214 Motherly instincts

A group of civilians from Evlin's world dressed in red robes, much like Mia used to dress with, and carrying pieces of the channeling tree, no doubt courtesy of her dryad powers.

They all had red glows on their eyes as if to showcase that they all were being possessed by a spirit under the command of Mia. Not just simple spirits thought, souls of deceased spellcasters that the girl gathered over the years.

"Mother... What are you going to do??" Marcus questioned while trying to stand up after getting hit by a blast made of three spells combined and noticing the woman's fist shaking for some reason.

Detra just raised her hands and started to gather water from the air and turn it into giant floating icicles to surround her body.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm making sure we don't lose the war!!" Detra replied while aiming her frozen crystals at her adversaries.

"Wait!! You're not going to kill them, are you?? These people are innocent!! They're being controlled!"

The ice mage just rolled her eyes, "I know!! Now, shut up and let me do my job!!"

Marcus watched as the group of icicles were throw at the possessed mages and collided with each of their staffs and broke them into pieces.

Detra wast aiming at the people, she was aiming at their weapons and making sure they were unable to cause any more damage.

"Whoa..." Marcus whispered, amazed by his mother's ability to not cause any harm to the mages themselves.

"If you have time to be impressed you should hurry to one of the healing magicians and recover your strength! This war is far from over!!" Detra stated.

"U- Understood..." Marcus replied. He knew she was right. He had been using his blessing more than ever today, running all over the place and turning himself into a weapon to help his allies whenever they needed him or to hand over some silver metal. He was getting tired, and he knew he couldn't get tired yet, not until the biggest threat was dealt with.

The silver-haired lad rushed over to the other side of West's portal to get some treatment, leaving Detra to handle the rest of the civilians.

"Good luck, mother..." he whispered while running.

Detra noticed that Marcus had left, and finally started to unleash her true power now that she didn't need to worry about getting him caught in the crossfire while glaring at her targets. She was trying to hide it but seeing Marcus getting injured made her really want to go all out and just start rampaging over the battlefield.

The woman aimed her hands at the opposite side and began to shout.

"Grant me the power to freeze these lands...

Grant me the strength to overcome my foe...

Allow them to witness the power that it's in my hands...

And let them quiver upon tasting the ultimate cold!!"

Mages, warriors, and monsters all watched with their mouths wide open as Detra released an immense blast of ice magic that would freeze anything it touched in a matter of seconds.

The demons and beasts tried to escape but her power was too fast for any of them to outrun it. The possessed mages attempted their best to fight back her power with their own set of spells, but Detra's magic was simply superior to them.

Ellie gasped as she continued to look at everything around Detra being captured by her freezing spell.

"What... Was that???" she wondered.

"What? What? What happened?" Lilith asked.

"Miss Evlin's maid just froze half of the battlefield after reciting some kind of poem!!" Claire answered while being treated by a medic mage.

"A poem...?" Lilith repeated.

"Not a poem... A chant!" Ashley corrected.

"A chant...?" Ellie asked.

"Chants are gateways for mages to access the strongest forms of magic... It's a way to put into words what they desire their spells to achieve. It's really hard to master since you won't always have the time to speak long sentences in the middle of a fight with the risk of getting attack while you talk..." Ashley explained, "but for an ice mage who can slow or straight up stop the movements of her enemies... Especially in the middle of a war where she will have people supporting her? It's a deadly tool to use!"

"Using words to make your magic stronger..." Ellie whispered.

Claire just raised an eyebrow towards Ashley, "how do you know so much about magic?"

"I studied it a lot! I happen to find magic something really interesting to learn about!" Ashley admitted while smirking at the girl.

Ellie began to wonder if she could do the same for her own spells. She also asked herself why Detra didn't teach her anything about chanting during her month in the ring o time.

"Is there any special requirement to use chanted magic?" the girl asked.

"Of course, just look at the former goddess of the east over there," Ashley commented while pointing at Detra who was on her knees right now and gasping for air.

"What happened to her?" Ellie asked.

"Chants use a lot more magic energy than a regular spell... A simple spell is like trying to run around a house with a moderate speed, while a chanted spell is like trying to dash around a mansion using all the power in your legs without any breaks."

As Ellie finished hearing Ashley's explanation, she realized that Detra probably didn't felt chants would be safe for her to learn considering her impulsive nature. Only someone cold and calculated like Detra herself could use this kind of power moderately.

Still, she couldn't deny how impressive said power was. Most of the beasts were killed by the ice magic and a large number of the mages controlled by Mia became incapable of moving or fighting.

Detra took a long deep breath to put herself together and stood up again to get back in the fight. She could spot more enemies approaching with extreme prejudice now that they realized how much of a threat she actually was.

"Looks like they don't want me to use that spell again..." she commented.

One of the demons tried to slice her head off with the swing of a hammer made of red diamonds but the mage just created a shield made of ice to block the attack, followed by changing it into a spear and piercing the foe in the chest.

Two more enemies showed up, one mage and one tiger monster.

Detra raised her hands and froze their legs by making the ice appear from the ground. The woman rushed to destroy the mage's staff before he could cast a spell by launching an ice beam at it, and right after that, used her power to control ice to make the broken frozen staff float and stab the tiger in the head.

More opponents continued to come. If they were demons, Detra would just quickly kill them by aiming her ice magic at their vitals. If it was a person, she would freeze them and destroy their staffs.

Her successful performance on the battlefield was bringing the spirits of those nearby up and making them feel more motivated to achieve victory.

"What the hell...?" she gasped.

Before she noticed, she had a group of people next to her, giving support and keeping monsters away.

She just gazed confused at the soldiers that continued to fight by her side, "what are you all doing??"

One of the female magicians just came closer and gave a reply, "we're helping you, of course!"

"What...?? Why??"

Another one also approached and spoke as well, "because we are on your side, dummy!"

Detra continued to look as everyone kept fighting and slashing any monster that tried to approach her. She felt like she was dreaming seeing so many people trying so hard to protect her.

"Don't just stand there! Use that spell again!!" another soldier shouted.

"R- Right!! Sorry!" Detra mumbled. She was really not used to people being nice to her.

The woman asked them to clear the way and kept control of the monsters as she started to chant again.

"Grant me the power to freeze these lands..." she started.

Her newfound allies moved to avoid getting caught in her attack as they could feel the temperature dropping once again. But just as Detra was about to finish her chant, a large piece of diamond in the shape of a spear appeared out of nowhere and pierced her left leg.

"Guaaaaaahhhh!!!!" the woman cried as she fell on the ground shivering in pain. Her magic came undone and the cold started to vanish.

"Detra!!!" Ellie shouted!!

"Mother!!!" Marcus yelled.

The two almost had a heart attack at the sight of Detra being wounded and almost jumped into the other side to help her, only to be stopped by both Lilith and the healing units.

Detra tried to get the injury closed using her freezing magic but more spears started to appear out of the sky one after another.

She raised her hand to try and stop them with her magic, but her pain was making it hard to concentrate, and while she managed to keep herself safe, she saw many of her allies falling due to the attack.

"No!!" she cried.

The woman tried to look at the source of this wave of attacks and began to lose color as she gazed at the culprit.

It was a young well-built brow-haired man who appeared to be around the age of twenty-five wearing an armor made of diamonds, carrying a red spear, and riding a large black lion with red eyes.

"Of course it would be you..." Detra mumbled noticing that her next opponent would be Daren and Eclipse.