180 Moving forward II

He kept pulling out everything he could to see if at least one small fragment still remained, but he was having no luck.

Lilith was sitting on a tree root with Ellie by her side holding her hand. The girl would not stop crying but Lilith herself remained composed.

"It's no use, Marcus... This isn't some kind of injury or damage... My eyes just reached their limit..." Lilith explained.

"N- No!! No, don't say that!! There must be something we can do to fix this!! We just need..." Marcus kept trying to think of a solution to the problem at hand when he suddenly glued his eyes at Evlin's niece, "Ellie!!!"

"Wh- What?" Ellie answered, still releasing tears from her eyes without control.

"You can mirror magic right? Can't you mirror Evlin and her ability to heal?" Marcus wondered.

"I'm- I'm sorry! I can't... I tried copying my aunt's other spells many times, but her diamonds were the only things I could do!"

"No... No, no, no, no... NO!!!!" Marcus shouted while kicking his bag.

"I'm... I'm so, so sorry!!" Ellie repeated while continuing to cry. Marcus finally looked like he was about to give up and started to cry as well while trying to hide his face with his palm.

"It's fine Ellie, this isn't your fault..." Lilith commented while hugging the sobbing girl.

"How is this not my fault!!?? We came here because of me!! We lost our friends because of me! We almost died because of me!! And now you- you-"

"I'm blind... Yeah, I know..." Lilith finished while trying to comfort the girl.

"Why does this keep happening!!?? I just make everything worse!!!" Ellie shouted while starting to cry even louder, "Why I can't do anything right!!???"

"Ellie, it's ok... This isn't the end of the world..."

"But... You wanted us to go back, and I wanted to keep going!! If we had just gone back-"

"Then we would have tried to face Mia while being completely unprepared, and got killed by her... Trust me, Ellie, things could have been much worse..."

"But- But-"

"I know this looks bad... But it was my decision to come... And it was my decision to fight... So, please... Don't let this get to you... We will get through this!" Lilith whispered softly into her ear with her eyes closed and showing a wide smile.

Lilith then continued to lend her chest for the girl to cry for a little longer. The three of them just stood there for a while just trying to let all their frustration out.

Marcus tried to hold his tears so that he wouldn't be a bother to Lilith as well while Ellie just kept unleashing all her emotions without holding back.

Lilith losing her ability to see because she was trying to protect both her and Marcus, especially after Ellie shouting that she didn't want her help, or that she didn't need it? There was no going back from that.

They then got back to walking out of the ring of memories to get as far away from the projected warriors as possible.

The memories of Evlin and Mia were still around somewhere and even Marceus, despite having been sliced in half by Lilith, never seemed to vanish like the other defeated figures.

The three were still out there and were still very dangerous, especially considering that they were being controlled by the forest's consciousness, who seemed to really hold a grudge against invaders.

Ellie was holding Lilith's hand while Marcus was walking by her side. The two were trying to help her avoid tripping while marching through the forest.

As the group got closer to the end of the ring, they spotted Detra waiting for them at the far end with her arms crossed.

"So... How did it go...?" she questioned.

None of them were in the mood to chat with her right now, but they still tried to explain all that happened. About how they managed to defeat a couple of the memory warriors but the three biggest problems still remained, about how they used the power of fusion to increase Lilith's strength and about how that ended up making her overuse her future sight to the point where she ended up losing her vision completely.

"I see... " Detra could see from their looks that any kind of snarky comment would just be like her begging to get smacked in the face, so she decided to just remain quiet and move on, "let's go... The exit of the ring is close."

And thus, the group reunited and finally reached the end of the memory ring. Marcus looked back and could see a couple of shadows moving around the bushes, silhouettes of three figures that just continued to stare at them like sharks waiting for their prey to enter the water.

"How are we going to get out of here...?" Marcus questioned.

"Don't worry about it... Just keep moving" Detra mentioned.

