Regal looked around the room, satisfied with his work.
His servant Pamel looked at the result and couldn't hold back his amazement.
"It's a rather large magic circle… you could've just ordered one of the many mages here to do it.
You could've even just used magic to move the chalk" Pamel decided to point out, unsure as to why Regal decided to draw such a circle all by himself without assistance.
"This is why I hate geniuses like you Pamel, you never learn all the theory before practicing magic." Regal sighed as he spoke with such irony.
Regal was no less than the genius of the century, or perhaps in all of history. His age was higher than it looked, but it still wouldn't be enough for a simple talent to reach his stage, the 8th circle.
Pamel did not react as he continued, he simply wished to know the reason. "Please enlighten me".
Regal looked annoyed by the lack of reaction, but he decided to stop wasting time, it would be useful for the surrounding mages to know as well.
"Well you see, my ignorant subordinate, I don't want there to be a mistake in a magic circle as big as this one.
I can only truly confirm the circle's completion if I create all of the circle itself.
I didn't use magic for this process because it could create mana inconsistencies throughout the chalk. It may conduct mana well, but perhaps a little too well, if mana is injected early, it could cause certain parts of the circle to activate earlier or faster than needed and therefore ruin the whole process" Regal explained with a smug face while walking back to the base of the circle.
"And according to the book, this should be where I start injecting mana" He glanced at a small area that looked perfect for him to stand in.
Pamel retrieved a glass of juice he stored at the entrance while Regal was inspecting the circle.
"Would you care for a refreshment after all that drawing?" Pamel said rather casually as he extended the drink to Regal.
"Hmm? I suppose I could." Thinking nothing of it, Regal took the juice and enjoyed it for a few seconds.
Suddenly however, he threw the glass at the wall.
*SHATTER*
"You dare give me a child's drink!?" Regal shouted with embarrassment, he strongly felt that juice was for children and he hated being treated like a child.
Pamel on the other hand, stood with a smirk on his face. Truthfully he also gets annoyed by his master, it's chances like this that he can get back at him.
The surrounding mages were all shocked and afraid. Though who wouldn't be when the strongest mage in history is this angry?
Realising his overreaction, Regal coughed before preparing to speak to the room.
"A-Ahem. All of you spread yourselves equally around the magic circle.
The 6th circle court mages should focus on being equally spaced from each other individually.
Your task is the maintain the shape of the circle once it is activated, however do not inject your mana directly into the circle during the process."
The mages regained their focus and understood their role. They needed to maintain the shape of the circle without injecting mana, this meant creating 'pressure' around the circle outline. They would spread their mana around it as if encasing it.
Taking one more good look, Regal began thinking back to the book. This was originally a spell that used sacrifices as the mana source, so it didn't need a steady input from a mage like him. Naturally, even if the kingdom allowed it, Regal would never do something like sacrifice people.
However it also made things more complicated, this was a spell that manipulated space. If something goes wrong with the spell then everyone in the room may get sucked into quite the disaster. The other mages have not been informed of anything of the sort, they simply know that it's a type of summoning magic.
'The ancients always make things so complicated…' Regal thought to himself while examining the massive magic circle. The ancients didn't layer their circles to make stronger spells, they just made a bigger circle.
Theoretically, it sounds rather logical, a larger circle could hold more mana. But it's also impractical, it takes too long to form and doesn't possess the benefits of combining different circles.
However, it is useful for complicated processes, which is why something as difficult as summoning from another world is in such a large circle. The Archmage himself cannot simply change the spell however he likes, since he hasn't had time to examine it.
He doesn't really want to though, this was a task forced onto him and he simply wants it over with.
He gently breathes in and out to calm his nerves. All the other mages have the more complicated job and are thankfully more relaxed as they don't know the consequences of failure. They could disappear from existence without ever knowing what occurred, though the way Regal sees it, it only makes the job easier.
"I shall begin!" Regal announced before pouring his mana into the circle.
In response, the chalk began to glow, flowing from the spot he stood to the other side of the room. The blue light followed the thick chalk pathways as if water was poured into it, it hastily flowed to the other end. Once it was complete, the overall glow shone brighter for a moment before dimming slightly to its original brightness.
The now-formed magic circle made the mages look upon it in awe.
"Begin!"
At Regal's command, the mages began surrounding the circle contours with their mana, forming a closed system without a gap for mana to leak.
Noticing the process going smoothly he moved closer to the middle where a large gap was left. This was originally where sacrifices were made.
Without wasting time Regal began pouring his mana steadily into the circle.
Each of the four sections of the circle began to move as if they were gears in a machine, they were doing… something.
Suddenly the light from the circle was shining even brighter, the result was getting closer.
"Ngh!" A cry was heard from one of the mages. Regal noticed and checked the situation while maintaining a certain level of focus.
A slight lapse in control from one of the mages caused a leak, high pressure mana was similar to compressed wind. And as if being hit by compressed wind, the leak shot the mage away to the wall behind them.
Regal panicked for but a moment before shifting his focus slightly to maintaining the circle shape. If it was at this level, he could easily multitask.
However, now there was an inconsistency in the pressure created by all the 3rd-circle and few 6th-circle mages. Leaks began appearing on all sides, shooting the mages back. Naturally, they gave up their task in response.
