A Summoner's Journey

Voting Gauntlet: Princes vs Princesses

Voting Gauntlet Day 1:

On the day of the Princes vs Princesses Voting Gauntlet, Anna led me down to a portal in southern Askr, a huge one that showed a large brown arena beyond it. Anna explained to me that I had to bring one of my heroes with me to represent our Askr in the gauntlet, so I took Robin with me as well. As I bid my farewell to Anna, me and Robin leaped through the portal.

After floating through space for some time, we landed on flat ground, with the same giant arena in front of us. Next to the arena were a line of buildings with a bar, general store and a large hotel. I gazed into the sky. All around us was the space tunnels we just went through. They were depositing more summoners and their chosen heroes into this area. Anna was right about the alternate dimension nonsense. Everyone had the same clothes as me.

"This is… creepy" Robin murmured as another summoner passed me with a Ryoma at his side "Everyone looks like you"

"Not entirely Robin" I smiled as a girl with medium-length black hair and glasses passed us with her Sully.

"Anyhow, you said that we'll be staying here for six days?" Robin quickly turned the conversation back to business.

"Yes, that's how long the Voting Gauntlet is going for according to the letter" I said, pulling the envelope out of my pant pocket "The gauntlet will run for six days, two days for every battle"

"Well then, let's look around this little town for now" Robin stuck his hands into his coat pockets "First, we should book a room in the hotel before there aren't any left"

We made our way to the hotel and managed to grab a room on the fourth floor. Turns out, this hotel was made for the voting gauntlet, with at least twenty floors with over a hundred rooms each. We got into our room and set down the little supplies we had. The hotel room was simple, yet nothing could be said that was bad about it. It had two queen-sized beds with pegasus down pillows (as Robin recognized) along with a door leading out to the balcony. As I pulled out a sack full of Askrian currency, I was glad Alfonse reminded me to bring some money because we forgot to bring food. Luckily, a restaurant and general store were nearby to supply us with meals or snacks. We didn't have anything to leave in the room, so I just kept the sack of money along with the Voting Gauntlet letter in my pocket. Robin only had his Blarraven+ tome. Before we left though, we heard a knock on our door, then an envelope slipped underneath the door. I picked it up and opened it. Inside were 5 little blue flags.

"I guess these are our "battle flags" Anna mentioned" I muttered.

We locked our room and went towards the arena.

Once we were in the lobby, I went to the reception desk to register who I was supported. Beyond the reception were eight hallways, all blocked by some sort of transparent magical barrier.

"I'll be supporting Leo for this gauntlet" I informed the woman at the desk and she directed me to the hallway on the far right.

"Just to let you know, you're only allowed to enter a gauntlet battle every thirty minutes" she said "The magic barrier will register your presence and block you out if you attempt to go back in before half an hour has passed"

"Thank you for the info" I had no idea how the magic worked, but I decided to just listen to the woman's words and not question them. Me and Robin went through the Leo hallway and ended up on a plain, grassy field, with an empty spectator audience around us. Moments later, two more people emerged from hallways beside me. The girl with the Sully from before and a teenage guy with a Michalis. Then, our three opponents from Team Ephraim appeared: a guy with a Cherche, a girl with a Catria and another boy with a Draug.

"May the best team win" I said politely and the others repeated my line, although the Michalis guy simply scoffed. A loud horn sounded over the arena and our battle begun. I directed Robin towards Druag, but Cherche flew in his path and scared him off. Michalis dueled with Catria, but the fight didn't last long.

"I am the end of you!" Michalis's Hauteclere blazed with electricity and he slammed it onto the pegasus knight, vaporizing her into ash.

"Hey you!" I called to the Michalis guy "Do you mind sending Michalis to fight Cherche? She's blocking the way to Draug!"

The guy simply shrugged then pointed his finger towards Cherche. Michalis rocketed towards the wyvern rider with his axe and tackled her from the side, breaking Cherche away from the girl's Sully. Sully was bloodied and looked ready to collapse. She managed to survive one hit from Cherche's Hammer, but Sully's own Sapphire Lance betrayed her, making her more weak to axes than she thought. Michalis easily defeated Cherche, clearing the way for Robin to attack Druag.

