Nick stretched, sitting up in his bed. As he looked around the room he could tell it was the same room he had went to sleep in, he was still stuck in the other world. As Nick looked to the clock his eyes shot open. "Fuck, it's already seven, I need to get a bath and eat fast!" Nick quickly got up and removed his now clean pajamas and put on a t-shirt and pants that closely resembled jeans.
After a fast bath and an even faster breakfast Nick jogged to the gym where Kane was, he was ten minutes early. Guess I could have bathed for a few more minutes... Nick walked in and was greeted by Kane who gave him a slightly suspicious look.
"Huh, I didn't even know you had different clothes from what you usually wear. Why the sudden change?"
"No reason, really. I just felt like wearing something different."
"Fair enough I suppose, go hang that bag up." Kane said, pointing to the punching bag on the floor in the corner of the room.
The rest of the training was relatively ordinary, Kane was focusing on the basics. Nick wanted to move on to more advanced stuff, but Kane decided it was best to stick to the basics until they felt natural in order to build a strong foundation. It was now twenty minutes until Nick had to meet Rolfe, Kane decided to use this time as a cool down period for them so Nick wasn't exhausted going into Rolfe's training.
"I heard you talked to Rolfe about summoning a familiar and about joining the adventurers guild." Kane commented as he moved the punching bag they had used to the adjacent storage room.
"Ah, yeah. He mentioned familiars when he was talking about stuff I would need to do before I could even think about joining the adventurers guild. I thought it sounded cool, so I wanted to try it." Nick was sitting on the floor, catching his breath.
"I think it is too early for you, but Rolfe was willing to let you try as long as the guard approved it."
"Do you know what they decided yet?"
"Yeah..."
"And?" Nick was shaking with anticipation, he realized that the chances were low that he would be allowed to summon a familiar, but there was a small chance that he would be able to.
"Both the royal and castle guard denied it almost immediately."
Nick could feel his heart shatter, he thought he was prepared to be rejected but it was a lot more disheartening than he had anticipated. "Oh..."
"Luckily for you, the royal family overruled the decision. They arranged for the summoning to happen today."
Nick was not sure if he should be happy or suspicious. "Why would they do that? And when is it?"
"They didn't give a reason, as they don't have to. As for when it will happen, it should be right when we arrive." Kane said, exiting the storage room.
Nick could feel himself becoming anxious, he was both excited and nervous to know what kind of familiar he would summon or how it would act. He was suddenly full of energy. "Then let's go!" He had a large smile on his face, not making any effort to hide it.
Kane sighed. "Alright then, let's get going."
Nick and Kane quickly left for the summoning room, it was the room everyone used when summoning their familiar. It was heavily fortified to contain and combat anything people may summon just in case it rampaged. Nick could feel his heart beat faster with every minute that passed until they came to a large set of metal doors with a heavily armored guard on each side. At this point his heart was nearly beating out of his chest.
"They are ready for you." One guard said as they both walked to the large door handles and used both hands in order to open the doors. Nick couldn't even guess how heavy those doors must have been if those highly trained guards were straining to open them. The room was surprisingly well lit with torches, there were no windows that a familiar could use to escape. There was also a giant white symbol on the ground that looked to be some kind of magic circle.
"Wow..." Was all Nick could say as they entered, Rolfe and the royal guard captain were standing in the middle of the room inside the circle. As they approached the circle the royal guard captain began to approach Nick. Now that he could see her he could see that she didn't look any older than his mom and she had graying hair. She was also a couple inches taller than Nick and had green eyes, she was in a full suit of plate armor, just like the guards outside the door.
"Hello, my name is Kendra Campbell, I am the captain of the royal guard. I believe we have met, but not officially yet." Kendra held out her hand for Nick to shake.
He shook her hand. "Ah, I am Nick, but you already know that..." He had never actually seen her outside of that dark interrogation room so he had not realized who she was until she introduced herself.
"I apologized for the presence of so many guards. Normally there wouldn't be more than a couple people and guards here to make sure this goes smoothly, but you are considered a VIP, so..." Nick hadn't noticed until she mentioned it, but there were at least twenty armored guards in the room.
"It's fine, I don't mind it." That was a lie, but he figured it would be easier to go along with it.
"Well, Rolfe, Kane, and I will be standing outside the circle as you summon, if anything goes wrong we will protect you until the other guards take care of the threat. You will stand in the center of the circle and Rolfe will instruct you. Good luck." Kendra motioned to Kane and Rolfe as they moved away from the circle.
