The Seven Demon's Tamer

Vwoom.

A sudden appearance of a foreign energy was felt. Like a powerful gust of wind traveling through the air, it flung the hooded figures away violently.

Crash!

The wall that they all went smashing against crumbled, while they coughed up blood. The ancient stone wall, which had withstood centuries and maintained its shape, gave way like wet paper beneath the force of their bodies.

Dust and debris filled the air, creating a hazy cloud that carried the smell of dust.

There was actually no force in reality, but the Gloomy Guses could guess why such a thing had happened to them.

The presence of a stronger familiar just appeared.

Kyle, his vision still swimming from the impact, watched as tiny cracks spread across the floor of the conjuring room like veins. The ancient runes etched into the stone floor glowed, pulsing with light—as if the very magic holding the room together was straining against something it had never encountered before.

They were most certain that it was the presence of a more powerful familiar because of how their contracted familiar behaved.

Beasts or familiars are normally creatures that don't exhibit emotion, but within the Gloomy Guses, their familiars were showing fear for the first time in their existence.

Their familiars were screaming inside them as if they were trying to escape and run away from their souls. The sensation was unlike anything the summoners had ever experienced—like having a second heart suddenly trying to claw its way out of their chests.

What the hell? One of the Gloomy Guses, particularly the one with a black cloak with a red outline who goes by the name Kyle, slowly opened his eyes to stare at the runic platform.

In there, what he saw made his brain spin.

"Impossible!!!"

Ryder was waking up.

Ryder's body levitated in the air, horizontal, with his hands and legs falling backward.

His body was pulsating with energy, and his shapeless black mark on his left shoulder slowly reshaped itself. It reshaped into the head of a fierce-looking rabbit.

Kyle's jaw dropped. 'A rabbit? The most feared reaction from the familiars in recorded history was because of... a rabbit?'

Had the situation not been so dire, he might have laughed. But there was nothing funny about the menacing aura emanating from that seemingly innocent shape.

The black mark seemed to radiate purple glowing energy, or more appropriately, gamma energy.

The rabbit's eyes, two pinpricks of deeper blackness within the mark, exuded malice that made Kyle's blood run cold. The long ears were alert, poised as if listening to whispers, and the teeth—those weren't the blunt herbivore teeth of a common rabbit. These were the fangs of a flesh-eating predator.

After a moment, the energy pulsating on Ryder disappeared, and he slowly returned to the ground, but still unconscious.

The cloaked figures were managing to maintain their mental state, as their familiars misbehaved internally.

Rushing quickly towards a miniature runic stone tablet not far from him, Kyle placed his hands on it and whispered. The cool stone hummed against his palms, recognizing his magical instructions.

Blood from a cut on his forehead dripped onto the surface, activating the gamma energy emergency broadcast protocol. Under normal circumstances, such a protocol required authorization by a higher authority, but these were far from normal circumstances.

A purple light flashed through the writings, and then it was done. Kyle sent the message to all the conjuring rooms on the entire planet, Terra. The message was simple but would send shockwaves through the entire summoning community: Demon Plain Contract Successful. First Confirmed Case. Subject: Ryder Tallis. Familiar: black mark Classification. Approach With Extreme Caution.

The first demon plain contractor in the last hundred years.

"Have you done it?" asked the other cloaked figure, who goes by the name Lucas, despite seeing everything. He just wanted confirmation. His voice was steadier now, but his complexion had gone ashen. Sweat could be seen on his forehead, and his hands that were usually rock-steady during even the all summoning rituals trembled slightly.

"Yes! All the other conjuring rooms across the United States will be aware shortly."

Ryder's eyes finally opened as he got up from the ground. He was finally awake.

The first thing he did was to quickly scan the room with his eyes, turning his head frantically. His gaze took a quick tour round the room, and a smile spread across his face—not the relieved smile of a man glad to be alive, but the joyful grin of someone who had just proven the impossible was possible.

"I made it! I made it!!!!!"

He nearly cried from joy. He was back on his planet.

