“What’s wrong, master?” Phylex asked telepathically, raising his head to look at his master.
“Yeah! You summoned us, so why are you giving us the silent treatment?” Draga asked telepathically in an accusing voice.
Lakshman recovered to look at them with a half-hearted smile on his face and said, “Well, I didn’t exactly know how to react because of how small you two became.”
“Small?” Phylex and Draga asked simultaneously before looking at one another.
It was then that they both saw what their master had been seeing since summoning them to that world. Instantly, the two became very shocked by their unexpected appearances and even exclaimed telepathically at the same time.
“Why are you so small?! No! Why am I so small?!”
Their summoner sighed wearily and thought, “I wonder why they ended up being summoned with small bodies.”
“Who knows,” replied Asura without a care in the world, causing his current-self to sigh with a wry smile on his face.
Beside him, Raze had been looking at the two summoned creatures in stunned silence before muttering, “Lucky. Are those… animals?”
“Yes. They’re my familiars,” replied Lakshman, gesturing each of them as he introduced them with their names. “The soft one is called the Eternal Phoenix, but his name is Phylex. The rough looking one is called the Spirit Dragon, but I call him Draga.”
Raze silently stared at each of them in turn as he introduced them, wearing an expression that he could not see. However, he felt that an air of fear emanated from her since it was her first-time seeing animals in her life.
“It’s okay, Raze. They won’t bite,” he said to reassure her and gave her a wide smile.
“Hey! We’re not dogs!” Draga complained irritably.
“Master has a point,” said Phylex telepathically in support of his master. “You’re probably an evolved form of a dragon dog or whichever came first.”
“You damn bird!” Draga snarled telepathically, turning to glare menacingly at the Eternal Phoenix. “You’re rearing for a fight, ha?! Ha?! Come on then! I’ll take you on and trash you like a boss!”
To his announcement, Phylex snorted and replied telepathically, “There’s not much you nor I can do in our current forms, or are you so stupid you don’t realise how much of our power has diminished?”
When that was pointed out, Draga shook his head and telepathically shouted, “That’s right! I’ve become smaller and weaker! Why?! Why did this happen to me?!” and he began pacing around while fuming with anger.
Lakshman watched the scene of his two familiars bickering with one another when Raze let out a small, “Oh…!”
He looked at her, surprised by her reaction as it made him raise an eyebrow and ask her, “Is something wrong?”
“Ah. No,” she replied, shaking her head and saying while continuing to face the small creatures. “It’s my first time seeing such creatures alive and walking so I Was surprised. Not only that, but… for some reason, I’m finding that, what’s that rough looking creature called again?”
“Draga.”
“Yes. Draga,” she said correctly, seeming to be happy to know the name. “For some reason, I’m finding its behaviour… cute.”
This baffled Lakshman because he did not see what was cute about Draga, but he simply nodded his head in agreement with a smile on his face. Incidentally, he got an idea, and he implemented it immediately by walking over and picking up his familiar by its fur, becoming a little surprised by how soft the feeling.
“What’re you doing, master?” Draga asked telepathically, looking up at him with confusion.
“Oh. Nothing,” replied his master before he was tossed into the air and towards Raze.
“Wha?!” Raze exclaimed in shock, stunned by his action.
She quickly hurried forward and caught the creature in both of her arms, looking back and forth between the animal and Lakshman in confusion because the young girl had no idea how to react at suddenly holding one of his familiars in her arms. The fur was soft to the touch, and she found the small wings sprouting out of the back to be adorable. It made her think back to the studies she had as a kid and remembered about mythical dragons that existed a very long time ago.
“So… This is a dragon,” she murmured, turning him to face her. As he tilted his head in confusion, she could not hold her feelings anymore and simply hugged him tightly while exclaiming, “You’re so adorable!”
“What are you doing, woman?!” Draga exclaimed telepathically, but Lakshman and Phylex were the only ones who could hear him. “Unhand me, woman! It’s already humiliating enough for me to be to have this small body, but it’s embarrassing like hell to be hugged like this by a woman! Release me! Release me now!”
