Spirit Calling Ritual

A ripple coursed through the white void as Priscilla emerged from the depths of Adam's Astrum Sea. Her form solidified back into reality as her feet touched the white ground upon landing, but the lingering sensation of what she had just witnessed inside Adam's Astrum Sea clung to her like an invisible chain.

Her pale fingers curled slightly as she steadied herself, but beneath that composed exterior, something inside her churned. 

Fear?

~ Perhaps!

Worry?

~ Valid!

Confusion?

~ Understandable!

It was the kind of unease that came from staring into something vast, something that defied reason, something that shouldn't be yet it was.

And the flux of emotion she was feeling was many, too much to pinpoint a definite one for this moment.

'Honestly… I'm absolutely lost for words about this whole situation.'

Priscilla said to herself, while her hands were trembling as the sight of that endless sea came back into her mind. Just the mere thought of it made her feel so small.

However, before she could fully process her own thoughts more properly, Adam spoke.

"Hey big sis Priscilla... um, so what's my limit?"

Adam's voice rang out, crisp and unassuming, as if he had simply asked about the weather. But that casual curiosity only made the question all the harder to answer.

Priscilla stiffened.

Her gaze snapped to him, searching, dissecting the expression on his face. He wasn't asking out of arrogance. There was no smugness, no expectation. It was just pure, innocent curiosity.

Her lips parted, then pressed shut.

How was she supposed to answer that?

Before she could even attempt to gather the right words, the smell of sake soon entered both Adam and Priscilla's noses when Minerva walked up to the two and began to speak.

"That's what I wanna know too."

She said as she approached closer and continued to speak.

"You've got that oh shit look on your face. What did you see in there, huh?"

Priscilla's shoulders tensed at the question, and the only way to answer it would be to say.

'Something impossible.'

No! Not even that would suffice for a proper description.

That wasn't quite the right word.

No, what she had seen was beyond the term of impossibility.

Her red eyes flickered as she recalled the sheer vastness of it, the depthless ocean of space contained within Adam's Astrum Sea, surging like a cosmic tide without shore or end. It wasn't a reserve at that point.

Reserves had limits.

But his.

The deeper she had dived, the more the boundaries stretched, until she wasn't sure if they even existed.

She hesitated.

Not just because she didn't have an answer... oh no, she indeed had.

But should she say it?

She had spent centuries loathing humans.

Their arrogance.

Their greed.

Their ability to ruin everything they touched. They never stopped wanting, never stopped taking. Even the good ones, even the ones who seemed kind, were still human at their core.

And Adam.

He was, by definition, more human than any human could ever be given his Shinso nature.

She wondered, Should she bring her own mistrust to this entity? Given his unusual physiology, it's hard to call him a mere child.

And yet, despite herself, she cared about him; of course, she was not going to admit that; her pride wouldn't allow for that.

A part of her wanted to protect him, while another part remained wary, terrified, even terrified of what someone like him could become. She didn't care if he became evil, vindictive, cruel, or unjust.

In the past she trusted humans, but that trust just gave them a way for them to stab her in the back, and as a result, she lost something precious.

Magic could not fix it.

Lore abilities could not fix it.

Nothing could bring it back.

What if this brat backstabs all of them? As he grows older, the possibility is there, but that was all it was; a possibility.

Her fingers twitched slightly as she exhaled slowly, but she pushed herself as she said to herself.

'Am I just being paranoid here?'

Then, crossing her arms, she turned to face him fully. She didn't want to tell him, but, at the same time, it was not her place to stun the growth of one so talented and one of her family members nonetheless.

Unlike that person, Adam was a child, a kid who did not know the ways of the world, and not an adult who could think logically like that person.

As such, Priscilla at that moment decided to take a gamble and place her trust in this child that is still growing. As such, if he grows to be sour, she has no one but herself for the fuckup.

With that thought in mind, she then began to say.

"Your reserve...is...

She paused before continuing.

"immeasurable."

When these words were said, silence fell over the space.

Till Minerva, who was already half junk, broke the shocked mood by letting out a low whistle, swirling the sake in her cup as if she had just heard something deliciously intriguing.

"Fweeeeee... now ain't that something, hehehe... I know you were built differently from the moment I laid my eyes on your brat."

"This ain't a joke, Minerva...

"Tch, look, I and the other Crowns all have an Astrum reserve so massive they might as well be bottomless, yeah? So what's the big deal here?"

But what Priscilla said next is what truly shut Minerva up, if not sober her entirely.

"What I am getting at is this Minerva; when I send a ripple of my own Astrum through the reserves of the Thirteen Crowns, I can always sense a limit. Even if it takes days or months, that ripple eventually returns. And if I step inside, I can gauge their reserves almost instantly."