Staring at the mark on his shoulder, he noticed it was different, but he recognized the drawing it depicted.

What had once been a shapeless black mark—the sign of potential that all summoners attained at the age of maturity—had transformed into something recognizable.

The question hung in the air like mist. Kyle and Lucas exchanged confused glances. Who was he talking to? Had he damaged his mind after all?

The air was silent...

"Yes, I am!" a voice replied inside his head, causing him to smirk. He, once again, felt peace—the exact emotion he had never felt even once in the Astral Shadow plain.

Vwoom.

He didn't walk out of the platform; he blasted away with his raw strength towards the exit. The stone floor beneath his feet cracked from the force of his departure, leaving footprint-shaped indentations on the platform.

The wooden door that separated the ritual chamber from the outer hallway was right in front of him in a jiffy.

"Wait!" Kyle called out. Ryder slowed down, not for him, but for the person behind the door.

He remembered who it was behind the door for sure: it was Mara. She was standing right behind him before it got to his turn to step into the conjuring room.

Opening the door gently, his eyes and Mara's eyes locked momentarily before he zapped away.

Huh! Mara tilted her head, then scoffed before stepping into the conjuring room.

Once outside, he allowed the cool evening wind to sweep through his hair. The familiar scent of pine and wild berries that grew in abundance around the conjuring house filled his nostrils.

Stars were already twinkling in the sky, and the full moonlight was already cascading down to the ground. A sense of peace washed over him—not just to this place, but to this world. He had been away for what felt like an eternity, yet somehow no time at all.

Night is fast approaching.

"I'll be going home now. Can't wait to see the looks on Mom and Dad's faces when their child appears as the first and only human in the recent age to contract a beast from the demon plain."

A chuckle escaped his lips as he imagined his father's wide eyes and his mother's inevitable barrage of questions.

"They're going to lose their minds," he whispered to himself.

"They should be honored," Luxy's voice echoed in his mind. "Do they understand what you've accomplished? You better explain it to them if they do not understand the full picture."

"Maybe," Ryder admitted silently to his familiar. "They'll be happy I'm alive. That's enough for now."

Ryder walked away, using the tiny pathway he came with. The conjuring room was not built openly as a public place, but rather was built in the woods.

As he walked, he became aware of changes in his perception. Colors seemed more vivid—the green of the leaves richer, the blue of the twilight sky deeper. Sounds reached his ears with crystal clarity—the rustle of leaves in the underbrush thirty paces to his left, the flutter of an owl's wings flying high above.

"Is this how you perceive things?" he muttered to Luxy.

"This is but a fraction," Luxy replied. "Your human senses can only adapt so much."

Walking through the busy pathway, he noticed the distant main street was very noisy. There were men and women here and there, pushing crude tools and locally made carts. The air was thick with the smell of cooking food and woodsmoke. Children darted between adult legs in games of tag, their shrill laughter cutting through the general murmur of conversation. Somewhere, a stringed instrument was being played with more enthusiasm than skill.

This is Ryder's village.

As he walked through the streets, he could hear whispers here and there.

"Have you heard about it? Someone contracted a beast from the demon plain."

"I heard he is just an ordinary youth. He was even scared when he awakened."

"Stop talking about the positive part. Did you forget about the six people he killed?"

Ryder, who was walking through the bushy pathway, couldn't help his eyes from twitching in annoyance. He could hear everything with clarity.

It hadn't been five minutes since he contracted his familiar, and the whole village already knew. Information truly flies.

As if that wasn't enough, rumours of what never happened were mixed in with the entire thing.

What caught his ears the most was when someone from the side mentioned something about him killing six people.

What caught his ears the most was when someone from the side mentioned something about him killing six people.

The accusation flared him up—Ryder, who once spent three days nursing an injured bird back to health, and who helped an old woman from the neighborhood carry water from the well without being asked—would be accused of doing such a thing!

Ryder's eyes turned sharply to stare in the direction of the lady's voice that had said it. He was almost ready to launch at her, but he wasn't the kind of man who would hurt ladies.

