Chapter 14: Talking My Heart Out

Mr. Voice...honestly I was beginning to believe that it was manipulating us somehow. To what extent though, I wasn't entirely sure. I pushed that dark revelation to the back of my mind and went to inquire about my awakened ability.

"So what can I now do?" I looked at Thalia, I then pulled out my sword. Part of me was waiting for something to occur, something incredible...but nothing was happening. 

"Honestly...I can't tell you. Your power is something even I'm confused by. I feel it has something to do with a person's spirit but beyond that...I really can't say. I'm sorry..."

"Maybe your power is just lacking since you haven't used it in forever?" Mateo walked over to Thalia and put his hand on her chest. 

"You are really a rude person...fine I'll awaken you and show you my power isn't to be trifled with." Thalia repeated the same process as she did with me but now I got to see it first hand. As Thalia began to chant, Mateo began to glow a strange golden color. Then, as she had told me would happen to me, Mateo began to rise off the ground. He wasn't flying but his feet were clearly a good foot or two off the ground. Within a few moments of that, the process was done. 

"I feel...strange." Mateo said looking over at himself. Honestly, when Thalia finished with my awakening I didn't feel anything other than just a bit dizzy.

"Your power is now unlocked to an entirely new level. I believe it was called Spatial Creation now is just Creation. You can make almost anything that your envision. However, every creation comes with a cost on your life force." Thalia warned.

"Meaning?" 

"Your power when used will take a toll on your body. Small items or medium sized may just give you a brief headache if they aren't complex. When you craft something with thought and design though it could lead to long hours of exhaustion or even sickness. If you push your form too far, your body could even lose years of its life."

"Hmmm..." Mateo thought for a second, seemingly undisturbed by the consistent revelations Thalia was telling him. He instead went deep into though and suddenly made a plume of fire appear from his hands. He didn't throw it or push out towards anything, just held it in his hands and smiled. It was bright and even from my distance from him, hot. 

"As I saw in your memories...you can once again use magic to some degree just be careful of how advanced the spell is. Powerful spells can't be created easily..."

"Thank you...honestly." Mateo for the first time smiled genuinely. It was surprisingly nice to see. However, his smile had a bit of wickedness to it. 

"...you welcome." Thalia's surprise was understandable. 

"My turn?" Alna said pointing to herself. 

"Yes...your turn." Thalia smiled.

I won't bore you with the details, it was exactly the same procedure, Alna glowed and then floated too but where the process changed was at the very end. When Alna's feet touched the ground her body began to change before our very eyes. 

"Alna...calm down..." Thalia went and held her arm tightly. There was a look of fear in her eyes...

"What's happening to her? I wanted to run over to her but Thalia held her hand up.

"Her power...is now fully unleashed, she just needs to calm herself."

"What is this...I feel...so powerful...so full of...anger." Alna said looking at her hands. Her fingers I noticed were growing longer, her arms bulking and now she was...growing fur!? Alna was becoming a literal beast before our eyes. 

"She's changing!" Mateo was now more concerned than before breaking his silence.

"What is my power doing!?" Alna's voice was beginging to alter too. Like her body, it was losing the calmness it had before and now sounded...feral. 

"Its allowing her to tap into her true form, a true cat-like beast." 

"Alna you need to calm down.." Alna's body was fully muscled out and now she was almost entirely covered in fur matching her dark auburn-like hair. The thin form she once was long gone.

"I'm trying..." Alna attempted to say but it almost came out in a growl. Finally I did what I wanted to do earlier regardless of Thalia trying to stop me, I ran over to Alna and held her tightly. I could see in Alna's face she was losing herself. It may sound strange but Alna was slowly becoming something else...

"Alna...since day one I've relied on you. I could have been hurt or worse on that first day but you saved me. Now let me save you...please calm down and listen to my voice. I need you to remember that we won't be able to do this without you. I need your guidance...I need your power but more importantly...I need you!" I kept holding on, despite her body vibrating with literal energy now. I think she was trying to break free from my grip. 

"You...need...me...?" Alna's voice finally sounded less gruff and more akin to what I remember.

"Yes...I need you." I meant every word. Alna was someone who I knew I was slowly starting to develop feelings for. It would be wrong to say I was full out in love with her, this wasn't an anime romance story. Yet, I knew deep down, I wanted her around and needed the woman that saved me to keep being by my side. 

"Mizuki...it's working!" Thalia said and she wasn't mistaken. Alna's powerful new form was slowly shrinking. The larger muscles and the insane fur was fading before my eyes. I never stopped holding her but it was becoming easier to wrap my arms around her. Finally, quicker than it took for her to become this, Alna's form had returned. 

"Phew...for a second I thought we'd have to fight you." I laughed knowing that if Mateo and me did have to actually fight Alna...especially in this new form, we'd be toast in a few seconds. Alna looked over herself, possibly to ensure her cat-like human form had returned to proper form.

"You're fine now Alna. The beast form has been calmed." Thalia said relieved.

"I..." suddenly Alna hugged me again but tightly, I could actually feel my bones crying from within.

