Even though I had lost that fight quite soundly, it didn’t truly matter, my orders were done and now I was being resummoned.

No lasting damage has been done to me, well except for my ego.

I do feel rather humiliated that it cost me my life just to take one of its legs.

Hopefully I can appease both my creator and my pride in my, what was this now? My fifth summoning, sixth?

At least this time my physical form is being manifested rather carefully, so I’m actually able to fully wake up.

I’m also not yet a part of reality but nor am I unreal.

So that means I’ve got some downtime to actually process the new surge of information that's flooding into me.

Most of it is odd, incomplete fragments of knowledge but I do get proper information as well, if I’m given enough time I might even be able to pierce the other fragments together, like completing a puzzle.

Alas this is kind of the only time I get to think, I'm normally immediately plunged into combat.

And I obviously don’t have any time to think about it while I’m in the ocean, I don’t even know if I exist when I'm in there.

So I can’t waste my valuable time on something not worthwhile.

I need to spend it carefully analysing the complete puzzles, not creating new ones.

The official reason for the war is reclamation. The Arthian king officially wants their land back but unofficially it's a far more political move.

By uniting the people against a common enemy the king believes that the new sense of unity will prevent any further civil wars. Such as the one that he used to claim the throne.

He, not they, not their, not it. Humans were different from starfish. I thought they were similar in the sense there was no male, or female, just human.

But no there was a difference, I think I can let myself off the hook for that lapse in observational ability though.

I mean can hardly tell them apart from each other, how am I possibly meant to keep track of individuals? If I wasn’t literally linked to my creator I might even lose track of her.

My creator was female, which was slightly rare? I still didn’t know the exact ratios between the sexes yet.

Anyway, humans were different in terms of individuality. They weren’t like starfish. Not even a little bit.

I don’t think?

This new information swirling around in my head does come from my creator, so if she’s wrong or has the wrong idea then so do I.

Still, l was becoming quite knowledgeable rather quickly, so I’m sure I would figure it all out.

Wait.

Oh, oh that's bad.

We were bonded, linked, that's why I was learning so much and she was deteriorating so rapidly.

She’s not even meant to be a summoner, she's a hydromancer.

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I’m..I’m killing her. My creator is dying because of me.

But what can I do?

Theres no way to sever a link, at least not that she knows of.

And even if I’m in an unsummoned state the link still places a burden on her, but we’re at war.

Summoners are rare, they aren’t unique or special bu they are still rare enough to warrant compulsory military service.

She was going to be made to summon me over and over again, stripping away all of her sanity in the process.

And there was nothing I could do.

Nor is there any time left for me to struggle to come up with a plan.

The metaphysical water around me is starting to fade.

And in less than a second, I’m physical once more.

Standing before my twitchy creator. With a small cohort of mages, knights and pikemen surrounding us.

They’re facing outwards though not inwards, they are protecting us.

Why?

Where are we and what is going on?

“We should've been raiding and destroying a Rover encampment by now, but constant bloody sandstorms meant we’ve been delayed quite significantly. Worse, now there's even a Rover task force that’s been sent to delay us further. You and Zaynah’s summon Malgazar will take out their leader. You’ve done exactly what was asked each time of you each time I’ve summoned you Phaeraxion, I trust this time will be no different.” My creator says.

Well, conveyed through our link. I still couldn’t understand the human’s language yet.

Although I was getting better at noticing their more obvious body language and what it meant, that was only really in relation to combat.

I was good at figuring out emotions by looking at their eyes.

Looking closely at my creator's eyes for example I could hardly see any signs of fear, she’s gotten used to me.

With a surge of mana and something even greater, my partner begins to be summoned into this world.

Turning around to face them I almost miss the flash of pure loss and malice inside the depths of her eyes.

Almost.

She is being affected by all of this.

Of course she was.

She was missing part of her soul after all.

But surely that could be fixed?

I just had to make sure that she was valuable and then the higher ups would take greater care of her.

To do that though, I had to be valuable.

As the summoning was taking quite a while I glance around myself.

My vision seems to have gotten better since I’m able to spot differences between humans with greater clarity now.

I’ve evolved, slightly.

I can’t spot small scars or differences in the colour of people's clothes.

But I can spot things like the amount of decoration on the fluttering banners and flags.

They all bear the symbol of a giant serpent, with its mouth agape looking for its next meal.

I haven’t got any memories of why this is the insignia of the Arthians.

If I had to hazard a guess, I would say it was because all the other animals had been used by other royal families throughout history.

The sudden disappearance of the mana fueling the summoning snaps me back to focusing on my still forming compatriot instead of looking at the fancy flags.

There was nothing to worry about though, the summoning was complete.

A hole in reality, in existence itself appears.

It’s colourless.

Bland yet tasteful.

And it's rapidly expanding.

Before I can grab my creator and flee, it starts to shrink, before popping like a bubble.

Revealing my fellow summon, my comrade, my sibling?