《The Opportunist》The Summoning
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Inside the luxurious carriage, sat two women. One wearing maid clothing while the other wearing an expensive gown.
"Are you sure of this, Your Highness?" Mariah asked me
Though she asked in a worried tone. We both were aware that it needed to be done.
"You know better than most that this is something I cannot avoid" I answered back.
The seers foretold a catastrophic event that will hit humanity leading to its demise. Our only hope will be to summon something, anything to stop it.
"Surely we can find someone else to cast such magic. Especially one so extreme"
Going through ancient scriptures it spoke of runes that would allow us to summon an entity from beyond. Since the original writer did not specify on how it is casted I have to resort to primal means to cast it: Life force.
"We can't find someone with enough life force to augment such magic. Those with enough are either too crazy or too powerful. We are only left with those of royal bloodlines." (Clara)
"Surely, the Young Prince or His Highness could do it." (Mariah)
"My brother is too young to expend such life force and my father too old. I am the only one who can do so with minimum damage" (Clara)
"I would not call 20 years one's life 'minimum damage'" (Mariah)
"Nobody want to lose such large amounts of years but it is necessary if humanity is to have a..." (Clara) The carriage came to a screeching halt cutting me off.
"We are here...." (Mariah)
"So we are. Lets go. The faster we do this the better" (Clara)
We both stepped out the carriage and were greeted with twelve kneeling knights. The twelve strongest knights of the kingdom and the members of the Crimson Sentinels, who are tasked to serve and protect the royal family of the Harth Kingdom. They are adorned in crimson armor which are brightly lit so they can be seen from a distance. On each armor on the left breastplate a sign signifying the royal family; two crimson feathers. They were all hailed champions of the kingdom. Hopefully, they are strong to deal with anything that comes out the summoning if it goes wrong.
"Rise" (Clara)
"We reached the center of the forest, Your Highness" (Head Knight)
"Very well. Set up a perimeter make sure nothing goes in or out and tell the Royal Magicians that they can begin setting up the formation" (Clara)
""Yes! Your Highness"" (Guards)
Mana is something that is in every living being. In order to cast this summoning magic my father chose this forest where life force and mana are abundant to relieve the amount of life force I have to use. The forest itself is very luscious green forest teeming with various arrangements of plants, trees, insects and various animals.
'Hopefully some of it will remain after we are done with this'
I walked over to the Royal Magicians who were just about to finish setting up the magical formation for the summoning.
"Any implications I should be aware of?" (Clara)
"None, as far as I can see. His Highness did pick quite a spot for the summoning" One of the Royal magicians who finished setting up the formation responded.
"Very well. Let us begin" (Clara)
We all moved to our spots with me being directly in front of the summoning circle. I recalled as much as I could from the scriptures and recited the spell.
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"Heavens hear my cry. Let a being cross the great divide. The light that will merge by the holy power of the Gods. Become the gateway that will let a being across"
The formation lit up with a bright white light and it began to search my body for something. As if it could not find what it was looking for it began to tug on my life force. I could feel it. Part of me being taken slowly yet forcefully. The formation lit even brighter. 'Dam this is not supposed to happen! I could feel my life force being sucked into a vortex in a rapidly growing pace. 'This was not written in the dam thing! This is taking far more than just 20 years!' the formation lit even brighter and began to absorb the life force from the surrounding plants, trees. It kept absorbing like an endless abyss that could never be satisfied. My whole body is covered in cold sweat and I could sense my consciouss slowly slipping away from me. 'Dam it! Gotta keep going. I am not about to let that amount of life force go to waste!'.
"Somethings' is going wrong with the formation! It is taking up too much life force" The head of magiians said gritting his teeth while his body paled more and more till he lost consciousness.
'That bastard says something now. I swear if I will not have his head if I live through this!' The formation began to absorb everything around that had even a trace of life force around it including the guards and the Royal Magicians . 'What in the actual hell are we summoning for it to cost so much life force!'. My whole body felt weak and there were faint traces of blood coming out of my mouth. Everybody around me already seemed to have fainted from the amount of life force taken from this. 'Shit. What ever thing that comes out of there better be good'
The center of the formation began to form a bright white light and as I looked up I could make out a faint trace of a person inside it. It was far too bright for me to see any features.
As the formation slowly dimmed down I could make out some of the features. The being looked akin to a young male. Black hair, black eyes with an odd shirt and equally odd blue pants. He looked confused and looked around. I tried to speak up.
"Welc...." I tried to say but
I lost consciousness.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
I am having the weirdest dream of my life.
I am currently in a completely blank white space that seems to be endless in every direction. 'Is this what lucid dreaming is like?' I tried to imagine a giant dinosaur but nothing shows up.
'Worth a shot anyway'
I began to aimlessly wander around but it leads nowhere. Every step just takes me closer to nothing.
'What it this even supposed to me. Is part of my brain that lonely and wants me to take a hint..'
My thought was cut short by a feminine giggle.
"Shit. Who's there!?" I panciked and looked around me
"...." Another giggle followed.
