The Seven Demon's Tamer

"I realized you love coffee," Leo spoke as he poured some into Ryder's cup, the rich aroma filling the small apartment. "Drink up, will ya?"

Ryder stared as the smoke coiled and danced in the air, barely showing any interest. His eyes were vacant, focused on something no one could see.

Ever since Ryder woke up, he has been calm and quiet, barely saying anything. It was a good thing though, because Leo wasn't quite sure if he would have been able to tolerate it if Ryder continued his tantrum.

Leo busied himself in the small kitchen, pulling out bread and jam for breakfast. His movements were nonchalant and noisy, filling the parlour with sounds from plates and knife.

After what felt like ages, Ryder held on to the cup, raised it up, and sipped from the coffee.

"What time is it?" he questioned, his voice sounding like a grumble.

"Oh, and here I am thinking you won't utter a word," Leo cheered, his face lighting up with a grin that seemed almost childlike and cute, while he exited the kitchen to join Ryder. "You should be asking how you got here, not about time."

He spun dramatically, gesturing at the room. "Welcome to Casa de Leo abode! Where the coffee is strong and my protection is stronger!"

Ignoring all the words Leo said, Ryder asked again, "What time is it?"

"Stubborn, aren't you?" Leo fell onto his couch with an exaggerated sigh, limbs sprawling lazily. "It's quarter past nine. You've been unconscious all night."

Ryder nodded weakly and glanced outside through the distant window. The sun was shining bright outside, casting long shadows across the tile floor.

"I thought we were enemies and you wanted to kill me." Ryder sipped on his coffee. "Tell me, why am I still alive?"

Leo smiled. "Oh, I found a liking for you and your familiar, so I decided to spare you."

"Please say that again." Luxy suddenly materialized at the corner of the room, his appearance so abrupt that Leo nearly flung away his dessert. The words Luxy uttered were actually polite, but his tone screamed otherwise.

Leo panicked as he quickly corrected himself, hands raised in mock surrender. "I mean, your familiar was stronger than me."

"But while you were half-conscious, some interesting occurrences took place," Leo continued, attempting to move the conversation forward. He leaned forward from the couch, elbows on knees, his posture that of a storyteller about to reveal a great secret.

"You see, ever since you summoned Luxy, there has been a porter suspended in the air. Unlike other summoners who summon out their familiars with mist, you summon yours through a porter."

He paused for effect, clearly expecting some reaction from Ryder.

"Oh wow," Ryder responded flatly, his tone devoid of any emotion. "Go on."

"After you summoned out Luxy, the porter remained in the air, crackling. After a while during our battle, it began to send out lightning towards us before a beast from the Astral Shadow Plain emerged."

Leo's eyes widened, like a child that found his favorite toy. His hands moved animatedly as he spoke, painting pictures in the air. "Guess what we did to it..."

"You killed it," Ryder responded, still not reflecting any emotion. He took another sip of his coffee.

"That's right!" Leo continued. "There were two beasts, actually, but that's not the point here. We noticed just before they came out, the porter's color changed from purple to orange, and after the beasts emerged, they were just as strong as orange-marked familiars."

He stood up, pacing the small living room as his excitement grew. "There was no assurance that the porter would transform from purple to orange; it was just a probability. It could have transformed to any color—brown, red, white, or even black.

"If it had transformed to black, it would have been summoning out creatures from the plain where you contracted your familiar—powerful creatures. Isn't that intriguing?"

Ryder's gaze turned to Leo blankly, then he took another sip of his coffee.

"What happened to the porter?"

"Oh, I forgot to mention," Leo said, snapping his fingers as if just remembering an important detail. "We killed the beasts that emerged from the porter—there were only two. After their death, the porter disappeared, leaving nothing in the air."

"That's good news, isn't it?" Ryder questioned.

"It should have been, but my eyes speak otherwise," said Leo, pointing at his eyes with his finger.

"You see, Ryder, my eyes are not actually different from those of other humans, but I can see beyond what they can," Leo explained, his voice taking on a more serious tone—the shift from excited storyteller to a serious young man.

"I was born with nothing special, but I lived my life crafting myself into the best version I can, making me appear special."

He moved to the window, gazing out at the garden surrounding his house. "The human eyes have no restrictions, but after birth, a human would only be able to access them minimally due to the fact that their body treats them as foreign organs."

His finger traced patterns on the glass, following the flow of wind against the grasses and flowers. "As time goes on and they grow old, after their body accepts the eyes as part of their body, they will be able to access it in accordance with how much their body wants to access from their vision—not how much they should have been able to access."

Turning back to Ryder, Leo's eyes seemed to gleam like a piece of diamond. "It was tampered by me, to some extent, that I gained the capability to see all around me at the same time.

"After being tampered with sheer will, I was able to see something supernatural—I was able to see aura."

Luxy, who had been quiet during Leo's exposition, turned his head to stare at the towering figure of Leo. His ears twitched forward, a sign of genuine interest towards the secret behind Leo's eyes.

"You see, Ryder, the first time we met, during our conversation, I stated that we haven't met before, but I knew you. That isn't exactly right; it's more like I know and recognized your aura."

Leo moved closer to Ryder, his expression intense. "Everyone has a different aura; some might be hard to differentiate, but yours wasn't. I could tell instantly because of the heavy residual energy you left behind and the thickness of it—it is almost terrifying and undoubtedly the strongest aura I've ever come across."

He tapped Ryder lightly on the chest, right above his heart. "Ever since you made your aura more than just concealed energy inside you, you created a physical manifestation of Luxy through the aid of a porter.

"You changed the flow of gamma by unknowingly altering and increasing it as you summoned Luxy.

"Just like wind moves, gamma energy moves. Just like wind sometimes blows violently, gamma energy sometimes moves violently. And lastly, just like wind forms and swirls as a whirlwind, gamma energy forms and swirls as sparks.

"Ever since earlier when you changed the level of gamma energy on Terra, you evolved the gamma energy reaction from sparks to something more than sparks—to porters.

"That's right, Ryder. Now that you have altered and increased the gamma energy on Terra, gamma energy will form and swirl as porters, once in a while, at different places in the world.

"You can guess why I said it is not alright, despite the fact that we killed all the untamed familiars that came from the porter and closed it."

Ryder paused as he registered all the new information Leo was giving to him.

Leo continued, "Despite the fact we were able to close the porter that formed, it didn't make any changes in the current situation the world is about to face. We didn't make any significant change and will never be able to—we only handled the porter closest to us.

"The world will begin to notice the newest change as porters will suddenly appear from the air—the pathway that untamed familiars will use in entering into Terra."

"Remember what I told you about the intriguing part about this all?" Leo asked rhetorically. "The color of the porter follows similar principles as the color of the mark a summoner can gain—brown, orange, red, black, and white.

"The color the porter will assume is a probability, and there is no way we can tell for sure what to expect. If we humans turn out to be so unlucky, a black porter might appear, and beasts of Luxy's level will enter into the planet."

Leo changed his position on the couch from sitting down lazily to lying down, while flinging his legs in excitement.

"I'm so excited for how things will turn out. I know for sure I'll be able to take care of myself even if a black porter opens up—but what about the others, and the arrogant guilds?"

"Point of correction," Luxy intruded. "If a black porter opens, you won't be able to take care of yourself, Leo."

There was no mockery in Luxy's tone, just a cold statement of fact.

Leo completely ignored Luxy while secretly taking note and concluded, "I can't wait to see how this turns out."