just like miss Evlin is a good mage in a world filled with bad mages, she was a good goddess in a world filled with bad gods honestly... After I parted ways with her, I tried to study a bit about the appearances of gods around the world... And most of them come off similar to Marceus's situation... A lot of divine beings using people to perform their goals... I feel i got lucky that I ended up meeting that little girl and not one of the worse types of gods..."
"So most gods are jerks too... Good to know..."
"It might be more than that Ash..."
"...?"
"I think just like it is with mages... Having so much power makes you feel like you're allowed to do anything... Lilith, you said that the goddess you met was just a little girl right....?"
"That's right..."
"Maye the reason she helped you was because she was still young and not as powerful as other gods..."
"That... Might be true... But in that case... Two hundred years have passed... You think she might have turned evil by now...?"
"Maybe...? Or maybe meeting you was enough to keep her from turning like that... ... It's harder to lose yourself when you are not alone..."
Evlin started to wonder what kind of mage she would have turned into if she had not met Dalla and Ashley. She then remembered that if she had not met Dalla she would have died so she stopped thinking about it.
"I wish I could meet her again... See what she looks like today..."
"Why not go to a church and try to pray again?"
"I'm afraid I might end up meeting the goddess that used Marceus by accident... Since I can't see her with my future sight, I'm afraid of going to churches..."
"Ugh... That's... Unfortunate... So we should try to avoid churches from now on...?"
Evlin started to shiver. She was reminded of how her mother would scold her for skipping going to the church when she was young. She was afraid that her mother would appear out of nowhere and start yelling at her, "You might be running away from a psychotic killer goddess, but you're crazy if you think I'm letting your lessons from catholic school go to waste!!", is what she imagined her mother would say.
Ashley stared at Evlin's reaction and started to get curious about something.
"Hey, Evie... Are there gods in your world?"
"Huh... Yes...? It's complicated... Most of the people in my world choose to believe in different gods... Everyone has their own thing that they believe it's the one they can rely upon and pray to... Because of that, there is no clear answer as to which one is real and which one is not... You just pick the one that makes more sense to you..."
"I see... And which one did you pick...?"
"I picked the one my mother suggested... He doesn't have a name, people just call him God. He is the most popular deity in my world and the one most choose to believe in."
"And is He a kind god?"
"Maybe...? There are a bunch of books saying He is, but I never really met Him... But I kinda like the idea that someone is watching over and taking care of me... It helps me when I'm alone... People say He is omnipresent so I kinda wonder if He is in this world as well..."
Ria seemed to be feeling uncomfortable with the conversation.
"Ugh... Can we please change the subject...? I don't like the idea of people being able to watch over every move we make... Feels like my dad is following me when I tried to sneak out of the house..."
Ashley seemed interested in the conversation herself, probably trying to prepare in case she did end up going with Evlin to her own world, but she decided to accept Ria's suggestion.
"In that case... Can we talk about what exactly is this south kingdom?"
Evlin raised her interest as well.
"Yeah, we are going there to find out how to get a curse like Daren right? What is this place like?"
Lilith rested her chin on her finger as if wondering how to explain it to the two girls.
"From what Daren told us... It seems like it's a place ruled by monsters and demons..."
"!!!" x 3