Chapter 32 – The Ritual

Miria enjoyed leaning on Ast’s shoulder for a little longer and then returned to just sitting by his side. They didn’t come here to only laze around but also to discuss their new companion and partake in the summoning ritual.

“So… We are going to be looking for an individual with specific qualities, right? Does Master have the catalyst necessary for that? And other materials?” she asked.

“Well… Not necessarily of the quality and amount I would like to, but I do have enough of medium and low-grade materials to perform a decent summoning. Also, those are, to some extent, auxiliary parts of the ritual. Yes, they do help a lot, but in the end, the Summoner’s aptitude, quality of their spiritual circuits and essence play the most important role in the process. That’s why I think we should be fine. In the past, no matter what I used, my summons were answered only by small animals and little beasts. I’m curious to see if and how that might have changed with the emergence of this power.”

Miria nodded. “Yeah, I’ve seen it in the memories you shared with me. But, I too think that it will be good! Can I help somehow?”

“In the process? No. But we can prepare everything together.”

She understood that it obviously wouldn’t be possible for her to influence the most crucial part of the summoning process, but Miria was happy to help with setting it up. She stood up, helped Asterios do the same and kept looking at him enthusiastically, with her tail dancing happily. He gave her a few pats and looked around.

“Okay, this place should be decent. We need to find a spot where the grass is the lowest so that I can create the circle as carefully as I can,” he explained.

They both started walking around the glade until Miria suddenly got an idea and called him over. She requested a bit of his special mana and Asterios released it for a moment, giving Miria a quick peck on her lips to the amusement of the panthergirl.

He locked away his fervent energy and watched as Miria unsheathed her two swords and covered them with the usual Mana Coating. Then, she extended its range to around 1.5 meters, positioned them together by their pommels, each one facing the opposite way, and gripped them strongly.

She lowered the blades close to the ground and checked something before nodding to herself. Miria then placed the extended shortswords above her head and smiled at Asterios. After that, she made a graceful aerial cartwheel1.

*SWOOSH*

During the movement, she swiftly rotated her makeshift, double-bladed weapon just when she was in the middle of being upside down, cutting the grass as low as physically possible, and landed just slightly over the edge of the clearing she created. It was an amazingly clean cut that resulted in a perfect circle around three meters in diameter. She glanced at Asterios and smiled proudly.

He couldn’t help but give her small applause. The spot she prepared was perfect. Miria happily trotted back to him and lowered her head a bit. Asterios quickly issued the proper reward and brushed through her hair, stroking her cute ears lovingly. He also leaked a little bit of his mana through his palm, evoking a small sigh of pleasure from her.

“Great job.”

Then, they started bringing most of his stuff from Miria’s realm and began unpacking it. First, Asterios went through various, colourful powders, sands, dusts and such, shortly explaining to the visibly curious panthergirl about their origin. In the end, he chose to use a mix of two, since that would allow them to try ‘for both’ as Miria suggested, and also alone for each quality. He placed two small jars of dust on his side, one of a teal colour and one looking like powdered dark chocolate. 

The first powder was called Aquairy Sand. It could be found in springs and ponds inhabited by Fairies. When they lived around it for at least thirty years, the mud or sand on the bottom would start getting soaked in so much spiritual essence and energy that it would turn teal and attain magical properties. It would help tune up the magic circle which would be drawn with it and focused towards spiritual beings.

The second vial contained ground Terranue Ore. It was a much more common mineral, and although it was called ore, it was closer to something like a very hard fungus growing under the roots of specific kinds of trees. Digging it up was the easy part, grinding it into dust was as troublesome as crushing metallic ores. That resistance and durability were what Asterios wanted to use as a base for a strong beast or entity.

Having both of the powders ready, Asterios mixed them in a ceramic bowl in front of Miria who was watching intently. The combination started looking really beautiful with how the colours blended together.

After that, he drew the base of the magical circle in his notepad and showed it to Miria. It was one of the designs he usually used in his past and wanted to see how it would fare right now. There was one big external circle and another shortly after it a little bit to the middle. Then, four hexagons of various sizes and rotations were drawn inside, with the biggest one touching the external circle with its corners. The smallest one was positioned right in the center.

Asterios handed the schematic to Miria and they began carefully scattering the mixed dust according to his drawing, starting from the middle to not breach any line by accident. Those would solidify after spiritual energy would be poured into the circuit, but before, it was just some fragile sand.

