Chapter sixty two

John's P.O.V.

I went out of the room because Emily finally noticed that she had made her last comment out loud where I could hear, she hid under the sheets of the bed and refused to get out from under them while I was still in the room. Outside I met with Michael again and this time there was nothing stopping him from trying to squeeze the life out of me ,so he proceeded to do just that.

"You really are something aren't you? You were sent to hell and not only do you return but you actually rescued a damsel in distress on your way back. You really are a hero aren't you ?"

"I think you are giving me way too much credit , it wasn't even hell I was sent to in the first place, and once you got used to the archfiends here and there it was actually a pretty nice place."

"Why are you saying 'once you get used to the archfiends' as if they are nothing but an annoying infestation of bugs and not giant murderous monsters that could level an entire city by sneezing too hard? "

"All joking aside it really wasn't hell , it seems the anarchists were being fooled. The idiots messed up a demon summoning and opened a connection with another world instead and the idiots on the other side thought it would be fun to brainwash the anarchists and try to take over our world."

"What about those red things we were fighting, they looked like demons to me."

"Yeah, I guess they weren't total imbeciles if they could summon simple low leveled grunt demons, but from what I saw it was probably the work of one of the mages from the other world. No demon, not even the lowest imp in hell would ever obey the anarchists , they are just that pathetic. Plus, using the blood of the demons to make a powerful circle is a complex bit of magic and I bet the anarchists couldn't magic themselves out of a paper bag."

"You met with anarchists?"

"Yeah, when I came back to this world my entry point was their stronghold. You don't have to worry about them anymore ,they won't be coming back. When I saw Emily's condition in their dungeons I might have lost it a little and wiped them out."

"So in conclusion you spent the last two months hanging out with fiends and these evil not-demons that were bent on world domination before coming back and wiping out the anarchists, am I missing anything?"

"Hey, the not-demons were not all evil, most of them are actually just normal people with weird skin color, its the so called 'nobles' that were the ones bent on world domination, once again proving that any long established monarchy turns into a group of pompous assholes trying to lord their power over everyone. Anyway, I spent most of my time helping the poor that had been oppressed by the very same bastards that were trying to conquer our world, its a really long story so I'll tell you later. Now tell me what happened here after I took my little vacation."

"After you were sucked into the crack , all eight members of the council came to fight the fiend but found it already gone. They might not be the best of people but they truly do care about the city and none of them even hesitated to fight an archfiend to protect Montreal. It seems all the other directions where attacked only superficially and they were able to finish quickly enough to rush over and see you defeat the damned beast and get dragged inside with it. Of course all the credit I gave them as human beings went down the drain as all the families didn't even wait a week before trying to take your store. I of course told all of them to stuff it and let Lidia run it until all the stock run out. She then turned it into a simple general goods store and has been keeping busy. She's probably there right now, you should probably tell her you aren't dead. She took the news pretty hard and has been burying herself in work , barely talking to anyone if it isn't about business. Talking of people who took the news of your demise pretty hard, let's go see Bella."

"I was wondering what happened to her, she's didn't get injured by the fiend did she?"

"Physically she's perfectly fine, you saved her before she could get hurt. Psychologically though...... She hasn't left her room since you disappeared, keeps saying things like it was all her fault and that she was the reason that you died. We thought she would grieve for a while and come out when she was ready , but we were really starting to get worried."

He led me to a part of the castle I've never been to before. The most defining feature being the burned out courtyards in the vicinity, I assume this was were Bella usually practices magic. We came to a large door that was painted bright yellow and knocked politely. A voice from the inside said,

"Go away, I don't want lunch today."

"That's too bad, I wanted to take you out to lunch. But if you aren't hungry, I guess I'll just have to take someone else."

"Tom?......"

"I mean I was going to treat you to a fancy Italian restaurant or maybe some Chinese food but I guess I'm going to have to dine with Michael or something and imagine how weird we would look , two guys in an Italian restaurant sharing a plate of spaghetti, yup totally weird. Are you sure I can't share a plate of spaghetti with you instead?"

The door was flung open and standing there was a bedraggled looking Isabella, she had messy hair, blotchy skin , red and puffy eyes as if she had been crying a lot and dark bags underneath her eyes as if she had not been getting enough sleep. Even with all that, she was still one of the most beautiful women I have ever met , I had almost forgotten the almost physical impact that her beauty had but I was now reminded. She suddenly leapt forward and gave me a hug that could almost rival her father's in intensity and power.

"Tom !!!!!! Its really you! You are back!"

She was laughing at first but it slowly turned into sobs, "I'm sorry, if I hadn't been so useless you wouldn't have been forced to save me and get dragged into hell instead. I'm so sorry." Then she earnestly started to cry while holding on to me.

"Look at me Isabella ," I made her look up at me with my hand on her chin, "I'm alright, nothing that bad happened to me and even if it did, it wouldn't be your fault . I chose to help you escape from the fiend, and I was the one who was stupid enough to get distracted before the battle was truly over. You might have gotten caught by the fiend , but I doubt there are many people who could escape from a fiend on their very first battle." I wiped her tears away with a handkerchief I summoned from storage, "Now are you still not hungry cause I wasn't joking about that spaghetti."