The Seven Demon's Tamer

All the battles that had begun from one point had been shifted considerably towards scattered distant directions across what was now the plain expanse of the Red Eastern Guild's headquarters.

The once-proud stronghold now resembled a wasteland, its buildings reduced to rubble, its surface filled with craters.

The combatants had strategically positioned themselves at different locations. Master Sung and Valachi clashed in the eastern sector.

To the north, Mikasa and Akira fought desperately against Draki. In the western ruins was where the double-headed dragon dueled the remaining Sen.

Each battle had been strategically shifted by the combatants purposely, but not for some sort of fighting advantage—rather, for the sole reason of keeping Ryder from being caught up in their clashes.

The black-marked beasts understood that they would be courting death if they laid a single finger on the Dracogon soon-to-be summoner.

Despite their overwhelming power and apparent confidence, they knew better than to risk getting themselves on the wrong side of the Dracogon.

Valachi's earlier warning to Ryder to stay out of the battle hadn't been born from concern for the young summoner's safety—it was for his own safety.

Meanwhile, purple lightning continued to dance around Ryder's motionless body, each bolt more violent than the last.

While all these catastrophic events unfolded around him, Ryder was not experiencing any of it. In fact, he wasn't even consciously aware that the battle had begun.

His physical body stood frozen in place with the purple lightning still crackling around him; however, his consciousness existed elsewhere entirely.

Deep within his consciousness, he was existing in a particular place that shouldn't have been realistically possible. The vicinity was an endless expanse of dark space, yet somehow, through the overwhelming darkness, he could see perfectly well.

He could see his body—an ethereal manifestation of his physical form, possessing all the organs and features of an ordinary human; however, he couldn't feel the body.

This version of himself moved with purpose and clarity, unencumbered by the doubts and fears that had plagued him in the physical world.

Sharing that infinite space with him was, as expected, Luxy. This was Ryder's soul space—a realm that existed for the sole purpose of sheltering his contracted familiar.

Luxy stood several yards away from him, his body appearing as natural here as it would in the outside world.

His red eyes flickered with confusion as he stared at Ryder.

"What do you think you are doing, Luxy!" Ryder didn't yell, but kept his voice low, carrying a growling undertone that contained more menace than any possible shouting.

"Ryder..." Luxy was quite taken aback as he beheld the figure standing before him with such unwavering determination.

Luxy would have asked how Ryder had gained access to this space if the young summoner had been in a better mood. The devil viper bunny knew with absolute certainty that he had never summoned Ryder to this realm—in fact, such a thing should have been impossible.

The soul space was the familiar's domain, accessible to no one else except familiars, but here he was, Ryder.

"You have to calm down," Luxy said, not daring to ask unnecessary rhetorical questions. He went straight to the point, recognizing that this was neither the time nor the place to beat around the bush.

"And what made you courageous enough to believe that you have any chance of talking me out of this?" Ryder's response carried a coldness that seemed to lower the temperature of the soul space itself.

His ethereal form took a step forward, and with that movement, cracks appeared in the dark space around them, spreading out like a spiderweb and leaked purple light.

"I am trying to talk to you because my mind alteration abilities aren't working!" Luxy admitted.

The mind alteration capabilities were built into Luxy's nature as a devil viper bunny. Unlike affinities, which felt like attachments or learned abilities, the mind alterations were infused into the very essence of what he was. They were as natural to him as breathing was to humans.

For as long as he could remember in his life, these abilities had never failed him. Even familiars that proved stronger than him in the astral shadow plain were not able to show restraint towards his mind alteration.

It never failed until now.

Ryder was not just resistant to the ability—his body was constantly repelling it, pushing back against the ability with a resistance force that even Luxy seemed to be affected by physically.

More troubling still, Luxy knew without a doubt that this resistance wasn't having anything to do with the enhancements Ryder had attained by being his summoner.

This was Ryder's doing—something emerging from within the young man's very human core.

"I had forgiven you for using your mind alteration abilities to influence my actions back then in the past because it managed to guide me to the right path," Ryder said, his voice carrying a finality. "But now, I do not want you interfering with what I must do."

"I have to do what I must do." Ryder approached Luxy with deadly coldness, each step causing the cracks in the soul space to spread further.

Slowly, Ryder raised one leg upward. The gesture was simple, almost casual, but it carried a weight of intensity that was staggering.

"You can never stop me from avenging my parents."

Without hesitation, Ryder slammed his raised leg downward with tremendous force. Like glass struck by a sledgehammer, the space where they existed began to fracture and shatter.

Ryder was finally back outside, returned to his real body with a fully conscious mind that burned with purpose and clarity. The change was instantaneous—one moment he had been in the endless dark of the soul space, the next he was standing on the devastated battlefield with the distant sounds of combat around him.

Most shocking of all, Luxy was standing right in front of him in his physical form, both familiar and summoner positioned exactly as they had been in the soul space.

"Impossible!" Luxy nearly gasped, his composure cracking, feeling disbelief at what had just transpired before his eyes.

Ryder shouldn't have possessed the capability to alter spaces like that, much less to force a familiar's manifestation in the physical world.

Such abilities were not something a human should be capable of, regardless of Ryder, who was just an average ordinary young man.

In all honesty, Ryder didn't even know how he was accomplishing these seemingly impossible feats, but he couldn't care less about bothering himself to understand it.

He had already been overcome by too much rage, too much need for vengeance.

The rational part of his mind that might have made him question or fall deep in thought seemed non-existent at this moment. He was operating on instinct now, drawing out capabilities that he had never known existed within him.

"You have two choices," Ryder spoke with absolute finality, his voice carrying across the battlefield despite the chaos surrounding them.

"You can either join me to eradicate these oversized pests, or stay clear." The words were delivered without emotion, as cold as winter.

