The Divine Summoner: Godson of Altima

by Antony W. F. Chow

  Bel's ears perked up. He hopped on the boy's body and landed on Luka's head. [Take me there! Now!]

  "Okay. I need to leave a beacon here first." The child quickly created the magical signal. He then activated the keystone to teleport to the private realm.

  Once Bel emerged in the new location, he looked around with interest. The knowledgeable demon recognized the value of this place and its various uses. [Kiddo, you must be born under a lucky star! I can't believe you have a private plane!] The familiar screeched in amazement as he stared at the castle beyond the gates.

  "What's the big deal with having a personal realm?" Luka asked quizzically.

  Bel smacked his forehead. [You don't get it. This place will serve as your secret hideout. No matter how deviant, you could engage in sinful activities away from the prying eyes of mortals and gods alike. If you wish to engage in evil experiments or develop a harem of sex slaves, no one will know. You could stockpile weapons, armors, and foodstuff for a siege or war. Or you could train and build your private army of soldiers here. You could train mages or assassins, too. A private plane is something that money can't buy. But it is tied intimately to your goals, interests, and future ambitions.]

  Luka nodded in appreciation of Bel's detailed explanation. "I didn't realize how useful a private plane could be," he admitted.

  [Thankfully, you have a wise familiar like me to educate you.] Bel puffed out his chest. His face then turned serious. [Before we enter and explore the castle, I need to know more about Gilan's magic. So tell me what happened during your fight with him.]

  "Gilan started his attack by summoning a trio of Shadowhounds, which I defeated with Spatial Blade. Then he called forth a gorilla-like Shadow Giant. We traded fists before I discovered its weakness and defeated the monster with a slash to its throat," Luka recalled. "After that, Gilan used a blood sacrifice to summon four Infernal Horrors."

  [What! Your opponent summoned those abyssal creatures?] Bel exclaimed in fear. [They are difficult to defeat because the horrors possess strong physical resistance and their curses are tough to remove. They love to exploit their victim's fears and drive people insane. How did you beat these Infernal Horrors?]

  "I used Light Burst," the boy answered.

  Bel rubbed his chin. [Yes, offensive light magic is the perfect counter to these creatures. Abyssal creatures from the Infernal Realm are frail against it. But not many Light Mages could use Light Burst because it's a high-tier spell that requires enormous mana to cast. But it's perfectly suitable for you and your 5,000 mana pool. This Gilan was very unlucky to be your opponent.] The familiar shook his head at the lucky turn of events for the kid.

  "Hehe," Luka chuckled.

  Bel began to explore the new place. He took a deep breath of the weird-smelling air. It wasn't poisonous from what Bel could tell. He looked around and saw that the entire realm consisted of one small castle and a continuous set of walls around it. Seeing nothing of interest, the familiar walked through the open gate.

  Bel froze his movement when he saw a pile of smoke suddenly appearing in the courtyard. Soon, shadow creatures started popping up one after another until they surrounded the visitors. These monsters consisted of a mix of humanoids and beasts. Fortunately, none of them could fly. But the ones standing at the back seemed more powerful, while the front liners appeared to be cannon fodders.

  [What's going on? Aren't you the new master of this place?] The familiar asked in bewilderment because he expected to waltz into the castle without encountering monsters.

  In response, the keystone communicated with Luka via feelings and sensations.

  The boy took a moment to organize his thoughts. "It seems the Shadow Castle has a separate living will, and it hasn't acknowledged me as its master. So, it is challenging us to combat. Once we defeat the thousand shadow minions here, I will receive its recognition," Luka explained with a weak smile.

  The boy felt cheated because he didn't realize that the castle possessed an individual will. Luka considered grabbing the rabbit and leaving this tiny world immediately. However, Luka worried that Alectos would regard this action as abandoning his mission from Alectos and disappoint his master. Hence, the boy decided to stay and fight the gathered shadow army. But Lukas also resolved to keep enough mana in reserve to teleport out of the shadow realm if necessary.

