I knew that I was spotted and started channeling my mana to attack when Ai's voice sounded in my mind:
[You might not be able to win. It's better to retreat.]
Choosing to trust her, I started using spacial magic to quicky blink into the tunnel I used to come here. Three blinks later, I was already in the air outside. After using magic to camouflage myself again, I asked Ai:
'Are you sure I couldn't take them? They didn't seem that strong.'
[I'm not sure since you haven't fought any demons before and I have nothing to use as reference, but I thought fighting two at one would definitely not be a good idea. I concluded it's better to retreat for now.]
'I see. You are right, but what do I do now? I can't go back there.'
[With the size of the magic circle, there should be countless tunnels underground. You can just search for another one.]
Agreeing that it was a good solution, I started moving along the shore getting further and further away. Once I felt that I got enough distance, I started tunneling through the ground again.
'Can you feel any more of those soul storage places? That would help me find the tunnels faster than blindly burrowing through the ground.'
[Give me a moment.]
[*There's another one straight south. You will also need to go deeper by around five meters.*]
After thanking Senna, I proceeded burrowing straight south. It took another minute before I was inside a room that looked almost identical to the last one.
'Damn, just how many souls did these guys collect?'
[With the war going on for over six years, there should be a couple billions.]
I shudder when I heard Ai's words.
"If I ever have the chance I'm going to wipe all these demons from existence…" I said through clenched teeth as I started looking for the entrance to the room. Once I found it, I was about to walk inside the tunnel when Senna said:
[*You should add a thin air membrane around your body. This should isolate your smell and prevent a repeat of last time.*]
'Good idea.' I replied as I did as Senna told me to and started walking through the tunnel. Not even five minutes later, the tunned I was following split into two.
As I didn't know exactly which one lead to the core of the magic circle, I picked one at random and proceeded onwards. Not long after, the same situation repeated itself. After choosing randomly again, I kept coming upon bifurcations every five or so minutes. A couple of hours of walking through the tunnels and only finding two more storage rooms, I finally arrived at a different room. It looked like a dormitory and was fully furnished with a bed, a small desk, a table, some chairs and even a small bookshelf.
'Do you think this is some demon's room?'
[Probably. They would not deem it necessary to create a room for a human.]
'Maybe we'll be able to find some useful information in those books.' As this idea came to me, I walked up to the bookshelf and started browsing through the books while asking Ai to record them. After we were done all the books, Ai said:
[They are mostly about souls. There are also some about magic in general, but nothing that would help us locate the core of the circle.]
'All right, let's keep looking.'
I turned back through the tunnel I came until the last bifurcation and chose the other tunnel. I kept navigating the maze for another hour or so. As I just reached another bifurcation, I could head footsteps coming closer from the right tunnel. I got close to one of the wall and waited patiently.
Not long after, a bulky demon appeared from the tunnel. Seeing he wasn't carrying any crate, I asked Ai:
'Should I follow him?'
[That is the best course of action. He might have just dropped a crate of souls and is on his way to pick up another one.]
Nodding, I started to slowly follow after him, careful to not make any noise and get spotted.
Twenty minutes later, the demon suddenly pressed his palm against a wall. The wall opened and the demon walked inside.
'So that's why I didn't find anything. There are even hidden tunnels.'
I waited a minute and pressed the palm against the wall. It opened into another tunnel. After following the new tunnel for another five minutes I heard footsteps from the front. Figuring it was the demon coming back, I moved to the side and stayed completely still as I waited for him to pass by. Seeing that he was carrying a crate, I was sure this must be the right way. After the demon passed, I continued and five minutes later I came upon what looked like another storage room.
'Sigh.. All of this was for nothing. Another storage room.'
[Not really. There is a small teleportation circle on the ground.]
Hearing Ai's words, I looked down and there was indeed a magic circle drawn there.
'But why is it here? I don't understand.'
[*This room is some sort of waypoint. They are teleporting the crates from the core of the circle here and the demons are moving them towards the storage rooms.*]
'But why would they do this and not teleport them directly to the storage rooms?'
[*And who should I ask? If I had to guess, I would say they are doing this because there are too many storage rooms and can't create that many teleportation circles.*]
'If you are right, this teleportation circle should be connected to the core of the gathering circle. Can we use it to teleport there?'
[That is not possible, but I can locate the general location of the core as soon as the circle is activated. Then we can go there directly through the ground.]
Agreeing to Ai's plan. I sat down on one of the crates and waited for the circle to activate. I didn't have to wait long before the circle brightened and a new crate appeared in front of me.
[I found it. I marked the approximate location of the core on your map. It's only five kilometers away.]
'Good job. I'll start heading there now.'
Finally having a target. I burrowed a couple of meters deeper into the ground and started tunneling in the direction of the core. As I was around five hundred meters away, Ai said again.
[You should take some time to recover your exhausted mana. You don't know what you'll encounter there.]
She had a good point so I stopped and went to sleep immediately. Four hours later, once my mana was full, I woke up and continued on my way.
Not long after, Senna's voice sounded in my head:
[*You should be directly under it. Being this close to the core, I can feel the circle even pulling slightly on my soul.*]
'Are you in any danger?'
