The Seven Demon's Tamer

Leo took a moment of hesitation before he continued, his eyes darting between Brok and Ryder with an intensity that made the air around them feel thick with tension and tense. "Everyone in this village is in danger."

Brok and Ryder both stared at Leo, confused. The trio stood at the village square, surrounded by civilians carrying out activities of their daily life—children playing and jumping everywhere, vendors selling their products, elderly villagers gossiping on wooden benches. There was no danger in sight.

"And what makes you think they are in danger?" Ryder retorted, his confusion turning into rage with alarming speed. The muscles in his jaw tightened as he clenched his teeth. "Go straight to the point. I am not in the mood for all this nonsense."

"The gamma energy in the air is just too much," Leo spoke.

Leo blinked several times, as if trying to clear his vision, before turning to Ryder. "Gamma energy is... well, it's the raw material of summoning. The energy that allows familiars to materialize in the real world."

Leo shook his head. "It's not dangerous to humans—not directly, anyway. But this level of concentration is wrong.

Y'all are unknowingly gathering gamma energy here. And that... that could be very dangerous with the current state we've put the world in."

"The villagers are safe so knock it off," Ryder snapped.

With that, Ryder forcefully smacked Leo's hands off his shoulder.

In his mind, it was meant to be a warning gesture, nothing more. After all, knowing Leo and his seemingly extraordinary strength for a human, Ryder wasn't even sure if knocking Leo's hand would make it budge.

Despite knowing that, he went ahead anyway, partly to make a point, partly because his anger demanded action.

Leo's hand was sent flying backwards with so much force that it had zero friction. His hand moved so violently and ended up twisting behind his back before a snap was heard.

"Huh," Brok gasped, his eyes widening in shock as he rushed towards Leo, who was now kneeling on one knee on the ground, his face a mask of pain.

Leo's broken hand dangled at his side at an unnatural angle, his joint visibly broken beneath his skin. But somehow, impossibly, Leo seemed to ignore it, not even bothering about himself.

The pain that had flashed across his face moments before was already being replaced, replaced by a firm determination that was somehow more unsettling than his suffering had been.

"You have no idea how much threat this poses to the life here," Leo's voice boomed as his eyes flinched in constant pain. A bead of sweat rolled down his face as he replaced the pain again. "None of you understand what we're facing."

"Remember what I told you about the night when we first met?" Leo continued, his voice lowering again. "When we fought. When you summoned out Luxy for the first time."

"The balance of gamma energy in the entirety of planet Terra changed," Leo said, speaking faster now. "It wasn't just about you and me anymore. What happened that night altered everything."

Brok glanced nervously at the gathering crowd. "Perhaps we should take this somewhere private," he suggested, but Leo shook his head.

The confusion on their faces was clear, they didn't understand what the trio were arguing about.

"There's no time," he insisted. "Occasionally, the flow of gamma energy in the air becomes excessive in a particular spot and it creates sparks. Ever since you summoned out Luxy, you permanently increased the gamma energy flow in the air which evolved the gamma energy sparks and now creates gamma energy portals."

Leo pointed to the air and continued, "The gamma energy in the air here is already so much, so strong, Ryder."

"All it needs is a little push," Leo continued, "a little bit of increase and then, a portal forms out of thin air." He snapped his fingers with his good hand causing an elderly woman nearby to jump in surprise.

Ryder, who had been staring at Leo with the corner of his eyes as they spoke, turned his gaze to look at his palms.

"You should hope that too many powerful summoners don't summon out their beasts suddenly close by or something of that nature that could alter the gamma energy in the air slightly or else, there might be a catastrophic incident," Leo's voice dropped, seemingly done with all he had to say.

"So this is it," Ryder muttered to himself. "I knew things had been too peaceful for a while now. It's approaching the tenth day I've contacted Luxy and nothing major had occurred for a while."

"So the curse Luxy had brought to me is still lingering."

"Don't be ridiculous," Brok knocked him out of his muttering. "Nothing has happened for a while now so rest assured, it could be just a theory, isn't that right...

Huh? Leo?"

***

"WITHDRAW!" Lucian bellowed, his eyes widening. "EVERYONE OUT, NOW!"

Unfortunately, it was already too late for the female agent.

Splatter!

They only saw Luxy swing his claw once—a motion so swift and fast that it was barely perceptible to the human eye—but the aftermath was unmistakable. The agent's body burst into chunks of tiny meats, creating a pool of blood that splattered on the ground.

All the other agents leaped backwards in shock.

"EXIT THE BUILDING, NOW!" Lucian commanded. And everyone obeyed instantly, some ducked out through the window, some breaking the wall with their bodies, others using the door.

They all ensured they obeyed Lucian's order as fast as they could and luckily, apart from the female agent that was the direct victim, everyone else made it outside safely. The yard in front of Leo's dwelling quickly filled with agents retreating.

