"What happened?" I asked Anise, having almost no knowledge of magic circles myself.
"This circle, it has some parts I don't fully understand, but some of it should be able to manipulate souls, time and space."
I frowned and asked Senna about her opinion. As far as I was concerned, she was the expert when it came to souls.
[*Touch the girl for a moment. Her soul appears to be dormant at the moment so there shouldn't be any problem.*]
"I'm going to check something." I said as I walked inside the circle and grabbed the girl's arm. As soon as I touched her, my entire soul trembled for a second.
'What was that?' I asked as I let go immediately.
[*Congratulations. You found someone with a stronger soul than you, and it's even a comatose person. If you kill her, your soul will evolve.*]
'Excuse me?' I was startled by Senna's words.
[*Her soul was shattered and this entire circle serves the purpose of preserving her body and slowly mending her soul absorbing a little bit of the spirit of everyone around. Something must have happened that cause the process to fasten. That was the reason all the people in the town turned into undead.*]
'Is she all right then?'
[*Not really. Her soul was indeed stitched back together, but it was also contaminated with the souls of the town people that died and got absorbed into her.*]
'Is there any way to help her?'
Seeing that Senna was not answering, I asked Ai as well.
[The circle succeeded in mending her shattered soul using pieces of the souls of every person in the town. If you cleanse all those pieces of soul one by one, she should be all right.]
'And how do I do that?'
[You can't, but Senna should.]
[*No way, don't count on me as the sidekick for your little hero act.*]
'Sigh.. What do you want in exchange for your help?'
[*It's not that. I just think it's better if you kill her and use her soul to evolve.*]
'You know I will never agree to killing a defenseless girl for my own interests.'
While I was speaking with Ai and Senna, Anise also came next to me and asked: "Did you notice anything?"
I nodded and said: "This girl is still alive, but her soul was shattered and put back together using the souls of everyone inside the village."
Anise frowned at my words and asked: "I don't know that much about souls. Can we help her?"
I shook my head and turned back to look at the girl. She had a tall, slender figure and her skin was pale but flawless. She was dressed in clean, noble black garbs and after looking close enough, I noticed she actually had a slim thin sword tied to her belt on the side. I carefully picked up the sword, being amazed that it was completely weightless.
[That sword resembles a rapier.]
I agreed to Ai's words as I kept scrutinizing it. Anise then said: "What a weird weapon, I've never seen anything like it before."
Anise's words took me by surprise as I turned towards her and asked: "Are you saying this type of weapon doesn't exist in your world?"
"Yes. A sword as thin as that will break at the first clash."
"They are used for performing quick and nimble thrusting attacks. Can it be from the north and you just have never heard of it?"
She shook her head again and said: "I don't think so. If people had this kind of sword in the north, we would know. There is usually a mark of the maker on the blade itself."
I looked around all over to check for any mark or writing, but found none. When I was about to give up, a scheme of how to disassemble a rapier appeared in my vision. After thanking Ai, I managed to remove the hilt from the blade and finally found some line of text on the part of the blade that was covered by the hilt. Seeing that I didn't recognize the writing, I passed the blade to Anise to see if she would.
"I recognize some of the words. They are in the our ancient language. It says something along the lines of 'Protector, the Eternal Bride, Timeless flower, Banished outside the path, Cursed to be forgotten.'. This is the most I can get from it since our knowledge about anything before the calamity is incomplete."
I turned towards the girl again and asked Ai:
'Ai, can you tell how old is she?'
[Her body is a bit over 89 years old, but the time for her body was stopped by the magic circle so determining how long has she been asleep for is impossible.]
'How can she look so young when her body is over 89 years old?'
[She's well over level 100. With the increase in level, the people of this world also experience an increase in their lifespan.]
'I never knew that. Do you think she's been here since before the calamity?'
[There is a high chance for that to be the case considering the language on the rapier.]
'Senna, can you help her? She might have useful information and I'm not going to kill a girl that might be innocent just to get stronger.]
I could hear Senna sigh as she answered:
[*Fine. but cleansing her soul isn't going to be possible with my strength at this moment.*]
'Just tell me what to do."
A magic circle similar to the one one the ground appeared in my vision as soon as my words ended.
