As we were laying down on the bed and cuddling after a steamy round of love making, I heard Ai say inside my head.
[Ethan, I didn't want to disturb you earlier since you were…busy, but you should honor the contract with the lower spirit so you won't suffer a backlash.]
'All right.' I replied as I transferred almost all my spirit before I closed my eyes to sleep.
In the morning of the next day, I opened my eyes to Anise sleeping peacefully on my chest. Feeling me waking up, she also opened her eyes and looked into mine before saying: "Morning, Ethan."
"Good morning, Anise. Where's Anna?"
"I felt her waking up some time ago. She moved away carefully not to disturb us so I figured she might have some work to do for the battalion."
"That might be true. Let's go look for her and see if the demons retreated already so we can go leveling once more."
Anise pondered for a moment and said: "I think I'll go and speak with mother about something. I'll come back in an hour or so. Make sure you wait for me."
"All right. Let her know that you might not be able to return and visit her for a while. This time we won't return until we're at least level 90."
Anise agreed with a serious look and we both stood up and got dressed. After giving me a small kiss, Anise teleported away and I walked out to look for Anna. Just I was going downstairs to check if she was in the main hall, I heard her voice coming from her mother's room.
Walking up to her mother's room door, I knocked softly on it and waited for Anna to answer.
"Come in, Ethan." Said Anna, prompting me to open the door and walk inside.
Inside the room, Anna was laying down on the bed and caressing her mother's face with a sad look in her eyes. Without even turning towards me, she said: "Ethan, how long will it be until we can take on Mezienne? I can't bear seeing mother like this for much longer."
Sighing, I walked up to her side and grabbed one of her hands before saying: "Don't worry, it won't be long. I was already planning to go and start leveling up once more with Anise."
She nodded weekly and said: "If you two plan on going to Kazim City, the reports say that the demons have actually increased the number of patrols after that attack. I think it would be better to go to another city."
"It's fine. We'll go check it out and decide after that. An increased number of patrols might not be a bad thing necessarily as long as we are careful enough."
"But…" she turned to look at me with a worried face, but I interrupted her words with kiss and said: "We don't really have the time to mess around anymore. Once Anise returns from her mother's place, we plan on not returning until we reach at least level 90. I'm sorry I won't…"
My words got interrupted by Ai's voice: [Ethan, Lysa is in serious danger.]
Ai's words made my expression turn serious as I said to Anna: "Anna, I got to go. A friend is in danger. Tell Anise to wait for me here until I return."
Seeing my serious expression, Anna nodded and I stood up before teleporting straight to Lysa's coordinates I got from the party function.
As space warped around me, I appeared inside a dark room, illuminated only by a couple of chains, and saw Lysa tied up to a wall with a pale face and blood dripping down from her body.
A man was sitting in front of her and had a small dagger plunged straight into her stomach. The man felt something and turned around, only for a surprised look to appear on his face as he retracted his dagger from Lysa's stomach to attack me.
The scene made my eyes burn with rage and I just swiped my hand at him, cutting the space all around his body in hundreds of tiny pieces. The man didn't even know how he died as his body started splitting apart and falling to the ground.
I didn't waste any time as I rushed to Lysa's side and applied pressure to the wound on her chest as I started casting a healing spell. As I was chanting the incantation, I took a close look at her body and saw there were cuts and bruises all over it.
Once I finished my incantation, light started covering her bloodied body and color slowly started returning to her face. It took around five minutes until she was finally able to open her eyes again.
Lysa looked at me with a frown for a moment before saying weekly: "Thank you…Ethan."
"Shh.. Conserve your strength. Healing is not my forte. After I stabilize your condition, I'll bring someone…"
Lysa didn't let me finish as she said with difficulty: "Chest…. Mana seal."
I didn't understand at first, but Ai soon clarified it for me: [There appears to be something placed at her mana core that keeps absorbing her mana as she releases it. That is stopping her from healing herself.]
"I'm sorry." I said as I teleported her top to the side and noticed that there was a small black nail plunged straight into her left breast. I figured that must be the seal she was talking about.
"I'm going to pull it off." I said before grabbing the nail and pulling it out in one swift move.
"Arghh." Lysa grunted and spit a mouthful of blood on my face from the pain. Seeing that, I placed my hand on her chest and started chanting the healing spell once more, but before I could finish the incantation, a golden glow covered her body and I could see the wound starting to heal.
I figured she started healing herself so I stopped chanting and released her from the chains before laying her to rest with her back against the wall.
Once her wounds healed completely and the glow from the healing spell started subsiding, she looked at me and said: "Thanks, Ethan. I would be gone if not for you."
"No need to thank me. What happened?" I replied as picked her top from the side and teleported it back over her exposed breasts.