The four left the sea of blue leaved trees behind them and were now about to enter into a rocky terrain filled with massive boulders and large slopes. Detra explained that this was some kind of transition from the ring of memories to the ring of fear.

They spotted the next ring and realized that guiding Lilith was going to become even harder than before. The ring of fear, from what the group could observe, was completely covered in a deep red fog, making it near impossible to see where one was going.

The party was now standing in between the two areas, on top of the rocky terrain, and they were about to keep going when Ellie made a suggestion.

"Wait!!" she said, making Detra and Marcus stare at her, "coul- could we take a break...? I think we could use a small break..."

Marcus noticed that she was tightly holding Lilith's hand while shaking a bit. He realized that she was worried about Lilith going in there without properly resting. The lad then glared at his mother to make sure she had gotten the message as well.

"Sure... We... We can take this time to rest and recover our energy..." Detra stated, showing that she had indeed managed to read Ellie's intentions and had no desire to fight her on that.

Ellie tried to use her magic to set up a camp to make Lilith stay as comfortable as possible but considering her spells were based around diamonds, that was not an easy job.

She tried to improvised a bed for Lilith to rest. It wasn't great, but it was still better than laying on rocks. She also tried to make some for the rest of them and they all tried their best to relax on top of her diamonds.

The girl then took this chance to sit next to the blind woman and began to chat with her.

"I... I never said thank you..." Ellie started, "for everything... For all you've done... You risked so much to help me and my aunt... And I... I was so ungrateful to you... I'm so sorry... And I truly am thankful..."

"...There is no need to thank me, Ellie... It's part of our job to take care of each other... It's ok..."

Ellie looked down at hearing Lilith's words. She was trying to hold back her tears once more. Staring at Lilith's face who had her eyes closed but still trying to hold a smile made Ellie feel even worse.

"No... No, it's not!!!" Ellie corrected her, "I messed up!! I got you all caught in the mess I started!! Why aren't you angry with me or something??"

Lilith carefully moved her hand over Ellie's face in an attempt to try to guess how the girl was feeling.

"You didn't start this mess, Ellie... We did!"

"Wha... What...?"

"Mia... The dryad... The north god, the demons, the spirits... These were all problems that came from our world... Problems that we failed to keep it among ourselves... Problems that your aunt and you both tried to fix... With way more effort than you needed to give... If anything, I should be apologizing for getting you involved in our mess..."

"But... All the mistakes I did..."

"You're a kid Ellie... Of course, You made mistakes... I'm so sorry for getting angry at you before... God, you're nine years old... And you're dealing with all this nonsense in a much better way than any kid at your age possibly could..." Lilith mentioned, followed by then hugging the girl again and caressing her hair.

Ellie could hear Lilith's relaxed heartbeat, there were no lies in her words.

"You're doing great so far... So don't give up now... We are here for you!"

Ellie honestly didn't feel like she was doing great at all, but she knew Lilith believed that, and she didn't want to disappoint her after everything they went through.

This was the first time Ellie felt so much comfort by staying by the side of an adult that wasn't part of her family.

"U- Understood... I won't give up..." she replied while sobbing a little.

"Good... Because I'm not giving up either!" Lilith stated.

"... What do you mean...?"

"I made a vow... To bring down the dryad that tormented my friends... The same way you made your vow to rescue your family by defeating Mia..."

"..."

"I still plan to fulfill my vow!"

"But... Your eyes!!"

"It will take more than that to stop me... Trust me, I can be pretty stubborn when I want to!" Lilith commented. She then moved her face closer to Ellie and whispered into her ear, "I learned that from your aunt!"

Ellie felt a small glimmer of joy from Lilith's words and realized she also needed to try her best. Lilith hadn't lost her fighting spirit at all, so neither should she.

The fight with Mia was still a few days away, and she had much work to do.

The group decided to just give up and spent the night there, after all, trying their best to heal before going into the next ring.

When the sun appeared in the sky, it signaled that there were now four days left until the fated battle.