161 Lost girl's lost niece

The group had reunited itself outside of the hotel and were getting ready to leave for their mission of making Ellie stronger for her battle with Mia.

All of the kids, Ellie, Claire, and Joseph, were wearing shorts, sneakers, and long-sleeved shirts of different colors. Ellie was also wearing a hat to cover her face with the words 'Gamer Girl' in it, a present from her aunt that her mother never allowed her to use.

Lilith and Marcus were wearing jogging pants and sleeveless hooded shirts, very similar to the attire used during Ellie's magic training.

Leona and her teammate, who Ellie finally realized was called Raphael, were joining them, now back with their usual long white robes that had red drawings of fire marks in it. Joseph asked if the two weren't feeling hot in it but they replied that their training as fire mages had allowed them to sustain any kind of temperature.

Detra was following along with Xadi on her shoulder. She was wearing cargo pants, a pair of black boots, and a white tank top. Both her and Lilith had their hair tied up in braids.

Each of them also was carrying a bag filled with food, first-aid supplies, and other kinds of items that could be useful to have in a forest such as rope and knives. The only one who wasn't carrying a bag was Claire, who instead was carrying Lilith's son, Lance. Marcus wondered if that would be a good idea, to which Lilith replied that it would help take her mind off from her missing mother to have something else to take care of.

While they were preparing to leave, Lilith took another look at the group as a whole. Ellie was still depressed but now she was also trying to hide it with her hat every time someone looked directly at her.

Leona and Raphael were looking a tad batter than her. They were still feeling the loss of the rest of their group but now they seemed more determined to do whatever they could to get them back.

Lilith wasn't really sure how she felt towards these two since most of what she saw from this group was either them attacking Evlin or trying to protect her school, two very conflicting messages about where their morality stands, but Evlin herself seemed to trust Leona so Lilith decided to just trust Evlin's judgment.

Marcus was still acting like he wanted to stay as far away as possible from his mother and did anything he could to avoid looking at her. Detra herself was looking rather focused on the mission and kept placing her right index over her other fingers as if she was mentally doing some calculations.

Xadi was just minding his own business and playing with Ellie's phone that he took from Detra. His fingers made of plush could not touch the apps on the screen so Joseph put him to watch a three-hour video lecture about this world's perception of magic and mysticism as he requested.

Claire on the other hand, while trying to keep a bright face to not make Lance cry, was still very worried about her mother, Chloe. Lilith could sympathize with that feeling, she herself was starting to like Evlin's therapist. During their ride towards Evlin to warn her about the dragons, Chloe and Lilith had talked a lot about Lilith's experiences and adventures and the curly-haired woman kept talking about how she had some ideas on how to help Lilith deal with many of her traumatic experiences.

Sadly, she never got to share what these ideas were as she soon got her body taken over by a spirit and joined Mia's collection.

While Lilith was noticing what a slightly dysfunctional group this was, Xadi called everyone's attention to himself.

"Hey, small question... Why am I still here? Can one of you just destroy this body so my spirit can go to the afterlife in peace?"

Detra grabbed Xadi from the top of her head and began to hold him by the neck as if she was trying to choke the toy.

"You... Are not... Going... ANYWHERE!" she stated, "Ever since you returned you have done nothing but make more problems for me to clean! So now, you are going to help us solve this mess!"

"What?? What the hell do you want my help with?? I'm a stuffed toy!!! You want me to put Mia to sleep or something??"

Detra placed Xadi on her head again and released the frog-man, "You'll see... Until then, just stay quiet and behave!"

Claire and Joseph tried to approach Detra next.

"Uuhh... What about us?" Joseph asked.

"Yeah! Where are you going to take us to?" Claire questioned as well.

"All in due time..." Detra explained. She then approached Lilith and noticed that she was glaring at her like usual, not that she cared thought, "We are all set."

"Are we really going to bring these two kids with us?" Lilith questioned.

"Yes... Unfortunately... They might be irritating but can also prove to be useful..."

Lilith just rolled her eyes showing that she had given up trying to understand how that woman's mind worked. She then turned around and started talking with someone that wasn't there.

"West! West, we're ready to go!"

Suddenly a golden portal appeared right in front of them, very similar to the one Mia had created in the sky but much smaller in scale.

Claire and Joseph had their eyes wide open but Ellie was just staring at it blankly.

The group entered the gate and before they noticed it, they found themselves in a completely different location on top of a grassy mountain.

The three kids looked up towards the sky and spotted a group of griffins, harpies, and dragons flying around in the distance. Joseph approached the edge of the mountain and could spot a massive forest bellow filled with all kinds of creatures like ogres, walking tress, three-headed snakes, and more.