[*This circle is inactive now. Just change a few parts according to this new circle and insert your mana into it. It will allow the circle to continue preserving her body. Once my spirit increases, we can come back and cleanse her soul.This also depends on you managing to find another way to evolve your spirit.*]
'But we can't just leave her here..'
[*She will be fine. The circle transports the person outside time and space. We can only see her because the circle ran out of power after forcefully absorbing the souls of everyone in the town.*]
I fixed the rapier and attached it to her waist again before modifying the circle and inserting mana into it. Once I finished about half my mana total, the circle brightened before disappearing completely.
"What was that?"
"I removed the part of the circle that created the undead and reactivated it. We'll come back to help her when we find a way to do it."
"How did you even know how to do that?"
I put on an apologetic look and said: "I can't tell you that, sorry. Just trust me that she'll be fine.". Since I didn't want to make up another lie, this was the best I could do.
"It's all right. Is she really from before the calamity?"
I nodded and said: "She should be, all things considered, but we'll have to wake her up to know for sure."
"Okay, I'll trust you. Should we go back now that we finished everything?"
After I agreed, we went back and completed the quest. Since it was already quite late, we decided to look for another quest tomorrow morning and returned to the inn for a well deserved rest. Next morning, as we were making our way back to the adventurer guild, Anise suddenly said to me:
"Ethan, can we go north?"
Taken by surprise by her question, I thought for a while and said: "I have no problem with it, but why?"
"I always wanted to go and help with the fight against the demons, but mother never allowed me. Now that I left the academy, I figured we could go there. The demons are usually high level and we'll level up faster."
Checking up the map I saw that it will take an entire month at full speed to reach the frontier city of Bastion.
"Why not." I agreed and we went to look for a quest that we might be able to complete on the way. Sadly there we some but all required us to return here to complete them so we just gave up. After I upgraded my badge to D rank as well, we went to see the guild leader. Once we stepped inside, the guild leader stood up and said with a smile:
"Ane, Ethan, what brings you here?"
"Dad." Said Anise as she hugged him before continuing: "We came to let you know that we're planning on heading north."
The guild leader's smile disappeared and was replaced by an serious expression as he said: "What even made you think of that? The north is too dangerous."
"We're already level 19 and we can take care of ourselves. Please let us go." Replied Anise with a pleading look.
"It's not like I can do anything to stop you, but why do you want to go there?"
"We want to help with the fight against the demons as well."
The guild leader turned towards me and said: "What about you, Ethan?"
"I just want to grow stronger as fast as possible. I think going north and joining the war might help with that."
The leader let out a sigh and slumped back into his seat: "Ane, your mother will kill us both if she finds out, you know?"
"Did she say anything?" asked Anise.
"She told me to keep an eye on you so you won't get hurt. She also said that if you plan on going north I should stop you myself or let her know.."
A small smile appeared on Anise's lips as she asked: "So, what are you going to do?"
"Just go and you can only hope she won't find out too soon." The guild master had a resigned expression as he continued: "Just make sure you stay safe."
After that he turned toward me: "You too, Ethan. Please take care of my daughter.".
We exchanged a few more words before we said our goodbyes and went to the inn pick up our luggage. I was surprised about how quickly the guild leader agreed, but when I asked Anise about it, she just said that's the way he always was.
Once we picked up the money and a few sets of clothes, under Anise's rushing, we started heading north.
After half a day of riding Zephyr at full speed, Ai's voice sounded in my mind:
[The space around is unstable. Someone is teleporting nearby.]
Startled, I grabbed Anise's waist and jumped off the Zephyr, canceling the spell right after.
Once we landed on the ground, Anise turned towards me and asked with confusion:
"What happened? Why did you cancel the spell?"
I didn't say another words and just kept staring at a small ripple in the space straight ahead of us. Hearing no answer, Anise also followed my vision and looked forward as well, as we both waited for our uninvited guest.
Soon enough, Anise's mother appeared out of a crack in space and locked her eyes on us. I could feel Anise shudder the moment she appeared.
She look at Anise and said in a cold tone: "Are you out of your mind? Do you want to die that badly?"
Anise started trembling stronger in my arms. She lowered her head and answered in a quiet and timid voice.
"Mother, I'm no longer a student. You can't tell me what to do anymore."
"Oh, is that so?" replied her mother, her tone becoming even colder. She then locked eyes with me and said: "Are you the one that keeps putting these ideas in my daughter's head?"
