Trey was fuming in anger. He had spent much time developing that trap to take Levi for his own questioning. Kai and Rayvin did not help him succeed with his mission. They were too passive and took a little too long to act. To Trey, this is what happens when you have children help you. If he wanted something to be done right, he had to do it himself. Of course, that would not be possible with his daughter fully enamored with this strange man.
Trey’s anger then pointed him to his dear friend. Why had Lord Leandro been so kind to this otherworlder? They both knew of the prophecy; they both knew of the dangers that Otherworlders represented. How could he be so calm? In a fit of rage and emotion, Trey’s logic left as he marched towards the Onyx Compound.
Trey stormed into Leandro's meeting hall. Following in his footsteps was Kai, who stopped just inside the door. Rayvin stood on the other side. Lord Leandro was sitting at a desk with a piece of paper and a pen in hand.
“Whoa,” Leandro said. “Can I help you, friend?”
“Don’t you friend me,” Trey snapped. “Where are they?”
Leandro stood up. “If you wish to drop the niceties, then let me remind you, duke. I am the lord of this kingdom, and you have stormed into my house without preamble. Then demand something of me! Be sure to know your place.” Leandro snapped.
“I meant no disrespect, sire,” Trey said, shocked and bowing.
“You failed miserably,” Leandro scolded. “What is that you want?”
“Where is the otherworlder? I fear he brings big trouble to our kingdom.”
“Do not concern yourself with his dealings, let him be a student and enjoy his new life.”
“Easy for you to say when your daughter is not so in love that she betrays her own family!”
Leandro peered over at Anna. She bowed her head in shame. “Interesting choice of words. Do tell me duke, why is my daughter here right now?”
“She came to help us tonight,” Trey said.
“And did she seek permission from her parents to join in a shady dealing with a member of her sisters team? Or an honored guest of her father?”
“No, sir.”
“And yet you come to me, Duke Trey, and speak of betrayal in the face of romance.”
“Sir that’s-” Kai tried to say.
“YOU HAVE NO PERMISSION TO SPEAK IN MY PRESENCE!” Leandro snapped. His words were harsh, and his tone was lethal. Kai took a step back and shrunk to hide himself. “It appears,” Leandro said looking at Trey. “Our friendship has clouded the positions of power we hold. We are not equals Trey. We are not family, yet. You do not demand of your king. You do not act on your own accord when it relates to guests that I invite to stay. That is my say and my wife’s say, alone. Now, because you are here and have interrupted my bidding already. What is it that you need to say?”
Trey had bowed his head in resignation. His aura control was adequate when looking at the world of the magic users as a whole. Breaking that down to the rankings, his aura control was subpar. Trey had not been able to hide his anger, resentment, and fury from the king. He said through gritted teeth. “Nothing, sir. May we leave?”
“You may,” the king said. “Trey,” he called as Trey was almost out the door. Trey paused. “Be very cautious of your next move; my forbearance of insolence has diminished. I will no longer tolerate such childish outbursts. Remember how we came to power. Loyalty only protects so much.” The king took a deep breath and said, “come back, all of you close the door.” With a magic spell, the room shimmered around them. A wall of secrecy was placed. The king rubbed his temples as his daughter got closer. He hugged her. He was not angry about what they had done to Levi; he was angry that they thought it would be okay to do it without asking.
“Are you mad at me?” Rayvin said.
“No, sweetheart,” he said softly. “I’m not mad at Uncle either. If you all would have approached me and asked, I could have steered you in a different direction. Anna and Piper are quite fond of him; if we want them to resent us, the actions taken will lead them on that path. But I love your sister, and I love Piper. Trey, you are acting to protect your family, yes?”
“Yes,” Trey responded. “I want to make sure they are safe and keep our family legacy strong. Piper is our only daughter and I worry. King, do you not trust Levi either?”
“Of course I don’t!” Leandro chuckled. “That’s not the point, though. If Anna were to see how I reacted and it was poorly and attacked her new friend, she may never forgive me. But if she sees that I supported her and her decision and played gracious host to her new dangerous friend. When things go bad, and they will, she’ll still want to ask me for help.”
“So, you played the long game?” Trey realized. Trey’s anger subsided. He realized that he was not angry with Leandro or Piper but himself for failing to be a better protector for his family.
“Correct,” Leandro said. “That boy is trouble, he matches the prophecy quite well. He will need to be killed before the world comes to an end at his hand. In due time, our daughters will deliver him right to us.”
