*Evan POV*

Alright, operation "Get Tifa Back" is undergo.

…Please don’t mess up.

Firstly, let’s review everything that’s happened so far, Tifa got heartbroken, emotions overloaded and probably thinks everyone is a liar or something similar. This is not good because whatever I say, either true or false, will make her think that I’m trying to take an advantage of her or something similar like that.

As long as I can calm her down, I can bring her back to face the reality she’s trying to run away from. Now, I already have a couple plans in my mind on how to do this, but essentially, they all require me to distract her. I’m also one of her recent friends who she looks up to, so I can use that as an advantage.

How should I do this? Should I be a silly goose? Should I be serious? Should I bring up her mother? Or should I blame her for acting so wildly? I took in a deep breath as various scenarios kept playing in my head. Once I had made up my mind about the best scenario with the best ending, I walked towards Tifa.

Alright, Game time, Operation ‘Get Tifa back’ has officially started.

I put one of my hand on a tree right next to her and put my other hand on my hip, “Hey there, good looker. You come here often?”

I choose the Unpredictable scenario, My main objective now is to distract her so much that she just calms herself down as a side-effect. I’ll be doubling down on my moves, forget confusing her, I’m gonna make her bewildered.

Sadly there was no reaction from Tifa, She stayed there on the ground hugging her knees, If only I could see her face, I would be able to tell what she’s feeling somewhat.

Alright, round one lost. Time for round two.

Without changing my position, I started talking again. “Man, It’s such a nice weather out here, don’t you think so?” I heard the noise of thunder cracking down far away. “Yep! Wet and muddy, just the way I like my woman. And you my lucky girl! fit both of those conditions.”

I stared at her for any reaction, but again there was no movement. I don’t think she even heard me just now. “Tifa?” I called out to her but there was nothing again, I suddenly got worried and quickly kneeled down next to her, I moved her legs away to see if anything would’ve happened and for a brief second, I saw her sleeping. I Immediately felt bad about what she must’ve been going through sleep under such a heavy rainstorm. But it was only for that brief second, as in, right after that second, she woke up, screamed, and slapped me in the face with full force.

“YEOUCH YE MAMA!” I just screamed whatever words popped into my mind before I fell down from the knockback of the slap.

“E-Evan?” She looked at me bewildered before she held her head with of her hands as if she was losing her mind, “N-No, Why? I-I didn’t, no, I didn’t want to hurt anyone again!” She was a mess, even a starving kid would look better than what she looked like right now. Baggy eyes,

“Woah Woah! Relax, you’re talking to the person who destroyed two Eyes of Cthulhu as if it was afternoon brunch, a slap like this isn’t gonna do shit to me.”

“I’m sorry I-I’m so sorry I didn’t mean to!”

“Uh, Tifa?” She looked like she went crazy as she kept apologizing over and over again. I sighed as I got up and smacked her head with a hand chop, I controlled my power so it would only be a slight annoyance.

“There. Now we’re even.” I looked at her and she looked at me with her crazy trance gone before she nodded slowly.

“Then it’s all good!” I looked at her happily but she hugged her knees again and went back to her previous pose.

This is gonna be hard.

“Why are you here?” Tifa said from behind her knees.

“I think you already know the reason why I’m here.”

Her face peeked from over her knees, “It’s because of my Mother. Isn’t it?”

I scratched my head before nodding but it seemed like I made the wrong choice since she stood up and started stumbling away, “I’m leaving. If you’re really my friend then don’t follow me.”

Shit! I didn’t want to do this but desperate problems require desperate solutions!

She had walked away a little bit before I shouted at her, “Your mother killed herself.” A bolt of lightning crashed down far away as Tifa stopped walking. She slowly turned around with the look of disbelief on her face.

I shrugged my shoulders, “Her only that she loved to death told her that she was failure of a mother and ran away saying she was no longer her Mother, That broke her heart and stabbed the two swords dropped by her daughters into her chest.”

“Y-You’re lying…” She lost all strength from her legs as she fell down on the wet mud.

Man, I hate doing this… buuuuuut.

“I came here to tell you that her funeral is happening in 5 hours. It’s best if you come and look at her one last time.”

Her eyes were shaking, she looked like she was one step away from going completely insane, “N-No, I d-didn’t… No! IT’S A LIE! SHE WOULDN’T! … No”

“Yea, you’re right.”

“H-Huh?”

“I lied, your mother’s fine, though she’s bawling her eyes out back home but other than tha-” Tifa interrupted me by grabbing a ball of mud from the ground and throwing it at me. I didn’t dodge since I was kind of acting like a jackass and the mud ball landed on my face.

“YOU IDIOT!” She threw another mud ball, “YOU BASTARD” And another, “YOU PERVERT!” and another, “YOU ENEMY OF ALL WOMAN!” And another, “I HATE YOU!”

I didn’t dodge a single mudball, they all landed on my face. “Oh no, whatever shall I do?” I said in the most monotonous way that it would bring Emma to shame.

