In Hell a place of chaos, the land is tainted black, the air is filled with the smell of sulfur from the many volcanoes. Rivers are made of either blood or lava. In this environment the souls of evil humans pass and are tortured for their sins by the demons and devils.

These beings can survive because they are strong. The reason they are strong is solely because of their intelligence but you may be asking, “How would they develop intelligence in such a place?”. The answer is their birthing and rebirthing method.

Demons are born either by mating of already powerful beings or through a spawn pool.

Spawn pools are large areas and from these spawning pools there is a single creature that is born and becomes every kind of demon known in hell. These creatures are comprised completely of ash that gathers inside the spawn pool. These are known as the Ash Golem, commonly known as Imps.

These creatures evolve by eating, eating anything, they eat more powerful beings that died, they eat weaker creatures and they eat each other. But that doesn’t explain how they are intelligent, it’s simple. The soul of the Imp, or more correctly said, the soul of every demon in hell and in the upper realms are connected to the spawn pools. If their body is killed, the ‘core’ of their being cracks and releases their soul which is bound by these pools and are pulled by.

A new Imp is commonly a sentient soul that had sinned to such a great degree that the gods discarded his soul to hell permanently and bound his soul to the spawn pool. At the start, the ‘core’ and the soul are completely empty and ‘pure’. Immature with only instinct and normally the body of the imp’s are also weak being as small as a 1 year old and shriveled up. With instinct there are some who survive by eating the first thing it can find, other Imps. The carnage when newborn imps appear, which is commonly in huge packs, leaves few alive and these are usually at the mercy of the older more mature ones normally dying within several hundred meters of the spawn pool.

These souls aren’t killed and are simply reborn but with it reborn it will also become stronger, the soul’s ‘limit’ was raised as it was killed and it ‘learned’ what not to do but instinct takes over but with its added knowledge it makes it body a bit stronger with less defects making it a bit stronger or faster.

Among these millions, many are killed hundreds or thousands of times and learn slowly moving further and soon evolving into different forms.

In these millions a new pack was chosen to spawn in a desolate and unused corner of hell near the surface. The surface is the upper realm where mortals live.

This area is vague and isn’t occupied by many demons due to the holy aura of the gods that is present and normally demons grew weaker when closer to the surface unless they possess sufficient strength to be unaffected. Imp’s don’t possess that so when the Spawn pool began to crack as the lava cover that was over it was crushed by the magic of the pool once it became active the Imps began to spawn. One, then ten then a hundred and finally a thousand.

Among these thousand one strange one appeared. The ash grey skin was the same but the eyes were pure white instead of pure black and the newborn imp moved about and hit moving objects. Very quickly the other imps became conscious of this one as easy prey and attacked.

Killed it was reborn and once more dead. The problem was that this was a rare imp born blind, this would never happen except in this area due to the holy aura coming from the surface. This aura cracked the ‘core’ of the Imp and made the part of the soul containing the eyes break off and become ineffective. Even as it slowly rebuilt its body over and over it was unable to remove the holy mana from its eyes leaving it blind. With it blind it could not hunt or better yet, it could not survive long enough to learn what was better to improve in its body to let it survive.

Without fail it was killed thousands of times but this made it more unique, it’s body slowly began to take longer to respawn as the body each time was more perfect, not in the sense that it was clear to demons but the imp would improve everything over all just a bit. It could hear better bit by bit letting it know when something was approaching but because imps attack in swarm it could not survive.

It could smell better letting it know that the imps were coming and for it to try and pick up the smell of any possibly edible things but it would die before it even knew a smell different from that of ash.

It’s body grew harder and more packed but it was still made of Ash as an ash golem meaning that it was still brittle yet its physical strength grew but even with sight and sound allowing it to somewhat pick up where something was it could defend itself only momentarily before it was swarmed.

Like this it died thousands and hundreds of thousands of times becoming an existence almost permanently fixed to die at the hands of other imps and feed them extremely powerful food that came from its uniquely powerful ash body and allowing the demon land aura to slowly press and push the holy aura back and slowly make the land hellish once more.