While shouting telepathically at her, he tired frantically to break free from her clutches, but the harder he struggled, the stronger her grip over him became. Lakshman picked Phylex off the ground and placed him on his shoulder before they watched the scene of the Spirit Dragon struggling frantically to break free from Raze’s strong hold.
“He’s having fun,” commented Lakshman, smiling wryly at his frantic struggle. Then he grew serious as he asked the Eternal Phoenix, “but I’m still concerned about your bodies. Did you say your powers have diminished, Phylex?”
“Yes, master,” replied the small bird perched on his shoulder. “For some reason, we don’t seem to be able to establish the Spirit Link with the environment, and the reason I can think of the lack of Elemental Spirits around here.”
His master nodded in understanding as he too had theorised the exact same thing ever since he came to that world and received his Hero Weapon. He surmised that the weapon, which was created and cultivated by gods, had the power to act as a medium to allow one to use super powers in a stale environment lacking in natural resources. The biggest drawback for this world was that there were no plants, no trees, no greenery, making it difficult for such creatures to continue living here.
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“Big mistake,” he muttered, shaking his head disapprovingly. “Destroying the environment in the name of progress isn’t a good thing. No wonder the people of this world are so weak and are unable to defend themselves when aliens began their attack on this world.”
“Master, this isn’t our world, is it?” Phylex asked for clarification.
Lakshman shook his head and replied, “No, Phylex. This is a world called Alzard, and I got summoned to this world by the hero summoning, although, it didn’t exactly go as planned,” he finished wryly.
The Eternal Phoenix turned to face him and asked, “In that case, why is the mistress here? Did she get summoned along with you?”
This confused Lakshman and made him ask, “Mistress? Who do you mean?”
“Her, master,” replied Phylex, turning and facing towards Raze. “From her energy signature, I know it’s one of your wives that goes by the name Erza.”
This shocked the Solaris Hero, making him glance at the bird and ask curiously, “Really? How can you tell?”
“It’s easy for us to keep an identification profiles of each and every person we meet based on their energy signatures since it is easy to appear as if you were that person when in reality you are masquerading to trick us,” explained the bird telepathically. “This is a mechanism that all familiars are capable of using, and it helps us identify our true master and the imposter.”
“Wow…!” Lakshman replied softly, looking mightily impressed. Then he smiled wryly as he muttered, “This is depressing. It took me more almost two weeks to find out that it was Erza while it took you only a few minutes. You truly are in a different league of your own, Phylex.”
Seeing that his master was looking sad, Phylex tried cheering him up by saying, “Master, there is no point in comparing our powers because us, familiars, use our powers in a different way. The result might be the same, but how you and I achieved that result varies because of the difference in our species and understanding of nature. So, don’t stress about it. Rather, you haven’t answered my question, master.”
“Oh. Right. Why is Erza here?” Lakshman asked, and his familiar nodded in understanding. “Well, as it turned out, I came into the past, and this is the world that Erza originated from to later become my wife. I think you realise I’m in the past considering my appearance is that of an eighteen-year-old when I’m actually twenty-years-old.”
“I see. I assumed that maybe I had forgotten what you looked like even though it’s only been two days since you last summoned us, but I thought I was mistaken. It all makes sense now,” replied Phylex telepathically, nodding his head in understanding and rubbing its face affectionately against his master.
Lakshman chuckled as he found his familiar’s action be a little ticklish and said, “In that case, how come the familiar summoning spell was successful when there’s a lack of natural resources to depend on.”
“I was thinking that too, master,” the bird replied, shaking his head and looking up at the starry sky, “and I came to the conclusion that, since there was no energy in our surroundings to make us of, we ended up drawing energy from you.”
“What?!” He exclaimed, shocked by his familiar’s response. “I’m supplying you the energy to maintain forms in this world? In that case what would happen if I was running low and couldn’t supply you anymore?”
“If that were to happen, I believe we would automatically be withdrawn from this world and forced to return to our own familiar worlds,” replied Phylex, which made Lakshman breathe a sigh in relief. “Do not fret, master. The Elemental God made sure to put in place rules that would protect both sides of the contract holders if ever there was a case of an emergency like what you described.”
