The topic of familiars is inexplicably linked with that of the origin planes, as familiars are simply creatures born or created within the origin planes. It is possible to bond with a familiar once an opening to your origin plane is established within your core, but the planes are filled with so much chaotic essence that it’s hard to even think within them, let alone create or bond with any familiar. Due to this, familiars are very rare and are usually only seen with people at the third or fourth class of advancement, as only they have the mental fortitude to temporarily withstand the insanity of the origin planes.
Research study on the creation and bonding of familiars.
Associate Professor Arnold Ershing.
Sector 5, Ragnarok.
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In the upper viewing room.
“Ah! It seems we’ve uncovered another hidden gem in the light manipulator.” Viscount Harding chuckled. “Such inspiring tenacity for one so young.”
“Yes, as always, High Duke Lightus was right.” Baron Dorneval concurred with a nod.
“I’m particularly fascinated by the sound manipulator; she has a sort of refined brutality that speaks oh so dearly to me.” The countess sighed, and the Viscount snorted. “Every sort of brutality speaks to you, my dear, but brutality doesn’t make champions.”
“I’m not sure I agree with you, Viscount.” Baron Dorneval responded. “Brutality is a core attribute of any champion.”
Before they could begin a debate on the importance of brutality in the creation of champions, Zatya asked. “How far do you think they’ll go within the tower?”
“Well, considering their opponents are simulated monsters, I think they would go quite far.” The countess replied, but her husband disagreed with a shake of his head.
“Underestimating monsters is a mistake many make, but in my opinion, they are much more of a threat than humans.”
“Why do you say so?” Zatya asked, not because she was curious, but because this was a better topic to argue about.
“Well, in a battle against humans, victory depends more on control than a difference in tiers, but monsters are intuitive in the use of their abilities. They do not need to learn skills or hone their control; it’s all so easy for them, so victory always boils down to a difference in advancement."
“I do not fully agree with such an assessment.” Baroness Devereux responded for the first time since the start of the tournament. She was a small woman with sweet features, but Zatya knew not to trust her. It was never a good idea to trust a constable, let alone a royal one.
When the room turned to her, the baroness continued. “Monsters also need to train their control; it’s just less obvious. I do agree that victory depends mostly on the difference in tier, but control always plays a major role in any fight, be it against humans or monsters.”
The nobles nodded in agreement, and Zatya smiled subtly. The Viscount still looked like he had an argument to make, but even he knew it was never a good idea to argue with a constable, even if she was just a lowly baroness, so instead, he said. “Perhaps another gem will reveal itself.”
Zatya smiled as she turned back to the screen before displaying the contestants as they walked into the tower.
……
Aodhán appeared in a circular white room with no exit save for the swirling portal before him that led to the 1st level of the tower. The tower was the hardest challenge in the tournament, as it was a true test of strength and power.
None of the contestants currently present within the tower could reach the 100th level, of that he was sure; they were still too weak, and although none of the monsters were above the evolved class, the power boost that came with each milestone was still significant, which meant they probably weren’t going to reach the 25th tier either, but the other levels were fair game, and once he began, he couldn’t afford to stop until he absolutely couldn’t continue forward.
Aodhán thumbed the ejector that had been given to each of them and placed it in his pocket. He couldn’t put it in his spatial storage because it had been sealed to prevent anyone from advancing within the tower.
That put him at a disadvantage, as a single-tier advancement was a large boost in power for him, especially now that the number of strands he could imbue increased with each tier he gained.
With a sigh, he stepped through the swirling portal and appeared in a small cave carved into the side of a mountain. A rabbit-like creature stood against him with a ferocious expression and bristling brown fur. The monster was only a few inches tall, and above its head was a line of text that identified it as an {Earth Ifrit}
With a roar that sounded more like a whine, the Ifrit rushed forward with its claws extended, but a single kick sent it flying, and it exploded against the wall in a shower of blood and guts.
Immediately after the Ifrit died, the portal for the next level appeared, and Aodhán walked into it. This time, it was a fire Ifrit that stood against him, and at the third level, it was a water Ifrit. They all died the same way, and as Aodhán walked into the portal for the fourth level, he already knew what to expect.
This time, he appeared at the top of a hill with the wind blowing ferociously against him, and just as he’d expected, a wind Ifrit stood against him with blades of wind revolving around it. It died just as easily as the last three, and Aodhán moved to the 5th level.
