The Seven Demon's Tamer

The piercing wail of FSG van sirens cut through the heavy afternoon air, along with the continuous, windy noise from the flapping wings of various familiars. The cries and roar of familiars and sirens echoed across what had once been the busy eastern district of Ludlow.

The district where various shops and busy street markets had stood just hours before now contained only an area filled with rubble—a wasteland of shattered concrete and twisted metal.

Commander Lucian stepped out of the lead vehicle, his boots crunching on debris all around. The smell of smoke, along with something else—something he'd come to recognize from too many scenes like this—hung in the air.

There was also the unmistakable scent of spent magical energy—the remaining trace of gamma energy that had been unleashed through an affinity for fire.

"Spread out, fifteen-meter intervals. Our priority is retrieval of the survivors and evidence accumulation," Lucian ordered, his voice carrying the authority that came with fifteen years in the Federal Summoners Guild's Crisis Response Division.

He watched as his team dispersed across the ruined landscape, with his hands behind his back.

At forty-three, Lucian had seen more disaster zones than most FSG agents might see in their entire careers. His black hair with a few grey strands and the deep lines around his eyes spoke of those experiences, though few knew all too well how much he'd witnessed.

The red mark on his left arm—visible now as he pushed up his sleeve to activate his communication device—was one of the few outward signs of his rank among summoners.

Distancing himself from the others, he spoke something through the device that no one could hear, and returned to the other FSG agents afterwards.

His first familiar, Serpencia, sent a tingle through his soul, ready for his command. The bond between them, forged twenty-seven years ago when he'd first manifested his summoning abilities, was so deep now that they often communicated without any words spoken.

He was only sixteen at the time he received his mark and contracted his familiar.

The snake-like creature was eager to join the search, its senses far more attuned to detecting life signs than any of the FSG agents could do. It was quite reasonable, since it is a familiar after all.

"Go," Lucian whispered, and felt a momentary discomfort as Serpencia emerged from his shoulder, the black-scaled creature materializing in a burst of deep purple energy.

The familiar's ruby eyes locked with his for a moment, understanding passing between them, before it shot skyward and began to weave through the ruins with fluid motion.

Lucian had long since stopped admiring how awesome Serpencia was, especially in these grim situations.

Nearly twenty feet in length, with scales that seemed to absorb light rather than reflect it, the serpent familiar was as deadly as it appeared—in fact, more deadly.

"Commander Lucian!" The shout came from Garcia, one of the newer recruits. The young woman stood close to a pile of debris from what had once been a three-story building. "I've found someone!"

Lucian made his way over, careful not to disturb any incoming evidence from the other FSG members.

As he approached, he saw that Garcia had found what appeared to be a young man, most probably in his early twenties, half-buried under a collapsed wall.

The victim's clothes were torn and dirty, but one could easily tell they were expensive—the kind of outfits worn by those with money to spare on worldly items.

Except... There was also a torn apron on him, which was weird.

"He is still breathing," Garcia reported. "But his vitals are weak. Recovery team is on the way."

Lucian nodded, then knelt beside the unconscious body. There was something about the young man that caught his attention—a faint energy emanating from him that tingled at the edges of Lucian's senses.

Acting on years of training, he gently lifted the victim's left arm, pushing back the torn sleeve.

What he saw made his heart skip a beat.

"Red," he muttered, more to himself, but Garcia still heard him. "He's a red marked."

Garcia's eyes widened. "That can't be right. Red marks don't just... fall like this."

But it managed to make sense: what else could have caused such catastrophic destruction if not a product of the strongest existing red-marked summoner—alongside their familiar?

She wasn't wrong. In the hierarchy of summoners, those bearing red marks were among the strongest—powerful summoners capable of calling forth and controlling one of the most formidable beasts from the Astral Shadow plane that they have contracted.

"Get the medical team here now," Lucian ordered, his mind already racing through possibilities, and none of them were comforting.

"And tell them to bring a summoner with a familiar that has the affinity of suppression. If he wakes up and does not recognize us or this scene, we don't want a panicked summoning response."

Just as Garcia turned to relay the message, a rumble from nearby caught Lucian's attention.

About twenty yards away, a large piece of rubble—what might have been part of a wall an hour ago—shifted slightly. The movement wasn't too noticeable, but to Lucian's trained eye, it was unmistakable.

"Hold on a second," he said to Garcia, already moving toward the disturbance. "Secure this scene and wait for medical."

He approached the shifted rubble cautiously, aware that unstable structures could collapse further without warning. Despite knowing this, something told him this wasn't just settling debris.

Serpencia, sensing his focus, materialized beside him, its sleek body wrapping around Lucian's legs as if it were protecting him, but giving him space to move.