Nick could tell she wasn't sincerely wishing him good luck, he imagined she was annoyed that they needed to waste so much manpower for this. "Alright..." Nick walked into the circle, making his way to the center. The circle was massive, with a diameter of at least a hundred feet. "I'm ready."
"Alright, what you want to do is summon a large amount of mana and channel it into the magic circle. It is not hard to do, just focus on forcing your mana to the ground, the circle should absorb it." Rolfe instructed.
Nick took a deep breath and summoned his mana, he directed it to the ground and watched as the circle lit up with a blue light. "That's good, concentrate on doing that." Nick nodded, channeling a steady stream of mana into the circle. He began to feel weird, it was similar to what he felt when being healed or when using his shock magic, but it was distinctly different. The circle grew brighter with each second.
"Close your eyes and concentrate, slowly a name should start to form in your mind. Once the name becomes clear you must say it as pouring as much mana as possible into the circle." Nick closed his eyes, after a minute a name started to form in his mind. At first it was fuzzy, he couldn't make it out. The more mana he poured into the circle the clearer it became. After ten minutes he could see the name clearly.
"Azara!" Nick nearly shouted, summoning as much mana as he could and forcing it into the magic circle as it brightened even further. Not even a second after Nick shouted the name a pillar of flame erupted inside the circle not far from him. His eyes shot open once he felt the sudden heat and heard the flames. Everyone in the room, including the royal guard captain, seemed to tense up as they placed their hands on the hilts of their weapons. Once the fire dissipated Nick could hardly believe his eyes.
There was a Woman sitting on the ground, her eyes wide as she looked around in confusion and shock. She had long blood red hair that hung down to the middle of her back, black horns, reptilian eyes that looked to be a similar color to the flames she was just inside, and her skin was extremely tan. Her horns were strange, the horn on the left side of her head was long and tapered to a point, but the horn on the right side of her head was just a stump. Nick could hear the people all around him talking in hushed tones as they waited to see what the woman, who was obviously a demon, would do. Nick couldn't move.
Azara continued to look around, her eyes wide until her eyes settled on Nick and she got a mischievous grin. "My, It has been a very long time since I was last summoned, but I think it is the first time I've been summoned by such a young human." She slowly stood up and began to walk closer to Nick, everyone in the room began to get even tenser, ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. They normally would have already, but Azara was not acting like she was planning to attack.
It surprised Nick how tall she was, she must have been at least six feet tall. It took a moment for Nick to notice however, considering what the demon was currently wearing. She was wearing clothes made of rough brown leather, the closest thing Nick could compare her clothes to would be a tube top and a skirt. She wore nothing else, not even shoes, and Nick couldn't help but stare. Azara noticed and couldn't help but let out a short laugh.
"It's not polite to stare." Azara had a sweet and slightly seductive tone to her voice, though Nick was still far too distracted to pick up on that fact. Azara was now no more than a foot away from Nick. She bent her knees to get on eye level with him, Nick moved his eyes to meet hers and was startled by how bright they were. Azara's face changed from one of mischief to one of amused curiosity as she looked into Nick's eyes.
"You have a fire inside of you... I like it." Azara stood up straight again, Nick finally snapped out of his daze.
"So, uh, y-you are my familiar?"
"Not yet, but it does seem that you summoned me." Azara looked over Nick slowly. "You seem interesting enough, I'll allow you to be my master." After she said that Nick could no longer speak, it was as if an apple was stuck in his throat that prevented him from speaking. Azara laughed again.
"This should be fun... Well, let's shake on it then, to seal the deal. Once we shake I will officially be your familiar and you can summon me whenever you want. And you can also make me do whatever you want..." Azara winked, she was truly a demon.
Nick's mind was still reeling, but he shook her hand. "Alright..." Once Nick let go of her hand he felt a burning sensation on his neck, a black burn mark appearing on his skin. Nick yelled in pain as he clasped his hand over the burning spot on the right side of his neck. "That's my mark, it will appear whenever I am summoned. Don't worry though, it only hurts the first time."
The burning pain slowly lessened, Nick letting go of his neck. "Looks good on you. Well, call me when you need me. I'm going back to hell, as you humans would call it." Azara burst into flames and disappeared without a trace as the magic circle stopped glowing. Nick dropped to his knees, feeling dizzy from using so much mana. He could hear three people running up to him.
