Chapter 2-Road to Sorrow
The wind was mildly blowing around them, but the speed of the vehicle was enough to create a chilly temperature inside the running vehicle, which held Elsword's gang at the moment. 'The Carriage', as Echo liked calling it, was in fact, a four-wheeled vehicle running on alchemy fuel, designed by Elder's alchemist herself to help the El Search Party travel faster and easier in order to save the continent. It had enough space to hold ten people inside and the driver and it was comfortable, too. Elsword stood beside Rena and stared blankly at the surrounding environment, thinking of nothing in particular, but still concern could be read all over his face. He felt that something was wrong with one of his friends and comrade and he didn't feel at ease knowing it. Maybe it was his pride as the leader of the gang to know all his teammates all right and safe. Or maybe it was this one friend in particular he was fretting over more than the others. 'No' he told himself 'it's just me'. He couldn't help but glance at the other side of the seat, where a certain mage girl was also lost deep in thought.
Glancing at the land spreading before her eyes, Aisha seemed to hardly hold on to her consciousness, as sleep was taking over her. She shifted a little on her seat, trying not to wake the Nasod girl asleep on her lap. She smiled as she looked at how content Eve seemed when she was asleep and started gently caressing her hair and removing some strands of hair which made their way onto the Queen's face. Knowing that soon she will be home again, Aisha couldn't help but smile, which made a certain elf glance curiously at her.
Raven seemed to notice Rena's sudden features and let himself fall on her lap, head on her thighs, making the woman blush slightly, earning some giggles from the void mage. Encouraging her with his eyes to start a conversation, Rena broke the silence.
"Why the sudden smile, Ai~sha, were you thinking about a boy just know?" Rena couldn't help herself, making the said girl snap her eyes open and blush slightly. Chung burst into laughter, as Elsword looked away, trying not to get too involved into their small girl talk. He still felt bad for what he had said earlier that day, but couldn't bring himself to apologize or even bring that subject back. He was afraid he would start another argument, in which he would end up hurting someone again.
"As if!" Aisha claimed looking out the window again, trying to avoid the nosy elf's look. "I have other business to think of, unlike yourself, who already has a boyfriend and minds into other people's personal lives as if trying to make them feel your happiness as well." she added with a smirk, looking over at Raven, who seemed to like Aisha's cheeky remark. Behind her boldness, Elsword could figure out that, in fact, Aisha was somewhat giving her feelings on a plate to everyone who was willing to look beyond the surface of her words. 'Minds into other people's business'…could that mean she had a secret she didn't want to share with them? Weren't they her friends? Weren't they supposed to know each other's secrets and help them get over their fears and weaknesses? This is what he had learned from his big sister, Elesis, when she was still with him. 'Comrades are there for you. Your true friends will always be there to laugh and cry with you and help you get up when you fall. That's why you have to trust them, and they will trust you in return. ' Wasn't he trusting them enough to let her trust him in return?
He stared at his friends who were now trying to get Aisha to admit that she liked someone, and were bickering over each other's personal lives.
"The level of hormones in Aisha's body suggests that, indeed, the subject was not thinking in the matter of 'human reproduction' and/or any other related topics." Eve stated, eyes focused on her console, while Moby and Remy were scanning Aisha from head to toe.
"Eve, stop that!" Aisha yelled, grabbing the two drones and hugging them close, making them unable to scan her anymore.
"Of course, I understand you wouldn't like your personal information to be shared with other people, but prefer it to remain confidential. Ophelia, we will run a full-scan on Aisha once we get home." the Nasod Queen ordered her maid, adding a firm accent on the word 'full-scan', scaring the hell out of the girl.
"Please, stop her in the name of the El. Chung, do something!" Aisha cried, putting her last bit of faith in her blonde companion.