This time, he appeared in a wild garden, littered with bright purple flowers, and a familiar creature stood against him. Its silver fur shone with inner light, and Aodhán wished it was possible to pass a level without killing the creature guarding it.
The silver Rizzel barred its razor-sharp teeth and teleported. Aodhán immediately focused his core sense, feeling the ripples of energy in the air around him, so when the Rizzel tore space open to tear out his neck, his hand was there to crack its skull and tear out its head.
It was a particularly gruesome way to kill, but Aodhán had learned to be quick and decisive when dealing with monsters, even if their furs cost an entire gold coin.
He continued his journey through the tower, and a myriad of monsters attacked him, each with an amazing set of abilities, but they were all too easy for him to kill, not even requiring the use of his abilities.
This continued until he reached the 10th level and found himself in a cavern of ice similar to that of the arachnid dungeon. An ape-like creature stood before him with bristling white fur and icy talons. The creature stood about 8 feet in height, and the line of text above its head identified it as an {Icy berserker}
The berserker’s eyes burned with a greenish flame, and as it roared, it released a beam of frost that shot towards him like a spear. Employing his superior speed, Aodhán dodged easily, and a lightning hammer half as large as the berserker shot forward and smashed it against the wall before exploding in a shower of crackling electricity that burned a hole through its belly.
The Berserker crumbled to the ground as its life bled away, and Aodhán made his way to the next level. The monsters got harder to kill as their tiers increased, but they still weren’t hard enough to make him fight seriously until he walked into the next portal and appeared at the 16th level.
The level was a forest area that looked slightly similar to the Warren Woods, and it sparked a sense of longing within him. The warm feeling died immediately when he saw his opponent, and he frowned as the silver Mamacore leapt from the branch of a large tree.
The Mamacore was only a little larger than the one he’d fought in the Warren Woods, but the silver haze that surrounded it was much denser, and its claws were longer.
Aodhán attacked first, but the Mamacore easily dodged the lightning spear and shattered it with a swipe of its claws.
“Oh, you want to play dirty? Let’s play dirty.” He muttered, and with a thought, two energized strands of willpower rushed through his pathways as a beam of raw lightning surged out of his hands and instantly tore a fist-sized hole through the Mamacore.
The Mamacore struggled for a few moments before it perished and the portal to the 17th level opened.
The lightning beam wasn’t really a new skill, but he’d rarely used it because of the intense amount of energy it required. Now, with the imbuement of his energized will, the cost of the skill has significantly dropped, making it much cheaper to use.
The next monster died to the same skill, but when he got to the 18th level, he’d had to imbue the beam with three strands of willpower. Still, the monster resisted, fighting death, until he stabbed a lightning spear into its neck.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
The swirling portal appeared the next moment, and he walked into it only to find himself in a cave half the size of the arena. A deep chasm ran through its center, and an intense heat rose up from the river of magma that flowed within it.
On the other side of the chasm, a large reptile, about 7 feet in height and just as wide, stared at him. The creature’s body was covered in shimmering red scales, and when it raised its wings, Aodhán saw that its underbelly was charcoal black.
The line of text above its head identified it as a {Fire Drake}, and when he took a step forward, a guttural roar sounded from its throat as if daring him to encroach on its territory.
Aodhán hesitated. So far, the creatures had been savage, unintelligent beasts, but the drake obviously possessed a semblance of intelligence, a spark of reasoning, which made it even more dangerous. Underestimating a creature such as this would be foolish, so Aodhán decided that it was time to actually fight.
A platform of storm appeared beneath his feet, and he crossed the chasm. The drake raised its wings threateningly and attacked as a storm cloud imbued with three strands of energized will rumbled into existence. It appeared like a fully charged storm, with thunder crackling loud enough to drown out the roar of the drake as it charged.
A torrent of blue flames erupted from the drake’s mouth, and dread rose within him, but he pushed it aside as a fully empowered storm shield appeared around him.
With a flex of willpower, the storm above him broke, and rain poured down. Each drop was as big as his head, and steam soon filled the cave, obstructing both of their visions. Angered, the drake released another torrent of flames and rushed forward, but a dozen spears of lightning shot down from the storm with unmatched speed, tearing through the drake’s rubbery wings and pinning it to the rocky ground.
The drake roared in pain as more spears descended, but they failed to pierce through its scaly hide, so Aodhán targeted its underbelly instead, and three empowered lightning spears shot towards the drake as it released another torrent of flames.
