Things beyond our understanding happen every moment, large amounts of energy travel through the void that represents space, black holes swallow worlds in seconds, and the birth of new stars, things that escape our comprehension pass before our eyes. One must look at the sky and imagine beyond what their eyes see, never feel alone because even in the vastness of space, we are not alone.
A rooster crows outside, perched on a wooden fence. -EEEeeeee….it's already morning… IT'S MORNING ALREADY-
A thud sounds along the cold wooden floor as large limbs start to move, a small door opens as some clothes fall onto a large mattress, other voices appear in the room and upon realizing the situation, they begin to hurry, rummaging through their wardrobes.
"TODAY IS FINALLY THE DAY OF OUR SUMMONING OF COMPANIONS, AREN'T YOU EXCITED, GIRLS?" someone says.
"Don't get too excited. As far as we know, only a few succeed in summoning a companion, so keep your expectations low. Besides, His Highness will also be here to perform the hero's summoning, and that will indeed be the main attraction of the day," says another person while fixing their hair.
"Come on, don't be such a party pooper. Even if none of us gets a familiar, we'll be together as a group of adventurers, right?" says someone with enthusiasm in their words.
"Of course, and besides, who can resist having a blade, a cat-girl, and me, a succubus, all together? Plus, it'll be the first time in years that a blade conjures a familiar, right, Thalía?" says the succubus.
"Indeed, it will also be the first time a succubus becomes a holy paladin. Now you can wield your greatsword with more zeal, Lady Tereria," Thalía mentions.
"... And is no one going to say anything about me? AM I THE ONLY ONE WITHOUT ANY SPECIAL TRAIT?"
"You're a beast girl; your people have always had great skill with weapons. Also, most of them have a familiar matching their level, which already makes you someone with natural talent, cat-ears," says Tereria while Thalía nods.
"I ALREADY TOLD YOU MY NAME IS VERONICA, V, E, R, O, N, I, C, A," she says while pouting.
"Yeah, yeah, I heard you, cat-ears," Tereria says, teasingly.
All of them leave their room on top of their friend, the blade, heading towards a large building where more students are heading with both high and low morale. Among them, you can see humans, beast girls, elves, dark elves, and half-humans, all gathered in a school that allows free education for everyone.
Our girls form different lines, each one looking at the center of the building where a large round platform stands adorned with various colored crystals, and in the middle, there are inscriptions and magical symbols. A teacher steps forward in front of the students and gives a speech, expressing pride in everyone for reaching this stage of their academic training. He also adds the pride of having the princess, who studies there, and that the school has the honor of receiving the hero who will defeat the demon king and bring peace.
At the end of a figure, a presence emerges in the middle of the room, and everyone steps aside in the face of its presence as it makes its way to the platform. It was the princess herself, accompanied by three priests who carried three weapons: a bow, a staff, and a sword. The princess walks to a small golden bowl with a small blade. She delicately places her hand on the blade, causing a bit of blood to emerge, which quickly evaporates, initiating the summoning ritual.
"Earth, air, fire, and wind, please, by the hand of our goddess who, in her mercy, granted me the power to bring peace to this kingdom and the world, grant me a warrior who wields his sword justly and who will defeat evil. BRING FORTH THE HEROES WHO WILL SAVE THIS WORLD."
Her words cause the marks to glow, illuminating the place with a white light for several seconds, until three figures appear in the midst of it, two girls and a boy, all dressed in the same style.
The princess and her companions approach them, handing each of them a weapon. The boy receives the sword, the girl on the left is given the bow, and the last girl receives the staff. The three of them look at their weapons with confusion, but it doesn't take long for one of them to speak up.
"Is this real?"
"This is as real as you heroes are. I summoned you here because you are the greatest champions of this world, and the fate of the world rests in your hands," says the princess as she approaches the three summoned individuals.
"This is so sudden. Guys?" says the girl with the staff.
The three of them are nervous about the sudden appearance:
"Don't worry, heroes. Everything will be revealed in due time. For now, I ask you to look around this room and show your weapons as a first act of heroism," says the princess, holding them all together by the hand.
At first, they show little interest, but the boy among them steps forward and displays his sword, which starts to shine. Seeing this, the other girls follow his lead, and all the onlookers cheer with joy at the arrival of the three heroes.
