179 Everything in black

Mia was strolling inside of a world filled with nothing but darkness while shouting for someone's name.

She kept running around for days trying to find out where she should go but the entire place was so dark that made it a nightmare to know where you were supposed to go or where you have been through.

"EVLIN!!!! WHERE ARE YOU!!!!!????"

The girl was completely lost. The floor was completely black, the sky was completely black. The only thing that served as a form of light inside of the dark void were the souls.

The souls that Mia had collected over the years kept floating around aimless as if they were in a trance. There were hundreds of them if not much more. They all emitted some sort of inner glow that helped a little bit in lighting up the girl's path. But in order to do that, she needed to stay close to them.

Mia tried her best to try and keep by their side, but while she continued to search for Evlin inside this endless place, she ended up bumping into one of the souls that were near her, and suddenly, it started to look like the sleeping consciousness of the being had returned.

"Wha... What...? Where am I...?" asked the lost soul. It had the shape of a man in his early thirties with a full beard and short hair. It wasn't possible to determine the color of its skin, hair, or eyes as the entire figure, much like all the other spirits in there, were glowing with a faint blue light.

Mia decided to try her luck and see if he could help her, "Hey, you! Have you seen a girl named Evlin anywhere around here??"

"Wha... What...? Evlin?"

"Yeah! She looks like a seven-year-old girl right now! She has short black hair and likes to cry a lot... You seen her?"

"... ... Wait a minute..." the spirit of the man mumbled while approaching Mia and analyzing her for a bit, "I know you..."

"Eh...?"

"Ah!!! YOU!!!!" the man shouted while pouncing on Mia, but being unable to touch her, "You where the one who killed me!!!"

"Oh..."

"Yes, yes... I remember... I was walking out of my store and saw you sitting on a font staring at a couple of kids playing around... I asked you why you weren't playing with the rest of them... And then, you grabbed me with your hand and sucked out all the energy from my body!!! And next thing I know... I'm dead!!!"

"Uuhh... So... Is that a 'no'...?" Mia asked while watching the man trying to fly around her in an attempt to grab the girl.

"You murderer!!! I had a wife and daughter!!! GIVE ME BACK MY LIFE!!! GIVE ME BACK THE LIFE YOU TOOK FROM ME!!!!"

"Ugh, fine, whatever... EVLIN!!! EVLIN, WHERE ARE YOU!!!???" Mia decided to ignore the angry spirit and returned to her search of the lost Evlin. But the man kept following her everywhere she went.

"Murderer!! Murderer!! Murderer!!" he continued to shout.

One was a woman with a very wide physique, and the other was a young man dressed as a mage. They both stared at her, started to regain their memories, and began to shout as well.

"YOU!!!!!" the two yelled.

"Oh, great..." Mia whispered.

Mia kept trying to search around the dark void after that. She continued to bump into several of the spirits she had absorbed into herself, and every time, they would regain their consciousness and start yelling at her about how she ruined their lives.

"You ruined my life!!!"

"I can never see my family again!!"

"My parents must be worried sick about me!! How could you do this???"

"My girlfriend was going to finally release her vow of chastity!! Do you know for how long I had to hold myself!!!???"

"Oh, Lord..." Mia mumbled while trying to cover her ears.

The souls would just not stop complaining about all the opportunities Mia took away from them. The people they never got to meet, the places they never got to visit, the things they never got to do. They simply continued to spiral around her and yelling "MURDERER!!!!" over and over again.

As per usual, whenever Mia encountered any kind of major event in her life, she would check her body to see if she felt anything, and like always, realized she couldn't care less about these people and their problems since she couldn't feel any regret.

She could feel, however, a lot of fear, Evlin's fear. The seven-year-old was lost somewhere around this place and Mia could sense she was completely terrified from being alone in the dark with all the dead people floating in the air.

Mia was trying her best to ignore that feeling, trying to tell herself that wasn't her fear, it was Evlin's, and just like Evlin would often do, she took a deep breath, stared her problem in the face, and tried to deal with it.

"Look, I know you guys don't like me..." she tried to speak to the souls.

"MURDERER!!!!!" they screamed.

"Yeah, that... But I'm kinda busy right now so... Could you all just-" Mia was about to try and lose the annoying ghosts, but something grabbed her attention.

She spotted, a young girl cowering in the middle of the ground trying to cover her ears and looking down.

"Evlin!!!" Mia shouted. She quickly rushed to the girl's side while feeling an immense sense of relief. The first time she had felt relief in ages.

She grabbed the girl's shoulder, turned her around and...

"Evli- !!!!"

... completely stopped on her tracks as she realized that the girl wasn't Evlin. It was a child with twin ponytails about the same height as her and with the same face as her.

"What the... Who are you...???" Mia asked while feeling completely lost. She took another look at the girl, and noticed that there were chains covering her body with a huge lock in the middle.

"I see you finally found them..." said a voice that came from behind Mia. She turned around and saw a large man with long blond hair wearing a white robe.

"North...??" Mia said.

"Indeed! Welcome to the dark void, my champion!" replied the god.

Mia then looked at the girl again confused by North's statement, "Who is she...?"

