202 The winner

Lilith heard some strange sound projecting throughout the forest and started to become concerned.

"What was that!??" she asked while trying to gaze at the top of the mountain. She was using her combined form alongside Marcus which made her hair look snow-white.

"Not sure... Probably the young miss trying to reach for the core..." Detra replied.

The two were stuck back at the summoning ring after being teleported by accident once they tried to rush to the core after realizing Ellie was missing and hearing her beastly howl from the top of the mountain.

"You need to go after her!! With your fused form, you should be able to get there fast enough to help her!" Detra suggested.

"I can't just leave you here alone!!" Lilith debated.

"I'm a master class ice mage, I can handle myself! Just go!"

"But-"

Before they could continue their conversation, they spotted monsters being summoned all around them by the power of the forest.

Beasts of the size of a truck who looked like a mixture between a wolf with six legs, two heads, and a pair of bat wings on their backs. They all had fur black like charcoal and three eyes on their faces.

"The forest is trying to keep us separated... She's trying to stall us so we won't help the young miss..." Detra realized, "You have to go!!"

One of the wolfs tried to charge at them but the two just defeated them quickly with a combination of ice attacks and sword-slashes.

"Can you take care of them on your own?" Lilith asked.

"Maybe..." Detra replied while looking clearly tired. She also noticed that even more monsters continued to show up with each passing second. She wasn't sure if she could handle such a big number.

Lilith knew she wasn't in a good state to fight, they had been fighting each other for a whole month after all with barely any breaks.

Lilith then grabbed Detra in a princess-carry position and began to rush with her in the opposite direction.

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

"I'm getting you to a safe place outside of the forest, and then, I'm going after Ellie!!" Lilith shouted.

"Are you crazy??? We don't have time for this!! The young miss-"

"Is much stronger than we all give her credit for!!" Lilith interrupted, "I know that because I just spent our entire time in the final ring watching her closely..."

Detra became silent, still feeling nervous.

"Have faith in our girl!" Lilith whispered while she continued to escape from the black wolf monsters.

Part 2

Ellie was still engaging with the clones of Flora.

They all kept charging at her with extreme ferocity in their eyes and trying to tear the young mage apart.

Ellie, however, was not worried, as she was relying on her magic combo of diamond golem and silver metal to fend them off.

With a couple of powerful swings in her weapon form, Ellie succeeded in defeating every one of them that were dumb enough to get close to her.

The clones kept trying to punch, slash, stab, or grab the enormous diamond giant girl, but its body was just too strong for any damage to take effect of for it to be held down.

More clones tried to leap on top of it, but the golem just changed Ellie into a gauntlet and knocked all of them with quick punches, sending them flying.

Vines began to try and tangle her up, but Ellie switched into a dagger again and cut them to free her doll.

A couple of carnivorous plants tried to bite the giant, and some of the wooden arms from the tree also attempted on holding her still, but the girl just gave up a couple of pieces of her diamonds to get away from their efforts.

She kept punching and slashing more clones but Flora would not stop making more of them emerge from the ground.

[Why won't you just go down already!!??] she thought to herself while taking the shape of a needle to pierce a plant.

The more time passed, the smaller her golem would get. Eventually, she would need to go back to normal once her magic energy ran out.

Ellie then noticed the clones all gathering in one place. Not just the clones, but also the plants, the vines, the arms, they all were combining themselves around the spherical core and the large tree located in the center of the mountain, and fusing into one monstrous being.

[Oh, come on...]

Ellie tried to charge at it but the creature just smacked the golem with a fist that was even bigger than it.

Ellie finally couldn't hold it anymore and returned to normal as she watched her golem crumble.

"Ugh..." she whispered as she was still being sent flying from the impact.

The girl was then caught before touching the ground by a vine that wrapped her arms and legs, making her unable to move.

"I told you that I could do this the whole day..." Flora commented while taking the form of a literal abomination of nature combining all of her tree and her agents into one being that looked like a woman with her legs buried under the ground with her core stuck in her torso.

"Seriously, how many times do I need to cut you down??" Ellie cried while trying to struggle against the vines.

She wanted to reach for the ground to use spell breaker and get more energy back, but Flora was making sure she would stay away from the floor.

"Its hopeless young mage... I'm a high-demon... I'm leagues more powerful than any regular demon that you might have faced in the past... My power is the kind of thing your kind could never dream to comprehend..."

"... You're not very humble, are you?" Ellie whispered.

"..."

Flora smacked Ellie with full force against the ground and immediately raised her back again. She acted so fast that Ellie barely had time to activate her power.

"Any other smart comments??" Flora dared.

"No... cough, cough... I'm done... cough, cough..." Ellie admitted while feeling her entire body covered in pain, "I tried my best... but my best just wasn't enough... Just make this end... Please..."

"As you wish..." Flora replied, "time for you to finally join my army of undead servants... as well as be the first on my new collection of memory warriors..."

"I just can't believe I never figured out what your curse was... How can you be so powerful???"

