It took a couple of hours until Anna finally returned to our room. She didn't waste any time after stepping through the door before jumping on the bed and hugging me tightly.
"Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you…"
I could feel my shoulder getting wet from her tears, but I didn't say anything and just gently massaged her back. Eventually, after she calmed down a little, I asked: "How is she?"
Anna nodded in my arms and said: "She's fine, a little weak and has trouble walking, but fine otherwise. After we spoke for a while, she ate a little and went to sleep. Did you kill Mezienne?"
"No, I didn't. I just made a deal with her." I then proceeded in telling Anna everything that happened with Mezienne.
Anna raised herself up from my arms, grabbed one of my hands and looked straight into my eyes before saying: "I don't know how I could ever thank you enough for what you did for me Ethan. Thank you for coming into my life and thank you for saving both mother and I from that nightmare. Thank you."
I gently caressed her face as I looked back into her eyes and said: "No need for thanks between us, Anna. I'll do everything as long as it makes you happy."
"Ahem." A noise came from the side and both Anna and I turned around to see Anise looking at us with a strange look while fake clearing her throat.
"I hope you didn't forget I was still here." She said with a small pout, but Anna didn't give her the chance to sulk as she jumped from my arms and hugged Anise as well, dangling slightly by her neck.
"Of course we wouldn't. I love you too sister Anise."
"Okay, okay." Said Anise as she peeled Anna away from her and looked towards me with a serious look: "We should stop fooling around and figure what to do from here on."
Anna also turned towards me with a confused look, prompting me to explain her our plan of launching a direct attack on Kazim City.
"We can't do that, or should I say, the others will never agree to it." Anna rejected our idea in an instant before continuing: "The Blessed Battalion has tried taking the demons on in direct combat, but they always end up sending brainwashed humans to the front lines. There's no way we can convince them to fight against other humans considering some of them might be their love one who they still hope of saving some day."
We never thought about it, but Anna's words made sense.
"Then what do we do? If we can't directly attack any of the cities we have nowhere to go from here on." asked Anise.
She was right, but I also didn't have an answer. Seeing us in deep though, Anna asked: "Why don't we directly attack Hell's Mouth? Since you made a deal with Mezienne, we can't kill her to remove the brainwashing. Both Azrin and Vannoth are hiding in their own cities behind an army of brainwashed people so getting to them is also pretty much impossible, but launching an attack on the Hell's Mouth is possible, the problem will be if we're going to be successful or not…"
"Does the battalion has any information on the number of demons there and their levels?"
Anna shook her head and said: "We do not. As far as we know there are no humans stationed there. All the humans that go through are being brought underground so the demons can feed on them or even worse, but none of them ever return."
"I guess I'll have to go and check it out as well before deciding on our next course of action. It's location was not marked on the map you showed us before, do you not have it written down?"
"We didn't since we don't do any quests there, but Brenn knows where it is and can teleport you there."
I nodded and stood up, but Anna grabbed my hand. As I turned towards her with a questioning look, she asked: "Do you have to go now? Mom wants to meet you when she wakes up."
"No problem, I'll come back real quick. I just want to take a look so I would have an idea what the place looks like." I replied as I gave each of the girls a small kiss and teleported towards the platform Brenn was waiting on.
"You need me to send you anywhere?" asked Brenn as soon as she saw me appear next to him.
"Yes, I want to check out Hell's Mouth and Anna told me you know where it is…"
Brenn nodded and didn't say anything before teleporting me away. As the space around me stabilized, I looked around and noticed that I was in a dense forest. Seeing no trace of anything that would look like the entrance to the underground world, I made myself invisible and floated up to get a broader view of the place. I didn't have to get that high up until I spotted an enormous round dome that seemed built with earth magic and surrounded by demons.
I got as close as I could without the demons sensing me and took a careful look. The dome was opened to one side and, after I moved around so I can see through the opening, I noticed that it was no more than a ramp going downwards.
'Ai, how strong are those demons?'
[Between level 80 and 90.]
'Can you feel Gol'Gan in there? He should be the one guarding this place.'
[There is no one stronger than level 90 in a 500 meters radius of us. He might be deeper underground.]
'Can you estimate the numbers of demons in that 500 meters radius?'
[352.]
I would have like to be able to tunnel through the ground and look for Gol'Gan, but I was quite sure he would be able to sense me before I could, even with Ai's help. Letting out a sigh, I know this was the best I could do for now and teleported back inside my room.
Seeing me appear, Anise let out a sigh of relief and asked: "How was it?"
"I managed to scout a part of the enemy forces, but I couldn't find Gol'Gan… I don't know if this plan will work. Where is Anna?"
