70 The dryad

Part 1

The group continued to move inside the city trying their best to avoid catching the curious eyes of nearby demons and monsters.

AS they kept walking their path looking for the church of the south god they would often encounter with attackers trying to feed on Daren after realizing a human was still alive in the demon kingdom. However, they would eventually leave him alone after smelling him for a few seconds and would just back off after acting as if they confused him with someone else.

"Why do they keep doing that...?"

Daren was confused as to why demons would suddenly rush towards him and then just leave after sensing his smell. He was glad the creatures were leaving him be but every time one would try to pounce on him, he felt like his heart would jump out of his mouth.

Ashley tried to calm down his worries.

"It's because they can feel the smell of a curse..."

"Eh...?"

Daren was surprised to see Ashley answering him with such confidence, but he just assumed that was a side-effect of the dryad on her head.

"The smell of a curse?"

"Even if you are in your human form right now they can feel the curse inside your body. They probably keep trying to attack you because they think you are a human... But once they realize you also have monster energy they probably give up afraid you might kill them."

"I see..."

"This might work with smaller threats but let's hope we don't run into any demon who looks at you and think you might offer a good challenge for a fight... Demons can be really competitive..."

"Ugh... Demons just don't make any sense... They attack you if you act in a group, they don't attack you if you act in a group, they run away if they see you have a curse, they try to fight if they see you have a curse... Why can't these things just pick a character trait and stick with it???"

"Not all demons are the same... We are trying to act under what the general idea of their behavior might be... But even I can't predict how they all will act..."

"Man... Future sight would be really helpful right now..."

Lilith heard that comment and was hit by a feeling of guilt.

"I'm sorry..."

"Ah! Sorry Lilith, I didn't mean that!"

[Oh!!! She's a good one!!]

Ashley noticed Drya reacting to Lilith's suffering and started to feel a small boost in her strength.

[Ash!! Ash!! Get closer to that girl!! She's like a gold mine of suffering!!!]

"Eh...? Really?"

[Yeah!!! Her pain is just the best!!]

"..."

Ashley started to wonder if there was anything she could do to take advantage of that situation. She felt great when she was antagonizing Gustav a little earlier and asked herself what would it feel like to try with Lilith next.

"Hey Lilith, how long will it take before you can use your power again?"

"Eh? I- I'm not sure... The maze really drained me a lot... Sorry..."

"I see... It's ok... I just wanted to try and rely on it as much as possible since we won't be able to after Marcus arrives here. But if you can't do it, then I guess it can't be helped."

"T- Thanks..."

"I mean... It's not like we are going to die if you spend one day without your power right? What's the worse it could happen? I mean... Evlin and Ria are still knocked out and you don't look so good yourself... And the rest of us are not really in any shape to put up much of a fight... But I'm sure we will be fine... Right?"

"..."

"Right Lilith...? Everything will be ok, right?"

"I... I don't know..."

"You don't know...? Oh... I see... Guess you need your power to know how things will turn out to make your own decisions..."

"Eh...!?"

Daren halted his movement and the whole group stopped with him. He turned around and looked at Ashley.

[Oh!!! He is angry!! Keep it going Ash! It's two for one!!]

"Ash... What's that supposed to mean...?"

"I mean... I'm right arent I? Lilith can't do anything without her future sight. Even if she was the strongest candidate to be partners with Marceus, at the end of the day it was the power doing all the work, wasn't it?"

Lilith started to look down with a depressed face as if someone just told her that her dog died. Daren noticed her expression and glared at Ashley.

"Ashley, you take that back..."

"Why? I mean, imagine what would have happened if such an amazing power belonged to someone besides Lilith. When we fought against Marcus her power was useless and he stole her armor. Without those, how good is she really?"

"..."

"Ashley, that's enough!"

[No, it's not!! Keep it going!! More, more!!]

"Why are you so angry with me? It's not like you're any better... You can turn into a huge lion monster at night, but right now... All you're capable of is releasing some angry looks and spouting insults..."

Auren was starting to get worried about Ashley's behavior as well.

"Ashley why are you talking like this? What's wrong with you?"

"Oh right! Auren! I almost forgot about you. I mean, you can't really blame me right... After all, you always were kinda forgettable..."