After a few minutes, they are taken to one of the balconies to observe how the students are summoning their familiars.
"Look, I managed to summon this northern hound. It doesn't look adorable yet, but it's still small. Will it grow, maybe? Hahaha," says Veronica while showing the canine.
"I brought a three-eyed cat. What should I call it?" says Tereria as she observes it.
"I think it's called 'Dream Explorers.' They have the ability to explore people's memories when they're dreaming. I think they can also show those memories to others while they're dreaming. But no one has summoned one in a hundred years. Lucky you," says Thalía as she pets the cat.
"That's really amazing. Well, I think we're making history, you... You? What should I call you? I think I'll call you Spark. Yes, from now on, you'll be Spark," says Tereria as they all start to pet Spark.
"Well, Thalía, you're the last one. Even though no lamina has been able to summon a familiar, you must know it's not your fault. So, if you don't succeed, you can always tame any beast," says a professor.
"Thank you, professor, but I know I'll succeed. Today, I will be the first to bring forth a familiar through summoning."
"Well, all I can do is wish you luck," the professor says, offering his farewell.
"Go, Thalía! I hope you bring something really cool," Tereria shouts.
"I know you can do it. We'll be cheering for you here," Veronica also shouts.
As she approached the platform, everyone started to look at her. Some whispered that she wouldn't succeed, and others left, confident that nothing would happen. All of this made the poor lamina even more nervous as she got closer to the platform. Even though the wound she caused on her hand hurt, it hurt even more to imagine that she wouldn't succeed. But with a hand on her chest and all her courage, she began to recite:
"Time, grant me a specter from your realm. Emptiness, grant one of your many inhabitants to this prisoner of time. Bring forth a demon from the most confusing realms of your existence, one that exists neither in life nor death."
Some continued watching, while others left with small laughs. At that moment, the world seemed to collapse on the poor lamina. But the platform started to fill with a light that no one could distinguish, and everything around became confusing until a humanoid figure landed from the sky. A beastly girl? No, this was different.
When the gazes returned to the platform, they saw a warrior covered in what seemed to be plates, but how to differentiate them among so many? She had the heads of four wolves attached to her, a truly fascinating and seemingly dangerous creature.
She tried to escape, but chains that emerged from the platform pierced through the warrior without harming her. They entwined around her limbs, trying to extract something from within her. She resisted so much that she almost shattered the platform. She roared like a beast, filling everyone with fear. But in the end, the chains pulled someone out from within her. What they pulled out was a white-haired boy with blood-red eyes.
He was still bound by the chains, trying to free himself, but the lamina, in an attempt to complete the summoning, wound her long body around the young man, and with him vulnerable, she approached and kissed him, completing the ritual.
"Now you will be my familiar, and together, we will make history."
"what?"
hours before
Many years have passed, and throughout these years I've witnessed many struggles, wars where many lost their lives, but life goes on, and all of this fades away with time or death, but death for us Tennons is something we can only witness. It's more reflected in the melancholy of some, but of course, not all of us can cling to the past. Everyone dreams of bringing order to the origin system.
Some sheathe their weapons to live a life far from any dispute or guerrilla that occurs. Well, everyone has their own perspectives on how to pass the time. But well, I left everything behind for one thing: TO LEAVE THIS SOLAR SYSTEM.
"THE TIME HAS COME TO LEAVE THIS PLACE AND SEE OTHER WORLDS, OTHER SUNS, AND SEE WHAT I CAN SEE BEYOND."
"Operator, are you sure about this?"
"WELL, OF COURSE I AM. THAT'S WHY I MODIFIED THE REILJAK TO BRING THE ORBITER ALONG."
"I ask you to lower your voice; we can hear you throughout the ship," another voice says.
"Well, everything is ready to initiate the jump to Saturn to start the journey, and of course, there's the matter of..."
(sounds of a tablet being written on) "I'll miss everyone else. But the Tennos from the council let you go, didn't they?"
"Yes, but if no one finds out for the time being that I've left, there won't be a problem," I said while checking the systems again.
(sounds of a tablet being written on) "Didn't you put a message under a statuette specifying that you'd leave?"
"...No... Well, enough with the questions and unnecessary things. CY, prepare the jump to Saturn, and from there, we'll make a jump..."
"You don't know where, right?"
