144 Nightmare queen Vs. Diamond princess

Ellie observed the two dragons soaring towards the heavens while spitting fire from their mouths. Two creatures bigger than a house and flying as if the entire sky belonged to them.

It was a sight to behold. Ellie had seen many creatures in the last couple of days, both in her dreams and facing them in real life, but seeing actual dragons still was enough to make her question if she was even awake. So much power and ferocity combined into one being, it was the ultimate creature when it comes to fantasy tales, and there they were flying and roaring as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

For a moment the girl assumed the lizard-like beasts would come and attack her, but they simply started to move towards the city.

"Whe-Where are they going??" Ellie asked. She was so mesmerized with their appearance that she almost forgot how to talk.

Mia approached her and grabbed the vines that were tying her up to raise the girl so she could take a closer look at the scene, "Take a guess!"

Ellie looked again and realized that the two dragons were dashing towards her aunt's place of work, the school where she would give art lessons for children.

"The school!!?? They are going to the school!!!???" Ellie yelled.

"Bingo!!" Mia admitted while dropping Ellie on the ground making her face kiss the pavement, "Mama and papa are busy looking for their stolen children right now and are trying to track them by their scent. A scent that is leading them directly into stick-girl's working spot!"

"What!!??" Ellie screamed in confusion while trying to get free from the vines tying her up.

"Yeah, you see... Some really evil villain ended up stealing the poor dragon's eggs and for some reason decided to hide them inside the school..." Mia said while placing the back of her hand against her forehead and holding her chest while making a tormented expression as if she was in some kind of drama, "Now who would do such a vile thing? What kind of malefic person would try to split a family apart like this??"

"Wraaaghhh!!!" Ellie shouted as she began to turn her arms into silver blades to cut the vines and started to swing them at Mia.

"Oopsie!! Someone is angry!" Mia said while easily dodging Ellie.

Ellie tried to stab Mia with her blades but the pony-tailed girl simply grabbed her leg after turning her arm into a whip and made trip in the middle of her display of rage.

"You really like staying close to the ground... You must be stick-girl's family after all..." Mia said while taking advantage of the fact that Ellie was laying down again to sit on her back.

Ellie punched the ground with her fist and created a pair of hands made of diamonds to try and grab her. Mia noticed the hands and lowered her body so she would be laying down by Ellie's side to avoid the attack.

"Hey, remember that time I smashed your aunt like she was made of paper and them tried to burn a restaurant with you two still in it? Good times, am I right?"

"STOP!! TALKING!!!" Ellie jumped on top of her and tried to grab the girl's shoulders to hold her against the ground.

"Oh, man... Looks like you got me!" Mia said while pretending to be shocked. She then raised her hand and turned her fingers into spikes to stab Ellie's arm.

"Gaahhhhh!!!"

"Oh, wait... My mistake..." Mia said as she observed Ellie twitching in pain while holding her injured arm.

Detra continued to observe the fight without knowing what to do. Ellie continued to jump at Mia as if she wanted to tear her head off, but the girl simply countered all of her attacks as if they were two regular kids brawling.

"We need the crossbow girl... At this rate, Mia is going to kill the young miss!!"Detra said while staring at Xadi.

The stuffed doll simply shrugged, "Don't look at me... Last time I saw her she was playing around with a bunch of fire mages... I have no idea where they are now..."

"Tch!" Detra didn't know what to do so she tried to give Ellie some advice, "Young miss!!! You need to control your emotions!!"

"Wha- Ugh!!!" Ellie asked before getting kicked in the back by Mia.

"Mia has a demon inside of her!! She's feeding on your negative emotions!! The angrier you get, the more powerful she will become!!" Detra said while watching Ellie trying to hit Mia with a diamond fist and failing, "You need to calm down!!"

"Calm down?!!?" Ellie said while holding her arm and glaring at Mia, "How can I calm down with her right I front of me??"

Ellie raised a spike right beneath Mia made of blue diamonds, and just like before, Mia easily leaped out of the way thanks to her body being boosted by Ellie's anger and hatred.

She latched onto the diamond with her whips and propelled herself towards Ellie like a slingshot, headbutting the girl right on the stomach.

"Kuuahhh!!"

Ellie fell one more time and Mia took this chance to crouch right next to her while holding her chin with both hands.

"You could try yoga... I heard it does wonders for people with short temper!" Mia said while winking with her tongue out as if she was posing for a picture.

"I... Hate you... So much..." Ellie said while hugging her belly.

"Really?? And here I thought you were going to be my new best friend... I was even going to invite you to the fireworks with me!"

"Fire... Works...??" Ellie asked while slowly trying to get up.

"Yeah! The school when the dragons arrive and start looking for their eggs... I'm sure all that fire will be a sight that the whole city will never forget!"

Mia then raised her hand and grabbed Ellie's mirror-shield before the girl could even react.

"Hey!!" she tried to get it back but her body was completely drained from her incredibly one-sided fight, "That's mine!!"

