The level up returned some of my energy and I made my way towards the city lord's body to get my spear back and try to release all the tied up women from the walls.
'Ai, can you show me my status?'
[
Name: Ethan Knott
Age: Avatar 18;
Race: Avatar Human;
Experience: 6/1000;
Health Points: 72/90;
Mana Points 10/60;
Level: 6;
Vitality: 9;
Strength: 10;
Dexterity : 8;
Intelligence: 6;
Resistance: 8;
1 free stat point
———
System Points: 0;
Spirit: 630;
]
Reaching what was left of the city lord's body, which was barely a few bones, I noticed that my spear was also completely black from the fireball. After I grabbed the shaft and pulled slightly, the black shaft turned to dust in my hands. Sighing, I gave up and walked up towards the nearest woman. I was about to pull on one of the nails when Ai spoke again.
[If you remove the nail she will bleed out and die.]
I stopped my action, realizing that she was probably right and asked: 'Is there any way to save them?'
[A healing spell will help but you don't have enough mana to save more than two of them and that is if you will even be able to use healing magic on the first try. You still need to deal with the guards outside so I would suggest you save your mana.]
I frowned at Ai's words. She was right but I couldn't just let them die like this without trying out anything. Thinking hard, an idea came to me and I asked Ai:
'Ai, can I use their summoning circle to summon someone myself?'
[It is theoretically possible. The problem is the lack of information on demonic magic. Also, most of them will probably die before the circle is completed.]
'Do you have any way I could save them?'
[There is a way but success is not guaranteed.]
'How?' I wanted to at least give it a try.
[Create your own summoning circle and use the blood and bodies of the dead men over there as a catalyst.]
'Can I summon Anise like this?'
[Summoning another human is impossible. You can only summon beasts and spirits.]
'How will that be of any help then?'
[The are plenty of summons and beasts with healing abilities. You can try to call out to one of them.]
'Fine, I'll try. Tell me how to do it.' A magic circle soon appeared in my vision. Looking over the magic circle, I picked up the tip of my spear from the wall, the only part that was still whole and started carving the magic circle near the demonic one and created a connection between them to let it get filled with blood. It took almost an entire hour to carve the entire circle. After I was done, I started pilling up the dead bodies of the men unto the circle.
Once that was done as well, I took a look at the mountain of bodies pilled up on top of the circle and asked Ai:
'Are you sure this is fine? This looks a little sinister to me..'
[It's normal. You will be using a dark summoning ritual since that is the only type you have the catalyst for and is also one of the easiest one to cast.]
'All right. How do I start the summoning?'
[You need to use your mana and activate the circle. After that, just call out what you need help with.]
Nodding my head, I placed my hands on one side of the circle, added the free point into intelligence and started infusing the mana inside it. After the circle was completely lit up, I was about to start calling out for help when I noticed that mana was still being drained from my body. Startled, I looked up and noticed that the big demonic circle was also brightening slowly.
'Ai, what is going on?'
[You should have removed the connection between the two circles. It appears the demonic one is also activating. Don't worry, you don't have enough mana to fully activate it so it shouldn't be a problem.]
Once my mana reached zero, the demonic circle stopped lighting up, but I didn't even have time to relax when I suddenly began feeling drowsy and the circle started lighting up faster than before.
'Ai, what is happening?'
[It appears it's draining your spirit to complete the process. This is.. unexpected.]
'What will happen after it's complete? Will I summon the demons myself?' I tried to lift up my arms from the circle but noticed that is was impossible to move my body at all.
[It should not, but I can't really tell what will happen. You activated an incomplete demonic circle fused together with a dark summoning one. I have no reference to calculate the result.]
"Fuck." I could only curse out loud and hope I won't summon the demonic army here. Once the entire circle lit up, I could finally move again and stood up to observe the circles. From them, a dark fog started appearing before taking the form of a blurry human shadow. The shadow opened it's red eyes and looked around the room before focusing on me. It tried to rush up to me but was stopped when it hit the border of the circle.
