In my journey towards the big circle on the map, I passed through a lot of villages, each and every one of them full of people brainwashed by the demons. By the time I reached the circled area, I was already numb to it. I avoided getting close to them since they always gave me a feeling of wanting to throw up and just rushed towards the circle as fast as possible. I also didn't try to release any more people from the demon's control since using my mana like that will also serve to delay me.
After four months, I finally reached the area circled on the map, but there was nothing there. Since the area was quite huge, I didn't give up hope and started looking around for it. It took one more week until, as I was walking around blindly, a middle-aged man dressed in purple robes and carrying a staff appeared in front of me out of nowhere. A while ago this might have scared me silly, but now I know it was just spatial magic.
The man looked carefully at me and said: "You are not from around here. Where are you from?"
"I don't know." I answered awkwardly. The man looked at me confused and asked: "You don't know where you came from?"
Figuring he was someone from the Anti-demon fighters since he was both a human and a wizard, I shook my head and started telling him my story without leaving a single detail out. The man looked excited as my story ended and said: "Well Anna, my name is Brenn and I'm in charge of guarding the entrance to our city. Do you mind waiting here for a moment so I can speak to our leader?"
I agreed to wait and he disappeared right away.
'I wonder if I made the right choice. No, it's definitely the right choice. Ethan will need their help when he comes to fight against the demons. I'll use my power to free more people and also have them join the fight.'
I proceeded to wait in silence and a couple of minutes later, the same man came back together with another man and a woman.
The man had a gory scar under his left eye, a scar that paired with his serious look made it terrifying to even look directly at him. The woman on the other hand look quite pretty but she had a blank look, a look I've seen so many times that I lost count.
The man with the scar took a step towards me without saying a single word, action that made me take a step back reflexively. Brenn smiled at my reaction and said: "Don't be scared, he might look scary, but he's a good man. His name is Ennith and he's the one leading us. He lost his voice in a demon attack a while ago."
"I see." I replied, still a bit unnerved by his looks, and introduced myself: "My name is Anna and I'd like to join your effort to fight against the demons."
Ennith nodded and then pointed towards the woman at his side, his face carrying of expression of pleading. I understood what he wanted from me, but I still listened to Brenn's explanation: "This is Ennith's wife, Kayara. The two of them are the first ones to rise against the demons that took control of our continent, but sadly, a while ago our base was discovered and both of them fought to keep the demons back while the rest of us retreated to the teleportation device. When all the others were gone and they wanted to retreat as well, they got hit by one of Azrin's curses, causing Ennith to lose his voice and Kayara her mind."
I turned to look at the woman's empty eyes and asked: "So she's not under the demon's control? And who's this Azrin?"
Brenn nodded and replied: "Yes, she looks the same as the other brainwashed people, but her condition is different. The curse just seals her mind and doesn't control it. We still hope that the spell you used to break the demon's control over other people might also work on her. Azrin is the demon general responsible for controlling the Northern Continent. He's also the only general we've fought until now."
"Are there more generals in the demon's army?"
"Yes. There are four generals: Azrin, who's responsible for the Northern Continent, Vannoth for the Southern Continent, Mezienne who is responsible for the brainwashing and Gol'gan. We don't know that much about the last one since even our spies have not been able to find any information besides his name."
I nodded in understanding and then said: "Since Kayara's condition is different from the rest, I don't think the same spell will work, but I know one other spell that could be useful. Do you mind if I try using that?"
Ennith nodded and stepped aside to let me approach Kayara. Waking up to her, I grabbed her hand and started channeling my mana inside her body while casting the strongest healing spell I received from that woman in my dream. As my spell started working, particles of golden light started covering both of our bodies, the light so bright that forced me to close my eyes.
It took over five minutes before the spell was done and the light started dimming down. As my mana was almost completely drained, I immediately laid down on the ground and stared at Kayara. I had no idea if the spell really worked. Even after waiting for another minute, Kayara had the same blank look on her face.
Sighing, I turned back and was ready to apologize that I couldn't help when I happen to notice that both Brenn and Ennith had their moths wide open. Curious about their reaction, I asked: "Is something the matter?"
