195 Gambit of the hollow child

Mia was standing in front of the door to the dark void while wondering about her current life choices.

Not too long ago she found herself engaging in a long conversation with Knucker, a really weird tourist guy who seemed to have the same kind of ability to see that future as Evlin's friend named Lilith, and with said ability, he informed Mia about a couple of interesting routes her future could take.

Among these futures, there was one that really grabbed her attention for just how unlikely but appealing it sounded.

Knucker guaranteed her that this one future was indeed possible, but only if she did a small favor for him.

Mia was tempted, but also suspicious. Kuncker's offer was a little too good to be true and she demanded a small bit of proof to find out if she could really trust him.

This lead to the weird-looking tourist having to provide Mia with a small bit of information that could solve one of her problems right now, and to confirm it for good, Mia needed to enter the dark void one more time.

The girl opened the door and took a good look at the place. Just like before, it was a large endless area where no light could be found aside from the faint glow of the souls of all her victims floating aimlessly around the air.

Mia entered the dark void and began to make her path following the instructions Knucker left for her while trying very carefully not to touch any spirits again.

She kept walking, sometimes making a few detours to avoid a couple of approaching souls, but always keeping track of the words Knucker left to her.

'You will find the Evlin girl's soul if you just follow this specific path' he said while giving full detail on how she should advance. Mia tried her best to remember his directions in the hopes of finding the crossbow girl somewhere around here. She for a moment considered the idea of just killing Knucker so she could absorb his soul and have him guide her, but for some reason, part of her was starting to reject the desire to harm others for no reason.

The more time passed the more Mia began to feel like she had no idea what she truly wanted or who she was. She was getting more lost by the second and she needed someone besides Drya or North to help her find herself, someone she could trust.

And just as she was thinking about it, there she was, the young Evlin sitting on the black ground covering her face with her arms to avoid looking at any of the hundreds of souls there present.

"Evlin!! Evlin!!" Mia just approached her and tried to call her name, but it seemed like the girl was in the middle of a trance, "Evlin, I'm getting you out of here..."

Mia placed Evlin in her arms and began to walk towards the exit when she suddenly felt something grabbing her leg. The ponytailed child looked down and noticed that it was a vine.

Mia just glared at Drya. She hadn't forgotten what the plant girl had done to her.

"I'm taking Evlin out of here... Now get lost!"

"It seems that I didn't make myself clear last time... YOU, DO NOT, ACT, UNLESS WE TELL YOU TO!!"

"I think I missed the part where I turned into your lapdog..." Mia declared while cutting herself loose from the vine with her free hand, "you do know that the reason you are here is to just be my power source right?"

Drya just grinned and made a pair of blades with her arms, "it also seems like someone needs to be re-educated..."

Mia placed Evlin on the ground and returned to glare at Drya.

"You do know that the dark void is the opposite of the white void right? You can't get hurt in there, but you can definitely get yourself hurt in here!!"

"Yeah... I found that out the hard way..." Mia commented while rubbing the spots where she was wounded before.

Drya launched herself towards Mia with both blades raised in an attempt to stab her but the girl just dashed to the side to avoid her attack.

The moment she stopped running, Drya began to shoot spikes of the size of a batton at Mia from her nails. Mia used her superior speed to catch one of the spikes and used it to repel the rest by striking each one down.

Drya began to release several of her vines towards Mia to tangle her up, but Mia just grabbed them all and pulled Drya closer to sock her in the nose.

"Wraaghh!!!" the demon cried.

Drya kept trying to either attack or grab hold of Mia, but the girl just continued to easily escape all of her attempts which in turn made Dya start to lose patience.

"How are you doing this???" the plant demon asked in a demanded.

"How long do you think I've been using your powers until now? I know all your tricks... Besides..." Mia shifted her gaze towards the crying Evlin who just kept releasing negative emotions of fear, anger, and panic and boosting Mia's power, "I just feel like I'm in a good mood right now!"

"You!!?? In a good mood??"

"Yeah... All because of my little talk with my good friend Knucker..."

Drya made a face of utter confusion as if someone had just asked her to name all the countries of the globe backwards, "who the hell is Knucker...???"