As soon as Ryder finished speaking, his mind immediately focused on a specific target. The first figure his consciousness materialized was Valachi—the pale-scaled creature who had been the first to threaten his colleagues.

"He will be the first to die," Ryder declared as he turned his head sideways, facing the exact direction where Valachi and Master Sung were dueling.

The declaration wasn't a boast or a threat—it was a statement of fact, pronounced with such certainty that made Ryder unrecognizable.

Mara, Brok, Leo, and the other non-combatants who had remained behind the front lines suddenly noticed the dramatic change in Ryder's demeanor and presence. The young man who had stood frozen and seemingly helpless just moments before now exuded a menacing aura that made their skin crawl.

"Ah, finally!" Brok sighed; it should have been a sigh of relief, but it came out with uncertainty. "Ryder is awake!"

"Ryder, what's happen—" Brok began, clearing all the thoughts in his head like he would do to random assumptions, but suddenly froze mid-sentence as he noticed that Ryder wasn't alone.

Luxy was also there, right in front of him!

"How did he summon Luxy?" Brok was too surprised to voice his thoughts aloud, but the question echoed in his mind.

"Don't go near him, Brok," Leo said urgently, placing his hand on his friend's shoulder and pulling him backward. "You might get hurt."

Now this was a confirmation of Brok's previous hunch.

Even with his enhanced perception, Leo couldn't tell exactly how Luxy had been brought into physical form. The silver gaze allowed him to see through physical walls and any kind of magically induced invisibility, but there had been no indication that Luxy was hidden or contained somewhere nearby.

The silver gaze allowed him to see through physical walls and any kind of magically induced invisibility. He would have noticed if Luxy was in some sort of space that was created by magic to mask his presence until now, so he knew that was not the case.

During Master Sung's earlier fight against Kyujiro, when he had summoned forth a portion of his Fenrir deity, Leo had been able to observe the entire process.

The air had rippled with aura visible to his eyes before the summoning had followed in a way that his silver gaze could track and understand.

But with Ryder, the manifestation had been instantaneous, truly instantaneous and unexplainable. One moment Luxy had been absent, the next he had simply existed, as if he had always been there.

More disturbing still was the complete change in Ryder's aura—an emanation of power so intense that it made Leo unable to stare at him for too long.

Also, Ryder and his familiar were now present in the physical world, and at this exact moment, Ryder's aura was so overwhelming that it made Luxy's seem like child's play in comparison.

Theoretically, metaphysically, or in any other way it could be observed, what he was witnessing should have been impossible.

There was no scenario in which an ordinary human should be able to generate aura that could overwhelm even a brown-marked beast, just as there was no possibility for a summoner to produce energy more intense than their familiar.

Yet the evidence was undeniable. Ryder stood before them radiating power that exceeded even Luxy's, causing Leo to subconsciously take a step backward.

"I was wondering why someone like Ryder could have been marked by the demon monarch Dracogon," Luxy thought to himself, his eyes still fixed on Ryder.

The Dracogon's personality had never embraced the idea of serving under another creature.

Throughout his existence, the dragon had preferred isolation, carrying absolute authority over his domain rather than allowing a human to have authority over him.

When he had first sensed Ryder's potential and offered to become his familiar, Luxy himself hadn't understood the reason.

The young man had seemed ordinary in most respects—perhaps even disappointingly so.

During their time bonded together, Luxy had been frustrated by what he thought were Ryder's limitations. The fear he showed in battle, his excessive concern for others' safety, his inability to summon him at will—all of these had seemed like weaknesses added to his already weak self.

But now, witnessing this transformation, Luxy finally understood the answer to the question that had puzzled him for so long.

This was why the Dracogon had been drawn to Ryder, why a demon monarch with immense power had willingly marked Ryder. This was what the Dracogon had known Ryder could do, that no one else knew.

*Swoosh.*

The sound wasn't quite accurate—Ryder didn't make any sound as he moved. One moment he was standing among his friends, the next he had simply materialized directly between Master Sung and Valachi, covering the distance of hundreds of miles in what appeared to be an instant.

Ryder hadn't disappeared; he had sprinted. He moved so fast, his speed was equivalent to teleportation—faster than the eye could track, faster than any perception could follow, faster than should have been possible for any human being.

Valachi, who had been in the process of stretching his hand toward Master Sung's face for what would undoubtedly have been a killing blow, suddenly felt his palm collide with an unexpected obstruction.

The impact sent shockwaves through his entire arm.

"What?" Valachi raised his head upward in puzzlement, his single white eye staring with confusion as his palm pressed against Ryder's chest.

"How did you get here?" Valachi questioned in a slow, curious tone, his voice carrying surprise.

For the first time since arriving through the portal, the black-marked beast was experiencing surprise. His enhanced senses, which had tracked every movement on the battlefield with precision, had failed to detect Ryder's approach until the moment of contact.

*Slash.*

That was Ryder's only response to the question. The sound came long after the deed had been done, cutting through the air.

Valachi didn't understand how it had happened, couldn't process the speed at which Ryder had moved. One moment his hand had been pressed against the human's chest, the next it was flying through the air, separated from his arm in a spray of dark blood that painted the night sky.

Master Sung, who had been kneeling on the ground, battered and bloodied from his battle with the seemingly invincible creature, slowly tilted his head upward to stare at the figure who had intervened.

It was indeed Ryder, but transformed beyond recognition. The young man who had stood frozen while others had charged into battle was now carrying an aura as deadly as poison, far beyond what he had ever carried.

More shocking than Ryder's transformation, however, was the expression on Valachi's face. The black-marked beast who had been dominating since he activated his technique, who had treated the battle as little more than amusing entertainment, now showed something that Master Sung had never expected to see... Fear.

VALACHI SHOWED FEAR!