Chapter 01: THE SUMMONING
He was nervous and he should be. The princess told him that this was the only way to save the country, possibly even the world. He had doubted her words of course, there was nothing that almighty that can save the whole world, a single country would suffice. Yet, he did not voice it out loud, since his opinions will most likely be ignored entirely.
Anzu-hime had shown him the 'Book of the Dusk and Dawn' and had shown him an underground lair that was completely barren, save for the elaborate designs of circles adorning the four walls and the on the floor in the middle of the room; the 'Summoning Hall'.
He had blinked then, wanting to believe yet skeptical at the same time. Everyone who had ever dreamed of being a Summoner had heard of the book and of this legendary place. Where creatures of gigantic proportions and magnitudes of power had been called forth or banished into another realm. A realm where no human had came back from, the Shadow Realm.
Where only the most gifted and blessed of the Summoners were allowed to perform rituals that would benefit the country, usually the ones appointed by the Royal family. He had also heard that the last time this hall and the book had been used, it was a hundred years ago, far beyond his time on earth.
Stories were treated as mere legends, even fictions to some extreme. Anzu-hime had been adamant in telling him that all those stories were the truth, except for some embellishments here and there.
The fact of the matter was, "The country had been in peace for a hundred years, which is why the Book of the Dusk and Dawn and the Summoning Hall had never been used again. The Room had been sealed off and the Book had been kept by the ruling kings until today.
Because of that, the numbers that became Summoners had dwindled to a mere ten or twenty people. Also, many were envious of the power a Summoner wields thus, stories that had been laced with untruths abound everywhere."
He had to admit that she was right. There was a great number of people whom he personally knew that despised him for what he is. All because he has powers ordinary humans could only dream of.
He felt burden by it, however. His choosing to be a Summoner was not of his own intention or wish. Rather, it was Anzu-hime's effort that had made him what he is today. A Royal Summoner, albeit a very ordinary one.
Now, as the palace had been invaded and became an impromptu battleground between two opposing forces, he was forced to go underground by the princess, Book of the Dusk and Dawn tucked under one of his arms and the other one pushed open the large heavy iron door that was the entrance to the Summoning Hall.
Surprisingly enough, it took him only a few seconds to move the heavy door open, unlike a few hours by Anzu-hime's guards last time. He would have to ponder about that later though as he walked past the door and it suddenly shuts behind him with a BANG! that had shook the dusts from the ceiling and to his impending horror, perhaps even successful in alerting the enemies above that there are people underneath the palace's ground.
Hearts pounding louder than the echoing silence of the dark Summoning Hall, he lifted the torch he had brought along with him and began lighting up the room until each and every one of the elaborate circles of gold yellow, blood red, iris blue, silver white and midnight black came into view.
He gasped, those colors were not there the last he came down here with the princess. They were only gray lines everywhere that had not made a lasting impression on him. Even the princess was slightly disappointed when the saw the state of this so called legendary Summoning Hall.
Yet, the colors here could not have been more real and convincing. It even seemed to pulsate with life as the colors glowed together in a silent synchronization. The circles had become alive!
He gulped and unconsciously straightened out his disheveled robe of dark blue with gold linings over milk white tunic underneath. The leather-bound Book of the Dusk and Dawn suddenly became heavier, as if holding a huge boulder that would rip his arms from its socket if he does not let go.
He did but the book did not simply falls down on the floor. Instead, it hovered in midair and rises up slowly until it was to his own reading level. He blinked, his magenta-colored eyes became wider than what is normal. The book opened its own pages until it reached right to the middle of it that was devoid of anything; no writings, inscriptions of sorts, not even pictures to guide.
Until, words began appearing randomly all over the two pages and none of them were aligned horizontally as it should be. He looked on, fascinated as some words crawl out the end of the page like ants, some zoom down like lightning, others appeared like dots of inks on paper.
This went on until he could read the whole thing out loud.
When he had finished reading that, the floor and the walls burst into lights according to its respective colors. The dreary Summoning Hall became aglow with colorful, ethereal lights that he had to shield himself from being blinded by the sheerness of it.