The flames sputtered as the spears tore into its belly, but not as deeply as Aodhán would have liked. Drawing strength from its pain, the drake tore free of the spears pinning it down and ripped off parts of its wings as it let out another bout of flames.
The flames rushed out, filling the entire cave as the drake unleashed its fury. Aodhán created another shield instantly, but it shattered from the intense heat.
He stumbled backwards, creating shield after shield and imbuing each of them with all three strands of energized willpower he was allowed. Still, the flames were too hot, and his constructs crumbled like paper under the onslaught.
Fortunately, the flames died a moment later, revealing an injured and weakened drake. Blood flowed freely from its wings and the numerous spear wounds that littered its body. Aodhán rushed forward, intending to take it out before it had any chance of healing, but the drake was prepared, and when Aodhán drew close enough, it let out another torrent of flames.
The attack was smaller and weaker than the prior one, but Aodhán was unable to dodge fast enough, and the flames burned his clothes, exposing his back to the world.
He gasped in pain, but before anyone could see, his scarf unfurled and transformed into a replica of his uniform that hid his tattoo from view.
Anger sparked within him, and he glared at the drake, who had almost revealed his identity to those watching. Unwilling to continue this dance of flames, he raised a hand to the storm above him and channeled half his energy and willpower into {Lightning Descent}.
Lightning descended from the storm cloud like the waves of an ocean and simply erased the drake from existence. There were neither bones nor scales left, only a blackened patch of ground covered in a thin layer of soot.
Aodhán panted in exhaustion. The {Lightning Descent} skill might be his most powerful skill, but it was also his most draining.
He sighed, staring impassively at the blackened ground for a minute as he slowly regained his energy, and a minute later, he walked into the open portal.
This time, he arrived in a forest bathed in shadows as dark as ink, and although the full moon shone with brilliance, its luminescence failed to penetrate the darkness.
He turned at the sound of rustling leaves but couldn’t see anything. Instantly on guard, he summoned a bolt of lightning and transformed it into a ball half the size of his head.
The ball shone with a piercing brilliance that burned away the shadows in a five-meter radius, and a hiss of pain rang out as the light revealed a huge black cat-like creature just before it jumped back into the shadows.
The smell of singed fur filled the air as the creature hissed once more, revealing dark fangs coated in a light green liquid that Aodhán assumed was a sort of poison.
The line of text floating above its head identified it as a {Shadowcursed Ravager}, and Aodhán shivered as dread rose within him. The ravager glared at him with a look of insanity, and Aodhán immediately attacked.
Two fully empowered storm spears shot towards the ravager, but the shadows absorbed them before they could hit it, and the ravager let out an expression very similar to a sneer as it prowled around the boundary of light.
Aodhán attacked again, this time with storm spears, and although the ravager paused in caution, it remained unharmed as the shadows easily absorbed the spears before they could reach it.
Aodhán didn’t understand what was happening. He couldn’t create a storm, as that would only create more shadows, and if his attacks were being absorbed by shadows, what else could he do?
The ravager snarled, its lips pulling back to reveal even more poison-coated fangs, and that was when Aodhán realized that the boundary of light was decreasing, so he created another ball of lightning, but it had no effect.
It was only a matter of time before the shadows engulfed him and rendered him at the mercy of the ravager.
His mind spun furiously, discarding one idea after the other as he tried to find a way out of his current situation. At one point, he began attacking with abandon, throwing out all his lightning skills at the ravager, but his efforts were futile, and if they did any damage, it was negligible.
The boundary of light continued to shrink, and when it was reduced to about two meters in diameter, Aodhán dropped all pretense of bravery and ran, a fully empowered storm platform materializing beneath his feet as he zoomed off.
Surely, there was a place where the light of the moon penetrated, a place not completely dominated by shadows, where the odds weren’t so stacked against—
Pain lanced through him as sharp claws tore through his thighs, and he stumbled off the floating platform. He cried out, both in fear and pain, but fortunately managed to create another platform before he hit the ground and zoomed off again.
His scarf transformed immediately, and he was suddenly clad in heavy armor. Aodhán focused his core sense as a growl echoed tauntingly from the shadows. If he could just sense the ravager’s core, then he could tell—
“Ahhhhh.” He screamed again as another claw tore through his armor and raked against his back, easily rending through tissue as it skated against his spine.
Electricity surged out of his body, rushing out through his pores, and a loud screech of pain rang out the next moment as his attack struck the ravager.
He was unable to rejoice, though, as a wave of dizziness suddenly hit him, and before he could think too long about his actions, he summoned a bolt of electricity and pressed it against the wound.
