Levi was in the ritual room about to summon his final familiar of this rank. Depending on what familiar it was, Levi was likely going to not summon any more familiars. It’s not like he didn’t like having powerful friends; he did. It was the fact that he wanted a team, too many familiars would make a team worthless. If he could have enough familiars that could act as his teammates' familiars that would be the best. Levi didn’t want to be too much. In truth, Levi knew he would be a successful adventurer or whatever they called it, on his own.
Levi didn’t want to be on his own. Being on his own is what caused his downfall on Earth. He let anger, frustration, and sadness get the best of him. He thought that if he didn’t let anyone in, he would be the best for it. Levi thought that he could do it on his own. He couldn’t. His struggles were amplified without a sounding board to vent to. Complacency set in without anyone to challenge him or push him further. He became a shell of who he used to be. He had no one to help him out of it because he had pushed everyone away.
Levi was trying his best to avoid this, to be a better person here than what he was. He had accepted the fact that he may never be able to ask for forgiveness or to reconcile. That was the harsh reality of his life and well life in general. He opted to move forward, and he has done well so far. This is why he was satisfied to be done with familiars after this one. At least for now, it would be a few years until he was 4-star, so maybe his mind would change.
Focusing back on the ritual at hand, Levi looked at the bright light forming. He saw four paws with razor-sharp claws that led to what looked like furry legs. Upon further inspection, it was actually really small, soft feathers. There was a tail wrapped around the legs of this creature. More of its body was revealed to see too large, feathered wings that had a slight glow to them; it looked angelic. The body was covered in that same fur-like feathers, and the face was that of a dragon. It had two horns that had a few points... It turned to face Levi. It had black irises and midnight-blue pupils.
“Hello, young summoner,” the dragon spoke directly into Levi’s mind.
“Oh, this is trippy,” Levi thought back. “Hey, you’re gorgeous. So serene yet there’s a deep power inside you.”
“Thank you,” the dragon said back, bowing slowly.
Familiar bond has been established
Aura Dragon - Serenity
Familiar Serenity provides the ability to improve aura strength and control. When fused with the summoner, the summoner’s aura becomes capable as a weapon.
“An aura dragon,” Levi said.
“Yes,” Serenity responded.
“Welcome to the family. Let’s have you meet everyone,” Levi said brightly. All of Levi’s familiars appeared before him. Levi introduced them one by one, and they all communicated with Serenity with relative ease, making Levi feel even more connected to them.
“An Avatar of the Void,” Serenity said. “Astro. You and I will be a great asset in boosting, Master Levi’s aura.”
“Whoa, no no no,” Levi said. “I am no master.”
“With all due respect, what would like to be called?”
“Levi,” Levi said.
“As you wish,” Serenity said.
Professor Egret and Bertrum walked into look at Serenity with amazement.
“Hello, aura dragon,” Egret said. “I am Professor Egret, and this is my partner, Bertrum. It is quite the honor to meet you. From what I heard, there are very few aura dragons in the universe.”
“Few is relative, while we may not be as present as finches or dogs, we are more present than Astro.”
“Oh, very good. Levi,” Egret said, turning to him. “Your ability to draw accurate and complex rituals is astounding. Particularly for someone of newness to magic. It is also fascinating that you can conjure a ritual without speaking any words. Thank you for indulging my curiosity. I would like to see how you use your familiars in combat. Tomorrow we will have a sparring match.”
“Lovely, to meet Serenity,” Bertrum said. “Levi, we will be drilling you with combat orientated styles with you and your familiars. This will be the best use of our time left, as far as I am concerned you passed. And are ready to graduate.”
“Wow,” Levi said. “Appreciate it, professors. For real, that means a lot. Is it alright if I bring my team to these sparring matches sometimes? I want to have the familiars help each of the team members.”
“A wise choice,” Egret said. “Certainly, but not every session just some.”
“Yes, understood,” Levi said. The professors left Levi there with his familiars. They had decided to forgo any extra activities for the rest of the day. They wanted to discuss what they had just seen and what that could mean for them moving forward. They had just seen incredible power.
“What happens when you fuse with me?” Levi asked Serenity.
“My feathers become a tattoo on your leg,” she responded.
