In a certain forest in the middle of nowhere, the trees swayed as their luscious branches made a natural canopy.
The birds chirped as the area quickly came to life. Close by, the sound of a stream could be heard. The wind picked up, blowing a few fallen leaves to an unknown destination.
As it moved, the leaves blew past a clearing in the forest. In the middle of the clearing, a certain teenager sat on top of a boulder, meditating.
He sat in a lotus position, shirtless with his palms joined together to form the shape of a triangle.
His breathing was measured and his aura… calm.
Without warning, he suddenly reached out and grabbed one of the floating leaves. Feeling its texture, Max opened his eyes.
Rubbing his fingers on the leaf, he smiled. "I did it."
A year had passed since Max was disowned. He left with his godfather, Regard to an unknown destination.
Along the way, he ended up taking him as his mentor.
Over the year, he was subjected to a myriad of trials and tests, narrowly succeeding, all in a bid to make his first contact with Ordena.
Ordena… the force that exists within all things living and unliving. It powered the concept of natural laws in the Samsara.
The three great laws of Time, Space, and Reality were dependent on its existence.
Without it, the world would be an empty shell void of life.
Max recalled the words of Regard.
….
"Without Ordena, living things would quickly die out. It is the origin essence of our world thus being able to tap into it would not be an easy feat."
….
Max clenched his fist. The first step to becoming a Sage was to sense Ordena and right now, at this very moment, he had made that step.
Naturally, he felt joyous.
"Who cares if I can't use magic, I'm definitely going to reach the top as a Sage." He mused with a happy expression.
With Ordena, Max felt closer to nature. In fact, he felt as though the forest area energized him. This feeling made him have a certain thought.
"The forest can be said to be an area brimming with vitality as a result of the excess Ordena that flows within it… I guess that's why to become one with nature is one of the criteria to become a Sage."
Taking a deep breath, Max sensed a few changes occurring in his body. At this moment, he was no longer a normal human.
Just as he was about to jump down from the boulder to perform a celebratory dance, he whipped his head to the left. He sensed something.
Regard stood beside a tree, silently evaluating Max with a smile. "So you have grasped the initial stage."
Max felt accomplished as he put up his chin. "But of course, I am a genius after all."
"Heh… a genius wouldn't try to kill himself as many times as you have attempted. That would be depriving the world of his talents."
Max turned his face away. "No need to bring that up." He muttered.
Watching his reaction, Regard chuckled as he approached him. "Don't think about it. Sensing Ordena is the first step to becoming a hermit. Do you know what the second step is?"
Max shook his head. "What is it!"
"A means to collect it. I guess I should tell you this… When one attempts to manipulate Ordena, it can get extremely violent. It is like a creature that does not like to be controlled."
Max furrowed his brows. "Then how do you use it?"
"Simple, you have to make it understand that you aren't trying to control it, instead, you are merely altering its path, directing it toward a certain destination." Regard explained.
"You make it sound like Ordena is a living being."
Regard pursed his lips. "You can take it like that. Think of Ordena as the consciousness of this world, so imagine how it would feel having to listen to the whims of a hormonal teenager?"
Max snorted. "…I am not hormonal."
"We'll see." Regard rolled his eyes before getting back on topic. "In any case, I want to take you somewhere."
Max instantly became excited. "Where are we headed?"
For a whole year, he was secluded in a forest, eating, sleeping and training. He had just about had it with the monotonous routine.
"Calm yourself, just because you learned the first step to becoming a Sage… that doesn't mean you are ready for anything." Regard remarked, casually dousing the flames of Max's excitement.
"Wait for a bit." Regard turned away and quickly began to draw something on the grass
A few minutes later and he was finally done. Max glanced at his finished work to find that it was a magic circle with a peculiar pattern.
"You want to perform a summon?" Max asked.
Regard shook his head. "Not quite. More like I want to reverse summon."
Max was visibly confused. "Reverse summon?"
"Yep. You understand that summoning involves humans pulling beings from the other realms into our own…" Regard trailed off, waiting for Max to understand.
Max thought for a moment before muttering. "So reverse summoning would be humans transporting to the other realms… wait, you can do that?"
Regard shrugged. "Naturally. Of course, reverse summoning is a dangerous affair so it's not something that can be easily done, keep that in mind."
Max nodded in understanding but his body was shaken. "To be able to reverse summon, Mentor must be a really powerful guy."
He had been with Regard for the better part of a year, thus, Max had more or less placed a certain level of expectation when it came to how powerful he was.
Without knowing it, he was subconsciously anticipating what sort of creature Regard would be contracted to.
"Surely a Divinity."
At the same time as Max was lost in his thoughts, Regard stood in front of the magic circle and began to perform hand seals in quick succession.
His hands flowed like water and within a few breaths, he was done. Going further, he dropped to the ground on one knee and slammed his palms on the magic circle.
Fwoom
Wind currents picked up as the trees and grass swayed in tandem.
Max stared wide-eyed as he anticipated the creature that would appear, the phenomenon occurring pushed his expectations up a notch.
Suddenly there was an explosion of white smoke.
The smoke cleared due to the raging wind but then… there was nothing.
No, wait… Max moved his gaze down to find a frog standing in the middle of the magic circle.
Ribbit
"What the fuck is that!!!"