As I surrendered complete control over my soul and body to Senna, I felt a thick fog engulf me, accompanied by an excruciating pain. As the pain started to fade, I opened my eyes and noticed that I was floating gently through space.
Planets, stars and other celestial bodies were slowly passing by. I kept floating aimlessly observing everything around me while wondering where I was and if Senna managed to defeat that demon and the spirit that was residing inside him.
After what felt like an eternity, Ai's voice resounded all around me: "The fight is done. It's time for you to come back."
I wanted to ask what happened, but I didn't get the chance as my vision brightened and a powerful pain engulfed me one again, making a small grunt escape my mouth.
I looked around and noticed that I was right outside Bastion's wall. Figuring that it was Senna who brought me here, I asked in my mind:
'Senna, how did it go? Are you all right?'
[I'm sorry Ethan, Senna is not here anymore.]
'What happened to her?' I asked right away, fearing the worst might have happened.
[I don't know exactly, but your contract was canceled after the fight. She might have returned to the dark dimension.]
'Huh? But why?'
[Let me tell you everything that happened after you surrendered control over your body to her.]
Ai then proceeded to recount everything that happened from the moment I passed out until now. After she was done, I said:
'I don't understand. What's with space breaking apart and why did she have to end the contract and leave my soul?'
[I can't come to a conclusion either and Senna didn't answer me when I asked her about it.]
'Can't I summon her again? The same way I did the last time?'
[That summoning was more of an accident. We can try to recreate the circumstances again since I memorized both circles, but I can't guarantee that it will work. In addition, you will also need quite a bit of blood and dead bodies as tribute.]
I let out a sigh and asked:
'What made you think she returned to the dark dimension and she's still safe?'
[Since she wasn't tied to a vessel anymore the dark dimension must have summoned her back. Also, she didn't seem too worried the moment she left. If anything were to happen to her she would have probably said something.]
'Can I go there myself? I mean after I leave this world.'
[Yes, but I wouldn't recommend it. At least not until your soul evolves a couple more times.]
'Sigh, can't believe I lost someone again.. '
[…It was not your fault.]
'Whether it was or wasn't doesn't really matter now does it. The important thing is that she's gone now…'
[..]
'Can you show me my status?'
[
Name: Ethan Knott
Age: Avatar 19;
Race: Avatar Human;
Experience: 86 213/135 000;
Health Points: 38/420;
Mana Points 31/660;
Level: 39;
Vitality: 42;
Strength: 45;
Dexterity : 43;
Intelligence: 66;
Resistance: 41;
11 free stat point
———
System Points: 21 817 630;
Spirit: 700 (Soul damaged);
]
'What the hell happened? What's with my level?' I asked in wonder as I looked at my status. Never would have imagined that I managed to skip move than ten levels in one go. After that, I noticed the system points and for a moment thought I was hallucinating.
[Space broke after whatever Senna did, effectively destroying all the magic circles underground which helped you complete all the quests related to them. Also, this seems to have started a chain reaction as over two million demon-puppets and even a few demons were killed. The world energy was shared with Senna, but you received all the system points for those kills.]
It took me a moment to calm down, following which I said: 'That is great and all, but what is with the damaged soul?'
[It must be related to whatever Senna did before the space started breaking. I don't know what she did, but it damaged your soul slightly. It's not that bad and will recover by itself in a month or so.]
'Well, she got me out so I owe her one again. Too bad it will take a while before I even get the chance to pay her back..'
The fact that I lost Senna and she had to return to the dark dimension made me quite sad, but at least she was fine. I knew that as long as I don't end up dying on my journey we'll meet again, sooner or later.
After I took a moment to process everything, I asked Ai:
'How long was I out?'
[Not that long, about half an hour.]
'I guess I should return back inside the city and check whatever changes me breaking the circle brought to the whole war situation.'
With that thought in mind, I slowly got up, enduring the excruciating pain, cast the camouflage spell and made my way back to the city. As I reached the northern gate, I saw people hurrying to both get in and out of the city.
'It seems like the situation has indeed changed.'
Taking advantage of my invisibility, I sneaked past the guards and entered the city before slowly making my way towards the inn Anise was staying in.
Half an hour later, I opened the door to the room Anise was in and was greeted by her voice:
"Ethan, is that you?"
I sat down on the bed and canceled my spell before replying: "Yeah, it's me."
Anise hurriedly came by my side and started checking up on me as she asked: "What happened? You looked horrible."
I looked down and noticed that my entire body was covered in wounds and blood. Sighing I said:
"Quite a bit happened." I was about to recount what happened when she interrupted me.
"That can wait. Give me a moment to heal you up first."
As her words ended, she started casting healing spells one after another and I saw my health points slowly increasing. Once I was back to full, she stopped casting healing magic, looking a bit exhausted herself, as she said:
"It's done. You just need to sleep for a while to get rid of the fatigue."
"Thank you, Anise."
With the pain finally gone, I started recounting what happened, leaving out the parts about Senna.
She took a moment to process everything before saying:
"So, now that all the circles are gone, is the war going to end?"
"I don't know, but I doubt it. You didn't hear any news about what they are planning to do now?"
"I kept practicing and didn't leave the room at all for the entire time so I don't know. If you want, we can try going to the adventurer's guild and see if there are any news there."
"Let's go. I'm not entirely familiar with what happened after since I was heavily injured and had to teleport away after destroying the circle."
I quickly asked Anise to clean me with water magic since my mana was pitifully low and changed into a new set of clothes before we both walked out and headed towards the adventurer's guild.
As we reached there, we saw that there were a lot of guild employees posting new quests on the board and adventurers that picked them up right as they were posted. Curious, I asked a nearby adventurer:
"What's going on?"
