182 Hidden mistery

"Later..." Detra responded to Marcus after listening to his demand.

She stood up and tried to reach for her bag to grab something to eat in order to prepare to face the ring of fear, but the lad just grabbed hold of her arm and stopped her.

"Now!" he demanded.

"..." she stared into his eyes. Up until now, Marcus was doing everything he could to avoid eye contact with her, but at this moment, he was acting like she was the only thing that mattered to him.

"I need to properly talk with you..." he explained.

"About what, exactly...? We have bigger problems to deal with right now... The girl is looking like she is about to lose her will to fight at any second, the lady with the power to predict any incoming danger has lost her ability and turned into dead weight, and now you come here to try and waste even more of my time... What could be so important that needs to be discussed right now while we are in the middle of a crisis??"

"..." Marcus continued to glare at her.

"Anything that could possibly need to be said between us has already been made very clear by this point... You want nothing to do with me, you hate me for the way I treated you, you wish I could just vanish from the face of the planet or hoped that I would at least rot in jail while paying for the crimes you think I committed against you... What else would you like to let me know?"

"Is that what you think...?" Marcus asked.

"...?"

"You think I wanted to just forget about you...? To get rid of you and act like you never existed...?"

"..."

"You were the only family I knew... The only thing I had... My whole life I just listened to you because I thought that deep inside you had the best intentions for the way you treated me... But you really didn't... At all... Everything you do, everything you did... You never cared about the way your actions could affect others... How could you live like that??"

"Is that what this is about? You want to know why I am the way I am?" Detra questioned while freeing her arm.

"I want to know the truth... I want to know if there was at least a small trace of a decent human being left inside of this rotten person you are today... I want to know if I spent so much of my life being attached to something that never existed in the first place..."

"Ah... I see... You wanna know if mommy ever really loved you..." Detra stated while resting her cheek on her fist.

Marcus just glared at her as always.

"Here is the truth... my champion... You existed for one goal, and one goal only... to be my weapon, and to bring me glory! And guess what? You failed at both of these roles... You couldn't do a thing against Mia when it mattered the most, and you couldn't do a thing for me when I needed you the most... To me, you're nothing but a failure. Happy?"

There were many things the lad wanted to say back to her, but he contented with just letting her know what he wanted her to know.

"Because now I know... That I really was holding out for someone that was really not worth my effort..." Marcus commented while dropping tears from his eyes, "I deserve more than this... I deserve more than hating myself for what you did to me... I will not miss my chance at being happy for someone who gives no value to the happiness of others..."

Detra just rolled her eyes and walked away from him, "good for you..."

Marcus while wiping his tears just whispered something before she could distance herself enough to not be able to hear him, "You are not worth my sorrow..."

Detra halted for a moment and without turning around just gave her response, "guess I'm not...", and finally moved away from him.

She kept walking and spotted Ellie approaching Lilith who seemed to be waking up as well. The two began to hug each other trying to comfort their wounds. Detra saw that image and started to picture visions inside her head of a girl around Ellie's age cuddling herself on her arms. The girl had the same eye-color and hair-color as Detra's.

She was reminded of the time she talked with Evlin about whether or not she remembered about her time when she was a human and how Detra stated that she didn't remember anything about her old life.

[["Really...? What about your family? Your mother? Your father? Maybe brothers and sisters...? Or even... A daughter...?"]]

Detra then dropped on her knees as she thought back to the word 'daughter' and the picture of the girl that she was hugging, except this time, the kid was holding a crying expression while looking at her. She felt like some kind of sleeping memory was starting to suddenly wake up. Something from a long, long time ago.

She tried to look away from Ellie and Lilith but ended up looking back to stare at Marcus instead, who was still wiping his face.

The two images started to constantly shift from one another. Detra hugging a girl that looked just like her, and Detra talking with that girl while she was on the verge of tears.

Ellie saw the woman on the ground shaking and sweating and came to see if she was ok.

"Detra...? Something wrong??" the girl asked.

Detra raised her head to stare at her, but instead of seeing Ellie's face, she was looking at the girl that kept appearing on her mind instead.

"Ma- Marcy..." Detra whispered.

"... Who...? Whoa!!!" Ellie was shocked for Detra just suddenly started to hug her out of nowhere like the two were close friends.

"Marcy!! I missed you so much... I... I..."

"Uuhhh..." Ellie didn't know what to say or do. She literally never saw Detra acting like that before.