"Here's how it's done!" Robin fired a swarm of Blarraven+, bombarding Draug in spiritual ravens, making the armored knight collapse.

"Unfair! They had a 5 star Michalis!" the Catria girl shouted angrily.

"Yeah, he's a whale!" the Draug guy accused, pointing his finger at the Michalis summoner.

Me, the Cherche guy and the Sully girl remained silent. Truthfully, the Michalis guy being a whale wasn't far off the mark. To those who don't know, whales are a term from my world where a player of a gacha game has multiple super rare ingame items, implying that they spent money on the game. But there was nowhere in Askr to purchase the feathers required to upgrade Michalis. Unlike Sharena, upgrading a 4 star to a 5 star took an extreme amount of feathers and badges. 20 thousand feathers and 20 great badges. Getting enough to upgrade Michalis took a ton of hard work, dedication and patience. Or just cheats and money. Me and my team went to deposit our battle flags in a wooden box near the exits, ignoring the enemy's yell of unfairness. Along the way, me and Robin noticed a familiar looking fountain in the town square nearby the arena.

"Oh, is that a quest fountain?" me and Robin made our way towards it and we saw summoners scrolling through what looked like stat screens. I found an empty spot around the fountain and stuck my finger into the fountain's stream of water, opening the quest list. As I scrolled through it, I noticed something.

All of the quest rewards were battle flags.

"Huh, it looks like the town of the Voting Gauntlet has specialized quests" I said to Robin, who was peering over my shoulder "Wonder how they did that"

"But how can we do some of these quests?" Robin reached his hand over my shoulder and scrolled down the list "This one says "Clear the Fifth Stratum of the Training Tower 5 times""

"Yeah so? What's the problem?"

"Well… do you see a training tower around here?"

I looked around and saw a large dark blue tower shimmering in the space-like atmosphere south of the town. A couple summoners were going in and out of the tower alongside their heroes.

"I think that's the tower over there" I pointed, "May as well finish the quests to get more flags and kill time, right?"

"Alright sure. Give me a moment to copy the quest requirements down" Robin produced a pad of paper and a pen from his coat. I swear there had to be at least four deep pockets in that coat. The tactician wrote for a couple seconds, then put the pad back in his coat along with his pen.

"Shall we go?" Robin took his Blarraven+ out and we headed towards the training tower. An hour or two later, we came out of the tower, every quest finished. I opened up the quest list at the quest fountain and confirmed that they were finished. The menu faded and several small blue flags appeared at the bottom of the fountain, each one marked with a faint white "100". I stuffed them into my pocket and we went back to our bedroom to rest.

After dinner and a second Voting Gauntlet battle, I was prepared to go to sleep. I came out of the washroom after brushing my teeth and found Robin holding a rather large tome. But it wasn't a magical tome. It looked more like a historical textbook.

"Sometimes I wonder how you keep all this stuff" I said while I flipped the hood off my coat, exposing my short black hair.

"Mage robes like this were made to carry large books" Robin laughed while picking at the edge of his coat "If you're wondering, this is a book I picked up from Askr's library. It's called "The Complete Genealogy of the Holy War". It's Jugdrali history"

"How interesting" I said as I looked over Robin's shoulder, reading off the page he was on "I often hear Seliph and Julia telling their story to the others in the mess hall. I always found it interesting"

"While interesting, the history of Jugdral is not for the faint of heart" Robin warned "For example, Emperor Arvis of Velthomer married a shaman of the Spirit Forest named Deirdre. Both of them had minor Loptyr blood. What do you think that means?"

"Uhm… incest?"