[It appears it's still bound by the summoning rules. It won't be able to hurt you. Hurry and cancel the spell before anything else happens.] said Ai as a new page appeared in my vision. I was about to cancel the summoning spell when an old voice sounded straight inside my head, the same way Ai's voice always does.
"Aren't you an interesting mortal? Don't be to quick to send me back. How about we form a contract?"
I stopped in my tracks after hearing the voice and asked Ai: 'Ai, what do you think?'
[I wouldn't reco..]
"Oh, shut up little girl. I am finally out of that hellish place and I won't go back so easily. Tell me kid, what do you want? Power? Immortality? If the price is right I can give you anything you want."
[Cancel the summoning spell, Ethan. This is a dark spirit but it's power is too weak to give you any of that. You can't trust it's words.]
Deciding to trust Ai, I was about to start canceling the summoning when the dark spirit spoke again.
"No, listen to me please. The little girl is right, I lied but that was only because I was afraid you will send me back. I beg you, let me use your body as a vessel. You can bind me with any oath you want."
I stopped my actions again and waited for Ai's opinion.
[Dark spirit, where are you from and why are you so weak?]
"I'm from the soul plane, dark dimension. To be more exact, I come from the dark dimension's prison. They drained me of all my spirit essence and locked me up in there, unable to be summoned ever again, or at least until today."
Their conversation flew right over my head but I continued to listen.
[Why did they punish you? Did you go against a contract?]
"Not really. I made a deal during a contract and I inhabited the body of a human in a mortal world. They found out and dragged me back to the soul plane before imprisoning me. Light spirit, I promise to only inhabit the smallest possible part of his soul and don't get in your way, just let me stay here."
[You seem to be under the wrong impression as I am not a light spirit.]
"Oh, but you feel exactly the same as a light spirit. That doesn't matter not. Can you please reconsider and let me stay?"
[The decision is up to Ethan, but I would advise against it. We don't know if we can trust her words.]
I started considering when I remembered the initial purpose I summoned here in the first place and said:
'If you can heal the women here I'll let you stay. That is the reason I summoned you in the first place.'
"You drained all these people of their blood to use it to summon someone to heal them? You are into some weird things but don't worry, I've seen worse. And yes, I can heal them with ease."
'I wasn't the one… Whatever. If you can do it and promise to never turn against me or Ai I promise to let you use my body as a vessel.'
[Ethan, letting her use your body as a vessel will lock a part of your spirit.]
'How much?'
"A third. That is the minimum amount of spirit I need to sustain my existence."
[She's lying again. 200 spirit is indeed the minimum required amount but signing a contract on one third of your spirit essence will permanently lock a third of it as you grow stronger, which is not necessary.]
"Tsk.. Fine, she is right, but as you get stronger, if you allow me to use one third of your essence I could also help you in times of need. It's a good deal. What do you say?"
'Maybe I would have agreed if you told me that from the start. We'll sign the contract on 200 spirit essence.'
"Fine. Anything is better than going back. Hurry up and throw me a drop of blood."
Finally agreeing of a contract, I threw a drop of my blood inside the circle. As soon as the drop of blood entered the shadow, the magic circles stopped glowing and the shadow expanded, engulfing the entire room. I was a bit scared, but just as I was about to ask Ai what is going on, the dark spirit spoke again:
"Don't worry, I'm only fulfilling my part of the contract. I'm now healing all the women. By the way, my name is Senna. We'll be together for a long time, Ethan."
A sigh escaped my lips as I didn't really know how to feel about this whole thing. A couple of minutes later, the darkness receded from the surrounding and entered my body.
"I used a lot of my essence to heal so many people at once. I'll sleep for a while to recover. See you later, Ethan."
After hearing her words I started walking towards all the women that were laid on the ground after being healed by Senna to check up on them. Seeing that they seem to be just asleep but otherwise fine, I laid down on the ground nearby and asked Ai:
'Can she hear us now?'
[Negative. She's recovering her spirit and should be out for a day or so.]
'Do you think we can trust her?'
[No, but she is bound by the contract for the moment and it would be impossible to turn against us. I will keep an eye on everything she does and let you know if I find anything suspicious.]