[*No, our souls are closely linked together. Breaking them apart will not be easy.*]
Nodding, I took a deep breath and started slowly tunneling upwards. Twenty of so meters later, I was out of the ground. Looking around, I noticed I was inside a big circular room with hundreds of tunnels extending out of it. In the center of the room there was a huge pulsating ball of energy.
I was about to ask about it, when both Ai and Senna's voices sounded in my head:
[*Not good.*]
[Run!]
Senna's tone was calm, but hearing the urgency in Ai's voice I immediately teleported. When I reappeared, I noticed that I was still inside the same room. Panicking, I tried a few more times but the result was the same.
[*Stop wasting your mana. The whole space is locked and you won't be able to teleport out of it.*]
'Then what? Do I burrow out?'
[*That won't work either. You don't have time to go far enough.*]
I was about to ask if they had any other ideas when the whole place started shaking hard.
'What is happening now?'
[*There is a long range teleportation in progress. Someone is coming and by this amount of mana i can feel, they should be over level 100.*]
'Fuck. I need to get out of here. I can't fight someone like that.'
[*There's no use.*]
*Gulp*. With nothing else to do, I just sat there, hoping for a miracle.
A couple of seconds later, what looked like a wormhole appeared inside the space directly in front of me.
A fine dressed demon soon slowly walked out and smiled towards me. His smile didn't look threatening at all, but for some reason it made the hair stand up on the back of my neck. He created a chair completely out of mana and graciously sat down, not looking away from me for even a moment.
I felt like a rat caught in a trap but he didn't seem to care as he beckoned for me to come closer. As soon as his gesture ended, I felt the space in front of me shrink and I appeared only a few meters away.
I tried desperately to move back, but I found out to my horror that I couldn't move my body at all. I tried to channel my mana to forcefully teleport away but that didn't work either. In a panic, I said in my head:
'What is this monster? I can't channel my mana or move my body at all..'
[*His soul is a tier higher than yours and is suppressing your control over you avatar. His level is also a lot higher and he's using his mana to lock yours inside your body.*]
[I'm pulling your soul back to the Nexus. You can't win this fight and there's no chance of escape either.]
'No, wait. I can't leave. Wait a little more. Maybe I can find a way to escape.'
[I'm afraid I can't. This demon is strong enough to destroy your soul. That is a risk I can't take.]
'Please Ai. At least give me some time to talk to him. Maybe I can beg for mercy or something. If you pull my soul back to the Nexus now I'll just choose to return to the spirit well.' I couldn't leave Anise behind no matter what.
[…Fine. But as soon as there is any danger I'm pulling your soul out, even if I have to injure it in the process. I can't afford to lose you.]
There was a deep trace of worry in Ai's voice, but I was too preoccupied with the demon in front of me to notice.
"Sir, who are you?" I asked, doing my best to stop my voice from quivering.
The demon chuckled at my question but didn't answer immediately as he kept observing me. After a while, he said in an amused tone.
"Your knees are shaking. Why is that?"
I looked down and noticed that they were indeed shaking. His presence before me was like that of an insurmountable mountain. I felt that killing me was as easy as breathing for him.
"I'm scared." I replied honestly. I didn't know what I could do or if there was even a way for me to escape this situation.
"I can understand that. Now tell me, who are you and what are doing inside the core of my magic circle?"
"I didn't know it was yours." I blurted out, only realizing what a stupid answer that was after I already said it.
"Haha, I can imagine, but you didn't answer my first question. Who are you?"
"I.. I'm just an adventurer. I stumbled upon this circle and decided to check it out. If you allow me, I can leave and never come back."
"Mmm... You see, I think you're not being completely honest with me. I'll give you one more chance to tell me the truth. Who are you?" as he asked his question, the whole space around me started darkening slightly.
I knew I was doomed either way. If I didn't answer, he will kill me for sure. If I did and told him who I am and why I'm here, he'll also kill me. Ai also reached this conclusion as a big red message appeared in my vision.
[Soul extraction starting.]
'No, please. I can't leave this world. I can't abandon them. Senna, do you have any idea?'
Before Senna could answer, something else happened. A black lance materialized out of thin air and flew straight towards my chest.
Senna materialized in front of me and blocked the attack. She turned towards me, looking a bit pale, stared into my eyes and said:
[*There is probably someone from my race using the demon as a vessel. He felt your soul being extracted by the Nexus and attacked. Ethan, I know that you still doubt me, but I need you to trust me this time. Give me control of over 50% of your soul and let me take over your body. I promise to at least save you and I will return that part of your soul right after.]
[No, you must not. You can't trust her words. I will finish extracting your soul in a few seconds.]
I ignored Ai's words as I looked into Senna's eyes. I didn't know why, but there was a feeling of familiarity coming from those bright red eyes. A feeling coming from the deepest part of my soul. A feeling that those eyes will never betray me.
Smiling towards her I replied: 'I trust you. I wish to modify our contract, I surrender all control over my soul to you."
She smiled back before disappearing inside my body. A ripping pain came from my soul right after, like it was splitting apart before I passed out.