"What...?"

"I mean, even you said so before right...? You were supposed to be the healer but even Evlin can do that better than you... When I think about it, I have no idea what Ria sees in you."

"How... How can you say that...?"

"I guess she just likes bald men... Or maybe she just got taken in by the mood since you confessed to her the moment she was about to die? Maybe she just has a thing for cowards. Seriously, it took her almost dying to admit how you felt about her."

"..." x 4

The whole group was at a loss of words. Ashley would just not stop spitting insults to everyone as if she had some kind of rift with them. They all continued to release painful emotions due to her harsh words and making her even stronger.

Gustav who was just listening in quietly approached her with an angry look on his face.

"That's enough..."

"Oh!! Mr. horse!! It's your turn again? You need to wait your turn thought... I'm still not done with baldy over here."

"Hey..."

"Eh...?"

"You're not Ashley... Are you...?"

"!!!" x 3

Daren, Lilith, and Auren stared at Gustav wondering what he was saying. Ashley looked at him and released a wide grin.

"What makes you say that...?"

"Because right now... I'm using my power to listen to your mind... And I can hear Ashley's voice screaming for help..."

Ashley's expression froze and then suddenly released an even wider grin. The group was staring at her trying to understand what was going on.

"... You're the dryad... Aren't you...?"

"..."

"Answer!"

"... Pfff!!"

"??"

"Hehehe..."

"!!!"

"Hahahahaha!!!"

"You... So you really..."

"Hahahahahahahahaha!!!! Man!!! You guys sure took a long time to catch on!! I was wondering if I would be able to keep the act until the Marcus kid showed up."

"What did you do with Ashley??"

"Ashley?? You mean my little snack?? It's just like you said! She's in my head kicking and screaming asking me to let her out and telling you all to run!"

"No..."

"And she is not. Going. Anywhere!!! She's gonna stay right there filling me with her pain for as long as I want!! She's my personal power source, now and forever!!"

"Let her out!!! Let her out right now!!!"

Drya proceeded to extend her arms and turn it into whips made of vines and grabbed Gustav and threw him against a house.

"Guuuaaahhh!!"

He fell on the floor spitting blood with an immense feeling of pain running through his body.

"Make me!!"

Part 2

"... Where... Where am I...?"

Ashley was observing her surroundings trying to understand what had happened. One second she walking in the middle of the streets of the southern kingdom, and next thing she knows she is alone inside of a place surrounded with nothing but an endless void of white. She also noticed that she wasn't a dryad anymore. She was back at her normal human body.

"W- What is this place??? Where is everyone? What's going on??"

She tried to run and search for something, some kind of exit or anything that would explain what was happening. But anywhere she looked there was nothing but white.

"HELLOO!!! CAN ANYONE HEAR ME??"

"Hey girlfriend!"

"!!!"

Ashley heard a voice talking to her and when she looked at the origin of it, she saw a green girl with vines in the place where her legs would be, standing on top of them as if she was an octopus.

"Drya?? How... How is this possible??"

"Welcome to the white void baby girl. The place where souls can meet each other without the interference of the physical body."

"The white void...?? W- Why am I here?"

"I wanted to take a look at your face once you realized that I'm stealing your body!"

"What!!?? What are you talking about??"

"Exactly as I said! This time it's my turn to play around with our powers while you sit there and watch as a good girl!"

"H- How could you do this!!?? I thought you were my friend!!"

"Oh, but I am your friend! I'm giving you everything you ever wanted!"

"What are you talking about...?"

"You wanted to be able to use magic, and I gave you that, you wanted to be able to fight, and I gave you that, you wanted the rest of your team to look at you with respect, and guess what? I gave you that!"

"No... No, no, this isn't what I wanted!! You can't do this!!"

"Oh, but I can! I've been waiting to do this for a long time now!"

"What are you talking about?"

"You really think your sister managed to capture me so easily when we first met? I planned this, you big head! I planned this whole thing up!"

"You what??"

"Yeah! And all I needed was a little help from a few underlings! Watch!"

Drya snapped her fingers and a small smoke of energy started to appear in thing air. The smoke slowly started to gain shape and obtained the form of Evlin in her golden-winged form.

