40 Where to next? (1/2)

Part 1

”Lilith...? How- How did you get here??”

”I used my future sight...”

”Eh...?”

”I started to imagine myself running on all possible directions until I found a future where I found out where you were located.”

”You... You can do that?? ... How many futures did it take for you to find me...?”

”I... Don't want to think about it...”

Lilith started to rub her head as if trying to remove some kind of painful memory. What exactly did she saw on those alternate futures...? Is what Evlin was thinking.

Right now the two girls were standing alone against the group of self-proclaimed demon-slayers inside a warehouse. Evlin was still stuck on her body that was rebuild to merge with Sphinx but she couldn't use magic since all of her wood had been condensed into one gauntlet that was now in possession of the six men in front of her.

Lilith was carrying her silver armor and sword made from the knives Evlin obtained after being transformed with modeling magic. However, this was still the same Lilith who lost focus in the middle of a fight and got herself knocked out.

On top of that, each of the demon-slayers was carrying a weapon made of the same blessed metal as Lilith's armor, so they all were as fast as her right now and could inflict about as much damage.

”Hey Lilith... Can we win this fight...?”

Lilith used her ability to look into the future trying to see what their options were.

”No... But... There are a few futures were we manage to escape with either your wooden gauntlet or your metal gauntlet... But not both... You will need to choose one to leave behind.”

”Ugh...!!”

Evlin wasn't excited about that. She was really enjoying the idea of gaining access to more silver metal, and she was definitely not a fan of leaving such a powerful tool in the hands of these guys. But without her magic, she was about as useful as Daren during the daytime. The answer was obvious.

”You know what I will choose right?”

”Yes... I feel it's the right choice as well.”

The slayers were standing in front of the two girls, weapons in hand, simply waiting for one of them to make a move to engage in battle.

”So how do we proceed?”

”... Just walk towards your gauntlet... I'll protect you!”

”Eh... ?? You? By yourself?? Against all of them?”

”... Right now all seven of us have the same power and speed... But when it comes to skill...”

Lilith changed her pose and started to hold her sword very close to her head while expanding the distance between her legs, assuming some kind of samurai stance.

”None of them can match me...”

Lilith had a scary look on her eyes. Evlin was not happy with letting her take care of the entire group alone but is not like there was much she herself could do right now. In her golden form, she was nothing but a bit target just waiting to get stabbed. It would probably just be easier to make herself the focus of the enemy and let it be easier for Lilith to know where to defend. She started to think about the fight with Xadi.

”Oh... So that's how Ashley felt...”

”What...?”

”Nothing... Let's do this!”

Evlin started to slowly walk towards her wooden gauntlet and the slayers immediately jumped to intercept her. Lilith then quickly moved to block each of their attacks at lightning speed. The clash lasted only a second and from Evlin's point of view, it seemed as if everyone in the room had teleported and switched places. Lilith stared at her and shouted.

”Keep going!! Don't stop.”

Evlin tried to walk again. At each step, all the individuals on the room would vanish with absurd speed and the sound of metal colliding would echo across the room. Evlin started to feel like she was inside of a whirlwind that was completely avoiding her.

The members of the slayer group kept trying to attack her but all of them kept getting repelled by Lilith's blade. Evlin was basically inside of an invisible wind shield protecting her from all the strikes.

She tried to adjust her eyes to take a look at Lilith again and was amazed by her performance. She was actually holding all of them down by herself.

”Evlin!!! Faster!!”

Or so he thought, but quickly realized that Lilith was starting to look extremely tired. Evlin noticed that she was probably overusing her future sight too much and that was starting to damage her body.

Evlin started to speed up and finally reached her wooden gauntlet. But just as she was about to grab it, one of the slayers rushed towards her and snatched it away from her. Worse of all, he had taken the metal gauntlet as well.

”Sorry, but we can't allow you to leave.”

”Tch!!”

Evlin looked at Lilith that was by her side trying to understand what happened. Didn't she say they would be able to escape with one of the gauntlets? Why didn't Lilith's plan work?

She then realized that Lilith was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily.

”Sorry... I messed up... During one of our clashes, I hesitated again...”

So that's how it was. Her old trauma was back again. Evlin wasn't completely sure what her whole trauma thing was about. It seems like Lilith lost control while using Marceus in the past and ended up slaughtering an entire army by herself without realizing it because she just kept looking at the future and thinking about the next opponent to defeat. The shock of finally looking back at all the opponents she had killed must have been too much for her to handle.

But what to do now? Lilith was starting to lose her strength, both mentally and physically. At this rate, the two of them would end up getting captured. Should Evlin leave the gauntlet behind and just escape with Lilith? Their safety was more important than her magic. But even if they tried to escape, the slayers were all as fast as Lilith right now. They would catch up to them easily.

”Guhhrr... If only I had a little piece of the tree...”

At that moment, something flashed before Lilith's eyes. She whispered something inside of Evlin's ear and Evlin shouted in surprise.

”Seriously!!??”

”I'm sure of it!!”

”Ok... If you say so...”

Evlin started to run towards the exit door with all her speed. One of the slayers holding a silver spear shouted in response.

”She's trying to escape!! After her!!”

The slayers started to move after Evlin but Lilith rushed to stop them. Several lights of silver slashes could be seem flying around all over the warehouse. Lilith still didn't had in her to straight up kill a person again but she had no problem protecting Evlin from attacks.

Evlin finally reached the exit door. The slayer with a spear managed to escape from Lilith's grasp and leaped towards Evlin, piercing the door and completely stopping Evlin from leaving.

”Nowhere to run now!”

”...!”

”Your friend won't be able to keep up with us much longer. Give up now or we will cut her neck off.”

”...”

”Your choice... Little mage...”

”... That's right... I'm a mage... Recently everyone's been picking on me because of that... Even myself...”

”...?”

”Mages have so much power but they become useless the moment they lose their staffs... We really can't do anything without magic...”

”Are you finally losing it or something...?”