Rise of the Weakest Summoner

Three dark smudges flew through the trembling corridors of a crumbling facility. Each shadow zoomed and zipped from corner to corner, trying its best to take the lead or retain it. While the roughest, slightly unstable one had been the first to take such a position, it soon yielded to the more experienced challengers. It wasn’t left in the dust, but definitely struggled a little as the trio’s formation continuously changed. 

Unbeknownst to them, the winner had already been decided, standing at the end of their path since the very moment they crossed the starting line.

Due to the impending collapse of the once pristine and thrumming with power tunnels, numerous residents trampled over each other and even fought directly to escape their cruel fate. Various monsters touched by the darkness, shadows, void, and other aspects ran a deadly marathon. Their actual numbers surprised the trio of contestants, but ultimately, they didn’t care.

Only their competition mattered.

In just a few minutes, the finish line appeared in their spiritual sight since they could not use their eyes in their current state. They pushed themselves to their limits for the final straight and slipped through the gap like the wind. Each shadow then coalesced over the ground and revealed their identities.

The first one represented more than just one person as a group of beautiful girls and ladies emerged from the pooling darkness, victorious smiles adorning their gorgeous faces. The second one turned out to be a white-haired man who cracked his neck two times and sighed dejectedly at his performance. And lastly, a winded beastfolk female literally popped out of the floor with more speed than expected and squeaked in shock before landing on all fours, her breathing fairly labored.

“Master made it look so easy… Haaaaah…” She stood up with some trouble, accepting the man’s shoulder as her support. “It felt like I was going to break out of it so many times on the way here…”

Asterios chuckled and gently rejuvenated Miria’s exhaustion with one of his spells fueled by his potent natural energy. “Yet you didn’t. For your first time, it was truly impressive. Recall how long it took me to become comfortable with it. Right, Umbra?”

The entity behind the success of the all-female group of passengers tipped its fancy hat. “Indeed. It’s a result worthy of all the praise.”

She beamed at them proudly but quickly looked into her mate’s eyes. “It’s all thanks to you, Master. And Tia, naturally. Honestly, it feels like cheating, but I already promised myself to try and not feel bad for it. In the end, my goal is to keep getting stronger so that I don’t lag behind everyone. With Selene getting her eleventh tail, Silvia achieving her flaming avatar, and Tina contracting a real Lesser Dragon, my simple Physical Strengthening was starting to look weak.”

“If Professor Grea heard you talk like this she would spank your butt.” Tina smirked lightly. “She’s well aware that her offensive prowess leaves much to be desired. Besides, your main strength came from your compatibility with Ast’s techniques. Which has now soared right through the roof.”

“She is right.” Asterios patted Miria’s fluffy hair, now back on top of her head. “Maybe it’s you who should actually be the master in this relationship with me being your familiar considering how quickly you grow.”

The girls chuckled at that idea while Miria’s tail adorably swished from side to side as she squirmed timidly.

“So, what was all that?” Selene asked what most of them if not everyone had been wondering for a while now.

~I’ll explain everything in a second.~ Tia’s mischievous giggle echoed through their minds. ~But first, I would advise you to get out of this spire. You weren’t the only ones rushing for the exit.~

At her words, they became acutely aware of the sounds and noises from behind the broken gate which were rapidly gaining on their location. While there was no doubt that the door would have held the stampede in its prime, that couldn’t be so certain in the current age.

“Ah, shit…” Asterios groaned quietly.

Not waiting to see who would win the second challenge, the gate or the monsters, they made a run for it right away. It was quite fun and entertaining sprinting up the spiraling stairs while catching a few glimpses of Umbra’s past. They didn’t want to miss those by diving into the shadows again, and since the situation wasn’t as critical as minutes ago, they could tackle it at a more leisurely pace.

Arriving at the top and gathering at the flat platform, they felt a deep shudder at the base of the tower, followed by ominous rumbling. Asterios shifted into his fully draconic form and everyone hopped onto his back, launching into the air atop their black-scaled True Dragon. A few flaps of mighty wings later, they watched Umbra’s house from above.

