The Seven Demon's Tamer

All around Ryder's body, energy was crackling like lightning—purple lightning that seemed to dance with its own free will, each bolt more violent and unpredictable than the last.

The air felt tense, but for once it wasn't emanating from the black-marked beasts that had descended from the portal like bringers of doom. Rather, it was radiating from Ryder himself, whose usually calm demeanor had been completely shattered by the connection to the Falcon Guild about his parents' death.

The confidence that had been completely crushed earlier by the overwhelming presence of Valachi and his companions was suddenly brought back, not through hope or determination, but through rage.

Without a second thought, all the Sen activated their advanced techniques as they took the front line, their bodies beginning to undergo the remarkable transformation that would merge them temporarily with their familiars.

**Transformation**

The Sen began to take their familiar forms—humanoid but different from their normal appearances.

Zhou, in particular, increased dramatically in size to about eight feet, his already impressive frame expanding with well-defined muscle.

His skin became completely pale white, with certain sections like his hands and legs turning pitch black as if they had been dipped in black ink.

He had taken the shape of his familiar in an altered manner that merged perfectly with his human form—his red-marked monarch familiar, the Cursed Panda.

Zhou's face retained some human features, but his eyes had become small, beady, and filled with battle hunger.

Mikasa also began to transform, her body growing more slender, her ears elongating and pointing sideways in the normalized fashion of mythical elves.

Her skin color changed dramatically, becoming as white as freshly fallen snow, while her hair began crystallizing, each strand becoming a delicate thread of pure crystal that glittered in the night sky.

Her transformation was complete as she became a different version of her red-marked monarch familiar, the Crystal Elf.

She quickly materialized a crystal spear in her hand, tossing it up and catching it to test its weight and balance with ease, before dispersing it into nothing.

Ryomen's transformation was perhaps the most unsettling of them all. His body began shrinking initially, but then his flesh started drying up and falling away, until all that was left was his bones—clean, white, and somehow still functional.

At this moment he was a skeleton, but one with long gray hair that flowed like it was alive around his skull. His rib cage enlarged significantly, as did his entire skeletal frame, becoming bigger than his original form and significantly taller despite the hunch in his back. He had transformed into his familiar, the Graveskull Undead.

These were the three strongest members of the red Eastern guild in their transformed state. The sight of them alone was otherworldly even though they retained their human consciousness and personalities. Their bodies had become living weapons, each one perfectly adapted for combat.

Mara and Brok, however, didn't even attempt to summon their individual familiars. At this point, they believed without any doubt that they were at less risk while merged than they would be if their familiars were summoned out.

Leo didn't even have a familiar to summon out, so he was out of the question.

Akira also took the front line along with the other Sen and Master Sung, her expression grim but determined.

She was, unfortunately, still Tian ranked, so she couldn't perform the feat of transformation the Sen could, but she wasn't going to become useless because of that.

All the others—those who didn't have the proper abilities for combat, which were essentially Yuki, Koji, and Mika—quickly stepped backward, creating distance between themselves and the impending battle.

Brok, standing and watching from behind, couldn't help but mutter, "Well, this is just fantastic. I always wondered what it would feel like to be completely useless in a life-or-death situation. At least now I know."

Yuki Nakamura, still floating above on his winged familiar with Mia beside him, observed from above them, scoffed before flying away from the battlefield.

Their fate had already been sealed after all.

Down on the ground, Valachi tilted his head slightly, observing the transformed Sen with curiosity. "I'm telling you, Ryder, stay out of this. I do not want you to involve yourself with this battle," he warned, his single white eye fixed on Ryder.

For the first time since his arrival, the black-marked beast seemed genuinely reluctant to engage, with fear of Ryder getting involved.

**Boom!**

Master Sung was the first to make a move, even before Ryder. He charged straight towards Valachi with a single explosive movement, his transformed claws gleaming with deadly intent as he closed in.

"Haaaaaa!" he screamed as he closed in for a strike, swinging his transformed hand straight towards Valachi's chest with all the force he could muster.

**Boom!**

"The battle hasn't even started yet and you're already going for the kill," Valachi spoke coldly as he casually twisted his arm to deflect the attack, remaining completely unscratched by the collision that shook the ground like a momentary earthquake.

The ease with which he deflected what should have been a crippling blow caught even Master Sung off guard.

Closing his fist tightly in preparation for a counterpunch, the air itself seemed to be sucked into Valachi's hand along with some sort of energy he was extracting directly from the atmosphere.

The energy converged into his fist as a heavy, menacing black aura shortly after, ready to be unleashed.

Master Sung's eyes widened as he noticed this, and he immediately attempted to jump back to create distance. Unfortunately for him, he wasn't quite lucky enough to escape in time.

Valachi had already stretched his other hand out and grabbed him firmly in place by the shoulder blade, his grip like steel that no amount of struggling could break.

Seeing Master Sung in immediate danger, Mikasa sprinted forward with the speed of lightning—though as she quickly realized, the speed of lightning wasn't much of a significant advantage here because that was roughly the same speed everyone else was moving at.

The transformed Sen were operating on a level that was far beyond normal summoner limitations, but so were their opponents.

She sliced through the air with fluidity, and midway through her approach, she materialized a spear made of pure crystal.

The weapon formed from nothing, its surface so perfectly clear that it was almost invisible except for the way it bent light around itself. Just as she was about to thrust it forward toward Valachi's opening, someone suddenly flashed in front of her with speed that surpassed even her enhanced vision.