The Solaris Hero nodded with a smile and said, “That’s good to hear. So, this is why you two managed to retain your full forms back in my home world because there was an abundant of natural resources to use.”
“That’s right, master,” replied Phylex, nodding in understanding. “I suppose it isn’t widely known, but when using the familiar summoning, a portion of the caster’s magic is applied to the magic since it is used to summon their contracted familiars. From there, the familiars are able to retain their full forms in that world so long as there is a plentiful of resources.”
“Makes sense,” replied Lakshman with a smile.
At that moment, they heard Draga telepathically shout at them, “Master and that damn bird! Stop discussing and help me out of this!”
They looked at the scene of Draga being played around with by Raze which made Lakshman chuckle with amusement. The young girl had switched from hugging him and began swinging him happily around as if he was a toy.
“I’m not some animal you just pick up off the street, and I’m not a toy to be played around with!” Draga snarled telepathically at her, but she continued playing him while being oblivious to his threats. This made the Spirit Dragon feel distress as he complained, “Dammit! Why can’t you hear me? Dammit it all, woman! Let go of me! Now!”
On the other hand, Raze seemed to be thoroughly enjoying playing with Draga as she asked, “How are you born so adorable?!” She turned to look at Lakshman and asked him, “Are the other creatures in your world as adorable as this one?”
“Possibly,” replied Lakshman with a humorous smile on his face. “Anyway, I think you’re making him feel dizzy, Raze. He doesn’t look good.”
“Oh,” she said, startled by his words and looked at the Spirit Dragon anxiously. “Was I spinning you a little too hard? If so, I’m really sorry.”
Draga sighed wearily and said telepathically, “If you were able to hear me, your eardrums would start bleeding from my inner rage! Now. Let. Me. Go!”
With one final push, he broke free from Raze’s grip and landed on the ground. He glared up at her before slowly trotting towards his master, who picked him up and placed him on his other shoulder. Raze looked at the two creatures perched on Lakshman’s shoulders with an expression that he could not see due to the mask hiding her face, but he sensed that her body language showed that she was envious of him.
“Um…” he began hesitantly, wondering what he should convince her for the sake of his familiar. “Uh… Raze. It’s getting late, and I got early morning training to conduct for the other heroes. Let’s call it a day, okay?”
“Oh. Okay,” she said, her shoulders slumping a little in sadness. “I understand, but what will you do with them? You can’t really have them live with you since our society will freak out at the sight of them and might attack you and your familiars.” As she finished, she suddenly seemed to look very sad as she added, “It’ll be sad to see them leave, especially Draga.”
“That is a problem,” he replied, nodding in understanding of the problem, but he was more concerned for her happiness. He looked as though he was thinking about a solution before, he smiled at her and stated, “It’s okay. If I simply hide them with my magic, no one would notice them.”
“Really?” She asked him looking amazed.
He nodded and raised both of his hands up to his familiars before saying, “Hide.”
In an instant, the two creatures glowed dimly before the light vanished, leaving them looking normal as before. However, Raze exclaimed in shock as they appeared to have vanished from sight to her while still appearing to Lakshman as the spell was only meant to hide them from everyone else. A few seconds later, he used, “Reveal,” to unhide them for her to see again.
“Cool! This means I’ll be able to see them more often!” She said, sounding very happy at the prospect.
As he nodded at her with a smile, Draga used telepathy to beseech him with, “What?! I have to meet this girl more often from now on?! No! No more! I’m a majestic dragon, not some toy to be played with! I’m… I’m the Spirit Dragon!”
It looked as thought he had mentally become fearful of Raze, but the girl did not understand and assumed that he was making sounds as if happy to see her more often. She became happier at the thought, which none of them were able to see because of the mask hiding her face.
Lakshman extended his hand to her to hold onto, and when she did that, he activated his magic and soared into the air. After reaching her room window, he gently lowered her down and let go of her hand, continuing to hover in mid-air while she looked up at him from out of the window.
“See you in the morning!” She stated, waving farewell to him and his familiars.
“Yeah. See you then,” he replied, waving his goodbye at her before he flew off in the direction of his room.