A couple of hours later, I slowly opened my eyes and stood up from the bed. Anise felt me moving and also woke up. Rubbing her eyes gently, she said: "Are we going?"
"Yeah, I already recovered my mana." I replied and she grabbed my hand. Channeling my mana, I didn't want to delay anymore and teleported right inside the cave.
As we appeared, Anise looked around and noticed the two skeletons lying around the place, she pointed towards them and asked: "Who are they?"
"One is Anna's father and the other is an old adventurer who taught me how to fight with a spear. I promised I would bring his body down the mountain but that will have to wait until until I manage to find Anna. Are you ready? I'm going to use the teleportation device and after I reach the destination I'll teleport back and also pick you up." I figured she could also use the device to teleport but I didn't want to take the chance of something happening again and getting split up from her.
"Okay. Be careful." Anise said as she sat down with her back resting on one of the pillars supporting the ceiling.
I nodded and picked up the key that was thrown through the room the last time I teleported, before walking towards the throne. I wanted to use the original key since I didn't know if there was any difference. Once the key was placed in the slot at the base of the throne, white light covered my body and I felt space around me bending slightly.
I allowed the teleportation to continue and soon appeared inside another set of ruins. Seeing no sign of Anna around, I teleported back and also picked up Anise. Once we were both in the new ruins, I started to carefully look around.
The place looked untouched for years, a grand hall with a ceiling held up by lots of thick and heavy pillars. Crystals were placed all over the ceiling and were illuminating the hall completely.
"Anise, look around for any sign of where Anna might have gone.", 'Ai you do the same and be careful I don't miss anything.'
After relaying them their instructions, we started looking around, trying to find a clue or anything. It took us more than half an hour to cover every nook and cranny of the place, but we didn't find any sign of Anna ever being here. The only thing we found was a long tunnel that looked like the entrance to this place.
Since there was no point in searching here anymore, we started walking through the tunnel. A couple of minutes later, the crystals from the ceiling were no more and we had to use a light spell to be able to see. It took us a total of one hour of slowly walking through a dark tunnel before we reached the other end.
Stepping into the bright light that came from the exit. We arrived at what looked like the base of a mountain. Anise looked around for a moment and asked: "So, where do we go from here?"
I frowned and also looked around. There was only the cliff of a mountain towards the south and forest surrounding us from all the other sides.
"I guess we can only blindly go and look around. If she really teleported here, she must have walked through the forest, but depending on how far she's gone, finding her might prove really difficult. How about you go north-east while I head north-west and we both meet here one hour later and see if the other discovered anything?"
After Anise agreed, I told her to be careful since we could be inside demon territory and send a signal if she gets into any trouble before we split up.
I decided to fly invisible since this way I could see more of the surrounding area and not get spotted by any demon that might be lurking in the area, but even after flying for one hour I didn't find any sign of civilization. As the one hour we set for ourselves was over, I teleported back to the cave entrance. Anise was already there waiting for me and shook her head as soon as I appeared.
"I didn't find anything. There was only forest as far as I could see. You?"
"Same thing here." I replied and we both sat down while resting on the mountain cliff behind.
"Looks like we're going to have to go a bit further away if we want to reach the end of the forest." I nodded at her words and started playing around with the ring I received from the rebels. If I had another one I could keep contact with Anise as we searched and we could go for longer distances without having to meet up.
[You can use the party function to keep an eye on her position, mana and general condition. If you both agree on her using certain spells with different mana costs as a communication means I can monitor her condition and let you know as soon as she finds anything.]
My eyes lit up as soon as I heard Ai's suggestion and immediately told Anise the plan. She looked a bit surprised once I told her I was able to monitor her location, mana and general condition from a far but she didn't dwell on it, already used to me keeping secrets and agreed to the plan.
After we took a quick nap to recover our mana, we split up again and started exploring as far as possible. I decided not to use a lot of mana while traveling since I still had to teleport to Anise in case anything unexpected happens. We also agreed on taking regular breaks as soon as our mana reached the halfway point. Eventually, two days later, Ai said:
[Anise send you a signal that she found something.]
Excited, I didn't waste any time and after checking her location from the party function I teleported to her right away. Anise was sitting on top of a tree and there was a small town right in front of her. Seeing me appear, she said: "I just found this place but didn't get inside yet. I decided to wait for you to arrive first."
"Good. Let's just go down and enter it like a pair of normal travelers. We'll see if we can get a map of the area or some information."
Anise agreed and we both got down and started walking towards the small town. After we reached the entrance, I was surprised to notice that everyone inside the town had a blank look in their eyes and was just walking around randomly like they were possessed. Figuring out this was a town under the demon's control, we walked from person to person and carefully asked some basic questions, but they just ignored us completely.
