Hearing the familiar voice, a feeling of dread combined with anger rose up inside me. He was the reason I lost Senna, the reason the seal on my soul started breaking apart and also the reason I only had around 9 months before I have to leave this world.
Taking a deep breath, I ignored him and said to the others: "Be careful. He's really strong.". After saying that, I closed my eyes and started focusing on reading the information Ai sent me once again.
As my words ended, the others immediately got in formation with Velor and Oliver in the front and the girls guarding my left and rights side.
The demon looked at everyone's serious expressions before he said with a laugh: "Do you really think you can fight me? Bring out that spirit from before already. She's the only one that stands a chance against me."
I was busy with reading the information from Ai so I didn't even bother to answer the demon's words. Enraged he said: "Good. Maybe you'll pay attention after I kill all your friends."
As his words ended, mana surged around his body and the entire place started getting darker. Lysa reacted right away and countered with a divine spell, but the spell was not strong enough to brighten the whole room, only covering a small 20 meters radius around our party.
Since the demon was now hiding in the dark, everyone started to carefully observe their surroundings, ready to respond to everything he might throw at us. All of a sudden, out of the darkness above us, a black sphere started falling down at a fast speed.
"I got this." Said Velor before the shield in his left hand expanded in size and he jumped to block the black sphere. An explosion happened as soon as the sphere touched the shield, an explosion so strong that broke the light shield and pushed Velor back down. He fell on his back with a thud and the even the ground where he fell managed to sink for a couple of centimeters.
Velor let out a grunt from the impact but stood back up almost immediately. There were no visible wounds on his body, only pained expression on his face, obviously already injured from that attack.
Not even giving anyone time to breathe, the demon appeared in front of Velor with his hand extended and taking the form of a dark claw. As the claw was getting closer to Velor's face, Anise was the first to react and threw a fireball at the demon's side.
[Velor will die if you don't help.]
Ai's voice sounded in my mind, breaking my concentration and forcing me to open my eyes. Seeing that the claw was about to reach Velor's face, I covered the space around him with mana and teleported him a couple of meters back. The demon managed to hit empty air and was instead hit by Anise's fireball.
There was a sizzling sound and the demon teleported out of sight again. Since Velor was safe for now, I closed my eyes and started focusing again. The mass teleportation was our only way of getting out of here.
Everyone knew that the demon was not seriously injured just by that, so they got back into formation as Lysa cast a healing spell on her brother. Just as her healing spell ended, a back spear manifested out of the darkness and flew right at Lysa from the back.
Since Lysa was looking in the opposite direction and Velor's vision was obstructed by her none of them managed to react in time, prompting Oliver to suddenly dash in front of the spear. Sadly, Velor was the only one carrying a shield so Oliver had to block the spear using his left shoulder.
The spear struck his shoulder and passed right through, only stopping after half of it was already through. As the spear stopped, it slowly dissipated into back fog and left behind a gaping three centimeters radius hole in his shoulder.
Hearing the sound from behind her, Lysa immediately turned only to see Oliver kneeling on one knee and using his right hand to try and stop the bleeding. The hole was too large and that was obviously impossible. In a fit of panic, Lysa ran up to him and started healing him as well.
As bright light surrounded both of their bodies and the hole started closing, the demon attacked again, this time coming straight for Anise. Since the light from the healing spell blocked Velor, Oliver and Lysa's sight, none of them even noticed that Anise was being targeted now.
Anise seeing the demon appearing in front of her and extending his claw toward her face, immediately channeled all her mana and made an ice barrier in front of her. Fire and water were the only elements she was able to use without a chant, but this was the first time she used an ice spell in actual combat.
The demon's claw hit the ice barrier made out of Anise's entire mana pool and only stopped for a moment before shattering it completely and continuing forward towards her head. Anise closed her eyes in resignation and waited for the claw to claim her life.
Alerted by Ai once again, I opened my eyes and a feeling of sudden rage overtook my mind seeing the situation unfolding in front of my eyes. Without even thinking of teleporting Anise away, for some reason I teleported myself in front of the attack and punched right at the demon's extended claw.