Only after a years of being killed hundreds of thousands of time did the imp finally survive to take its first step out of the pool but it was something that did not know how to hunt, it did not know where to go due to being blind and so even though it jumped out the imps soon caught it and killed it. It was only as his soul was being pulled back that a strong magic grabbed it and suddenly all the imps and its own body burst and his ‘core’ and soul sucked everything up into himself but the ash body broke down but he felt it as this strong force sucked everything up and his soul was pulled to the surface.

***

The world of Quinn is a world of magic. It has advanced and commands magical technology but the very basis of this is the ability to control mana. To do so a mage needs to possess two things, magic affinity to be able to draw in the energy known as mana and the second is a familiar.

Familiar is a magical beast of any kind that the mage channels mana through to perform magic or tasks. Familiars are all different and each mage can have only 1 and it can only be summoned in Magic Academy due to the preparation for this being in these locations.

The age that these students obtain this is when they start their second year in the magic academy. The first year was purely to teach the students how to gather mana and improve their capacity as well as to weed out those without talent for gathering mana. The entire year teaches the students breathing techniques, meditation and teaches the basis of how magic works.

The world system that requires the familiar isn’t without reason because within the bodies of familiars is where all the magical formulas exist. Magical formulas are innate abilities of the familiar but these innate abilities are considered the most basic of abilities. Once the students grow enough they will make their own magical formulas inside the familiars body for combat.

Also Familiars aren’t fixed and they grow. They grow as they gain more magical formulas and some grow depending on what they eat which grants different effects biologically for them. There has always been students with hopelessly weak familiars that couldn’t even take the most basic magical formulas until their owns were stronger and their bodies could handle them.

The reason familiars never die is because of the fact that they are both magical creatures and their soul is bound to the master. Once their body dies their soul is recalled into a seal on the body of the master where they will absorb mana from the master and once enough is absorbed to rebuilt the body they will automatically resummon themselves but the time it takes for them to fully form depends if they have material. Some creatures require abundant earth or water so commonly the magic academy create artificial areas around them that caters to all types of elements and provides the basics needed for pretty much all creatures. Also the strength of the creatures determines the time it takes for them to resummon. A powerful creature will take longer to remake their body than a weak creature but as commonly known, death for a familiar is always the best time for them to grow because they have total control of their body at this time and can always improve key points in their strength.

This fact is what makes familiars so powerful, it is also this point that allows the masters so much freedom because depending on the familiar, the master can tell the familiar to grow specific aspects or even create new limbs. This is how some people are even able to make dragon type creatures while others can change a fish into a bird.

Familiars are ever changing as long as they are given time to grow.

At this time it is another day for the familiar summoning and the current class is slowly gathering within the summoning grounds. Familiar summoning is always done publicly and the results are known school wide very quickly. Another unique fact is that the incantation is unique to each person because they make it up. The incantation normally decides the creature but the result is never the same between two people so no one ever tries to copy others even when it results in a powerful creature.

“Mighty King of beasts, Heed my call, call forth thy strength and call forth thy wisdom, to rule this Land and rule this Sky!” A young girl said.

This girl had long blond hair that she formed into two ponytails but she also curled them to such a degree that it formed a drill form. She had sky blue eyes and soft white skin that is greatly improved due to the school uniform but also hidden due to the robe worn overtop it. The uniform was a white undershirt with a blue vest and for boys a pair of black pants while girls used white skirts. This girl was Univa Belacqua Crost, she is the third daughter of a Marquess of the court and niece to the king of the nation.

Magic academy's don’t distinguish nationality which allow nations to form connections through the youths. All Magic academy, besides those established exclusively by the nations, are neutral zones and are greatly defended by the nations because they hold much more knowledge compared to the academy of each separate nation.

The magical devices used for the summoning begin to glow and a large magical circle that was laid out began to glow. The device looked like a smooth platform with ten pillars filled with symbols and magic circles.

From the circle a creature 4 meters long on four legs appeared, two large wings appeared on its back and the blue scales shined under the sunlight.

“Amazing miss Crost, a Blue Winged Salamander, this is good fortune for your Marquess house to possess dragon blood creature from the start.” The teacher clapped.

