Defying the Fate of Beheading

Louis nodded.

The little swan shrugged and said:

"That's a bit strange, though, from a logical standpoint, it doesn't align with the logic of summoning and goes against the essence of a summoning contract."

"For instance, Louis, have you ever wondered what principle allows creatures like Blazing Celestial Divine Attendants to respond to a mage's summoning?"

Louis shook his head.

Although he had learned quite a bit about Star Continent's common knowledge and even some secrets during this time, his understanding wasn't quite systematic.

Or rather, aside from knowledge pertaining to the Nine Swords, which he absorbed systematically, the rest of the knowledge he learned was primarily for suppressing the major sin of greed.

Whether it was systematic or not didn't matter much, as 99.9% of it wouldn't be used in daily life anyway.

Now hearing Olivia speak, it seemed there were things he didn't know.

Olivia nodded and said:

"You need to understand one thing, the essence of a summoning contract is a covenant."

"Angelic beings like the Blazing Celestial Divine Attendants respond to magic summoning because many years ago, their ancestors fought alongside the pioneers of the mage profession to combat evil."

"Later, as the war ended, their friendship was passed down in the form of summoning magic."

"The Blazing Celestial Divine Attendants have long lifespans, and in the outer realms, their habitat hides many powerful angels who have lived for tens of thousands of years."

"A significant number of them still remember those days of fighting together."

"The story of the alliance between Blazing Celestial Divine Attendants and mages still circulates among their race."

"Though their true form can no longer directly enter Star Continent, they are still willing to respond to the call of the alliance, send down avatars, and renew the covenant from tens of thousands of years ago with the allies."

Louis suddenly understood:

"So the summoning of Blazing Celestial Divine Attendants is essentially about opening a portal to 'call them over to help,' right?"

The little swan nodded and said:

"Your understanding is correct."

"Similar situations occur with every type of summoning magic, like the numerous spells of the Conjuration category, which often borrow power from other powerful entities."

Louis carefully recalled the characteristics of various conjuration spells he had learned.

For instance, the second-circle conjuration spell [Summon Mount].

The learning materials at Saint Louis Academy describe this spell as—

"You will summon a spiritual body with extraordinary intelligence, strength, and loyalty as a mount, and establish a long-term contract with it."

"The mount manifests in an unoccupied space within casting distance, and its form is chosen from the following: warhorse, pony, camel, elk, mastiff."

"The mount possesses the attribute data of the form you chose, but it essentially belongs to a celestial being, a spirit creature, or a fiend."

"Additionally, if your mount's intelligence is 5 or less, it becomes 6 and can understand one language you know."

"..."

At the end of the related introduction, there is a particularly emphasized point.

"You cannot have more than one mount simultaneously using this spell; you can release the mount from the contract anytime with one action, making it disappear."

That means this spell can't be repeatedly used to create a herd of mounts.

Because its essence is obeying a past covenant between a certain race and humans, summoning a 'single mage individual' ally.

They are not slaves to mages.

Although most of the summoned races have more or less encountered problems and lack wisdom, it doesn't mean mages have control over them.

"So the conjuration third-circle spell [Summon Animals]..." Louis looked hesitantly at Olivia.

[Summon Animals] is described in the book as—

"You summon the spirit of a beast form and manifest it in an unoccupied space within the casting range that you can see."

They are somewhat similar to beast-like spiritual bodies.

There are quite a few types as well.

Louis had seen mages summon them on Dragonbone Prairie before, leaving a deep impression.

Olivia shook her head and said:

"This is the other point I want to emphasize, not every summoned race is still intact."

"Historically, we had more summoning spells, corresponding to allies who once fought alongside us mages."

"But now, most summoning spells have vanished, with only a few surviving, those are the few lucky races."

"Among them are special spells like [Summon Animals]."

"The race behind the contract has all died, but their souls have miraculously survived, continuing the old covenant with us to fight together."

Louis nodded.

He finally fully understood the reason for the effectiveness of many spells in the conjuration category.

Various summoning spells, in essence, are about opening specific portals and yelling across them:

"Brothers, I'm being bullied by bad guys, come help me beat him up!"

And if the brother truly treats you as a brother, they'll come through the portal to join you in taking down the opponent.

The typical examples are [Summon Mount] and [Summon Animals].

There are also some special ones, like another third-circle conjuration spell, [Hada's Desire].

Its effect is—

"Open a portal and connect to a field in the darkness between the stars filled with unknown terrifying creatures."

On the surface, such a spell merely creates a spherical region of 20-foot radius, pitch-black and cold, centered on a point within casting range, lasting until the spell ends.