176 Cherish who you are

Their plan to take down the memory warriors individually was proving to be much harder than they all expected, so for now, they decided to just try and perform a desperate dash towards the next ring in order to safely get away from their pursuers.

"Wait!!!" Lilith stopped on her track as she remembered something important.

"What!!?? We need to keep going before they reach us!!" Detra reminded her.

Lilith just looked at her left, at her right, and even behind the direction she came from before responding, "Where is Marcus?"

Almost as if in an attempt to respond her, a huge sound was heard from a group of trees falling down near their position.

Lilith used her future sight and almost choked in fear of what she saw. She grabbed the hands of Ellie and Detra and forced the two to lay on the ground.

"Lilith?? What are you- " Ellie was about to ask, but she was suddenly answered by a blast of wind in a lunar shape flying past them and slicing every tree trunk in its path. If the group was still standing when that blast was coming through, their upper halves would have been sliced off.

Ellie observed with a pale expression as the whole forest looked like it had been completely remodeled by that wind attack.

"Wha- What... Was that????"

"It must have been the wind mage..." Lilith suggested.

"A wind mage is that powerful???" Ellie questioned.

Lilith then remembered about her battle in front of Evlin's school and how Marcus joined forces with Leona to increase the power of her fire magic in order to face the dragons.

"A mage aided by the living weapon's power... Probably would be..."

Ellie began to sweat, "We... We need to go help him!! Can Marcus beat something like that on his own??"

Lilith pondered, "A single wind mage... Or even his own father... Marcus might have had a chance... But the two at the same time and working together... I'm not so sure..."

Detra then joined the conversation, "The living weapon was made to work with a partner... Its true ability is to bring out the full potential of whoever is using it..."

Both Lilith and Ellie stared at Detra with concern.

"If Marceus is using the mage as his partner... Then there is no way that Marcus alone can beat him..."

Lilith then realized what she needed to do. The living weapon needs a partner to reach its full power. She needed to go after Marcus and aid him in his battle. But to do that, she would need to make a rather undesired choice.

"Detra... You take Ellie out of here... Take her to the next ring, and don't stop running!"

"Lilith...?" Ellie looked at the swordswoman, confused by her words.

"What!!? But... But..."

Ellie didn't like that idea. One look at Lilith's state was all it took to realize Lilith was one breath away from fainting. If she tried to join Marcus in his battle, she would get seriously injured, probably injured too much for any healing crystal to save her.

Lilith herself understood that better than anyone. She knew that even if she went to help her friend, the best she could do is provide a window of opportunity so that he could escape as well. In her current condition, even if they were to fight together, there is no way she could beat anyone.

The damage she took from the fight with Mia's memory, and even from before with the actual Mia, was much more severe than she expected.

"Lilith... You can't!" Ellie begged. She knew that if she allowed the woman to go, she might return as a corpse the next time they reunited.

Lilith tried to release a stronger smile this time. She noticed that the young girl was carrying a troubled expression and wanted to calm her down, "I'm sorry that I can't be as strong as your aunt... And I'm sorry that I can't be as reliable as East... I really wished we would have gotten along better..."

"Wha- What...?"

"You were right... I was looking down on you... Part of me didn't want you to become so strong so fast... When you get strong... You start to lose sight of things around you... Really important things that you forget have value as well..."

Ellie was weirded out by the way Lilith was speaking. She took another look at the woman's face and noticed that her eyes had a golden glow in them. She was looking at the future.

"Li- Lilith... What did you saw...?"

Lilith just kept smiling and gave Ellie a deep hug.

"I wanted to see what a great warrior you will become... But..."

"..."

"But my power can't look far into the future for some reason... I can't see anything past today..."

"Wa- wait... Does that mean..."

Lilith tightened her hug even more to stop Ellie from finishing her sentence.

"Please save Daren for me... Please take care of Lance... Tell him when he grows up that his mother loved him very much!"

Lilith then grabbed Elli's hand and handed it to Detra. The two exchanged a long look. Lilith wasn't glaring this time, it felt like she was silently asking if she could rely on Detra to keep Ellie safe. Detra herself just stared back, not sure of what to say. She was aware that Lilith was about to run towards her own death.

"You're really doing this...?" Detra asked.

"I need to protect the people that are important to me..." Lilith replied, "you probably wouldn't get it... After all... The only person you care about is yourself..."

Detra remained silent. She had no words to reply to that accusation. Lilith then heard the sound of another explosion of wind being released and began her dash towards it.

She had no weapons, her body was full of injuries, her future sight power had been used so much that she felt like she was about to pass out, but none of that mattered. Marcus needed help.

She couldn't save Marceus, she couldn't save Daren, she couldn't save Evlin, but she refused to let the lad go as well. He represented all of the bonds from the people she failed to protect.