"Truthfully, no, but I know we'll at least go somewhere, so don't worry, Ordis," I said as the engines executed the jump.
The journey didn't last long.
"Well, Ordis and Cy, I'll put this little thing in the center of the ship."
-WAIT A SECOND, what is that little thing? - Ordis said.
-This is a small update that will allow us to traverse the Void without the help of a solar rail - I said as I prepared it.
-Will the same thing happen as last time you had me put on something similar to find your sister? - Ordis said with some concern.
-... Maybe not... Well, the important thing is that this will get us out, so less complaining and more action -
When I was installing it, Ordis started speaking strangely and after a few minutes, returned to normal.
-Well, I guess it worked. Alright, Ordis, you can locate the "entry" now.
Yes... but this is very strange. Okay, I'm calibrating the final data... Alright, it's done. Cy, I have the route ready. I'm giving you the jump location in this direction.
-Well, that will have to wait. A void storm is approaching. If we leave now, we could have problems.
-Dominos, just when things are going well. Sister, go to your room. I need to secure a few things.
I approached the front of the ship and activated shields for this type of problem. At first, there was some turbulence, and the whole ship went dark.
After a few hours, it seemed like it had passed, and I started lowering the shields. But when they cleared, I saw a meadow with several trees in front of me, and the ship was placed in the middle of it.
-Ordis, can you stop playing with the environmental settings, or do you want me to disconnect you?
-I haven't done anything. I don't know how, but we've appeared on land. Maybe the void storm moved us to a different location?
-But that doesn't explain why the communication system is dead. All the frequencies we should be receiving are completely silent - Cy said while showing me all the radio lines.
-I don't like this. Storms can interfere with reality and distort it in very specific cases, but this doesn't make sense. Is this another effect of the storm? Cy, check the communication system and reboot it. Maybe it's just a malfunction.
-I already checked that, the communication system is fine. But I'll make some adjustments to see if anything changes.
-Ordis, I want you to conduct a thorough analysis of the entire system's status and see if anything is wrong.
-I'm on it. What will you do?
-I'll check the ship's exterior status and try to figure out where we are.
With that, I head to the armory and equip the Voruna warframe along with two swords. I don't think I should exaggerate this much, but this is so strange that I'd rather be prepared for anything. As I leave the ship, I encounter the complete landscape: large trees and mountains cover everything within my sight.
"I'm not sure if I want to know, but for the sake of the little sanity I have left, I hope we're at least in our own land," I mutter.
Shortly after, my sister approaches and shows me her tablet. "Where are we?" she asks.
"I'm asking myself the same question, and truthfully, I don't know. But I don't think we're outside the origin system," I reply.
My mind fills with potential places we could have ended up, and looking at the ship, it seems to have sustained no damage. "Brother, look at Lua," she says urgently, placing the tablet in front of me.
"What's going on with Lua?" I inquire.
When I look up, I see that what should be Lua now resembles other moons I've seen on different planets. Now I'm feeling a bit fearful, but if, for some reason, I'm in another world or another time, it's strangely fitting to what I initially wanted in all of this.
"Alright, let's head back inside and see if Cy has anything for us," I suggest. We both start making our way back to the ship, but in that moment, I felt the ground open up and swallow me. I couldn't react in time, and it consumed me, causing me to fall onto what appeared to be a platform. I managed to cushion some of the impact with my swords by embedding them into the platform.
When I looked up, I saw several people looking at me in astonishment, but the truth was that I was the one who was utterly astonished. I couldn't believe that this was actually happening—beyond anything I could have imagined, life beyond the origin system is very different from what we initially thought.
Regaining my composure, I saw several men clad in metal approaching me cautiously with swords. In an instant, I jumped forward to escape, but chains prevented me from moving. These chains pierced through the warframe and bound me, and I couldn't understand how that was even possible. I felt my hands and legs being forced out of my warframe.
With all my strength, I struggled to break free, but even with the swords, I achieved nothing. The force of these chains pushed me to the point where I was expelled from my armor. I was exposed to any attack and immediately needed to get back into my armor.
Something entwined around my body, something resembling a large serpent, and before I knew it, a girl kissed me suddenly. It was then that I stopped feeling the chains, and instead, I felt a fleeting burn in my hands.
"Now, you will be my familiar, and together we will make history," she declared.
"…What?" I stammered.