Ellie tried to reach for her but Mia simply twirled like a spinning top and tripped Ellie with her foot.

"These diamonds... This is a stick-girl work, right?" Mia asked while analyzing the shield.

"STOP!! CALLING! HER!! STICK-GIRL!!!!" Ellie screamed. She then created several spikes made of blue diamond to try and stab Mia.

"What the-" Mia herself had barely a moment to react to seeing Ellie using magic. She assumed that the girl was using her shield as a staff, but there she was, summoning diamonds with her bare hands.

Mia moved the shield she stole to block the attack but one of the diamonds grazed her leg, creating a huge scar.

"Ugh!! Damn it!!" She said while being pushed back by the diamonds.

Ellie tried to push her even further, but she finally started to run out of energy. On top of that, both her stomach and her arm were still hurting a lot. Her arm in particular was bleeding heavily.

She finally stopped commanding her diamonds to attack as her strength started to diminish, and observed Mia standing still looking at her while holding her shield with her leg bleeding even more than her arm.

"How can you even stand like that??" Ellie asked while gazing at Mia's wounded leg.

"Oh!! Sorry about that... I wasn't paying attention." Mia said, proceeded by making her leg turn green for a few moments and closing her wound.

"What...?" Ellie gasped.

"Yeah... Sometimes it's hard to keep track of these things... One time it took me hours to realize that I had an arrow stabbing me on the back... It was so awkward when I tried to take a bath later and couldn't understand why my shirt wasn't coming off..."

Ellie fell on her knees due to not being able to hold her own body anymore and stared at Mia while breathing heavily, "What... Are you talking about...?"

Mia approached Ellie and crouched to stare right into her eyes. She then looked at her own foot and smashed it with Ellie's shield.

"!!!" Ellie simply stared at the scene completely lost. Mia just turned her toes into minced meat for no reason. And right after that, just like before, her body turned green for a moment and returned to normal again. Her foot was as good as new.

"I can't fell anything..." Mia said.

"..." Ellie just looked at her trying to process the situation.

"I can't feel pain, anger, hate, sadness... Guilt..." Mia continued while standing up and walking away while throwing Ellie's shield at Detra's feet like a freesbie. "I can't feel anything that would work to give power to a demon..."

She kept walking until she reached her red robe and began to put it on once more.

"You can't feel... Anything...?" Ellie asked.

"Well... I can feel joy and other more positive feelings... But when your powers rely on suffering and you are someone unable to suffer... It can be quite inconvenient..."

Ellie's body started to become heavier and she almost dropped her upper half into the ground before stopping herself with her arms.

"So... This whole thing... The reason you were tormenting my aunt so much..." she asked.

Mia turned around to look at Ellie and released a wide smile, "Smart girl!"

Ellie started to hate Mia even more. This girl really was treating everything as if it was some kind of game. Ellie wanted to take her down now more than ever, but she had absolutely nothing left in her to help her keep fighting. And even if she did, her hate for Mia was so big that none of her attacks could even touch her thanks to her cursed energy being powered by her agony.

"Well... This has been fun..." Mia said while cleaning her hands on her robe, "But in the end... There is only one stick-girl..."

Mia then turned her arm into a blade made of leaf and stared coldly at Ellie. She raised her blade and gave her final words, "And you are not her..."

Ellie closed her eyes and began to cry. She had completely underestimated Mia. She didn't manage to save her parents, her grandmother, nor her aunt. Worse even, her interference had caused Mia to launch a sudden attack on Evlin's school, putting even more people in danger.

She was about to die without being able to accomplish anything or saving anyone.

"I'm sorry... Aunt Evie..." She whispered.

Mia dropped her sword to slice Ellie in half. Detra saw the scene and began to shout in despair, "YOUNG MISS!!!!"

Ellie opened her crying eyes as a response to Detra's voice, and suddenly, the world felt like it was moving in slow motion.

She observed as a piece of diamond appeared from the ground and began to grow in size. A green diamond. One that kept getting bigger and bigger and completely blocked Mia's attack.

"What!?" both Mia and Ellie said while reacting to the sudden diamond appearing.

Immediately after that, Mia was blasted by a massive burst of raw magic energy and was sent flying towards the Ferris wheel entrance, completely destroying it in the process.

Ellie looked at the direction the blast came from and before she noticed, she saw her aunt standing there with her crossbow pointing at Mia, still in her golden-winged form and wearing several pieces of wooden armor.

"Aunt... Evie...??" Ellie said with a low voice as if she couldn't believe her eyes.

Evlin approached Ellie and looked at the state she was in, completely covered in wounds and bruises, and bleeding from her arm.

Evlin simply glared at Mia who was looking at her from the wreckage that used to be the Ferris wheel access gate.

"Took you long enough... Stick-girl..." Mia said while coming out of the remains of the entrance.

"Mia..." Evlin said, proceeded by turning her crossbow into a pair of gauntlets before continuing, "You made... A huge mistake!"