A flood of monstrosities burst out of the opening like a water fountain with somewhat thicker and more irregular droplets. Many beings peaked at certain heights and began falling as the stream of creatures continued to flow. Noticing the weird phenomenon, the Shades dropped whatever they had been doing, mostly praying, and floated into the air to surround their monument of worship.

“Intruders!” one screamed.

“Heretics!” another shouted.

“Kill enemies of the Lord!” someone else ordered.

With a unanimous battle cry which sounded more like a symphony of screeches, the billowing entities descended onto the monsters. Asterios couldn’t hold in his snicker as their forces resembled pieces of dark cloth trying to entangle someone. Although, these pieces of cloth had limbs that they could seemingly mold into dangerous shapes.

The Holy War began.

“Are we going to… help them?” Miria asked curiously. “It’s kind of our fault, isn’t it?”

“No need,” Umbra dismissed her concern without much care. “They can handle themselves. Since they keep staying here regardless of my opinion on that, they can at least clean up once in a while.”

“Fair.” Asterios nodded his fierce head. “Let’s find a safe spot to land and have a chat while watching how they fare.”

He brought them to a relatively far away patch of ground and everyone slid off his back, landing on the disturbingly white rock. Thinking of it now, if everything was like this in the pocket dimension, they would have had a hard time locating the facility underground. The two colors were basically indistinguishable. It was much easier next to the Darkling village.

“How long are you going to keep glowing, Ast?” Silvia asked with a trace of a smirk at the edge of her noble lips.

Asterios had only just returned to his original form and took a look at himself. Surely, the golden radiance emanated from his body just like when he had absorbed the cluster during the first attempt. His gaze moving onto his feline mate, he saw no hint of such light.

“Curious. I thought it would be Miria who was going to be like this after our ritual,” he shared his thoughts with everyone.

~We have redirected lots of energy into her, but it sticks closely to you thanks to your third source,~ Tia said. ~She shares your affinities now, but that doesn’t mean copies of your Dragon’s Hearts or standard sources are inside her. You are still the key to everything.~

Nodding lightly, Asterios pulled out the damaged badge and held it tightly in his hand. As expected, the radiance transferred into it with some invisible and undetectable force, taking all the remnant mana away. Once more, the light coalesced over the broken-off edge and reconstructed the ancient token.

“How many more do we need to make it full?” Miria peeked at it over his shoulder.

“If the sections are more or less of the same size, that feels like three or four?” Althea squinted at the sharp yellow lines.

“I wonder if that’s the number of all remaining facilities.” Umbra stroked the outline of his chin.

“I don’t think so.” Asterios shook his head. “If they shared equal bits of its shape, that would mean there are still twice as many out there. Remember that we got this thing half broken, or from a different perspective, half whole. The real question is what is it for?”

“Seems capable of opening entrances related to that person’s energy,” Abyss joined in with her neutral tone. “A key or an identification plaque. There’s no way he would have dropped it during one of his visits when he was carrying out his devious plan and not noticed, right?”

The girls shared a glance, then all looked at Asterios.

“Never say never.” Tina shrugged and they all chuckled.

“It would be funny if his grand scheme was foiled due to a tiny act of negligence.” Miria grinned. “Did it get any new functions?”

“None that I can sense,” Umbra replied thoughtfully. “But its current ones should have been enhanced.”

“Alright.” Asterios pocketed the artifact away. “Let’s discuss everything that happened before we decide on our next steps.”

The girls brought out a picnic mat and some snacks, setting everything down atop a decent outcrop to keep an eye on the spire. They poured each other something to drink and dove into the various dishes, fruits, and processed food collected just for this trip. Miria was unbelievably giddy and all smiles, sitting next to Asterios and feeding him anything he laid his eyes on. But, the others didn’t blame her. She had all the reasons to be happy.

~I shall start then since I can feel your anticipation.~ Tia broke the comfortable silence. ~Althea has aptly summed things up back in the facility. At first, I only intended to help Asterios and Miria enhance her potential as much as possible with the cluster’s energy, but standing before the two of them, I came to the conclusion that I’m unnecessarily holding back, my instincts still not fully adjusted to the existence of such a kind and loving True Dragon.~

“That’s when you decided to bring up the inscription,” the Dragon lady pointed out.

