My mana churned and slowly took the form of the protector bride in front of me. She knelt in front of me once again, completely ignoring the leader of the rebellion that was covered in dark mana in the other side of the room, and said in a tone full of reverence.
"My lord, Eternal. What is your command?"
She somehow looked more lively than the last time I summoned her. Her red hair and light green eyes appeared to have recovered some of their luster and there was even a small smile on her lips as she spoke.
A smile appeared on my lips as well as I lifted my eyes from her and turned them towards the leader of the rebellion.
"Kill him."
The leader of the rebellion completely ignored my words and the appearance if my protector as he lifted his greatsword to the side and charged straight at me, but before he could even take a few steps, the protector appeared in front if him and pierced the rapier straight through his heart pushing the both of them backwards until the collided with one of the room's walls.
The whole thing happened so fast that he had no time to react at all. As I let out a sigh of relief and started thinking about how to deal with the wizards downstairs, I saw the rebellion leader slash his sword at my protector, throwing her straight into the side wall of the room and burying her into it. The protector's rapier still remained firmly stuck inside the rebellion leader's chest and black mist was flowing out of the wound instead of blood.
The protector slowly stood up from the debris, dust falling down from her hair and robes, before making the rapier return to her and she charged right back at him.
'Ai, how is he still alive after that?'
[I don't know. It might be related to that dark mana.]
Since Ai didn't know, I decided to just make sure he would die this time and assist the protector in attacking as well.
The protector went for another piercing attack on his chest, but the rebellion leader moved his greatsword in front to block the attack. Seeing that, I immediately launched a wind blade at the arm he was using to hold the greatsword.
The man's greatsword blocked the protector's attack and he got pushed back slightly by the sheer force behind it, but he couldn't dodge or block mine afterwards and the wind blade sliced straight through the arm he was using to hold the greatsword.
As his arm and the greatsword fell onto the ground, the protector moved to attack once more, this time using the rapier to cut his head off completely.
As his head rolled onto the ground, instead of his body following right after, I was surprised to see it remained standing.
'Don't tell me that he's still alive.' I said to myself, but my question was answered quite fast by what happened next. A ghostly black head grew from his torso, accompanied by a ghostly arm replacing his cut one as well.
'Ai, do you have any idea what could be happening? Don't tell me that dark mana is making this guy immortal or something.'
[He must have been made into some kind of puppet by the demons. He will probably only die when the mana in that spell ends. You can easily consume that mana, but the real problem now is that I can sense a large amount of mana being channeled by the wizards that locked the space around the city. You should prioritize dealing with them before they finish channeling that spell.]
Nodding my head, I turned towards the protector and said: "Keep this guy busy, I'll go deal with the others.". After relaying my command to the protector, I dashed back outside the door, turned myself invisible and started running towards the closest wizard, guided by Ai of course.
It didn't take long to find an old man, surrounded by the same type of dark energy as the leader, channeling his mana directly upwards towards the ceiling of the room. I frowned and was about to attack him when Ai's voice sounded in my mind.
[No point. He's using the same spell as the other one and you won't be able to waste his mana anytime soon. Go outside and find out what that spell the wizards is casting is. I can feel his mana rising up into the sky.]
I ignored the wizard and quickly rushed through the hallway towards the outside while boosting my speed with a wind spell. Once I reached the alley right in front of the Pleasure House, I saw that all the people were running around while screaming like a bunch of headless chickens. As I was confused about what was happening, I remembered Ai said that the mana was being channeled toward the sky so I looked upwards, only to be left sitting there, stunned by what I was seeing.
'Is that a meteorite?' I asked as I looked at the flaming ball that was at least the size of the entire city and was heading straight towards us. It would probably take only a minute or so before it collides with the ground.
[Yes. You don't have the time to leave the blast range and those wizards are still locking the space all around. You must destroy it if you want to get out of this alive.]
I understood what Ai was saying, but how was I supposed to destroy a meteorite the size of an entire city. Even if I was full mana, which I wasn't, I don't think I could create a spell strong enough to destroy a meteorite of that size.
As I was starting to panic, Senna's words during the air trial resounded in my mind.
'You know that not all solutions can be found on your home world, don't you? This is so easy, all you had to do was consider a solution from a magician's standpoint.'
"That's it. A summon." I mumbled before saying to Ai: 'Ai, I want to use my spirit as a payment to perform a summon. Can you please help me?'
Not long after my words ended, a magic circle appeared in my vision. The magic circle was quite big and there was also a big empty area in the middle of the circle.