"Help me with this," Lucian instructed, and the familiar obeyed instantly by extending its body and wrapping around the massive concrete chunk.

With their combined strength—Lucian's enhanced by his familiar's cloned physical abilities and Serpencia's raw supernatural power—they lifted the rubble away.

Beneath it lay another young man, this one with hair the color of fresh blood—red.

Unlike the first victim, this one was showing signs of consciousness, his fingers twitching slightly as dust-filled air reached his lungs through his nose and mouth.

What caught Lucian's attention, however, wasn't the man's striking hair or the fact that he was alive—it was the familiar pattern of gamma energy emanating from him.

Without a second thought, Lucian reached for the young man's left arm, which was stained with fresh red blood. Pushing up the torn sleeve of what had once been an expensive jacket, soaked in blood, Lucian's eyes widened.

There, on his skin—like a burn mark caused by flame, though Lucian knew for sure it wasn't a scar caused by fire—was another powerful red mark.

"What the hell?" Lucian exclaimed, confusion creeping into his voice for the first time since arriving at the scene.

Just like the other one, he had a red mark.

Red marks were rare enough that finding one unconscious summoner caught in any sort of disaster was unusual. They were the pinnacle of powerhouse in the hierarchy of contracted summoners, after all.

Finding two, within yards of each other, both apparently overcome by the same event, should have been impossible. Such an occurrence is only possible with overpowered summoners, and red-marked ones aren't the kind that can be overpowered.

Red-marked summoners were the ultimate warriors of their world, capable of defending themselves against almost any threat.

For two of them to be taken down simultaneously suggested something far more dangerous than Lucian had initially imagined.

He tapped his communication device. "Central, this is Commander Lucian. We've got a situation here. I've located a second red-marked individual, unconscious in the rubble. This doesn't feel like a random incident anymore."

The reply came back immediately, the voice of his supervisor tense. "Understood, Commander Lucian. Secure all survivors and stay on standby for additional resources if need be. Director Elena is being briefed now."

From around Lucian's leg, his Serpencia sprang into action once more.

It traveled, slicing through the air, already knowing his master's intention. It was searching around in the rubble for any sign of life, quickening the process for Lucian.

Lucian turned his attention back to the red-haired summoner, who was now showing more signs of awakening. "Sir, can you hear me? We are from the Federal Summoners Guild. You're safe now."

The young man's eyelids twitched but didn't open fully. His breathing was becoming more regular, though, which was a good sign. Lucian signaled with his hands to the medical team that had just arrived to bring a stretcher.

As they worked to stabilize the second victim, Serpencia suddenly returned to Lucian in a flash, tensing its body around him, but not enough to cause too much discomfort.

The familiar's behavior immediately put him on alert.

"What is it?" he asked, their bond allowing for a form of communication that went beyond words. Serpencia wasn't capable of speaking, which was normal for every familiar, but it could communicate with Lucian.

The response he received was clear: Serpencia had found more victims—multiple victims scattered throughout the rubble.

"Show me," Lucian commanded, and the serpent familiar shot forward, its long body weaving through the destruction as it showed Lucian the way.

Lucian followed, his heart pounding with an increasing sense of panic.

Serpencia led him to a partially collapsed building that might have once been a restaurant, judging by the remnants of tables and chairs scattered among the debris.

There, in the ruins, Lucian's familiar had found two more bodies—a young woman with short hair and a stocky man with a detailed tattoo visible on his neck where his collar had torn away.

The first thing Lucian did was to hurriedly check the left arm of the victims.

His eyes widened again.

"Red marks. Both of them."

"How did so many strong individuals fall? Who could possibly be capable of this!"

"This isn't possible," he whispered, almost to himself. It was very unlikely to find four red-marked summoners in one location.

Red marks made up less than two percent of the total summoner population. They simply didn't cluster like this, and they certainly weren't the type to fall victim to the same attack.

Lucian was clueless until a certain name came to his mind...

"Ryder!"

A chill ran down Lucian's spine as a terrible possibility occurred to him. Red-marked summoners were powerful, yes, but they weren't invincible. And there was just a single person, stronger—Ryder.

It was most definitely him. He was the strongest summoner in the whole world right now.

This makes me wonder, though: how strong is he to be able to perform such a feat?

"Commander, we found one!" a member of the search team shouted from a distance while carrying the body of someone—a red-marked individual.

"We found one..."

"We found one..."

More and more were assembled, and at that moment, Lucian noticed how odd the situation actually was.

How is it that only red-marked summoners are present? Everyone that has been retrieved is a red-marked summoner.

From the medical team, a lady in uniform stepped forward.

