215 Reunion

"What!!??" Lilith gasped, "Where!!?? Where!!??"

Ashley came closer and began to hold on Lilith's shoulders to try to calm her down, "he's on the other side of the field... Among the rest of the possessed mages..."

"Daren..." Lilith whispered while trying to hold back her anguish and desire to see him again and began to curse her own blindness for the first time ever since she acquired it. Despite a part of her not wanting to look at him as a zombie following Mia's orders, she just wanted to make sure if he was safe and sound right now.

Daren raised his spear and aimed it at Detra, followed by launching a barrage of diamond spikes at her.

Detra moved out of the way by raising a platform made of ice under herself that moved her body from his trajectory.

Once she landed she realized that the lion boy she hated so much wasn't alone. Behind him were a couple more familiar faces. Evlin's mother, Ellie's parents, Claire's mom, all of them wearing red robes and equipped with either a diamond weapon or a magic staff.

Mia just released a small giggle, "what's the matter East? Having trouble with a couple of mere humans? What happened with the big, bad, goddess that everyone feared so much??"

Detra glared at the red lady and began to whisper, "you want big and bad? I'll give you big and bad!"

She raised a wall of ice to divide Mia's servants from her allies and created another platform to get all the way on top of it. Once she reached the peak, she locked targets on Mia and summoned the biggest icicle she could by using the natural cold of the sky in her current altitude.

"By the way, I have to say, I just loooove the whole ice queen vibe you're going with right now! I like it much more than the pretentious holy goddess act you used to have" Mia commented while Detra kept aiming at her and making her spells even bigger.

"Don't mention it..." the ice mage replied as she finally finished her spell and launched a huge icicle at the red bride, "in fact... don't ever speak again, period!"

The frozen crystal traveled at immense speed across the air but before it could even get close to Mia, Daren just shattered it in the middle of the air and turned it into small fragments by shooting it with his spear, making it look like it had begun to snow in Mia's side of the battle.

"You'll have to do better than that!! My new bodyguard is a tad overprotective!!" Mia laughed.

Detra just clicked her tongue and before she realized it, her wall had started to crumble as well.

She gazed down and noticed that Ellie's parents were using ice and water magic to steal her creation and turned the wall into a pair of serpents.

Ellie's father was controlling a serpent made of ice while her mother had one made of water.

"Wonderful..." Detra groaned.

As Detra was about to be swallowed, a huge fire hand appeared between her and the snakes and collided with them, releasing a large amount of steam over the area.

The woman turned around and realized that Leona had sent her flaming ape to aid her.

"Thanks for the assist!" Detra commented as she created another ice platform to help her safely reach the ground.

"Anytime!! We got your back!!" Leona replied surprised. This was the first time she ever saw Detra thanking anyone.

The fire mage and the ice mage gazed at their opponents and readied themselves for another battle.

Leona started to increase the power of her fire cloak and made another gorilla made of flames while Detra started to cast another ice spell and formed a huge icicle.

The duo launched their attacks at Ellie's parents but the couple just summoned more snakes to fight them back using the water from the air and the grass around them. Only this time, the snakes weren't made of either water or ice, they were a mix of both, and it wasn't just two, there were several of them.

Three of the serpents just pierced the ape through the stomach and made it dissipate in thin air, while three others stopped Detra's icicle and absorbed the water in it to grow even bigger.

There were still three more left, making their creature look like a hydra as all their necks ended up connecting into one larger body, big enough to tower two trucks pilled on top of each other.

"They seem like a bad match for me!!" Detra realized, "they can just devour my magic..."

"Same here... My fire is not strong enough to survive their spells... Besides..." Leona shifted her gaze and noticed a figure glaring at Detra, "it seems like your opponent is already picked..."

Detra looked at the direction of her gaze and saw Daren mounting Eclipse and coming closer to her with a red spear in hand.

"Oh... This one I can gladly handle!!" Detra admitted, "but who will handle the water beast?"

"I'll call for our electric mages... Just hang on!!" Leona shouted as she started to release fire from under her boots to dash across the field and call for help.

Detra stood by herself while trying to dodge the attacks of the hydra and Daren at once by constantly creating ice shields to block their attacks or ice platforms to jump out of the way.

