226 The Hero

The red beast tried to blast them with her howl, but these dolls were extremely fast and agile thanks to the power of the strongest form of energy circulating their beings.

The golems them started to attack the monster one by one without giving her time to react.

Daren leaped on her and stabbed the demon's arm with a pair of claws.

Mia cried in pain and reacted by waving her paw to strike him, but Lilith rushed to stop her with a sword.

At this moment, Marcus jumped on her back and started to stab her with his arms there were now diamond blades.

"Graahhhhh!!! Get off me!!" she screamed while pulling Marcus away with her vines.

Claire and Joseph came next and began to unleash their powers into her with whips and explosions made or terminal energy.

"AAAAGHHH!!!"

The two kept running around the red beast while Mia desperately tried to take them down with her claws, but as soon as she tried to do so, the golem that looked like Detra started to assault her with a barrage of flying diamonds engulfed in energy.

The demon kept being pushed back and used her own magic diamonds to raise a wall to block the barrage, but while she focused on that, Leona and Evlin aimed their staff and crossbow and started to shoot her with a terminal fire and magical diamonds combination, creating several wounds on her.

Ellie kept sending one golem after another that represented the fighting style of the people she admired and, using the ability she inherited from Flora, controlled each of them like she was inside the golems herself, all while sharing her all-killing power with them.

[It's working... It's working!! We are beating her!!] Marcus shouted inside her mind.

He also noticed that now that Ellie had divided her energy with her dolls, her body was no longer destroying itself due to being overloaded with power.

"Detra was right..." the mage whispered.

[What do you mean...??]

"I kept trying to solve everything by myself! Trying to just fix my problems with brute force without using my head... Instead of just stuffing myself with a bunch of random powers, I can just give it to my dolls so they can do the heavy-lifting for me!!"

Evlin's words then echoed in her mind.

"I just needed to make it simple..."

[...When you put it like that, it sounds kinda lazy...]

"I'll gladly be lazy if it means I don't have to lose another limb, now shut up and let me bully that stupid giant red cat!!" Ellie ordered.

And just like she explained, her collection of golems continued to demolish Mia from all possible sides.

Marcus felt like for once, history wasn't repeating itself. If the fight with the demon leader was like seven players controlling one character, this fight was like one player controlling eight characters.

Mia was simply not fast enough to divide her focus on all the opponents who were all charged with the only power in the world that could harm her. Any time she tried to focus on either attacking or defending against one, two or three more would jump in and strike her instead.

Ellie felt like she had the upper hand and started to want to mock her, "so Mia, how much longer do I need to humiliate you before you give up and return my aunt to me? Because I can do this for as long as I need to!!"

The beast glared at Ellie and whispered, "We shall see..."

She then moved her line of sight away from Ellie and looked at Leona and Gustav instead who was just astonished by the fight they were watching.

Mia flapped her wings to gain altitude and released a terminal howl at the two.

"Ahh!! Gustav!! Leona!!" Ellie screamed.

She then recovered a bit or terminal fire to boost her body and rushed to their side as fast as she could.

Ellie was already aware that she couldn't fully absorb these blasts so she opted to grab the two and carry them out of there instead.

She barely managed to make it in time as a huge explosion took place right behind her and blew them away with the air pressure.

"Hahahahahaha!! Who's the bully now? Tell me, stick-niece!!" Mia laughed.

Ellie was about to glare at her but she felt something burning inside her body once again.

"Ugh!!!" she whined as she hugged her stomach.

"Ellie...?? Ellie what's wrong??" Gustav asked.

She then looked at Leona and realized that she had touched yet another person.

"I got another power... Ugh!! At probably the worst time..." Ellie commented while feeling like she was about to break her concentration.

Her struggle started to give Mia the opening she needed as the beast started to charge at her while sending vines out of her body to try and grab her.

Ellie hurried to use Flora's curse to send whatever she got from Leona to her golems as well by using her connection with the earth.

The pain was finally gone but Mia was already about to tangle her up.

The real Leona tried to step in and burn her vines, but since these were being reinforced with terminal energy, they were much more durable than regular demonic vines.

Ellie was captured and began to get herself pulled towards Mia, who was just waiting for her with a collection of floating red diamond spears and swords ready to stab her.

"I'm the weapon, I'm the weapon, I'm the weapon!" Ellie began to repeat, making her body turn into a spear herself and successfully empaling Mia's torso using the full power of the motion she was pulling her with.

"Gaahhhh!!!" Mia screamed in agony feeling Ellie blade form bathed in terminal fire piercing her.

[Ellie!! Ellie, stop!!! This is your aunt's body too!!] Marcus reminded her.

"Oh, shoot!! That's right!!" she said while returning to normal and dropping from the sky after being free from Mia.

The girl then turned her unbreakable metal skin on once again and created a crater as she landed on the ground.

"Wait... So how are we going to do this...?" Ellie commented as she finally realized she forgot to actually have a plan to rescue Evlin.

[Let's try to weaken her until she passes out and have Gustav and Leona purify her until she releases your aunt!] Marcus suggested.

"Fine by me!!" Ellie agreed.

Mia used the suffering from the people inside her body to heal herself and close the wound in her torso.

"She keeps healing herself... We are gonna need to finish with one blow!" Ellie noticed.

[All eight golems will need to strike at once!]

"Aye, aye, cap!!" Ellie nodded with a salute and just as Marcus suggested, raised her arms towards the heavens, making all of the blue golems start preparations to strike Mia at once.