  Bel, on the other hand, had a carefree attitude toward this situation. He looked at the shadow army with glee.

  "I will call Tes and use his Thunderbeasts to fight this army. Please buy me some time for my divine summoning," Luka requested.

  [I guess I could use some exercise. Hehehe.] Bel unleashed his original form as a demon king. He could now maintain this manifestation for roughly two hours. While it wasn't enough time to conquer a thousand shadow monsters, Belphesto could wipe out a significant portion of them nonetheless. Thus, Bel's strategy was to kill as many of them ASAP. The demon king pounded his chest before charging into the enemy line!

  The cannon fodder quickly surrounded Bel in hopes of tiring him out.

  While the familiar drew their attention, Luka performed his divine summons. He felt nauseous as Tes drained most of the summoner's mana pool before manifesting above Luka's head. "Tes, please summon your Thunderbeasts!" the boy pleaded weakly.

  "Sure, kid! I got your back!" the Lightning God replied with a friendly smile. "Call Lightning!" Despite the limited number of air elements within the plane, the deity caused dozens of lightning sparks to appear over the castle. "Thunderbeasts!"

  An army of them descended to the courtyard and began to fight against the shadow monsters.

  Tes stood guard over his summoner while Luka meditated to recover his mana.

  [Step right up, my little lambs! Muahahaha!] Bel taunted as he attacked the shadow monsters within melee range. Swish! Pow! Slash! The demon king mowed down his opponents with one-hit instant-kills! After one breath, Bel cleared the field before him within a three feet range! [Try to keep up!] The familiar taunted his reinforcements.

  Tes chuckled as he mentally directed his thunderbeasts to support Bel by preventing the shadow monsters from ganging up on the demon. The deity used his godly sight to identify the generals embedded within the shadow army. The beastmaster then ordered his thunderlion to target them.

  Fortunately, the army bosses lacked resistance to electricity and became paralyzed by the lion's special attack. Thus, they stood helplessly as the beast slowly whittled away their health with bites and scratches.

  The giant feline jumped on the cannon fodder and crushed them like bugs as it moved from one enemy general to the next.

  The castle ordered its shadow minions to stop the animal, but Tes called other thunderbeasts to block the would-be protectors. While the two masterminds engaged in their chess match, a second thunderlion descended from the sky!

  The two lions ran amuck in the courtyard. None of the shadow monsters could keep up with their lightning speed. When the tenth and final general vanished, the remaining shadow monsters lost their commander on the battlefield. They froze in place and turned into target dummies for Belphesto.

  Once Bel finished mowing down the remnants of the shadow army, he strolled back to Luka with his chest puffed out.

  Tes greeted his return with a nod before leaving with his thunderbeasts. Since Bel returned to its master's side, Tes didn't wish to linger and suck up more mana from his summoner.

  During Luka's meditation, he tracked the melee with his magic sense. He saw the shadow monsters as shades of gray and black while his mind painted the thunderbeasts with yellow color. Bel, on the other hand, was blood red, and pure white symbolized Tes.

  Clang! The front door of the castle abruptly swung open, inviting the victors to enter.

  Chapter 19

  Belly of the Beast

  Luka was too exhausted to leave the courtyard and explore the castle's interior. Instead, he ignored the invitation and continued to meditate despite Bel's urging to enter the building immediately.<
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  While Luka rested, his mind replayed the sudden battle with the shadow army. He was fortunate that Alectos had the foresight to make his pupil practice divine summoning. Otherwise, Luka had no way to defeat those monsters with just Bel as his wingman.

  Even though Bel could transform into a demon king, this ability wouldn't last long enough to take down all the enemies. And although Luka was mentally an adult, his body belonged to a teenager lacking the strength to fight off so many monsters. Hence, he resolved to continue his physical training to strengthen his body.

  Luka also spent some time reviewing his previous fight with Gilan because Luka worried that the previous owner would have more traps inside his home. Thankfully, Luka had sufficiently high proficiency in light spells to protect himself.