"You don't know? Someone used a huge space spell and wiped out a large portion of the enemy army together with the teleportation circles they were using for reinforcements. The guild is taking advantage of this and are issuing a large amount of quests to push them back."
"Oh, I see. Thank you."
Once we got an explanation, both me and Anise approached the quest board to check out the new quests. The quests for serving in the war were indeed replaced with hunting quests and the rewards were a couple of times higher.
Retreating a bit further away from the board, I said quietly to Anise:
"It looks like the adventurer guild is really taking advantage of the destruction of the circles to push them back. Too bad the demons didn't lose control over their armies tho."
She nodded and said: "Should we register a quest and join as well?"
I pondered for a moment before saying: "Let's wait for tomorrow and see what Lysa and Velor plan on doing. I need to recover my mana anyway."
"Sure." Anise agreed and we asked a couple more questions about the overall situation before we returned to the our room at the inn.
As I laid down on the bed, Anise came next to me and asked:
"Is everything all right? You seem a little down ever since you came back."
I was a bit surprised by her question, but I pulled her into my arms as I said: "I'm fine don't worry. Just a little tired."
She nodded with her head placed on my chest before saying: "Let's go to sleep then. I also used a large portion of my mana as I was healing you earlier."
I gave her a light kiss on her forehead before closing my eyes and falling asleep. A few hours later, I woke up and noticed that Anise was already practicing magic quietly nearby. Sensing me wake up, she canceled her spell and said with a look of worry:
"Are you feeling better now?"
"Yeah, a good night sleep was all I needed in the end. Want me to help?" Since it was around midnight right now, I had nothing else to do until morning.
"If you don't mind. I'm just trying to improve my control over fire."
I nodded and started helping her with her practice. Time slowly went by and it was soon morning of the day we were supposed to meet up with Lysa and Velor.
Ending our lessons, we walked out of the inn and made our way to the adventurer guild. Since it was early in the morning, we expected to wait quite a bit for Lysa and Velor to arrive, but were surprised to find out that they were already there.
They noticed as soon as we came in and approached us right away. Velor patted my shoulder and said:
"Did you guys hear about the wizard that attacked the demon army with a spacial spell? Wasn't that cool? I wish I could fight him."
Since I didn't want anyone to find out it was me, I kept a straight face and said: "Yeah we did. We came by the adventurer guild yesterday and saw the new quests."
"Aren't the new quests just great? Let's go and grab one as well. We might even be able to push the demons back for the first time since the start of the war."
Me and Anise agreed and all four of us started browsing the quest board. After a bit of back and forth, we all settled on a simple extermination quest.
//Fighting back 15- quest//
//Help clear all the enemies along the west shore from the wall up to the Hope Gulf.//
//Reward: 1 silver per enemy killed. Recording required.//
As we were about to leave after we registered the quest with the employee at the desk, he said to us.
"There are already adventurers that started on this quest since yesterday. Head along the wall straight west and move north as soon as you reach the sea while clearing all the enemies you encounter. The quest is considered over once you reach the Hope Gulf. Also, be careful not to attack any adventurers already there."
After we thanked the clerk, I asked the others:
"Do you have any idea what this Hope Gulf is?"
"That's what everyone is calling the gulf that formed after the wizard's attack. You'll see once we reach there. I heard it's amazing."
"I see. Let's go then." I had no idea what this gulf was supposed to be, but I figured there wouldn't be long until I find out.
We walked out of the guild and headed towards the western shore. After reaching it, we started running north along the beach and it took us two hours before we finally reached the other adventurers. Lysa started recording and we joined the fun as well.
We set up a standard formation, with me and Velor taking the front while Anise and Lysa supported us from the back and started killing out any enemy in front as we continued walking north.
Two days later, we killed the last enemy and everyone stopped to look in wonder at the sights in front of us. I finally understood why it was called a gulf. The land seems to have disappeared after space broke apart, creating a huge crater that filled with water from the sea. As I was having mixed feelings about everything, Velor's voice sounded from my right:
"Just how much mana an attack of this size must cost?"
I refrained from answering as I kept staring at the devastation I inadvertently caused while speaking with Ai.
'How exactly did Senna manage that?'
[I don't know. By all my calculations it should be impossible to generate that amount of spirit at your level.]
'But somehow she did it…'
Letting out a sigh, I turned towards the others before saying: "Since the quest is done, we should join the other adventurers and head back to the city."
They all agreed and we returned to the city and turned in the quest. With the teleportation circles destroyed, the amount of enemy soldiers kept decreasing steadily and it really looked like we'll soon succeed in pushing back the demon army from the southern continent's shores.
As we were heading towards a nearby tavern to celebrate the completion of the quest and the around 50 gold coins each of us got, Ai's confused voice sounded in my head.
[Ethan, something strange is happening.]
'What's going on?' I asked in my head as I pretended to be listening to the other's chatting.
[There seems to still be a magic circle active that is gathering the souls of the dead. It's just that it's a lot weaker.]
'So we missed one? Or did the demons already built another?'
[It's weird. The moment Senna destroyed all the magic circles I noticed that the souls of the dead on this side of the battlefield didn't stop getting absorbed into the ground. I initially thought that a part of the magic circle was still active and that it will stop soon, but it's been three days and it hasn't. The weirder part is that the focus point appears to be under the city of Bastion.]
I frowned at the last part and asked: 'Can you pinpoint it's exact location? I might as well check it out.'
[I can but it's too dangerous. You barely managed to survive the last time and that was all because of Senna. Now with Senna gone, you will die for sure if you encounter that demon again and since your soul is damaged, any soul attack will potentially kill you for good before I can pull you back to the Nexus.]
She was right. I decided to have a talk with Anise after we finished tonight's celebration and decide then.