The Chaotic Rescue of Eva (1)
Ding-dong, ding-dong!
Chloe hammered the doorbell again and again.
There was no response, but she refused to give up, shouting the name at the top of her lungs.
"Eva! Answer me!"
Thud-thud-thud!
She pounded on the door hard enough to shake the whole house, yet still, nothing. No answer.
She'd called dozens of times, texted every spare moment she could find — and in return, nothing but stubborn silence. No replies at all.
If it had only been a day or two, she might have let it slide. But it had been a full week of radio silence now.
As a friend, as a lover, worrying came naturally.
She'd even reached out to Eva's family, but they had no idea what was going on either. All they could do was ask her to check on their daughter's condition.
I'm sorry, Eva.
She couldn't just stand by and watch anymore.
Even if she had to force it open, she would break through this door and see her with her own two eyes.
Chloe channeled mana into her fist.
KA-BOOM!
A single devastating blow sent the mansion's front gate flying into the distance. The door, crumpled like a sheet of paper, tumbled across the ground, and Chloe stepped over the wreckage at her feet and entered the entrance hall.
Whoosh!
"What the—!"
What unfolded before her eyes was a scene straight out of a fairy tale. Beyond the entrance should have come a hallway, and past that, the living room — that was the layout she knew.
Instead, she found herself in a world turned inside out, where up was down and down was up.
Walls floated freely, and doors of every shape and color drifted through the air, shifting places as they went.
Inside this labyrinth that had twisted the very laws of physics, Chloe was left speechless.
"What the hell is this?!"
"You're telling me she built a maze with magic?"
"Yep. She's got a barrier up so nobody can get in."
The next day, Chloe gathered everyone at the café.
Arlan, freshly discharged from the hospital just that morning, led the way, and I too was in attendance — a perfect attendance record at the café, as always. Ther, newly returned from the Max Republic, took an interest as well and announced he'd be joining.
"This isn't some joke, is it? That crybaby couldn't even block my attacks back in the day."
"Excuse me?! Are you disrespecting Eva right now?!"
Chloe snarled while Ther wore a smirk dripping with mockery. These two were forever screaming at each other, baring their teeth like they were about to tear each other apart.
At this point, should I just count this as their version of a greeting?
"Chloe wouldn't lie about this. I went and checked for myself."
"See? See?!"
Here, I threw my weight behind Chloe's claim. After I finished training Diana, I'd paid a visit to Eva's mansion myself, and the layout was nothing like what I remembered — it had genuinely startled me.
Chloe's word alone wouldn't have done it, but Ther, who actually trusted me, finally seemed convinced.
"Impressive, honestly. Magic that rearranges the layout of an entire mansion — that's got to be around Archmage level, wouldn't you say?"
"No, Eva hasn't reached that level yet. I'd know. I've fought alongside her."
"Then how is she manipulating space however she pleases? That's impossible for a mere academy student."
"Well…"
Chloe trailed off at Ther's question. She didn't really have an explanation for it either.
"Could it be an item? Like that staff Eva carries, maybe?"
The Archmage's staff. He seemed to be talking about the equipment Tyrrane Amethyst had passed down to Eva.
"No way. Sure, it's good gear, but Eva's mother told me directly that nothing that powerful is woven into it."
But Chloe shot the theory down flat, drawing a firm line — absolutely not. I happened to know it wasn't the right answer either, so I just nodded along in silence.
"The more I hear, the more fascinating this gets. So what exactly is our little crybaby hiding from us, hm?"
"Hey. Stop trash-talking Eva like that."
"She is a crybaby. Got a problem with the truth?"
Crackle!
Sparks flew between them once more.
Arlan, sweating buckets, looked like she was agonizing over how on earth to reconcile the two of them.
So that's roughly the situation.
Meanwhile, I'd quietly arrived at a conclusion of my own.
Eva had used a Divine Artifact — carved out new space within the mansion and sealed it off so that no one could enter or leave. The artifact she'd received from the Archmage governed Time, which made such a feat impossible, but the artifact Palad had recently awakened symbolized the Sky itself. An item that granted its holder's wishes had, without her even realizing it, fulfilled Eva's unconscious desire to be left alone.
Or maybe she created the space with her own power?
That was possible too, if it was the same girl who'd awakened a Divine Artifact in the battle against Vital.
The story had gone off the rails, pulling the final arc of Part One forward — but with the flow now back on a normal track, there was nothing strange about Eva using Palad's artifact to reshape space.