As my fist collided with his claw, a horrible pain came from my hand and my entire right hand actually burst into a mess of blood and gore, but at least it managed to stop the demon's attack and he retreated again. Opening quite a large distance between us.
Feeling something wet touching her face, Anise opened her eyes and was greeted by my back sitting in front of her, my right arm completely missing. Without even thinking about it, she started chanting a healing spell.
I ignored the chanting behind me and focused my eyes on the demon in front. I didn't feel any pain, only rage. I never had a stronger desire to end someone like this before. I even forgot about escaping or waiting for Anise to finish her healing spell as I charged right at the demon.
"Haha. You finally decided to join the fun. Let's go." Laughed the demon out loud as he also charged towards me, choosing the same claw attack, this time targeting my heart. A smile appeared on my face, a smile that would have probably scared every being that managed to fix it's eyes on it, as I formed a fist with my left hand and aimed it at the demon's claw.
The demon's expression changed slightly as he saw the smile on my face, but he didn't retreat either and continued his attack. Just as my fist collided for the second time with the demon's claw, an ethereal dark shell covered my fist. There were small black tentacles wriggling wildly on the surface of that shell.
"Auuuu." A sudden yell of pain escaped the demon's mouth as both our arms exploded into a bloody mist. The demon took a couple of steps back and covered the stump where his right arm used to be and looked at me with an angry expression. The smile on my face grew even larger as I sat there unmoving and just started at the demon with both of my arms now gone.
"What are you?" asked the demon, "You are not the same spirit from before?"
I didn't answer him and just slowly started walking towards the demon. As I got closer to him, the dark shell appeared again and started covering my body from the feet up.
As I got closer, the demon started stepping back as well to prevent the distance from shortening. As the shell reached my waist, the shadow that fought against Senna before manifested again and said: "Vannoch, this kid is giving me a dangerous feeling. That shell around his body has the same signature as the soul I felt before. It would be wise to retreat for now."
The demon again, without a single second thought cast a teleportation spell and disappeared from the underground room.
With the light returned and the demon gone, Anise started running towards me with worry written everywhere on her face. She barely managed to take two steps when Oliver grabbed her hand from the back and stopped her while saying: "Look at him. Something is not right. Don't get closer."
Left without a target, the shell stopped expanding further and I also stopped waling. My mind felt like it was covered with fog and couldn't remember who I was, why was I fighting and why was I so angry before. Without that rage, I only started feeling empty and cold. A deep coldness that threatened to engulf my entire soul.
All of a sudden, a warm feeling started coming from my back. A familiar warmth, a warmth that I used to know but I couldn't remember anymore.
Confused, I turned back and saw Anise crying with her head buried in my back while hugging me close. It appeared that she ignored Oliver's words and came to me anyway. Seeing her crying face, I looked at her and said with a hoarse voice:
"Who are you? Why are you crying?"
Anise seemed taken aback by my question but continued hugging me as she said: "I'm Anise. Don't you remember?".
"Anise." I mumbled, feeling that I knew this name. As I was wondering how did I know this name, I felt a shock pass through my very soul which made me pass out.
Once I opened my eyes, I was laying down on the ground with Ai looking at me from above with a worried face. Frowning from the horrible headache I was feeling, I asked:
"What is going on Ai? Why does my head hurt so much?"
Ai's worried expression seem to ease as she heard my words and she asked: "Do you remember me?"
I looked at her weirdly and asked: "Why wouldn't I remember you? What happened?"
She didn't answer my question and asked again: "What is the last thing you remember?"
I searched through my memories but the headache I was feeling got even worse. After fighting with it for a while I answered: "I'm not sure. I remember we getting ambushed by that demon again and me starting to read through a long range teleportation spell and nothing after that. Did we manage to escape? What happened?"
Ai nodded and waved her hand to make a mirror appear in mid air above me. Images started playing on that mirror, images of me fighting the demon and the conversation I had with Anise before passing out. I couldn't remember any of that so I asked Ai:
"What happened? How can I forget about Anise? Why does my head hurt every time I try to remember?"
Ai shook her head said: "Look what happened inside your soul space at the same time."
