163 Journey to the starting line

Lilith continued to try and cheer up Ellie as they kept following West, but with very little success.

The swordswoman would try to drive her attention to something that could distract her from Evlin's situation, but every time she pointed at a creature, some display of magic from a random sorcerer, or some kind of peculiarity about this new world, the girl would just be reminded about her aunt's stories, which in turn would remind her of her aunt and how she was still imprisoned inside of Mia, resulting in her sighing in depression.

After a few more failed attempts, Lilith finally gave up and joined Marcus's side again.

"I don't think I'm good with kids..." she mumbled.

"Don't let it get to you... She's just worried, that's all" Marcus stated, trying to make her feel better.

"I know... I know... It's just..."

"...?"

"Did you see the look on her face when she was talking with East?" Lilith explained. "That stupid goddess somehow managed to gain so much of Ellie's trust that the girl looked like she would follow her to the insides of a volcano... Meanwhile, she barely looks at me when I talk to her!"

"Lilith... You can't compare yourself to her..." Marcus affirmed, "Remember that she's a specialist in making people obey her blindly... She practically lives of that..."

"Yeah, but still... It's just so frustrating to think that my friend's niece would rather listen to that woman rather than us..."

"Well... She was the only one who offered any kind of solution..." commented Claire as she inserted herself in the conversation while carrying Lance with her, which caught both Lilith and Marcus off-guard.

"Ugh... I guess so..." Lilith admitted.

"Hey..." Claire whispered with a weak tone, "Is this woman really going to help us get our families back?"

Lilith looked at the young girl's eyes and noticed that she was desperately begging for some kind of sign of hope. Lilith didn't want to let her down so she tried her best to calm her worries. She was already with her hands full trying to make Ellie happy, she couldn't get Claire depressed as well.

"I don't know... But even if she doesn't... We will find another way! Our group never gives up, no matter how bleak the situation looks!"

Claire just looked at Lilith for a few moments and returned her eyes to the road in front of her, "I'm glad... Because the situation looks really, really bleak right now..."

Marcus couldn't help but silently agree to that statement. He then began to wonder once again why his mother had decided to bring two kids with them to this journey, which made him look at the young Joseph, who was still trying and failing to get West's attention.

"Hey... Claire...? Why is he still so... Cheerful??"

Marcus looked at the young boy again and whispered before looking at his own mother next, "Not that upset over losing your bad parents... Guess I can sympathize..."

Lilith noticed that Marcus was showing a dark expression and gave him a small hug to try and make him feel better.

She was finding herself in a very strange situation right now. It was the first time Lilith was surrounded by so many people needing moral support when usually it's the other way around. She's so busy trying to help everyone else she barely has any time to lament Daren's disappearance.

She looked at the fire mages wondering if they were in the same situation.

"Hey, Leona...? How are you two holding up?"

"Hmm? Oh... We... We're... Huh... We're ok... I suppose..." Leona mumbled.

"You sure...?"

"Yes... As supporters of the new east goddess, we are prepared to fall while fighting in her name... Of course, we will do everything we can to get our comrades back... But this kind of thing is just part of the course."

"I see..." Lilith was glad she didn't have to worry about these two as well, although she was a little worried about this new East goddess and whether or not she could be dangerous. Lilith was hoping she would at least not be as bad as the last east goddess that was right in front of her walking while bickering with West like a divorced couple.

"I still can't believe you're going to bring them to the forest..." West declared.

"Maybe if you had sent us your champions to help in the fight, we wouldn't need to go to the forest!" Detra responded.

"As if I would risk losing my champions just to help you clean up your mistakes!!"

"It's not MY mistake!! North was the freaking idiot that made that girl a champion despite her being a descendent of Hana!!"

"Ugh!! Hana! I can't believe that woman is still around!! Do you have any idea of what's going to happen if Mia does manage to find her?"

"Sound good to me..." West admitted. She then turned around and looked at the still depressed Ellie, "IF she can survive the forest, that is..."

Lilith took this chance to approach the two women and tried to understand Detra's plan one more time.

"What exactly IS this forest by the way?"