“Dope a leg sleeve, nice!” He looked down at his now-toned leg. “I used to have zero leg muscles, but I’ve been working hard, and they are starting to show some actual definition and bulk. Anyways, what do you prefer, fusing or not? Anza is not a fan, so she walks about.”
“People do not fear her?”
“They don’t know what she is,” Levi said. “Can’t fear what you don’t know.”
“I can shrink and become intangible, invisible, and hide my aura. Astro and I will instruct you on this. We are both aura-focused beings, and we can guide you to your aura mastery. I would prefer if I could stay defused, if possible.”
“Of course,” Levi looked at the dragon in front of him. It was no bigger than a moose right now. “How big can you get?”
“My full form is 1 meter wide, 3 meters long, and have a 5-meter wingspan.”
“Bet, how small can you get?” Levi asked.
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“The size of a house cat,” Serenity said. As she was speaking the aura dragon transformed into a cat-sized version of herself. She flapped her wings and landed on Levi’s shoulder.
“Not to sound rude, but you’re not that heavy, why?”
“Magic, Levi,” Serenity said wryly.
“Yeah alright,” he said. “That’s fair.” Levi’s familiars all fused back into Levi except Anza and now Serenity. Serenity sat perfectly on Levi’s shoulder as he walked, not even swaying to the cadence of his steps.
Back in his room, Levi was sitting cross-legged, sweating. Vapor, Serenity, and Astro were all training Levi to use his aura.
“Why do I need to train my aura?” Levi asked.
“Magic users typically cannot do anything with auras except use them to sense other beings or hide themselves,” Serenity explained. “Astro can teach you how to hide your aura senses. This will be helpful because you’re a summoner; you need to be able to hide your presence. I can teach you how to attack aura-focused monsters.”
“How many aura focused monsters are there?” Levi asked.
“Many,” Vapor said. “Not here, in this kingdom. Typically, creatures or monsters made from order magic are more aura-focused.”
“Great, order magic,” Levi said. “If I’m not wrong, monsters with order magic are more likely to attack me for having a chaos affinity.”
“It is not just your affinity they would attack, Levi,” Vapor said. “You are a chaotic paragon; your aura is chaos.”
“It is,” Serenity nodded. Levi flopped to the ground.
“This is so damn confusing,” Levi said. “Auras, souls, magic, summoning, peace, chaos, order, there are so many damn things that I have to know!”
“Take it in stride,” Serenity said. “You don’t have to know all things right now.”
“Then there is this stupid prophecy looming over my head and this random ass letter that just pops up,” Levi said, getting increasingly agitated. “I don’t know what I’m doing. What if I mess it up like I have with so many other things in my life.”
“Levi,” Serenity said. “Take a deep breath.”
“This is all way too much, man,” Levi said, not paying attention to Serenity. Putting his palms to his face, he shook his head. “What am I supposed to do?” he said behind his hands.
Anza made a loud noise. It sounded like a spoon was caught in a garbage disposal. Levi sat up and looked at Anza with a sad face. The 2-stared at each other for a long time.
“Levi,” Serenity finally broke the silence. Levi looked at her. “Right now, you’re learning a lot in a short amount of time.”
“How do you know all this we just met?”
“You are a familiar summoner; that means our bonds are deep upon it being established. I got a good look at your mind, soul, and body. In that I learned something about you, that made me glad to say yes.”
“What’s that?” Levi said.
“You work hard and adapt fast. These are all admirable skill; you fall short in two categories-”
“I doubt myself and I don’t give myself time to process.”
“Exactly,” Serenity nodded. “You will not make it in this world if you do not give your emotional, mental, and spiritual states a chance to process everything.”
“But how do I do that?”
“By trusting us,” Vapor spoke up. “Anza is the one who has been with you the longest, all things considered, we have all joined relatively early in your magic life. That puts a strain on anyone. We are all powerful on our own. Trust that we will do what he can to help you through whatever you need to do.”
“I’m guessing these meditations are supposed to help?”
“They are,” Serenity nodded.
Levi took a deep breath and sighed, “Okay. I’m sorry. Thank you for calming me down. I have never been good at processing my emotions, at least in a healthy way. I wary of what that will look like now that I have all this power. Well technically, y’all have all this power. But still. I destroyed my old life without magic, what can I do with it?”