The little girl passed her hand through her hand making her hair flutter as she egoistically grinned. “Of course, what else would be good for this duchess.” She said.

“Ksaaaaa!” The blue salamander hissed and beat its wing as its body started to rise but suddenly the pillars lit up and chains of light came out and suddenly wrapped the salamander.

“Miss Crost please go bind the familiar.” The teacher said and she nodded before walking into the circle.

“Thy soul boundeth to mine, let thy life be for mine, let thy soul serve mine, let thy being die for mine. Familiar binding!” She said.

She placed her hand onto the head of the salamander and pushed her mana into its body and quickly wrote the magical formula for the familiar binding spell. The spell was simple but the effect…

The salamander began to glow and the chains vanished. The simple magical formation grew within its body and soon merged with all the fibers of its being and all the magical formulas the salamander possessed. Soon the formula reached the soul and these magical formula gathered over the spiritual ball engraving the girls magical formula on its soul and linking them mentally and putting them in a master and servant relationship.

As it finished, the mana in the salamander’s body began to go crazy as it flooded outwards. The mana returned to the girl’s hand and on her hand a magical circle with a strange symbol at the center appeared. The color it was glowing was the same as the scales.

The next moment the body of the salamander erupted and rapidly entered the circle.

“Congratulations Miss Crost, the Blue Winged Salamander is now your familiar, beware that it is already a strong familiar so it requires a good amount of mana for it to be ready to summon and the material needed is earth between lava flow and strong wind which make its powerful blue flames.” The teacher instructed.

“This Duchess understands and thanks teacher for the advice.” She said and turned. Her eyes met with a young man and she sneered before she walked back to a seat filled with ‘admirers’ that kept flinging praises as if she was a goddess that descended from heaven.

The teacher smiled, “Who is next?” He asked and after a moment his eyes landed on the boy that the girl had sneered at and he grinned. “Xero Null, come up.” The teacher said.

The boy in question frowned but stood up. He was a 11 year old with messy brown hair and an overall common appearance but his body was fit due to the physical exercise he did. He was born into a common family but because he had the ability to channel mana he was admitted to the academy but his talent was at the true bottom line of talent compared to the other students

“Oi look, its Zero Nill, this will be good.” Someone sneered and laughed.

Most people were nobles or true genius but Xero had to work hard to gather mana. The entire first year he had to spend a tremendous amount of time to gather the necessary mana for the ritual. The more mana gathered the easier it was to get a stronger familiar from the get go but his talent was the lowest tier permitted within the academy.

He walked forward and took out a wand. Unlike the others who possessed large staffs or a hand wand he is unable to pay for such things that effectively channel mana. It was by his luck that his family had once had a mage but due to his poor talent he became what is called a Magi Knight. As such from the beginning Xero had the intention to follow his footsteps if his talent wasn’t enough. The wand in question he drew from a sheath. It was a short sword the size of his elbow to the tip of his finger and at the pumel was a clear gem that began to glow. Symbols appeared on the blade as it started to receive his mana as he began his incantation.

“From the ashes of the earth, rise and bare your power to the world! From the ashes of the heavens blind the world with your strength. From the ashes of hell, burn my enemy and drag their body to hell.” He said.

“Ahaha! He made it sound so cool but there is barely…” As someone started to jeer the circle suddenly began to glow.

It began to shake and from the center the light grew to its greatest degree. Suddenly a red pearl the size of a large adult fists side by side appeared. Then all around a large cloud of ash burst forth. With a glow from the pearl the ash formed a vortex as it gathered over the pearl.

Everyone was silent and slowly the body formed. The chest the arms legs and heard. At the size of a 10 year old with a slightly larger than normal head the densely packed ash formed a body and slowly two horns appeared from the forehead. The body was somewhat skinny and wrinkled and from the mouth that was in a snarl, a mouth filled with fangs could be seen. Its strangely small closed eyes slowly opened and what was scene was a pure white eye with no pupil.

After a moment someone began to laugh.

“Oh my god! That zero just pulled out the lowest of the lowest demons! An Ash golem! He summoned a fucking Imp!”

