All Consuming Power

As time and space flies past him, he learns all sorts of incredible things. For example, space is very terrifying, and shouldn't be torn carelessly. Who would've thought? After flying through space for who knew how long actually, probably no time at all, since he was outside of space and time, far as he guessed a light appeared at the end of the tunnel. It quickly grows, blinding him. As his eyes adjust to the light, a wide, endless world comes into focus.

Towering mountains covered in dense trees are off to his right- which he judges to be a mystical place by the flames he glimpses shooting out for a short moment. At the bottom of his field of view was a river, coming down from the mountains, and stretching off into the distance. The water sparkled in the sunlight, giving off a beautiful blue color that hinted at its purity. To his left was a mixture of forest and plain that stretched off towards the sunset. Or perhaps it was the sun rise? He didn't know.

In the center of his vision he made out a city, or perhaps large town, which was currently being sieged by wave after wave of dense blue. What at first he thought to be a second river slowly became more clearly defined individual shapes, beasts of all shape and size, which rampaged and ate away at the pitiful town. The buildings would receive damage from some of the larger creatures, and countless human figures littered the ground never to move again.

He sucks in a cold breath at the sight- only to receive a pleasant surprise. The world seemed to be dense with energy the very air almost feels alive. It almost feels like he could reach out and touch it, and at the same time, it feels entirely out of reach. Perhaps that flame from before was using this energy? Was this, perhaps, a world with magic?

As he approaches the city, falling faster and faster, the dense energy seems to slowly get darker. He isn't certain of the difference, but it feels just as far away as before. Perhaps, this was related to the death below? He shudders at the thought.

Within mere seconds, he feels as if he must have broken the sound barrier plummeting downward at ever-increasing speed, as if being pulled. The wind didn't stop his fall, and it felt as if he were truly a ghost, unaffected by the effects of nature.

In the center of the city is a beautiful church or, what he assumed once was one, based on the scattered shards of colored class, and collapsed steeples. However, the middle of what was once a building was a surreal scene free of rubble and blood. Dense white lines covered the ground in a circular formation, glowing with a mystical light.

Around the light is a dense swarm of dark energy seeming to eat away at the last trace of purity in the desolate town. Seeped in the energy, those rampaging beast spirits impatiently pace around what he identifies as a barrier, protecting the formation. In the very center of the formation, the source of all the purity, is a small white figure, cloaked in robes.

Across from her, just outside of the formation, is a much larger figure, cloaked in black robes making an obvious contrast to the pure being that calls to him. He instinctively felt a distaste for the dark robed figure, and could only assume they were not a very savory character.

As he approaches, or more accurately plummets, he can feel a strong, familiar bond with the white figure in the formation- one entirely alien to him, as he most certainly did not know such a person. He would definitely remember someone which such a pure, cold aura, left isolated from the world. But then again, he doubts anyone could be like that all the time. Entranced by his interest in the figure pulling him from the sky, he doesn't pay much attention, but that's soon interrupted.

[Master?! You're going to crash!]

A melodious voice reminds him of his impending second death. He focuses his eyes on the ground, only to feel himself shudder again this time more fueled by rage. The remains of several figures are being eaten away by the spirits swarming the area likely the last of the companions of the white figure. He can't help but feel a touch of sympathy. Why was he being called to such a figure?

The thought didn't have long to process. As he rapidly approached, time seemed to slow, as he entered a barrier he hadn't seen. He could feel the energy of the world being injected into him merging with his soul to form a harmonious relationship that previously didn't exist. As if now accepted by reality the reality of the situation hits him. Physics seem to take effect, and he impacts directly with the air as the world comes into contact with him. With the drag slowing his fall, besides the wind being knocked out of him, he feels a bit relieved. His fall, compared to before, was much slower.

[Master! The velocity is still fatal!]

But, not slow enough. Odd, he didn't feel it was very fast. He takes another breath, and notices another important change. That dark energy that seemed so far away is suddenly very within reach- and even within him as he breathes. His body seems to resonate with it, and it quickly gathers, thinning the miasma in the air as it fills him.

The experience only lasts a moment, though, as he feels himself hit a second layer of the barrier. It, likewise, doesn't stop his fall but it does cause him to undergo another change. He feels alien knowledge invade his mind. It relays his status as a summoned spirit a guardian and mentor for the one who summons. He becomes aware of the tradition, the unification of summoner and spirit. Two equal partners against everything. Someone he should protect and care for, huh?