"This is the exact reason why I hate going out," Ryder gritted his teeth. "I find it hard to tolerate bullshit."

He was in no mood to hear anything else anymore. He tried to hurry his pace from walking to running, but he couldn't maintain a moderate, normal speed.

His body, still adjusting to the shared physical capabilities of his familiar bond, veered between sluggish and explosively fast. The gravity at the Astral Shadow plain and that of planet Terra differ; he felt like he was learning how to walk all over again.

A normal step would suddenly become a leap that carried him several yards, forcing him to stumble to recover his balance.

Shit!

All in all, he just kept getting angrier as he walked faster along the road until he reached his destination and moved away from the busy area filled with people.

He was very grateful for the kind of life that he lived for most of his childhood. Despite obtaining a black mark since birth, he never made too much noise, especially since it was a laudable achievement.

Due to how he kept his mouth shut about everything, he is now enjoying peace. All the village folks know that someone contracted a beast from the demon plain; they never knew who it was.

They kept yapping rumors about the exact person who had walked past them.

It didn't take him long before he got home.

Opening the door, he called out, "Mom, Dad, I'm home!"

The moment he called out, his parents could be seen hurriedly rushing towards him.

"Ryder!" His mom rushed to him and hugged him with tears in her eyes.

"Hey, Mom, chill, will ya!"

His dad joined in, also in tears.

"R-Ryder, you are back... A-And alive," his mum stuttered through tears.

"Yes I am." Ryder felt his heart melt as he accepted their embrace. 'They were worried about me, fearing for my life.'

Ryder smiled.

There is no bond like family, indeed.

"Come inside, hurry," his father said as he shut the door behind them.

He took Ryder to the sofa in the sitting room—a valued piece of furniture in the village, because most families do not own one.

Quickly boiling some water, Ryder's mother brought it in a big bowl to Ryder and softly massaged his head with a towel and the water.

Like a flash, she ran to the kitchen and, a few milliseconds later—according to Ryder's internal timer—she returned with a trail of several bowls of food she had prepared practically within those milliseconds.

His father darted into his room and came out with a particular device—owned mainly by wealthy village folks—called a radio, and searched through its stations until he found just the perfect entertainment.

"What the hell, why is everyone suddenly treating me like a king?"

He had never, at any point in time, been treated badly by his parents; he was an only child, after all. But the treatment he was receiving today was just too much.

"They are pampering me! An adult!"

Taking a spoon from the food brought to him by his mother, the taste made him forget all his sorrow for a moment, and then he accidentally choked on it and coughed.

His father surprised him the most at that moment; despite his pot belly that looked like a donut, the old man still ran to the kitchen to get some water.

The man didn't come back with just a jug; he returned with a jug filled with chilled water and a glass cup, all resting on a tray.

Dropping it on the tabletop right before Ryder, his father then performed a parade halt and salute, unshaken, apart from his pot belly, which did one final jingle before going still.

"Dad, Mom, please stop all this and tell me what's up with you guys. I insist!"

With the seriousness in Ryder's voice, his parents finally sighed.

"There are many reasons for it—we are overjoyed that you are alive, we missed you, and we don't want you to forget about our existence now that you are finally back. You contracted with a beast from the demon plain, didn't you?"

Ryder nodded.

"You are the only one who has done so in this current age. In a matter of time, Ryder, you will be the world's most sought-out and respected summoner. By then, you'll have a lot on your table, and most probably, you'll forget about our existence because we will be of no use to you by then. We don't want that to happen; that is why we are trying to be of use to you."

Ryder bit his lip, trying to hold back his tears, but he just couldn't stop them from streaming down his face.

"Why would I ever forget you, Mom? Why would I ever forget you, Dad? You are the only ones I have ever had in this freaking universe. I have no best friend, no casual friend; I have nobody else except you guys! I'm your child, remember? You both taught me better than that."

Ryder wanted to hug them right then, but he didn't dare, for he still had not fully mastered his new body in the human world. He could crush them if he didn't muster just the right amount of force.

"You are my parents, and I will never forget that. I promise."