193 Unclear path

"We made it!!" Ellie screamed after returning to her regular form.

She looked back to see the mist behind her and could hardly believe that they finally managed to get past this ring this quickly. She then looked up and noticed that the sky was completely dark showing that the day was about to end. Even though the ring itself was a quick experience they all had to wait a long time for Detra to properly recover before moving on.

The lack of light made it hard to properly see what was ahead of them so Lilith used this chance to make a small suggestion.

"We should take another break..."

None of them argued against her. They all were exhausted by this point. Ellie never spent such a long time as a weapon before, Detra was still adjusting to remembering her ice spells, not to mention going through a lot of mental stress, and Marcus also needed some time to clear his mind and recover his stamina.

Lilith was surprisingly the one who seemed to be in the best shape right now. Even though she still couldn't see without the aid of Marcus, she still acted like she was sure everything would be fine and they had nothing to worry about.

But that didn't change the fact that she still had some things they needed to address.

"East... remember when I said we needed to talk...?" she mentioned.

Detra was just trying her best to catch her breath while sitting on the ground while she was told that. The blond woman just looked at Lilith with an air of indifference, "guess we are back to our status quo?"

"I'm serious..." Lilith declared, "If we are going to do this properly, we need to actually think about our actions... And that includes letting us know if you plan to destroy the forest's core beforehand!"

"Fine, fine, fine... We'll talk... But first, let's eat something..." Detra mumbled. The group was surprised by that request. Detra was constantly going on and on about how they needed to hurry towards the ring of time and now that they were so close she wanted to slow down.

Marcus finally returned to normal after that shock and helped Lilith find a place to sit while prepared their meal.

There wasn't really much to choose from. They had a few leftovers from the initial supplies that they had brought before they entered the garden, a couple of fruits and meat that they gathered during their time in the summoning ring, and now they also had access to some water from Detra's ice magic.

This wouldn't gain any five-star rating, but it was a nice enough dinner to help them survive another day.

They just continued to eat while constantly trying to relax their minds, just trying to enjoy this small moment of peace until the next big problem showed up again.

"Before we begin... I just want to know if you're ok, East..." Lilith said, referring to Detra's small breakdown after having her memories invaded and violated.

"I'm fine... Let's just get to the point..." Detra replied.

"Good. Now tell us what exactly were you thinking when you came up with your idea to destroy the core of the garden." Lilith asked. Her tone wasn't aggressive or irritated, she sounded as if she simply wanted to hear Detra's idea before fully judging it.

Detra kept quiet for a moment while thinking what the best way to word her plan was, but as she kept looking at Lilith's expression, she could feel as if a little bit of the rift between them had diminished.

"Mia has access to terminal energy... I assumed that the only way for the young miss to really stand a chance against her was if she could use her mirror ability to absorb the power of a demon so she could access this energy as well..." Detra explained.

"Me!!??" Ellie gasped, "using terminal energy??"

"You already have the diamond spells from your aunt and the holy metal from Marcus..." Detra continued, "If you manage to gain a cursed power as well, you would be able to fight on equal grounds with Mia."

Lilith frowned, "so all that talk about using this garden and the ring of time to train Ellie's fighting abilities?"

"That was the initial plan... But the more I watched the young miss fighting, the more I realized... It wasn't going to be enough..."

Ellie began to look down. She understood that Detra had to come up with another dangerous plan because she wasn't meeting her expectations.

"Why didn't you tell us that??" Marcus complained.

"We are not exactly on the most friendly of terms... You two already were suspicious about following me and my ideas... I just assumed that suggesting this plan would be the final nail to make you decide to reject me completely..." Detra answered.

Lilith just massaged her forehead to try to calm down, "well... what's done is done... We need to think about what to do now... Ellie, what do you think?"

"Me...!!?? You want me to decide??" the girl asked.

"Of course! This whole thing is about you after all, and the more I think about it, we were just deciding things for you instead of just asking what you wanted. It's about time we start listening to you as well" Lilith mentioned.