The image in the mirror parted and I was now able to watch the inside of my soul space in parallel to the real world. The moment the demon attacked Anise, I watched as the tentacles suddenly became agitated. Once Ai tried to intervene, the tentacles actually bound her. After that, more and more tentacles started coming out of the cracks and started covering the entire space. Eventually, Ai managed to break out of her bindings and pushed them back to a corner of the soul space and that was the moment I passed out.
Sitting up from the ground, I looked around and noticed that a part of my soul space was completely black and covered in tentacles.
"How did this happen?"
"The moment you got angry, the tentacles spiraled out of control. I wanted to pull you back to the Nexus but hesitated for a moment and in that moment they managed to bind me completely and take over the soul space and your avatar. I was unable to do anything, even losing my connection to the Nexus until the demon escaped. As the demon escaped, the tentacles seem to have lost their target and I managed to break free. Once free, I pushed them back and took control of the soul space again. If that demon didn't retreat when he did, I'm afraid they would have completely taken over."
"So I was very close to actually disappearing…" I said as I started walking slowly towards the dark zone in my soul space. Ai moved and blocked my path as she said: "What are you doing? Entering that dark space with your consciousness is too dangerous."
"Don't worry." I replied as I walked passed her and stopped exactly at the edge. Looking inside, I could see endless tentacles wriggling and a two red spheres at the center. Looking at those spheres, I asked Ai:
"Why did you hesitate to take me back to the Nexus?"
"…I don't know."
A smile appeared on my lips as I ruffled Ai's hair. I knew she did it for me, because I would probably never forgive myself if I failed Anise.
"Thank you, Ai. Thank you for hesitating." I said before the look in my eyes turned serious and I continued: "Step back for a moment."
"Why?" she answered but I didn't give her an answer and took a step forward, effectively entering the dark zone. She tried to follow after me but was pushed back. Turning towards her, I gave her a reassuring nod as I continued forward towards the red spheres.
The tentacles all around parted ways and let me continue forward. Once I was in front of the red spheres that now looked similar to a pair of eyes I said:
"I don't know who you are, if you are me or someone else, but I want to thank you for helping me save the people I care about." I said in a honest tone. Even if he almost killed me, he still saved Anise and the others.
The eyes brightened for a moment in response before dimming again.
"I owe you one, but this is my soul and I'm not going to let you take control over it." With that, I turned around and started walking back towards Ai. As I was just about to step into the white zone again, a hoarse voice sounded from deep inside the darkness: "He failed."
I wanted to turn and what what it meant, but I didn't get the chance as I felt a small push and tumbled right outside. I tried to get back inside, but the same force that repelled Ai also repelled me now.
Sighing, I asked Ai: "What's the situation now?"
"The dark space extended a lot but it also used a lot of spirit in the fight against the demon so it's speed slowed down quite a bit. The only real problem is that it managed to completely convert a part of your soul space."
"And what does that mean?"
"Even if we remake the seal, this darkness is already a part of your soul and we won't be able to send it back through the cracks."
"So whoever is inside that dark space is here for good?"
"Not really. It will be the same as sharing a part of your soul with Senna, like a forced contract. There are still ways to expel it but it will be a lot more troublesome."
"How long do I have until I have to leave this world now?"
"Eight months and six days."
"That's not so bad. Can you send me back to the real world for now? The others must be worried."
"I can't. Your avatar is still healing. The damage you sustained during the fight with the demon is quite considerable and your avatar is in critical condition. Also, I had to expunge the part of it that was corrupted by the darkness when you lost control."
"How long will it take until I can go back?"
"Anise and Lysa keep casting healing spells on it. If they continue at this rate, you will be able to take control in a week and recover completely in two."
"Damn, that's a lot. Can you show me the situation outside?"
"Yes." Answered Ai as the mirror returned and showed an image of me resting inside the inn room. I had no arms or legs anymore. Anise was casting a healing spell while Lysa was sleeping nearby, an exhausted expression on her face.
Letting out a sigh, I asked Ai to show me that long range teleportation spell again and I started reading through it. I need to learn this spell to increase my traveling speed anyway. I had to make the most of every single moment if I wanted to have a chance to save this world.