270 The last god to leave the nes

"We know!" Claire replied, "We've been looking for her, and all of you this whole time!!"

"We've looked everywhere! But no matter where we went or who we asked, nobody had seen any traces of her..." Joseph replied as well.

Detra began to hold her chin, "You mentioned being stuck in a portal during all these months, right? If you two are out, there is a chance that she might be out as well... Young miss, try to get in contact with your aunt again!"

"Ah! Yes!! I'm on it!!" Ellie replied with a lot of excitement.

The girl had been trying to reach her aunt every single night using her power of telepathy that she mirrored from Gustav but to no success. But hearing that now there might be a chance that she could be found, a small glimmer of hope began to light up in her eyes.

[Aunt Evie... Aunt Evie, can you hear me??]

[...]

Ellie got no response.

[Aunt Evie!!??]

[... ... ...]

Ellie tried again, and like before, she got no response.

[Aunt Evie, please!! If you're there!! Answer me!!]

Ellie tried calling for her a third time, except this time, a small aura of terminal energy could be seen surrounding her body, much to Daren's and Leona's surprise. The two gasped at that sight and shifted their gaze to Detra while waiting for an explanation.

"A lot of things happened in the last few months... Our young miss has grown a lot..." Detra commented.

[Aunt Evie!! Answer me!!!] Ellie yelled again using her power.

[... ... ...!]

[Aunt Evie??]

[Ellie!!?] her aunt's voice finally responded.

[Aunt Evie!!!] Ellie screamed with joy after finally hearing her aunt's voice once again after such a long time.

[Ellie!! Ellie, it's really you!! Where are you!!??]

[We are in a cave that leads to the temple of the north god. Daren and Leona are here as well!! Where are you!!?]

[The temple of the north god...?] Evlin gasped in her mind, [What are you doing- Ugh... Never mind... I'm with Auren flying on top of a griffin that we managed to find... I'll ask him to take us to wherever you are right now!]

"Aunt Evie said that she's flying on a griffin and is coming here right now..." Ellie commented with her friends, "She should arrive soon..."

"That's good..." Detra whispered, "Once we reunite we should have an easier time planning our next move..."

[Ellie!] Evlin spoke again, [Is Ashley or any of the others with you as well?? Are they okay?]

[Knucker's plan?? Ellie, you have met with Knucker!!??]

Ellie could feel her aunt's voice shaking with fear, [No, not yet... But something happened while you were away... Please, just get here as soon as possible!]

[U- Understood! I'll ask Auren to tell me how to get to the temple of the north as fast as possible... Don't worry Ellie, I'll be there as soon as I can!]

Ellie finally released her power and began to feel the knockback of using terminal energy affecting her body, almost forcing her to fall on her knees.

"Ellie..." Leona whispered with her eyes wide open and trying to process what she just saw, "You... You mastered terminal energy??"

"Ha! I wish... All I did was found a way to make it so that it can boost my mirror magic for short periods of time..." the young girl corrected, "Still... I feel like I'm almost ready to take on Knucker and his dragons!"

Leona observed Ellie speaking with her fist raised and felt that she was looking at a completely different person. Evlin's niece would tend to be rather shy and insecure about what she could do or accomplish, and yet, there she was declaring that she was ready to go after her aunt's greatest enemy like it was nothing.

Not only her, Joseph, Claire, Dia, but they all also seemed to have matured a bit and looked more reliable.

"What exactly happened with you guys in these last few months? What happened while we were gone?" Daren asked, sharing Leona's curiosity. He still couldn't believe how big his own son had gotten.

"Detra has been training us... She has been making sure that when the fight with Knucker started, we would be ready!" Claire announced, "While we looked for you guys, we just traveled from city to village to kingdoms, all while fighting monsters and demons and hiding from Knucker's forces..."

"Kinda feels like we became fugitives..." Joseph added.

Daren began to glare at the former east goddess while thinking about Detra training them to fight, "Are you unable to sleep at night if you don't turn a kid into a weapon...?"

Detra crossed her arms and rolled her eyes at Daren's comment, "Say whatever you want... When everything is over, and my training turns out to be the thing that saved us all, you and everyone else will have me to thank for!"

"Whatever... You could save the world a thousand times and you would still be the same witch of always..."

Detra started to stare at Daren's wounded ear, "Right back at you... At least I still can fight for myself... Can you say the same about you?"

Daren began to look at Leona's wand and after that, at Eclipse, and the image of his lion clouded in darkness returned to his mind, "Who knows... I wonder about that myself..."

Leona noticed that Daren was about to feel bad about himself again and tried to return to the main topic, "So... You kids did nothing but train your magic this whole year?"

Joseph at that moment began to look like his soul was vanishing from his eyes, "It was a nightmare... She would ask us to jump into holes full of beasts and demons and would lock us in there with her ice magic until we killed everything in there! I still remember the sounds... The sounds they would make while jumping to try to eat me!! Even in my sleep in can hear it in my head!!!"