"It's uncle. He found out I was snooping around and looking for someone who specializes in healing souls so he drugged me and locked me in here. Once I woke up, this man started torturing me to find out where I hid my father. Once he figured out I wasn't willing to speak, he plunged that dagger into my chest." Replied Lysa, a deep anger clearly visible in her eyes.
"We'll deal with that as well, but we must first get you out of here." I replied as I grabbed her hand and sat up.
Just as I was about to lift her up as well, I felt the ground beneath our feet as well as the space all around being filled with someone else's mana. Without any time to waste, I quickly pulled Lysa away from the ground and jumped back while securing the space around our bodies, but I was still a bit late and a sharp earth spike managed to pierce through my left foot.
I let out a small grunt and quickly focused mana around me and Lysa to keep us both hovering above the ground.
[At least four wizards. A space and earth one are locking the space and ground all around. There are also two other channeling their mana our of their core, but I don't know exactly what they are planning to do since they are quite a distance away. All of them are around level 50.]
Lysa also understood the situation was not looking good and started healing my foot. As I was now hovering in the air, I started looking around to understand where I was and how I could get out since I didn't really have the time for that earlier.
I was inside what looked like a prison cell underground. This appeared to be the only cell and it ended up into a long tunnel, that also appeared to be the only way in or out of this place. If I wanted to get out of here, since the space was locked, my only choice was that tunnel. I could also blast a new tunnel through the earth, but with two other unknown wizards on standby, it wasn't really an option.
Summoning my staff, I kept my eyes on the surroundings as I said to Lysa: "I'm going to destroy the cell door and we're going to fly through that tunnel. Are you all right to fight?"
"I'm all right, my wounds have recovered completely. My mana is a bit on the low end, but I can still help."
Nodding, I said: "That tunnel is definitely a trap, but it's also our only way out. I'm starting."
As my words ended, I started channeling mana through the staff and shot a fireball at the cell door before grabbing Lysa's waist and flying straight into the tunnel.
As I expected, the entire tunnel was a trap and earth spikes kept coming from all sides towards us as soon as we entered. Using Ai's help, I started sending small fireballs to blast off the earth as soon as a spike started extending. It was working but I also had to pay constant attention to the space around. A single mistake and I could get pierced by a spike and I would be dead for sure after that.
All was going well for a while, but as we could finally see the end of the tunnel, a huge amount of ice lances started charging towards us from the front. I figured the other two wizards have finally made their move as well.
"Lysa, please." I was already fully focused on dealing with the earth spikes and couldn't really deal with the ice lances as well.
Lysa didn't say anything and instantly fired a ray made out of light about the size of the entire tunnel straight in front of us. Judging by the power behind her attack, I knew that she used at least a third of her total mana for that attack alone, but it was just enough to get us out of the tunnel safely.
Once we got out, I looked around and saw that we were at the base of a mountain I didn't recognize and the tunnel we just passed through was the interior of a cave going deep inside the mountain. I couldn't see the wizards that attacked us anywhere, but since the space was no longer locked, I didn't waste any time on looking for them and teleported both me and Lysa all the way to the northern continent, just at the entrance to the Blessed Battalion.
Looking down at Lysa in my arms, I noticed that she was unconscious and AI's voice sounded in my head: [She passed out after using her entire mana for that attack. She's fine otherwise.]
'That's good.' I replied and soon Anise, Anna and Brenn appeared in front of us. Seeing Lysa unconscious, Anise quickly came to my side and checked her for injuries as she asked: "Is she all right?"
"Yes, she just used all of her mana and fell unconscious. Let's go inside so we can let her rest on a soft bed. She's been through quite a lot."
Anise nodded and, after Brenn gave her a bracelet as well, we all teleported inside Anna's house. After placing Lysa on the bed so she could rest, I started explaining to both Anna and Anise what happened.
"I think we should deal with that Grand Duke as soon as possible. With the demons' activity in the south increasing, I think we can't afford to let him do whatever he pleases anymore since we know that he's in league with them." Said Anise as soon as I finished speaking.
"I would like to do that as well, but that guy gives me a dangerous feeling for some reason. I don't think it's a wise choice to confront him before we know more about his abilities…"
"Then, what are we going to do? Do we just ignore him?"
"I think we should work in increasing our levels first. Since the emperor is safe for now, I think it would be better to gather both Velor and Oliver and we start leveling up here in the north. I'll ask Lysa what she thinks about it once she wakes up. In the meanwhile, I also need to sleep and recover the mana I used."
"All right, go rest. I'll stay here and keep an eye on Lysa."
"Thank you." I said as I gave both Anna and Anise a kiss and went towards a free room so I can sleep and recover my mana. After laying down on the bed, I paid the lower spirit according to the contract and closed my eyes to sleep and recover both my mana and spirit.