The woman then finally came to her senses and realized that she was hugging Evlin's niece. She quickly released her and walked away while shaking.

"Sorry... I... I think I'm starting to get tired as well..."

"Oh... Ok..." Ellie responded while watching Detra leaving. She started to think to herself 'Who's Marcy...??' as she watched the woman walk away.

Part 2

After the rather out of the ordinary morning, the group finally decided to reunite again in order to have some breakfast before entering the ring of fear.

They had gathered some food from the different fruits they had gathered and meat from the creatures they defeated while inside the previous rings.

Ellie was trying to help Lilith with her food, Marcus was just eating quietly by himself, and Detra was staring at her meal without even touching it.

"... Detra...? Detra!!" Ellie shouted.

"Huh!? What!? What?" the woman replied while coming back from her trance.

"You're not hungry...?"

"I... I..." Detra tried to form words but every time she looked at Ellie she was reminded of the girl from her vision.

"Detra...? Are you ok...?" Ellie asked.

"I'm fine... I'm just not that hungry..." the woman announced while putting her food down.

"If you say so... So, should we talk about the next ring then...?"

"..." the blond woman just stared at the girl.

"Detra!!!" Ellie shouted again.

"Yes!! The ring, the ring... Let's talk about the next ring..." Detra stated while trying to keep herself focused, "the ring of fear is, as the name states, a place filled with emotional magic that creates an area capable of making your greatest fears appear right in front of your eyes... It is a mentally draining place, but nothing that you see in there is actually real or harmful... So it shouldn't be that big of a challenge if we just try to walk right through it..."

"I see... And how many rings left until the ring of time...?" Lilith asked.

"The ring of time should be right after this one... We are basically at the last stretch of our goal..."

"So the worst is already behind us? We already survived the ring of memories so there is nothing major that should stand in our way now... right?" Ellie wondered.

"Physically speaking... Yes... But like I said... The next ring will be a real test of your mental stability... Coming face to face with all your greatest fears can completely break someone's spirit if you don't have the maturity to properly deal with them..."

Lilith touched her eyes for a moment, "Guess I don't have nothing to worry about then..."

"Yes... Without your vision... the ring can't project anything to scare you away... the problems will be these two..." Detra explained while staring at Marcus and Ellie.

"These two...?" Marcus replied, "Are you implying that you have no fear?"

Ellie and Lilith were shocked. Marcus usually acts very nervous or very irritated when he talks with Detra. This was the first time he spoke to her in such a calm tone.

"I would like to believe I have the capability to know what is important in a situation and what isn't... Being afraid of a few made-up projections is definitely not worth worrying about..."

"If you say so..." Marcus stated while finishing his dish.

Lilith grabbed hold of Ellie's hand and aimed her face at her, "Do you think you will be ok Ellie?"

"I... I think so... We will go together... Right?" Ellie replied.

"Of course!" Lilith declared.

Detra felt like her body had been struck by lighting at hearing these words. She saw another vision at that moment. A vision of the blond girl walking around a town while holding her hand and talking to her.

"We will go together... Right?" the girl asked.

"Of course, dear! I would never leave you!" Detra heard herself replying in her vision.

The woman then dropped her diamond plate that Ellie had made for them to eat and spilled her food on the ground.

"Hey, what was that for?" Ellie asked.

Detra then stood up while breathing heavily and noticed that her whole body was shaking and sweating.

Ellie noticed the woman looking rather nervous and tried to get closer, "Detra...? Are you sure you're ok?"

Detra looked at Ellie again and the girl's image popped in her mind again, staring at her and showing a worried expression.

"Mommy...? Everything ok...?" the girl asked.

Detra closed her eyes and ears and began to shout, "Stop it!! Stop it!!"

Marcus and Lilith stood up after noticing the woman acting strangely, "East?? What's going on??"

"This isn't real... This isn't real..." Detra kept shaking her head while covering her ears with her hands. She then felt a warm palm grabbing her arm and trying to calm her down. She opened her eyes and saw the blond girl once again, looking deeply at her. and showing concern for her state.

"Detra... What's going on?"

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!" Detra shouted and began to run to get away from Ellie who she kept mistaking for the girl in her vision.

"Detra!! Wait!!! Where are you going???" Ellie screamed.

The group didn't know what to do and just observed while the woman continued to run away like a mad person and entering the ring of fear's never-ending blinding mist.