[Draw the circle around the Pleasure House. Use the mana stored inside the staff and create a circle just out of pure mana. You don't have the time to draw one the usual way.]
I didn't understand why I had to draw it surround the Pleasure House, but I didn't have the time to question Ai's decision so I decided to once more trust in her. Using the mana stored inside the staff, I quickly spread it around the Pleasure house building, shaping it in the form of the magic circle Ai showed to me. After I was done, an incantation appeared in my vision and I started chanting it.
Once I was done, I looked up once more and estimated I had a maximum of 30 seconds or so before the meteorite would fall over the city.
Nothing happened for ten or so more seconds and I was starting to get nervous it won't work, but then playful and immature voice sounded inside my head.
"Hehe, quite a precarious situation you found yourself into, mortal. What are you willing to give for me to get rid of this problem for you?"
[I made the circle using the circle Senna used the last time as a reference. It seems to have summoned a lower spirit from the dark dimension. I also made the circle use any dark mana inside it as a sacrifice. That should deal with those puppets inside as well.]
Nodding my head, I said: "Would 90% of my current spirit surface? If not, what else do you want?"
"Ntz ntz ntz.. Your spirit appears quite delicious, but it's sadly not enough. How about you let me use you as a vessel for a week and let me drain 90% of you spirit at the end of each day? That should be enough."
It wasn't like I had any choice, so I immediately agreed as I threw a drop of my blood inside the circle. As my blood fell onto the circle, it shinned brightly before a pure black ray shot from the circle and hit the meteorite directly, creating a big explosion up in the sky above, an explosion that lasted for at least a minute.
Once the black ray disappeared and the sky was clear once more, I looked up and saw no trace left of that huge meteorite. Just as I let out a sigh of relief, a small dark mist came out of the circle and entered my body. Not long after, the voice of a small child sounded in my head.
['Oh, it's quite crowded in here. Let's have a fun week, mortal.']
Already used to having someone speak in my mind, I ignored the spirit and headed back inside to see what the situation looked like. I already felt my protector spell ending and I wanted to see what happened to the rebellion leader.
As I entered the room I met the leader before, there was only the masked woman still laying on the bed and the floor of the room was filled with bits and pieces of cut flesh.
"Damn the protector really didn't hold back." I mumbled as I started heading towards the masked woman, who appeared to have fallen unconscious since she didn't move at all, and lifted her mask.
I expected her to be unconscious, but was surprised to see that was not the case. Her eyes were opened and she didn't seem injured at all, but there was a familiar blank look in her eyes.
"Brainwashing? Maybe Anna will be able to help remove her brainwashing and I could get some answers from her."
I then placed the mask back on her face before checking my status. I only had around 200 mana and 100 spirit left. I knew I needed around 300 mana to teleport back where I let Anise wait for me and take the masked woman with me as well.
'Ai, will anything happen if I convert 50 spirit into mana so I can teleport back to Anise?'
[Nothing, but you will probably fall unconscious soon after the teleportation is complete with such a big drain on both your mana and spirit.]
'That's fine.' I replied as I used the staff to convert 50 spirit into 100 mana. Once that was done, I picked up the masked woman into my arms and teleported us back to the underground chamber I left Anise into.
Seeing me appear inside the room carrying the masked woman in my arms with a pale face, Anise immediately dropped the book she was reading and came to support me. After she carefully laid the masked woman on the ground, Anise asked with worry written all over he face: "What happened? Are you injured?"
"Not injured, only exhausted. I spend my entire mana and spirit so I just need some time to rest. I'll tell you everything when I wake up, but in the meantime, make sure to keep a close watch over the masked woman so she won't try anything." She looked like she was brainwashed, but one could never be too careful.
Seeing Anise nod, I slowly moved to the Emperor's bed and laid down while closing my eyes to sleep, but before I could, I was pulled inside my soul space by Ai.
Appearing inside my soul space, I was surprised to see Ai holding a tied up ten or so years old boy. The boy kept struggling, but Ai ignored him completely and said: "You should fulfill your contract with this spirit as soon as possible and kick him out. I caught him trying to force his way inside the dark zone and I wanted to tell you I'll tie him up completely for the remaining duration of your contract."
I gave Ai an weird look, but I was too tired to bother with their spirit problems. Nodding slightly, I said: "Do whatever you want. I'm too tired right now so just send me back."
"All right. Sleep well." Said Ai before sending me back inside my body. Noticing that Anise was just reading with the masked woman also tied up next to her, a small smile appeared on my lips as I fell asleep.