253 The Devil (1/2)
”Correct!” Knucker admitted, ”Feel free to think of me as the one who has all the spoilers for how our little story will end!”
Evlin was having trouble forming her words, ”You... You could see... You could see everything...”
”Sure did!” he replied while making a 'V' sign with his fingers, ”All I had to do was imagine as many situations as I could create as a result of my actions, and pretty much any possible future is mine to create! One time I saw a future where I pretended to be your friend and learned a lot about you from our many conversations!”
”You knew what was going to happen to me!! What I would go through!! And yet you still summoned me here!!!”
”Hey, come on... It wasn't all bad... Didn't you had fun watching Dalla die, getting chased by monsters, beat up by demons, terrorized by mobs, putting you family in danger, and watching Mia cry while she faded away begging for you to save her only to realize that there was nothing you could have do- You know... I'm starting to see your point...”
”Wraghhh!!!!” Evlin screamed as she attempted to jump on the man who was just smirking at her, only to be held down by Ashley.
”Evlin!! Evlin, please! Calm down!!”
”I'M GONNA KILL YOU!! YOU HEAR ME!!?? I WILL FIND YOUR REAL BODY AND TEAR YOU TO PIECES WITH MY TEETH IF I HAVE TO!!!”
Knucker just grabbed his glass and took another drink while watching the girl glaring at him.
”Yeah... No, you won't... You are going home and forget about all this... Now, be a good girl and pack your bags!”
”You little piece of...”
”Wait!” Ashley shouted, ”Why are you doing all this?? Why did you bring Evlin here?? Why did you destroy the temples? Why do you hate us so much??”
”Oh! I don't hate you, Ashley! I'm honestly your biggest fan!” he replied.
”What!!??”
”Yeah! You are honestly a greater evil to Evlin than me!”
”W- What do you mean??”
”Have you never noticed how many times your sister wanted to give up on her mission and just try to get used to life in this world? But every time she would, you would show up and say 'Don't give up Evie!! I believe in you!! Go get 'em girl!!' which in return would motivate her and force her to continue trying to find a way back... Which of course resulted in her constantly falling into more and more dangerous situations as a result...”
”T- That's not true!!”
”Really? Evlin lived in this world for two years with Dalla and the biggest threat she ever dealt with was some random ogre that she met on a mission... Then she meets you, and next thing we know, you guys are fighting a demon leader in the middle of a war on a city taken over by beasts!”
”T- That's not...”
”That... That's not...” Ashley was about to talk back to him, but she then was reminded that she played a big part in convincing Evlin to help Hana deal with Knucker.
Ashley always assumed that Evlin was some invincible girl that could deal with everything and anyone, and never actually stopped to properly look at how much she was truly hurting her, all because she just admired her so much to believe she could even be hurt.
”Why did you bring me here if you wanted me gone so bad!!??” Evlin asked while interrupting Ashley's thoughts.
”I didn't want to bring you here... But I had to if I wanted to avoid the death that I saw with my eyes...” Knucker admitted, ”The goddess of the East back then that you call 'Detra', which by the way, killer naming sense... She was going to summon you three years after the day you actually arrived and make you be the partner of Marcus...”
”... What...?” Evlin whispered.
”You always were going to come here... Except I saw this happening, and instead of letting you join that kid's side and become his partner, I disguised myself as a mage under the prince's service so I could bring you earlier and kill you!”
”I... I was going to be partners with Marcus??”
”Indeed... Not only that... You two were going to fall in love and grow up together... And then...”
Knucker broke his glass of water.
”You two would have a baby... And that baby would grow up... And kill me...”
Evlin didn't know what to say. She felt the rage leaving her body and dropped back on the sofa as she allowed the information to sink in.
”So I needed to separate you two... But sadly... Summoning a person with a fake body like this is actually really freaking hard... Who would have imagined...” Knucker continued, ”So when you arrived, I barely had any power left to move...
Once I got my strength back, I went after you again... But by that point, you had already mastered that really, really annoying healing magic ability... I tried to hire bandits to assault you, but you just wiped the floor with them... I tried to poison your food, but your magic just healed you in seconds... I tried to lead you into dangerous quests, hide as a teammate, and shoot you in the back when you looked away... But you always, always, ALWAYS survived... ”
Evlin started to recall her memories. Many moments she was put in danger for one reason or another. She was now starting to wonder how many of those were natural occurrences and which ones were his doing.
”You are so goddamn hard to kill, it's not even funny...” Knucker went on, ”I tried to use my ability to stare into the future and find out how I could finally get rid of you for good... And then I saw something that terrified me even more...
I saw you falling in love for some young man, marrying him, and creating a family... And just like before, you would have a kid, a girl this time, and this one would also somehow learn terminal energy one day and kill me...
So to avoid that, I searched for that guy, and strangled him while he was sleeping... So when the day came where you would live the city, you would have nothing holding you back...”
”...”
”Then... I saw you getting captured by a group of demons slayers and forced to join their side... And then, you would go on a journey by their side to the southern kingdom, where you would meet Marcus and form an alliance with him... Luckily I managed to avoid that by placing a piece of the channeling tree on their hideout which allowed you to escape...”