"Exactly"

"That doesn't seem too bad"

"Oh no, it gets worse. Deirdre was actually married twice and bore children twice. Before she was brainwashed into marrying Arvis, she already had a child with the heir to Chalphy, Sigurd. What's cruel is that she was allowed to see Sigurd one last time before Arvis mercilessly murdered Sigurd's entire army with his Roten Ritter Meteor tome mage squad"

"That's… that's terrible…"

"Yes. Pray tell that you don't summon Arvis into Askr" I saw an angry light in Robin's eyes "Otherwise, I might not be able to hold back my urge to strangle him to death"

"I've interacted with Julia before though" I pointed out "And she mentioned that Arvis has always been a good father to her. She stated that he was "as kind as you can imagine"

"He was simply caring for his family. That doesn't excuse the horrific acts that has brought chaos to all of Jugdral" Robin grumbled as he set down the history book "At least Seliph managed to stop him in the end"

"Yeah…" I fidgeting with my fingers "I don't think that's all to Arvis though. It feels like there is more to him than what is said in the books. I wouldn't mind summoning him to learn the full story"

"Hmph, if he doesn't show up with his Roten Ritter to besiege Askr, I don't give a damn if you summon him or not" Robin muttered.

I stared at him as he began to climb into bed to go sleep. His entire attitude changed when he began describing what Arvis has done in Jugdral history. Ordinarily, Robin's tone would be one of curiosity, professionalism and serenity. But Robin turned angry at the mention of Arvis's crimes, peppering his words with every bit of venom he could spew. I wonder if he acted like that towards other criminals too. I'll have to make sure Chrom can hold Robin back if I manage to summon the duke of Velthomer.

"What are you staring at me for?" Robin's voice jarred me out of my thoughts.

"O-oh nothing…" I quickly broke my stare away from Robin and climbed into my bed "Goodnight"

"Good night Lucian" Robin flicked the lamp on the nightstand off and I drifted off to sleep.

Voting Gauntlet Day 2:

Me and Robin got up late into the morning and went out to the arena to quickly do the Voting Gauntlet battle. On top of the entrance into the arena, it showed the scores for each duel going on. So far, Leo was in the lead against Ephraim, although only by a short margin. Alfonse and Sharena were getting absolutely dominated by Chrom and Lucina, the Askr sibling's scores being beaten by nearly 300 million. Eirika and Elise were neck and neck at the moment. We entered another battle and found ourselves with a Raven and Eldigan as our allies. Facing us as enemies was an Olwen, Narcian and Tharja.

"Eldigan, make sure to follow the orders of this stranger's Robin. I'm sure he's a dependable tactician" the girl with the Eldigan said and I gave her a glancing smile.

"I'll be moving on my own" the Raven guy said impulsively "Raven, go after Olwen!"

"Olwen, engage with the incoming Raven!" the Olwen summoner commanded.

"Fight alongside Olwen, Tharja!" the Tharja summoner added.

The two mages rushed towards Raven, forcing Robin to come up with a strategy on the fly.

"Eldigan! Draw Tharja's attention away from Raven!" Robin called and the cavalier galloped ahead of Raven, his Mystletainn gleaming in the morning sun.

"Dire Thunder!" Olwen cast two thunderbolts down onto Eldigan, but the paladin quickly darted to the side to dodge them while still galloping to Tharja at full speed.

"Rauorblade!" Tharja's hand sparked with red energy, preparing to launch a volley of magical swords, but Eldigan crashed into her with his horse, slamming her several feet away. Narcian came after him with his Emerald Axe, but Eldigan swatted the wyvern rider aside with his sword. Olwen was prepared to strike Eldigan from behind with another Dire Thunder, but Raven took her down with two strikes of his Brave Axe. Meanwhile, Eldigan was dueling with Narcian while Tharja launched spells from behind. One of the Rauorblade swords struck Eldigan hard in the chest, but after he blocked Narcian's follow up attack, Eldigan's Mystletainn glowed with hot red light.

"I will finish you!" Eldigan yelled and slammed the Mystletainn into Narcian's chest, making it explode in a huge blast of light. Narcian was absolutely annihilated, but Tharja survived, landing a killing blow on Eldigan before he could respond.

"Do you like darkness?" Tharja grinned sinisterly as her Vengeance special activated, felling Raven in a single blow.

"Forgot about me?" Robin leaped in the air, looming over Tharja. He then cast Blarraven+ right on top of her head, pummeling Tharja to the ground with ravens. As the Plegian dark mage faded, I smiled.