The son of Marceus, the adopted brother of Daren, the boy Evlin had gone to such great lengths to rescue from the terrible goddess of the east. If she failed to save him as well, all of their efforts would have gone in vain.

As she continued to rush towards her mission, Lilith continued to hear the screams of despair from the young Ellie on the distance.

"LILITH!!! LILITH!!!!!!!" Ellie kept shouting while trying to free her own hand, "Detra let me go!!! I need to help them!!!"

"I can't... You are too important... I can't risk losing you..." Detra replied.

"But Marcus and Lilith!! They need me!!"

"Maybe... But do YOU even need them...?"

"What!!? What are you talking about!!??"

"Young miss... I saw how you acted around them... You always tried to keep your distance, always avoided talking to them, always ignored their words when they tried to call their attention... You don't really even like them... Do you?"

"That's... That's not..." Ellie tried to reply but Detra was staring deeply into her. It was true that Ellie didn't really show signs of being in good terms with the two. She disliked the way Lilith kept treating her like a fragile kid or how Marcus acted like he had hidden intentions to try and help her aunt, but that still didn't mean she wanted them to die like this.

"You don't have to lie to me... It's ok... We don't need them anymore... We can just continue our own way while they act as a decoy to distract the memory warriors! Everybody wins!"

"Have you lost your mind?? You saw how strong those memory things were!! They are going to kill them!! Don't you care about Marcus?"

"About the boy who abandoned me? Not at all... And if you try to help, you might die too!! And then, who will stop Mia?"

"..."

"Try to remember... You have a duty! Many lives depend on you! Should you fall here today, they will be lost forever!! Think about your family!"

"But... But..." Ellie turned her face to look at someone who was no longer there "Lilith and Marcus..."

"These two came to help you complete your task to become a weapon! If you fail at your mission, everything will have been for nothing!!"

"..."

"You said you would follow everything I said... Well, I'm telling you this right now... If you try to help them, you will never be able to save your aunt again!"

Ellie then froze at the mention of her aunt, "What...?"

"That's right... I know what your true goal is... You want to correct the mistake you made right? To become stronger to stop Mia in order to make amends with the mess you created? To redeem yourself from almost causing the death of hundreds?"

Detra then grabbed Ellie's cheeks and began to squeeze them.

"If you don't want to make another mistake, then listen to everything I say and follow me! I can turn you into the world's greatest weapon! More powerful than Marceus, more powerful than your aunt, more powerful than even the current Mia! Just listen to everything I say, and you will never lose to anyone ever again, nor will you ever lose anyone dear to you ever again!"

"... Never lose anyone again...?"

"So young miss... Will you put your faith in me?"

Ellie's expression was completely blank. She didn't want to abandon Marcus and Lilith, but she also knew if she was killed in a fight right now, there would be no one to save her family.

She had been trusting Detra all this time and all her advice had been working so far. But abandoning people? People that were put in danger because they had decided to follow Ellie herself inside of a giant death-trap in the shape of a forest? People she kept mistreating due to her own anger and frustration with herself?

"You need to do it, young miss! For your aunt!!" Detra mentioned, breaking Ellie's train of thought.

"My aunt...?"

"You want to be like your aunt, right? That's why your affinity is based on mirroring... It's reflecting your desire to be like the people you admire! And if you want to be like your aunt, you need to be strong, and learn to make the hard choices!"

"... Be like my aunt..."

Ellie was then reminded of Evlin, the person she admired the most in this world, and the person her mistake had damaged the most.

She started to feel the truth in Detra's words and began to approach the woman in order to show she agreed with her words. She needed power to protect those around her, and Detra could give her that power.

"Good girl!" Detra said with a smirk. She then grabbed Elli's arm so she would follow her.

The two began to continue their path, but Ellie suddenly was hit by a thought, something that she had discussed with Detra on her way to fight Mia. She kept thinking about how Detra was right and that Ellie indeed wanted to be like Evlin.

"My aunt..." the girl whispered.

"Mm...?"

"My aunt doesn't abandon people..."

"What...? What are you mumbling...?"

"I want to be like my aunt..." Ellie stated, this time with a normal voice. She then glared at Detra and pulled her arm back.

Detra reacted with bafflement, "Young miss!! What is the meaning of this??"

"I want to be like my aunt... And my aunt doesn't abandon people!!!" Ellie shouted.

She then grabbed a piece of healing magic crystal and replenished her strength. After that, diamonds started to emerge from the ground and began to surround Ellie's arms until they took the shape of two blue gauntlets.

"And neither will I!!" Ellie declared with determination. She then turned around and started to rush in the same direction Lilith had rushed off to.

Detra watched the girl going away, and a large piece of resentment began to grow inside of her.

"Stupid humans..." she mumbled .