196 Growth (1/2)

Detra woke up the next day with her face red like a tomato and wanting to bury herself under the soil.

Just thinking about how she cried like a baby last night was making the woman want to kill herself from pure embarrassment.

She honestly had no idea what happened. For some reason, her emotions just began to overflow one after another and the next thing she knew, she was sobbing all over her clothes while holding Marcus in her arms.

”What the hell happened to me yesterday...” she mumbled feeling like she could barely recognize herself.

She stood up and noticed that the rest of the group was already awake and preparing breakfast, or at least, a poor excuse for a breakfast considering their limited options. Detra approached them and was greeted with a happy smile from Ellie.

”Good morning, sleepyhead!”

”Good morning, young miss...”

Detra assumed that Ellie was so cheerful probably because of her little attempt to bring the team closer. Marcus and Lilith also decided to give her a small greeting.

”Good morning, mother...”

”Good morning, East...”

Their greeting was a little colder than Ellie's but still felt more welcoming than the usual way they would talk to her. Detra herself just wanted to pretend her breakdown never happened and just get back to business.

”Yes, yes... Good morning to all... Now that we are done with our little... Moment...” Detra commented while blushing as she kept remembering about last night, ”let's try to focus on our mission.”

The three of them changed their relaxed expression to that of seriousness at Detra's words.

”We have three days left starting from now... so we need to make each second count...” Detra explained, ”so this is how we shall proceed... Today, we will finally enter the ring of time and focus solely on iron out our combat ability while we make use of the place's time-stopping magic...”

Ellie felt a small shiver crawling through her body. She almost couldn't believe that they were three days away from her fated battle.

”Tomorrow...” Detra continued, ”We go for the forest's core and have our final stand against her actual self... Where the young miss will finally touch her real body and try to mirror one of her cursed energy abilities so we can have the final ingredient to get her access to terminal energy... Also if you could kill her in the process, that would be great...”

Detra tried to pretend that killing the forest was just a bonus but they all knew she couldn't wait to see the entire garden be destroyed. This woman really hated anything demon-related.

Marcus also began to tremble. He was reminded of his time fighting alongside Evlin when she used terminal energy herself. So much power in her hands. He was worried about Ellie and if she would be able to handle it.

Lilith, unlike the rest of the team, was rather calm but also excited to join with Leona and her group again.

Detra gazed at Ellie's state, ”are you ready to do this, young miss?”

Ellie wasn't really sure. The fight with Mia was the only thing in her mind for a long time, but now that she finally realized what it meant to have actual lives on the line, her feeling began to change. She assumed she would just enter Hana's garden and come out as a super kid or something, but there were so many close calls, so many mistakes, so many times where she could have died or gotten someone killed.

She never took the time to think that fighting was actually much harder than she imagined, and winning the fight was even harder, especially winning without many major losses.

The back of her mind kept telling her that she could just trust in the adults and that they would guide her through it all, but she was wrong. This was all about working together. Everyone needed to do their part.

It wasn't just about following others' commands, it was about knowing which commands to follow and which ones to ignore, as well as try to think for herself what the best option was.

”Will you guys be with me...?” Ellie asked with a weak tone.

”Of course!” Lilith guaranteed while holding her hand.

”Always!” Marcus declared while grabbing her shoulder.

”As long as you need!” Detra affirmed while making a soft smile. Ellie couldn't remember the last time she ever saw Detra smiling like that, or at all. It was honestly kind weird but at the same time, comforting.

”Then yes!! I'm ready!!” Ellie shouted while raising her fist to the air.

Part 2

The group strolled through the ring of time and thanks to the light of the day, finally managed to get a good look at the place.

Compared to the bizarre collection of plans from the summoning ring, the weird blue-leafed trees from the memory rin, and the red fog from the fear ring, the time ring was rather normal, almost disappointedly normal to be honest.

It felt just like a regular forest with nothing major about it sticking out. The trees looked like regular trees, the ground looked like regular ground, there were no weird monsters or beasts insight.

Honestly, Ellie felt like the zoo she used to visit with her parents back at home was more exciting.