We soon reached the northern gate and saw the rest of the party already waiting for us. After some casual greetings, we went past the guards and started heading north.
Since we were supposed to be heading further north than the others, Oliver already planned for us to pass through sector D since it was the one with the least amount of adventurers distributed to. Reaching the sector, he said to us:
"Since everyone here is so strong, we should split up the party. This will help us clear the most enemies possible. What do you guys think?"
Seeing the others agree, I asked Ai: 'Ai, will they still get experience if we split up?'
[Yes, but the distance must not be bigger than 800 meters between you. If the distance is over 800 meters, I won't be able to increase their level and distribute experience to them.]
Hearing her answer, I replied: "We can, but you need to keep a distance of 800 meters away from me. That should be the range in which I can increase your level without any issue."
Oliver nodded and said: "All right. We'll do that."
"So, how do we split?" I asked.
"I thought Velor should go with Lysa since they both have a lot of experience fighting together. Since you are the strongest, you could go alone while I will go with Alison and protect her while she casts her spells. What do you think?"
I had no problem with this arrangement so I turned towards Anise to find out her opinion. Seeing her nod in agreement, I said: "Sounds fine. I'll stay in the center so remember to not get further away than 800 meters. Also, if you need any help just shoot a spell straight up into the sky and I'll be there in an instant. Also, I want to know how everyone would like to have their parameters increased as they level up."
They all agreed and started telling me how they wanted their parameters to increase. The girls only wanted intelligence while Velor wanted Vitality and Intelligence at a ratio of 2:1 and Oliver went for Strength and Dexterity also at a 2:1 ratio. After Ai confirmed that she understood we all split up. Lysa's team headed west while Anise's headed east. Being left alone, I started heading straight north while saying to Ai:
'Please monitor their position and let me know if they get too far or they are in any danger.'
[Affirmative.]
Very soon I encountered some other party of adventurers but flew right over them and headed further north. Once I was far enough away, I threw a fireball under me and landed there after the explosion. Since we were still rather close to the other adventurers, I chose not to use any big area of effect spells and just used wind blades to cut a line through the horde of enemies while keeping the pace of the other teams. Our progress was surprisingly slow, only advancing around around a hundred or so meters per hour. Five hours later, a fireball flew into the sky from the east.
Seeing Anise's signal, I stopped killing the enemies and started heading east through short range teleportation. Once I reached there, I found Anise full of sweat resting in the middle while Oliver was cleaving the enemies that got to close using his sword. I created a ring of fire around us so that the enemies couldn't pass and asked:
"What happened? Are you guys hurt?"
Oliver sheathed his sword and sat down to draw his breath as Anise replied: "I spent almost all my mana and Oliver had to cover for me near the end. Since we were both tired, we figured that we might as well finish for the day and get some rest."
"All right, we can do that. Let's go grab the others as well."
After saying that, I created a wind current and carried them towards the west. Reaching Lysa's party, I noticed that their situation was a lot better. I expected only Lysa to be clearing enemies using area of effect spells, but Velor also used some kind of spell to increase the size of his blade, effectively killing tens of enemies with every slash.
After telling them the reason we came, I used earth magic to create a series of underground rooms and we all sat down to rest. I had a big part of my mana left, but I just stored it inside the staff since it was still half empty and joined the others to sleep.
We all woke up a couple of hours later and continued moving north using the same formation. As we regrouped to rest again, Lysa said: "Are you sure the enemies don't have a teleporter anymore? The enemies keep coming no matter how many of them we kill."
Oliver nodded as he said: "Yeah. There has been no sign of any space magic since that space wizard destroyed the demon's teleporters."
I knew that there were no more teleporters, but what Lysa said was also right. At the rate they are getting killed, it's impossible for them to still be this many, but it also makes no sense for the enemy to keep sending waves after waves of mind controlled people without a spirit gathering magic circle active.
'Ai, do you have any explanation?'
[It is possible that they are simply arriving via underground tunnels. Demon initially lived underground so creating a bunch of deep underground tunnels to connect the two continents might take a lot of time but it shouldn't be a problem.]
'Even if that's true, why are they still doing it? Without a spirit gathering circle what do they even gain from that?'
[I don't know.]
Over the next month, we kept clearing out waves after waves of enemies. I even experimented with a lightning storm one day and the results were amazing, killing around a million enemies in one go without even spending that much mana, but the enemies seem to be indeed appearing out of nowhere. At this point, Ai's theory that they have a tunnel seemed more and more plausible. I thought about searching for it, but since experience was what we needed the most, I was happy with just helping everyone reach level 60. We kept killing for another half a month and the adventurers behind finally started catching up to us, forcing us to move even further north from our hunting zone to not attack them by accident.
Once day, exactly a month and two weeks later, Ai's voice finally sounded in my head:
[You have reached level 60. Your party members are all almost there as well, all of them being at the limit of level 59.]
The progress we had during this one month and two weeks was nothing short of amazing, the lightning storm spell killed a lot of enemies and was also a lot easier to control than the hurricane. Eventually I had to explain that I found a way to share my world energy with them once they noticed they were leveling up like crazy.
As we took our break, since the goal of all of us reaching level 60 was complete, I said to the others:
"I think we all noticed by now that the enemies still have a way to send in reinforcements." Seeing that everyone nodded I continued: "After thinking for a while, I came to the conclusion that since demons used to live underground, there must be a tunnel which they are using. If we find and shut down that tunnel we might be able to finally push them out of the southern continent."
