[?!]
Kayla Imdiately backed away from Evan, shifting back on the floor without regard for the flas burning around her.
Her lips parted, and the string of thoughts Evan's mind was nearly flooded with earlier was now vocalized.
[IMSORRYPLEASEDONTATEIMSORRYFORDECIEVINGYOU-!]
"Shut the fuck up for a second, will you?"
[?!]
Kayla's gaze shook when Evan spoke with his serious tone, and seeing her turn silent, Evan heaved a sigh of relief.
"Good. Who knew it'd be so hard to get soone to respond?"
Evan rolled his eyes and heaved an exasperated sigh before looking at Kayla and speaking.
"Keeping up this wave of flas to keep Belphont out is taxing on my energy reserves and we got other fights today so I don't wanna waste it all here.
So, listen tight, 'cus I'm only gonna say this once."
[…]
The Spirit did not respond to his words, but Evan could see her shoulders shaking lightly and he just ran his hands through his hair and continued talking.
"Look here…I don't understand a lot of things about this whole 'Spirit Empress' schtick. All this while I thought you were the previous Spirit Queen before Sinclair took the throne or sothing.
This is a whole 'nother level from what I could've expected, which is probably why I'm numb to it.
So, I'm just gonna say this straight up."
Looking her dead in the eyes, Evan declared.
"I genuinely don't give a fuck. Whichever planets you conquered or whatever…that's an issue of the past, not the present.
First off, it's not my world—it's not the world I want to save, and I wasn't even alive when all of this happened, so you can't expect to care about it as much as you think I would."
[…Impossible…master hates the demons…they conquer worlds…master hates Kayla too…]
Unfortunately, it seems Evan's words did not get through to her, as the logic she had convinced herself was truth still took precedence in her head.
"For the love of all that is right and just…did you not just hear say I don't give a fuck?"
[…master…doesn't care…?]
"Did I stutter the first two tis?]
[…]
Kayla went silent, but after a second she shook her head in denial, clearly not believing him. This made Evan facepalm and he clicked his tongue internally.
Right now, Evan's emotional side was thinking; 'This is such a hassle, maybe I should have just shut Belphont up'.
His rational side on the other hand had thoughts along the lines of; 'This makes sense, if this is such a deep-rooted fear for her, there's no way a few words would be able to reassure her. She's probably rationalized this whole scenario of ending up hating her in her head for years.'
Evan then decided to take a different approach.
"So, lem get sothing straight here. Your logic is that 'I don't like the Gozonians because they're World Conquerors' and you think that because you were one in the past, I'd suddenly flip my attitude and start hating you all of a sudden if I were to find out.
Right?"
[…]
Kayla offered no words, but that was an affirmation in itself.
Kayla loved Evan. Obviously not in a romantic manner like Eliza did, but in the manner of a fan loving a popular Idol.
However, just like a fan would not want their Idol to look at them in the sa way they would look at an enemy, Kayla didn't want Evan looking at her like he'd look at his enemies.
She didn't even want him to think that they bore any similarities. It was a simple but deep insecurity of hers.
Understanding this, Evan glanced at the system tir he set and continued.
"Tell now, who are the 'Seven Deadly Sins'?
Are they not Peak Ranked Demons who've led campaigns to conquer worlds in the past?
Do I hate them? No! I don't. Nadarus can be a hassle sotis, but that's an aside. On the contrary, I'm the one who wanted to contract with them regardless of how many other planets they've dominated in the past.
Obviously, we're gonna have a problem if they just up and decide they want to conquer Aidos again, but if that's off the table…I'm good with them!
So, what makes you think you'd be any different?"
When Evan said this, Kayla shook her head and Evan could see tiny teardrops slipping out of her eyes as she spoke.
[Those Seven are re children that haven't even lived a fraction of the ti I have…the most they've done are planetary invasions, and—]
"And you've done more than that?"
Evan cut her off, his mind pulling up the things Belphont said earlier. Each one he ntioned made Kayla's body tremble heavily as if he were a judge listing out her cris.
"Belphont did say you decimated entire civilisations, dominated Worlds, scorched dinsions, and ruined realms.
That's one hell of a resu. Hearing that, all I have to say is…damn girl, you were pretty wild those days.
Was the whole universe at war or sothing? Or did you do that just for the fun of it?"
To the boy's questions, Kayla looked away with an expression of guilt on her face and Evan inferred an answer from her leaking emotions.
"So, it's a little bit of both, huh? It was a war but you enjoyed it at the ti, huh? You believe you'd be different from Roselia and the others because the scale of your actions was many tis higher than theirs…that makes sense.
You feel you're not different from the people I 'hate', and you feel guilt for 'deceiving' into thinking you are."