"Sure... Leave me here by myself why don't you?" Detra complained.

Daren prepared to throw another spike of diamond at her and she responded by launching a quickly-made icicle.

The two clashed and shattered each other making small fragments or red and transparent dust fall all over them.

"I know you're being controlled right now, but I refuse to believe you're not at least enjoying this a little bit..." Detra stated while exchanging glares with Daren.

The lion rider remained silent and just tried to stomp Detra with Eclipe's body. The woman reacted by instinct and almost made an ice spear to stab the black lion, but she was then reminded of the words Marcus had left her with, about how these people shouldn't be harmed, and froze in the middle of her action, giving Daren the opportunity he needed to land a heavy blow on her.

"Guaahhhh!!!" she cried.

The woman tried to jump out of the way, but wasn't fast enough to get out in time and ended up getting herself squashed by the beast.

"Ugh!! Get off me!!!" she mumbled as Eclipse continued to imprison her under its paws.

She tried to conjure another spell, but her stamina was starting to run out. She realized that she had been launching too many large spells one after another since the battle started and was probably almost out of magic energy by this point.

Even if she was a master class mage, she was still just a human, and there was a limit to how much she could accomplish by herself.

Daren got out of Eclipse and aimed his spear at her neck. Several mages tried to come to her rescue but they were all stopped by the hydra's body standing in their way.

Mia used this chance to taunt the woman.

"So tell me, East! How does it feel to be stripped of your position as a goddess and finding yourself defeated by the same humans you used to look down upon? The anger and shame must be beyond unimaginable!!"

Detra continued to glare at Mia but this time she also smiled at her.

"A couple of months ago, it probably would be..." Detra admitted, "but recently... I came to learn that humans have much more potential to grow than I imagined!"

Daren pressed the spear on her neck and blood started to drip from her skin, however, Detra just kept grinning.

"I rather die as a human by a human than becoming the abomination that you turned yourself into... Tell me, miss 'please end my life'... How does it feel to go so far just to try to remember what it feels like to be human again after realizing what a blunder the path you chose was? How does it feel to realize your whole life was nothing but one huge mistake? The frustration must be unimaginable!"

For the first time ever since the war started, Mia dropped her smile.

"I'm tired of looking at her face..." the red bride whispered with a cold tone, "dispose of her..."

Daren raised his spear to stab her. The mages Leona had called for were still dealing with the hydra, they wouldn't be able to arrive on time and she couldn't win against Eclipse's natural strength. More of Mia's servants in red robes started to approach.

"Beg for mercy..." Mia ordered to Detra.

"Ha! Mercy from you!?? Hahahahaha!! What makes you think I want or need your mercy?" Detra replied.

"Right at this moment... I'm closer to a god than you ever were during your time as a divine deity... and you right now are about as powerful as a baby that just learned how to crawl... So drop your pride and beg me to save you!" Mia spoke as she finally started to smirk again, "Let me taste the shame of being humiliated by someone you despise! Let me savor your hate as you curse me from the bottoms of your heart! Let me enjoy your suffering while your fear for your life!"

Detra closed her eyes and continued to grin, "I don't fear for my life..."

"... So be it..." Daren began to drop his spear.

"... because I know I'm not going to die!" Detra continued.

Mia widened her eyes and as soon as she heard that, she saw Daren being hit by a blast of holy energy.

"Guaaaahhhh!!!" the lad shouted as the divine power started to cover his body.

"What!!??" Mia gasped, "what did you do???"

Detra just laughed, "I made you look!"

Mia watched the holy energy and realized that it was coming out from one of her servants, a blond man wearing a red robe. Except Mia had memorized the faces of every single one of her servants, and she was sure she never added that person to her collection.

But once she took another look, she finally recognized who he was.

"You!!!" she yelled.

"Me..." the blond man replied, using the same method of responding that Evlin would often use.

The holy energy continued to shower itself over Daren until the spirit that was possessing his body was finally expelled from it.

Daren was about to fall to the ground but the man grabbed him to help him stand.

"Welcome back, Daren!" he whispered.

Daren opened his eyes and almost started to cry once he realized the familiar face that was by his side right now, a face that he hadn't seen in a long time.

"Gustav!"