At the bottom of the floating spiral staircase I was greeted once again by Raphael, the huge lycanid royal guardsman. He looked me up and down, his ferocious eyes drinking me in as his muzzle salivated slightly.

I felt like Red Riding Hood’s grandma.

“I am to escort you to the summoning chamber.” He growled, his warm, wet breath tickling my nostrils.

He turned and began marching across the hall and I followed. His golden and scarlet military jacket billowed as he marched. He wore it slung across his shoulders, presumably so he could throw it away in a dramatic anime-like show of strength during battle.

We crossed the dancefloor, the party now in full swing, and exited through a small, unassuming, wooden door in the far corner of the room.

Through the door, we walked down some dungeon-like brick stairs which led out into a subterranean ceremonial room. It looked sketchy as hell.

Water dripped ominously from the roof, a metal pentagram was built into the floor and there were shelves covering the walls with all kinds of magical herbs, bottled body parts and general magical confectionery.

Hunched over a workbench in the corner was a small, wrinkled man with wispy, greying hair and bushy eyebrows that looked like long, dark caterpillars.

“I leave now.” Raphael said and I heard his heavy footsteps crack against the brick as he headed back upstairs.

“Shall I take it that you’re the court mage?” I asked tentatively, moving towards the hunched man.

“I am.” He replied in a voice that sounded much too young to belong to a man of his obviously old age. “Cicero is my name, and you are Kaleb Akabane. My king seems to have taken an interest in you.”

He turned towards me and I saw that one if his eyes was missing. He made no attempt to hide his gross eye socket, which was sealed over with scarred, grotesque skin.

“Yeah.” I replied, taking an involuntary step back. “He seems to have taken a shine to me.”

“Indeed.” The mage said, walking towards me with a creepy grin on his face. “We are to re-summon your familiar no?”

I nodded, consciously deciding to stand my ground. I didn’t want to show weakness in front of this man, after all, I was his king’s guest. What was there to be afraid of?

“Good.” He continued in a slow and slivering voice that reminded me of snake’s hiss. “How would you like him?”

“What do you mean how?”

“You are a phase two are you not?” Cicero replied, furrowing his brow. “You would surely want to summon the familiar at a phase two rank no?”

Summon him at a phase two rank? I thought confusedly. Did this mean that I could re-summon Panda every time I hit a new phase and increase his phase alongside my own?

“Yes.” I replied. “I would like to summon him to the highest rank available.”

“Phase two is the highest rank you are capable of summoning him to.” Cicero hissed. “It will be expensive though; the material cost is great.”

“How much?”

“800,000 gold pieces should do it.” The side of his thin lips curled upwards slightly. I couldn’t tell if he was fleecing me or not, but something about that look told me he was.

“Is the price negotiable?” I asked more confidently, stepping towards the man, and forcing myself to meet his eye.

“No,” he said succinctly, moving back towards his bench and fingering an abacus. “800,000 for phase two, 300,000 for phase one. Make your choice.”

“Phase two it is then.” I sighed. “Though, I still need to set up my transfer account with Adventure Society, so I’d have to pay you physically.”

The mage turned towards me with a deep smile on his face. He croaked a few times and I think it was his attempt at laughter, it sounded jarring.

“The payment is not for me Mr Akabane. It is for the gods.” He said, gesturing to the pentagram on the floor. “Place the coins there, you’ll see.”

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Silently I did what he asked, mentally ejecting all 800,000 coins from my inventory. I expected that much money to flood the entire room but instead something weird happened.

As the coins left my inventory they melted into pure, liquid gold which ran into the etchings of the pentagram itself. The symbol sucked them up like a vacuum, the etchings getting brighter and brighter as the gold vanished into the pentagram.

The mage pottered around the shelves, bundling oddities into his arms. He moved carefully around the pentagram, scattering the items around it in an oddly calculative fashion.

“Stand in the centre and do not move.” He ordered and I obeyed, watching the weird ritual take place.

It was nothing like the first time I’d summoned him. Had something similar to this taken place prior to my wandering into the cultist library? Had I stolen someone else’s summoning ritual?

Fuck them. They were cultists. I hope I did steal all their resources. I thought defiantly.

“Are you ready?” Cicero asked and I nodded once. Doing my best to stay as still as possible.

Suddenly there was a flash of light and I was enveloped in swirling colours all around me. This was closer to what had happened the first time I’d summoned the daemon.