Brenn was the first one to react and mechanically tuned his head towards me and asked: "What spell was that?"
"The strongest healing spell I know. Supposedly, as long as the person still had a breath of life in their body, this spell should be able to heal them completely. I'm sorry it didn't work on Kayara." I replied with a sigh.
Before Brenn could reply, Ennith also came back to his senses and shook his head before coming to help me up. I took his hand and stood up before Brenn said: "She might still appear lost, but the spell definitely worked. That spell was simply miraculous."
"What do you mean?" I asked, confused what the big deal was. Since I was focused on casting the spell, I didn't pay attention to anything else.
"When that golden light covered both of you, it took the form of woman with golden hair. At that moment, a dark shadow was expelled out of Kayara's body before disappearing into thin air."
"Woman? Dark shadow?"
Brenn nodded and said: "The only way I could describe that woman is that she looked like a real Goddess. That dark shadow was the curse placed upon Kayara. Azrin is known to be a master of curses."
When he said that it was a woman who he can only describe as a goddess, my mind immediately went to that woman I saw in my dream. I turned back towards Kayara, and looking at the blank look in her eyes I asked: "Then, if the curse was removed, why isn't she recovering?"
Brenn was about to say something when Ennith grabbed Kayara's hand and started gesticulating something. After he was done gesticulating, Brenn said: "We don't know, but the curse is definitely gone. We should go back to headquarters. That spell of yours might attract some attention towards this place."
I nodded in agreement and Brenn threw a bracelet towards me before saying: "Place this on your wrist." I did as told and not long after I disappeared from the place we were and appeared inside some sort of underground city. We were all standing on a white platform under a golden archway with words I didn't understand written all over it.
Surrounding that platform, there were buildings of all types and sizes, each and every one of them having the same type of writing as the archway on them. Above our heads, there was a giant dome covered with crystals that looked no different from the ones in the ruins that teleported me here in the first place.
As I was looking all around at the enormous place, Brenn said: "Welcome to our home. The city of Atar. This entire city can be considered a relic that remained since ancient times."
"This reminds me of the cave that teleported me here…"
"It's possible that cave was once part of this city. As grand as it looks, this is only a small part of the city of Atar. These ruins appear to be the part of the city where the people lived, as besides the teleporter under our feet, the entire place is filled only with normal houses."
After Brad explained to me a little more about the history of the city of Atar, Ennith gesticulated something else and carried Kayara away from the platform. Once he was gone, Brenn said to me: "The leader said he'll send someone to give you a tour of the place. He'll also allow you to choose any house that is not already taken as your place of residence."
I nodded and asked: "Can you tell me more about the Anti-demon fighters?"
"That's just what everyone else calls us, but we don't use that name. We're simply a group formed by the people who still managed to maintain their sanity after the mass brainwashing took place."
"Ennith and Kayara were a pair of adventurers that loved exploring ruins. When the demonic invasion started, they were both lucky enough to be able to resist the brainwashing and started traveling from city to city looking to gather more people like them. I was one of the first that joined them. At the beginning, our base was a small village in the mountains, relatively hidden, and had no more than a hundred people."
"Once we started messing with the demons, they managed to find out our location by planting a spy in our midst. As the demons started surrounded our base, Ennith remembered a teleportation device he found on one of the ruins that he took with him but never used before. We activated the teleportation device, but could only send one person at a time through, so him and Kayara offered to hold the demons back and buy us time. I already told you how that ended."
"When we passed through the teleportation device we all arrived on this platform, but with Ennith and Kayara still unconscious from the demon's attacks, we all started working on making this place our new home. I kept studying the teleportation device and eventually managed to create bracelets, as the one you are carrying on your wrist, that can serve as a catalyst to teleport someone from this platform to a new core created by me and the other way around. With the Ennith and Kayara also eventually waking up, we planted the core outside, in the place where I found you, and started recruiting more people to our ranks."
"We now have over two thousands members, but this seems to be the limit as we were barely able to find a handful of other people that managed to resist the demon's brainwashing in the last two years."
As he was explaining, a relatively young woman came up to us and said: "Elder Brenn, the leader sent me here to show the new recruit around the city."