"MIZUKI...YOU SAVED ME!" Alna kept her embrace tight. Seriously, I would be lying if I said it felt good and didn't hurt. I want to imagine this is what a bear hug was like, in this case the beat being a cat girl.

"You welcome...please...let...me...go...Alna..." Alna noticed her intense pressure and let go. She then apologized a good 100 times. 

"Okay now that everything is calm. Alna your power, if not obvious, is a sort of beast awakening. As the name implies, your advanced form allows you to tap into your feral ancestry but...at a cost." 

"She becomes a literal monster?" Mateo said coldly.

"More or less, she becomes feral. In time, I'm sure you can control that inner aggression but as of now, only use that form if absolutely necessary. Mizuki was there to calm you down and I'm sure he could do it again...but imagine if he wasn't." Thalia and me didn't need to say out loud our thoughts. I could imagine Alna going berserk and hurting innocents and then once that subsided, she'd feel terrible. I promised myself I wouldn't let that happen...

"Alright so we got new powers, albeit some of us powers we aren't aware of or can control...what's next?" Mateo folded his arms looking at us. 

"Maybe we can ask Mr. Voice?" Alna responded.

"Not here you can't. The Forest of Infinity has always blocked him. The only other time I talked to him was when we had lost the last of the heroes he had summoned." 

"Were they defeated by Slain?" I looked over at Thalia. 

"Not sure to be honest. It...Mr. Voice as you call it, has never told me what happened to the past heroes other than they perished or fled." Mateo shifted his gaze as if that last comment was aimed at him directly. 

"Alright...then we leave this forest, head over to the nearest city..."

"Elysium" Alna said.

"Elysium...and then we can hope Mr. Voice contacts us with further instructions." 

"Sounds like a stupid plan but you're the hero." Mateo smirked. 

"Alright, I'll join you all. First though, I need to open a proper gateway out of this place. It's going to take me a little while. Help yourself to some tea and cookies. Sit and rest...I'll be back soon." Thalia suddenly made a gesture with her hand and a strange portal opened before her. She stepped in and was gone from sight. The portal too dispersed after a second leaving just us three in her strange little "home".

We wasted no time devouring the cookies she had made. Who knows when they were baked, honestly we didn't care to think about how she had these and tea ready for us. All we knew was exhaustion. Mateo left Alna and me alone, he wanted to test his new powers and revel in the fact he could do magic once more. The entire time he was gone, Alna and me sat in silence. Awkward wouldn't do this quiet justice...Finally, Alna's voice broke the tension.

"I really am sorry Mizuki..."

"For what?" I looked over at her. 

"I know I didn't hurt anyone or attack anyone...but what if I would have. I won't lie to you Mizuki...maybe it seemed like I was just becoming bigger in size but my mind was slowly breaking."

"Breaking?" I took a sip of the tea, its rich flavors made it easy to drink despite the fact I wasn't much of a fan of tea...

"How do I explain...it's almost like I was forgetting who I was. All I could think of was escaping...running wild. I didn't see you or Mateo or even Thalia...all I saw was freedom." Alna looked at her hands, I could see them shaking. Despite how corny it felt, I took a cue from a book I read and reached out to her hand. I held it firmly in my own.

"Alna...that wasn't your fault. You gained a new, incredible power and just didn't know what it could do." 

"But what if I did something to harm you three? Especially you..." Alna for the first time since talking about her dad shed a tear. I had known this woman for only several weeks...maybe it had been longer. Since coming here, I didn't count days or time normally. Yet, what I did count was how many times I've seen Alna react in a way that countered how strong she was and that was now twice...

"In my world...what ifs are just that...what ifs. They don't mean anything. What if that team would have won the big game, what if that guy proposed to his girlfriend and she would have refused...what if I wasn't summoned to this world? We can ask ourselves what if for everything but what matters is what actually happened. In this case Alna, nothing. You became larger and stronger but no one was hurt. I stopped you and I'm sure if I couldn't Thalia or Mateo could have. What matters is you are still here, we are fine and we can continue on our mission to stop Slain." I smiled as big of a smile as I could. Alna returned the gesture and then kissed me on the cheek.

"Mizuki...you are my hero. I know you think little of yourself but to be honest, until you came into this world and into my life...I was thinking all I'd do is just protect the village from stupid threats until the day I died. Now I have a purpose. To stop Slain. I know we haven't talked much about him but Slain is ruining this world. I don't know how but it feels like we are constantly being invaded by new threats and new abnormalities. This world is going to shatter. We need uniformity and I think we can do it." Now it was my turn to want to tear up but I held it back. I just held Alna's hand...went towards her...and our eyes closed...

"Again with the romance...jeez Thalia is done let's get going you two." Mateo caused us both to jump. Again, another moment ruined by our strange magical ally...

"Come on you guys. The portal is open. Once we step through the forest will be a distant memory." Thalia took a final look at her strange abode and then motioned for us to enter the portal.

"You guys ready?" I looked over at my entire party. A former cowardly hero, an old woman trapped by time in a younger body and a cat girl straight from an anime who I now had feelings for. These three were my party and just like in a JRPG, they might be strange and off putting in their own ways but we shared a common goal. To save the world...