273 Family (2/2)

”Oh! Shaved head and muscle body! You must be Auren!!” Ellie replied, ”Its so good to finally meet you!!”

The rest of her group soon followed up by revealing themselves from the hiding spot they had chosen to sleep on in order to avoid the possible threat of monsters.

Daren had a bandage around his head to cover up his wounded ear while carrying Lance in his arms, Eclipse was walking right behind him, Leona was with Claire and Joseph trying to get them to properly wake up, Xadi was sleeping on top of the boy's head with his back facing the sky, Dia was taking a bite out of an apple, and finally, Detra showed herself with her arms crossed looking like she upset for having to wait for so long.

”About time...” the former goddess commented.

”Hey... Nice to see you too...” Evlin replied.

Detra began to analyze Evlin's image and started to stare at the vine wrapped around her arm, ”Where is your crossbow...? Did you lose your crossbow again? How many times do you need to lose that thing before you learn your lesson?”

Evlin tilted her head, ”What are you? My mom? It's my bow... I can lose it if I want...”

Detra started to glare at Evlin, ”A magician's staff is not something to be treated lightly... You should be more careful about it!”

”I don't wanna hear that from someone that doesn't even use a staff...” Evlin commented.

Detra acted like she had more she wanted to say but instead, the woman just sighed and began to focus on the real problem, ”Whatever... You better sit down... We have much to talk about...”

”Can I at least properly say hello to everyone first...?”

”No!”

”But Moooom...” Evlin cried while having her hand pulled by Detra and forced to sit.

She looked at Leona and was about to ask what happened that had made the ice mage so upset, but she quickly realized that the woman wasn't the only one.

Aside from Ellie, who was just smiling non-stop at her aunt's return, everyone appeared to be holding a serious look on their faces, as if they were on some kind of reality show and were in the middle of waiting to find out who would be eliminated next.

”Guys...? What is going on...?” Evlin asked with her voice trembling.

”Knucker sent us an invitation...” Daren whispered.

”What...? When?? How??”

”A couple of months ago...” Detra answered.

Evlin's eyes enlarged for a moment but Detra soon proceeded to explain everything. How her friends were stuck in the portal created by Ria for nearly six months, how during that time Knucker took over all the kingdoms, how he began to spread the news that he wanted to challenge her for one final fight across every city he now ruled, and how the kids had been training while hiding from him.

Once everything was said and done, Evlin just took a deep breath and looked at the sky.

”Oh, man... It really never ends...”

”Excuse me...?” Detra asked.

”Sorry... It's just... Taking the world as hostage...? I can't believe this guy would go to such lengths just to get what he wants... Sometimes it feels like no matter how much I try to defeat my enemies... There is always some new kind of evil rising from the shadows to ruin my day... I just wonder when it will end...”

Detra took these words into consideration and began to think about her last talk with her old champion, Marceus.

”It will never end...” she stated.

”What was that...?” Evlin whispered as she and the whole group was now looking at the ice mage.

”Evil will never cease to exist... As long as it is good there will be evil as well... That's just how life is... The only way to truly get rid of all evil would be to get rid of all good as well...”

Evlin began to scratch the back of her hair, ”So even if we beat Knucker...”

”Someone or something will probably just appear later... Yes.. That's just how the world works... It might be a lesser evil or a greater evil... But evil will never be truly erased, no matter how much you try...”

”Then...” Evlin said with a heavy tone, ”Are you saying my fight will never end? Will I never be able to go back to my peaceful life...?”

Detra began to hold her chin, ”I suppose you could just ignore the problem... But that would mean that someone else would need to fight in your place... Would you be able to live with that...”

Evlin took this into consideration and gave her reply, ”Not this problem... Whether I like it or not... Knucker is my enemy... He caused a lot of damage to my life...”

”So what...?” Detra bluntly replied.

”Eh...?”

”I caused a lot of damage to Marceus' life, but in the end, I was a problem that YOU solved, not him... Mia caused a lot of problems in your life, but in the end, the young miss dealt with her, not you...”

”...”

”The fact that you two share some history doesn't mean anything as long as he is dealt with in the end... So... I'm going to ask you... Do you WANT to face Knucker?” Detra questioned while standing up.

”...”

”I'm not asking if you NEED, or MUST, face him... I wanna hear you say what you want to do...”

Evlin looked at her with her mouth open, ”Why... Are you asking me this right now?”

”Because... This is the one fight we can't afford to lose... And I need to know if you have any doubts in your heart...”

Evlin began to look deep into the situation. Part of her wished she could just go home and forget about all this. Even Knucker himself offered her a ticket to her old planet. She wasn't in the best shape to fight right now with her magic locked by Termina, Knucker had a team of demon dragons on his side, all her friends would be placed in grave danger, and even if she did get her powers back, she could end up being burned to death by her terminal fire.

There were a lot of reasons to say 'no'.

But at the same time, she thought about what Hana said, how she didn't want to defeat Knucker for some noble reason or anything like that, she just wanted revenge for what he did to her.

Evlin could feel her pain, and she knew if she backed away now, this pain would fall on someone else.

”I wanna stop Knucker!” Evlin finally declared, ”Not because I have to... But because I want to... ”

”Are you sure...?” Detra asked.

”This world caused me a lot of pain... So, so much pain... But I still don't wanna see it fall on that maniac's hands... I don't want to see anyone else suffer like I did... ”

Evlin stood up as well and glanced at Ellie.

”I'm not going to abandon this world... I'm going to defeat Knucker myself!”

Detra then came closer and karate-chopped Evlin's head.

”Ouch!!! What the hell??”

”You're not by yourself, dumbass...” Detra commented, ”Now say it again!”

Evlin rubbed her head and gazed at her surroundings. Her niece, her students, her friends, her former enemies, all of them were on her side and ready to fight for her.

”I'm not going to abandon this world... And with you guys by my side... WE are going to defeat Knucker!!” she claimed while raising her fist.