"Do you have a way to do that?" asked Lysa.
"Not really, but there must be an opening for them to exit the tunnel and I plan on searching for it. After we rest for today, I'll go and fly invisible over the enemy army in search for it. You guys can continue killing for world energy while I do that."
They all agreed to the plan and we all went to sleep. As soon as I woke up, I asked them to be careful before I started flying over the enemy army while staying invisible. It took me two days of continuous searching before I finally got a clue.
As I was hovering over a small forest, I noticed that there were enemies walking out of in in all direction with no a single one going inside. I headed deeper down to check it out and found a small tunnel, but there was an actual demon standing guard at the entrance.
Not really knowing how strong that demon was and if there might others inside, I asked Ai to mark the place on my map and started heading back to meet with the others.
Once we were reunited, I proceeded to explain what I saw inside the small forest. Oliver was the first one to react as he asked: "Do you want to check the place out?"
I nodded and said: "Yeah, but since I didn't know exactly what to expect inside, I figured I might as well bring you guys with me. We are all now level 60 and we can probably take them on."
Oliver seemed a bit reluctant, but Anise was the first one to intervene: "I think we should do it. This is the reason we've been increasing out level like crazy for the last two months."
"I agree with Anise. It's time to finally push them back for good." Added Lysa and Velor also nodded in agreement.
Oliver eventually relented as well and said: "All right, we'll do it but we need a plan."
"I'll use my mana to lock space and prevent the demons already there from leaving. After that, we'll just storm the place and kill every singe one of them."
Oliver nodded before saying: "Can't you use your invisibility to scout the place first?"
"They already know of my invisibility spell and apparently have a way to counter it. I'm not sure if I can do it without getting spotted."
We kept exchanging idea and eventually settled on a different plan. I will use invisibility to follow after them while sealing the space and provide assistance only if they are in trouble. I was their failsafe and also in charge of guarding the back. Velor and Oliver will be our vanguard and lead the charge while the girls will provide cover from the middle.
As we finally agreed on the plan, we all went to sleep to recover out mana. After around six hours, I woke up and notice that Anise was silently practicing with a water spell. Coming behind her, I hugged her in my arms and whispered into her ear: "I'm sorry for pausing our lessons during the last two months. We'll continue once this is all over."
"Don't worry, you shared a lot of your world energy with me, with us, during this time. I'm level 60 and quite close to becoming a master wizard just like grandma. This is more than I could have ever hope for. Thank you." She replied while turning around and giving me a kiss on the lips.
Our little morning conversation managed to wake up the others in the room and we soon started heading for the demon camp. As we reached close enough while flying in the air, I added all my points into intelligence, reaching a total of 1240 mana, and started spreading around 300 of it in the surrounding space, effectively locking it up.
Once that was done, I said to the others: "Space is locked, let's go.". As my words ended, we all fell from the sky and charged at the demon guarding the entrance. The demon didn't seem that strong because as soon as Oliver touched the ground, he dashed in his direction and decapitated him before he could even react.
With the demon guarding the entrance dead, we ran inside the tunnel, killing all the humans that were coming out as soon as they appeared in our sights. I was finally able to see the advantage of having warriors in our party. They were cleaving through the enemies before the back line was able to cast a single spell. The girls eventually gave up and let Velor and Oliver take care of the enemies in front.
After rushing in a down slope through the tunnel for over six hours in which we only encountered humans, we reached a circular room with tunnels going in all directions and a big magic circle in the center. Humans were appearing on that circle and rushing into one of the tunnels.
I noticed that my spacial lock was not working on the circle for some reason so I asked Ai: 'How is there a teleportation circle here and why isn't it being stopped by me locking the mana in the surrounding.'
[You are already deep under the sea. They built the circle here and made a tunnel that reached the land. This way people won't be able to find the circle easily. As for the reason your space lock is not affecting it is because the path was already opened before you came here.]
'Oh, I see. I didn't even think about that.'
I was about to cancel my invisibility and destroy the circle, but noticed Anise channeling her mana which prompted me to stop. A big fireball slowly formed above her hand and she threw it straight at the center of the circle, blowing up the ground together with the core of the magic circle. Seeing the lines of the circle drawn under my feet stop shining, I let out a sigh of relief.
'We finally did it.'
As I got out of my invisibility and got ready to help the others clear the remaining enemies, a huge headache hit me, almost making me lose my balance. Someone was fighting with me over control of the space surrounding us.
[It's the same demon from before. You need to get out! Fast!]
'There's no way I can teleport away and I won't be able to stop him from teleporting here for too long either.'
[I analyzed the teleportation spell Senna used the last time she fled from the spatial collapse. I'm sending the information to your interface right now.]. As Ai's words ended, all sorts of information appeared in my sight.
'Damn, it will take me around ten minutes just to go through all this information.'
With no other choice, I teleported in the middle of the party formation and said: "We have troubles. An over level 100 demon is fighting to break over my space lock and will succeed very soon. I have a plan to get us out of here, but I will need you guys to stall him for around ten minutes."
Hearing the gravity in my words, everyone gathered together and surrounded me, ready to fight the demon. Since holding into the mana block was giving me a horrible headache, making it impossible to focus on reading the information Ai sent, I released the lock and started focusing on reading and understanding the long range teleportation spell.
Once my space lock was released, the teleportation was completed and the demon from before appeared, his eyes fixed directly on me.
"We meet again, little human."