Evan nodded in understanding. The boy honestly couldn't still wrap his mind around the scale of how big Kayla's past actions were, and he was sure that there was a lot he didn't know.
After all, the notification from earlier said he had only reached the 'Minimum Threshold' of Awareness.
"This might sound crazy but despite the billions of lives you've probably wrecked…I don't care. Those 'billions' are not the ones I'm trying to save.
I didn't even know they had once existed until a few minutes ago, I don't know how things work for other people, but for …that shit doesn't matter.
None of this concerns directly, so I can't truly be bothered about it. It's gonna be the sa for so other Hero on so other planet if Aidos was the one who got destroyed.
They'd probably not care less because Aidos isn't their world, it's not related to them, and this happened long before they ca into existence.
But I'd say this as many tis as necessary…I don't care."
The boy went silent for a mont, his gaze moving to the side as he continued.
"Well, I wouldn't deny that a part of wants to use that 'Spirit Empress' power to end all of Aidos' problems in one go.
But seeing as just a little is already triggering causality to try to drag you off sowhere…nahh, I don't want that."
Evan raised his hands and grabbed the sides of her face, pulling her close as he asked.
"You want to stick with , don't you?"
[…mhm]
Kayla nodded subconsciously and seeing this Evan smiled.
"That's good. For that to happen, you'd need to understand that I don't care."
'Well, I do care. But not enough to hate her for it. It's more of a burning curiosity thing.'
"Whatever ever secrets you were hiding, whatever you believe you deceived about, whatever you feel sorry for…I forgive you.
So how about we kill this Illusionist fucker, okay?"
Kayla nodded silently and Evan's smile widened as he patted her head and spoke.
"Good girl."
Even though she looked more like a 'woman' than a 'girl', Evan still referred to her as the latter. His hand moved to wipe the tears on the sides of her eyes, wondering how the hell they hadn't evaporated due to the heat of his flas that were burning at 250 degrees Celsius.
Putting that thought aside, Evan got to his feet and pulled her up, however, she stumbled and nearly fell as her whole sense of balance was off.
"Really? Did you forget how to walk or sothing?"
Evan asked jokingly as he helped her to stand up, understanding that the abrupt change in form had left her senses disoriented.
Taking a deep breath, Evan reabsorbed as much of his flas as he could, reclaiming the energy he had expended. As the fire ebbed away, it revealed an army of Illusion Clones, each wielding a Frost Sword, surrounding them.
"Now then…we're back to square one."
Evan remarked, pressing his fingers to his temple with a sigh. Kayla's eyes glowed as she scanned their surroundings and spoke with certainty.
[…they're all fakes…]
Evan, who had lifted his right leg, glanced at her when she said that, then at his raised leg, and back at her again. Despite recovering so of her sealed power and mories, the past four years of mories with Evan were not overshadowed and she understood what that action of his ant.
Though she couldn't sense it as it was a Mimicked skill, she could tell Evan had a skill active, one whose effects would only manifest when his foot touched the ground.
"Brace Yourself."
That was all Evan said, before stomping down with his right foot, pouring in the energy he absorbed from his flas as he called out.
"Collapse!"
**BOOOOMM!
An initial explosion shook the ground beneath his feet. Then, a sudden discharge of low-frequency acoustic energy into the Earth's crust created seismic waves that rippled through the ground at high velocities.
The surface layer collapsed, causing the ground to sink and forming a massive sinkhole into which the entire Bornesher Fort plunged.
It felt like an earthquake had already been going on and then a landslide had suddenly felt best to occur in the middle of it.
Evan and Kayla plumted into the sinkhole, descending hundreds of ters in an instant. They landed in an underground bunker, where the real Belphont had been hiding from the beginning.
Kalya's fingers crackled with lightning, releasing a dazzling radiance that montarily blinded everyone.
When the light faded, all of Belphont's Illusion Clones had dissipated into mist, and the real Belphont lay paralyzed from head to toe. Even his thoughts were immobilized by Kayla's powerful lightning.
Space broke open and more causality chains erged as if responding to Kayla's use of power, but the woman only waved her hands and destroyed them in an instant.
Having evaded the autonomous law for years, Kayla surely had her ans of dealing with these low-level chains.
'The problem is if an Enforcer gets alerted…'
She didn't speak this worry of hers so as not to distract Evan who had already dashed over to Belphont on the ground.
"Kayla, Combo!"
Evan's shout snapped Kayla out of her thoughts, and she swiftly activated her Electrofla skill, conjuring a rose of flas right on the Illusion Celestial's face.
The Hero's lightning-coated fist followed, driving Belphont's head into the ground and caving in the earth beneath him.
As rocks tumbled down around them, Evan stomped on Belphont's chest and stabbed him with the Unforged Vale to pin him to the ground.
"I'm gonna turn you into my EXP pack."
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