Since they knew about the existence of Billy's tunnels, they used that to go to the human continent. Once they arrived there, they saw that most cities were having a hard time dealing with Zenis' soldiers… He still was summoning them for some reason. When Icarus was about to deal with one of them, Meryl stopped him.
"If you defeat him, Zenis will know where to find us," Meryl said. "We can't allow this to happen now, and we need some time to prepare to fight him since we can't afford to lose again. It can't be helped, but we have to endure this for the future."
That made sense… so Icarus decided not to do anything. They couldn't do anything that would give an advantage to the enemy. They found some problems when they found some walls along the way to prevent invasions, but they dealt with that using their powers. They found one of the exits of the tunnels on a lake, but they decided to wait for a while.
"Let's wait here until night," Meryl said. "We will be able to hide from the enemy better if we move at night, and we can rest for two hours until that."
"It doesn't seem like Zenis is doing much right now… I thought he would wreak the world to find us," Lucyna said.
"He has teleporting powers to send his soldiers to this continent, so he must have sent Billy away after he sustained some injuries," Meryl replied. "Now, he must be trying to recover completely before he does anything risky."
"I guess Billy would manage to pull that off against someone who had a dungeon core of that level on them," Icarus said. "Perhaps we could have helped him if the whole process weren't too time-consuming."
"Perhaps, but there is no point dwelling on that. We need to focus on what we can do right now," Meryl said.
Icarus and Lucyna nodded, but they couldn't help but feel that they had made some mistakes during the fight. Everyone did some while they were in the dungeon, but only the last ones made them feel like they had failed miserably… In any case, instead of letting those feelings get them, they decided to use the mana they obtained to train. Even the small amount of power that they could obtain in that short window of time might come in handy. The results can be even better with all that mana at their disposal.
When they tried to test their powers, they noticed that they improved more than a little bit. Their bodies also improved… Icarus didn't feel that much tired when he used Time Skip to do some mental training. Lucyna's stealing powers were a lot more effective as well, to the point that she could steal pretty much everything that she wanted and with close to no chances of failure. Moreover, thanks to the fact that the dungeon she used had monsters that used ice magic, she also could use those spells with extreme ease. The same could be said about the others and their respective attributes.
"We need to think of a way not to lose our minds when we defeat Zenis…" Meryl said. "Defeating him will be difficult, but it will be useless if the rest of us goes crazy."
"Ordinary defensive spells won't work since Zenis probably knows all of them," Lucyna said. "He didn't look completely insane, but he also seemed far from normal. Instead of being magic or an external effect that changed his mind, it feels like something affected his way of thinking for a while."
"He could use Emotional Control on us, and he used it on Billy, he probably used on that on himself as well, but it didn't work," Icarus said. "Honestly, Billy and Zenis are probably the best mages in this world, and only they could think of a way to counter this. Billy seemed a bit suspicious of that, but once he saw Zenis, he probably is thinking of a way to deal with that as we speak."
"We can't leave everything in his hands again," Meryl said.
"I suppose so," Icarus said.
Unfortunately, nothing came to their mind. They might have a massive surplus of magical energy now. Still, they weren't that experienced at using magic but less at creating new spells. Looking in the system for a convenient skill to help won't work either…
When it got dark, they got up after sighing… they had to continue with that later. Right at the moment, they had to look for Billy's friends. Icarus still recalled how strong they were five years ago in the tournament, so they must be even stronger since they knew most of Billy's techniques.
Finding their first group hadn't been hard… for some reason. They found Natalie thrashing around some cities the enemy invaders with an armor that was similar to Billy's. Surprisingly, Zenis didn't take notice of her with the armor… Nevertheless, they approached her, and she noticed their approach sooner than expected. She also drew her blades, even though she hadn't been using them.
"Who goes there?" Natalie asked.
"We come in peace," Icarus said. "We are Billy's… companions, I guess? He would never call us friends…"
"... Where is he?" Natalie asked after she furrowed her eyebrows.
"That is something we don't know yet," Icarus replied. "Our guess is that he inflicted some major damage on the enemy, and he was sent to another place with magic to prevent him from interfering even more in this fight. You might remember me from that tournament."
"Your aura… I remember you," Natalie said. "Billy also mentioned that you were working with him… was he moved to somewhere with that kind of magic? Why you weren't?"
Natalie had some crazy sharp instincts, so she knew the exact questions to ask. The answer made everyone very uncomfortable. Unfortunately, they couldn't lie to her. That would be the worst way to start their alliance. So, they told her everything.