Mia became a little lost with Drya's comment, "what do you mean who is Knucker?? The guy that I was talking to not too long ago??"

"..." Drya remained silent.

"You didn't see him??"

"I haven't been able to see a damn thing for a while now... Something has been blocking our view from the dark void to the outside."

"What...?" Mia replied perplexed. She was really starting to wonder who exactly Knuncker really was.

"But I see it now... You got a new friend who's been putting ideas on your head... Looks like I'll need to call my friend as well..." Drya whispered while smirking a little.

Mia saw a strong light coming towards her and before she knew it, she was getting punched in the stomach by a powerful fist.

"Guaahhhh!!!" she cried while rolling in the ground.

The girl looked up and finally saw who her attacker was.

"You disappoint me, my queen..." North lamented while shaking his head left and right.

Mia stood up and began to laugh, "perfect, just perfect... The whole family reunited. Everything is going just like Knucker said it would..."

"I know not who this Knucker is, but I must remind you that you have a contract with me... Remember??"

"Do we now? It's funny you say that... I was just thinking to myself how convenient this contract is for you... All you gotta do is play watchdog to my locked half while I do all the hard work for you... Almost seems too convenient, don't you think?" Mia then stopped smiling and glared at North "Almost as if someone had set me up..."

North didn't say anything to deny it, he didn't really care by this point if Mia knew the truth or not.

"You are correct... I could have prevented you from acquiring your curse... But if I had done so, you would not have become the amazing fighter you are today..."

Mia's whole body began to shake. She could feel the presence of her other half getting stronger. Her lost feelings were fighting really hard to return to her.

"So it was true... You lied to me... You lied to me this whole time!!!" Mia shouted.

"Incorrect... I promised you to keep your from becoming a demon if you agreed to battle for me, and so I did..."

Drya began to hear a sound coming from a distance, the sound of someone struggling and crying.

"You could have saved me... You could have prevented me from ever becoming like this in the first place... You saw me crying for help and you didn't do anything until it was convenient for you!!!"

North's expression became cold, "and if I did... what exactly are you planning to do about it?"

Mia released a wide smile and in the middle of this silence, all three of them could hear the sound of chains breaking apart.

"Come to me..." Mia whispered.

North and Drya turned around and they saw the image of a girl flying towards them like a bullet and going right past them.

Mia just remained there with her arms wide open and finally accepted what she had been running away from for so long as she allowed her lost feelings, her rejected half, to return to her.

The girl started to feel her conflicting emotions overflowing through her body and gave one small devilish look towards North before finally giving her reply.

"I'm changing the rules!!"

An explosion of red energy began to burst out of Mia. The girl felt like her skin was burning with all intensity of her cursed energy erupting thanks to her own negative emotions.

"What did you do?? Are you trying to become a demon???" North yelled.

Mia's face began to constantly shift emotions. One moment she was crying, the other she was laughing, then she was screaming in pain until she finally returned to glare at North with immense rage.

"I feel..." she whispered and after that, she shouted, "I FEEL EVERYTHING!!!!"

Mia's entire body began to radiate red energy as the girl started to laugh like a maniac.

Her emotions began to overflow one after another and continued to spread agony over her mind and body. 

North and Drya felt themselves being sucked towards the child and tried to run away, but her red energy began to take the shape of gigantic claws and grabbed hold of both of them, as well as the still crying Evlin.

"My champion, stop!! This isn't what you wanted!!!" North screamed.

"You have no idea what I want!!!" Mia replied, "so why don't we all find out together!!?"

The intense glow of her energy continued to paint the entire dark void in red and forcing all of the lost souls to gather around her while her laugh echoed everywhere.

Part 2

Knucker was sitting on top of one of the stones that had a demon leader imprisoned inside of it while he observed Mia's body changing back to her Myriad form with huge fire wings, red spikes emerging from the ground around her, and a pair of eyes constantly shifting colors. Except this time, instead of having Evlin's face, the woman looked like an older version of Mia.

The man jumped out of the stone and took a picture of Mia who just looked at him with a terrifying grin.

"So... How do you feel?" Knucker asked while wondering if he could have gotten a batter angle for his picture.

Mia just began to whisper a couple of words, "I fell... Complete!"