Ashley was confused as to what was she trying to say, but Drya quickly saw the loss in her eyes and started her explanation.

"You see... We have been fighting with this small group that calls themselves "the demon-slayers" for a while now. They keep coming after our race with their stupid blessed metal that can burn demons with ease. So to prepare to fight them, we sometimes send a few small spy-demons to watch them and gather some nice information."

Ashley still didn't understand what that had to do with anything or why she made an Evlin made of smoke.

"But then... One day we saw this group getting their hands on something really interesting. A young girl that possessed the ability to use her magic to recreate things in any way she wanted."

"..."

"One of our spies saw that power and got very intrigued. We started to try and come up with ways on how we could use this girl to our advantage. But while the girl was captured by the slayers I quickly realized this was going to be easier than anyone imagined."

Drya gestured to the smoke-Evlin and she assumed a position as if she was trying to push some kind of invisible wall. She then started to move her smoke lips and words began to come out.

"Let me make it simple so you will all understand... My sister is the one thing right now that is keeping me from snapping and going crazy in this stupid garbage world... "

Ashley saw the fake Evlin talking and finally realized what was going on.

"No..."

"If you hurt her, if you offend her, if you so much as direct an ugly look towards her, I swear for all that is sacred that there is no god, demon, or amount of silver metal on this planet that will keep you safe from me!!"

"No, no, no..."

Drya saw her expression and snapped her finger one more time so that the smoke Evlin would speak again.

"My sister is the one thing right now that is keeping me from snapping-"

"Stop..."

"keeping me from snapping-"

"Please stop!!"

"My sister is the one thing-"

"Please!! I'm begging you!!"

"My sister... My sister... My sister... My sister... My sister..."

Drya was enjoying watching Ashley trying as hard as she could to close her eyes and shut her ears with her hands so she wouldn't listen to anything anymore. She waved her hand and the smoke Evlin disappeared.

"I have to say though... It was pretty hard... Pretending to be captured, pretending that I wanted to get away from you, pretending that all of my memories were actually real..."

She grabbed Ashley's crying face with her green hand and stared into her eyes with a big smile.

"Pretending that I wasn't counting the seconds while waiting for my chance to take over your body!"

"... You lied to me... The whole time..."

"Yeap!"

"Just to get your hands on my sister..."

"Yeap! I mean... It's not like we would go out of our way just to mess with you right? I mean... Who the hell even cares about you?"

"..."

Ashley wanted to scream. She was tricked by someone who she believed might finally help her feel like she could walk side by side with Evlin. All because she was the key to trigger her sister's anger. All because she didn't listen when Evlin said it would be dangerous to fuse with a demon. All because she wanted to prove herself useful for the team in a way that no one else could.

"Aaaahhh!! Just like always!! Your pain is just the best!!"

"..."

"I mean... Truth be told, I actually wanted to fuse with that Lilith girl. That one is dealing with a looooot of stuff... But you were good too. It just took a little bit of work but now you are finally a proper source of energy to my power!"

"I can't believe this is happening... Please tell me this isn't happening!!"

"Oh! It's happening! And its gonna get even better!! While that stick-girl is knocked out, I'm just going to enjoy my time slaughtering your pack of idiot friends!"

"No... Please, no!!!"

"I can't wait to see the pain that you will power me with once I start pilling up the bodies using your hands!! And stick-girl too!! She will be soooooo maaaad!!!"

Ashley saw herself leaving the white void and returning to the southern kingdom. Except right now she was just watching inside her own mind while Drya was controlling her body.

[Drya!!! Let me out!!!! Let me oooooout!! Pleaseee!!!]

She kept screaming inside her mind but that only worked to make Drya even stronger. Gustav seemed to have heard her voice and tried to stand up to her.

"Let her out!!! Let her out right now!!!"

Unfortunately, Drya was so powerful right now thanks to Ashley's suffering that he stood no chance against her as she threw him against one of the buildings.

"Make me!!"

She realized that Auren, Daren, and Lilith were preparing to fight her and proceeded to make a pair of leaf-blades with her hands.

"Hey, Ash!! How about we show them the new and improved you?"

Followed by immediately starting to attack them.

[Stoooooooop!!!!]