Mia herself had already got enough of this fight and prepared to deliver her finishing blow as well.

"I am the fire that will erase this world... I am the fear that will haunt your souls..."

A massive sphere of terminal energy began to gather in front of her mouth as she continued to prepare her ultimate terminal howl.

Ellie also started to whisper her own chant.

"Every day is a struggle... Every day is a fight..."

Evlin, Ellie, Leona, Joseph, and Claire all aimed their diamond staffs towards the sky while Lilith, Daren, and Marcus pointed their blades and claws. Each gathering terminal fire on the tip of their weapons.

"I am the one that will bring the nightmare... I am the incarnation of pure despair!!!" Mia yelled as she finished her chanting and released her final blast.

"... For I am more than just a weapon... I am the diamond queen!!" Ellie ended her chanting too and her army of golems began to shoot all of their terminal power towards Mia.

The howl and the eight blasts collided forming what seemed like a tower of three-colored fire appear in the middle of the sky.

Ellie tried to push it forward, but Mia had the strength of hundreds of souls inside of her feeding her with power, increasing the force of her cursed energy.

Mia's attack started to grow stronger as the demon kept increasing her power output.

"Come on!! Come on!!!" Ellie repeated while dropping on her knees while feeling her body reaching its limit from trying to control eight living golems at once.

[You can do it, Ellie!! Don't stop now!!] Marcus shouted.

"I'm... Trying!!!" she replied while feeling like her bones were about to crack. Even if the terminal energy was no longer in her body, the girl had just been fighting non-stop ever since she entered the field. There were limits to how much she could accomplish.

[You can win this Ellie!!!] Lilith shouted in her mind.

"What!!??" she questioned, realizing that the ability she copied from Gustav had turned itself on again.

[Come on blue, we are almost there!!] Claire also commented.

[Just finish her off, young miss!!] Detra as well.

[Your fire burns brightest than any follower of the East! Don't lose!!] Leona next.

[Keep fighting!]

[Don't stop!!]

[Win, smaller girl! Win!!]

Gustav, Joseph, and even Xadi tried to support her also.

[You can do this kid!!]

[Show this demon who's the boss!!]

[We all count on you!!]

Ellie started to hear more voices, voices she didn't recognize. The rest of the army. They were all watching, all praying for her victory. What started with people dreading for their lives at the sight of the demon beast Mia turned into wishes of hope and faith in survival at the sight of the mirror mage Ellie.

[DON'T LOSE!!!!] everyone screamed at once.

Suddenly, one last voice spoke in her mind. the same soft voice she heard after Mia released her blast and the first voice she heard after she gained this ability.

[You are stronger than you think!]

Ellie began to cry, "A- A- Aunt Evie!!!???"

[Me!!] Evlin replied while giggling, all the way from the inside of the white void.

"It's... It's you... It's really you!!!" Ellie cried even harder, "you were not gone after all!!!"

[There is no way I would ever miss watching you growing up! I'm proud of you, my little hero!]

"Aunt Evie!!!" Ellie cried even more.

[Now... How about you finish this mean girl so we can finally go home?]

"YOU BET!!!!" Ellie roared, showing that this was all she needed to hear.

Mia might have the power of a hundred souls, but Ellie had the support of something much more special. The power of people who believed in her.

"Let's do this Marcus!!!"

[Right behind you!!!]

Ellie felt the motivation boosting her power and began to increase even more the burst of her terminal energy. She had evolved the cursed power she got from Flora to instead of being powered by negative feelings to be powered by any form of strong feelings.

Mia realized that she was the one getting pushed back this time as her own blast was being turned against her.

"No... No, no, no, no!!! I can't lose!! I never lose!!!" Mia screamed.

"Really??" Ellie smiled, "then I wonder how this is going to feel!"

Mia's energy blast finally gave in and she was bombarded with Ellie's eight beams of terminal energy showering her body.

"AAAAAGHHHH!!!!" the beast screamed.

Evlin started to look around the white void and realized that many of the chains that were keeping the souls imprisoned were being destroyed.

"What the...?" Ellie questioned as she saw several spirits being expelled from the body of the red beast. Tens, then twenties, then hundreds. All exiting the being like shooting stars vanishing into the sky.

[Ellie!! You're purifying them!!!] Marcus noticed.

"I can purify!!??" Ellie questioned, followed by realizing that this must have been the power she got from Leona, "I CAN PURIFY!!!!"

Mia started to drop from the sky after returning to her usual twelve-year-old form like she was a meteor.

Her terminal energy was still surrounding her body but now it had gotten much, much weaker.

Ellie knew what she had to do.

"Marcus..." Ellie took a deep breath, "let's finish this!!"

Ellie dissolved her golems and recovered her terminal fire to herself, which right now was much smaller as well since she had used so much of it on her fight, but it was just enough to end this.

The girl placed her palm on the ground and a massive diamond platform appeared that pushed her to the sky.

The entire army watched as Mia and Ellie kept flying towards each other and were about to crash.

Mia glared at the mage and changed her arm into a leaf blade to slice her in half.

"I'm not going to lose like this!!!!" she shouted as she finally reached her and waved her sword to cut her in half.

However, Ellie saw that coming with her future sight and in the last second, made her personal chant and morphed into a silver gauntlet to dodge her attack.

Not only that, Marcus himself assumed a human form and grabbed Ellie in her weapon form while still in midair.

"Yes... You... ARE!" he declared while smacking Mia in the face with a fist powered with purifying energy boosted by terminal fire, the last image Mia witnessed before falling in defeat.