Claire joined his side and further ahead of the forest she saw a group of travelers wearing clothes that looked straight out of a role-playing-game. Knights in armor, mages in robes, bandits with masks, all locked in some kind of fight where the bandits were trying to attack some kind of royal carriage and the knights and mages were trying to defend it.

Ellie then approached a lake that was close by to look at her own reflection and saw a very depressed-looking girl. She spotted a shadow moving across the lake and realized that it was some kind of mermaid with a spear. The half-fish girl saw Ellie and began to snarl at her as if trying to defend her home.

Ellie didn't feel like picking a fight with some random creature so she just backed away.

"This place is amazing!!!" Joseph shouted.

The children kept looking up, down, and all around, glancing at anything that picked their interest. Not just the monsters and people, but even the terrain had rocks and trees of different sizes and colors from what they were used to. Everything was making them have their mouths open with amazement. Joseph kept running around until he bumped into a young girl in a white dress with black hair that was floating above the ground. She appeared to be around his age.

"Oh, hi!" the boy said while waving.

"Greetings..." responded the girl. She looked at Joseph with eyes that said she was not impressed.

The rest of the group joined Joseph's side and approached the girl as well. Lilith stepped forward to get closer to her.

"Hello, West... Thank you for your help."

"You're welcome... But from the look on your face, it seems the work is still not done." West mentioned.

"Far from it... We were going to follow East's idea on trying to make Evlin into a proper warrior to face Mia," Lilith admitted.

"Yes... I saw your little adventure in the other world... You people sure do know how to make a bad situation even worse."

At this moment, Detra approached even more to join the conversation, "Maybe we could have avoided said worse situation if you had sent more than three people and a giant black cat to help!"

West looked at Detra and released a small glare. Detra was really starting to get used to people glaring at her. Lilith, on the other hand, was just being struck by the realization that she completely forgot Eclipse in Evlin's world and began to twitch a little with worry.

"East... Nice to see you again... I guess... Or should I call you Detra as well now that we have a new goddess taking your old position?" West asked while releasing a small grin.

"You can call me Steven for all I care, we have more urgent business to attend to!" Detra said while having her arms crossed. This conversation between a goddess and a former goddess was looking more like a chat between two girls who hadn't seen each other since high school after they graduated.

"Very well... Follow me then..." West asked as she floated away towards a particular direction.

The group began to follow her while she continued to hover slightly above the ground. Joseph decided to up his pace a little bit so he would get closer to her. Claire came closer to Lilith and asked in whispers what he hell that boy was doing.

"Hey, uuhh... Excuse me, miss...?" he asked while trying to keep up with her speed.

"West..." answered the floating girl.

"Miss. West... That's a very pretty name..."

"... That's not my real name but... Thanks..." West commented, still holding her unimpressed face while talking to the kid.

"So..." Joseph continued, "I was wondering if you were seeing anyone right now..."

"Seeing...?"

"You know... Dating! You have a boyfriend...?"

Lilith and Claire finally understood what Joseph was trying to do, which made Lilith facepalm herself, "Oh, Lord..."

West just rolled her eyes and looked at the boy, "Kid... You do know I'm over five-hundred years old, right?"

Joseph processed that information for a bit a began to talk again, "So... Is that a no...? Are you single right now? Cause if you a- Ouch, ouch, ouch!!" Joseph suddenly got interrupted by Claire pulling his ear and making him stay away from the young-looking goddess.

"The hell are you thinking??" she asked.

"What?? I'm not picky..."

Xadi just looked at the two kids and lowered his head to look straight at Detra. The woman noticed the frog staring at her as if wondering what she was thinking by bringing these two with her.

"Not a word..." she whispered.

As they kept following West, Lilith decided to approach Ellie's side a bit.

"Look, Ellie!! Griffins!! Just like Sphinx!! Isn't that cool?"

Ellie raised her head to look at the direction Lilith was pointing, but the second she did so, she was reminded of her aunt in her golden form moments before she fused with Mia's body and turned into Myriad. That memory sent shivers down her spine and reminded her of how much she was blaming herself.

"Yeah... Cool..." the girl responded with a weak voice as she lowered her head again.

Ellie distanced herself from Lilith and the woman suddenly saw Marcus approaching her side.

"How's she doing...?" He asked.

"Not very good... Losing Evlin like this left a big scar on her..." Lilith admitted, "I hope we are doing the right thing... If this continues... Ellie might never be the same again..."