158 Resolve (1/2)

”Ellie...? Are you awake...?”

Ellie woke up from the bed after hearing the voice of Lilith calling for her while carrying Lance with her.

She was inside the hotel room once again and had slept in the bed by herself this time. She glanced at her side to see if Detra was still sleeping as well but the woman was nowhere to be seen.

”...” Ellie showed Lilith that she was indeed awake but without saying a single word. She took a look at Lilith's face who seemed like it did not have a very good night of sleep.

Lilith had her body was covered in bandages all over her body. She took a heavy blow from Mia after receiving her magic howl head-on and having her back smashed against a teacup.

The only thing worse than her wounds was her face. That was the face of someone who looked like had just seen their pet die. Her eyes had massive bags and her mouth, despite trying not to show, could reveal an immense depression inside of her.

That was the face of someone who just suffered a huge defeat. Ellie was sure of that, because when she looked at the mirror, she saw the same face on herself.

”It's time to eat... It will help your body recover faster...” Lilith spoke again.

”...” Ellie just looked at her for a second still in silence and followed her outside of the room.

The two walked down the hallways of the hotel and noticed several of the rooms had their doors open and completely empty, a result of having more than half of the city being abducted by Mia and her army of spirits.

The whole area looked like a ghost town with barely a person in sight. Those that were not taken over by the spirits simply started to panic and decided to leave the city and get as far away as possible.

Ellie and Lilith finally arrived at the dining room and spotted the rest of their friends on the table trying to find the motivation to eat.

Marcus was in the middle with the two students that they had brought, Claire and Joseph, by his side. The two fire mages who finally removed their white robes and opted for something more casual, Leona and her teammate, were sitting in front of them. The man had a name but Ellie didn't remember what it was. Her mind was busy with other things when he stated it. And lastly, there were Detra, as usual drinking a cup of coffee, and Xadi, still stuck as a frog and unable to eat anything.

Aside from Detra who just looked lost in her own thoughts and Xadi who was acting grumpy form not being able to eat, the whole table just looked miserable. Everyone had the same lifeless expression on their faces.

This scene felt incredibly different from the breakfast they had not too long ago. Back then, it felt like even despite the biggest hardship, everything would still be fine somehow and solve itself in the end.

But now? It felt like everything was completely hopeless in every way possible.

Claire and Joseph also had their parents taken over by spirits just like half of the city, Claire, in particular, had a hard time with that since her mother was taken right in front of her.

Detra asked Leona why the hell she was carrying these two kids with her to which Leona proudly replied that she thought it would be useful to have the students of one of the world's greatest mages of all time aid them in their battle.

Detra heard that comment and wanted to smack her head against a table after finding out Leona had mistaken these two kids for being magic students instead of art students. Leona finally understood her misunderstanding once Lilith explained it to her and wanted to bury her face into a hole from pure embarrassment like and ostrich.

She apparently was placing a lot of faith in that mistake, since after she cleared that out, she also joined the lifeless-face club. Most of her party was possessed as well, so her situation was not looking so good in the slightest.

And then there was Ellie, who just like the rest, had her body full of injuries from the beatdown she received from Mia in her Myriad form, both in body and in spirit.

Ellie was feeling the worst out of everyone there. Mostly because she had realized that it was her fault they were all in this situation.

Her aunt ended up facing Mia completely unprepared because she had to look after her missing niece. The same niece who was hanging out with Mia playing a very unique game of soccer where her body was the ball and Mia was just having the time of her life kicking her around.

Which of course led to her aunt having her body taken over by Mia, which of course led to Mia acquiring terminal energy and sending out her lovely army of the dead to go after citizens as if they were crazy customers in the middle of a black Friday.

”Everyone is here?” Detra stated after seeing Ellie and Lilith joining the table, ”Good! Let's start the discussion then!”

After the disaster that was yesterday's event, the members that were knocked out eventually managed to wake up, and Detra proceeded to fill them all in on the current situation.

About how Mia had become the most dangerous girl on the planet and how if they didn't play their cards right, someone even more dangerous was going to show up as well, Hana, the first user of cursed energy.

Detra also explained how she miraculously got them some time by making use of Mia's desire for self-destruction by trying to sell Ellie like a new car Mia couldn't resist to buy, and how they had seven days to make Evlin's niece be strong enough to go up against Mia herself.

Sadly, once Ellie woke up, she was so devastated with the situation that she couldn't stop crying for hours from having lost her aunt and ended up needing to have the whole situation explained to her twice.

”So just to make sure we are all clear on the situation...” Detra continued ”Mia is right now waiting for us to bring her an opponent that can stomp her like a bug and end her miserable life... And I promised her that the only one that could pull that off was the young miss over there.”

The whole room then glanced at Ellie who was still looking down at her plate without touching the food.

”East... I don't think this is going to work...” Lilith commented.

”Then we will have to make it work! She's the best chance we have right now! If she can't pull it off, nobody can!” Detra stated.

”But East!! Just look at her!! Does she look like she could win a fight against anything right now?”

”Not really, no... I'm pretty sure she couldn't even win a fight against a pigeon right now...” Detra admitted after gazing upon Ellie's state, ”But still... We have seven days... I can put her into proper shape and ready for battle!”

”You...??” Lilith questioned.

”Of course!! I was the one who trained Marcus after all! I'm the one who made him the perfect combat machine he was before the crossbow girl showed up and softened him...”

Marcus just glared at Detra as if she had touched on a delicate topic for him.

”So you want to turn Ellie into a weapon? Just like you did with me??” the lad claimed.

”She ALREADY is a weapon!” Detra declared, ”Doesn't matter if you use a sword as a kitchen knife or as a baseball bat, it's still a goddamn sword, whether you like it or not, and every sword is a weapon that can be used to damage someone!”

After hearing that comment Ellie began to look at her own hands. The hands that failed to be the weapon that would take down her opponent and protect her aunt.