As he plummets face-first towards the ground, he instinctively lands how he had learned to when trapped within his own soul.

(Lina POV)

"You've got to keep practicing so you can summon a great spirit."

As long as she could remember, this is what she had been told. Day in, day out. Training the body wasn't too hard for a rich family, as they could afford concoctions which improved the physique and removed impurities. At a young age, she had reached the first stage of body refining, and even recently reached the third step. She didn't know any martial arts because the only purpose behind body refinement, for her, was health and to be a better vessel for her soul.

Countless hours studying, and preparing the foundation for the summoning formed the majority of her memories of her thirteen years of life. The rest was interactions with family. Being spoiled by her mother, the expectation of her father, the respect of her servants. She had always been at odds with her father, especially after he had arranged her marriage. However, she knew now how loved she was. You always knew what you once had after you lost it.

Right after her summoning ceremony started, a guard burst inside. Before anyone could yell at him for interrupting the ceremony, they realized he was covered in blood. He stuttered out a warning, before collapsing. The city was being attacked by waves of beasts spirits pouring from the mountain. No doubt the work of a cultist. It was uncommon, but a terrifying idea for them to use whole villages as sacrifice for their rituals. But using a city was unheard of.

A summoning ceremony, however, couldn't be interrupted once it had started. Her guards took defensive positions around the church, and everyone was mobilized to fight off the threat. She didn't know much else, as she had to focus on directing the energy as the formation's layers were built up. About halfway through the process, she could almost taste the fear from those around her; the determination to keep the enemy at bay.

It wasn't uncommon for enemies to try and assassinate a summoner in the midst of their ceremony so the formation had integrated a barrier to prevent such things. Her father was relieved they had decided on such a thing, but she didn't feel the same way. She felt trapped, and isolated from her family even if protected from the demons of the world. That feeling of isolation only became worse as the beasts destroyed the church. Rubble fell on the shield, before being repelled and falling to the side. Despite the interference, and the tears staining her face, she kept her focus on the task at hand trying to drown out the cruelty of the world with her magic.

As she finished the formation, the bank of energy was being gnawed away by the attempts to interrupt her. Just by the fact they reached her, she knew it was likely she was the only one left alive. Oh how she wished that wasn't the case. If only this magic could have saved her family, she would have given herself instead. Her father would have known what to do to live but she was clueless and alone.

Ignoring the sound of the dark-robbed cultist chipping away at the shielding around the formation, she puts her entire heart into the summoning. She needed to be strong. For any chance at survival, for any chance at revenge against the cult that destroyed everything she held dear she had only this ceremony. As soon as the formation ran out of energy, she knew she would die. Line feels her soul gradually stretching out reaching out into the vast unknown of the realms.

It was at that moment she learned a beauty she would never forget- the beauty of summoning magic. A beauty she experienced for the first and last time amidst a world of despair. She could feel countless lifeforms, countless spirits various colors and emotions. Some were indifferent, others agitated, and even more desperately pleaded for release and acceptance. She paid them no heed, however, for she felt them small and weak. She definitely needed something bigger. She reaches further into the void, before halting her gaze on a beautiful pearl the size of a house. A pure white soul, immense and towering. Surely some sort of mythical beast, capable of fighting off the foe.

However, when she's about to reach out to it, she sees something unbelievable. Just a bit away, a massive black soul stretches into the sky. A soul that seems to envelop everything, and absolutely overflows with dark energy. "Could this be the legendary Fafnir? An evil dragon of darkness? Or something even stronger?" she asks herself. Though it was forbidden to someone dark spirits, at that moment, she was drowning in her desire for vengeance and justice.

Reaching out to it, she pulls, connecting it to her with the power of the formation. Her icy blue eyes go wide as a small speck of concentrated darkness even more unbelievable than the mountain as a whole is pulled out leaving behind the rest like breaking free of a prison. She'd never heard of such a thing. Nobody told her about this! How can you summon only part of a creature?!

He spirit withdraws from the void, returning fully to her body. From her very soul, she feels a connection stretching through space and time. High up in the sky, at the very top of the world, a small slit opens for a split second as her summoned creature enters the world. The cultist looks up in shock, before laughing out loud. "That's all you could summon?" he laughs, not even able to feel the presence of the creature. It was obviously as weak as could be.