Back inside the room with the gathering circle.
Ethan's eyes, that were closed after agreeing to give Senna control over his body snapped open. His kind and honest blue eyes nowhere to be found, replaced by a pair of cruel and murderous red ones.
'This idiot. Doesn't he know that giving someone full control over his soul means killing himself?'
[…I stopped the transfer.]
Senna, who was now controlling Ethan's body, smiled towards the demon and a pure white staff appeared in her hands. The moment the staff appeared, a huge amount of mana started escaping her body, breaking the control the demon had over her.
The demon's easygoing expression finally changed as he stood up and asked in a wary tone:
"Who are you? Are you a spirit?"
"Hehe, even if I told you, you are still to young to know my name. That soul that resides inside your body on the other hand, definitely knows who I am. Are you going to bring it out or do you want me to do it for you?."
[Senna, the amount of spirit you are converting into mana is overtaxing the avatar. You are slowly loosing health points.]
'I know. There is nothing I can do about that. Let's just hope I can take care of them before the avatar is completely destroyed.'
"You think you have the right to order me around?" replied the demon in an angry tone as he threw a fireball straight at Senna's face.
Senna waved her hand before the fireball could even come close and made it appear behind the demon. Hit by his own fireball, the demon rolled on the ground a couple of times before teleporting back onto his feet.
His hair disheveled and burn marks all over the back of his body combined with the furious expression on his face, made him finally look like the demon he was.
As the demon was about to attack again, a cold voice sounded as a shadow manifested out of his body.
"Stand back. You are no match for her."
The demon surprisingly didn't argue and took a step back, standing behind the shadow with his head lowered. After that, the shadow fixed it's eyes on Senna as he said:
"Senna, I'm happy that you finally got out of prison, but why are you interfering with my business?"
Senna's smile disappeared from her face, a cold look replacing it as she said:
"It appears I was gone for too long. Even lower spirits now dare to call me by my name."
As her words ended, she teleported right in front of the shadow and grabbed it by it's neck as she continued.
"I thought it might be one of those old fools, but it was just a small spirit that forgot it's place. DIE!"
Black flames appeared from Senna's hand and covered the body of the entire shadow, but all of a sudden, the gathering circle underneath started brightening and spirit started flowing into the burning shadow.
"HAHAHA. YOU ARE THE ONE THAT FORGOT HER PLACE. HAHAHA!" As the shadow's laughter ended, the flames evaporated and Senna was pushed across the room by a black shock wave.
As she stood back up and cleared the blood from the side of her mouth, the shadow continued:
"Your words might have meant something if you were as strong as in the past, but I know that they stripped you of your spirit when they sent you to prison. I'm sure that the others will not even mind if I killed you here. You should start running now. Hahaha"
'Damn, that took all the mana I gathered just to prevent it from killing me. I guess I can only start burning my soul. Or..'
Ai interrupted her train of thought as she said:
[Senna, I'll start transferring Ethan's soul to the Nexus. You can't win this.]
'Little girl, if you think that I'm going to run away from a half-breed, you know nothing about me.'
As she finished her words, Senna smiled again and the flames from before came back, now covering her body from the neck down instead. She planned to burn a part of her soul together with a part of Ethan's to fight back.
"Oh really? I want to see you try."
The shadow laughed again and prepared to attack before his laughter suddenly stopped and he took a step back with an expression of utter terror on his face.
"What are you doing? What is that soul?"
Senna looked around as well. The entire space around was filled with wild spirit and was breaking apart. She looked confused as well before an idea came to her and she smiled brilliantly as she replied:
"You should start running now. Hehe"
The black flames disappeared completely and space all around started falling apart. The shadow didn't even reply as he returned to the demon's body as soon as possible and they both teleported away.
[Senna, where is all this spirit coming from?]
Senna fell onto her knees, supporting her body with her hands, and ignored Ai as she mumbled with a dazed expression: "So I was right…"
Seeing that she didn't react, Ai screamed inside her head.
[SENNA, YOU NEED TO LEAVE, NOW! THE SPACE ALL AROUND IS FALLING APART!]
Some clarity returned to her eyes following Ai's shout and she looked around briefly. Channeling her spirit and converting it into mana, she teleported Ethan's body at the base of Bastion's northern wall.
[Senna, what happened there at the end?] asked Ai once they were safe.
'You don't know?' replied Senna with a weak chuckle.
[No, I don't. I only noticed that a huge amount of spirit appeared out of nowhere and started destroying the space all around.]
'If you behave maybe I'll tell you the next time we meet, little girl. Take care of that idiot for me.'
[I don't understand… Wait, are you leaving his soul? Why?]
'Do you think I want to? This is the price I have to pay. Listen closely since I don't have much time left. That demon has a contract with a lesser spirit. Tell Ethan not to fight him again until he completes his soul evolution and reaches level 100 or he won't stand a chance. Also…'
Before her words ended, an ethereal Senna surrounded by a black mist came out of Ethan's body and floated atop him. She smiled slightly, a traces of sadness in her eyes as her lips opened slightly, mouthing a couple of silent words before turning around and disappearing into thin air.