Usually, his abilities didn’t hurt him, but he’d never actually tried to channel raw electricity into his own bloodstream before. The pain hit him like a hammer to the chest, and he coughed up blood, but his crazy idea worked, and whatever poison coated the ravager's claws was burned out of his system.
He continued forward, searching every which way for even a hint of light, and just as the ravager pounced once more, he found the boundary of darkness and the area beyond it that was bathed in moonlight.
Another claw tore through his left arm, but this time he managed to grab onto the ravager and drag it into the light with him. The ravager shrieked as the light of the moon touched it, and putrid smoke began to rise from its body.
It struggled, trying to return to the shadows, but Aodhán held on to it with a chain of lightning wrapped tightly around its neck. The ravager only lasted a few seconds before crumbling to ashes, and the portal for the next level appeared.
But Aodhán was tired, wounded, and low on energy. He fell to the ground and simply lay there, giving his body time to regenerate while he thought of the next step to take. If a Tier 20 monster had been so hard to beat, then he couldn’t risk taking on the next level, not the way he currently was.
He couldn’t afford to stop, though; some of the other contestants had entered the tower one or two levels above him. Giving up now was asking for failure, and he couldn’t fail, not when he was this close.
He clasped the ejector as he thought of a solution. Perhaps he’d lasted long enough already; maybe he could still win even if he came out now, but how could he be sure? What if he needed to conquer the next level to make it? If he left the tower now and lost the tournament because of a single level, he would hate himself.
He had to find a way; he had to at least try. No gain without risk, they say, but he knew that if he faced a Tier 21 monster now, he had a very low chance of survival. Not that he would die, but if he stepped into that portal, he was asking for a great deal of pain and possible failure. He couldn’t risk it; he couldn’t—
"Sometimes, little seed, if you can’t do something, you have to ask for help.”
Aodhán froze as the voice appeared in his mind as if from a memory. He turned, his gaze searching around for the person who’d spoken, and just as he began to think he was hallucinating, the voice echoed in his mind once more, as clear as crystal and as familiar as his own face.
“No! It can’t be.” Aodhán muttered as visions of a certain man appeared in his mind, and the next moment, thunder boomed, so loud that it felt like an explosion within his skull. He screamed even as the world crumbled like a house built of cardboard, and he suddenly found himself in a world of storms.
An overwhelming feeling of familiarity and belonging welled up within him as thunder boomed constantly around him and lightning filled, well, everywhere. It rippled, flowed, and arced around him, so abundant that it seemed infinite.
An overwhelming sense of danger and possibility filled his mind. Ideas rushed into his mind like a torrent, each one urging him to create, to join them, to meld with them, to leave his body behind and become them, but just as the murmurings of chaos reached a crescendo in his mind, it suddenly became muffled, and Aodhán felt a burning heat on his chest.
He looked down and realized that he wasn’t actually inside the origin plane. It was more like his spirit or mind had been transported into it. Somehow, though, his necklace had followed him here and now; it glowed with a blinding intensity.
There was no doubt in his mind that this was the origin plane of the storm. This was the world he’d glimpsed when the sky had shattered and storm clouds had bled in. This was a world filled with possibilities. He could create anything. He could do anything. He could be anything. He could be—
Pain lanced through him once more, and he groaned as the necklace burned brighter, dispelling his insane thoughts. One thing was true, though: he could create anything, and right now, what he needed the most was something to help him win this tournament.
Immediately after he thought of it, images flashed through his mind, showing a myriad of creatures. Every single one of them was made from a storm, and they flashed across his mind at dizzying speeds.
Overwhelmed by the abundance of choices, he finally chose one of the creatures that resonated with him the most. At first, nothing happened, but a moment later, he screamed as his spirit was savagely torn open and raw, untamed storm essence rushed in, filling his mind and spirit with chaos.
Pain engulfed his senses, and Aodhán lost track of time—if time even moved in this plane—but when his pain finally subsided, he found himself gasping for breath on the floor of the 20th level within the Tower of Ascension.
A smattering of error messages and alerts filled his vision, but he was too weak to read them and instead turned to the creature of the storm that lay beside him.
Its body rippled with lightning as it stared back at him with reptilian eyes, its pupils a mirror of his own. An entire conversation seemed to pass through them as they both stared at each other, and a minute later, Aodhán cracked a weak smile and said,
“What do you say, Varéc? How about we finish this tournament?"