Off on the Next Quest

{Author's Note}

Gambler: *stares wistfully out my window at the setting sun on the horizon.* I wonder...will my inspiration ever come back from the war?

Inspiration: *angrily kicks down the door* Motherfucker, I never left! You've just been reading fanfictions and drowning out everything I have to say!

Gambler: *sighs dramatically* Sometimes, I swear I can still hear its voice...

Inspiration: You know what? Fuck it. *Takes out tire iron and approaches with violent intent* You don't want to listen to me? I'LL MAKE YOU!

Gambler: Wait...what? *turns to see approaching embodiment of rage and creativity.* Wait! It was just a joke! NOT THE FACE! NOT THE-!

{We are sorry, but the following events are too violent, even for this story. We apologize of the inconvenience.}

STORY: IT'S ON!

***

Alice had run out of food to roast over her improvised campfire by the time Kevin and Sylph had calmed down enough to climb out of the small crater they'd created with their final attack. The former had transformed back into his humanoid form and was carrying the latter on his shoulder, both of them still giggling to themselves, the excitement having not completely faded. Oddly enough, neither of them had a single hair out of place or a scuff on their clothing, but that could be attributed to their combined control of the wind keeping everything in place.

Before the Griffeon could speak, the lamia interrupted him. "Change back to your base form."

He tilted his head to the side. "But why, though?"

"If I'm not mistaken, this evolution has made you an airhead like Sylph, and I can't guarantee that I won't try to strangle you after five minutes of listening to you speak," she deadpanned. She prided herself on her developing ability to determine the personality shifts of his different evolutions, and she knew for a fact that this was one of the ones that would bring out her violent side.

Both the Spirit of the Wind and Kevin pouted at her. "You're no fun, you know that?" the teenager asked.

"Yeah!" Sylph nodded in agreement. "Maybe if you played with us a bit, you'd stop being so grumpy all the time!"

Alice let out a warning growl. "Change. Back. Now."

"Fiiiiiiiiine," the boy groaned, before leaving one last potshot. "Killjoy."

The shift back was quick, and the now-Eevee-again Kevin let out a sigh. "Thanks, Alice. I don't think I would've willingly shifted back on my own."

She raised an eyebrow at him as he sat down across the fire from her. "Why not?"

"Honestly? I'd say it has to do with the pure, untainted happiness I was feeling," he admitted nonchalantly. "It was kinda nice to feel the childish sense of wonder without needing to suppress it along with all of my negative emotions."

Sylph nodded. "Yup! Letting go and not thinking makes everything better."

The tiny Spirit's comment drew the Monster Lord's eyes to her, and to the fact that she was still sitting on the Eevee's shoulder. Alice knew for a fact that Kevin hated people touching him; so why was he allowing Sylph to sit there when he could just have her disappear into his soul like she usually did with her hosts?

When she voiced her confusion, Kevin responded by slouching and groaning. "That…is a very infuriating story."

"Does it have anything to do with what you said about some kind of wedding where your souls were bound together?" she asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Yeah," the boy grumbled. "I'm still too bitter to tell you the full story, so here's the cliff notes: the Universe itself hijacked my body and forced me to perform something called 'The True Bonding Ritual of Wind.' Apparently, it's a kind of marriage ritual that permanently binds a Spirit to a person, and in the process shows both participants each other's memories in their entirety.

"Unfortunately, one of the things that comes with having our souls permanently intertwined is that I feel unnaturally comfortable with her. I'm having to divide my attention as we speak between talking to you, and actively ignoring the constant loop of enjoying being in contact with her and hating the fact that I enjoy it because I know that that joy is artificial, so I don't drive myself insane."

That…was absolutely NOT what Alice expected him to say. Hell, she'd never even heard of whatever this "True Bonding Ritual" was, despite having memorized every species of monster on the planet, including their mating rituals and traditions. The only reason she wasn't calling bullshit was that Sylph hadn't denied a single word, going through expressions ranging from agreement, to fondness, to worry.

"Are you…okay?" the lamia cautiously asked.

Kevin shook his head. "No, and I don't think I will be for a few days," he admitted. "Can we just…move on and talk about something else? Like where we're going next?"

Despite wanting to know more, the Monster Lord knew when to back off. "Well, there's nothing left to do here in the Natalia Region, so it's best for us to head over to the Safina Region to find Gnome."

The Eevee nodded at her words…but then froze as a memory came to the forefront of his mind. He then narrowed his eyes at the lamia. "Really? There's nothing else to do before we go there?"

"…yes?" Alice replied, her voice a lot less confident this time.