"If you must know, I have the ability to boost my power from being in contact with the earth itself... This is what allows me to send my consciousness all over this entire area!" Flora explained while slowly bringing Ellie closer to her in order to stab her heart.

"... Wait, that's it...?? Its just another power boost...??"

"What do you mean JUST another power boost??"

"I've seen like, three of those already... Marcus can boost himself with his holy metal, my aunt can boost herself with healing magic, and even Mia can boost herself by staying close to negative emotions... All of them just do the same old trick of getting faster and stronger..."

"..."

"You're... Kinda boring..." Ellie commented while smirking.

"... I changed my mind... forget turning you into a soldier, I never want to see your face again..." Flora declared while showing burning anger in her wooden face. She then moved Ellie closer to her mouth, "just die..." and opened wide to devour the young girl.

Flora then dropped Ellie to swallow her, but the kid just used the last remains of her energy to turn her arm into a blade and pierced her way right through Flora's mouth made of wood and vines.

"Ugh!!! You still had energy?? But you didn't you use it to protect yourself when I slammed you!!" Flora asked while sending more materials to reform her head.

"Because turning my whole body into metal takes a lot out of me... But making just my arm into a blade is much easier..." Ellie explained while continuing to fall, "and it gives me more than enough power to do this!!"

And just as she was passing by Flora's torso, she spotted the red core and extended her blade even longer to stab it.

"AAAARGHHHHH!!!! What did you do!!!!???" Flora shouted in agony.

"I'm getting what I came here for!!" Ellie replied.

She then began to shrink her blade to bring her body closer to the core and finally touched it with her bare hand.

"Now... Give me something good!!!" Ellie yelled.

She then tried to activate her mirror magic once again, trying to focus it in order to get exactly what she wanted, to copy Flora's cursed power boost ability.

"God, I hope this works..." she mumbled as she returned her arm to normal and jumped off from Flora and landed on the ground, and finally used spell breaker to get some power back.

"Ok, let's do this... Magic energy..." Ellie said while Flora continued to contort in pain and scream.

Suddenly, pillars of diamond appeared and surrounded her as she used her mirror magic to activate her aunt's power and making a gauntlet for her arms.

"Next... Blessed energy..."

After that, Ellie turned her skin into metal and began to feel the power of holy energy flowing through her body.

"And finally..." Ellie said before taking a deep breath and whispering, "cursed energy!!"

Something inside Ellie began to erupt. She could feel the power of her curse taking in all the force of the earth from below her feet. Her arms, her legs, her head, everything felt like it was burning.

Flora observed as a glowing aura began to surround Ellies' entire body as if she was inside some kind of fire, a fire that kept changing colors from green, to silver, to red.

"What is this..??" the giant tree monster asked.

Ellie could feel it. The power wanted to explode. It wanted to break free from her body and go on a rampage. Ellie was the power's container, and she needed to be stronger than it to keep it inside and under her control.

She kneeled down as the pain in her body grew stronger. Next, she dropped her head and began to hold her stomach. It was the worst pain she ever felt. More painful than any injury she ever received from any monster.

She began to cry as she could feel her body breaking. Small cracks appeared over her metal skin. Her tears never even reached the ground, the just evaporated from the pure intensity of her aura.

"This... Is... crazy...." she mumbled.

She didn't expect it to be like this. She heard about how her aunt did it, and she even saw Mia doing it. Was she going to be the only one to fail at conquering terminal energy?

She then punched the ground with a trembling arm. The image of her aunt being lost forever and Mia winning over her projected inside her heart.

"I... Am... Not... LOSING!!!!" Ellie declared.

Ellie tried to stand, but her body still felt heavy. The powers inside of her felt like they were fighting each other over who gets to be the ruler.

She almost fell once again, but her diamond moved to give her support, not only that, she could see her metal skin turning back to normal. It felt like her curse was finally starting to balance itself among her energies. It was almost as if the people that she was mirroring were teaching her how to control her power, as if her own aunt and Marcus were there by her side helping her stand up.

Not only them, Lilith, Detra, Daren, all the people that helped her in a time of need and with who she shared a deep trust with. She could feel them all by her side.

The energy finally exploded, blinding Flora for a moment. When she could finally see again, she witnessed Ellie standing in front of her with a heavy glare stamped in her face and the terminal energy completely under her control.

"I can't believe it... The crazy girl actually did it..." Flora whispered.

Ellie raised her arm and her blue gauntlet began to grow while gathering more diamonds around it. It kept growing until it took the shape of the head of a spear that covered Ellie's entire arm below her elbow. The spear, just like Ellie, was completely engulfed in terminal energy.

Ellie aimed her spear at Flora, and dashed at her with full speed, piercing her core in the process.

"GUAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" Flora screamed, even louder than before. She tried to reach for Ellie with her wooden arms, but before she could even touch her, the core was already dead, making her entire body stop moving.

"I told you..." Ellie declared while taking her spear away, "you messed with the wrong girl!!"