A level 0 soul.

At the taunting, she bites her pale lip, her pure blue eyes staring up at the sky filled with a mixture of hope and despair. Indeed he felt weak, but she could never give up hope until the last moment. It hadn't even been adapted to the world yet, how could she judge it so early?

The figure rockets towards he seeming eager to save her from her plight. It quickly hits the barrier, and quickly changes. The nonexistent presence becomes entirely too visible. She almost wished she had summoned something pure, as in an instant, the horrible miasma that was being used to attack the formation floods into the being above her. Perhaps reaching capacity, energy stops being absorbed, but it seems to wander closer concentrating the miasma that once covered the city to the area around the church.

A second later, her summon hit the second barrier, gaining some essential knowledge. All this was for the purpose of getting the summon to understand and accept the situation without complications. This was absolutely essential to the summoning of beast-type spirits, but even know she couldn't clearly make out the figure of what she had summoned.

As the figure falls like a rock, her eyes go wide. The formation fluctuates a bit, and the element that's supposed to catch the figure fails as the cultist creates a crack in her barrier. As her familiar is about to hit the ground, and meet his immediate demise, the laughter of the cultist fills the air- only to be cut short as the familiar now clearly a towering man, lands lightly on his feet. If she had only seen that last movement, she would've thought he had only jumped off the last step of the stairway from heaven.

Wreathed in dark energy, the man had devilish looks sharp features, and hazel eyes that seemed to glow in the moment he stops. Was he already familiar with the usage of magic? She had never heard of a spell that could do such a thing perhaps it was an advanced version of feather fall? Such a thing should have cost a fair bit of magical power, but it instead felt like his power had increased. The sharp eyes, looking down from above, seem to cut right through her. She can feel him observing her sorrows and hopes, as the muscled figure blocks her sight of the cruel world outside her formation. The figure clad in a dark animal skin jacket, and pants made of a heavy blue fabric.

It wasn't a dragon. But if the magic she saw was anything to go off of, he had to be stronger than her wildest imagination. As her eyes stared into his, she could feel the connection in her very soul, and felt a tint of peace. But quickly, that's overcome with desperation. "Help me," is all she can get to spill past her lips, her voice unusually soft. She wanted revenge, or at least, the possibility.

But even as she asks, her blood runs cold at the sight of a black sphere shooting towards the man. [Death Orb] a magic of concentrated dark energy that could dry someone's life in an instant. The very magic that killed her parents. She tries to run forward, to do anything at all, but magic is much faster than her. If she was the target if he wasn't in front of her she had no doubt she would die in an instant. She knew, because of that, her familiar definitely couldn't dodge, and she felt bitter.

Barely can she manage to take a step before the attack is already at her familiar, who is slowly turning towards the threat. At that moment, she saw a horror she would never forget. A reaction that should have never been associated with the current situation, and one that made her firmly believe this summon of hers was at heart an outrageous person. She had seen the action before, but

The death ray is caught perfectly in his mouth, as if he thought it was a piece of popcorn. The dark energy that he was cloaked in seemed to grow denser, and look of regret appears on his face as he must realize what have happened and the cultist laughs out loud, clearly anticipating the her summon would soon be drowned of life. However, a moment later the darkly-clad summon spits on the ground seeming annoyed. "Tastes like shit," says a cold, rough voice, that feels like it penetrates her very soul. Why would anyone think that would taste good?

"Wha-?! Just die!" yells the cultist, as he concentrates the energy, which was rapidly being wasted in their battle, into a ray. An even higher, costlier magic [Death Ray]. Her summon seems unphased either out of ignorance or condescension, but as the ray blasts towards him, his arm whips out. Like a fly, the ray is deflected into the distance. Her heart burns with excitement. Just how strong was he?! With him attacking, and the formation defending, perhaps they'd really win!

A bit of confidence emerges in her heart, and she connects back to the formation attempting to repair the shield. However, the moment feels the state of the formation, that confidence shatters. She clearly sees her summon is naturally connected to the formation- receiving nourishment to adapt him to the world. Yet, somehow somehow… The amount of energy was vastly reduced from a second ago. He had used the formation's power to deflect the ray, and now there wasn't enough left to rebuild the shield!