It was Draki, the ten-foot-tall winged beast whose muscular frame blocked her path like a living wall.

He was also an enemy, so Mikasa didn't hesitate to redirect her attack, thrusting the crystal spear toward his head with killing intent.

However, as the perfectly crafted weapon made contact with Draki's scaled hide, something unexpected happened—it simply bounced off with a metallic clang that echoed across the battlefield, like metal colliding with metal.

**Clang!**

"Well, that's concerning," Mikasa muttered, swallowing hard. "I was really hoping that wouldn't happen... because I am at my strongest."

The Thunder Whisker Koi, Master Sung's loyal familiar, quickly flashed forward to aid its summoner, moving with incredible speed and surrounded by crackling lightning that gave it its name.

Unfortunately, as it made its approach, the double-headed dragon immediately reacted to the threat.

Not with both heads at once—that would have been overkill. Instead, one head opened its massive jaw and readied a blast of red flame, as red as fresh blood, straight toward the Thunder Whisker Koi.

Before the Thunder Whisker Koi could react to the incoming attack, Zhou suddenly appeared below the dragon's head with startling speed, his transformed body moving with surprising agility despite its increased size.

He slammed a heavy punch upward, putting all of his enhanced strength behind the blow.

The impact of Zhou's punch rippled through the air violently, creating visible shockwaves that blew away everything. The sound was like thunder, and the force behind it should have been enough to shatter rock.

"Oh, come on!" Zhou exclaimed, his guttural voice in his transformed state carrying a note of genuine frustration. "I put everything I had into that punch! At the very least, I should have given it a headache!"

The other head of the double-headed dragon would have immediately retaliated against Zhou's attack, but Ryomen joined the battle with his skeletal form moving in between Zhou and the double-headed dragon.

"Tag team wrestling was never really my thing," Ryomen commented as he engaged the second head, his hollow voice muttering. "But I suppose when you're already dead, you can afford to try new hobbies."

All four beasts had now been engaged in combat by Master Sung and the three transformed Sen, creating a chaotic battlefield of ruins.

The remaining members of their group—Ryder and his crew, along with the three non-combatants—found themselves standing behind the front lines, watching a battle that was clearly beyond their current capabilities to directly engage in.

Akira, recognizing her role quickly, had taken her stance and was preparing to join the engagement. But before she moved forward, she turned to address the others who would be staying back.

"Listen, everyone," she began, her voice carrying the authority that masked her fear quite well. "No matter what happens out there, do not engage in direct combat except when it is absolutely necessary and completely inescapable."

She paused, making eye contact with each of them to ensure her message was understood. "Your job is to stay alive, support from a distance if possible, and be ready to retreat if the situation becomes untenable."

Everyone nodded understandingly. After all, no one even wanted to object—they didn't need someone to state it out before they knew they were outclassed.

**Vwoom.**

With that said, Akira joined the battle quickly, leaving the others standing behind and simply watching helplessly.

This was only the first exchange of blows, and already it was clear that the only participants who had managed to deal any damage at all were the summoners and Sen.

That fact should have been encouraging, right? After all, their side was the one landing hits while the enemy seemed to be purely defensive.

Wrong!

Because even this first brief exchange was enough to showcase the true monstrosity of the situation—not the monstrosity of the Sen and Master Sung, who were fighting with power that was abnormal in every aspect, nor the monstrosity of the black-marked beasts.

All the hits that had been dealt upon the black-marked creatures hadn't amounted to so much as a scratch yet.

Their natural defenses were so superior that the most powerful attacks their side could muster were appearing to be ineffective.

Meanwhile, if the beasts managed to get even a small opening to deal damage upon any of the summoners, nobody wanted to think about how catastrophic the results would be.

There was no way that red-marked familiars, or even their human summoners in transformed states, could possibly resist a direct hit from black-marked beings of this caliber.

If these had been weak black-marked familiars at the bottom of the power hierarchy, or at least around Luxy's level, then there might have been a reasonable chance of victory.

But these creatures were clearly not seen as weak even in the face of the black-marked familiar residents of the astral shadow plane.

And the thought of one of their people getting struck wasn't just a possibility—it was something that was almost certain to happen no matter what precautions they took.

They were all operating in close-quarter combat range, after all, where even the smallest mistake or moment of inattention could prove fatal.

Ryder, on the other hand—the one who had given them all the motivation to charge in with determination—was still standing in his original spot, gritting his teeth and seemingly frozen in place.

His body continued to crackle with that strange purple lightning, but he made no move to join the battle or even to summon his familiar.

"What the hell is up with Ryder?" Mara gulped, too terrified to voice her thoughts at full volume. "Why is he not moving?"

Leo, who stood watching from behind as well, positioned just beside Mara, understood what was going on better than the others. The silver gaze of his blue-silver eyes could see the energy patterns that were invisible to normal sight, and what he observed was deeply troubling.

"Luxy is trying to manipulate his mind from inside like he always does," Leo muttered quietly, his voice barely audible over the sounds of combat. "He's attempting to calm his rage so he won't make any irrational actions purely based on emotion for his safety."

"But..." Leo continued, his expression growing increasingly grim as he observed keenly.

Leo remained paused, watching as the purple lightning around Ryder's body grew more intense and began to take on a slightly different quality.

"And I have a sickening feeling that..." Leo felt his blood run cold before he concluded. "The moment Ryder cuts loose... the entire tide of this battle will change."