“And if they don’t?” Trey asked.
“They will. But if, for some reason, he does something evil and they forgive him, they will just as easily forgive me when I wipe him from existence.”
Levi had not been able to fall asleep as easily as the girls. They were high on adrenaline, so when the crash came, they were knocked out. Sitting there at the fire, Vapor manifested next to him.
“What’s up?” Levi asked.
“I do not trust the Onyx family. Anna, I trust, no one else.” Vapor said.
“Yeah, me neither,” Levi said. “The Vendulars had every right to want to take me in. I’m a stranger in a world with powers that definitely seem evil. Back on the old world there was a saying amongst my peers, ‘I’d rather someone outright hate me, than smile and pretend we were cool.’ At least I know my place with the Vendulars. The Onxys are too accommodating its suspicious.”
“That is a great saying. It, unfortunately says a lot about your environment.”
“My environment was hot garbage,” Levi said.
“I am not familiar with that saying but with context I can definitively say that garbage that is hot is unpleasant,” Vapor said.
“It is not, my friend,” Levi said.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“What are we going to do?” Vapor said.
“Play the game,” Levi responded. “If the king wants to go out of his way to make it seem like I am important to him, let him. They keep talking about a prophecy and I’m the one to fulfill it. I don’t know about all of that but if I am they are making a mighty big assumption.”
“Perhaps that is our next step. Figure out what the prophecy is.” Vapor suggested.
“That would make sense,” Levi said, pulling out the letter. “I also want to know who this dude is. This letter is very curious, though.”
“How do you mean?”
“I felt it appear in the guild, and it was shrouded in chaos magic, why? Whatever the prophecy is speaking to had something to do with this guy. He said something about he was the cause of the greatest evil the world has ever known.”
“What are you getting at?”
“Just a whole bunch of guesses, if this dude summoned me be it on purpose or not, that means he either summoned someone else or something else. All I know is that the more letters we find the more questions get answered.” Vapor took some time to respond before she did. She floated next to Levi, contemplating the words that were spoken.
“I think we seek the letters and the prophecy and, for the time being keep it to ourselves.”
“Bet, I agree,” Levi nodded. He looked over at his love, her face looked filled with turmoil as she slept. The flickering light of the fire didn’t do much to change the constant look of uncertainty she wore. “I want to be able to tell Piper everything.”
“You decide what you must, Levi. I merely make suggestions.”
“I appreciate them regardless, so keep em coming. By the way, you turned into that giant smoke cloud earlier tonight, how do you attack?”
“I am a utility specialist. I do not attack per se; I distract, reduce accuracy, make it difficult to breathe, nothing that is permanent but enough to cause coughing while trying to attempt incantations.”
“That’s very useful. That smoke screen thing you did was nice. It’ll be good to practice with you and learn new strategies.”
“I agree. Once we decide how many familiars you want and when you reach that capacity, we should create a strategy for our style.”
“Yeah,” Levi said. “Currently doesn’t seem like any downside to getting more familiars.”
“With your class evolution, no there is not. Your bond will be established deeply, quickly. It is a matter of finding the right familiar for our…” Vapor paused, searching for the right word to say. “Family.”
Levi smiled. That was the first time that Vapor had called the group a family. Levi was still not tired. He had spent the day meditating and resting. He looked at the items once again. Holding the orb in his hand, he held it softly. An orb of aura. He wondered what this would do, if it would do anything. Then, he held out the dungeon's core essence. These two items were legendary rarity and were to be used in a ritual. Levi didn’t have an ability that helped him with his aura beside his new title, Chaotic Paragon.
This didn’t help him wield his aura better, that took a lot of practice and time. This gave his aura a passive effect, helping restore allies within his aura sphere. Currently, he could feel that his aura could create a sphere that was 3 meters in diameter. That was a decent chunk. Levi wondered if he should use the orb of aura in a familiar summoning ritual. The chances of getting a familiar that is more aura specialist was higher.
Levi wanted to be mindful of his next familiar. He had Anza and Team Ember, the mimics, a swarm-type physical attack-dealing familiar. Then he had Willow and Crystal, the crystal wisps, another swarm-type familiar. The difference was that these were magical attackers, which was good to have two different forms of attack. Then there was Vapor, the smoke spirit. Vapor was able to transform into many different types of creatures, although she preferred the hooded cloak form. Vapor wasn’t going to attack, like she had just said. She would provide different forms of defense or distraction-orientated spells. That was useful.