By the time I woke up, it was already around noon. Walking out of the room, I found all three girls speaking with serious expressions in the main hall.
"Anything happened?" I asked as slowly took a seat at the table as well.
"Thank you again, Ethan. What I don't understand is, how did you know I was in danger in the first place? I asked Anise but she won't tell me anything."
Taking a deep breath, I proceeded in telling her the entire story as well. I knew that I could trust her and, since the world's laws were no longer in effect after I absorbed it's will, there was no problem with getting pushed out of the world anymore.
"I see. That explains a lot, but I didn't expect the situation to be so serious… world destruction.."
I nodded and asked: "That's why me and Anise plan on increasing out level and bring the fight to them. I wanted to ask you if you want to join us as well. Your father is safe for now and there's nothing else you can do in the south. If the Grand Duke catches you again, I might not be able to help you the next time."
She nodded and said: "Anise already told me about it and I agreed. I'm sure my brother and Oliver will also agree to it."
"Good, I promise you that once the demon problem is taken care of, we'll also deal with your uncle."
"I trust you. We should hurry and bring brother here. If uncle finds out I escaped he might try to use him against us…"
"All right, let's go." I didn't want to waste any more time so I grabbed Lysa's hand, got Velor's coordinates from the party function and teleported both us right at his location. Luckily, he was alone in the courtyard's garden practicing with a sword. Seeing us appear out of nowhere, he used a cloth to wipe his sweat and asked: "Sister, did you manage to find someone who can heal father?"
Lysa shook her head and started explaining everything to her. How her uncle kidnapped her, how I rescued her and about our plan on increasing our level in the north.
Velor clenched his fists in rage until blood started flowing as soon as he heard about his sister getting tortured like that before turning towards me and saying: "Ethan, is uncle stronger than you?"
I nodded and said:" I don't know for sure, but I'm getting a dangerous feeling from him. That's why I've been hesitant in dealing with him all this while."
"Fine. I'll come with you two then. I don't think I can stop myself from attacking him if he were to appear in front of me after everything he did to my sister and father."
Once he agreed, he picked up his sword and said he didn't need anything else before I teleported the three of us at the Battalion's entrance.
"Brenn will come and teleport you inside. I'm going to get Oliver on my own since I don't want to use my entire mana on teleporting you there in case anything unexpected happens. You just wait for me with Anise and Anna."
"All right. Be careful."
After nodding in response to Lysa, I teleported once more directly to Oliver's coordinates. This time, the situation was a bit awkward since he was exactly in the middle of the city on patrol. Not wishing to explain to all the guards around that started reaching for their swords, I just grabbed Oliver's hand teleported us both just outside the city.
"Ethan, what..? Why?"
"That situation is like this Oliver…" I then proceeded in explaining everything to him as well. As my story ended, Oliver's face was contorted in anger as he said: "That bastard. Okay Ethan, I'll join you but only if you promise me I can have his head after we are done with the demons."
"I have no problem with that, but I'm quite sure both Lysa and Velor will also want a piece of him." I replied as I grabbed his arm and was about to teleport us away when he took his arm back and said: "Wait. Can we take my sister as well? I don't want to imagine what the Grand Duke might do to her if he suspects anything…"
"Sure, where is she? Those guards were sure to report me appearing out of nowhere and the situation might turn troublesome so we need to hurry."
"After we found out about the Grand Duke being involved in our family's murder, sis said that she couldn't stand staying inside the courtyard anymore and she's been staying at an inn in the city. Since the entire city is still in lockdown, she should be inside her room."
I grabbed Oliver's arm and teleported us both inside the restaurant Iris used to work at since I knew that there was a big chance it was still closed, and I was right. From here, Oliver led the way and we were soon standing in front of Iris' door at the inn.
"Iris, it's me. Are you inside?" asked Oliver after knocking gently on the door.
Iris opened the door not long after and was surprised to see me there as well.
"Oh, hi Ethan. Why are you with my brother here? Did anything happen?"
I nodded and Oliver proceeded in quickly explaining the entire situation.
"All right, I was already getting bored of being stuck inside this inn. Can I grab some clothes and stuff?"
"Sure, but please hurry. We need to get out of the city as soon as possible."
Iris quickly packed up and we all teleported to the northern continent. As we appeared in front of the entrance to the Blessed Battalion, I already spent most of my mana and was feeling quite tired. Not long after we teleported at the entrance of the Battalion, Brenn gave both Iris and Oliver a bracelet and we all got together in the main hall of Anna's house.
Since I was feeling kind of tired from using almost my entire mana pool, I asked Anise to introduce everyone to Anna and Brenn before going to rest upstairs. Once I woke up, it was time for us to finally start leveling up.