"Fuck…" The spell was almost complete, Regal had no choice but to do the rest himself.
He closed his eyes and breathed lightly and slowly as he closed all the gaps in the magic circle. He had to maintain this state causing the injection of mana to slow significantly.
The amount of mana needed to interfere with space was no joke, but the Archmage was doing all this by himself.
All the mages who were still conscious were amazed.
They weren't aware of how risky this spell was, but they knew that a spell that needed 80 mages could be easily handled by just anyone alone.
No one was truly surprised though, they all never forgot who this man was… The Archmage Regal Riverwood who reached the 8th circle, is the kin of the elves and the man beloved by mana. The ideal existence of a mage.
Throughout their daydreaming, the spell was complete. It took a few minutes of intense focus and slow manipulation of mana, but it was done.
Regal opened his eyes to a young man sitting in front of him, looking around 16 years old with blonde hair and blue eyes.
He stayed silent for a moment.
'That could've been bad… real bad. I've done plenty of training so that my mana control matches up to my power… if it was anyone else they would've been swallowed by space'
His thoughts were then interrupted by a woman to his left.
"U-um… where am I?" The young girl said nervously. She had black hair and seemed similar in age to the boy in front of him.
Regal recalled his initial inspection of the circle, it was divided into four different sections…
He looked around and noticed 2 others sitting in the other sections of the circle.
Remembering his role, Regal cleared his throat and prepared an... explanation of sorts.
"Hello brats, sorry to force this on you, but you've been summoned to kill the demon king", he said without hesitation.
The mages around him sat pathetically on the floor, all thinking of how they felt sorry for those kids… Regal didn't have any thoughts for their situation.
"Ah but also, I'm the one who is going to kill him, so back off" Regal added.
The ones summoned simply looked more and more confused, one of them especially didn't like the attitude of the man standing in the centre of the room.
"You fucker! Stop speaking nonsense, where am I!?" The well-built man to Regal's right suddenly shouted.
"Huh!? Pipe down will you?! My head hurts after all that summoning!" Regal shouted in response.
Pamel stood back up as one of the mages that got pushed to the ground. He couldn't help but facepalm at his master who held no consideration for these people.
"Summoning..? Is that what happened to me- to us?" The girl from before spoke up again.
Noticing her words the other summoned looked around and realised the four of them seemed to be in the same situation.
"Tch that's right… ugh, that took more of a toll than I thought" Regal groaned slightly as he answered.
All sorts of thoughts were going through the heads of the summoned heroes, but Regal didn't even have any reception prepared for them. He just planned to hand them over to the king.
"Listen up, there someone who can explain this situation better than I can so I'll take you to him.
Of course, if you prefer not to get your questions answered then just stay here and awkwardly stand with the other mages.
As he turned around he once again noticed the final summoned hero. He didn't notice anything at first but as he walked past her, he couldn't help but stop and look more closely.
"You…" He spoke without finishing, and the girl looked puzzled in response as she stood up to follow him.
'Interesting… I guess it's the same for the others', Regal thought.
He once again looked at the rest of the heroes who had now stood up to follow him. Even the aggressive one from earlier decided to silently follow for now.
"Let's go", Regal said with a casual tone.
He walked toward the royal audience chamber with four heroes behind him. His interest was now piqued and walked with a now clear smile on his face.
This task that Regal originally thought was annoying, was now becoming something he was glad had occurred.
After a minute or so of walking, Regal and the heroes had almost reached the audience chamber.
The blonde man whom Regal first saw decided to speak up. "Uh… sir… mage?" He inquired, remembering the earlier term.
"Just call me Regal, kid" he responded with a relaxed tone. Far more relaxed than a moment earlier.
Noticing the change in atmosphere the man decided to continue.
"W-where are we? Just a moment ago I was at school-" he was suddenly cut off by Regal.
"School? I didn't realise I had summoned nobles… though I guess it doesn't matter" Regal spoke his thoughts, the true meaning behind his words pointing toward the short girl he noticed earlier. His interest was seemingly biased to a specific hero.
He looked toward the small girl and asked "Are you also a noble?"
The girl suddenly became quite nervous as she looked to the blonde man who spoke originally for help. To which he did.
"Uh… we aren't sure what you mean by noble. We- or I at least am just a regular student"
Regal quickly realised that these people were from another world, some things were likely different and this sparked another interest.
"So there's no nobles I presume. Ha, must be a pleasant world then. More importantly… what sort of magic do you use in your world?"
The larger and more aggressive man spoke once again, "What's with these stupid questions? Magic? Nobles?
Stop saying such childish-"
"That's because he is a child", A voice from down the corridor interrupted.
Regal frowned and looked in the direction of the voice.
"Shut it Rosel, I'm no child. I'm 54 years old!" He purposefully declared for the sake of the ignorant fools behind him.
The four of them looked collectively shocked, the emotion completely written on their faces.
"T-there's no way this child is 54! He doesn't even act like it. If he was really 54, he would act like an old man, or even an adult at least!" The large man burst out in disbelief.
The others nodded in agreement, Rosel included.
"You…!" Regal's anger started rising, but it vanished quite quickly when we looked at that girl once again.
"I'll take them from here Lord Riverwood, you can return to your territory now" Rosel stated, almost waving him off.
"…unfortunately I'll have to decline, bring me to the king".