I refused to answer and slowly pushed Anise behind me. I knew this was not going to end in a peaceful way so I started circulating my mana.
Anise, who was close to me, knew what I planned and grabbed my hand from behind: "You can't. She level 38. You'll die if you fight her.".
I was about to tell her we had no choice, when Anise's mother interrupted me: "Are you going to fight me?" she asked with a cold smile on her lips. "Good idea, I'll kill you and take her back to the academy with me. With you dead, she will no longer have any reason to go north."
After her words ended, she also started circulating her mana, making the air all around grow colder.
[*You have no chance of winning. She's too strong.*]
'I have no other choice.' I replied to Senna's words and started focusing on the fight that was about to happen.
"Let me show you the difference between our abilities boy." She said as she started summoning lances made out of ice all around her with a wave of her hand, before sending them flying right at me.
I pushed Anise, who was frozen on the spot, back so she wouldn't get hurt as I turned my mana into wind and pushed myself straight towards her mother. I wanted to get into close range, hoping to at least have a chance like this. Once the lances she sent towards me got close, I slid right under them and stabbed my spear towards her chest.
She created a sword made out of ice and parried my attack with it. Once the sword connected with the tip of the spear, my spear broke into tinny ice crystal, taking me completely by surprise. Seeing that the momentum of my charge kept me moving forward, she swung her sword towards my neck, obviously intending to kill me in one swift strike.
I channeled my mana again, creating a strong wind in front of me to forcefully break my charge and push my body back. I could feel my entire body aching, but I managed to avoid her attack in time.
She didn't say another word as she let the sword dissipate and waved her hand again. Seeing that nothing was happening, I was about to charge towards her again when Ai's voice sounded in my head:
[Jump!]
Not having any time to think about it, I jumped and also used wind to push myself up further. Looking down, I noticed a dozen of sharp spike growing up from the ground where I previously stood.
'Damn, she's not giving me any breathing time.' Using my wind magic, I pushed myself a bit further away from the spikes before lifting my hand and shooting a lightning arc straight at her, hoping to catch her by surprise.
Anise's mom, seeing the bolt of lightning heading straight towards her, instantly created a pillar of ice in front of her, blocking it completely.
'Shit. I was too far and she had enough time to react.'
Once the attack passed, she let the pillar dissipate and I saw her now carrying a golden staff in her left hand.
"I must admit I underestimated you, not expecting you to have mastered two elements, but not anymore." She said as the staff in her hand started glowing and she dashed towards me at an incredible speed, leaving afterimages behind."
"Mom, no!" Anise's voice sounded in the distance, but she seemed to not have any intention of stopping.
Seeing her speed, I knew I had no chance of dodging that attack. Using all the mana that was left inside my body, I created a powerful bolt of lightning before shooting it towards her. I could only hope she will have no time to avoid it since the distance was so short now. The lightning was too fast and managed to hit her straight in the chest. She threw up a mouthful of blood, but didn't stop her charge as she created another sword in her right hand and aimed it straight at my heart.
As the sword was about to pierce my heart, a soft voice sounded in my head: [*You owe me one.*]
After that, a wave of darkness spread from my body, pushing Anise's mother back and making her cough another mouthful of blood.
[*That's all the spirit I managed to save since you summoned me. You're on your own now.*]
I knew this was a good chance to attack, but sadly I was completely out of mana. Even staying awake was hard. As I was thinking of a way out of this situation. I noticed Anise's mom stand up and take a step back, horror obvious on her face, as she looked behind me. Curious about what was going on, I turned around only to see Anise with a determined face holding a sword made our of ice at her own neck.
"Mother, I already decided I'm not going back. You can only let us leave or take at the academy my own cold body."
Even I was scared as I looked at her eyes. I had no doubt that if her mother continued to attack she will go trough with it and end her life. I wanted to say something but Senna's voice sounded in my head again.
[*If you stop her, you'll die for sure. Just shut up and watch the situation play out.*]
I could tell that Senna was quite pissed about having to use her spirit to save me so I listened to her and just watched the situation play out like she told me to.
Her mother didn't say a word for a long time, looking at her daughter's face with a pained expression. After a while, she muttered something under her breath and turned around. Seeing her casting a spell and disappearing into thin air, I let out a sigh of relief and passed out straight away from over exhaustion.