158 Resolve

"Ellie...? Are you awake...?"

Ellie woke up from the bed after hearing the voice of Lilith calling for her while carrying Lance with her.

She was inside the hotel room once again and had slept in the bed by herself this time. She glanced at her side to see if Detra was still sleeping as well but the woman was nowhere to be seen.

"..." Ellie showed Lilith that she was indeed awake but without saying a single word. She took a look at Lilith's face who seemed like it did not have a very good night of sleep.

Lilith had her body was covered in bandages all over her body. She took a heavy blow from Mia after receiving her magic howl head-on and having her back smashed against a teacup.

The only thing worse than her wounds was her face. That was the face of someone who looked like had just seen their pet die. Her eyes had massive bags and her mouth, despite trying not to show, could reveal an immense depression inside of her.

That was the face of someone who just suffered a huge defeat. Ellie was sure of that, because when she looked at the mirror, she saw the same face on herself.

"It's time to eat... It will help your body recover faster..." Lilith spoke again.

"..." Ellie just looked at her for a second still in silence and followed her outside of the room.

The two walked down the hallways of the hotel and noticed several of the rooms had their doors open and completely empty, a result of having more than half of the city being abducted by Mia and her army of spirits.

The whole area looked like a ghost town with barely a person in sight. Those that were not taken over by the spirits simply started to panic and decided to leave the city and get as far away as possible.

Ellie and Lilith finally arrived at the dining room and spotted the rest of their friends on the table trying to find the motivation to eat.

Marcus was in the middle with the two students that they had brought, Claire and Joseph, by his side. The two fire mages who finally removed their white robes and opted for something more casual, Leona and her teammate, were sitting in front of them. The man had a name but Ellie didn't remember what it was. Her mind was busy with other things when he stated it. And lastly, there were Detra, as usual drinking a cup of coffee, and Xadi, still stuck as a frog and unable to eat anything.

Aside from Detra who just looked lost in her own thoughts and Xadi who was acting grumpy form not being able to eat, the whole table just looked miserable. Everyone had the same lifeless expression on their faces.

This scene felt incredibly different from the breakfast they had not too long ago. Back then, it felt like even despite the biggest hardship, everything would still be fine somehow and solve itself in the end.

But now? It felt like everything was completely hopeless in every way possible.

Claire and Joseph also had their parents taken over by spirits just like half of the city, Claire, in particular, had a hard time with that since her mother was taken right in front of her.

Detra asked Leona why the hell she was carrying these two kids with her to which Leona proudly replied that she thought it would be useful to have the students of one of the world's greatest mages of all time aid them in their battle.

Detra heard that comment and wanted to smack her head against a table after finding out Leona had mistaken these two kids for being magic students instead of art students. Leona finally understood her misunderstanding once Lilith explained it to her and wanted to bury her face into a hole from pure embarrassment like and ostrich.

She apparently was placing a lot of faith in that mistake, since after she cleared that out, she also joined the lifeless-face club. Most of her party was possessed as well, so her situation was not looking so good in the slightest.

And then there was Ellie, who just like the rest, had her body full of injuries from the beatdown she received from Mia in her Myriad form, both in body and in spirit.

Ellie was feeling the worst out of everyone there. Mostly because she had realized that it was her fault they were all in this situation.

Her aunt ended up facing Mia completely unprepared because she had to look after her missing niece. The same niece who was hanging out with Mia playing a very unique game of soccer where her body was the ball and Mia was just having the time of her life kicking her around.

Which of course led to her aunt having her body taken over by Mia, which of course led to Mia acquiring terminal energy and sending out her lovely army of the dead to go after citizens as if they were crazy customers in the middle of a black Friday.

"Everyone is here?" Detra stated after seeing Ellie and Lilith joining the table, "Good! Let's start the discussion then!"

After the disaster that was yesterday's event, the members that were knocked out eventually managed to wake up, and Detra proceeded to fill them all in on the current situation.

About how Mia had become the most dangerous girl on the planet and how if they didn't play their cards right, someone even more dangerous was going to show up as well, Hana, the first user of cursed energy.

Detra also explained how she miraculously got them some time by making use of Mia's desire for self-destruction by trying to sell Ellie like a new car Mia couldn't resist to buy, and how they had seven days to make Evlin's niece be strong enough to go up against Mia herself.

Sadly, once Ellie woke up, she was so devastated with the situation that she couldn't stop crying for hours from having lost her aunt and ended up needing to have the whole situation explained to her twice.

"So just to make sure we are all clear on the situation..." Detra continued "Mia is right now waiting for us to bring her an opponent that can stomp her like a bug and end her miserable life... And I promised her that the only one that could pull that off was the young miss over there."

The whole room then glanced at Ellie who was still looking down at her plate without touching the food.

"East... I don't think this is going to work..." Lilith commented.

"Then we will have to make it work! She's the best chance we have right now! If she can't pull it off, nobody can!" Detra stated.

"But East!! Just look at her!! Does she look like she could win a fight against anything right now?"

"Not really, no... I'm pretty sure she couldn't even win a fight against a pigeon right now..." Detra admitted after gazing upon Ellie's state, "But still... We have seven days... I can put her into proper shape and ready for battle!"