"It's a place created to protect someone's greatest treasure..." Detra explained, "A treasure so important that literally wars were started to see who would get it in the end, resulting in the owner of the treasure deciding to fill the forest with all kinds of different spells to make it nearly impossible for anyone that tries to enter it to ever come out alive."

Lilith and the rest of the group twitched a bit as they heard that.

"What kind of spells...?" Leona asked.

"All kinds... Summoning spells to bring as many powerful monsters as possible, teleportation spells to make you get lost inside of it and ending up walking in circles for days, maybe months, time spells to make it so that the hours pass by much slower outside than inside to make sure that no one can send help, or even notice that you're gone for that matter..."

"Well, sounds fun... Good luck guys!" Joseph mentioned as he kept hearing about how stupidly dangerous this place was and decided to make a complete turn to walk the other way.

"Wait!! I'm coming with!!" Xadi yelled as he leaped out of Detra and landed on top of Joseph.

Detra simply grabbed the two before they could run away by latching onto the kid's shirt.

"Relax you two... You won't be entering the forest with us..." she said.

"We won't...?" Joseph asked.

"You won't..." Detra confirmed, "The forest is only for experts, not for amateurs... If you and the girl tried to take it as well, you would be turned into minced meat in no time."

"... Amateurs...?" Joseph repeated while looking confused.

Detra then looked up and stared at Leona.

"Here! Catch!", she said as she threw Xadi at her.

"Uuhh... What do I do with this...?" Leona asked while holding Xadi with the tip of her fingers as if he was a dirty piece of clothing. Xadi himself was looking very angry from being held up like this.

"You and the frog will be in charge of these two kids," Detra explained.

"What??" asked Leona, Xadi, Claire, and Joseph at the same time.

"Seriously, what is it with you people and the word 'what'...? In case you don't know, apparently the people from crossbow girl's world have much more power when it comes to magic than the people from here..."

"Evlin, her name is Evlin, its really easy to remember... You don't need to call her crossbow girl every time you talk about her..." Marcus whispered.

"Anyway..." Detra continued while ignoring Marcus, "Your job is to teach these two as many spells as you can... Any kind of offensive magic that might help us in the battle with Mia."

Ellie finally had her attention captured and stared at Detra, "Wait... I thought I was the one who would fight Mia..."

"Oh, and do you by any chance plan to take on her army of spirits, possessed mages, monsters, and demons, all by yourself??" Detra asked.

"Oh..."

"We need as much firepower as we can get our hands on... And if these two can be half as useful as you and your dumb aunt tend to be, then its already a great start."

Xadi and Leona looked at each other and then looked at the two kids by their side. Leona then became a little worried.

"I... I never had an apprentice before... I don't know if I can do this..."

At this moment Lilith approached Leona and placed her hand on her shoulder to calm her down.

"Just try to look at your students and do your best to understand them. Find out how much they can do, what they excel at, what they lack, and what they need... You can do this!" Lilith stated, trying to share the same words she heard from Evlin that she used during Ellie's training.

"O- Ok... I'll try..." Leona replied.

"The rest of you..." Detra continued while staring at Marcus, Lilith, and Ellie, "We will be entering the forest!"

And just as she said that, the group finally reached their destination. A huge collection of trees of all types and sizes, making it look like someone took the time to collect more than twenty different species of trees and planted them all next to another, creating a somewhat overpopulated collection of types.

"By the way... Detra..." Lilith said while approaching the former goddess as she tried to contain her glare, "What exactly was this treasure that was being kept and who was trying to guard it??"

"Hana's dumb berry tree..." Detra mentioned bluntly.

"What!!??" reacted Lilith, Marcus, and Leona with a united shock.

"Yeah... Seems like we just can't scape her legacy no matter where we go..." Detra admitted, "This is the place where everything started... The tree that gave birth to the three types of energy that almost tore the world apart from making people all around go crazy in trying to fight for it... We are about to enter Hana's personal garden..."

West simply hovered in front of the group and bowed while pointing at the entrance with an open palm and one hand behind her back.

"So... Who wants to go first?"