"But Adam? Both inside and out, there is no boundary to be found. Simply put, his Astrum Sea isn't just merley vast; it is quite literally infinite. The Crowns may have an immense capacity within them, but Adam... his is limitless, without end."

"..."

"...Minerva

Priscilla called out, glancing at the woman who had gone completely still, her sake cup frozen halfway to her lips.

"..."

"Minerva, snap out of it will ya."

Minerva blinked rapidly, then shook her head as if trying to reboot her brain.

"Yeah... my bad... my bad."

She took a slow sip of sake, exhaled, and ran a hand through her long braid. Then, as if the absurdity of it all had finally hit her, she let out a bewildered laugh.

"Hahahaha... well well... this training is going to be a lot more fun than I thought... now I am really hyped for this... if you got that much latent potential. What the hell are we waiting for?... AHAHAHAAA, THIS IS A GOOD THING!!"

Minerva said as she excitedly picked up Adam's like a rice sack.

"Ahhh... big sis, what are you do...

"Quiet my precious divine sake. You will thank me later."

Mivera said as she tossed Adam toward the crystal, causing him to land right in front of it.

"WAAAAA...

Adam barely had time to process what was happening before Minerva casually tossed her sake cup aside. The cup never even hit the ground; her energy alone reduced it to dust. His stomach tightened.

He had never seen her like this before.

Her usual lazy, carefree expression was gone. Instead, her lips curled into a wild grin, her violet eyes bleeding into a deep crimson.

Then, with a crackle of energy, a pair of slightly curved red horns burst from her head. The air around her grew thick and heavy as if it were reacting to her transformation. For the first time, Minerva didn't seem like the easygoing drunk he had come to know... she looked like a real oni who had been starving for a fight.

But that wasn't what scared Adam the most.

The moment her horns appeared, he saw something shift within her. His vision, attuned to Astrum, let him see the raw energy in her body, and it was spiking at an unnatural rate the moment she grew those horns.

The Astrum inside her sea wasn't just expanding; it was evolving.

Its quality shot up tenfold in a heartbeat.

And then, ten seconds later, it happened again.

Again.

And again.

Every few moments, her energy surged beyond its last limit, growing stronger, denser, and purer until the Minerva standing before him wasn't even Minerva anymore. Well, at least not in appearance.

With his special sight, Adam saw what she had become. Her body had lost all traces of humanity. There was no longer flesh, no longer bone, just a swirling mass of Astrum and Miasma, intertwined in perfect balance, existing in complete harmony.

And then...

"Hey, hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?!"

Priscilla's sharp voice cut through the tension, snapping Adam out of his trance.

Minerva didn't even flinch at her words. She just smirked, her eyes burning like a star.

"Hah! I'm doing our little brother a massive favor. Why put a leash on his potential? Step aside; I'll handle the summoning myself."

Priscilla looked like she was about to tear her own hair out when Minerva said these words.

"Are you stupid, woman? He is a beginner. You can't be serious right now. Do you have any idea what you're about to do?"

Minerva just shrugged. 

"Probably not! But unlike you, I don't sit around overthinking everything. I just roll with it. Sure, if the brat was normal, I'd take it slow, but we both know he is not. He can handle this."

Priscilla let out a deep, exhausted sigh, pressing a hand to her temple. 

"You're drunk."

Minerva beamed.

"And?"

"And you're about to summon something not meant for beginners at this rate."

Priscilla snapped at Minerva, her irritation evident, as a vein bulged from her head as she continued to speak.

"The smart thing to do would be to start with a minor element, something small, something safe! Let him get used to it first! But with this much energy flooding the altar, you are going to summon something extremely powerful and dangerous."

But Minerva wasn't listening.

She was already moving.

With an almost lazy stride, she stepped up to the altar and slammed her palm against the ground.

The reaction was instant.

The entire area around them began to shake in response to her call.

The altar lit up like a star, glowing symbols racing across the floor as a massive magic circle formed beneath them.

The sheer pressure of it made Adam's breath hitch with fear.

"What the hell is Miverva even doing right now."

He said to himself, it was clear to him that this wasn't just some standard summoning. The ritual was feeding off Minerva's ridiculous power, responding to her call with an overwhelming force.

And Priscilla's face went cold when she saw what Minerva had done.

"Damn it… It's too late. Shit. I should've done the ritual in private… Ughhhh!!."

Minerva on the other hand, looks at Adam with excited eyes as she says.

"Stronger ones can be a total asshole, to that just be a bigger one... good luck boy."

Those were Minerva's last words before a smaller magic circle flared to life beneath Adam's feet. The crystal pulsed with energy, glowing brighter and brighter until a blinding light engulfed everything. In that instant, Adam's vision went white, and his consciousness faded into darkness.