Levi pulled out the letter again while he was thinking. With the letter in hand, he saw that there was a danger coming to the world. If this were related to him or meant for him, this was a warning—a warning that he could not ignore. That meant two things for Levi: he had to get stronger and be ready for whatever.
Looking at his familiars, there were two types that could be useful: a defense-style familiar and a stealth-infiltrator-type familiar. He had no idea if they existed or what he needed to do to get them. His mind went back to the orb of auras. He assumed that this item was meant to be used on himself, which he considered. Ultimately, he decided not to do that, his decision was to create a familiar ritual using the orb of auras in the rune circle. It would be a three-star summoning; this would give him another chance to add different materials to the rune circles.
Levi was never the type to create an in-depth plan and follow it step by step. He was always more of a make an attempt and see what happens kind of man. This world, if anything, was a major enabler of that habit, be it bad or not. Levi shrugged and looked at his inventory to see what summoning materials he had available. During his meditation, he organized his inventory by type of item, so he had a summoning materials box. He thought it would be interesting to use the unmelting ice with something that is not related to the cold. That could give him an interesting familiar. He looked at Vapor, whose look gave nothing away; shrugging once again, he left some drones to guard the girls and walked away to create a summoning circle.
Anza followed and stood next to Vapor as they watched Levi draw a circle. The two familiars were communicating with each other about what they thought would appear. Neither of them had any substantial guesses at this point.
Levi used his wand to draw the summoning circle with the unmelting ice dust. He used it to create the whole circle; in one of the rune circles, he put the orb of auras, in another, he put the remainder of his coal dust; and in the last circle, he left open to symbolize it to be air, hoping that would get him some sort of flying familiar. Levi was hoping this would be the stealth infiltrator familiar based on the orb of auras; that would be great to have it be more utility than straight defense.
The summoning circle started to glow brightly as soon as Levi put some of his mana into it. The dust began to float and form a rune. Once the rune was formed, it flew into the orb of aura, which was also glowing. The empty circle started to glow as an additional rune was formed from the air. Once completed, it joined the others. The runes and the orb all circled around each other, creating a bright light; inside the light, a figure was forming. A sphere the size of a basketball started to form; it looked like a black hole. Instead of the typical orange/red energy that surrounded a black hole, it was ice blue. It floated towards Levi and hovered.
Levi tried to look into the black hole, but he felt his eyes strain as if the darkness was a void. Levi smiled; the creature grew to be a bit bigger, now the size of a beach ball.
Familiar Bond Established
Avatar of the Void
“An Avatar of the Void,” Levi said. “Welcome to the family; I’m Levi. Do you have a name?” The black hole levitated slowly left and right. “Hmm,” Levi mused. “You can understand me?” It moved up and down. “Good,” Levi said. “We’ll figure out a way to communicate,”
“I can communicate with it,” Vapor said. “Another utility power.”
“Dope,” Levi said.
“It said it does not have a name, and it is excited to have been summoned.”
“I can feel his excitement. You’re badass; how about Dameion?” Levi asked. The light blue energy glowed brighter.
“Dameion, approves.”
Dameion - Avatar of the Void
Familiar Dameion provides a boost to aura control and defenses. When fused with the summoner, familiar will fortify the aura of the summoner, creating an aura fortress.
“If you’re an avatar of the void,” Levi said. “Are you able to hide your presence well?”
Dameion shrank into the size of an orb and dimmed the energy around its body. The darkness of the whole became a negative space, and Levi’s eyes wanted to look anywhere but where Dameion was. He knew the creature was there only because of their connection as familiar and summoner.
“That,” Levi said, rubbing his eyes. “It’s very cool. At 3-stars what are all your abilities?”
Dameion grew back to its bigger form. It created three smaller black holes, the energy around which was the same ice blue. The small black holes circled around Levi, and he could feel his mana drain. At the same time, the energy around the smaller black holes grew. Dameion sent the mana back to Levi right away, but it wanted to demonstrate what it could do. The black holes went back into Dameion. It was still nighttime so there was an abundance of shadows; Dameion could fly into a shadow and melt into it, disappearing completely.
“So, a mana drain,” Levi said. “Can you do things to auras too?” Dameion floated up and down to signify it could. “A utility type that attacks defenses of opponents?” Dameion floated up and down. “That, my friend, will do very nice! Let’s meet everyone else, yeah. This is Anza and team Ember, Willow and Crystal, and Vapor who you know. We are a part of a team with two other magic users, but they are familiar less. We’ll meet them in the morning.”