263 Speak up (1/2)

Evlin helped Auren stand up after finally returning to normal and recovering control of her body from her terminal power.

”You okay?” Auren asked while analyzing her expression.

”About as okay as I'll ever be...” she replied, ”Let me give you a hand...”

The woman proceeded to lift her arm that was tangled in her magic whip and tried to apply healing magic to her friend's wounds, but no matter how much she tried, nothing happened. Auren assumed she was suffering from magic exhaustion but her body was still moving normally so that couldn't be it.

”Oh, great... They weren't kidding...” she whispered.

”What?” Auren questioned, ”Who?”

”My powers...” she replied as she attempted to perform an earth spell, a modeling spell, or even a reconstruction spell by waving her arm up and down over and over again, but to no result, ”They have started to develop some kind of consciousness lately, and it seems they are mad at me for grounding them...”

”Ah... That explains why you were acting so weird earlier...” Auren noted as he proceeded to fix his own wounds himself using his ability to revert time.

Evlin looked at him and tried to show a smile of appreciation to him, ”Thank you, Auren... I thought for sure I would be gone for good this time...”

”Don't mention it...”

”No... I do need to mention it...”

”Eh...?”

”I could hear everything while I was in there... And... Well... They were right... About everything... I do feel like I'm stuck sometimes, forced to always help the people around me because of my magic... I do feel like everyone tries to take advantage of me, and I do feel like I can't even rely on my own friends sometimes...”

Auren took another look and noticed that Evlin was rubbing her upper arm, almost as if she was embarrassed to admit these things.

”And yet, you still risked your life to save me, even though I was holding all these feelings about you all... So... Please... Just know that this gesture you did... It means a lot to me...”

Auren was a little surprised to hear Evlin open up like this which made him feel like he should do the same as well.

”You know, Evlin... A little before I got to meet Marceus and joined his group... I would often get to know a lot of people that would try to get closer to me in an attempt to become my 'friends'... But as time went on, I started to notice that they weren't my friends at all... They never tried to talk to me, tried to know me, tried to understand or help me... They just wanted to use me due to my strength and my ability...”

Evlin began to look the other way, ”I know the feeling...”

”What...? What do you mean?”

”I mean that I have not been a good friend to you... I became part of Marceus' team because I wanted to help people, but I never really tried to help you...” he commented while sitting on the ground with his legs crossed, ”But I'm going to change that now.”

Evlin continued to stare while Auren gestured with his hand so she would sit as well.

”What are you doing?” she asked.

”You and I are going to talk...”

”... ... ... What?”

”You are going through a lot, and you need someone to lend you an ear... Take a seat and let's talk” he offered while lightly tapping the ground.

”Here? Now??” Evlin asked while looking at their surroundings and noticing the panic going on, ”In the middle of this battlefield filled by all these terrified people and all these dead demons?”

”You are my friend and you need help... Nothing else matters right now...”

”Oh... O- Okay...” Evlin finally took a seat on top of the sand as well and began to stare at Auren not sure what she should do, ”What now?”

”Now... You tell me everything that is troubling you...”

”Everything??” Evlin replied while thinking about her current issues, ”We might be here for a while...”

”I don't mind.”

”If you say so...”

And so, the two of them began their conversation. Evlin would share with him all of the things that were weighing on her mind at that moment. How she was still in shock after hearing Knucker's confession, how she always felt like everything was against her, how she felt bad for not being able to help Mia, how she was angry that her sister was so ready to send her to fight a dragon without even considering her feelings just because some stranger asked her to, being worried about Ellie and the other kids, and many, many other things that Auren never even knew could be a problem for her.

Auren would silently nod sometimes and try to clear some doubts any time Evlin would talk about something from her real world, but most of the time, he just did what he promised, lend her an ear to unleash all her worries, which surprised him as he realized she had way more worries than he expected.

Part 2

A couple of hours passed and the guards of the emperor finally arrived to rescue the civilians that had been entrapped by Evlin's terminal power. They all hurried to get away from there as fast as they could while the duo continued their session.

The emperor finally awoke and almost immediately began to shiver in fear at the sight of Evlin, but after a quick explanation from Auren, he began to calm down a bit, although he would still try to keep a safe distance from her.

The three of them followed the action of the citizens and also exited the arena. Evlin had to admit that she was indeed feeling a little better after chatting with Auren.

She didn't know if it was because he was just a really good listener or because she was keeping a lot of stuff bottled up, but she could feel her mood improving a bit. Although that soon changed as she noticed the gazes of pure horror people would throw when looking at her. Some would run away scared, others would beg her not to hurt them. It appeared that the experience of the arena was a bit more extreme than they could handle.

Auren also took this chance to inform Evlin how this entire city had been built in her honor, which confused her a little bit.

”What does this mean, exactly...?” she asked.

”It seems that this guy's father saw you when you were younger and saved Sphinx from a group of hunters... They began to form a culture taking that day as an inspiration and began to develop some kind of beast magic that allows one to connect with the monsters...”

Evlin began to feel a little excited thinking she had opened the doors for such an amazing thing to happen, followed by immediately getting depressed as she realized that everyone now was scared to death of her.

”I think we should leave...” she commented, ”They probably don't want to see me again after that rampage from Termina... These guys are a little crazy but they have a good thing going in here.. let's just leave them be...”

”Termina...?” Auren asked.

”Oh, right... That's the name I gave to my terminal power after it came to life...” Evlin explained.

Auren began to rub his shaved head, ”Yeah... That does sound like something you would do... But are you sure you want to leave like this? They got a completely wrong impression of who you are as a person... Don't you wanna clear that up?”

”I little bit, not gonna lie... But who would listen to me after seeing me just punch the emperor in the stomach and almost killing him?”

Auren shifted his gaze to the emperor, ”Can't you do anything?”

The man wasn't sure of what could be done to fix that situation, but a part of him was afraid that if he angered Evlin again she could start rampaging again.

”Well... I could try to set up a stage for you to make a statement... But I'm not sure how much that will help...”

”A stage...?” Evlin asked, thinking about the same kind of stage where rock bands tend to perform and picturing herself singing and dancing in front of everyone for a split second.

”Whenever I need to inform the folks of something important, we usually gather in the center of the city to share it with them... I could call a meeting for anyone who wants to come and you can offer your side of the story...”