They finished in fifteen minutes and the base was done. Ast asked Miria to leave the next part to him and she stepped aside. He began drawing various runes and glyphs around the external layer of the circle. She wasn’t familiar with any of them, but it wasn’t like Miria ever studied magic. It wasn’t possible where her tribe lived.

Done with those elements, Ast plopped down onto his butt to rest for a moment. She sat by his side and gave him some water. The structure of the base was completed.

“Ready for the next step?” Asterios asked.

“Of course!” Miria responded joyfully.

They moved to a different set of bags and backpacks and started going through numerous catalysts in the form of crystals, ores, valuables, smaller trinkets, artifacts, minerals and many other kinds of stuff. Miria had seen a lot of his collection back at home, but the variety of it was fascinating to her nevertheless.

Asking for guidance, Miria was tasked with looking for things that reminded her of either strong beasts and strength itself, or those that could be associated with magic and spiritual power. She just had to pick ones that evoked memories, thoughts, feelings and sensations linked to those aspects.

That was enough since they weren’t aiming for a specific beast or entity, so having to use anything more distinct wasn’t necessary. Confident in her definition of strength, Miria chose a dark blue rock. It was not only the size of her fist but also had quite a similar shape to it. 

Asterios picked a broken wand carved from a birch tree's branch, which was gifted to him by that one teacher back in the academy who actually liked to spend her time with him. It could have been viewed as a memento, but he knew that she would be truly happy if he managed to summon a powerful beast with it and then showed them to her one day. That was the reason she actually gave it to him. It was a valuable resource she could have used herself if she wanted.

He checked what Miria brought to him and agreed with her choice, giving her a few pats as a reward. She started being even more open about them after they spent a night together. She still was the usual, shy and timid Miria, but he could clearly see that she was allowing herself to act a bit more affectionately and straightforwardly with him. It made him happy seeing her truly enjoy herself.

“Okay, thank you for all the help, but unfortunately, that’s as far as I can have it. The rest is up to me and my capabilities. Haaaaaah… I wasn’t this stressed about summoning since… ever.” Asterios took a deep breath, sighed heavily and stared at their creation.

Miria stepped closer to him from the front, hugged him close and nuzzled her face to his neck lovingly.

“Don’t worry, Master. Just do your best. I believe in you,” she spoke in a cheering tone.

Asterios brought her face up to be on par with his and joined their lips in a gentle kiss. Miria closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation of his warm mouth grazing her own. She shivered a little when she felt Ast’s hand on one of her ears. He kept pecking her lips softly while massaging the furry earlobe with care. 

She couldn’t get enough of this pleasant affection and started reciprocating Ast’s advances with kisses of her own while her hands went over his shoulders and entwined together behind Asterios’s back. She was getting warmer. Even a bit hot. She wanted more. But it wasn’t as aggressive as when she was in heat. She just wished to enjoy those tender caresses with him.

“Nyaaahn~?!”

As if reading her mind, although they weren’t in the state of deepened connection, Asterios moved his other hand behind her waist and began very gently twirling her tail with his fingers. She shivered again. Having both her ears and tail petted while she was kissing him was incredible. She started purring really loud and increased the kisses she was raining on Ast’s soft lips.

Asterios didn’t want to escalate things too far, and he had no idea after how much caressing, if it actually was possible to happen, Miria would get too much into the mood to just end there without going further, so he slowed down bit by bit until they both stopped and Miria released his lips.

She gazed lovingly into his eyes until a heavy tint of rosiness began surfacing on her cheeks and she shyly averted her eyes to the side, still staying in Ast’s embrace with her arms over his shoulders. Asterios chuckled, placed a kiss on her blushing cheek and stepped away.

“Thank you. I will surely summon something amazing with this much support,” he said with a smile.

Miria joined her hands behind her butt and lowered her head a bit while dropping her gaze to the ground, stealing a glance or two at him in her embarrassed state.

“Of course. As Master’s familiar I have to do whatever I can to help. And…” she looked completely away, showing only the side of her face and one eye almost glancing back at him, “as your mate… I’ve enjoyed it… a lot...”

He began walking towards the circle and as he was passing by her, Asterios patted Miria's head once more. “Me too. Don’t be afraid to ask for some more whenever you want.” He then approached the patterns and calmed his mind.