Claire gestured for Leona to come closer and whispered inside her ear, "It's not actually his head, sometimes I sneak in after midnight and pretend that I'm a monster to scare him off! Hihi!!"

"Wait... What was that??" Joseph gasped.

"Nothing!" Claire replied while smirking at him.

At that moment, Leona began to pull Claire by her ear while glaring at her, "Small pranks here and there are fine once in a while, Claire... But making fun of people's traumatic experiences is not something to joke about... How much further do you plan to go before your actions go from harmless games to straight-up bullying?"

At that moment, everyone present was left in shock by Leona's reaction, even herself a little bit.

"I- I'm sorry... I- I won't do it again..." Claire replied while still not believing that Leona would act like this with her.

It might have been because she couldn't stop thinking about how she almost lost her fellow fire mages, but Leona was not taking it nicely to the idea of mocking your friends and allies during a time in her life where so many of hers were living in such a crisis.

Leona began to feel that Claire was taking the friendships she had a bit too much for granted.

The group had finally arrived back at the temple of the North and once again were received by the bored god that habited that place.

"Oh... It's you dudes again... You guys ready to become my champions?"

Claire, Joseph, Ellie, and Dia were left speechless at witnessing the north god's image.

"This guy...?" Xadi whispered while sitting on Joseph's head, "Really??"

"Hey... Is that a talking frog toy...?" the god asked, "Man... I need to pay more attention to the things I eat at lunch..." Oh!! It's old East! Hi old East!"

"Oh, joy..." Detra commented, "Of all the options to be the next north god, you of all things had to be chosen...?"

Ellie raised an eyebrow, "You know him?"

"Sadly... From when I used to live in the divine realm after I became the goddess of the east... Not really the fondest of memories when I think about my time with him..."

North began to yawn, "Man... Old East is such a downer... "

North then began to analyze everyone present wondering if any of them could work to be his champion until his eyes stopped at Dia.

"Oh!! Hi there! You must be old North's old champion..." he commented while crouching to reach her height.

"Oh... H- Hi..." Dia answered while waving her hand with a fragile smile. She wondered if she might regain some sort of memories from her life as Mia if she came in contact with this new north god, but nothing seemed to have changed.

"I see, I see... You returned to get your old job back! I totally get it! there really is no greater honor than working for such a perfect god like myself... "

"Wait, what...?"

"That's what you want, right? You came here to become my champion and bring me glory?"

Dia took a step back, "Not really, no... I'm here because our lion just jumped into a portal out of nowhere and we came looking for him..."

"Ah... Bummer..." North said while standing up, "So... Who will it be? The little girl with a missing hand? The shorty with curly-hair that keeps glaring at everyone? The little dude with Mr. frog on his head? Or maybe Mr. frog himself? Or maybe... Old East would be in the mood to become a champion again?"

"None of us are here to become your champion, North..." Detra stated.

"You're not? Oh... Bummer... Then... what are you guys here for? I'm waiting for Knucker's friend to arrive..."

"He already arrived..." Daren commented, "But we couldn't let him become your champion knowing that you work for Knucker... So we killed him... Or rather... I killed him..."

"Whoa... Dude... That took a dark turn... "

"And I hate to break it to you, North..." Detra added, "But if you really are working with Knucker... Then we are gonna have to make you join the rest of the gods and destroy your temple as well... We can't let the power of a champion fall on that crazy man's hands..."

North began to scratch his hair, "I see... I see... I see... I totally get you guys, totally get you... No hard feelings at all..."

Detra raised an eyebrow, "You're not gonna oppose us?"

"Nah... I just joined Knucky-Tucky's side because I didn't want to have too much work... But if I'm gonna have to pull my own weight to get a shot at the competition, I rather just watch from the sidelines..."

"Don't you wanna try joining our side then?" Ellie suggested, "You could help us fight Knucker!"

The god rubbed his chin, "I don't see how that would benefit me in any way... If Knucker loses all the gods will be back... And I'll just be back at where I started... I rather you guys just pop my temple so I can chill on the divine realm..."

"Well... Works for me..." Claire responded as she just finished casting her spell and completely demolished the entire roof of the temple of the north with an explosion of fire and lightning.

"CLAIRE!!??" Ellie screamed.

"What!? You heard him! He doesn't mind if he is forced to leave..."

North observed the temple falling apart while Ellie and everyone else began to dash to get away from the falling debris and began to stretch his arms and legs while his figure started to vanish.

"Welp... Looks like this is it... See you later duuuuudes..."

And with that, all four gods of the west, east, south, and north had officially been cast out from the planet and locked in the divine realm.

"That must have been the weirdest god we ever met..." Daren commented.

"Come on..." Detra ordered, "Let's stay outside and wait for the crossbow girl to arrive..."