'What happens if she goes against the contract?'
[She'll be sent back to the dark dimension.]
'Let's hope she won't risk it. Can you explain how the vessel thing works?'
[She will inhabit part of your soul and use your soul essence to maintain her existence. As long as she doesn't inhabit more than half of your soul she will have no control over you. Normally, if the spirit is strong enough, it can take control of the host's soul by force but that is no issue in your case.]
'Why is that?'
[Your soul is different as it's linked with the Nexus. There is a zero percent chance she will be able to take control by force.]
'Good. Can you watch over my body for a while? I need to sleep as well to recover my spirit and mana.'
[Affirmative.]
Hearing her answer, I closed my eyes and went to sleep. It was an exhausting day and I really needed it. Around four hour later, I was woken up by Ai's words.
[Ethan, they are starting to wake up.]
I woke up as well and looked around the room, only to see half of the women already up and looking all around in confusion.
'Ai, how's my mana and spirit?'
[Mana is around 50% and spirit if fully recovered.]
'Why is my mana recovering so slow?'
[That's just the way it is. It will get faster as you level up.]
I nodded and noticed the innkeeper from before making her way towards me. I sat up and went towards her as well. She greeted me and asked:
"Could you tell me what happened here? Where are we?"
"How much do you remember?"
She looked troubled by my question, not knowing whether to answer or not. Figuring out what was going on I said:
"Don't worry about what happened before, those men are already gone. Now tell me what happened."
She nodded and said: "All we can remember is soldiers coming into our houses and knocking us out. Nothing after that until we woke up just a moment ago."
*Sigh* "The men who came here were preparing for some demonic ritual." I said as I pointed at the circle on the ground and continued: "They used the blood from the men they kept captive to fill this circle and after the men were close to death they captured the women as well. I managed to kill the two leading the soldiers and heal you, but there are still soldiers above ground."
Hearing my words she started sobbing. I figured one of those men must have been her husband or son. Letting her grief in silence, I walked up to the other women and explained the situation to them as well. After instructing them to stay here and wait for me to go clear the guards, I made my way back the tunnel I came from. I also took Zen's staff since my spear was destroyed.
Reaching the trapdoor in the kitchen, I lifted it slowly and walked out. I opened the door towards the hallway slowly and noticed that there were no soldiers here anymore. I slowly searched the entire mansion but couldn't find a single trace of the soldiers from before.
'What is going on? Did they just leave?'
[Considering they didn't come in the underground chamber at all, they might not have known about the city lord's plans. They probably found the dead bodies of the guards you killed when you sneaked in and, not finding the city lord or his son, thought that they were also killed so they left.]
Thinking that Ai's words made sense, I walked outside the mansion and started searching the village for any soldiers that stayed behind. Finding no one, I walked back in the underground, made sure to break the summoning circles and let the women know that it was safe for now. After we walked back out, one of them turned towards me and said:
"Adventurer, sir. What are we supposed to do now?"
I was stumped by her question. Thinking for a moment, I said:
"You should send someone to Cloven City and explain the situation to them. They might be willing to provide you with some protection for a while."
The women from the village looked at each other for a moment before the one from before said again:
"But, we've never been there before and don't know the way. Can you go and let them know in our stead? We'll pay you, of course."
I really wanted to go do the goblin quest, but I couldn't really abandon them like this. A village filled with only women was like heaven for any rapist coming through here. Sighing I said: "Fine. I'll go and let the guild know about everything that happened here. It will take at least four days for someone to come back here, so you will need to be careful."
They nodded and said: "We will. We'll go gather some money and be right back. Wait here."
"There's no need. I'm sure the adventurer guild will pay me for taking care of those men so keep your money. You need it more than I do right now. Also, please keep everything about the demonic ritual a secret for now. If people found out that some humans were allied with the demons it might cause unnecessary panic."
After some more pleasantries, I started walking back towards Cloven City. Since I didn't have a spear anymore, I used the main road thinking that using fireballs in the forest was not a good idea. One day later, as I was running on the road, a mature voice, different from that of Ai sounded in my head.