While outside, Lucian gave another order without a second thought towards all the agents he was in charge of, excluding Mia, who was the same rank as him.

"Everyone, summon out your familiar, NOW!"

The agents were taken aback for a moment—they were around fifty in number excluding the fallen agent. Was summoning fifty red mark familiars really necessary for taking down a single rabbit? Even one as deadly as they had just witnessed?

Eventually, they obeyed the command as mist began to materialize into figures all around them. The gamma energy in the atmosphere intensified perceptibly for even ordinary summoners, making it difficult to even breathe.

Turning to special agent Mia, one of the most trusted in the most dangerous operations such as this and Lucian's partner on countless operations including this one, Lucian requested rather than ordered softly:

"Drop a barrier."

"On it, commander," she smiled despite the tense situation as red mist materialized out of her left shoulder, materializing into a form beside her.

Materializing out of the fog was her familiar— a humanoid horned creature covered in grey and with four eyes arranged in a curved manner across its face. Standing at nearly nine feet tall.

Its eyes were dark, nearly as if its pupils enlarged and encompassed its iris. At the end of its fingers, long claws elongated.

Unlike other familiars that resembled a particular animal, this one was completely alien, and it had a name; it was called Crimson Monarch Daoka.

Among the assembled agents, the majority gasped at the sight while stealing a peek—Daoka was legendary, one of the most powerful defensive familiars in existence.

"Drop the veil, will ya!" She spoke as she patted its shoulder despite the height difference of about three feet.

Raising its hands upwards, Daoka activated its magic, the air around its clawed fingers exuded a smoky shadow.

*Shadow Cover*

From the air, a dark veil descended and in no time, it had formed a massive dome around them big enough to encompass roughly fifty buildings. The sky disappeared, replaced by an inky blackness that one can see through like the tinted windshield of a vehicle.

Panicked screams could be heard as they suddenly realized—there were civilians around. Villagers who had been going about their daily business were now trapped within the Shadow Cover, their screams were in pure terror.

Agent Mia simply smiled, not bothered by their distress, and commanded, "Send them out."

Daoka nodded with a smile that revealed rows of needle-like teeth and simply clapped twice. In that instant, shadow momentarily covered all the buildings around excluding Leo's, and then the shadow disappeared shortly after.

Everyone was expecting the civilians around to be teleported away but it wasn't just them, their buildings were as well.

The once developed landscape had become nothing but a mere expanse of levelled land.

Staring up at the dome, most agents were astonished. They had never seen agent Mia's familiar using its affinity; this was the first for them.

The power of the crimson monarch firsthand for the first time, the agents knew it was going to be a memorable experience. Mia is among the only three in the entire assembly of four nations of the entire united kingdom with a red marked monarch.

***

Ryder, Leo and Brok walked in silence as they headed towards the exit of the village — the same place they used as their entry.

Leo's broken hand still dangled as he walked but from the look on his face, the pain had stopped.

"I'll like an explanation about what suddenly happened to all the strength," Ryder finally broke the long awkward silence as guilt finally overcame his other emotions.

"You're feeling guilty, aren't you?" Leo smiled softly, his handsome face vibrant. "This will take a while to heal for sure but it's fine."

They reached the rusty gate that acted as the village's main entrance and exit. Ryder pushed it gently causing a creaking sound, and then allowed Leo to step out first, then Brok and....

Huff! Huff! Huff! Huff!

They heard someone breathing heavily behind them, the sound of running footsteps approaching rapidly.

"Wait, Ryder!" She called out, a voice Ryder recognized.

Turning around, he blurted in surprise, "Mara!"

The young lady who stood before them was slightly built, with long combed black hair tied in a bun and piercing green eyes like beautiful gems.

She wore the practical clothing of a traveler—sturdy boots, loose trousers, and a jacket with more pockets than seemed necessary. With how tidy she still appeared, Ryder could guess she was about to travel out.

But who travels like this in the developed generation like this?

But more surprising, how did she recognize him while still undercover in his cloak?

"What... What are you doing here, Mara?" Ryder stuttered, not looking at her directly. "Don't you have something better to do?"

"I had," she confirmed, her breathing beginning to steady. "Until I heard rumors about FSG massing nearby and a cloaked figure entering our village.

Agents specifically looking for two men, one amongst them known as the demon contractor." She raised an eyebrow pointedly. "Can't imagine who that might be."

Leo, not minding what was going on behind him, stared at the sky right after the gate, finally away from the dense gamma energy all around the village.

"The sight of so much gamma energy was giving me an unsettling feeling," he sighed, finally relaxed.

Turning his face forward, he suddenly halted. In a far distance, far beyond the distance any ordinary person could see, he noticed it— the worst case scenario.

Another cloud of gamma energy was forming. With how dense the aura was, it could only mean one thing; a massive number of red mark summoners just summoned their familiars all at once.

"They're here," Leo whispered, his voice barely audible. "The FSG are making their move."