  Luka suddenly remembered that he received two awards for defeating Gilan, the shadow realm's former owner. The first prize was the keystone. The second benefit was access to shadow magic. Since light and shadow magics were opposites, Luka wondered if he would incur Altima's wrath if he chose to learn and practice shadow magic.

  The teenager thought long and hard, and Luka concluded that he should press on and use shadow magic regardless of Altima's stance. His primary reason was self-reliance. He didn't wish to depend on Altima or her church and feel restrained in his activities.

  Besides, he would be foolish to reject shadow magic when he already gained access to it. Furthermore, Luka planned to practice inside the shadow plane because this realm possessed an abundance of shadow elements. Hence, he would have an easier time learning shadow magic in this environment.

  While Luka meditated silently, Bel took up watch duties. Although the demon doubted any more shadow monsters would appear, Bel refused to dismiss this possibility. But thankfully, five hours passed without incident, and Luka was ready to explore the Shadow Castle.

  Bel took the lead as a scout and entered first. He saw a sparsely furnished foyer and shook his head in disappointment because the first room influenced the visitors' initial impression. Thus, in the past, Bel spared no expense in making his foyer as lavish-looking as possible with expensive carpets, antique furniture, rugs made from dangerous beasts, and inspiring paintings adorning the walls.

  Here in this castle, such necessities were missing. Instead, the walls were bare aside from candleholders; the stone floor had cracks and holes. The castle's overall poor condition gave Bel an impression that Gilan was a man of meager resources who couldn't afford to maintain his residence correctly.

  The party of two quickly explored the castle, and they felt disillusioned by its interior's simplicity. The second floor consisted of a master bedroom and accompanying bathroom, two guest rooms, and a study. The first floor had a small throne room beyond the foyer, a kitchen attached to the dining room, a bathroom, a servant's bedroom, and a storage room. All these rooms were poorly maintained and minimally furnished.

  From the castle's overall condition, Luka had a strange notion that the former inhabitant spent very little time living there. He quickly vacated the second floor and went downstairs to search for the basement entrance because Luka suspected this was where Gilan devoted most of his time to research. But the two explorers couldn't find the basement, and they realized Gilan hid it. When they searched a second time, Luka and Bel sought a secret trigger to open the basement entrance.

  The familiar found it in the waiting room. A sliding bookcase on the left wall hid a downward sloping tunnel, and the trigger was a book on necromancy! Bel came across it purely by luck when he randomly grabbed some books, and the necromancy book happened to be stuck on the shelf.

  Luka immediately created a pair of Light Balls and sent one ahead to scout the downward path. When the boy saw that his magical light reached the bottom without encountering any traps or monsters, Luka cautiously descended.

  On the other hand, Bel rode on the child's head instead of walking down himself. Since he worried that something would drop from the ceiling, Bel kept an eye toward the space above their heads.

  The two were surprised by the length of the tunnel; Luka estimated it was fifty feet long. He assumed the basement was deep underground. Moreover, the explorers noticed numerous scrape marks on the ground and strands of hair, dried blood, and vomit. These signs pointed to people dragged down the tunnel against their will.

  When Luka and Bel reached the bottom, they arrived at a bare room. However, on each wall was a door reinforced with steel. More troublesome were the pools of dried blood on the ground! Also, Luka sensed magic on each entrance and mentioned it to his companion.

  [Those are trapped doors!] His companion warned.

  "Or they could be magically sealed shut," the boy argued back.

  Bang-bang-bang!

  Bel possessed excellent hearing, and he quickly found the source -- the left room!

  Luka was mindful of the magical trap, and he didn't try to open the door right away. Instead, he cast Dispel, and luckily, his spell worked! The boy looked at Bel, who stared right back. "Why don't you open the door? If you get hurt, I can heal you," Luka promised.

  The demon thought for a moment and sighed. Unfortunately, the boy's logic was sound because the party must protect its healer at all costs. Thus, Bel obediently opened the left door -- with a flying kick! [Hyah!]

