Jake’s POV

Two days after Suma and I had left camp, and she was on her way to meet the Drakes in the fortified city of Antonella. I laid in bed waiting to fall asleep. I thought about how the test ended, still guilt ridden over accidentally hurting those Neame. Slowly, my eyes grew heavy, and I fell into a deep sleep. I had hoped I would dream of how things were before I disappeared the day of the test, before I ever met Suma so many years ago, or even of just relaxing in Suma’s world. I wanted to take my mind of everything, to escape, but instead there was only darkness… darkness and him.

“Hello Sentinel,” the kinder half of that figure said. The reptilian man made of fire that I had met almost a year ago now. “You’re getting stronger.”

“Who are you?” I asked while I hung in that darkness; that bottomless nothing he always appeared to me in. “You said last time that you were my friend, and my doom.”

“YES,” he yelled as the more reptilian side started to take over, “DOOM, DOOM TO ALL OF ATMOSIA!”

“Why? What did they do to you?” I asked.

“NOT THEM… the dragons… THE TRATIORS….”

“I don’t understand.” I said.

“Then allow me... TO SHOW YOU!” Images began to flash in my mind: places, events, things I have never done, seen, or known. They were fragmented, twisted, even overlapping with one another, like I was seeing two sets of events that happened at the same time, from two angles, two points of view. There were emotions tied to the memories, love, protection, fear, betrayal, grief, pride, and more. It was too much, too overwhelming, I couldn’t take it!

“Ahhh!” I cried out as the images burned themselves into my head.

“Enough for now,” the kinder, more human side said.

“Jake! Jake!” Another, more distant, voice called out.

“THE MASTER CALLS ITS PET… I will leave you to absorb, and learn, and grow for now, but we will meet again.” With that, I woke up in bed, drenched in sweat, and Suma yelling in my ear.

“Jake! Jake are you there?”

“Yeah, I’m here.” I rubbed my temples to try and get rid of the throbbing pain in them.

“Thank goodness, I have been trying to summon you for five minutes now but couldn’t even contact you. It felt like you did not exist.” She said worried. “What happened, where have you been?”

“I don’t... know how to explain it.” I swung my feet over the side of the bed and took a drink of the water bottle I had on my nightstand.

“Are you okay?” She asked.

“Yeah… just give me a minute to get dressed before you summon me.” I said putting the bottle down and rubbing my temples again.

“Okay Jake, just let me know when you are ready.” Suma said, still sounding concerned. I stood up and went to the bathroom to rub a washcloth on my face. I bent down to put my face over the sink, and started washing it. Massaging my eyes, and enjoying the feeling of the cool water on my mouth and eyes. I put the washcloth down and opened my eyes, then jumped back and fell over… it wasn’t my face in the mirror; it was the figure in flame. I scrabbled on the floor for a second as my flight or fight response figured out what to do. Eventually, I slowly stood up and peaked over the sink into the mirror again. My face was back, and the figure was gone.

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“Okay, that’s not right… even for my life.” I told my reflection. “Another thing to talk to Suma about I guess.” I walked out of the bathroom and got dressed, then told Suma I was ready. I was nervous, thinking I would see the figure again after being summoned, but I didn’t. Instead, it was normal. I disappeared and watched the world turn black, then suddenly reappeared on Suma’s world, Atmosia.

“Jake, are you okay? You didn’t answer for a long time, and I couldn’t summon you.” Suma said, repeating herself from earlier.

“I don’t know. I saw that flaming guy again, once in my dreams, and once when I looked in the mirror.”

“Did he hurt you?” Suma asked.

“No, he just spoke to me… no, actually he did hurt me. He showed me something, but I couldn’t make sense of what it was. It seemed like memories, but they were distorted and fragmented. It burned.”

“I’m so sorry Jake, do you need healing?” She offered.

“No, I’m okay now. Suma, we need to find out what that thing is.”

“We will. Maybe someone on our new team or in Antonella will know.” She suggested.

“Right!” I exclaimed and started to look around. We were in a city; from my point of view, it seemed as large as the one we were in last, but I really couldn’t tell. “Is this it?” I asked.

“Yes Jake, welcome to Antonella, the shield city.”

“Shield city? Why is it called that?”

“This is the main point of defense between the rest of Sangu-Dragon, our continent, and the Southern Union forces on the Island of Sangu, remember?”

“I thought your country was called Ambos?”

“It is, but there are three other nations on our continent.”

“Oh right. So, where are we supposed to go now?” I wondered.

“The base we were ordered to report to is North of here. It is not too far. I thought we should arrive together.” Suma said and landed on my shoulder. Jericho, my armor, wasn’t on at the moment, so she just clung to my shirt.

When we arrived at the base, I knew it wasn’t like our training camp at all. There were huge stone walls surrounding the entire camp, with familiars of all kinds perched along the walls like mounted turrets or gargoyles, and Neame flying around in the sky higher than I have ever seen a Neame fly. In fact, I didn’t even know what they were, Suma had to tell me. All I could make out were small dark dots in the orange sky. “This is… quite different than I was expecting.” Suma said.

“Really? It is a military base after all.” I said looking around.

“HOLD!” A voice called out. A Neame flew down in front of us, then summoned his familiar, while still in the air, and landed on it. “Who are you?” She asked.

“I am Suma, and this is my familiar Sentinel. We are reporting for duty with the Drakes Ma’am.” Suma said.

“Show me your official summons.” The Neame demanded. I pulled a small wooden plank out of my bag, I had been holding on to them since it was easier for me to carry it. She used mana wrapping to take the plank from us and examine it. “Alright then, proceed to the main office for your orders and accommodations.” She floated the plank back to me and I put it away. As we were walking away, I heard her say something. “So that’s a Viking?”

As we walked to the office as instructed, we passed several buildings made of vines, stone, and some that seemed to be built directly into the surrounding landscape’s trees and hills. We also passed several Neame in a group. They were perched on sculpted vines that formed a circle around two of them. The ones in the center of the circle were surrounding themselves in some kind of magic fog. It looked similar to the fog I made when that wyvern attacked me. “Suma, what’s that?” I asked and pointed at the group.

“Oh, that is a game, and a rather tasteless one.” She said.

“What do you mean?”

“They are creating displays. It is a way of flaunting your magical prowess. Whomever can create a larger display wins, and the winner goes up against the next opponent. It gets progressively harder to maintain your display with time, so people with large mana capacities and good control will last longer.” She explained.

“What’s it called?”

“I do not know if it has a proper name. I have heard it called many things: Mana Circle, Power Player, Display Dominate, and a few ruder variations.” After watching them for a bit, we left and found the main office.