Why she'd shut herself away in that room to the point of ignoring even Chloe's calls, though — that part I still couldn't figure out.
"So here's what I'm thinking — let's all go to Eva's house together."
"To Eva's house?"
"Yeah. We pool our strength and drag Eva back out into the world!"
With Chloe's declaration, everyone in the café had their own reaction.
"Wouldn't it be better to leave her be? I think she'll be okay once some time passes."
Arlan was against dragging Eva out by force. Her thinking was to respect Eva's feelings and wait patiently until her heart had settled.
"Oho, sounds fun. I'm in."
Exploring a wizard-made labyrinth wasn't an everyday experience. Ther, reasoning it would sharpen his own skills, found himself in rare agreement with Chloe for once.
If I sided with Arlan here, the vote would split down the middle.
"Alright, let's all go to Eva's place."
"Ehhh?!"
Sorry, Arlan — but I genuinely wanted to know why Eva had become like this.
An event that never happened in the original story? Yeah, I absolutely had to be there for this one.
"Solis, are you sure about this?"
"Some people would call it a nuisance, sure. Still, I think this is the right call."
Meddling in someone's business can cause them harm — but sometimes, it becomes salvation for someone who truly needs the help.
"Anyone can see that Eva has her heart shut tight behind a heavy door right now. Like a candle flickering in the wind — she's walking a tightrope, one breath away from falling."
She hadn't built a maze back then, but in the original story, there had been a time when Eva locked herself inside her mansion for a long while.
At the end of Part Two, after defeating Vital and then winning against yet another member of the Celestial Clan, her dearest friend Arlan had died.
The shock of it hollowed Eva out, night after night, a little more each day.
She'd insisted it was all her fault — if only she had realized what Arlan was even a moment sooner — drowning in regret, spilling those words over and over.
Later on, Chloe would force open the mansion's door, storm inside, and rekindle Eva's will to live, at which point Eva would bury Arlan deep within her heart, and the story would come to an end.
Arlan had still been alive — but the wound Eva took was said to be every bit as deep as the one she'd suffered back at the start of Part Two.
Nothing less could explain the stubbornness of a girl refusing to step a single foot outside her home.
"Sometimes, meddling is what saves the world. That's why I'm going with Chloe's plan."
"Meddling…"
Arlan murmured the word without realizing it. If anyone understood the true meaning behind what I'd just said, it was her.
If it means saving you, then even if you tell me it bothers you, I'll gladly stick my nose in anyway.
Her savior, the Archmage Tyrrane, had once said something remarkably similar.
"Okay. Let's all go together."
Persuasion: successful.
With Arlan now on board as well, we abandoned our half-finished drinks and headed straight for the mansion where Eva lived.
Tap-tap-tap.
She hammered away at the keyboard.
She stared past the screen. A character wielding a staff was tearing a monster's head clean off.
ZAP!
The mage poured mana into the staff in her hand. She chanted a spell. She fired.
KA-BOOM!
"Uwaaagh!"
The monsters shrieked.
Panic-stricken, they fled.
It was only a game.
Illusions spun out of code — they simply moved according to their programmed values, configured to run from any character whose stats outclassed theirs. That was all.
The players mashing the buttons knew this perfectly well. Magic cast with a single click didn't exist in the real world, after all.
And yet — why?
— Stop it!
— Please, spare me!
She was sinking into it. She could hear the heartbroken screams of the fleeing beasts.
— I was wrong! I'll never do it again, so— AAAAAHH!
— Just kill me instead…!
The four-legged beasts soon twisted into the shapes of humans. Drenched in blood, weeping tears and snot, they dragged their ruined limbs behind them, running for their lives.
Chase.
Kill.
Repeat.
She pressed on, walking across floors painted over and over in blood. And at the end of it, someone was standing there.
— My daughter.
The face she had longed to see. A gentle smile. A voice as cloying as melted butter.
Her precious family — unforgettable, irreplaceable. She wanted to throw her arms open right that second and burrow into his embrace.
Ding-a-ling!
Kill the Archmage and claim his Divine Artifact!
A bright, cheerful little chime.
And bursting out of it — a line of pure, unadulterated menace.
Two choices floated on the screen: Yes, or No. She had to make her decision.
If she didn't pick, the story would never advance.
And on the other side of the screen, they were waiting for her choice.
Click.
Crunch.
"Ehehehe."
With a smile that looked like it would tear her cheeks apart at the corners, Eva's finger pressed the Attack button.