220 Fire soul

One one hand, she had many powerful allies on her side, the son of the living weapon, a master class ice mage, the niece of the crossbow girl who had access to mirror magic, her own group of fellow followers of the East, and her allied forces, the mages from Ashley's guild, as well as Ashley herself and her experience with strategies of war and her partner, Gustav, a man able to purify cursed beings with his blessed energy.

On the other hand, they were up against Mia, the descendent of the first red energy user, and her army of creatures and red mages.

Her creatures seemed to have no end to them as the more they killed, the more appeared, almost as if the woman had an infinite stock of these things just hiding in a basement, waiting for their turn to show up.

The red mages weren't all that hard to beat but since they were basically innocent civilians that were under the control of deceased spirits that were possessing their bodies, they had to be careful not to kill them by accident and focus on just destroying their staffs.

Two of them however were proving to be rather difficult to handle as they kept rampaging on the field with a giant water hydra that was taking more than half of Leona's troops to take it down.

Not to mention, Mia herself, despite seemingly staying busy with Evlin's niece right now, seemed like she was getting more and more unstable by the second.

Leona felt like there was an invisible time bomb about to go off at any moment now, and she wasn't sure if she would be ready when the time comes.

Right now, she was busy trying to stop the hydra, but her fire spells were showing little effect on the beast. And the more time passed, more of her allies kept falling, either being drowned by the living spell's water body or being stabbed by its frozen claws.

"Leona!! We need help!! This thing is not falling!!!" one of her soldiers yelled.

"Where are the thunder mages??" she replied.

"Many got injured by the demons and the golems!! We only have a couple of them left!!"

"Gather as many as you can and try to focus your attacks on the beast's core!! The rest of you, try to take the two mages controlling them down!" Leona ordered.

Her request was easier said than done though, as the two mages were hiding behind the hydra and blocking any attempt to strike them with her several of her heads.

"Leona!! Thunder magic is not working!! The beast is too big- Aaaarghh!!" one of her fellow followers shouted before getting pierced by an icicle that came out from the monster.

Leona gasped at the sight of her fallen comrade and realized she had no other choice besides trying to activate her usual combination of fire cloak and flaming gorilla to face the hydra.

Leona dropped on her knees as she realized that she and her group were almost all out of energy.

"Curses!!" she shouted as she punched the ground, "Is there nothing we can do?? where is Marcus!??"

"He and the ice mage are still busy with the remaining demons!! What do we do!??" one of her allies shouted.

"What do we do...??" Leona whispered, "what can we do...?"

It felt like the situation was hopeless. Leona realized that she had gotten too used to relying on Marcus and his power. She couldn't take care of this situation on her own. She and her team would fall.

"What can we do!!??" she shouted.

The hydra aimed one of its mouths at the fire mage and began to release a concentrated blast of water at her. Leona used her fire magic to burst herself out of the way and landed on top of a huge rock.

The monster's attack kept following her path and just used her burst once again to escape it. She saw the blast hitting the rock she was standing on completely shattering it into small fragments as if it was made of glass. One hit from that would probably kill her.

As Leona continued to run the hydra decided to focus more on her and several of her other heads started to try and shoot her as well.

She kept doing her best to dodge it but it was only a matter of time until her body ran out of power.

Ocassianlly she would try to fight back with a couple of fireballs, blazing spears, or beams of flames, but any fire spell she tried just vanished once it entered in contact with the hydra's body and turned into steam.

As she kept running away, she eventually met up with more monsters that were scattered across the field. The beasts spotted her and tried to pounce on the woman.

She was about to quickly dispose of them when someone jumped in the way and quickly delivered a series of punches in their bodies.

"What the...?" She gasped.

The man, who had blond hair and was wearing a couple of silver armor on his legs, turned around and looked at her, "I'll deal with the small ones, you handle the giant!"

"Ah! Gustav!!" she said after recognizing him. She was surprised that he could fight so well.

The hydra finally managed to catch up to Leona and started to blast her with five of its mouths.