"Man, I knew you were something, kid, but a demon familiar? Wow..." Nick could hear Rolfe say. Nick looked up at the three, Rolfe had a proud and happy look on his face, but Kane and Kendra looked displeased.
"Yeah, he is something alright, that demon could have killed us all. I'm just glad it's power is sealed now that it's his familiar..." Kendra said, sighing. Nick got a confused look on his face.
"What do you mean her power is sealed?"
"When a familiar is summoned it's power is sealed or boosted to a point where it is similar to its master's." It was going to take him a while to get used to the word 'master' being thrown around.
"Man, I'm beat. Who would have guessed that summoning a demon takes a lot out of you?" Nick joked, attempting to lighten the mood. Rolfe seemed to be the only one amused by his attempt at humor.
"Yes, well, you will have the rest of the day off. Once you recover you can summon your pet demon and get to know it. Bonding is an important part of the relationship between a familiar and their master." Kane had a strange tone to his voice, it had a hint of fear and worry.
"Alright. Come to think of it, how do I summon her again?"
"Ah, just focus your mana where your familiar's mark had showed up and call out their name." Rolfe seemed to be the only one acting normal.
"Alright... Well, I'm going to go get some food and then try to get to know my familiar." Nick was picking up on the strange vibe in the room, it was starting to make him uncomfortable. If they replied in any way Nick didn't hear it as he made his exit. One of the guards near the door knocked on the door as Nick approached to signal the guards on the other side to open it.
Nick quickly forgot about the strange behavior shown by Kane and even Kendra as he ate. By the time he headed back to his room he had already pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. He was interested in getting to know a demon, even if the demon seemed to enjoy making him uncomfortable. Nick closed and locked his door before taking a look at the clock. Two in the afternoon, I guess I can spare some time.
Nick stood on the center of his room and focused mana near where he had felt the burning sensation before, calling out the name of his new familiar. "Azara!" The sudden appearance of a giant fire ball in front of him surprised him to the point that he nearly fell backwards.
"You called, Master?" Azara had a devious grin on her face as the fire disappeared, as if she was plotting something. Nick felt slightly unsettled by it.
"Ah, yeah, I thought we should get to know each other if we will be working together."
Azara got a confused look on her face. "Huh, I didn't expect this to be a social call, not many people think about talking to demons." Azara sat in a nearby chair.
Nick looked at the area where she appeared, the wood did not seem to be even slightly damaged by the flames that Azara had arrived in. "Why didn't your flames harm the wooden floor?"
"Ah, for one reason or another that specific fire is non-destructive to anything that is not alive. It also doesn't harm my current master. None of my fire magic can harm you, actually, that is part of our contract."
"I see... So you can use fire magic?"
"Yep, I can also use a decent amount of neutral magic."
"Neutral Magic? What is that?" Nick couldn't recall ever hearing of neutral magic.
"Stuff like hardening, enchanting, dispel, transportation, charming, illusion, and stuff like that. They are types of magic that anyone can use regardless of affinity." Azara smiled.
Nick could remember Rolfe mentioning a couple of those, but he was so distracted by the idea of summoning a familiar that he had completely forgotten until just now. He could also recall the mention of transportation magic when he first arrived. "Huh, think you could teach me some of those one day?"
"Sure, I don't see why not. I have to do anything my master asks, anyway. And I do mean anything." Azara winked, Nick could feel himself blush.
"Is there anything else you can do?" Azara looked to be deep in thought for a second.
"I can turn into weapons." Nick could feel his eyes almost bulge out of his head, of all things that seriously took him by surprise.
"Turn into a weapon?"
"Yeah, I can turn into any simple weapon. Sword, bow, crossbow, dagger, even a shield. However, I can only turn into weapons. I can't become something like a helmet unless that helmet is somehow a weapon."
"So, you could become a helmet if it had a spike or something on it, then?"
"I suppose so, yeah."
"Huh..." Nick's mind began to race with possibilities for that ability. "Is there anything else I should know about that ability?"
"Yeah, when I'm in weapon form I am nearly indestructible. I can also use magic while in weapon form by doing something like igniting myself. Seeing as my fire can't harm my Master it is completely safe for you."
"As a weapon wouldn't you still be as heavy as you are right now?"
"I can adjust my weight in weapon form, I can be anywhere from one pound to my current weight which is 140 pounds."