Observing everyone, she noticed a certain red-haired summoner who was still slightly conscious—the second person they had found earlier.

The healer, a small-framed woman with steady hands and a focused expression, had called forth her familiar—a glowing butterfly with translucent wings that were nearly six feet wide.

The creature hovered above them, its wings raining down golden particles of healing affinity, infused with gamma energy due to the influence of its affinity. The particles drifted down onto the injured man.

Lucian walked toward the healer. The red-haired summoner—the second victim they'd found—was now sitting up, albeit shakily, as a healer worked on him.

Everyone paused and turned to look at the healer as she did her job.

In mere seconds, all the cuts and bruises on the victim's body closed up and healed perfectly, while her breathing became ragged.

A short while later, the last unconscious man opened his eyes fully.

The healer stepped back upon seeing him awake and allowed him to catch a glimpse of what was going on.

After a moment, Lucian walked toward the red-haired young man, who was already sitting on the ground, and squatted to his eye level before asking, "What's your name?"

"Hwang Jim," the red-haired summoner replied, seemingly to have adapted to the situation pretty quickly.

In an instant, Lucian understood why there were so many summoners around after hearing this man's name.

The name alone explained everything. This was a member of the Red-Eastern guild.

The Red-Eastern guild is the only foreign guild with so many strong summoners that had recently extended to this country.

"You are a member of the Red-Eastern guild, right?" Lucian confirmed.

"Yes!"

"So what exactly happened here?" Lucian pressed further.

Hwang Jim narrowed his eyes as if he was trying to recall something, however still provided them with a disappointing response. "I'm sorry, but I don't know."

"Huh." Lucian was quite puzzled, tilting his head slightly. "Listen, we are allies of your guild."

He then raised his ID card for Hwang Jim to see.

"We are from the FSG. Your master must have told you about us."

"Yes, I knew you were FSG members right from the start," Hwang Jim responded. "That is why I never lied."

"But I have a clue about what happened."

Lucian's eyes widened and his pulse quickened; he wanted to confirm his suspicion. "Tell me, how many of them?"

Hwang Jim bowed his head in shame and lowered his gaze. If his master were here to hear such, he would be kicked out of the guild, along with the others.

"Just one," he admitted, his voice barely above a whisper.

The confirmation hit Lucian like a physical blow to the gut, though he'd been expecting it.

Only one summoner in the whole world, known to him, could take down multiple red-marked summoners all at once.

Only one had both the power and the familiar to cause this kind of destruction.

Lucian clenched his fist, then pulled out a communication device from his pocket and spoke an emergency priority message through it to the headquarters.

"He is out on a rampage. That devil-beast summoner, Ryder. He attacked members of the Red-Eastern guild and destroyed half of Ludlow."

After sending the message, Lucian returned the device to his pocket and stretched out a hand to help Hwang Jim to his feet. "Come with me. I need you to tell me everything—how it started, what triggered him, any detail you can remember."

More and more members from the FSG rescue team brought additional red-marked summoners until all were accounted for.

"A man in a black cloak came in," Hwang Jim began. "There was nothing unusual about him at first—we saw him as nothing but just another customer. He ordered the special noodle dish, but when it came time to pay, he was short—just a few coins, nothing significant."

As per the policy of this shop, we told him he would be working for the restaurant in exchange for payment for just two hours of dishwashing. It's a common practice, and he agreed without argument.

Things were going smoothly until he suddenly snapped and began to attack wildly.

"I was the first person he attacked, followed by my other comrades."

Luckily, one of us got the chance to summon our beast to battle with him...

Hwang Jim paused without saying anything else.

"Then what?"

The medical team by now had revived all the Red-Eastern guild members.

Standing up from the ground, Tang Jim hurriedly stared at his left arm. His eyes widened, and next came a loud scream.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!" The cry echoed across the destroyed landscape, silencing even the rescue teams as they turned to locate its source.

Tang Jim was the summoner of the lava mantis.

His eyes went from white to deep red in just two seconds as tears streamed down his cheeks like a running tap.

Panic filled the air as everyone hurriedly rushed towards him.

- What is it?

- Is everything okay?

...

One of the medics, finally reaching him, grabbed his arm to check his vital signs to see if he was still hurt—and then froze, her expression changing from concern to shocked sympathy.

"There's no symbol," she announced, her voice carrying in the sudden hush that had fallen over the area. "His mark... it's just red now. No picture or even familiar signature."

As the others heard this, their hearts sank.

Hwang Jim turned to Lucian, his eyes swimming with unshed tears. "The beast died," he said simply, those three words carrying the weight of the worst-case scenario. "He didn't just defeat it; he erased it from existence."