"You...??" Lilith questioned.

"Of course!! I was the one who trained Marcus after all! I'm the one who made him the perfect combat machine he was before the crossbow girl showed up and softened him..."

Marcus just glared at Detra as if she had touched on a delicate topic for him.

"So you want to turn Ellie into a weapon? Just like you did with me??" the lad claimed.

"She ALREADY is a weapon!" Detra declared, "Doesn't matter if you use a sword as a kitchen knife or as a baseball bat, it's still a goddamn sword, whether you like it or not, and every sword is a weapon that can be used to damage someone!"

After hearing that comment Ellie began to look at her own hands. The hands that failed to be the weapon that would take down her opponent and protect her aunt.

"Right... What makes you think we would trust you? You only care about your own interests..." Marcus mentioned.

"Damn right I do! I'm clearly the most sane person here, so of course, I'll focus on my interests before any of you!" Detra admitted while raising her voice.

"Excuse me??" Lilith said.

Detra then stood up and looked at everyone present.

"You, are nothing but an idiot whose eyes are too blinded by your desire for revenge who got so focused on your own mission that didn't even realize that your moronic leader was suffering from mental health problems and never considered using your future sight to keep an eye on her and try to see if she would do something stupid," she said while looking at Lilith.

"Hey!! Don't you-" Marcus tried to defend her, but the woman then pointed at him next.

"YOU, are nothing but a crybaby who can't get over your issues with me and pay attention to the mission at hand! If you weren't so unfocused you wouldn't have used a metal form against an enemy that uses goddamn lighting attacks!"

Xadi raised his head when realizing that Detra was talking about him and noticed that this was the first time he had been reunited with Marcus in a long time. He was impressed with how much the lad had grown.

Detra looked at Leona next.

"And you!!"

She was about to say something but then realized something that made her completely unable to criticize the fire mage.

"... I actually have no idea who you are... But I'm sure you're a moron as well..." Detra said bluntly.

Leona glared at her wondering just how someone so rude used to be the former goddess of the east, "Well... Aren't you just lovely...?"

"What about us...?" Joseph asked with his hand raised, acting as if he was in some kind of game where everyone was taking a turn to be insulted by Detra.

"I'm sorry, who are you again...?" Detra asked.

"We are students from miss Evlin... You were saying she was a mage or something? We were kinda wondering if that meant we also could get some kind of superpowers as well? I wanna have the power to turn invisible!!" Joseph explained.

Detra rolled her eyes and replied to the kid, "Wonderfull, I hate you already! Moving on..."

"Huh...? But..."

"This brings us to you, young miss!" Detra ignored Joseph and looked at Ellie next.

"East!" Lilith warned her while holding a heavy glare, "Be careful with what you say!"

"Why?? Because our poor little flower is going through a rough time and might cry if I spout some harsh words? Unlike everyone else here who just looks like they're about to party on the beach?"

"I'm warning you East! She's just a kid!"

"Hell if I care! This situation is her fault just as much as anyone else, if not more!"

Ellie just remained completely immobile on her chair. Detra began to walk towards her.

"If you had just listened to me instead of following the advice of a stupid frog with a tophat, then maybe we would still have your dumb aunt here to eat breakfast with us right now and could have devised a better plan!"

Lilith heard that comment and looked a Xadi. Sometimes, if he didn't move much, it was easy to forget he was actually possessing the doll right now.

Evlin twitched a little as the sensation of guilt from her mistake stabbed her.

"If we wanna clean up this mess, you will need to do your part and help us take down Mia... Though you clearly can't do it as you are now..." Detra mentioned, "But... Since I apparently am more hated than country music around here... I can't properly help you polish your skills without you trusting in me and my guidance. So, I'm just going to ask you once... Are you going to place your trust in me? Or them?"

Ellie finally raised her head, still looking like a corpse, and stared at Detra who was now right in front of her with her arms crossed.

She also looked at the rest of the table and realized that Lilith and Marcus were very nervous about her answer.

"You don't have to listen to her, Ellie... We will find a way!" Lilith stated.

The girl then realized that Detra was right. Everyone else was an absolute mess right now, and Detra was the only one who was thinking with clarity and precision. Plus, it was true that Detra did turn Marcus into a great weapon for combat.

"If I go with you..." Ellie finally spoke. Her voice was weak and frail, "Can we save my aunt...?"

"I can't guarantee that..." Detra shrugged, "I'm not an expert in cursed energy... I'm still trying to put together how Mia even took over her body in the first place..."

"..."

Ellie then sadly came to terms that maybe she was hoping for too much and switched her question.

"If I go with you... Can you make me defeat Mia?"

"Ellie!" Lilith tried to call her attention, but the girl just ignored her. If Ellie tried to speak with Lilith, she would only try to comfort her. But Ellie didn't want comfort, she wanted a solution.

"That... I can give you my word that I can do... But you will need to pull your own weight as well." Detra explained.

Ellie finally made her decision and looked at Detra with her depressed eyes. For the sake of stopping Mia and getting revenge for her aunt, she would need to follow the former goddess of the East.

"Ok... I'll be your weapon..."