Leona tried to summon a wall of fire to intercept the attack, but she wasn't sure how long it would last.

"We have a problem!! This beast is not coming down as easily as the others!!" she explained.

"Damn it! If I could get closer to the mages I could just purify them!" Gustav commented.

"Purify?? Is that what you did just now?" Leona asked.

"Yes!" he responded while trying to deal with a few more monsters that kept approaching, "I have a blessing from the south god that allows me to remove cursed energy from monsters and demons, as well as expel the spirits that are taking over a person..."

"I see..." Leona responded while gazing at the two mages hiding behind the hydra, "so if we can purify the cursed spirits... The beast will disappear!"

"Yes!! But even I won't get past this thing so easily... " Gustav commented.

Leona kept staring at the man using blessed energy to face more red mages and demons and began to wonder, "Is there any way others can use this power as well?"

"It's a very simple blessing... I'm sure any person can receive one from a god..."

"I see..." Leona replied.

While Gustav kept himself busy Leona tried to pray inside her heart while trying to keep her wall of flames standing, but with each passing second, that task kept getting harder and harder.

'Goddess of the east... Please if you can hear me, listen to my prayer, and grant me the power to purify the demons that inhabit these people! Please grant me power!'

Nothing happened and Leona started to get worried. The blasts of water from the hydra were getting stronger and her wall was getting weaker.

'Please, my goddess!! I beg you! Grant me power!!' she prayed again.

[I can't do that...] a voice responded inside her mind. It was a voice Leona was very familiar with, the voice of the goddess of the east she followed.

'My goddess!! Please!! I need you now!!' Leona begged.

Her wall was getting even smaller, barely able to protect her.

[If I grant you power now... I will lose the ability to pick a champion for the next fifty years...] the goddess responded.

The hydra started to move forward and increased even more its power output.

'UGH!!! Then make me your champion!! I'll make you the next supreme deity without failing!! I give you my word!!' Leona claimed in an attempt to convince her.

[We had a deal... You promised me that you would make the crossbow mage my champion!]

'My goddess!! At this rate, we might not have a crossbow mage anymore!! Please!! Just lend me your power so I can continue to fight in your name!!'

[... ... ...]

'Please!!!'

[... ... ... Very well...]

At this moment, a cylindric pillar of light appeared from the sky and landed on the field, calling the attention of all of those there present.

A young woman who seemed to be in her early twenties with blue eyes, brown hair, and a slightly pale skin stepped out of the light and marched across the field towards Leona.

Many of the mages in white robes began to bowl as she continued to walk. Her beautiful white dress that revealed her bare shoulders made her look like a flower while moving on the grass.

Gustav just stared at her with his mouth wide open wondering what Leona had done.

She finally reached Leona and raised her arm towards her while charging it with silver energy.

"You better not make me regret this..." the goddess stated.

Leona's wall of flame finally gave in and the hydra moved to swallow the fire mage, but before it could reach her, she was engulfed in the silver energy and started to feel her power rising inside of her.

She aimed her dragon-headed staff at the Hydra and shot a powerful beam of fire at one of its heads, completely evaporating it.

Both the water mages hiding in the beast and Leona herself could barely believe what they had just seen.

"Whoa... How did-" She was about to ask, but her goddess interrupted.

"You are my champion now... My blessed energy flows through your veins and grants the ability to increase the strength of your magic power."

Leona could feel it, this was very similar to when she would join forces with Marcus. She felt like her blood was fire itself.

The goddess of the east pointed her index at the hydra and ordered Leona before vanishing, "Now!! My champion!! Win this war! And bring me glory!!!"

Leona summoned her fire ape once again, except this time, instead of controlling it from a distance like a toy, the ape just started to surround her body.

Her body started to rise until the fire beast was formed one more time with Leona floating in its center. She was now controlling the flaming gorilla as if it was her own body.

With her newfound power, she glared at the hydra and gave her response, "As you wish! My lady!!"