An echo of ghostly words began to appear as well as he caught hold of words like 'exchange', 'offerings', and 'gifts'.
He was very confused to say the least until the words on the book began rearranging themselves again, the excess of other alphabets unused disappeared out of sight and he read,
He quirked his brows at that. He didn't like the way the words sounded, both the former and this. 'It doesn't even rhyme!' Plus, he did not like how the second last verse sounded. What did it mean, offer something that is his and no one else?
What could it possibly mean?
More questions to ponder yet so little time and the ghostly voices kept on harping about offerings and such. The circles kept blazing lights, as if impatient to produce something from beyond its mysterious depths. He was nervous and he should be. The princess told him that this was the only way to save the country, possibly even the world.
Yet, he did not even know what he should offer that is solely his own…
Blood red circle on the floor shined out the brightest, pulsating and alive like the veins within his body and suddenly, he dreadfully knew what he was supposed to do. What he was supposed to give in return for the summoning to be a success.
Lifting the dagger out of its scabbard, the blade though small was a sharp and deadly as ever. His one and only protection against enemies that might attack him. The weapon that he will use draw out the sacrificial gift to bring forth entities of power that will save the country.
Possibly, even the world.
He rolled his eyes at that thought before he, reluctantly, place the dagger's blade on his left forearm. He closed his eyes and bit his lower lip in anticipation for the pain that he was sure will be evident.
The blade slid down quickly, slicing open the skin a little deeper than he would want to and the tears sprang out without control from his eyes. In all his seventeen years of life, he had never so much as even had a nose bleed and today, he had just sliced his skin open to let the blood flow out to the pulsing circle on the ground.
He watched, in morbid fascination, how his rapidly cooling blood began to puddle together and was then slowly…'sucked' into the thick red lines of the circle. As it does this, the maddening sounds of disembodied voices cleared away and everything became calm.
He was not fooled by this peaceful period, however. He was sorely reminded of a time when he had been caught in sudden storm during spring. To think that it was such a nice weather it had been. Such an odd time to have a thunder storm during that season but came it did. He caught a terrible two-weeks fever because of that.
As soon as the blood had been sucked dry through the lines into the ground underneath, a chaotic change in air pressure began to happen in a somewhat dramatic pace. Dust rises up and about, swirling in a dizzying dance. The pages of the Book of the Dusk and Dawn flipped maddeningly fast according to the direction of the wind. His own robes whipping about, slapping his own petite frame, his eyes squinting as he looked around. Then, soundless bolts of lightning make its appearance a few moments later, coming from gaping black holes that seemed to be everywhere.
It was a scene of total chaos.
As soon as it came, it banished out of sight just as immediately as well. The dusts settled down again. The pages stopped flipping and he noticed that it had settled back to the original place he last read from though the pages display no words on it at all. His heavy robe no longer abused his own body for which he was very thankful for and all the black holes that had spewed forth bolts of lightning had closed into nonexistence.
Then all of a sudden, from the ceiling to his right and from the floor to his left, the solid matters dissolved into liquid, each shaped like a drop of water that fell from the ceiling or that rise from the ground. How they twisted and turned, how the colors rapidly change from boring granite gray to black and red (to his right) and white and blue (to his left). In his dazed mind though, he belatedly noted there was an empty space between the two mentioned before.
The teardrop shapes began to form humanoid figures, much to his horror because he had not anticipate that!
When the transformation finally finished, he could only stare with a mixture of consternation and fascination at the two…otherworldly guests that stood in front of him.
To his right, a golden blond whose hair, if it was let out of its high ponytail, would reach his waist, and fiery scarlet red eyes. The lower half of his face was hidden underneath what looked like an extension of the tight shirt he is wearing. The shirt accentuated his slim figure, showing that despite the long blond hair whipping about behind his back and the somewhat androgynous look his half-hidden face somehow failed to hide, he was indeed a man.
To his left, a man whose top-half of the face was covered in a sort of dragon-head shaped helmet, showing off the lower half of his face and from what he could see, a tight-lip look a person who is annoyed would generally look like. While the blond was in all-black, this man was in all-white, making them a complete contrast much like night and day.