Kevin leaned closer to her. "Are you SURE you aren't forgetting Something that was very important to check on before we head to Safina?"

Before the now-sweating monster could reply again, Sylph spoke up. "Oh! I know what she forgot!" she shouted energetically. "We have to head by that haunted mansion to get Kevin a new power-up!"

Alice's shoulders sagged as overwhelming despair settled in her gut. "Oh…yeah…that," she mumbled.

"Yes. That," Kevin nodded. He sure as hell wasn't going to miss out on the chance to gain Spirit Class power in one of his forms, Alice's fears be damned. "If it makes you feel any better, you don't have to come. It can just be Sylph and Me."

The lamia was now faced with a dilemma. While she absolutely dreaded the mere idea of entering a creepy mansion that may more or may not be haunted by numerous ghosts (which were unscientific and not real, no matter what Kevin claimed!), she also feared what her powerful companion would do if it was just a normal monster living there and they managed to piss him off. She'd already had to save two Queen Class monsters from his anger since they'd first met, so she was wary about letting him go on without her to reign him in. Sylph may be able to do so, but trusting her to was too big of a risk for the Monster Lord to take.

She finally let out a sigh and seemed to deflate even more. "No…It's fine. I'll…come with…you," she stated through clenched teeth.

"Yay!" Sylph cried out in glee, taking off from Kevin's shoulder to zip around excitedly. "I've always wanted to explore a haunted building! I wonder what kind of ghosts we'll see!"

A shiver visibly made its way down Alice's neck, all the way to the tip of her tail, but was ignored by both of her travel companions.

***

After the long life she had lived, Sylph understood well that seeing something and experiencing it for yourself were two completely different things. It was one of the primary reasons why she shrunk herself to the size of a fairy and played with them so much. Watching someone have fun was one thing, but participating made it all the better.

So, she knew that entering the Dream Room would be a novel experience. Just from Kevin's memories, she had an idea of the calming effect it would have on her once she entered it with him, but she found herself woefully unprepared for the full effect. The Spirit could say, with complete honesty, that she had never felt so calm and peaceful in her entire existence.

It made a lot of sense why her new 'husband' spent every night immersed in this particular dream.

She remained in her fairy-sized form as she sat on the edge of the desk off to the side of the bed, curiously taking in her surroundings. From the technology she was unfamiliar with that ran on lightning, to the foreign design of the furniture, everything was just as she'd seen in Kevin's memories.

Including the presence of a certain self-proclaimed Goddess, who was looking at the Spirit of the Wind with a mixture of surprise and apprehension.

When Sylph had first learned of the visits Ilias had been making to Kevin's dreams, she'd been more than a little surprised. Even in the airheaded state that she normally allowed herself to fall into most of the time, she knew that the angelic woman was nothing but bad news and to avoid her at all costs. If Sylph didn't know any better, she'd already be trying her best to forcefully evict Ilias from the dream room, no questions asked.

However, she DID know better. The integration of Kevin's memories had not only shown her the interactions between him and the 'goddess,' but also the conversations they'd had. Knowledge of how the loneliness that plagued Sylph and the other Spirits had driven Ilias insane tugged at the Wind Spirit's heartstrings, as did the fact that her only reprieve from the state of instability was the Dream Room they were currently in. With how guilty the woman felt about her actions now that she was able to think clearly, how could anyone be heartless enough to kick the woman out?

As for Ilias herself, she was having an internal struggle to keep herself from fleeing the room. She knew that Sylph was one of the most understanding and forgiving of the Four Spirits, but the complicated series of expressions the tiny woman was cycling through were filling the 'goddess' with an unreasonable amount of dread. From her usual spot sitting on the wheeled desk chair, her heart was beating at a mile a minute.

Earlier that day, she'd watched the other two occupants of the Dream Room perform the [True Bonding Ritual of Wind]. One would expect for her to have freaked out in some way, what with her less-sane self developing an unhealthy obsession with the teenager, but nothing of the sort happened. Instead, her instincts had overpowered both her emotions and mind, forcing her to stand there and watch. Unlike any other onlooker, her nature allowed her to understand exactly what was going on, and watch the bond between the Spirit and the Eevee slowly form over the course of the ritual. Throughout the whole dance, her madness was reduced to a state of calm reminiscent of the time she spent in the Dream Room. It allowed her to not only process what was happening, but what it meant for her as well.

"Ilias," Sylph spoke, snapping the woman back to the present.

"Sylph," Ilias cautiously replied.

