Chương 53: Close Call
Still on the couch, Alaukik looked to be deep in thought. Suddenly sighing, he looked upwards and thought,
'I hope she's making some progress.'
/insert anime opening/
And while Alaukik was doing nothing downstairs, upstairs, inside the room on the left;
"Are you feeling better now?" asked Asha, observing the girl laying on the bed.
"Mhm," nodded the girl. Looking at Asha, the girl knew that this lady was different from the others; the ones who just wanted to use her. Divya knew that Asha was kind at heart, and did not like to treat magicians as tools or weapons. As for how she was sure of it, only she knew.
"So, what's your name, little girl?"
"D-Divya," she replied with a stutter: clearly not used to talking.
"Nice to meet you, Divya. My name is Asha, and I'm a researcher at Hyderabad University. Alaukik mentioned you, but why don't you tell me a bit about yourself?" she asked, as she tried to reach out and pat her head.
Noticing what Asha was trying to do, Divya suddenly started trembling and convulsing, while she kept repeating "no" over and over again. Seeing this, Asha immediately tried to calm her down, placing a pillow below her head and making sure she could breathe properly, she said,
"Calm down, calm down Divya. You're safe here, nobody can harm you."
Repeating that for a while, it seemed as though Divya was returning to her senses.
"Good, good. Now just simply focus on what I'm saying. Let's count down from 10 alright? Ten-"
And yet, before she could even say nine, Divya started to convulse even harder. Noticing this, Asha immediately realised she had done something wrong, and said
"It's fine, it's all fine. We don't need to do anything, all right? Just listen to my voice, and try to focus on it. Nobody here will hurt you Divya, nobody."
However, this time it didn't seem to work, as Divya continued to jerk haphazardly. Noticing how her movements were getting more random, Asha decided it would be best to just control her for now, and make sure she doesn't hurt herself. For this, she decided to call Alaukik; who at the sound of her voice, immediately teleported into the room upstairs. Seeing Divya's condition, Alaukik instantly understood what needed to be done, and quickly helped Asha control Divya, binding her limbs and making sure they don't move.
Slowly, her body stopped convulsing, and Alaukik removed her restraints. Realising she had fainted somewhere in between, both Asha and Alaukik decided to let her rest, as they exited the room, making sure not to disturb Divya.
Seated in the hallway again, Asha and Alaukik remained silent for a long time, before Alaukik finally spoke up.
"So, what happened?"
/Sigh/
"That poor girl has been traumatised too much. I have no idea what was done to her, but it's most likely scarred her for life. It will be nearly impossible for her to recover from this." but before she could continue,
"I probably know why that is, but that's not important. Do you think she would be able to help me? Or is that too much to ask from her? Because if not, I will have to start looking for other options."
Hearing this, Asha felt fury rising within her, as she slapped Alaukik,
"Are you serious right now, Alaukik?"
"What do you mean?" asked Alaukik, not knowing why Asha became so angry.
"That POOR girl has suffered through so much, and the first thing you ask is if she can be of use to you?! Where is your empathy? The kindness inside of you? What happe-"
"What happened to me? Are you serious Asha?! This is exactly what I'm trying to fix! Did you forget that there's another person inside my head! Do you realise how hard it is to even concentrate during normal conversations, much less when I'm so anxious? Do you know how hard it is to have another voice inside of you, continuously egging you on to take the easy way no matter how unethical it is? How hard it is trying to make sure you don't do what it says? All because you want to hold onto that tiny bit of humanity inside of you? DO YOU?! I was brought into this world without any choice of mine! I like this world, but nobody told me that I'd be born without eyes, or with something fundamentally wrong with my body! I didn't get any instruction manual Asha, and I tried my best to just survive at first. Did you know? For the first few months, I really believed I had been born without eyes, cause you told that to me. It was only after a while that I got to know that I do have eyes, and that they were taken away from me. Do you know how it felt Asha, to feel a connection with something far, far away from you? Knowing it was yours, but with no way of getting it? Do you know how much I had to plan and wait to get just the location of where my eyes were being kept? Do you know the joy I felt when I finally got them back? And yet, there was a price to even that joy Asha. A price that could've been avoided from the very beginning, if I had been strong enough. Strong enough to the point that even if I was in a coma, nobody would've been able to take my eyes from my body,"
/Sigh/
"Having empathy is something only the strong can afford. People like me, weak, useless people who can't do anything without their powers, who can't protect anybody, all they can do is lose, lose, and keep losing! And when I realised that Asha, I decided - I decided that I would get stronger. I would become so strong, so strong, that nobody would be able to take from me. And anybody who tries, will come to regret it," finished Alaukik, his eyes glowing, as the space around him started to fluctuate violently. But before Asha could say anything, he continued, waving his hand and calming down a bit,
"I'll be going out for a walk. I hope by the time I'm back, you calm down a bit. Also, while it might seem like I only want Divya to use her, that's not true. Yes, my motives in rescuing her were selfish, but I am not a demon," he said, emphasising on the last part, as if trying to convince himself too.
"I still have pity and empathy, Asha, but I've realised a lot of things in just this past month. Back when I was a child, I used to root for villains, because I didn't like how the heroes always beat the villains, just because the hero was always right. Then, when I saw my company die in front of me, I realised, no matter how bad your life got, or how much you've suffered, taking another life was not the 'right' thing to do. Killing caused not just suffering, but also created hatred, fear and pain. But then, when I merged with OG, and part of his personality fused with mine, I realised something else. Ultimately, there is no right or wrong. Death is part of nature. I've seen the lives of nearly 2 billion people, and though I don't remember all of them, they've still left a mark on my subconscious mind. Your death is set in stone, and there is no changing it. The only thing you can change is how you die. And only the strong have that choice. If you are weak, then you have no right to choose anything in your life. You are at the mercy of the strong, and will always remain so."
Saying this, he immediately teleported away. Asha however, stood there in shock for quite a while, before she collapsed onto the sofa, trying to take in everything that Alaukik told her.
What both of them didn't realise was, just behind the curving staircase to the top, knelt a silent little girl, who had heard every single word that Alaukik spoke.
-------------
A/N:
For some reason, Webnovel refuses to acknowledge Divya as a word, and keeps underlining it in red. It even underlines 'Webnovel' itself in red. Anyways, this is a small chapter, just an intro to Divya, and a bit about her character.
And as always, thank you for reading and have a great day/night! :)
Edit: Added to this chapter. I have a quiz coming up on Tuesday, so the extra chapter will have to be delayed once again. Sorry :( . Have lots of assignments to do to, so yea. Really sorry guys, but I hope you like this chapter! It's a really nice weather today, and that put me in a great mood for writing!
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