270 The last god to leave the nes (1/2)

”We know!” Claire replied, ”We've been looking for her, and all of you this whole time!!”

”We've looked everywhere! But no matter where we went or who we asked, nobody had seen any traces of her...” Joseph replied as well.

Detra began to hold her chin, ”You mentioned being stuck in a portal during all these months, right? If you two are out, there is a chance that she might be out as well... Young miss, try to get in contact with your aunt again!”

”Ah! Yes!! I'm on it!!” Ellie replied with a lot of excitement.

The girl had been trying to reach her aunt every single night using her power of telepathy that she mirrored from Gustav but to no success. But hearing that now there might be a chance that she could be found, a small glimmer of hope began to light up in her eyes.

[Aunt Evie... Aunt Evie, can you hear me??]

[...]

Ellie got no response.

[Aunt Evie!!??]

[... ... ...]

Ellie tried again, and like before, she got no response.

[Aunt Evie, please!! If you're there!! Answer me!!]

Ellie tried calling for her a third time, except this time, a small aura of terminal energy could be seen surrounding her body, much to Daren's and Leona's surprise. The two gasped at that sight and shifted their gaze to Detra while waiting for an explanation.

”A lot of things happened in the last few months... Our young miss has grown a lot...” Detra commented.

[Aunt Evie!! Answer me!!!] Ellie yelled again using her power.

[... ... ...!]

[Aunt Evie??]

[Ellie!!?] her aunt's voice finally responded.

[Aunt Evie!!!] Ellie screamed with joy after finally hearing her aunt's voice once again after such a long time.

[Ellie!! Ellie, it's really you!! Where are you!!??]

[We are in a cave that leads to the temple of the north god. Daren and Leona are here as well!! Where are you!!?]

[The temple of the north god...?] Evlin gasped in her mind, [What are you doing- Ugh... Never mind... I'm with Auren flying on top of a griffin that we managed to find... I'll ask him to take us to wherever you are right now!]

”Aunt Evie said that she's flying on a griffin and is coming here right now...” Ellie commented with her friends, ”She should arrive soon...”

”That's good...” Detra whispered, ”Once we reunite we should have an easier time planning our next move...”

[Ellie!] Evlin spoke again, [Is Ashley or any of the others with you as well?? Are they okay?]

[Knucker's plan?? Ellie, you have met with Knucker!!??]

Ellie could feel her aunt's voice shaking with fear, [No, not yet... But something happened while you were away... Please, just get here as soon as possible!]

[U- Understood! I'll ask Auren to tell me how to get to the temple of the north as fast as possible... Don't worry Ellie, I'll be there as soon as I can!]

Ellie finally released her power and began to feel the knockback of using terminal energy affecting her body, almost forcing her to fall on her knees.

”Ellie...” Leona whispered with her eyes wide open and trying to process what she just saw, ”You... You mastered terminal energy??”

”Ha! I wish... All I did was found a way to make it so that it can boost my mirror magic for short periods of time...” the young girl corrected, ”Still... I feel like I'm almost ready to take on Knucker and his dragons!”

Leona observed Ellie speaking with her fist raised and felt that she was looking at a completely different person. Evlin's niece would tend to be rather shy and insecure about what she could do or accomplish, and yet, there she was declaring that she was ready to go after her aunt's greatest enemy like it was nothing.

Not only her, Joseph, Claire, Dia, but they all also seemed to have matured a bit and looked more reliable.

”What exactly happened with you guys in these last few months? What happened while we were gone?” Daren asked, sharing Leona's curiosity. He still couldn't believe how big his own son had gotten.

”Detra has been training us... She has been making sure that when the fight with Knucker started, we would be ready!” Claire announced, ”While we looked for you guys, we just traveled from city to village to kingdoms, all while fighting monsters and demons and hiding from Knucker's forces...”

”Kinda feels like we became fugitives...” Joseph added.

Daren began to glare at the former east goddess while thinking about Detra training them to fight, ”Are you unable to sleep at night if you don't turn a kid into a weapon...?”

Detra crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at Daren's comment, ”Say whatever you want... When everything is over, and my training turns out to be the thing that saved us all, you and everyone else will have me to thank for!”

”Whatever... You could save the world a thousand times and you would still be the same witch of always...”

Detra started to stare at Daren's wounded ear, ”Right back at you... At least I still can fight for myself... Can you say the same about you?”

Daren began to look at Leona's wand and after that, at Eclipse, and the image of his lion clouded in darkness returned to his mind, ”Who knows... I wonder about that myself...”

Leona noticed that Daren was about to feel bad about himself again and tried to return to the main topic, ”So... You kids did nothing but train your magic this whole year?”

Joseph at that moment began to look like his soul was vanishing from his eyes, ”It was a nightmare... She would ask us to jump into holes full of beasts and demons and would lock us in there with her ice magic until we killed everything in there! I still remember the sounds... The sounds they would make while jumping to try to eat me!! Even in my sleep in can hear it in my head!!!”