Ellie then pondered about that for a while. She started to consider her options. Train in the ring of time for the remaining of their days in the forest? Try to reach for the core and face the real body of the forest, who by now is probably really, really pissed off at them? Or pack her things, go home, and start binge-watching Breaking Bad on Netflix while hoping that everything will just solve itself?

"Can I even handle the power of terminal energy?? Didn't that power almost tore my aunt apart when she used it? I don't have healing powers like her or Mia!! I can't keep fixing my body over and over again if the energy starts to destroy me!!" Ellie questioned.

"No... But you do have the same unbreakable skin as Marcus!" Detra reminded the girl, which made Ellie's eyes widen up, "you don't have to worry about breaking apart if you can't break in the first place."

"Oh!!"

"Exactly... The blessed energy of Marcus' holy metal, the magic energy of your aunt's diamonds, and the cursed energy of the core of the forest... If you can combine all three into one power, you will truly become the ultimate weapon!"

"But why did we need this forest in particular?? Why not just go after some random demon and have Ellie copy him instead?" Marcus wondered.

"... Mia has a freaking god inside of her, the strongest re-creation mage of all time, and is the descendent of Hana herself... You really think a random demon will produce a form of terminal energy strong enough to rival all that??"

"Ok, point taken..." Marcus quieted down.

"So... If I absorb the core... Will I finally be able to have enough power to defeat Mia?" Ellie asked.

"After we spend some time in the ring of time and finishing up polishing your skills? I would say it's the best choice we have right now..." Detra admitted.

Lilith seemed worried, "I don't know... Letting a kid handle terminal energy on her own...? Are you absolutely sure it's safe?"

"No, not even close..." Detra shrugged, "honestly there is a big chance that the power will make her blown up into a thousand pieces…"

"EXCUSE ME!!!???" Ellie shouted. Both Marcus and Lilith also acted like they were about to have a heart attack.

"Relax, I'm just kidding…" Detra explained while waving her hand. The three of them were mesmerized. They heard Detra making sarcastic comments before but she wasn't exactly known for joking.

Ellie once again was at a loss as to what she should do. Part of her was a bit curious about trying out the power of terminal energy herself, the same power that made her aunt strong enough to defeat the demon leader, Chuck, with the aid of Marcus and Sphinx.

Part of her was also a little scared since this was the same power that Mia used to defeat her without breaking a sweat. Mia was already scary before, but when she gained that power, she looked like she was untouchable. Ellie knew that this wasn't just another power, it was THE power, the strongest form of energy, able to harm anything and anyone.

Would she even be able to control it? She only now finally got the hang of her mirror magic, also known as baby level magic, how long would it take to get the hang the strongest form of energy?

But at the same time, part of her competitive side wanted to try it. A small voice in the back of her mind wanting to prove that if Mia could do it, so could she.

Her aunt used to tell her that one of the things that would often motivate the crossbow girl to not give up was that she always hated losing to people she disliked. And back then? She really disliked Marcus and really wanted to beat him for how horrible he had treated her and her friends during her quest to return home.

And now, Ellie was in the same position. The same way Marcus was like a rival for Evlin, Mia now was like a rival for Ellie. A rival that she really doesn't want to lose to.

"...I'll do it..." Ellie announced, which created a small uneasiness in the mood and made the rest of the group exchange unsure looks with each other.

Lilith searched for the girl's hand by following the sound of her voice and tried to hold it tightly, "Ellie... Ellie, are you sure about this??"

At this moment, Ellie also noticed that if she wanted to succeed with this plan, she would need to clear all the doubt away from her group. When they worked together to fight the memory warriors they finally managed to obtain a perfect victory with no major losses, unlike before were they tried fighting individually, resulting in Lilith losing her vision.

If they were going after the real body of the forest, they needed to work together again.

"...Not really, to be honest... But I think I would feel much more at ease if someone could do a small favor for me..." Ellie admitted while looking straight at Lilith.

"What do you mean?"

Ellie then looked at Detra and walked towards her to grab her hand and bring the woman closer to Lilith.

"What are you doing...?" Detra asked.

"I want you to make peace with Lilith!" Ellie said while grinning.

"What!!??" x 3