Almost as suddenly as it started, the ritual ended and the oddities the mage had placed around the pentagram disappeared, melting into the floor and giving off a stench of burning.

“Yeah that’s right.” A familiar voice said. “I’m a bonafide war hero toots and I need all the hep recovering I can… Kaleb?”

Panda stood before me at the edge of the pentagram wearing a white cast on his arm and a crutch under his armpit. His bamboo pipe hung limply from his mouth and he looked shocked to see me.

“Good to see you buddy.” I said, looking down at the furry little bastard with affection.

Whilst I’d been laid up in hospital, lying and dodging kings and their subordinates to get him back, he seemed to be chasing women in his waiting room world.

I didn’t really mind, but I was definitely going to give him some shit for it.

“Well this is awkward; I was just in the middle of-”

“Lying to women to get them to sleep with you?” I interrupted, finishing his sentence for him.

“I don’t lie, kid; I saved your life remember?” He said, ripping off his cast and dropping his crutch to the floor. “It’s good to be back.”

“It’s good to have you back.” I replied. “Feel different at all?”

“No… wait!” He gasped. “I’m at phase two! Kid this is great. They struck me down and now I’m more powerful than they could possibly imagine!”

“Don’t get too excited mate.” I laughed. “You’re only phase two, it’s not like you’re at the level cap or anything.”

“Don’t take this away from me, kid! I haven’t been this strong in years.” He protested, throwing an air punch, and twiddling his bamboo pipe between his fingers. “You could have chosen a nicer place for my welcome home party though. This dungeon stinks of old people.”

I looked awkwardly at Cicero who seemed to have returned to his workbench and was completely ignoring us. It was probably for the best.

“Actually, this is just the summoning room.” I grinned. “The real party is upstairs?”

“Well then what are we waiting for?” He replied gleefully, hopping up the brick stairs before I had a chance to speak to him further.

I muttered my thanks to Cicero who completely ignored me, then followed Panda up the brick stairs and back into the palace hall.

The party was getting loud. Drinks were spilled, people laughed, danced, and talked in quite circles in the corners. I spotted Sally and Lucas at a small table on the outer edge of the room, Bell didn’t seem to be with them though.

It seemed Panda spotted them as well and made a beeline for them, stomping right through the centre of the dancefloor. I guessed his insecurities had vanished after his heroic sacrifice to save my life from the dragon.

I followed after him, content to enjoy the evening and get back to work in the morning. What that would actually mean in the wake of such destruction, I didn’t know.

“Sally!” Panda shouted as she shuffled along the floor towards her.

She turned to him with a dower expression on her face and a drink her hand. Her 80’s style suit jacket with the rolled-up sleeves flaunted her thick, vascular forearms.

“Oh you’re back, are you?” She asked dryly. “Sorry furball but there are no pets allowed in the palace.”

“I’ll have you know that I fought and died for this country!” He said with faux outrage. “Honestly, it’s like Vietnam all over again.”

“How do you know about that?” I asked him, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m a sage, I did some studying whilst I was away. Figured it would be good to know more about your culture.” He replied with a shrug.

“You just didn’t want to be left out of the banter I have with Bell.”

“That harpy has nothing to do with my endless thirst and pursuit of knowledge, kid.”

“Speaking of Bell.” Lucas interrupted. “Do you know where she is? I haven’t seen her since the award ceremony.”

I shook my head. The last I’d seen of her was just before I was summoned by the king. She tried to climb the stairs with me but Raphael wouldn’t allow it.

Knowing her she was probably off galivanting in the garden and chatting shit to some poor, clueless noble.

That was when I heard a scream.

It was the shrill kind of scream you’d associate with a posh, sheltered woman and, naturally, the four of us rushed in the direction it was coming from without hesitation.

I didn’t know when I became the kind of guy who ran towards danger, but apparently I had changed, because I didn’t even think about it, I just ran.

We raced into the garden just in time to see a fireball light up the circular bar. It exploded in a searing blaze of flames, blasting everything away from it.

Nobles flew through the air, one man rolled desperately on the floor trying to put out the fire that had erupted on his suit jacket.

I barely took any of that in however, my eyes were focused squarely on something else.

Just behind the inferno that raged around the bar was a hooded figure with silver eyes. Draped over his shoulder was a young girl with teal hair and black, elbow length gloves. She was unconscious.

“Bell!” I shouted, sprinting towards them.