~Yes. Looking deep into my heart, I felt comfortable enough to share my secrets. Even if someone does take notice of them during your journeys, there’s nothing they can do to steal them since I’m technically no longer alive. They can’t use you to find and capture me. The only known method is to seize my Tree, which is gone, and I don’t think my current one is willing to get seized, even if it wouldn’t work in the first place,~ the Dryad reasoned. ~I’ll answer the question regarding potential candidates for the inscription’s application. Miria was the best prospect. I don’t mean any offense by it, but the value of your potential was fairly low on your own.~

“I’m not offended since I know it’s the truth.” Miria smiled sadly. “Or was, actually.”

~With that in mind, you were the perfect vessel for this ritual. To make it easier to visualize, think of the adventurer ranks of Ast’s world. The gap between F-rank and S-rank is larger than between B-rank and S-rank. And the bigger the gap the stronger the effect since there’s more space to fill up with carefully shaped potential.~ Tia hummed to herself. ~I’m currently analyzing if and which of you are suitable for this too. I’m afraid Selene is out of the question due to the nature of her advancements, which are strictly related to the cultivation of oneself. It could hurt her more than help. Silvia is in a similar situation, albeit her methods are a tad different. Althea is out due to being a Lesser Dragon. The gap thing. Tina and perhaps Grea could work, but this might interfere with their summoning capabilities.~

“That sounds so tough to figure out,” the fiery princess commented. “And extremely situational.”

“True, but mostly because those who used this technique didn’t care about anything other than their personal benefits. Their pawns would end up dead or crippled anyway,” Althea said with a disgusted sneer.

“I’m such a lucky girl.” Miria giggled and pecked Ast’s cheek sweetly.

“Since we more or less understand how this soul inscription works, what can you tell us about the rest of the things that happened to Miria?” Selene wondered out loud.

~You are better off asking the person in question in regards to that.~ The Dryad giggled. ~It didn’t feel like you only worked on your source, isn’t that right?~

“Yep!” The merry panthergirl bobbed her head up and down. “I really didn’t want the opportunity you and Master gave me to go to waste. Slowly reinforcing my source felt good, but… that would just make me a little stronger where I was already good. So I started looking around until I peered into my bloodline. Then I just knew it was the key. The Elders assured me that I was already one of the strongest beastfolk amidst the tribes. But compared to species like Selene’s, it was still nothing.”

“And so you used my violent Hearts to destroy its structure.” Asterios cocked his head back in understanding.

“You did WHAT?!” Selene shot to her feet and everyone winced at her sudden shout.

Miria blinked numbly at her. “Uhhh… I heard you mention many times how important the foundation is and how it impacts one’s entire path… Since mine was just so-so, I figured I would… make it a little better?”

“By shattering your very bloodline?! You can’t abolish your foundation on a whim, stupid girl! You could have permanently crippled yourself and your entire lineage going forward!” the fox lady bellowed, leaning forward. “Think of your descendants! Your children!”

The scolded girl shivered with every sentence, curling into herself and Asterios. She continued looking remorsefuly at her sister-mate’s furious face, her feline ears laid flat atop her hair. Ast’s arm wound around her waist and squeezed her side reassuringly.

Finished with her sudden outburst, Selene took note of Miria’s body language and her expression softened, shifting slightly into a more guilty look.

“I… I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to shout at you…” The vulpine beauty glanced aside shamefully.

“I know…” Miria whispered, causing her fox friend to turn back. “And I know that I could have hurt myself really bad…”

“You did? Then why?” Selene’s brows pinched together.

“I was weak. I thought it was worth the risk. I had Master’s and Tia’s support. And Master said… that he would love me even if I ended up powerless…” the panthergirl admitted. “I made up my mind. If something happened, I wouldn’t blame anyone. I would be happy just to be Master’s supportive mate, taking care of all our children while everyone accompanied him on his journeys. But now, I understand I have been foolish. I didn’t think of the consequences hard enough. I didn’t know I could hurt… our kittens… Did I make a huge mistake, Selene?”