"It looks like everyone's been completely brainwashed." Said Anise.
I frowned and started worrying about Anna's condition. If she ended up in one of these mind controlled towns, with her having no magic or fighting capabilities she would be in trouble for sure if any of the demons noticed her. Putting these thought in the back of my mind, I started leading Anise through the town while searching through the possessed people's houses. What we wanted was a map or something that would help us locate more villages around the area.
Because this town was only a small one with no more than 300 people living here, we were sadly unsuccessful and decided to just resume our search for another settlement. I went back to the place I was before teleporting to Anise and we resumed our blind search. We managed to find a few other small towns but the same situation was happening in all of them. After an entire week of searching without any results, Ai's voice sounded in my head again.
[Anise's mana keeps draining at a fast pace. She might be engaged into combat but her health is still in perfect condition.]
Ai's words startled me and I immediately teleported to her location. When I arrived there, I was surprised to find Anise fighting a group of twenty or so people. Fighting was a strong word because they actually stood no chance and Anise was just using wind magic to throw them all around the place. Seeing me appear, she stopped using magic and said:
"I just got ambushed by these people as I was walking through the forest. They don't appear to be in the demon's control so I refrained from killing them and only trashed them a bit."
I chucked at her words and walked up towards one of the men in that group. They were all in a miserable condition, with their torn clothes revealing cuts and bruises all over their bodies.
The man I approached started crawling backwards in fear as soon as he saw me approach, prompting me to say: "Don't worry, I don't plan on hurting you. I just want to ask you some questions."
The man either didn't understand me or didn't believe me because he continued crawling backwards, becoming more and more terrified the closer I got to him.
Letting out a sigh, I yelled out loud: "Anyone that answers some questions I have gets to live. If the answers you provide satisfy me there might even be a reward for you". I figured that since they were all terrified, giving them a life line and some incentives might work better, and I was right, because as soon as my words ended they all started yelling to ask them whatever I wanted. I was relieved that they at least understood my words and didn't speak a different language.
After choosing one of them that looked a lit older, since I figured he might know more, I pointed towards him and asked: "Can you tell me where we are?"
The old man nodded and said: "Northern Continent, Death forest."
"Death forest?" I asked, finding the name weird. "Why is it called Death forest?"
"Because there was never any living animal inside this forest. A long time ago, people tried bring animals from outside and breeding them here, but they died a couple of hours after being brought here. Since then, this forest was named Death Forest."
Now that he mentioned it, there were indeed no living animals in the entire forest but we were just too focused on our search to notice it and since our levels were now 60 we almost had no need to eat at all.
'Ai, do you have any explanation for this phenomenon?'
[No. There are no mana or spirit fluctuations in the entire area.]
"Do you know how the animals died?" I asked the old man, but he just shook his head and said: "I don't."
"Does any of you have a map of this place?"
Hearing my question, the old man turned towards one of the women in the group. The woman stood up and took a leather map out of her clothes before handing it to me. The map was a bit rough and reading it was not easy, being drawn by hand, but it was still better than nothing. After asking Ai to record it, I gave the map back to the woman and said to the old man.
"We walked by a town with people walking around like mindless zombies. What happened to them?"
The old man expression got clouded, as he clenched his fists tightly and said: "It was the demons. What you saw was not a town but a feeding ground. The people inside were mind controlled to only eat and breed while demons come once in a while and feed on them. All the settlements in the northern continent are like that now."
I nodded and asked: "And how come you are not mind controlled?"
The man undid a small part of his clothes and showed me what looked like a crystal that was embedded in his skin as he said: "The Saintess gave us this crystals. As long as you are not that far gone, it blocks the demon's control and allows us to maintain our sanity."
"Can I touch it?" I asked right away, intrigued by how it works.
The old man seemed reluctant to allow me to touch the crystal, but still agreed in the end. After placing my hand on the crystal I started using mana to analyze it.
[It appears to have a magic circle inscribed inside.]
'I see it. It looks like divine magic.'
[Yes. It's divine magic. It's purpose appears to be to direct the mind control of the demons away from the body and towards the crystal. As long as this crystal is embedded inside a person that is just a bit stronger mentally, it will removed the demon's control.]
After hearing Ai's explanation, I removed my hand from the crystal and asked: "Are there more of you?"
"Yes, but not that many. We all live in hiding generally and don't usually come out since we are unable to fight if we stumble upon any demon."
"And why did you attack my friend here?"