"She went to be with her mother not long after you left. She also wanted you to go there as soon as you return."
"Don't you want to come too?" I nodded and asked. It felt a bit awkward to let Anise sit here all by herself.
She shook her head and said: "I'll go down south to visit my parents and come back a bit later. I just wanted to wait here for you to return before leaving."
"All right, I love you." I said as I gave her a small kiss.
"I love you too." Said Anise before teleporting away. It still seemed quite impressive to me that she was able to teleport so easily without the help of someone like Ai.
Since Anise was gone, I walked outside and headed towards the room Anna's mom was sleeping in. I didn't knock on the door, fearing that she was still sleeping and I would wake her up, but walked straight inside.
Inside the room, I saw Anna feeding her mother who was already awake with a spoon. Seeing me enter, Anna placed the spoon in the bowl and blushed slightly.
Both I and Anna's mother smiled at her reaction and her mother said: "Ethan, it's good to finally be able to meet you properly, I'm Feyra, Anna's mother."
"Nice to meet you too, Ms Feyra." I responded a bit awkwardly. Meeting a girl's parents was never easy for me, not on Earth and definitely not here. Anise's mother even tried to kill me once.
"Don't stay there, come a little closer. I won't bite. Also, just call me Freya, we're family now." Said Feyra with a weak smile, prompting me approach the bed.
As I reached the bed, she kept starting at me in silence for an awkward few seconds before saying: "I didn't get the chance to look at you properly before, but you are just as handsome as my girl described you to be. Thank you for taking care of my little girl and saving me from that curse, Ethan."
"No need to thank me. Anna was the first one to take care of me when I arrived into this world and I love her. Of course I would do anything for her."
Anna blushed even harder as she heard me confess in front of her mother and hugged one my arms before saying shyly: "I love you too."
Feyra smiled and said: "Ethan, Anna told me a lot about you, but it would be better if I head it from your mouth. Can you tell me more about you and that world you came from?"
I nodded and started speaking about Earth and my past there. With no world will to enforce it's laws, I didn't hid anything and kept rambling for quite a while until Ai said.
[Ethan, her soul is still slightly injured and she is very tired since she's just a normal human. You should stop talking and let her rest.]
Ai's words made me look at Feyra's face and I noticed that she indeed seemed to be pushing herself to say awake. I smiled awkwardly and said: "Ms Feyra, there's a lot of time for you to hear my story. I think it would be better for you to rest first since you are still injured."
Feyra nodded weekly before closing her eyes and falling asleep in an instant. Seeing that she fell asleep once more, I turned towards Anna, who was listening to the side with a smile on her face, and said: "I'm going back to my room. Anise went to visit her parents as well. Do you want to come with me or stay here with your mom?"
"I'll sleep with mom tonight. I hope you don't mind it."
"Of course I don't. Have a good night Anna." I said as I gave her a kiss on the forehead and stood up.
"Good night, Ethan." Replied Anna and I walked outside, heading towards my room.
I was surprised Anise was not back yet, but I didn't mind it and just laid down on the soft bed. Since I didn't really need to sleep, I asked Ai to pull me inside my soul space.
As I appeared into the all too familiar white space, I saw Ai manifesting in front of me. Surprisingly, she looked now like a 15 or 16 years old teen, making conversing to her feel a lot less awkward than when she looked like a kindergarten child.
"Why did you want to come here, Ethan?" she asked as soon as I appeared.
"I want to spend some time with you and since I'm here to take a look at the dark space and check for any changes.
Ai nodded, her expression still indifferent, but I could notice a small trace of a smile at the corner of her lips as I said that I wanted to spend some time with her. I tried to enter the dark space, but sadly I couldn't so I just spent the next couple of hours casually chatting with Ai.
"Anise has returned." Said Ai a few hours into our conversation.
"Send me out then. It was fun spending some time together, I feel like we haven't done that in an eternity." I said as I stood up and waited for Ai to send me back. Ai nodded before a bright while flash of light blinded me and I returned inside my avatar on the bed.
"Were you speaking with Ai?" asked Anise as she sneaked in bed and saw me open my eyes.
I nodded and said: "Yes, I didn't really have time to spend with her in quite a while. How are things with your parents?"
"The same. It appears dad spends most nights inside the academy these days. Also, they said that if we need help they can come as well." Replied Anise as she cuddled closer to me. She seems to be in a pretty good mood as well after visiting her parents.
"Their levels are still too low. Your father's is barely close to be acceptable, but your mother is just too weak."
"Haha, if they found out you said that I'm sure their expressions will be priceless."
We kept laughing and cuddling for a bit more until we said our good nights and went to sleep in each other's arms.