  BAM! The door slammed open and revealed the contents of the room: a torture chamber! The ceiling was roughly two stories high, with numerous ropes and chains dangling from above. The air current from Bel's violent opening of the door made these ropes sway and the chains jingle. The floor was littered with blood and dismembered body parts, which were ruthlessly trampled upon and crushed.

  A pungent stench of death and decay entered Luka's nostrils. The boy abruptly turned his head and began to retch. While gasping for air, he ran out of the torture chamber and curled up in a ball as his body shuddered. The horrific sight was too much for his innocent mind to accept.

  Bel sighed at Luka's reaction to the scene. The stoic demon quickly looked around the room and discovered that the banging source was a creature inside a cage. It was gruesome-looking even in Bel's eyes. The prisoner possessed a four-legged animal body, a pair of chicken wings, and a human male's head!

  Bel quickly realized his error. This room wasn't a torture chamber but rather an experimental lab designed to create chimeras by attaching different animals' body parts. And the noise came from the chimera slamming its head against the cage bars!

  Bel looked deeply into the monster's eyes and saw nothing but insanity! He felt deeply disappointed because the crazed chimera couldn't answer any of Bel's questions. The demon strengthened his body with Enragement and punched the nearby head with his full strength. Wham!

  The chimera's head immediately caved in like a crushed fruit! The prisoner dropped to the ground. Its monstrous body jerked once, and then its life expired.

  "May your next life be a peaceful one," Luka prayed and bowed his head toward the deceased but pitiful creature. After his Toughness trait kicked in, Luka recovered from his mental distress. The human then quietly returned to the room and witnessed what Bel did. However, Luka thought that killing the chimera was an act of mercy and didn't oppose his familiar's action.

  Bel turned around and examined the boy's physical condition. He saw that the youth's face was no longer pale, and Luka's eyes were steadfast and unwavering. [Gilan was dismembering living creatures to create chimeras.] Bel explained.

  "Can I purify this place with my light magic?" the boy asked. He didn't sense any lingering ghosts or spirits. Thus, Luka believed that his Turn Undead ability wouldn't work here.

  Bel shook his head. [I'll purify with my demonic flame instead.]

  Luka's eyes widened in surprise. "You have access to fire magic?"

  Bel rolled his eyes in annoyance at the common misconception. [No, I can't cast Fireballs and other fancy fire spells. My demonic flame is an innate fire which some demons possess at birth. Its temperature is higher than a normal fire and purer as
well. That's why some alchemists and smiths make pacts with demons for access to their demonic flame. And I recommend using it to purify this lab.] Bel explained in depth.

  "Please go ahead," the boy agreed with a nod.

  [Leave the room first.] The familiar ordered.

  Luka obeyed.

  Bel returned to his demon king form and released his demonic flame. He ignited the flammable materials around the room, such as rope, wooden tables, and chairs. He also set the carcass of the chimera on fire. Finally, Bel departed and closed the door shut.

  Smoke began to escape from the experimental lab and slowly filled the main hall.

  [We can't stay here for long. Which door should we open next?] The familiar asked.

  On a whim, Luka pointed at the one on the right. The mage cast Dispel on it. "Go ahead," he said.

  Bel launched another flying kick and smashed the door open! When the rabbit entered the room, he discovered piles of garbage on the ground. At the center was a large oven made of red bricks. When Bel opened the oven door, he found nothing but ash and soot inside.

  "This is a crematory!" Luka blurted out in realization.

  Bel nodded in agreement. [That Gilan needed a place to dispose of his failed experiments.] He noted casually. Since the previous owner practiced dark sorcery, he needed a convenient method to dispose of carcasses. Hence, the demon king wasn't surprised to find a crematory within the basement.

  The two searched the room but found nothing of interest and quickly exited.

  Luka cast Dispel on the final door. The boy's jaw dropped in disbelief.

  [What happened?] The familiar asked with alarm.

  "My dispel failed," the boy replied honestly.

  Bel drew closer to the final door and scrutinized it. He sensed a miasma covering the entrance and recognized it as a dark curse. [The door has been cursed. That's why your spell didn't work on it. Use Purify instead.] The familiar suggested.