Refocusing his thoughts, Asterios sat on his knees close to the bottom part of the circle. He brought the two catalysts with him. Then, he placed his hands along the external lines in front of him, closed his eyes, and began filling the circuit they drew together, with his mana, the usual one at first.

Miria watched as the lines started glowing from the point where he touched and soon the glow travelled over every single one of them, illuminating the whole summoning circle in dark crimson light. The glyphs were the last things to be activated.

Asterios opened his eyes and verified the completion of the circuit. There seemed to be no issues with its integrity and he could feel his energy course through it properly. He picked up the two catalysts and threw them to the empty center of the smallest hexagon in the middle of the formation. A faint and short pillar of crimson red energy shot out from it and the objects began levitating in its light.

“I’m starting then. Wish me luck.” Asterios glanced to the side and nodded at Miria who smiled in response.

Then, he closed his eyes again and moved his spiritual consciousness into the circuit, like he previously explored his inner ones when he was checking them out and looking for the source of the weird power. 

Silence and darkness surrounded his spiritual projection. The darkness got illuminated by countless stars all around his spiritual body which had no form or visible shape. There were shining dots to the left, to the right, in front, behind, above and under him. Literally everywhere. It was like he entered the night sky and got swallowed by it.

Asterios doubled his focus and soon, the familiar magical circle appeared under his position. If he had a body, he would most likely be standing in the middle of it. Not sensing any issues with the connection between his consciousness and the formation, he started fuelling it with his mana.

The moment it received enough of spiritual energy, the patterns sent powerful waves containing Ast’s mana into the ether all around. One wave was emitted for around five seconds of him sharing the mana with the circle. In the past, he was able to send one in a few minutes. It was an amazing improvement.

Along with those surges of mana, bits of his own consciousness travelled into the darkness. Whenever they passed a realm, he had a very short window of time to take a peek into it and possibly spot a potential summoning target.

But, since he wasn’t aiming for a specific one, Asterios focused his all on spreading his spiritual energy, which carried traces of the offerings and his own being, into as many realms as he possibly could.

The concept of time was slightly altered in this vast, interdimensional space. It wasn’t like the time itself flew slower or faster, but the mind perceived such emptiness as very taxing and thus created the sensation as if hours had passed.

Almost half of Ast’s mana had been spent to send out the waves up to now. It was way more than he was able to exhaust in the past, but it still seemed like no one was answering his calls. He started wondering if perhaps he was just disillusioned about his change, that his spiritual circuits didn’t really get cleansed and strengthened. 

It was really weird. Not even semi-strong or weak beasts were being interested in him for some reason. Maybe it was a problem with the combination of materials and catalysts they used or maybe there was always something wrong with his usual mana. If he wasn’t wrong, Miria appeared through the scorching hot energy.

While Asterios was considering reaching towards his ferocious source of mana, one of the echoes of his consciousness responded. An image of a silhouette similar to a person walking through the woods flashed in his mind. He saw them turn around and smile at the piece of his mind.

The next moment, he sensed the familiar feeling of an entity, colloquially speaking, stepping onto the interdimensional path leading to his world. He again focused all of his efforts to properly stabilize the connection and guide the guest to his realm without an issue.

Outside, in the real world, Miria was watching Asterios sit on his knees and lean over the circle in complete focus and silence for about ten minutes now. He was starting to sweat more and more with each additional one. She wanted to come closer and wipe it off his face, but she knew she shouldn’t interfere and disrupt his connection with the formation glowing in regular intervals. The catalysts just recently vanished into thin air. She squeezed her hands together and cheered him on in her mind.

Finally, Asterios felt like the entity reached his position in this dark universe and he was able to properly open a portal for them to step into his world, also establishing a stable connection with an interdimensional corridor, so that they could quickly return if they wished to do so. Or, for them to use as a means of travel after the contract would be accepted.

He began sensing his slightly tired body again and felt the familiar ripple in space take place in front of him, where he guessed the middle of formation was. After the individual stepped through the gate, the main part of the summoning ritual was finished.

Asterios sighed heavily while retracting all of his senses and consciousness back from the formation. He felt dizzy. But that was nothing new. He usually felt much worse in the past, and he only summoned critters then. So, he either got much stronger, or the summoned entity was even weaker than Soaring Ferret or Dashing Rabbit.

“EEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?!”

Before he managed to open his eyes, an unexpected scream of confusion and surprise reached his ears from behind. The owner of the voice was obvious. Miria.