Compilation of Failed Summonings

In this world, war between many different species had ravaged the land. Each year millions were sent to the meat grinder known as war, never to return home again. The war had been going long for as long as 50 years. 

New countries arose, and old countries fell. However the war was never ending. A small kingdom known as Foran was on its last legs. Their resources were depleted. Hunger turned to anger, which sparked a rebellion. Neighboring kingdoms were marching on the land, ready to fight over this piece of meat.

In the castle overlooking its capital city, the king had almost given up all hope. 

Almost.

In his time of desperation this king had turned to browsing old tomes and texts: looking for a magical solution like a gambler at a casino trying to strike it rich. Any minister or wizard in his service that didn't run away was forced to work hours on end, looking for anything that could turn the situation around. 

"Your highness!! I found something we can try!"

An old mage was waving an old piece of paper. The paper was from an age long forgotten. How it had landed in their hands nobody knew. However everyone knew one thing: One of the words written on it was "Hero." Coupled with the drawing of a magic circle and some form of chant highlighted, it appears that this could be...a summoning circle for a hero. 

A few days later. 

Preparations were finally complete. 

A giant magic circle spanned the entire room. Everyone checked and rechecked again for any imperfection. The day had finally come for the summoning. Everyone prayed. Prayed for a hero that could stop the oncoming armies from other kingdoms, a hero that could produce an endless amount of food, a hero that could stop the citizens from killing each other. 

The remaining mages all poured their magic into the circle. The mage that had found the text slowly recited the chant. The circle visibly vibrated, exciting everyone there. Was it real? 

The circle suddenly lit up in various colors, becoming brighter and brighter with every syllable spoken by the mage. 

After the final syllable the brightness had all blinded them along with the sound of thrumming, a huge amount of magical power so thick it created palpable vibrations in the air. 

When the light cleared and they could see again, they became flabbergasted at what they saw.

At first from the distance it looked like a small girl that did not even reach an adults knee, sitting down motionless.

The guards went to retrieve the girl and upon closer inspection one could see that the girl was in fact, a doll.

A beautifully crafted doll wearing a dress.

Disappointment, sighs of defeat, and cries of disbelief could be seen all around the room. The mage that had recited the chant visibly aged, depression consuming his very being. Him and his fellow mages had all spent their magical prowess for the summoning. Meaning that by the time they recovered, the kingdom would have already fallen. 

The doll was roughly examined, but none could figure anything out. It was simply just a normal doll.

At night.

Everyone had gone to bed. Many had simply drunk themselves to sleep, knowing that their time was near and nothing mattered anymore anyways. 

The mages left the doll on the table as is, all but forgotten.

At exactly midnight.

The dolls eyes opened. It then giggled.

A guard was slumped over at one of the many hallways when he suddenly noticed a shadow that was not there before at the end of the corridor. He also heard what seemed to be a little girl's giggle. Thinking he had too much to drink, he roused himself before getting up and moving towards the corner where he was going to relieve himself. 

Suddenly another giggle was heard. This time the guard instantly became sober. Nobody should be here at this time. Why would a little girl be here? Was she lost? Did a little tramp sneak in here hungry for food?

The guard went to see who it was, ready to tell the intruder that there wasn't any food here. Not anymore. Upon turning the corner, the guard saw a doll sitting there motionless.

Confused, the guard looked around for people. However there was nobody here. He looked back down at the doll and- what?! It was gone. He frowned for a moment before shrugging. Looks like he drank himself silly.

Turning back around, he suddenly found himself inches away face to face with the doll that was now floating and smiling a wide terrible smile.

The guard screamed, rousing and alerting the whole castle.

The other guards came running, but it was too late.

All they found were the dismembered remains of their colleague and blood painting the walls of the corridor. Many retched at the scene. They were used to death and violence, however they had never seen such a gruesome sight. The more courageous ones looked around at the remains and they spotted something. 

The dead guards face, which was lying on the ground had a frightened expression, as if he had seen something terribly horrifying.

Everyone looked for the culprit, however they could not find anything. This hallway led to the secret room, the room where the summoning had taken place. Opening the door, they noticed something. They found that instead of the one doll, there were now two and the second one closely resembled...the killed guard.

They were terrified. Terrified of the unknown. No matter how you think of it, the doll was obviously the cause of the incident. The people in power had locked the doll up and were discussing what to do with the thing. Many said to destroy it as its powers were unknown. However a few others were fascinated by it. It could potentially be used in their war as a weapon against the other races.

Debates were debated and they came to a conclusion: to first study it and then see if it could be used. If not, to destroy it completely.

Little did they know the horror that awaited them.

The best minds gathered in a very secured room to study the doll.

They discovered that the doll was actually made of flesh crafted together in such a way where there were no seams. Its hair was made of human hair, and it even had tiny joints made of real bone.

The new soldier doll was the same.

A warlock specialized in curses suggested it was an advanced curse ritual.

Night came.

5 guards were ordered to watch over the dolls.

However the screams came again.

Another massacre had occurred and two new dolls were found beside the original 2.

Everyone was confused about how this happened. How can dolls overpower two specially trained guards?

When the surviving three guards were questioned, they told them that the other two guards just started screaming and began being torn apart by some invisible entity until it molded them into the 2 new dolls.

More experiments were conducted.

The dolls could not be destroyed. Many methods were used such as slicing, fire, water, everything they could think of. None succeeded. The dolls could not be contained as well. No matter how locked up it was, it proved futile.

The dolls committed a massacre every night.

From 4 to 8, 8 to 16.

Needless to say each doll would kill one person every night, adding a new doll to the collection.

The king and his ministers began to fear these cursed dolls, recognizing them as a threat that could potentially end all life in their world. A command was given to send them to the far reaches of the earth. However what they didn't expect was that the procession was ambushed by enemy soldiers, taking these 16 dolls back to their camp. 

Needless to say, 16 more died that night. The sole survivor witnessing such terror immediately abandoned the camp and went to report this maddening anomaly to his kingdom. 

At first none believed him, thinking he made up a story to desert his camp. However later that night 32 more victims were discovered. 

Upon investigating, the dolls were found. Now numbering 64. Reports were quickly made.

The other kingdoms eventually found out and a treaty was formed to figure out a way to stop these dolls. However humans being humans, many wanted to use these dolls as weapons to hurt their enemies. Many dolls were stolen. Over the week many were killed, assassinated, and the dolls reached a staggering number of 16,384. A real catastrophe was happening now. Many fled away as far away from the dolls as they could. 

Another week passed and the number of dolls rose to over a million. 

24 days later, the dolls reach a billion. People were being gruesomely slaughtered every night. The survivors fled, trying to outrun each other in hopes that they could escape the range of this curse.

In just one month the humans in this world had gone extinct. Strangely enough, the animals and other forms of life survived, as if the dolls only targeted humans.

On the ancient text that was used to summon the doll, what the mages could not decipher were an ancient warning on it: a small chance to summon something useful. A high chance of summoning a destroyer of worlds.