The World's most Overpowered Side-Character

Chapter 66: A Sold Soul.

"She woke up, just as he said she would," Arla sighed in relief and relaxed in the corner of the tent. "When master Vestic returned and you did not immediately wake, I became increasingly worried..." She placed her hand over her heart with a smile while Ikaris looked around at them.

Everyone she knew was there; the heroes, Arla and the other captains, all their aides, and even some people she briefly spoke to in the past.

"Did something else happen, why are they all gathered here?" Ikaris asked, looking at Sol again, he showed no physical signs of change, and his mana was so suppressed he might have been mistaken for a regular civilian, but she could see and feel divine magic deep within him.

"They were just concerned, this is how it was when I got here about half an hour ago." Sol smiled at her while her hands slowly looped and locked behind his neck. "Thank you, Ikaris, for worrying about me." He leaned into her and pressed his forehead on hers as she smiled back at him with her eyes closed. "You gave me strength."

"So?" Dina who was sitting right next to them spoke first. "What are these eipsodes anyway, does she have some kind of illness?"

"Illness?" Ikaris stared at Dina confused. "No, I am perfectly fine." She smiled as Sol pulled her into a sitting position.

"You obviously are not." Eris intercepted Ikaris's response with a shake of her head. "This is the second time you collapsed out of the blue, imagine if that happened while we were in the middle of a battle?"

"It would not-"

"I don't know that, none of us know that, if there's an issue that keeps causing you to faint then it's gonna affect all of us, stop treating everything like you're the only one in existence!" Eris snapped, and Ikaris looked at Sol with a smile and rested her head on his shoulder.

"I am not, master is with me," She hooked her arm around his and all he did was smile.

"Come on Vestic try to make her see-"

"Sorry, I'm not qualified to interfere or give my personal opinion in the affairs of you heroes," Sol raised his free hand at Han. "If she says it's not a problem then I don't think it is either."

"Impossible as usual," Dina sighed and looked at everyone else. "We wasted the entire day worrying for nothing, Ikaris is fine, and Sol just showed up out of the blue with busted gear and no injury too; we should rest up in preparation for tomorrow."

"Aye," Arla agreed and clapped her hands. "It has been a long day, but now that everything seems to be fine we can only move on and look toward tomorrow." She stood and walked to the exit, and behind her everyone else did the same.

"Everyone," Ikaris stood with Sol's aid. "I apologise for delaying and worrying you, I'll put in the effort to make up for this in the future." She declared, and then left after Arla and the others.

"So nobody's gonna say anything right?" Dina asked, looking at the others.

Earlier that day.

"You can't have him, I won't let you," Ikaris mumbled as she continued to sweat while Eris passively cast small gusts of frosty wind at her to cool her after she began heating up with a fever.

"What the hell is happening to her?" Usami loomed over them, and behind her inside of the tent was the other heroes, while the rest had not arrived yet.

"I'd rather destroy all existence..." She whispered, and in response Arla gasped aloud and held her heart as the fear of annihilation struck her.

"Arla?" Dina looked at her teacher, but the mage was staring at Ikaris in utter shock and horror, unable to say a word. "Are you okay?"

Just then, a breath of mana escaped Ikaris's mouth, and Arla's eyes bulged as she instinctively created a powerful shield between herself and Ikaris, falling in the corner with visible panic as sweat dripped from her chin while she poured everything into that one barrier.

The mana Ikaris breathed out dissipated into the atmosphere and another huff replaced it as the sigils on her body shone brightly, and then her entire body illuminated for a few seconds as her ears grew long and pointed like Arla's, her hair grew out to its original length and began sparkling like distant stars, and a pair of wings slowly grew from her lower back and rested on the ground, shaking and jittering ever so often.

"What the hell?" Eris stared shocked as Ikaris grew a foot taller as well. "She's-"

"-Not human." Dina stared with her jaws slack.

They all stared at her for the few seconds that she had lost control of her body, but then another bright glow appeared from her and she was back to normal again, her mumbling had stopped, and her fever had gone down.

Presently.

"If she wanted to, or if Sol wanted to, then either of them could tell us that she was not incarnated as a human like the rest of us were, and even Arla seemed terrified of her too, so I think she knows something." Han answered Dina.

"But that just begs the question what exactly she is if she's not numan?" Usami sat and crossed her legs in on her futon. "What if she turns out to be a threat?"

"I could probably handle her," Dina narrowed her eyes and brought her hand to her chin in a thinking pose. "No, that's not true, I may have the strongest offence, but Ikaris on a whole is far stronger than I am, and I get the feeling that she has been holding back too,"

"What about the possibility of her being incarnated as some kind of demigod being, I mean the queen went out of her way and brought Lyra back from her early retirement as a descendant of demigods just so she could teach her, we have been seeing her use those wings from the start too, and just look at her growth compared to everyone else, she's always ten steps ahead." Usami countered.

"That'd also explain why demigods tried taking her away." Bruce nodded in agreement.

"This is frustrating, but I can't agree or disagree with anything until I'm sure, and I'd rather ask her myself." Han shook his head, and fell on his futon and sighed. "I'm done with her matters for now, we spent all day worrying over her and she just wakes up and walks away completely fine."

"Did you expect a hug?" Bruce chuckled at him. "Get used to it already, our values in her eyes aren't the same as they are for us, she sees us, but she see him first."

"I swear matters like these are the only time you seem smart, Bruce." Dina groaned and turned her back to them, closing her eyes. "Eris, you spent all day tending to her like a nanny, aren't you tired?"

"Ever since you started showing me those mana breathing techniques I've been using less and gaining more mana, so I'm fine." The healer of the group flopped onto her back and kicked her shoes off, looking at the bed that was always set up for Ikaris but was never once used aside from earlier when they placed her there. "I wonder..."

"Wonder what?" Dina spun and faced her, as did the others after they had all settled in a circular formation.

"I wonder what being so loved feels like."

"Pshh-hahaha!" Usami broke into light laughter. "I thought you were going to say something important, but you're just here thinking about them again?"

"No, I'm serious, it's not parental love, not that I ever knew what that was like to begin with; she loves him; she loves him to death, I can't even begin to imagine anything like that, any relationship I tried having in the past was a huge letdown."

"I can't either, all my relationships ended in dramatic failures all the time." Usami sighed and dropped her head again.

"Same here," Han agreed, and Bruce nodded with him.

"Is it that special?" Dina asked raising a brow.

"Come on Dina, have you been watching with your nose and not your eyes?" Eris sat up seriously.

"She's so loyal it comes off as an annoyance to everyone but him, she'd die for him and die without him, and the way he looks at her and treats her like fragile glass, I could never find myself loving anyone like that, not even myself, it's pure, it's so pure it makes me want to puke, I'm so jealous!" She slapped her bed and flopped onto her back again.

"...Honestly, I wish it was me." Eris confessed.

"...But I could never give him what she has."

"Huh?" Dina sat up and stared at her watching her remove her glasses as her previous energy became somber and serious.

"Ikaris sold her soul to Sol, and he gave his to her as well, they're entablngled; bound by invisible threads that we can't see or fathom."

"That was unexpected." Bruce rested his head and closed his eyes. "How'd that come to your mind?"

"I don't know," Eris opened her palm, casting [heal] on herself and relishing in the warmth it spread through her body as she began falling asleep.

"I have no idea."