After throwing a couple more mudballs at me and making my face into a snowman but Mud instead of snow, she started crying again. “Because of you! I can’t move my legs anymore!”

“Did you get so shocked about my little prank that you can’t move anymore?” Another mudball landed on my face.

“You don’t joke about things like that!”

“Hey, I wasn’t the one who said you didn’t want to see her ever again. I should still give you some props though, at least you didn’t piss yourself like the time you first met me.” I waited for another mudball to land on my face but she didn’t throw one.

I cleaned my face from all the mud and looked at her curiously. She was down on the ground with tears in her eyes while pouting at me. “I c-can’t…” She something in a low volume that I was barely able to hear.

I motioned my ear closer to her, “You can’t, what?”

“I can’t move! Because of you I’ve lost all strength!”

I sighed before I walked up to her and sat behind her on the mud. “That better?”

We were leaning onto each other’s back so I couldn’t see her face.

“…Calmed down yet?”

“…no.”

“Alright then, I’ll stay here with you until you’ve calmed down.” I looked back and she nodded.

Hey, we’re actually making progress. At the very least, I seem to have distracted her enough from her own delusions.

We both remained there on the mud as the cold and heavy rain fall seemed to be cleansing us. Seconds turned to minutes. Five minutes went away, then ten, then 15. We both stayed there, I kept checking up on her to make sure she didn’t go back to sleep again. Some random slimes or flying fish would swoop down every now and then, but I made quick work of them with the shotgun I had. Though resisting the urge to pick up their loot was hard. I’m a gamer, not moving to pick up loot makes my blood boil.

I think 20 minutes have already passed. I tried talking to her but she would just nod or shake her head to my questions. I was slowly going out of options. And sitting down under the cold rain had my brain laxed so much so that I no longer wanted to convince Tifa anymore, I just wanted to go back home and sleep.

…

Come on Brain! Do something you 2 pound of wet waste!

Deespaaacito! Quiero respirar tu-

BRAIN! FOCUS!

Tell her a Joke!

I don’t think she’ll like any joke after I made a joke about her mother dying.

Tell her a story!

That’s not exactly the worst idea, but I suck at making stories.

“What… What am I supposed to do?” Oh my god, she made the first move.

“What do you feel right now.”

“I… I feel empty, I don’t know what am I supposed to feel, but… It definitely hurts.”

Not feeling angry is a great step already!

“Hey Tifa, I think we’ll be able to figure out everything we just communicate to each other okay? I want you to promise me that you’ll listen with a calm mind.”

“…Okay.”

“Alright good, now then. What do you want to do?”

“… I don’t know.”

“Do you want to go back?”

She shook her head immediately but then stopped as if contemplating. “…I don’t know.”

“Do you hate your mother?”

“Ofcourse I hate her! Because of her I had to go through all that pain for years! She never cared about me! All she ever cares about is hersel-”

I quickly interrupted her, “Remember the first time we went to your kingdom and your queen started a death match against as soon as she heard that I hurt you? Remember that the only reason she even stopped fighting me was because you butted in? I’m sure she has been directly or indirectly helping you from the shadows even while you’re at your own place, try and remember, She’s probably been helping you from there as well.”

I waited for a moment before Tifa responded, “… She has been helping me. She was always happy to see me and always sad to see me hurt… I thought, she did that with everyone.”

“If she did that with everyone she wouldn’t had tried to kill me, and tell me one more thing. You said she was the smartest person you know of right?”

Tifa nodded.

“Then she must’ve knew whom she should’ve and shouldn’t had gotten into a relationship with, right?” Tifa nodded and I continued, “but even then she loved, She loved even though she knew it was a taboo, she loved you even though it went against the ideals of her people. Have you thought about how pain she has been suffering through?”

“But she left me! Left me to the savages she calls her people!”

I nodded, “Well I don’t know much about the Elven Kingdom, and call it a hunch but do you want to know why I think she left you away?”

“…Why?”

“Probably because If she raised you then you would suffer a lot more. I bet she never wanted to let you go, and Elves probably would’ve given her a tough time, but if you remained closer to her, you would’ve met a lot more elves. Elves who would have made your life a living hell, maybe assassination attempts too, or maybe even sold you off as a slave.”

“What are you talking about! They would’ve never… They would’ve never… no. They would’ve. They would’ve done so much more.”

I nodded, “But if you were raised in an orphanage, surrounded by some children who couldn’t do anything but bully you a little bit until you could walk by your own self… well, doesn’t that seem like the right option?”

“I…”

“Heck, I have a hunch that she must’ve sent some people she really trusts to monitor or safeguard you as well, though I have no basis and it’s all speculation.” I was so immersed in our talk that I didn’t even realize the rain was getting lighter and the sun's rays were slowly peeking through the dark clouds.

“She…” Tifa was sounding hoarse almost as if she was on the verge of crying again. “She did… Sarah… She knew all along.”

Yea, I know. Tania told me.

“I don’t know what’s going on in that broken mind of yours but let me promise you something. Your mother absolutely loves you from the bottom of her heart.”