Brenn nodded and pointed towards me: "She's Anna. Make sure to show her around and answer any question she might have for you. She's very important to our cause." He then turned towards me and said: "Anna, after you get settled and get some rest, come and find me here again. I'm always here at the teleporter."
I thanked Brenn and followed the after young woman. After we got a bit further away, I said: "My name is Anna. Nice to meet you."
The young woman nodded and replied: "I'm Rikia. Nice to meet you too."
After we finished our introductions, an awkward silence ensued. Willing to break the silence, I started asking her about all sorts of building we passed by. She answered my questions bluntly and didn't seem too interested in making more conversation.
We eventually reached a series of small houses and she said: "Here is the place all of us are living. You can choose any house as long as it doesn't have a name plaque on the door." She then handed me a blank plaque and said: "Once you are done choosing, write your name on this plaque and place it on you door. This way other people that might join us in the future will know that the place is already taken."
I took the plaque from her and she said her goodbyes before leaving. I looked through some of the houses without a plaque, but all of them looked the same, with one bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen, so I choose one that was a bit closer to the archway so it wouldn't take that long to visit Brenn and wrote my name on the plaque before placing it on the door. With that done, I waked inside and laid down on the soft bed while looking at the ceiling.
"Today was exhausting.." I mumbled to myself, "But at least I managed to join the fight against the demons officially…. Ethan, hurry up… I miss you…"
With these words, I curled myself on the bed and fell asleep. After I woke up and my mana recovered, I walked out of my new house and headed towards Brenn. Once there, Bran asked me if I could start producing some more of those crystals that removed the demon's brainwashing so that they could use them to bring more people to their ranks. After finding out that with the mana I possessed I could only create two before I was completely drained, he took me to Ennith's house and we came up with a plan for me. For two days I'll stay inside, creating crystals and after that, for another two days I'll start joining the parties going outside so I can increase my level.
They also agreed to help me search for my mother. After I provided a description of how I remembered she looked, Brenn distributed it to any party that went outside to look for new recruits so they could search across the towns they pass through.
Time slowly passed like this, with me producing crystals and slowly leveling up.
After another two months, a change happened. Brenn stopped me just as I was about to leave to increase my level with a group of ex-adventurers and told me that Kayara has recovered and that Ennith requested for me to visit him. Overjoyed by the news, I apologized to my party and ran towards Ennith's house.
Once I stepped inside, I found Ennith and Kayara sitting around a table and conversing through writings. Seeing me enter, Kayara stood up and said with a polite bow: "You must be Anna. Thank you so much for what you did for me."
I nodded towards her and said: "It was my pleasure. I'm glad you were able to recover."
Kayara looked a bit embarrassed as she asked: "I hope it's not too much, but can you please try and see if you can help my husband recover his voice?"
Her question took me by surprise since I asked Ennith during the two months I stayed here if he wanted me to try and heal him as well, but he declined every single time and never gave me an explanation. I turned towards Ennith and said: "If the leader has no problem with it, I can try."
Ennith nodded and then I proceeded in using the same spell I used on Kayara once again, this time on Ennith. After I was done, Kayara thanked me again, but unfortunately the same situation as last time happened. The curse disappeared, but Ennith was not able to speak right away. Ennith had to leave and take care of some business soon after and I spend the entire day with Kayara, listening to her happily telling me stories of her adventures together with Ennith from before the demon's attack.
Once it got late and Ennith returned, I took my leave and returned to my house. Since I skipped my trip outside, I spent the next three days creating more crystals and eventually got back into the old routine.
As more and more people were freed by my crystals, word started spreading through the Northern Continent about a saintess who uses her power to free the people from the demon's control. I was embarrassed about the whole saintess thing, but Ennith and Kayara told me to go with it since it helped bring hope to the people to keep fighting. They also started introducing our ever increasing group as 'The Blessed Battalion'.
Eventually, I relented and over time barely anyone addressed me by my name anymore. Time slowly passed and eventually Ennith recovered his voice as well. This brought the morale of our battalion to a new high and we started taking even more daring actions. The amount of parties going to the outside world increased and they started putting more pressure on the demons.