Ellie was staring with horror at the scene afraid that she would spot her aunt's dead corpse in there somewhere.

Daren realized that the worst had happened and tried to stand up so he could block Ellie's view of something that could traumatize her forever.

But as he began to do so he ended up tripping on something that made him fall face-first on the street.

"What the...??"

He tried to find the cause of his fall and noticed some kind of rock coming out of the ground. It appeared to be some sort of diamond and he almost began to fill himself with hope imagining that maybe Evlin had regained her powers and had saved herself. But something about these diamonds were different. Evlin's diamonds had a beautiful green color, while these ones where drenched in another tone.

He raised his head and noticed that it wasn't just one diamond, it was several, an entire trail of s.h.i.+ny rocks emerging out of the ground looking like they came out of the building Ellie was standing on all the way towards the pile of smoke where Evlin had been squashed in.

The crystal monster then took a glimpse at what was in front of him and began to look just as confused as Daren.

"What in the world...?"

The smoke finally cleared out, and where there should be an Evlin buried beneath a ma.s.sive fist was instead a group of diamonds surfacing around her as if trying to protect the woman and stabbing the huge fist that was trying to harm her.

Evlin herself looked just as confused as everyone else. She was surrounded by diamonds drenched in the color blue. She noticed the trail as well and followed it with her gaze until she found its source all the way on top of the building coming out of Ellie's hands that were touching the walls.

"Ellie...?"

n.o.body knew how, but Ellie had somehow used earth and modeling magic to save her aunt by creating a barrier of blue diamonds to block the crystal monster's attack. What was more impressive was that she did all that without magic power or a staff.

"How did you..."

"Aunt Evlin, look out!!!!"

The colossal figure with spider legs made entirely out of crystal tried to charge at Evlin once again, which in turn gave Ellie who was watching the whole thing from afar another heart-attack.

"Stooooop!!! Stay away from her!!!"

And as if repeating the same process from before, a pile of blue diamonds started to emerge from the building the second the little girl started to scream, creating a path all the way towards Evlin's location. Except this time the diamonds were much larger and stabbed the monster on its chest.

Evlin continued to look at the situation trying to make sense of what she was seeing but with very little success.

"What's going on!!??"

While she continued to feel lost, Daren grabbed her and pulled her away from the crystal giant's attack range.

"Evlin we need to move!! Wake up!!"

"Ah! Sorry, sorry!!"

Daren and Evlin reunited with Lilith and Marcus and alongside their pets, they hid themselves behind a car that was flipped over while blue diamonds continued to appear out of nowhere stabbing the creature left and right.

The group continued to watch as a battle between two types of s.h.i.+ny rocks was taking place in the middle of the streets.

"This is not how I expected my day would go when I woke up today..."

Said Evlin while still trying to hug her own body to endure the damage she received from Mia. Lilith then tried to speak as well.

"Evlin, is your niece a mage as well?"

"I know as much as you do right now... I've never seen any of this before."

"But... She's performing magic without a staff or magic... How is this possible??"

Lilith seemed very curious about all this but Daren showed he had other concerns in mind.

"Can we talk about this later?? We still have a crystal giant to deal with."

Daren was right. Evlin wasn't sure how Ellie was doing what she was doing, but she knew her niece couldn't keep at it for long. They needed to engage in battle as well and take that thing down before Ellie tired herself out. Right now she was continuously releasing wave after wave of diamonds at their enemy but her body wouldn't be able to keep doing that for much longer.

"Ugh!!! Why the h.e.l.l did Mia sent this thing after me?? How am I supposed to play her stupid game if I'm dead?"

Daren then raised an eyebrow.

"Game...?"

"Yeah... That little psycho gave me one week to get my powers back so I could be her opponent or something... I don't know why she would say that and drop this weirdo on my head..."

"..."

Daren took a glance at the scene. Every time one of Ellie's diamonds stabbed the creature, pieces of its body would fall on the ground. Pieces of absorbing crystals. Daren then realized what Mia's true intentions were.

"Evlin... This isn't meant to kill you... Its meant to restore your power!!"

"... Beg your pardon...?"

"Look at the ground!"

The woman followed Daren's line of sight and realized a pile of absorbing crystal scattered all over the place. Crystal filled with raw magic energy inside of them.

"She sent this guy after you to give you your magic back!"

"What!!?? But... Why would she ask a spirit to possess it and order to attack me??"

"Maybe... This is also part of her game? She wants to find out if you are good enough to earn your own magic back!"

"..."

Evlin proceeded to grab one of the crystals that landed close to her location. It was clear now what Mia wanted from her, she wanted to bring back the crossbow mage of recreation at full power so she could get a worthy challenge to fight her. Problem was, the crossbow mage was lacking a staff.