"Ophelia, please put the console down." Chung complied and stated sweetly for the Nasod maid to halt her activity. Ophelia looked at him, showing no emotion or no sign of wanting to stop whatsoever. He tried to grab the small unit in her hands, but was intercepted by a gloved hand placed firmly against his face. Soon, it escalated to a brawl between Chung and Eve's servants, Oberon joining a few seconds later. Curses flew all around the vehicle and Chung was pleading for someone to give him his Destroyer, or at least one of the two Silver Shooters. Aisha tried to get hold of one of his weapons from the luggage carrier behind, but was also stopped by a very amused Raven, who didn't want his fun to stop. He grabbed hold of Aisha by her bat-like ornaments on her skirt with his Nasod arm and held on, despite her pleas to help Chung save her. A while later, Chung gave up and stated towards Aisha with a desperate sigh:
"Neesan, we are outnumbered."
"By a lot." she added, also feeling the fatigue of their small fight reach her and soon she seated herself between Raven and Elsword, while Chung took her place next to Eve.
Not long after, Aisha fell asleep on Raven's arm while the rest of them were having a conversation regarding the types of their respective Protective El Shards. Rena showed her Nature Shard proudly while narrating how she got hold of it. Raven's Wind Protective Shard shone brightly in the color of the sky, while Eve and Chung's Protective Shards shone differently than other Light Shards. Chung claimed that his Shard shone light blue because of the Alchemy spells he used on it in order to make his Freiturnier stronger. Eve seemed to have obtained this blue peculiar Light Shard from her ancestors, so it was possibly that long ago, Light Shards were a different color from the ones now. Elsword proudly presented his red Fire Shard sitting on his sword's hilt. They kept on talking about different kinds of elemental affinities, but stopped when they came across the subject of Dark Shards. They were resigned in talking about those kind of shards, because of their obvious 'evilness', as Elsword claimed. Chung was already pretty weak to this element, exposing himself to too much darkness could result in his death, so he kept his distance and was obviously frightened by it.
"I really do not have a thing for darkness. I really hate it, it's evil. And darkness scares me to hell." he claimed shivering and grimacing to the thought.
"Meh, whatever dark and evil comes across me, I'll send it to oblivion." Elsword showed off, smirking proudly.
"You wouldn't last even 10 minutes alone with demons or other darkness creatures." Raven laughed at the red-head, who pouted in response.
"I'm intrigued, how does a Darkness El Shard look like? I have never seen one and my database holds only information about it, no visual proof." Eve checked her console again.
"As a matter of fact, neither have I." Chung scratched the back of his head.
"Look, you guys~" Rena hummed and straightened Aisha gently and careful not to wake her up. She held the mage's head on her rich chest and placed one finger on the purple stone hanging around Aisha's neck. "A Dark El." she whispered, while everyone stared in awe at the small, beautiful stone. It was flickering in shades of purple and fuchsia and gave off a mystical fragrance.
Everyone was staring at Aisha's Dark Shard in amazement, but no one dared move while their eyes scanned the stone thoroughly, captured by its brilliance. It's as if the Shard itself was muting them and chaining their gazes to it, not letting go. Eve was scanning the stone using Remy and collected data, which was gathered in her little console. As soon as all the data was collected, Eve's eyes opened in amazement and stated worriedly:
"I think this is more than a mere El Shard." Eve started running her fingers over her keyboards frantically. "The pulsation of the glow in the stone is equal to the beating of Aisha's heart."
"English?" Elsword asked confused.
"Wait, I'm running a complete scan, to assure myself of my statement." Eve kept on running tests.
"What statement?! What are you talking about, Eve?" Rena tried to make the Nasod girl explain the situation to them properly.
After a few more *beeps* and *clanks* coming from her console, Eve put all her electronical devices aside, pushed Oberon and Ophelia and studied the Dark El Shard closely herself.
"It's acting just like a magnetic generator, but the electric pulse differs from the Nasod technology. The calibration isn't right and the mechanical part is not mechanical at all, but magical. A 'core' should be the correct synonym for this stone." Eve analyzed.
"Eve, what in the world are you talking about?" Chung snapped. "What's that thing and what is it doing to Aisha-neesan?"