He was taller than the blond by a few inches, a brunet by the color of his hair and through the two holes on the helmet for the sake of sight he could see the cold as winter's night cobalt blue eyes. He has a lean built too though he has a broader shoulder and while the blond had a more relaxed air around him, the brunet was more tensed and looked as if he would attack if provoked the wrong way.
He was completely speechless to say the least. He had expected powerful mythical beasts of huge proportions…or something similar to that. Not…Them!
"Who are…"
He never managed to finish his question when another one appeared. This time, a slowly expanding black hole with purple lightning lashing out of it had materialized right in between the two newcomers. It became bigger until a normal sized person could fit right into it.
A person did come out or glided out would be a more befitting word to describe it. The person was wrapped in long strips of white cloth wrapped around his lithe body, which was smaller and shorter than the other two but bigger still than he is. Chains of gold also wrapped around him, acting like a barricade of some sort, as if he was a forbidden person not allowed to roam freely.
The most intriguing part of this mysterious third person was the inverted golden triangle decorated with a single eye that he had never seen before in his entire life. With all his book leanings and wisdom sharing with traveling sages all around the world, he had never seen such a thing like that before and yet, he had never been so drawn to it and the person as well like he did with others. Not even with Anzu-hime had he felt such a familiar feeling before.
Confused and a little bit afraid by this strange development, he could not help back stepped back instead of moving forward into greeting the people he had summoned. People who should not exist at all in the Shadow Realm!
"You are the Messiah?"
It was the chained one who had spoken. He had not foresee that happening and did not know how to react. However, the small logical part of his brain that had not been numbed by the surprises he had seen in the span of an hour had noted that he had been referred to as the, "the Messiah? Me?"
The reaction caused by that outburst was comical to say the least, the blond became cutely confused, leaning his head to the side and blinked in disbelief; the brunet massaged his forehead underneath the dragon-head helmet and shook his head tiredly; the chained one went rigid as if he had suddenly ran into a brick wall and act as if he did not know what hit him.
"You," the brunet started in a weary sort of voice, "don't know that you're the Messiah?"
The blond, though the bottom-half of his face was covered, even a blind person could see that he was amused by the whole thing as he leaned forward and patted the Summoner's spiky red, black and blond hair, belatedly noticing that it was a very unusual color coordination for a person's hair. "If you're not the Messiah, you would never have been able to call us out Kid."
He pouted and batted the blond's hand's away, "I'm not Kid! It's Mutou Yuugi and despite my height," to this the brunet smirked and the blond snickered, "I'm 17 years old!"
The third person moved another step forward that was answered immediately with Yuugi's one step back, his whole countenance that of wariness.
"It matters not that you don't know who you really are, the Messiah. The fact of the matter here is that you had summoned us and we are here for your bidding whether you like it or not."
Then, he motioned towards the binding of chains on and around his body with a slight tilt of his covered head, which looked rather pointy to begin with. The brunet and the blond went slightly far off to the side, as if they knew what will develop next. Yuugi looked on with a puzzled expression on his childlike face.
"I am nameless until named. Which means that I am without a Master to guard and protect. Which means that I am currently powerless and of no use at all. Unless these chains be broken by the one True Messiah, my powers and abilities will forever remain sealed away."
Yuugi blinked. Fear and curiosity filled to the brim inside him by this mysterious person's declaration of some sort. Then, as if something in him finally snaps into place, his already wide magenta eyes became wider as he slumped to the cold hard floor of the huge Summoning Hall, not caring at all that the other three otherworldly visitors were at the present moment looking at him curiously as if he was an odd animal they had never laid eyes on before.
His hands reached the no-longer floating Book of the Dusk and Dawn and flipped the empty pages back to front and back again to find out what it said about this whole unimaginable thing. He could not possibly be the Messiah! That is only a legend! It cannot be true! Impossible!
"IMPOSSIBLE!"
He did not realize that he had yelled it out loud and before anyone can say anything, a deafening BOOM! echoed inside the hall and it came from the sealed iron door.
The enemies…had arrived.
End Chapter 01: The Summoning ...