"That's useful... I'm surprised though, I didn't even know demons could be familiars. Or that they had these kinds of abilities."
"It's rare, I haven't been summoned in over two hundred years." That caught Nick's attention.
"Two hundred years? How old are you?"
"Didn't you know it's rude to ask a woman her age?" she giggled as she watched Nick squirm and apologize. "I'm two thousand years old technically, though I have only been a demon for a thousand years."
Nick raised an eyebrow. "What were you before that point."
"I would rather not talk about that..." Azara's suddenly serious tone shocked him slightly, but he took the hint and didn't press her on the matter.
"Can I see you in weapon form?" Nick was curious, he also suspected it would be a good idea to change the subject.
"Ah, sure, what do you want me to become?" Azara looked slightly excited.
"Uh... A sword."
"What kind of sword?"
Nick took a second to think about that question, he did not know many specific types of swords, but there was one that came to mind. "How about a bastard sword?"
"I can do that." With a sly grin Azara burst into flame and a sword appeared, the entire sword was a dark black metal besides the brown leather wrapping around the grip.
"Wow..." Nick walked over to the sword that used to be Azara and tried to pick it up, only to not be able to budge it.
"Oh, sorry, forgot to make myself lighter. It's been a while." Nick raised an eyebrow in shock.
"You can still talk? But you don't have a mouth..."
"Yeah, I don't quite know how that works either, but if it makes you feel better..." Azara went quiet for a second before her voice appeared in Nick's mind. "I can talk to you like this when I'm in sword form."
"What the..." Nick began to look around himself, as if he actually expected to find something.
"Telepathy, one of the special perks of the contract. All familiars and their masters can talk this way. It's simple, just think about the person and attempt to send your thoughts to that person. It's kind of like prayer in a way." Azara explained.
Nick shrugged and closed his eyes, focusing on Azara and sending one of this thoughts to her. "Like this?" Nick had no idea if it worked on not.
"Yeah, just like that. Now, why don't you pick me up and give me a few swings?"
Nick grabbed the sword by the hilt and picked it up, this time it was much more manageable at four pounds. Nick gave it a few practice swings, trying not to hit anything. "Man, you have horrible form... Have you never used a sword before?" Nick was busted, he had never swung a sword in his life.
"No, up until a little while ago I was actually paralyzed from the neck down."
"Interesting... Well, you should probably learn how to use a weapon of some kind."
"Kane, my trainer, probably won't even let me touch a sword until I master hand to hand combat."
"I think I have an idea..."
Nick raised an eyebrow in curiosity, the sword becoming engulfed in flame before turning into something different. Azara was now a leather glove with black metal covering the back of the hand and the sections of finger in-between the finger joints. However, there was only one glove and it was for his right hand. "One glove?"
"I can only become one weapon at a time..."
"Oh."
"This way it's almost like I'm not here and you also have a stylish and practical glove. However, the mark on your neck kind of gives me away."
"Oh, I forgot about that." Nick walked over to a nearby mirror and looked at the mark on the right side of his neck. It was near his collarbone and looked much like the magic circle that was on the floor in the summoning room. The mark looked like it was branded on.
"Whenever I'm not here that will disappear, but if you get self conscious while I'm summoned you can always wear a scarf or something."
"I don't mind it, I think it looks kind of cool."
Fire quickly engulfed Nick's hand and shot to the floor near him, growing in size before dissipating to reveal Azara in her normal form. "I hope you liked the demonstration." Azara grinned in satisfaction.
"Yeah, I learned a lot. Is it uncomfortable to be used as a weapon?"
"Not really, it feels about as natural as this form. I also can't feel anything that happens in weapon form." Azara began to stretch. "I do get a little bit stiff though, maybe you can give me a massage?"
Nick blushed. "A-ah... No, I think I will pass on that."
"Aw." Azara pouted. "Well, let me know if you ever get stiff and I'll give you a massage." Azara winked, though Nick had already averted his eyes in embarrassment, so he didn't see.
"Well, it's getting late. I think that is enough getting to know each other for today." Azara chuckled at Nick's subject change, claiming it was late when it has only been twenty minutes since she had been summoned.
"Alright, I'll get going then. Call me when you need me." Once more the now familiar flames appeared and then disappeared, taking Azara with them.
"I need some rest..." Nick groaned, flopping face first onto his bed. "Too bad it is still early."