[*Morning, Ethan. Did I miss anything?*]
'Not really. I'm going to report what happened in the village to the adventurer guild.'
[*Oh, do you mind sharing some of you memories? I'm not that familiar with this world.*]
'Ai?'
[I will share all the information we have of this world with her. Don't let her inside your memories.]
[*That works too. You don't have to be so guarded against me, we already made a deal, didn't we?*]
'You have a habit of lying to me so I can't really trust you now, can I?'
[*Whatever. Give me the info little girl.*]
A moment of silence followed, probably as she looked through the information Ai shared with her before Senna spoke again.
[*What a low level world. How did you manage to create a summoning circle that reached my prison in this world?*]
'It was more of a mistake than something planned. We just needed someone to heal all those women and created the small circle but it fused together with the demonic one and you know the rest.'
[*Probably those idiots that locked me up would die of anger if they found out that their perfect prison was breached by a mistake. He he, I really wished I could see their faces when they find out I'm no longer there.*]
'Won't they come after you if they find out?'
[*Probably, but they won't find out anytime soon. I've been locked there for millions of years and they only came to check on me once or twice.*]
'You were locked up for that long?'
[*It might seem long to you as a human, but as a spirit it's not that big of deal. There are spirits imprisoned for billions of years.*]
'Are spirits immortal?'
[*Yes. In the sense that we can't die of old age, but we can be killed all the same.*]
'Then, how are you born?'
[*Spirits like me, are eternal, born out of the chaos of the multiverse, but there are also spirits that procreated with some of the lower races, relinquishing their eternal essence, giving birth to a new type of being and creating a new race, called the spirit race.*]
'What's the difference then?'
[*Since the first contract was made, humans and other lower races called us spirits, but that is wrong. We are members of the soul race, and the spirits are our descendants created through procreation with the lower races.*]
'But you also called yourself a spirit..'
[*We just got used to the name since mortals have always called us that.*]
'I see. Can you tell me more about the soul race?'
[*There is not that much to say. It's a race of old and boring people, that just stay in slumber until they are summoned to fulfill some trade by mortals. We help a mortal, usually in exchange of some of their spirit essence before returning to the soul plane to enter slumber again. See? Boring.*]
'But, what do you need the spirit essence for?'
[*To grow stronger of course. Mortals are born with a soul and a body, and when their mortal body dies, their soul returns to the spirit pool, or Eternal Mother, as my people call her, before being born again. These souls absorb spirit essence throughout their lives using their mortal body before returning to the Eternal Mother and feeding all that essence to her. Us spirits, since we don't have a body, the only way we can get more spirit essence is through contracts.*]
'But, aren't there also immortals with a body?'
[*There used to be one, His name…*]
[You want to kill us all?], Ai interrupted her immediately.
[*Oh right, the soul plane is not affected by His law and I forgot about it. Well, I can't tell you His name but He was the only true immortal in the multiverse that came from a mortal. He..*]
[I think that is enough talking about this subject.]
It was surprising that I could actually feel anger in Ai's voice, something that doesn't usually happen. I figured that they must be talking about the same person that created Ai.
[*Fine, I won't speak about Him anymore. Why are you getting so defensive about it?*]
[That's none of your business, dark spirit.]
[*Wait a moment, you said that you were not a light spirit, but you are definitely a member of the soul race. Are you one of that thief's toys?*]
A splitting pain suddenly passed through my soul, making me stumble and fall down on the road. Holding my head with one hand, I sat back up and said:
'Ai, what the hell was that?'
[Sorry, Ethan. I lost control for a moment.]
'Ouch, that hurt like hell. What happened?'
[Nothing.]
Since she seemed to be sulking I kept mum about it and started running again, doing my best to ignore the pain still coming from my soul. A bit later, hearing no other word from Senna, I asked Ai:
'Is Senna okay?'
[She'll survive.]
I chose to not bother with it anymore since she seemed to be sulking and continued running towards Cloven City while reading through some books about magic.