168 Progress (2/2)

”So what do you think? Am I going to be able to beat Mia at this rate?”

”Maybe... It's still early to tell...” Detra admitted, ”you are clearly getting better at using your mirror magic, and even better at understanding the fundamentals of a battle... I wonder what else you could try to improve next...”

”Maybe I should try to mirror something new? I could try to mirror Xadi and try to release lighting magic!! Or maybe mirror Leona so I can learn to use her fire abilities!”

”That would be indeed useful, did you get to touch any of them?” Detra asked.

”... Touch...?” Ellie asked while tilting her head.

”Yes, touch... Mirror magic is activated by touching the person you want yto imitate.”

”Oh... Oh!”

Ellie finally realized how she had acquired her skills as she started diving into her memories. She got her blue diamonds from all the times she would hang out with her aunt, she got spell breaker from the time Mia smacked her in the restaurant, she acquired future sight after Lilith grabbed her to save her from the fire, which resulted in her having a dream that night that could look into the future where she met Myriad, and finally Marcus from the time he tried to console her when she was feeling down.

”Did I ever touched Xadi or Leona...?” Ellie wondered.

She was brought back to the fight against the bull made of wood. Ellie turned into a gauntlet for Daren and shredded the beast, but that wasn't its real body. Now that she thought about it, Xadi doesn't even have a real body anymore, so she could never touch him.

As for Leona, Ellie was so depressed after the fight with Mia that she barely even tried to look anyone in the eye, let alone try to go into physical contact with them.

”Ugh... No... I did not... dang it...” she lamented.

At this moment, Marcus made a suggestion, ”What about monsters?”

”Monsters...?”

”Yeah... Monsters have abilities as well... You think you could try to mirror one of them? Maybe you can scream very loudly like Sphinx. You were riding on him when we got chased by that giant crystal spider right?”

”Oh yeah! Maybe I can!”

Ellie had completely forgotten about Sphinx. Thinking back, the reason she managed to use her blue diamonds to face the crystal spider despite not having any magical power was probably because she had absorbed the magic inside of the griffin with spell breaker when she was riding the monster.

”Sphinx...” she whispered. She then was reminded that the golden griffin was also inside of Mia just like her aunt. Thinking about that made her slightly depressed again. She just realized that she had one more she needed to save.

”Sphinx... Aunt Evie... Mom, dad, grandma... Claire's mom... All the people from the city... They all are with Mia while I'm here...”

”Ellie, you can't think like that... You are already doing the best you can to save them” Lilith reminded her.

”But it's still not good enough! I need to try harder! Just like my aunt would! I need to get stronger so I can rescue everyone!! They depend on me!! I need to be better!”

At this moment, Detra stood up and approached the girl while patting her head, ”You will! I give you my word on that!”

Ellie started to smile again. Lilith meanwhile just glared at Detra. Watching the woman who ruined all of her friend's lives getting so friendly with the niece of her friend was making her want to draw her sword and slash her hand off. Marcus just held her hand as if mentally begging her not to mind it too much.

For reasons that completely escaped Lilith, Marcus would constantly try to avoid confronting Detra. Despite the lad being able to probably slice her a thousand times before she could even react, he still acted like she terrified him even though she no longer had any powers after a new goddess of the east being selected and any prayer formally towards was now being redirected to her.

”Shall we move on then? I think that lizard was the final monster we had to beat before finishing the summoning ring” Detra mentioned.

”What's the ring we will enter after this one?” Ellie asked while finishing her juice box.

”Probably the ring of memories.”

”Oh... Does this mean we will be faced with some sort of memory magic that will make us revisit some of our most traumatic moments in order to face our fears and try to get psychologic stronger?” Ellie asked, ”I see that happening all the time in movies and tv shows!”

Lilith and Marcus began to shiver after hearing about having to relive their most traumatic moments. These two had a lot of them.

Detra just stared at her with her eyes wide open surprised that the young miss would say something like that so bluntly, ”What...? No! The memory ring is a defense mechanism where the forest will try to project warriors from the past to try and stop any intruders from advancing.”

Marcus and Lilith released a deep breath in relief.

”The ring you're talking about is the ring of fear. That one is after the ring of memory” Detra added.

Marcus and Lilith stopped breathing.

Ellie placed her index on her lips for a moment, ”Why is it called memory ring then? What does projecting warriors have to do with memory?”

”Because the warriors projected are the strongest warriors that tried to enter this place in the past. They are warriors from the forest's memory.”

”What...?” Ellie shivered. Detra simply stood up after finishing her cup of coffee and looked at the dazzled girl.

”Come on! Time for you to face some of the greatest warriors of all time!”