"Good game everyone"

Everyone responded curtly, the Eldigan girl and Raven boy even giving me a smile and word of thanks for winning the battle as they deposited their battle flags. I put in a flag with a white 50 marked on it, then left the arena.

Following the battle in the morning, me and Robin headed out for breakfast at the local restaurant and buffet. Every half hour, we entered the arena to complete out battle. Some we won, some we lost. In one battle, my team of Robin, Gunter and Adult Tiki lost against the enemy team, consisting of Sanaki, Spring Lucina and Nowi. Eventually, nightfall came and me and Robin went to sleep.

Voting Gauntlet Day 3:

I checked the scoreboard early this morning and found out that Leo sadly lost against Ephraim by quite a small amount. Meanwhile, Alfonse and Sharena lost horrendously against Chrom and Lucina, both of them losing by over three billion score. Elise lost to Eirika by a heavy one billion. The next matchups were Chrom vs Ephraim and Eirika vs Lucina. I decided to enlist in Ephraim's army next, as he seemed to be the coolest out of the four competitors. We fought in Voting Gauntlet battles, won some, lost others. I deposited my flags every time I won, not blowing all of them at once though. I threw in a couple 10s and 50s, but never a 100 or 200. My mother often belittled me for spending too much money back in my world, so I was trying to fix that bad habit.

"Well, this isn't fun" Robin murmured as he read a copy of "The War of the Stones" that he picked up at the town general store "I'm fine with fighting for six days straight, but I'm starting to miss my friends back at Askr"

"Really? Like who?" I asked, closing my copy of "The Liberation of Thracia"

"Oh, like Nino, Chrom, Jeorge and my sister of course" Robin said casually, without even looking up from his tome "I teach Nino reading and writing, Chrom's my best friend, Jeorge discusses tactics with me daily and my sister… well she's my sister"

"I see. Yeah, I miss them too" It was hard to relate to Robin missing his friends. I had very few friends back in my home world and although we were close, I was far from being "surrounded" by friends. Here in Askr, while I interact quite regularly with the Robin twins, Alfonse, Sharena, Seliph and Jeorge, I don't really have anyone as a close friend. I flashbacked to when Anna was explaining how the Voting Gauntlet worked. She went on to describe the "Friend's List", also known as the stone monument in the lower corner of the lobby. I never paid attention, nor understood how the friend's list worked.

"Hey Lucian, dinner time" Robin's voice jarred me out of my thoughts as I saw him about to open our stateroom door "You coming?"

"Y-yeah, I'm coming" I set down my book and accompanied Robin to the restaurant outside.

While me and Robin were eating by the windowsill, we heard a loud crash nearby a buffet line. I glanced over and saw a smashed plate and mess of food on the ground while a girl with black hair frantically apologized.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" the girl tried to help clean it up, but the guy she bumped into slapped her across the face, knocking her to the ground.

"Watch where you're going next time, girl! I had a rough day today and I don't have time for little accidents like you!" he snarled and kicked the girl in the waist, a loud whimper escaping her mouth.

"Hey! Get your damn hands off my master!" the girl's Sully came forward and shoved the boy summoner away, but the boy's Raven appeared, his Brave Axe drawn.

"Move aside" Raven growled and slashed his axe forward, forcing Sully back.

"You little piece of-" Sully drew her Sapphire Lance from her waist and prepared to attack Raven, but other people have noticed and their heroes stared, waiting for their summoner's orders.

"Hey, that guy's beating up a helpless girl! Come on Sheena! We have to help!" a guy with a Sheena began to run towards the brawl, followed by other summoners and heroes.

"We have to go help too!" I urged Robin, but he stopped me.

"If we rush in to attack this offender with the other summoners and heroes, this'll turn into a chaotic brawl" Robin informed "We need to resolve it peacefully"

"But how? You have any ideas?"

"Be back in a flash" Robin dashed towards the buffet line and made it before anyone else could, due to everyone trampling each other in their pursuit. Robin yanked the bully summoner away from kicking the girl's body and forced him to face Robin.

"Buddy, I think that's enough. You punished her for bumping into you and now you should grab your food again" Robin said in a stern, yet serene tone.