Anza’s noise caused Levi to roll his eyes. “Yes, I know at some point I’m going to have to get over that. I know I can’t change how my old life was, but it was still a huge mistake that I’d prefer not to repeat.” he said—another noise.
“She’s right,” Serenity said. “Levi, you have all of us.” All of Levi’s familiars defused from him and wrapped around him, giving him the weirdest hug he had ever been a part of. At the same time, he had never had a better hug in his life. Levi did a good job of keeping himself calm in front other people. It was only when things got overwhelming did that mask break. It was then that all the things that Levi had been hiding and pushing down bubbled up and exploded out.
Levi’s time in the new world was a whirlwind of activity. In six hours of being exposed to magic he had already run into two beautiful girls naked, ate tokens, summoned a creature from a movie he had watched before, and conjured a literal orb of chaos. That all happened in six hours and Levi did not spend any time processing the sheer amount of chaos that had been.
The hours, days, weeks, and months following had not been much better. He had learned six months of material at school in three which in itself was overwhelming. Yes, Levi loved his new life, his new friends, and his new powers. He just hadn’t spent time processing the craziness that has been his life. His brain was constantly and consistently learning something new every day, this was not normal.
As a 25-year-old it would make sense not to have to learn something new every day, maybe a random fun fact would appear on his social media platform. That was different than learning how magic affects your body. That level of learning and intensity of learning without any sort of break would be mind breaking for any normal person. Levi wasn’t normal, he was an otherworlder, he was trying to solve so many mysteries. Mysteries like; how did he get here, is he going to be attacked, why did he get that letter, who is that summoner, what was his mistake, what the hell is the prophecy and so much more.
He was so pent up he couldn’t even think about how he was dating Piper. Piper! A woman who he thought looked like she was a mixture between a beauty pageant girl, the next Miss Samoa, and a professional athlete, tone, athletic, fastest person he’s ever met. He had been so overwhelmed that Levi missed that part. He took another deep breath in his familiar cocoon. They were all still embracing Levi.
“I didn’t even know I was carrying all of that,” Levi said, voice a whisper. “I honestly thought I was okay, then all of sudden I wasn’t.” His familiars all released him from the hug. Standing at the door was Piper, looking concerned at Levi. She walked down and kissed him on the cheek. She didn’t ask him what was wrong; she just sat with him. He rested his head on her shoulder.
“Hello there,” she said. “You’re new and beautiful, what’s your name and what kind of dragon are you?”
“I am Serenity,” Serenity replied. “I am an aura dragon; you must be Piper. It is wonderful to meet you.”
“Likewise,” Piper said. Piper sat with Levi in silence for a bit until his stomach growled and he chuckled.
“Thanks for sitting with me Piper,” Levi said. He got up and helped her up. “I’d like to go on an actual date, even though I don’t know if y’all do dates here.”
“Of course we do dates, silly,” she teased. “I’d like that. Maybe then you can tell me what happened?”
“I suck at managing my emotions,” Levi said.
“Well, we knew that” Piper said, winking. “You really have to work on that.”
“I know,” Levi said. “How does anyone do it here? I haven’t even freaked out about killing people.”
“We take everything in strides,” Piper said. “You’ve been taking in everything all at once. I can guarantee how you feel, most have felt.”
“Really?”
“Of course,” Piper said. “Overwhelmed, worried about what power, prestige, and influence will do to you and your principals. Constantly navigating between full freak out and loving every second of your now very magical life. Concerned that you are becoming a monster because killing is a lot easier than you’d ever hope for. Any of this ring a bell?”
“All of it,” Levi said.
“Exactly, love,” Piper said. “All magic users experience what you’re experiencing; we just go through maybe one or two of them at a time, not all of them. We call it Magical Tribulation. Meditation, rest, working, and talking are all things that will help you. You especially though, need to be better at processing your emotions. You were awful with them before, and you are awful with them now. I know it’s easier to say it than actually to do it. That’s how you are going to make it to 4-star and beyond. Now come on,” she said, holding out her hand. “It’s time for our date.”
“Yes ma’am,” Levi said with a soft grin. All his familiars fused with him, and the couple left the room holding hands.