Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

The next round of summoning went smoothly for a change, with three Sparrows, one Wind Squirrel, and a Forest Sprite in the group, which was a bit startling. The summoner was the youngest among the group, and if Wolfe's guess was right, she had never cast any curses. She was mostly there as a trainee, and he knew she had been called up from the reserves for the mission.

That would leave her aura fairly clear, by Fae standards, and the Forest Sprite was a Rank Two Fae, who could likely cleanse the corruption, though not as easily as the Leprechaun had.

"Next up, I would like to call up the Rank Three Witches. The sun and moon are both in the sky now, and according to our studies, this should be the perfect time to do a more powerful summoning." Cassie instructed the Witches.

Though they knew that they were the sample group to find out if being one day from the theoretical optimum made any real difference, the powerful Familiars that the other Witches had gotten were enough to assure them that they would still be doing better than if they had done the summoning at home.

The first six took to the stage, and began to draw power through the markings on the platform.

The runes began to actually glow, and the room turned pale blue with the light of their magic, like moonlight reflected on the water, and then the faintest of golden glows began to form in the clouds as they grew.

Dark and Light, wind and fire. Four of the five elements were clearly visible, and the fifth might be under their feet, hidden by the glow of the runes. It seemed like a positive sign to Wolfe, and the thrumming energy of the six spells in unison felt right to his mana sense, not flawed or imbalanced, as a single Element spell would be.

Wolfe felt an impact against the city's barriers, something trying to break the [Kind Intentions] barrier, and one of the clouds abruptly vanished, leaving the witch confused. She immediately restarted the spell, wondering if she had done something wrong, and the cloud reformed as it should, leaving her only a half minute behind her peers, whose new Familiars were beginning to take form.

Three of them were Lightning Wolves, one was a Blood Claw Grizzly, and one was a Phoenix, a flaming red bird that was happily flying around the room, leaving a trail of smoke and magic.

Only the Phoenix of the group was Rank Three, but the Blood Claw Grizzly was very close to advancing, and its aura was already unstable with overflowing power.

The four witches with Familiars on the ground reached out to touch their new companions, and the massive bear gently patted his new mistress on the head with a paw larger than her torso. The contact caused a sudden jolt of mana between them, and the beast evolved before their eyes, gaining a spark of fire in its fur, and what looked like red metallic armour that Wolfe recognized as [Fire Armour], which a normal member of its species couldn't use. They were naturally water elemental beasts, with an affinity for blood magic.

They were just stepping down to let the next group come up when the final Familiar of their group appeared, an odd-looking hound, built like a Saint Bernard, but with tentacles hanging from its upper lip, and glowing golden eyes.

"It's a baby Mana Beast." One of the spectators whispered, afraid to break the mood of awe that the beast's appearance had brought.

[Yes, we have finally broken free. Take that, you miserable old bitch.] The creature's voice projected into everyone's mind, and Wolfe felt a sense of familiarity with the energy.

"Are you the same Mana Beast that was in these witches' capital city?" He asked curiously, drawing them from their reverie.

"I was. Or part of me was, I should say. I have some memories of that beast, but I was recreated by magic during the summoning spell. It took them a few tries, but here I am, free of the Saints' power." The hound cackled in a very human way, and the witches on the platform gathered around it.

"Does that mean..." One of them asked.

"Oh no, It's impossible for that body to die, those two Crones are too powerful for that, but now there are two Mana Beasts in the world again, and this one is outside their influence."

"I get it, you can still hear the mind of the other one, so you are linked somehow, right?" The witch who summoned the mana beast asked.

"That's right. I can feel the mana of the world, and as I grow, I will be able to do more with it. So, I expect you to become the next Saint, I won't accept anything less from my summoner."

Wolfe wasn't sure she even had the potential to reach Rank Four, but with this new Familiar, who knew how far she could go. The full-grown version could awaken Witches to their full potential and even advance them by manipulating the mana of their bodies, so this one might have the potential to do the same eventually.

The mana beast stepped down from the stage, and gestured with its paw for the next group to go up, so it obviously had some idea of what was going on here and hadn't gone in blind, thanks to the efforts of its progenitor. Or perhaps mother would be the right word? Wolfe wasn't sure how Mana Beasts usually procreated.

The next group took the stage, and Wolfe frowned as the clouds all turned black the moment they began to form. If this was another group of Casino workers or regulars, he was definitely going to have Khalifa talk to the Leprechaun about his gambling issues. Though, she might already be interested in knowing what he was doing in a Demonic Casino in the lower planes to begin with. The Fae and the Demons weren't exactly enemies, but it would be an enormous stretch to call them friendly with each other.

The clouds coalesced, and the six Demons showed themselves to the gathered crowd. Two spectres, a pair of Undead Knights, complete with lances and armour much shinier than Grok's had been, which Wolfe was sure the Goblin would be annoyed about if they were to ever meet, and finally a Hellhound and some sort of overgrown Imp.

The Imp was wearing simple leather armour with a black traveller's robe, but otherwise seemed to be the same as his smaller Rank One kin.

"Is it possible that we're getting multiples of similar species because we're activating the spells at the same time, and it's looking for Familiars in the same regions?" One of the witches who had gotten an Undead Knight as her new partner asked.

Wolfe looked to Cassie, who shrugged her shoulders. "It's possible. We've never had so many powerful Witches to do the summoning at once, but it makes sense given what we're seeing. Would the next group like to start five or ten seconds apart? If not, you can take your chances with getting the same as someone else."