Tifa started crying again slowly but I stayed there with our backs touching.

“Tifa?”

“I… I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have run away like that! I! What should I do?!”

Finally.

“How about you calm down first? Here I’ll lend you my shoulder to cry on.”

I can’t believe it.

I stood up from her back and walked in front of her, she still didn’t had any energy to stand so I kneeled down and offered her my shoulder to cry on.

OPERATION ‘BRING TIFA BACK’ IS A FLIPPEN SUCCESS!!!

She cried on my shoulder for a few minutes and before I knew it, The rain had also let up. Tifa finally let go of me and tried to stand up, she was a bit wobbly but she got up in the end. She still looked like a mess, but she didn’t look dead anymore so I guess that’s an improvement.

“Alright, now let’s go back and meet your mother again, this time without running away, right?”

She nodded at first but then she started panicking, “B-But, I’ve said horrible things to her… There’s no way she’ll forgive me.”

“Nonsense, I’m pretty sure She’d kill herself to talk to you right now, trust me, I saw her, and you’re still faring much better than she was last I saw her.”

She nodded again but was hesitant for some reason, “What's wrong, do you want me to give you a piggyback ride back home?”

“N-No, it’s just… I met Sarah when I was running away and… I hurt her as well…”

Oh shiiii, I almost forgot that she’s still here somewhere.

“Gotcha, leave her to me, you go back home and calm your crying mother before she floods the house, oh and take this.” I gave her the silver sword I got from Trish when we fought each other in front of Daisy, the Human kingdom’s Queen. I was gonna give her one of my shotguns but I remembered that she mainly uses swords.

She nodded and then pointed at where she last saw her, my hunter's potion is still activated so it's best if I start searching for her now.

“Evan… Thank you.” Tifa said that one last time before heading back to my house.

“Good luck!” I screamed out before I went where she told me Sarah was.

Hehehe… I made a girl and her mother go to my house. And thus I have earned the right to brag about it to anyone I see fit.

{Author Note: God dam it Evan.}

I quickly reached my destination before I started looking around for Sarah, I saw a bunch of slimes, critters and other animals but no Sarah.

And just to make matters worse, Hunter’s potion duration went out. Now I was alone in the forest surrounded by various animals/monsters who were just minding their business.

It was easy to see now since it was daytime and the sun was sky-high. It certainly helped searching for Sarah, but I still have no idea where she could be because of this thick blanket of trees.

Hmm… Tania said something about being connected to the forest and that she knows where and what everyone is doing in it… Can I do something like that? I'm the flippen Hero of Skill I just have to perform them one time and I'm done… but that’s only if the thing that allows Tania to see the forest is a skill.

Hmm… Wouldn’t hurt to try. But how? Feel the nature coursing through my veins? Now that I mention it, I got Gaia Sentiment after just imagining...

Sooo… What does it mean? I wonder if Tania can hear me.

“Hey Tania you there?” I just felt really dumb, even if she can see or feel me, She has no way to talk to me.

Hmmm… Gaia Sentiment…

Wait, Isn't Gaia that Mythological god that takes care of Nature or something?

I raised my hands as I Screamed out “Uhh… Gaia! I call upon thy to… Help me find my friend!”

… Well that was embarrassing.

Well, screw that. A skilled hunter always feels the forest in his grasp so maybe I can do that. I blocked all my thought process, closed my eyes and focused on listening.

…This is hard.

After Focusing and clearing my mind a bit I Could hear some Squirrels… and Rabbits… Oh, and some birds just sat on a Branch right above me.

Maybe I have to feel what the Forest wants to think or tell me. If I look closely at Tania and Elizabeth's Expertise then I know that the forest is just a huge alive castle.

‘Mana Courses through all living Beings. So, if it doesn't have Mana... then Its either Dead or an Inanimate Object’ -Jeff

I just remembered what Jeff told me before when I asked him about skills. that means if I can see mana then I can see all living things. That reminds me since I'm a Silver Daemon, I have special eyes, right? can I use that to see everything or something like that?

But How?

Wait. Mana exists in me and I can release it using Magic Weapons but...... Everyone I have met until now has been using magic without using any magic weapon.

…How?

Come on Evan! Think Carefully. The Mana I Have is Mine and I should be able to control it.

I finally opened my eyes. But I didn't receive any new skills so I'm probably doing something wrong.

Come on Evan! This world is Terraria but is also not Terraira! Anything is possible! The possibilities are limitless!

I tried imagining my mana flow out of my hand… Nothing happened.

I made Weird Poses… Nothing happened.

I Said Abracadabra… Nothing Happened again.

HOW CAN I CONTROL MY MANA!?!

*Would you like to view "Mana Control" Book From your Archives?*

A sudden notification popped up that was hard to ignore.

Wait isn't that the book I used and got the Magic skill Imbuement? Alright, Yes I want to read it.

Magically a book appeared and Floated in front of me.

It was Titled "Mana Control". It is the Book from which I learned Magic Skill Imbuement!

Finally.

I cracked my Knuckles.

Alright, let's do some Reading!