"I swear if two twins pop out claiming 'Come play with us'...." I said in a low voice trying to find the source of the noise.
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"Aren't thou an interesting one" I perked up as I saw a faint glowing light in front of me.
Suddenly a figure came into view in front of. It was a beautiful woman. One unlike any I have seen in real life. One with glowing blonde hair and crimson like eyes that burned bright. I subconsciously gave my brain a thumbs up. 'If this is a dream .. brain .. I owe you one...'
"Welcome to thine's place. Thou may refer to thee as Goddess" She said in a high class tone which would normally be really odd but the way she said it sounded nearly perfect.
I was taken back by her sudden proclamation. 'Okay, bit of a narcissistic but I am sure I can gloss over that part'
"You may be wondering why thou were so abruptly called upon thine's humble abode... ah fuck it. This is not even fun anymore. Listen kid. You are being summoned to another world" She quipped with an abrupt chang in her tone of voice.
'What?' I sat there with a quizzical look on my face. 'Is this some sort of weird roleplay thing my brain is trying to get me into?'
"This isn't a dream ya half-wit" As she said that she launched herself at me punching me square in the stomach. Massive pain searing through me as I knelled on the floor clutching my stomach. 'Alright not a dream...geez'
"Dam it..what was that for" Clutching my stomach I compalied.
"To get your dam mind out of the gutter. anyway back to the summoning. Some minor world needs your help.. bla.. blaa.. and some fuck-wit decided the way the best way to solve their dam problems was to get you involved. Understand?" She said impatiently.
Someone was summoning me? Why me of all people and what kind of problem could they have to require to summon someone from another world. I had far too many questions and not enough answers.
"Listen kid. You got about 5 minutes before the summoning completes. It should normally be done in a minute or two but those imbeciles can't even draw a basic summoning circle right. You will be summoned and there will most likely be someone who will tell you the details or lie and detain you to make you a slave" (Goddess)
"You said you are a Goddess right? Can't you stop it?"If she is the Goddess why does not just stop it herself?
She pondered for a moment before speaking. She floated into the air and with a straight face looked at my eyes and told me "I could. But why would I want to?"
Dam. I wonder if begging would work but by the look on her face I could tell she would not listen to me.
"Can you at least tell me where I am being sent off to?" I asked her hoping for a more decent response than the last one.
"Fine..." She waved her hand and suddenly a small scale model of a planet showed up. It look akin to earth except the continents were much closer to one another.
"The inhabitants call their world 'Anima'. I know stupid right? Any who. This world is quite large with the continents drawn closer to one another. The world itself technology and knowledge wise around 1000 AD in your world. Oh right there is magic there too"
'wait magic?" "Hold up magic?? There is magic in this world?"
'Magic...so like casting fireballs, controlling the elements and summoning to undead?. Awesome'
"Yea. It is one of the minor worlds that posses mana which allow its living entities to cast magic. However this world is a bit special. This planet was created by the God of Knowledge, Peritia. His sole creation. He wanted the inhibition to pursue knowledge rather than war. Lets just say he underestimated their thirst for blood and that plan completely backfired.He altered this world so the amount of mana you posses in proportional to your knowledge." She told me with a serious yet somewhat playful tone in her voice.
"Knowledge?" I asked back not fully understand what she meant.
"Yes. You can cast magic through spells but only if you have knowledge of it and the more you know of it the better, faster and smoother it will cast. Watch" (Goddess)
She put her palm in front of me and said [Fire is created through heat] suddenly a small red flame arose from her hand. [For fire to exist it needs air] the flame grew even brighter. [Fire is a chemical reaction between oxygen in the air and fuel] the flame suddenly jumped to towering heights and turned white.
"See. The more you know the stronger it is"
"Is there any limitation? Like can I create things like giant meteors?"I asked excited at the premise of being able to summon meteors.
"As long as you follow the rules of Physics and remember you are only changing the form of your mana and as long as you know the composition of meteors you can 'create' them. Be warned. The more complex it is the more taxing it is on your body"
"What happens if there is no knowledge when you are casting the spells?"
"He did not want his creations to be unable to use magic simply because they were ignorant so he changed the rules a bit. If your mana cannot come out to cast the spell your body will use your own life force to augment it" She said while sighing.
"Wait life force? How much?" I was a bit worried at the tone she she said it in.
"Life force is what keeps a being alive. Losing life force will make you a bit weaker and make your life span shorter and the amount depends on the complexity of the spell. Those on the planet are rather ignorant so they frequently use up parts of their life force even when casting basic levels of magic but even those who use it a regularly might only see a loss of 4-5 years of their life span" (Goddess)
"Hm.. fair enough. What kind of people are summo.." Trying to ask my final question but she cut off me.
"Hoo... looks like your times up. Good luck kid. Don't fuck things up too badly. Also word of advice: You might want to seal your emotions as soon as you can figure out how to control your magic and remember don't trust anyone too much in that world."
'Wait seal my emotions..?' Suddenly the room grew whiter and the Goddess disappeared. 'Well...let's see how this goes'
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