"This is what humans call 'a heart'. It is acting just like one. A heart seems to be an organ essential to human beings, just as the core is to Nasods. It is pumping blood through the living body, helping it oxygenate and running the other organs. This mauve device on Aisha's chest is pumping something into her, but my calculations stop here. I do not know any more than this." Eve stopped.
"What the hell is being sent into her?" Raven also asked angrily, clenching his fists.
"I don't know what that thing is, but I'm not letting it pump anything into Aisha anymore." Elsword got up and walked towards Aisha. "I'm not letting anyone and anything hurt her anymore."
Before he could grab the small gem and drag it away from Aisha, a small hand reached him and clenched firmly onto his arm.
"Dark energy." Aisha said plainly.
"What?" Raven questioned bewildered.
"It is pumping dark energy." Aisha repeated herself, while straightening her small body from Rena's tight embrace. "More specifically, a subclass of dark energy, void energy." she added, touching her Dark El, protecting it from Elsword's view, as she let go of his hand.
Aisha got up and sat herself near the window, staring outside. "I would appreciate more if you would ask before doing research on someone when they are sleeping and also-"
"Aisha, what is that thing?" Rena was the one to interrupt her. And who could blame her? They were all dying of curiosity to know what that gem was and what was its purpose.
Aisha studied her features then scanned every one of her friends, who were staring at her wordlessly. She contemplated on what should she do: she had nothing to lose here…maybe her friends..or maybe her self-confidence. Whatever the case, they knew a lot now, so she had no choice but to come clean with it. They would understand, they're her friends.
"This is a Dark El Shard." she began, as she pointed at her chest and ran her delicate fingers across the diamond-shaped, purple gem. "Well, it is a little more special since it is imbued with void, a type of darkness magic. It is beyond dark, and harder to control, but more powerful. In order to fully obtain control over it, one must fulfill certain conditions. One of them is to contract a demon." Aisha smirked while stating the last part, summoning Anger and holding him tightly in her arms. She petted him on his head, while he purred in response. "Once obtained, the Shard will constantly pulsate void energy in your body, whenever the user needs. This may change according to feelings, mental state or other factors." Everyone was still staring and couldn't move, so they remained stoned, still processing the information. Their friend was a Void Princess, that's what they knew for sure, yet they never studied what it really meant. Maybe because they knew Aisha that they didn't care about what people said about Dark Magicians or Void users being evil and mad scientists.
"And for the record, dark magic and void magic are not evil!" she raised her voice to the point where she was almost yelling. "This magic isn't evil in any way. Magic cannot be evil, it's the user who goes the wrong path. Magic is not evil, nor did it kill anyone on its own accord, it was always manipulated by someone who did not know how to use it properly! Magic isn't evil, it's the humans that are!" her voice reached the point where it was breaking and Anger got up and placed his little face on her cheek, trying to comfort her and help her calm down.
"You heard us talking." Elsword stated shocked, realizing that he once again hurt one of his best friends. "We…I.." he had so many things he wanted to say but couldn't bring himself to.
"Aisha, we are so sorry, we didn't know and you're right, we didn't even think about how you would feel. We're sorry. We are terrible friends." Rena apologized, also tears brimming in the corner of her eyes, hoping Aisha could find the power to forgive her friends, even after they hurt her and talked trash about her magic.
Looking at each and every one of them again and again, she could not bear their saddened and worried looks and her heart had no choice, but to oblige to what her soul dictated.
"Well, it's your freedom to choose what to believe anyway. I just told you how this magic works. It's not like I was angry or anything anyway." she told them, while looking away. Aisha still glanced at them from the corner of her eyes and saw the relief and happiness her words brought upon them. She could not believe that someone valued those words so much, but at the same time she worshipped them for caring so much for her. Rena jumped on her at the same time, squeezing her plentiful bust on poor Aisha, who could do nothing except hug the elf back and blush madly.
No sooner than half an hour later did they finally arrive to the Kingdom of Velder, where the driver pulled over and announced their arrival. As all of them stepped out, one thing could be read all over their faces and one thought was expressed upon their features: It's good to be home!