As Miria’s lashes fluttered to clear her eyes from the tears rolling down her cheeks and her lip trembled, Selene’s heart stung deeply. She almost choked on her breath and hastily walked over the picnic mat, falling onto her knees next to the panthergirl. Miria flinched but then froze when she was tightly hugged from the front and a shaky voice whispered into her ear.

“I shouldn’t have said that… You weren’t aware… None of this would have been your fault… I should have noticed how much attention you were paying to my carefree words… I should have noticed how desperate you were… As your friend, I should have been the one to teach you about everything…” The fox lady ran her fingers through Miria’s hair. “You are such a courageous panther… Few would even attempt something so outrageously dangerous, and fewer would pull it off… It wasn’t a mistake… You made a miracle, Miria…”

Slowly brushing her hand over Selene’s back, Miria smiled wryly. “I should have thought how others would feel, not just Master…”

Selene drew her face back, now also stained with a few tears. “Silly girl. We all know how big of a part he takes in your heart. None of us can dare to compete.”

As she wiped the trails off her furry sister-mate’s cheeks, the other girls scooted closer and warmly patted both of them over their shoulders and backs. They had stood aside earlier to give the beastfolk pair a moment to talk it out, knowing how much these two cared for each other, which resulted in it showing very emotionally. But, they still had to display their support as a family.

“How did you do it, then?” Selene asked after they both calmed down a little, Ast’s fingers helping out a lot by caressing their ears.

“Well, as Master said, I made his draconic energies destroy the… tree?” Miria scrunched her nose. “Then, I used Tia’s life energy to keep the fragments in place and reconnected them in a different way while supplying them with the power of the cluster.”

“This girl…” The vulpine lady looked into the sky and chuckled in disbelief. “You have no idea about the feat you have achieved. If Ronye or Lerisse heard about it, they would have fainted on the spot and then called you Esteemed Master after waking up.”

“You would have loved to see that.” The feline girl giggled impishly and everyone laughed.

“What then?” Tina inquired, invested in the tale more than she would have expected.

“I rebuild this pattern while willing for the part at the top to be as vast as possible,” Miria continued. “I lost the ability to control the stages between, meaning that I can only be either in the one where my fur reaches up to my elbows and knees or the one where I’m like this. But, from this form, there’s so much more I can do now, including becoming bigger without Master’s spells and shifting into my animal form while so. I still need to explore every option, instinctively understanding only a few.”

“That’s already a massive improvement,” Silvia said. “Combined with what Tia’s inscription allows you to do, your power and capabilities increased multiple-fold. We are so happy for you.”

“Thanks.” The panthergirl grinned at everyone cheerfully as they all nodded in agreement.

“Your group continues to amaze me,” Abyss announced, capturing their attention. “You keep doing things that defy many rules and norms, not to mention customs and traditions. I’m starting to think you might be the best thing that could have happened to my Little Shadow and this realm.”

“Undoubtedly,” Umbra agreed. “I can’t wait to see what the future holds in store for Master and his peerage.”

“Right now, the future holds the location of the remaining clusters and the key to all of this,” Asterios responded. “And it looks like your shadowy friends are just wrapping their work up.”

It was as he had said. Barely any monster remained alive as the floating Shades patrolled the vicinity of the spire. Soon, the situation would be resolved. Thankfully, Umbra’s home didn’t suffer any additional damage from the cave-in, most likely due to the underground passages having been already cut in half on arrival.

“Where are we going to go next?” Tina glanced at him.

“Don’t know yet.” He shrugged. “But I know we will figure something out.”

“Why not try feeding the token more natural energy?” Althea suggested. “Maybe if you loop it through Miria, it’s going to provoke some kind of a reaction?”

“See? I can always rely on your smarts, ladies.” Asterios grinned while getting up, leaving Miria in Selene’s arms. “Let’s see if two clusters are enough to make this thing cooperate.”

They slowly packed up and headed for the surface.