"Still... I can't do anything with these things... My crossbow was burned in the restaurant..."

"I'll do it!"

Evlin heard Marcus's voice coming from behind her and saw the lad trying to stand up despite having a body full of injuries.

"Marcus?"

"I don't need a staff to fight... If you give me some crystals I can get back into fighting shape again!"

Evlin was not a fan of that idea. Marcus had already received a huge beating from the crystal monster. She worried that he would not have enough strength to defeat him even if he got access to his blades again.

"Evlin, please... Trust me! I can do this!"

"..."

The former mage was still not comfortable with this plan, but they didn't have many options right now. Marcus was the only one of them who had a fighting chance against the monster.

"I trust you, Marcus!"

She finally handed over the absorbing crystals to the silver-haired lad and Marcus proceeded to hold them in a tight grip to get enough strength back to create a pair of blades from his arms. Evlin looked at him with worry and tried to give some advice from her own personal experience.

"Remember... The more you transform, the more energy you burn! Try to time your transformations at the right moment!"

"Don't worry... I won't let you down!"

Evlin watched as the sword-lad charged into battle to start his second round against the possessed crystal.

The creature seemed to have gotten tired of dealing with Ellie's diamonds and was trying to climb the building to reach her.

"Stay back!! Stay back!!!"

The girl screamed in panic as the giant approached her and tried to release more blue diamonds to stop him. However, it seemed like she was also running out of power as her diamonds were getting much smaller. The creature looked at her and began to yell.

"You annoying little brat!! So you were the mage all along!! I can't believe you tried to trick me!!"

"Wh What?? Me?? A mage??"

"I should have known that pathetic woman could never be the actual mage my master was talking about... She is nothing but a useless weakling."

"... What did you just say about my aunt?"

Something snapped inside of Ellie. Her aunt was about to sacrifice herself to protect her and her friends, even though she had no means of defending herself. And yet this monster was mocking her right to Ellie's face. The same Ellie who loved and idolized her aunt more than anything in this world, her aunt who had been bullied non-stop ever since the weird-eyed girl appeared.

Ellie realized that someone was sharing her anger as well as she saw a young man with silver blades climbing the building and chasing after the monster. Marcus was using his blades to stab the walls and propel himself upwards with all his strength so he could catch up to the creature.

However, Ellie noticed that he would not make it in time. The giant man with spider legs was almost reaching her while Marcus was still halfway across the building. She needed to buy him time. The girl didn't understand how she was creating the diamond pillars but she knew that they were effective against her enemy.

She tried to remember her aunt's stories. Anything that could help her understand how to properly use this power. She remembered the times her aunt would try to explain how the crossbow girl would make her magic work. A combination of concentration, imagination, and will power.

"You... Don't ever badmouth my aunt in front of me!!"

Ellie raised both her arms and slammed them against the walls of the building. She tried to focus on the image in her head. Picture what she wanted to diamonds to do and focused all her strength on making so that they would obey her.

Suddenly, a pile of diamonds started to gather in front of Ellie taking the shape of an adult woman carrying some kind of weapon. Ellie had created a golem, one made of blue diamonds looking just like her aunt and armed with a crossbow.

"What!!??"

The crystal spider looked in shock as the golem took aim with her crossbow right at him and released a ma.s.sive arrow made of diamond at his torso.

"Ugh!!!"

The beast had been shot right in the middle of where his heart would be. Since he was a spirit he couldn't feel any pain, but the impact was strong enough to make him fall from the building.

Marcus saw the creature descending and leaped towards him to unleash a barrage of fast slashes, turning him into pieces. As the two continued to fall, the spirit tried to gather the crystals once again to reform his body, but this time Marcus was prepared.

Each time he sliced a piece of the crystal he would either grab it to himself so he could absorb the magic inside it or throw it as far as he could, away from the spirit's range. He continued this process of slas.h.i.+ng, absorbing, and throwing over and over again until the spirit was finally forced out of its fake body.

Using the power of gravity to aid him, Marcus absorbed all the energy of the crystals he had gathered to turn both his arms into a huge spear and stab the spirit with his blessed energy as they reached the ground.

"Aaaaaaghhhh!!!!"

Since spirits are made of pure cursed energy, its body began to burn itself in extreme agony as it started to fade away. Marcus glared at him and released his final words before securing his victory.

"You and your boss are not welcome here... Begone!!"

The spirit finally burned itself completely until there was nothing left, leaving the group with a huge pile of absorbing crystals scattered in the pavement.

Evlin looked at Marcus standing victorious over his fallen enemy in the ground and Ellie on top of the building with the light of the sun right behind her as she stood by the side of a woman made of blue diamonds carrying a crossbow. The two kids who admired her the most and that had fought together to save her life. She couldn't help but smile while releasing a few words of gratefulness.

"My heroes!"