176 Cherish who you are (1/2)

Their plan to take down the memory warriors individually was proving to be much harder than they all expected, so for now, they decided to just try and perform a desperate dash towards the next ring in order to safely get away from their pursuers.

”Wait!!!” Lilith stopped on her track as she remembered something important.

”What!!?? We need to keep going before they reach us!!” Detra reminded her.

Lilith just looked at her left, at her right, and even behind the direction she came from before responding, ”Where is Marcus?”

Almost as if in an attempt to respond her, a huge sound was heard from a group of trees falling down near their position.

Lilith used her future sight and almost choked in fear of what she saw. She grabbed the hands of Ellie and Detra and forced the two to lay on the ground.

”Lilith?? What are you- ” Ellie was about to ask, but she was suddenly answered by a blast of wind in a lunar shape flying past them and slicing every tree trunk in its path. If the group was still standing when that blast was coming through, their upper halves would have been sliced off.

Ellie observed with a pale expression as the whole forest looked like it had been completely remodeled by that wind attack.

”Wha- What... Was that????”

”It must have been the wind mage...” Lilith suggested.

”A wind mage is that powerful???” Ellie questioned.

Lilith then remembered about her battle in front of Evlin's school and how Marcus joined forces with Leona to increase the power of her fire magic in order to face the dragons.

”A mage aided by the living weapon's power... Probably would be...”

Ellie began to sweat, ”We... We need to go help him!! Can Marcus beat something like that on his own??”

Lilith pondered, ”A single wind mage... Or even his own father... Marcus might have had a chance... But the two at the same time and working together... I'm not so sure...”

Detra then joined the conversation, ”The living weapon was made to work with a partner... Its true ability is to bring out the full potential of whoever is using it...”

Both Lilith and Ellie stared at Detra with concern.

”If Marceus is using the mage as his partner... Then there is no way that Marcus alone can beat him...”

Lilith then realized what she needed to do. The living weapon needs a partner to reach its full power. She needed to go after Marcus and aid him in his battle. But to do that, she would need to make a rather undesired choice.

”Detra... You take Ellie out of here... Take her to the next ring, and don't stop running!”

”Lilith...?” Ellie looked at the swordswoman, confused by her words.

”What!!? But... But...”

Ellie didn't like that idea. One look at Lilith's state was all it took to realize Lilith was one breath away from fainting. If she tried to join Marcus in his battle, she would get seriously injured, probably injured too much for any healing crystal to save her.

Lilith herself understood that better than anyone. She knew that even if she went to help her friend, the best she could do is provide a window of opportunity so that he could escape as well. In her current condition, even if they were to fight together, there is no way she could beat anyone.

The damage she took from the fight with Mia's memory, and even from before with the actual Mia, was much more severe than she expected.

”Lilith... You can't!” Ellie begged. She knew that if she allowed the woman to go, she might return as a corpse the next time they reunited.

Lilith tried to release a stronger smile this time. She noticed that the young girl was carrying a troubled expression and wanted to calm her down, ”I'm sorry that I can't be as strong as your aunt... And I'm sorry that I can't be as reliable as East... I really wished we would have gotten along better...”

”Wha- What...?”

”You were right... I was looking down on you... Part of me didn't want you to become so strong so fast... When you get strong... You start to lose sight of things around you... Really important things that you forget have value as well...”

Ellie was weirded out by the way Lilith was speaking. She took another look at the woman's face and noticed that her eyes had a golden glow in them. She was looking at the future.

”Li- Lilith... What did you saw...?”

Lilith just kept smiling and gave Ellie a deep hug.

”I wanted to see what a great warrior you will become... But...”

”...”

”But my power can't look far into the future for some reason... I can't see anything past today...”

”Wa- wait... Does that mean...”

Lilith tightened her hug even more to stop Ellie from finishing her sentence.

”Please save Daren for me... Please take care of Lance... Tell him when he grows up that his mother loved him very much!”

Lilith then grabbed Elli's hand and handed it to Detra. The two exchanged a long look. Lilith wasn't glaring this time, it felt like she was silently asking if she could rely on Detra to keep Ellie safe. Detra herself just stared back, not sure of what to say. She was aware that Lilith was about to run towards her own death.

”You're really doing this...?” Detra asked.

”I need to protect the people that are important to me...” Lilith replied, ”you probably wouldn't get it... After all... The only person you care about is yourself...”

Detra remained silent. She had no words to reply to that accusation. Lilith then heard the sound of another explosion of wind being released and began her dash towards it.

She had no weapons, her body was full of injuries, her future sight power had been used so much that she felt like she was about to pass out, but none of that mattered. Marcus needed help.

She couldn't save Marceus, she couldn't save Daren, she couldn't save Evlin, but she refused to let the lad go as well. He represented all of the bonds from the people she failed to protect.

The son of Marceus, the adopted brother of Daren, the boy Evlin had gone to such great lengths to rescue from the terrible goddess of the east. If she failed to save him as well, all of their efforts would have gone in vain.