The god just smiled for a bit before giving his answer, "Your missing half..."

"My what...?"

"The white void is an area where souls connect with each other... The dark void is an area where souls try to neglect each other... Where everything goes to be forgotten until they are needed again... Souls... Or feelings..."

Mia took another look at the girl and finally understood. That wasn't a lost soul, that was her lost emotions, her sealed negative emotions, the thing that if unleashed would turn her into a demon.

"S- So... This is where you have been keeping them...? In here?" Mia asked while shaking a bit.

"Oho!? What's that that I sense? Is it fear?" North asked while walking around Mia, "Are you perhaps afraid of your emotions?"

"N- No! Of course not!! I can't feel fear, remember?"

"Are you sure? She's right in front of you! Are you sure you can't feel her?"

Mia stared at her emotions, and the girl stared back at her. Mia suddenly started to sense something happening inside her body. The girl stood up and began to walk towards her. Each step she took, it felt like the shaking in Mia's body would get stronger and stronger. Mia then realized that this wasn't Evlin's fear, it was her fear.

She kept staring at her arms that wouldn't stop buzzing like a cellphone. She could feel it, she could actually feel it. The souls came closer as well and their voices started to have a greater effect on the girl.

Mia then looked in front of her and realized that her feelings were about to grab her face.

"Aaaagh!!!" Mia flinched and landed on her back while trying to keep her distance.

She then watched again and noticed that the girl couldn't touch her. Her chains were attached to the ground. She was completely stuck in this place.

"Careful now, the closer you get, the harder she will try to come back to you..." North then moved behind Mia and gave her a small push so that she would be within the chained girl's reach, "and we wouldn't want that, right??"

Her feelings finally reached her and for a split second, Mia felt everything. All the feelings she was trying to neglect for the past centuries, she felt them all at once burning inside of her. Suddenly, all the spirits that kept screaming at her were having a much bigger impact and making her chest feel much heavier as if it was about to explode.

"MAKE IT STOP!!! MAKE IT STOOOOP!!!" Mia yelled while North pulled her away from her feelings.

The anguish on her body diminished but she was still crying while hugging her shoulders and trembling uncontrollably.

"So... How did it feel?" North asked.

"You goddamn son of a- You told me you would get rid of them!!! Why are my emotions still here!!!???"

"You can never truly get rid of your feelings... The best I could do was to lock them away in the deepest part of the dark void, and make sure they could never run free again" North explained. He then approached his face so that he could whisper on Mia's ear, "but you will never make her go away completely!! She is just waiting to come back, dying to have you use them again!!"

Mia watched as her emotions kept trying to come to her with her arms raised as if it wanted a hug, but the chains continued to keep her imprisoned.

"And we don't want that... Do we?" North pondered while rubbing his chin.

"Wh- Why are you being like this??" Mia asked while glaring at the god, "we made a deal!!!"

"We did!! And the deal was... I keep you from becoming a demon... And you continue to win! And yet, here you are... crawling like a baby, looking for the one you defeated instead of focusing on the next challange!"

"But- But I need to find Evlin!!! If her emotions get out of control... I will-"

"You don't need to worry about the crossbow mage! She won't survive long in here... Soon she will turn into another mindless soul... Just like the rest..."

"... She... She will...?"

"Yes! Me and the dryad saw how she was affecting you, so we devised this plan to get rid of your problem for you..." North admitted while puffing his chest.

"You!!?? You worked with a demon??"

"Of course!! Anything to watch you defeat the greatest foe of all and bring glory to my name. This is what I've been waiting for all these years!!"

"Y- You have...?"

"Indeed! The minute I saw you... The descendent of the queen of demons, I knew you would make the perfect warrior to fight in my name! The greatest demon of all times being defeated by her own kin, guided by the greatest god of all times! They will write legends about our tale for generations to come!!"

Mia was feeling even more lost. She assumed that the reason North wanted her to be his champion was because he felt she had the will to win. But it seemed like he just wanted to use her due to her lineage.

She looked at her sealed emotions again and started to wonder just how far ahead he had planned all this and how much he hadn't told her.

"I... I need to find Evlin!!" Mia stood up and was about to run, but North grabbed onto her arm.

"NO! YOU DO NOT!!" the man stated while glaring heavily at her, "I worked very, VERY, hard for things to play out exactly as I wanted! I will not let you ruin my greatest work now that we are so close to the end!"

"But... But... I need to..."

"You don't NEED anything unless I say so!! I made you the greatest warrior of all times by making good use of your useless cursed abilities! Now, you will repay me by making ME the greatest god of all times by putting an end to Hana herself... Are we clear?"

"..."

"ARE. WE. CLEAR?" North asked again while pulling Mia's hand and making her get closer to her feelings.

Mia began to shake once more and started to fight to try to run away, "YES!! YES!! We are clear!! Now, please!! Keep that thing away from me!!!"

"Good!" North released Mia who got as far away from her emotions as possible while all of the souls she absorbed continued to circle her and shouting at her.

Her feelings began to kneel while looking depressed after realizing Mia didn't want them again and got back to cowering in a corner again.