Prologue 2/2

Atlas vanished just as he was about to hit the ground, gone almost like a magic trick. The girl however, did not share the same magic and the body splashed against the concrete floor crippling her limbs in successive snaps. She died a quick death without even seeing her life flashing through her eyes, as she had already been stricken with surprise and horror when Atlas grappled her, and holstered her over his shoulder in half a blink, and then threw a fist that clobbered against her chest directly striking a pressure point causing pain, dizziness and nausea. She had no time to react against a martial art master.

The white pavement became painted crimson by the blood.

Meanwhile, Atlas was unconscious inside a strange building somewhere. Inside there was a bed, wardrobe, table, and a glass cabinet displaying countless medals. A woman was seated on the bed wearing an almost transparent nightgown revealing a lot of skin. Her brown hair reached her waist and a smile was plastered on her face. The raised cheekbones and eyes revealed her excitement as she stared at Atlas. Her smooth skin with small hairs slightly raised on their ends made her seem like a child that is overfilled with excitement.

She would have been a beauty if it were not for her tattooed arms. Different kinds of monsters and beasts sullyed her skin. Her foot touched the floor as she gently raised herself off the bed and walked closer to Atlas. Her face becoming slightly flushed. “That body, appearance, frame...” Her mouth started muttering countless things in an intellectual sounding manner, whilst her eyes licked every part of Atlas’ body.

Nothing was left unseen from her big blue eyes that hid behind a pair of glasses.

She made physical contact with his body after fifteen minutes of observation from afar which made her look afraid of Atlas. But it wasn’t the case as she stopped mumbling and started “preaching”. Her barefoot smacked against Atlas’ cheek, gaining no response from his unconscious person at all.

“When the first day of the beginning arrived

The Creator bestowed upon this world light and darkness

But the Creator did not leave after gracing the earth

With his mighty power.”

She inhaled and exhaled a long breath, before licking her dry lips and continuing with her religious speech.

“On the second day of the beginning

The Creator bestowed upon the world consisting of light and dark

A species of life along with exotic lands and seas

But the Creator did not leave after gracing us once again

With his mighty power.”

Once again, she inhaled and exhaled before continuing. A grin on her face.

“On the third day of the beginning

The Creator visited the human world that already started developing,

Bestowing us a gift that changed our lives forever

And as the Creator left without the promise of coming back

He turned to the precious gift within our arms

To look at the product of his mighty power.”

She seemed to have finally finished her speech as she turned to look down at Atlas’ bruised cheek. However, a light appeared in her eyes as her lips parted once again. The room dimmed slightly as the prospect of another preach escaping her mouth showed within the surroundings. Even the candles seemed to show distaste in her speech as they almost flickered out.

“The gift that the almighty Creator himself bestowed upon us

A contract that bounds the souls of a fated two

The reality created from a fantasy where trust is given and is returned in equal share

The Summoning of Familiars”

Her voice raised pitches as she said her last poetic sentence, and her foot became planted more firmly on Atlas’ forehead.

“From today onwards your new name is Venix and you shall serve me until: I depart from this world, you fall in battle defending me with your life or when the Creator himself wishes for the gift to be returned!”

In sync with her speech, steam mysteriously started to form around her foot and Atlas’ forehead. It looked similar to when someone poured cold water over something scalding, and the noise of the forming steam made the procedure seem painful. The woman seemed pained as well, her hands were clenched, shoulders were shaking and her teeth grating against each other.

In spite of that, the woman did not do anything to fight against the strange phenomenon, and instead seemed to accept it by not moving her body away at all. It was a strange sight to see.

Slowly the steam disappeared and revealed a tattoo of a chess piece on her foot; it was a pawn piece. And on the other hand, after the steam surrounding Atlas’ head evaporated a tattoo on his forehead also revealed itself. A red cross covered in flames, it might have been mistaken for a scar if it were not for the flames surrounding it.

When the woman looked down at her foot, she made a confused facial expression before bending over and placing a finger over the tattoo, then flicking it as if it was a fly and not something she wanted to see. When she saw the tattoo stay still and not change, she sighed. Then her head moved to look at Atlas’ head or more accurately, his tattoo. Her glasses moved down her nose and she bit down onto her lip, before rolling her eyes and turning her head to the bed. Revealing a smile.

“I haven’t slept in two days because of you, Venix. Two days for basically nothing of value. So it isn’t fair that you are the only one who gets to nap.” She said whilst lightly slapping Atlas’ cheeks. She let out a large yawn standing up, and walked lazily over to the side of her bed. Looking at Atlas once before pressing her hand down over a tattoo of a turtle.

“Barbosa, carry the new familiar to the others”

It looked like she was speaking to herself until a giant turtle scurried out from under the bed, really slowly. The choice of pets is really strange, since you wouldn’t normally own a pet turtle that looks dangerous. And this one looked very dangerous indeed.