The old man looked ashamed as he said: "We were hungry and figured she might have some food since she looked so healthy."
I raised and eyebrow and took a careful look at all the attackers. They were indeed mostly skin and bones. Letting out a sigh, I asked:
"Can you tell me more about this Saintess of yours?"
"Yes. The Saintess is the one who found a way to remove the demon's brainwashing and restore our sanity. She appeared not that long ago and also leads The Blessed Battalion."
"The Blessed Battalion? What is that?"
"It's an army formed out of the strongest fighters that managed to resist the demon's mind control and are actively fighting against them."
Since I remembered there was a place called "Blessed Battalion" on the map, I decided to check the place out myself and said: "I have one more question and I'm going to let you go after that. Have you ever seen or heard of a girl named Anna around this area?". I didn't really have any hope of it, but decided to try anyway.
The man shook his head and the others followed right after. I let out a sigh before saying: "Wait here for a moment."
As my words ended, I teleported back to the Capital and rushed to buy some food for them. After buying five gold coins worth of food, I teleported back to the north. The entire journey drained almost my entire mana, but I couldn't just leave them to die of hunger and I also promised them a reward.
The others looked at me weirdly seeing me appear on top of a pile of pouches. I ignored their looks and said: "There is enough food inside the pouches to last you for a while. You are free to take it and go, but you must stop attacking other humans just because they appear to carry food. There are already so few sane humans remaining here…"
As my words ended, I ignored their displays of gratitude and walked up to Anise. She smiled at me, but I just grabbed her hand before teleporting a bit further away. As soon as we appeared, my mana reached 0 and I passed out straight away.
Six hours or so later, I opened my eyes and saw that I was laying down on Anise's thighs and she was playing with my hair while reading one of the books I wrote for her.
"Thank you for looking after me."
Hearing my voice, she put the book down and looked at me as she said with a worried face: "Are you all right?"
I slowly stood up and said: "Yes, I just used too much mana teleporting to the Capital and back. Now that my mana is recovered I'm fine."
She nodded and asked: "What do you plan on doing now?"
I frowned and answered: "Finding Anna will not be easy, so I figured I will check out this Blessed Battalion and see if they know anything. If not, they will still be useful in the fight against the demons. If we can't find her even with their help, we can only start fighting the demons since I don't have that much time left before I have to leave this world."
She nodded with a serious expression and said: "Do you mind sending me to the Capital first? I want to master all the four basic elements to perfection before we start fighting the demons."
I nodded and teleported together with her to the inn we stayed inside the Capital. Once there, Anise said: "Don't forget to come pick me up as soon as you start the fight against the demons. I'll also try to meet up with the others and see if they want to join us. We are a party after all."
I nodded and started creating some more books for her to read. I even created some about light, darkness and space magic. Once that was gone, I gave her a long kiss and teleported back to the northern continent. After climbing up a tree and taking a nap to recover the mana I used to take Anise to the Capital, I started heading in the direction of the Blessed Battalion while flying invisible.
I passed by a few more towns and cities, all of them full of brainwashed people and even saw a couple of demons, but I chose to ignore them for now. It took me two weeks to finally reach the marked place on the map. As I got close, I checked the countdown in the corner of my vision and noticed I only had seven months and two days until I had to return to the Nexus.
'This is not going to be easy.' I said in my mind as I continued heading towards the Blessed Battalion. As I flew around the area, I was surprised to not see anything there. After a bit more searching around, I felt a slight spatial fluctuation.
Following the spatial fluctuation, a middle aged man carrying a staff and dressed in purple robes appeared not that far from me.
[He's higher level than you are. Be careful.]
The man looked at me for a moment before saying with a guarded tone: "Who are you?"
"Ethan Knott. I found out that this is the location of the Blessed Battalion and I would like to ask the Saintess a couple questions if possible."
The man shook his head and said: "I haven't heard of any magician called Ethan Knott. You need to prove that you are not under the demon's control first."
I was about to tell him that I came from the southern continent, when I felt another spatial fluctuations right in front of me. As I got my guard up in case they sent another person to attack me, the silhouette of a woman started manifesting out of the void surrounded by a strong golden light. As the light started to dim, I was rooted in place looking at the woman that just appeared in front of me.
Her eyes were of a different color, now completely golden, and she appeared a lot more mature, her body included, but there was no mistaking her identity. With that long ashen hair and her small round face there was no way I couldn't recognize her. Before I had the chance to say a single word, she threw herself at me, pushing me to the ground and hugged me with tears falling down from her eyes. As I hugged her back, feeling my eyes also watering slightly, I whispered in her ear.
"I missed you too, Anna."