The Spirit of the Wind sighed. "Look, I've seen Kevin's memories. I know why you are the way you are, just like him. I don't blame you, and I doubt the others will when they learn."

Just like that, all of the tension in the 'goddess's' body evaporated, causing her to slouch with relief. Knowing that the worst case scenario, in which all of the Four Spirits rejected her interactions with Kevin and refused to allow her to see him again, wouldn't be happening was a load off of her shoulders. There was still the possibility that the other three would, even after seeing what Sylph had, but at least it would then be three against three.

"By the way, Ilias," Kevin interjected, sitting up from where he'd been laying back on the bed. "Were you ever planning on telling me that you were a Spirit as well?"

There wasn't any hostility or disappointment in his voice., just curiosity. Discovering this fact had been simple when he compared the very-faint elemental signature that surrounded her with that of Sylph. Ilias may be more powerful than the smaller Spirit, but the sheer concentration of elemental purity she gave off was a dead give away that instead of being the all-powerful goddess that she proclaimed herself to be, she was just a more-powerful Elemental Spirit.

Glancing over at him, Ilias gave an uneasy smile. "Yeah…"

"When were you planning on doing it?"

"Um…hopefully when we met in person?"

Kevin sighed. "Well, I can't exactly fault you for it. Until now, it wasn't exactly an important bit of information."

But as of that moment, it was. All three of them were aware of that fact. It was obvious that the only reason he and Ilias hadn't reacted to each other the same way he had with Sylph was because she wasn't ACTUALLY there in his Dream Room. Her presence was only a projection of her consciousness, carrying with it faint traces of her true nature as the Spirit of Light.

"In light of this revelation, I suggest we just…put off that 'in person meeting' for when you're not batshit insane, yeah?" the teenager suggested after a moment of thought.

A shiver went down everyone's spine at the thought of what would happen if they performed the [True Bonding Ritual] before the madness could be completely wiped from her mind. The best case scenario would be that his presence would permanently calm her down, but the worst? She could end up driving HIM insane, and the world would not survive the cataclysms he could cause.

"I second that decision," Sylph agreed with a firm nod.

"And with me it's three," Ilias sighed. "On the bright side, we don't have to worry about it happening here and can still keep hanging out."

Neither of the room's other two occupants had any objections to that.

The rest of the night was spent the way it usually was when Ilias popped in: tossing things back and forth, complaining about things that both did and didn't matter, and shooting the breeze as if their personal emotional and mental turmoil was nothing but a faraway problem. All that existed was the here and now, where nothing of importance was at stake and everyone was just having a good time.

***

Sylph had quickly established her position in the not-so-heroic traveling party as the easily distracted and ditzy younger-sister figure. Unlike with any previous Host she had bound herself to, she was more content with physically manifesting outside of Kevin's body rather than residing inside of his soul, leading her to sit on one of the teenager's shoulders or, on occasion, on top of his head between his fox-like ears. However, she only stayed put until something interesting caught her eye, prompting her to take off and zip around.

Considering the fact that she hadn't left the forest in the last few hundred years since Heinrich died, it may have been understandable…if it weren't for the fact that things didn't change much in that amount of time. Pre-technological era societies, especially ones governed and limited by a bigoted religion, don't tend to progress at…any rate, really. (Looking at you, Christianity, and the Dark Ages where people were killed for trying to advance the world.)

For Kevin and Alice, who were usually content to continue their journey in silence, this posed a few problems. Namely: both of them getting sick of her questions quickly, resulting in one the other giving her a swift whack. Sometimes she was aware of her surroundings enough to dodge, but other times…

Well…

***

"OHHH! I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves! Everybody's Nerves! Everybody's Nerves! ! I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves, and this is how it goes: I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves! Everybody's Nerves! Everybody's Nerves! ! I know a song that gets on –"

WHAM!

"Waaagh!" Sylph cried, both hands holding her head. The tears in her eyes would've been more believable, though, if not for the fact that both her traveling companions knew for a fact that she was a powerful Elemental Spirit. "Why did you hit me, you meany!?" she shouted at Alice.

The Monster Lord narrowed her eyes as she lowered her smoking fist. "You know exactly why, you insufferable insect," she growled. "When I told you to stop asking if we were there yet, I didn't mean you should find another way to annoy me."

"Kevin!" the Spirit shouted, moving toward the Eevee. "Alice is being mean to –" WHACK. "AAAGH!"

An unexpected second strike to her head, courtesy of the one she was trying to pry sympathy from, was enough to knock her completely out of the air. Now, her head had a comically large lump poking out of the top of her hair, and her eyes were spinning as she lay sprawled out on the ground.