The boy’s jeer suddenly woke everyone up and as they realized this fact they all began to laugh as well. Ash golems are weak, their bodies are easily scattered and destroyed and their intelligence was also extremely low. Not to mention this one looked stranger. The eyes were small almost human sized but it had larger nose like the dwarves and long ears like elves.

The ears twitched and it looked up and sniffed the air before looking at the boy. Suddenly it jumped with a lot of power but the pillars brightened up retrained it. What caused the eyes of the teacher to widen was that the Imp covered half the distance of the circle. That was 5 full meters in one jump meaning this imp had amazing physical strength. It was at this time that the teacher's eyes narrowed.

“Hold on, the size… Imps shouldn’t be bigger than a 5 year old at best when they are this strong. Also those eyes, i never heard of an imp with small white eyes. Could it be a demon recently dead and made a new strong imp body? Could this be some ancient Imp?” He asked himself.

“Mr. Null go perform the familiar binding.” The teacher said in a serious tone.

People began laughing at his misfortune but the girl that summoned before him, Univa Cross, noticed the change in demeanor of the teacher.

“Thy soul boundeth to mine, let thy life be for mine, let thy soul serve mine, let thy being die for mine. Familiar binding!” Xero said.

He placed his hand on the imps forehead and cast the spell. Like the girl before the simple magical formula entered the imp and began to invade his entire being.

One unique thing is that the Familiar binding was developed by using the demon arts that bound the souls of the dead to spawning pools.

As the Familiar binding entered the body of the imp and converted the body, the binding to the spawning pool was cut and instead the soul was bound to Xero’s own body.

Soon the magical formula reached the core and etched its formula on it and then entered it to reach the soul and etched the mental link as well.

Like before the mana of the Imp rushed into his hand and formed a familiar crest and it had its own symbol unique to it. Then its body began to glow and it burst into loose ash before it was all drawn into the symbol and the red pearl entered as well finally leaving not a speck of ash left in the air.

“Mr. Null, Ash Golems live in areas of intense fire and ash which is how they are made. To rebuilt its body you will need to go to the volcanic zone where the ash can be gathered.” The teacher said and he nodded without saying anything while the class laughed.

He turned and took a few steps before the familiar crest shined and suddenly the pearl appeared and the ash appeared and rebuilt the body making everyone blink.

“I didn’t summon it.” Xero said.

“He absorbed enough mana, you had stored its body so once it had enough mana it would resummon itself.” The teacher explained.

“AHAHA that means it's weak as shit!” Someone shouted and everyone began to laugh.

Xero’s fist was clenched, “Follow me.” He said and took a step. The Imp looked and took a step before its leg started to move but after the third step its leg gave way. He looked back and saw it stand up and take another step but suddenly the leg broke apart.

Everyone was watching curious but Xero was in shock.

The teacher walked over and watched as the ash rebuilt itself and it took a step and leaned on it but it couldn’t handle the weight.

“Xero, please order it to follow my finger with its sight.” The teacher asked.

“Alright.” He said. He first made it stand up then ordered it just as the teacher asked and he passed his finger in front of the face but the head didn’t react.

“Now follow by smell?” The teacher said. This time he followed accurately like a compass. The teacher sighed and looked at Xero, “The Imp is blind, it probably never left the spawn pool so the legs were probably made for a single jump to escape but it never ‘walked’ with them so it doesn’t have strength to them.” The teacher said leaving the boy in shock. “Order it to return to the seal and make its legs strong to be able to walk and allow it to access your memory of walking. It will absorb mana to make it.” He said.

Xero was biting his lip and did as ordered making the imp return to the seal. He felt a small presence in his mind but it quickly vanished. He sighed and sat down depressed.

The more cocky students were already planning to bully him more than ever before.

The rest of the day passed like a blur to Xero as he just looked at the ash grey symbol in his hand. He couldn’t even summon a strong monster to protect him so now he will have to train greatly in sword arts to protect himself. Forget following the Magi Knight path he will be lucky enough to be a common village knight that is if he isn’t expelled.