“How did you know my father?” Elem asked the man in a slightly accusatory way. It wasn’t his intention to be rude but Elem simply couldn’t fantom the idea of running into one of his father’s acquaintances in the middle of some dark forest halfway across the continent.

“We met when we were both young ambitious summoners. Must have been around your age actually,” the man replied as he sent his Karasu Tengu back to its own dimension. “But we should go, it will be dark soon. Walk with me and I’ll tell you more.”

Elem followed the master summoner deeper into the forest. Apparently the man hailed from a small town near Lightningrod City and had visited Sekuheim many times in his youth. He told them how he and Ardan used to train on Thunderbird Mountain and had even connected with their first Summons together.

The more they walked, the more dense the woods became. Clusters of vines and strange overgrown plants narrowed their path as the canopies swallowed even more of the forest’s sparse light.

“Tell me what happened to your father,” the man eventually said.

Elem wasn’t sure whether it was his exhaustion or his unprocessed emotions but the words poured his mouth. Unable to stop his tears, he told the man everything that happened: from the revelations of his father's past to Ferran’s ruthless execution. The hooded summoner listened quietly, his gaze firmly fixed on the path before them.

After a long trek, when Elem began to believe he’d never see the sun again, the suffocating overgrowth finally made way for a small meadow.

“This is the heart of the forest,” the summoner announced, gesturing at the peaceful oasis like a homeowner showing his residence. “Isn’t it breathtaking?”

The meadow was indeed beautiful. Brightly colored flowers danced in the soft afternoon breeze while butterflies playfully fluttered around and dragonflies calmly hovered over the grass, reminding Elem of the airships hanging above Lightningrod City’s dirigible port.

At the meadow’s center rested a stone shrine covered with moss and flanked by a modest encampment consisting of a tent, a campfire and a few bags.

“Your father was a good man. He is at peace now,” the man finally said as he threw off his hood.

“Balthazar Flame!” Aja blurted loudly while instantly recognizing the man, only to flush moments later for her inappropriate excitement.

Although he was equally baffled, Elem’s response came in the form of a gasp. Balthazar was a man with a legendary reputation. He had famously topped the Duel Tower for years and was widely known as one of the continent’s strongest summoners.

Elem had no idea that Balthazar and his father had known each other, and he couldn’t even imagine them being friends.

“And I suppose that you two are now looking for a new master so you can train and exact your revenge?” Balthazar continued to ask, ignoring their obvious astonishment.

Elem nodded eagerly, unsure whether to interpret the master summoner’s words as an offer or a cynical remark.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

“Well I cannot do that; I have retired. Besides, revenge is a pointless endeavor. More bloodshed can’t fill your heart. All it would do is feed into the cycle that caused this mess.”

“Revenge isn’t the only thing on my mind,” Elem shot back. “I hate Ferran for what he did but my father accepted his fate. My friend and I prepared to become summoners our entire lives and Ferran robbed that future from us. I want to become a powerful Summoner; a great duelist like my father and yourself. You know, an honorable man. This is also about legacy and glory. About honoring my father through the art of summoning.”

Balthazar let out a low grunt and took a moment to think. He combed his fingers through his gray beard a few times before gesturing at the grass.

“Take a seat.”

“A seat” Aja repeated softly, staring at the vegetation before sitting down. She had always had a fear for bugs.

“Glory and legacy are just pointless, trivial things,” Balthazar explained. “If you want to become a great summoner you must let go of those shallow goals.”

He dyed his eyes white with a single blink, rapidly summoning his Karasu Tengu again. The Wind Summon appeared within a split second. It shook its feathers and soared up into the sky.

“For years I trained to become the strongest summoner alive,” Balthazar explained. “I killed myself every single day through dueling, Essence cultivation and physical exercise. And at first it worked splendidly, I became a reasonably powerful summoner but it was only when I started losing from the world’s elite duelists that I realized I was doing it all wrong. Through experiencing my limits, I realized how little I truly knew. I learned that summoning had nothing to do with knowledge at all. It is far more than that. I learned that summoning is about understanding.”

The legendary summoner plucked a tiny white flower from the grass and held it up so he could examine it. Moments later, a cobalt feather shot down from the sky; slicing off one of the petals with terrifying precision.

When Elem looked up, he saw the Karasu Tengu circling high above them like a predatory bird.

“Yes training and practice are important, but you must also think about Essence differently. You must understand it. Essence isn’t a resource. Essence is simply what it is. It is everything and nothing at the same time. It is the energy that keeps the universe in constant motion. It is the material that transcends our understanding of reality and connects to worlds far beyond our knowledge. One can never truly grasp it.”

Elem scratched his head. He had trouble following what Balthazar was trying to tell them. If he was honest, the master’s words sounded like nothing more than paradoxical gibberish.

“If you cease to see Essence as a finite material within your own body, you will realize that the energy of everything around us can be sourced through cultivation,” Balthazar continued. “This is why summoning is such a gift. It allows us to experience Essence in its truest form.”

Another feather sliced through the flower in Balthazar’s hand, taking off one more petal. Had the Karasu Tengu’s aim only been off for just an inch, the attack would have easily taken off a few fingers.

“Summoning teaches us that, like Essence, our self is not limited to our own minds and bodies. By connecting your Essence node with an elemental Summon, your self blends with that being. It changes you, just like the endless flow of Essence in the universe is constantly shifting and morphing into different shapes and forms.”

The master’s words were slowly dawning on Elem. He had always regarded his Essence like a sort of spiritual muscle but instead of training his body and mind to generate more Essence, Balthazar was suggesting that Elem had to practice becoming more like a conductor of existing Essence. This would be a radically different approach.