"Hmph" the summoner looked around and saw everyone staring at him "What are you all looking at?!"

The other summoners hurried back to their table because the Raven summoner looked downright murderous.

"Fine, I'll let the girl off today" the summoner muttered, nudging his boot onto the girl's shoulder "But if she causes me any trouble again, you aren't going to stop me!"

He shoved Robin aside and stormed towards the buffet line to grab another plate. Raven gave Robin a sharp glare along the way.

"Hey, are you alright?" I asked as I offered the girl my hand. She took it and got up, shaky. Her hood had came off during the attack and it revealed her silky black hair, light green eyes and silver glasses. She had a bit of spaghetti on her forehead, so I casually wiped it off with my finger.

"Y-yes, I'm okay. Thank you for helping me" she smiled "My name is Saria and this is my companion for the Voting Gauntlet: Sully"

"Nice to meet you" Sully extended her hand and I shook it "Thank you for helping out Saria with Robin over there"

"You're welcome, both of you" I said, giving Saria a light grin "My name's Lucian and my companion is Robin. We're on Team Ephraim"

"Oh really? We're on the same team then" Saria said "As a matter of fact, I think I remember seeing you before. Whose team were you on yesterday?"

"Team Leo"

"Wow really? I was on the same team too!" Saria's eyes went wide "Did you fight in a battle alongside a Michalis and Sully? Against a Catria, Draug and Cherche?"

"Yes and yes" I quickly realized what happened. Saria was the same girl I fought with in the very first gauntlet battle.

"Whoa, I didn't think we would meet again!" Saria grinned "Maybe you and I can talk a little later. Know each other more"

"I'll accept" I nodded "Where do you want to meet up?"

"Perhaps outside the general store?"

"It's a deal!"

"Great! See you there!"

As me and Robin headed back to our table, I was giddy with joy. I've never had the courage to ask a girl out and it'd be a miracle if they ever asked ME. It wasn't a date with Saria, but it was a start. Robin picked up on my feelings of joy and showed an amused smile.

"So… is Saria starting to play with your strings?" Robin nonchalantly asked while twisting his fork into some spaghetti.

"Robin, we just met her. My strings haven't even been revealed yet" I countered while scooping some mashed potatoes "Leave the teasing to later"

"Believe me, the teasing will come very soon" Robin smiled lightly "When any pair in Chrom's army showed any sort of affection for each other, they were the topic of the mess hall for weeks!"

"It must of been mortifying for the two" I commented.

"Some took it well, while others didn't" Robin shrugged "Vaike took the teasing with a loud laugh and protesting that he didn't have any feelings for Sully while Cordelia blushed bright red at the thought of being attracted to Frederick"

"Guess I shouldn't show my affections too openly"

"That doesn't work. People find out love easier than they find out traitors" Robin let the joke hang in the air, although there was an edge of seriousness to it that may imply something more, but I didn't push it.

"Well, what about you? Did you get married in your world?" I asked.

"No. Sadly, I was caught up in so much work as Chrom's tactician that I didn't have time to find a lover. Everyone around me had a spouse to call their own, except for me"

"This is something Priscilla mentioned to me before we came here" I said "I'm suffering under love issues as well and she said that maybe I could find love in Askr"

"Well, this isn't Askr and you already found love" Robin smiled.

"Robin! Stop that!" I put my hand on my forehead as Robin laughed.

"Anyways, perhaps the same thing can happen to you?" I said once Robin stopped laughing "There are many tacticians throughout history that can be summoned to Askr. Maybe they can relate to you?"

"Yeah, it can happen" Robin took a sip of water "I've already made close friends with Jeorge due to us both being strategists. All I need is someone like that, but female"

"Hopefully I can summon someone exactly like that soon!" I laughed "Looks like you're finished. Ready to go out?"

"Yep, I'm done. Time to go to the general store, lover boy" Robin teased.

"Shut up Robin"

The Voting Gauntlet chapters are taking more time than I thought, so I'm splitting it up in two, three days each. As always, thanks for the follows, favorites and reviews. Until next time summoners!