A black spiked shell with clawed hands that evoked a feeling as if it could slash apart iron relatively easily. A bit of green moss that was on the shell swaying with every movement, made the turtle seem ancient and old. The turtle passed its master but stopped, a tongue popped out its mouth and licked her barefoot leaving drool all over it.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

She looked down to the turtle in shock before her foot started carefully stomping on the turtle, whilst making sure not to plant a foot in one of the spikes on it’s shell. “A mere poor grade, first rank familiar dares to lick its master?” The woman’s brown hair slightly floated as she looked down upon the turtle in disgust. “Not only did I dismiss the fact that you were in my room, but now you are doing this...” As she spoke, the turtle showed an expression of disappointment and regret on its rocky face. She quickly turned around, walked to the table and picked up a thin short stick, then pointed it at the slowpoke.

“Since you have just been summoned two days ago and didn’t take away much essence, which allowed me to summon another familiar, I will let you off easily.” She flicked the stick in a practised manner and chanted words that seemed to be copied from a bible:

“Come to me my friends. The winds, lend me your strength and take my mana essence as equal payment for your aide.” She pointed the stick at the closed door that suddenly whooshed open by a whistling wind. Her hand quickly moved, and the stick fell upon the turtle and Atlas. The stick made a slashing motion, and the wind carried both of them out the room.

“Sleep with the others today, Barbosa. Maybe you will see how low you stand in this household of familiars.” She said calmly before pointing the stick back at the door a final time, creating a wind that slammed the door hard to a closed state.

“Thank you for your aide, the winds.” She whispered before placing the stick back onto the table.

Then silence enveloped the room. She yawned for a moment, and blew out the candle that illuminated the room, then walked to the side of the bed again. Picking up a towel that was placed conveniently on the bedside table, she slowly cleaned her foot that had drool all over it. After giving a final dab to the foot, she threw the towel into the back corner of the room, where countless clothes and towels had already piled up.

After getting in the bed and snuggling herself up into the blanket, she closed her eyes and fell asleep with a smile on her face. Two days sleep deprived and now getting to sleep, how could she not be happy?

Meanwhile outside the room, a turtle was slowly dragging a boy by his clothes down the corridor. Occasionally the clothes would rip and the journey would stop, but the turtle just latched onto a different piece of cloth and continued to drag him along.

Eventually it stopped in front of a large steel door that was guarded by two soldiers in armour on either side. Atlas was almost naked from the turtles barbaric carrying, and had countless bite marks on his body. No blood was spilled however, showing the softness of the turtle. As soon as the guards spotted the turtle, they quickly went to open the door. Both the guards were slightly shivering for some reason, maybe the cold temperature surrounding the place had something to do with it.

The men at guard did not question or stop the turtle from dragging a body with it, maybe they did not even see the body. Since their heads were turned away from the black shell and facing a completely different direction.

When the steel door finally opened, the turtle latched onto Atlas and dragged him in…the door immediately shut afterwards.

The room was completely dark and only the noise of the splashing droplets of water could be heard. In the corner, a flame appeared lighting up half of the room. The turtle dropped Atlas and hid its head inside the shell, as if sensing danger. The noise of wet feet quickly slapping against the stone floor could be heard coming closer and closer. Then suddenly nothing was heard anymore and at the place where the turtle was previously cowering at, there was nothing there anymore. The turtle disappeared. The shell wasn’t there, and it seemed like someone had snatched it up in an instant.

The flame also disappeared, bringing the room into darkness once more.

Outside the room, the two guards were having a conversation between each other:

“Do you reckon that turtle is the newest familiar?” A young male’s voice questioned, he was a guard with the light blue cape.

“Yeah it probably is, meaning that she is not in a very good mood right now” An older voice answered, belonging to the guard with a dark blue cape.

“What do you mean she won’t be happy?” The young one asked once again.

“You know what I am talking about...oh right, you are new!” The old one exclaimed in surprise, whereas the younger soldier just tilted his head in confusion.

“Are you really bad at remembering people? You were the one that showed me around the place this morning, plus we are also sharing the same room in the barracks.” The younger soldier drooped his head in disappointment due to the older man’s bad memory.

“Don’t worry about it kid!” The old man walked over and smacked his back, making the young soldier fall over.

“Ok! So what did you mean by she won’t be happy?” He heaved himself up from the floor and asked in anger.

“You must be pretty inexperienced to not be able to tell the strengths of familiars. No matter, you will be able to tell after you train with me for a couple of months. So, onto the question. That turtle is actually a black-striped crab that is graded as poor, so it’s future growth will not be anything spectacular.” The old man told his subordinate in an informative manner.

“So how does that answer my question?” He snorted, which earned him a slap on the head making his helmet fall off.

“Do you know the grandmaster’s hobby?” The old man responded with a question.

“How does that have anything to do with this?” He asked once again, bending over to pick up the helmet.

“Just answer, you young fool!” The old man hawked at him, giving the young one a startle.

“Alright you pervert, I do not know what her hobby is or care about it. Unlike you.”

“Well, smartass. Her hobby is summoning familiars and growing them to their full potential, then after that...do you know what happens next?” The old man asked after informing the youngling.

“I do not. But how can she summon so many familiars, that you would need to have them guarded inside a large cage?” The younger one subconsciously gave in to defeat and asked dejectedly.

“I won't tell you. Since you will see what she does with full grown familiars in the morning, and to answer your question: there was only one familiar in this cage before the turtle popped up.” The man answered with a laugh.

“So what kind of familiar is inside the room right now?” The young man asked in order to satiate his curiosity.

“A rare graded two star jabberwocky.” The old man’s response was filled with reverence.