Celestial summoner book 3 ch.1

    -on the world of Mededaria-

     Mirai is in her family's library going through a large collection of books on different types of spirits and history with demon lords and other powerful spirits.

    "Miss Mirai," says Rhoan in his butler form coming into the room, "you have  guests."

    "Show him in," says Mirai not looking up from her text.

    A moment later a young man with blue hair (Lance Arms), and a young woman with pink hair (Sakura Oko), her fellow adventurers and graduates from the Grand Summoning school.

   "Hey Mirai!" shouts Sakura cherrifully, her little Alraune elemental spirit (Cherry Blossom) sitting on her shoulder in her humanoid form with little pink leaf wings.

   "Oh, Sakura," says Mirai looking up and looking past her to Lance, "Oh and Luke..I mean Lance, what brings you by?"

   "We havn't seen you in two months," says Sakura, "you havn't been by the guild hall and no one's seen you in forever and..."

   Sakura notices the little wooly sheep with curled black horns sitting in Mirai's lap, she looks around, "and I can't remember ever seeing you without Tempestia since you got her. Did you actually put her in her card or...did something happen, we're your friends you can talk to us, I heard about Agaron city."

   "Nothing of the sort," comes a woman's voice coming in from another room in the rather large library carrying some books. The woman has an athletic build, is very pale, solid white hair, white lips, and red eyes.

   "Another spirit," says Lance.

   "Oh me," says the woman, "I suppose to you people I would be called that, specifically an eldritch going by your little books. I am Albia."

   "Did you find anything Albia?" asks Mirai ignoring the odd conversation.

   "Sadly no," says Albia, "ya'know if you're so curious you could just summon Mewmew back here, heh,"

   Lance looks between them as does Sakura.

  Mirai smiles, "Mewmew is what Rhulan, er, Tempestia was called on their world. Well Lance you were there, so Sakura, like short, I was contracted to Tempestia in a past life, more than one, she followed my reincarnation to this world and contracted with me again as Tempestia."

  She turns back to Albia, "I did, she doesn't know. She was only one of the thirteen great spirits that formed the magic of this world. That said she was instrumental in connecting Mededaria to the Inferverse so Mystic Monsters could appear here, and the Elemental Realm so Elemental Faeries could also appear here; but as to why full power Elementals don't appear on Mededaria she doesn't know. I suspect Chaykonaka was behind the Daemons and possibly Eldritch, but given we are dealing with thirteen very powerful entities its hard to say what aspect or part there of each was actually involved in. For all we know Salaena or Junelia was behind them or the cards; so many mysteries to unravel, but..."

   "Hey Mirai," comes a guy's voice carrying some books, a man with short brown hair with a katana at his side.

  "Oh Lance, find...I mean, Luke, find something, I swear you two are so much alike."

   Lance looks at the strange, "Uh, are you also a spirit?"

  Luke *laughs*, "Hardly, I'm Luke, well..."

  He pauses a moment remembering the cover stories they agreed on, "I'm an adventurer, a freelancer, Albia there is my spirit partner."

  "One way to put it," says Albia licking her lips looking at him tugging at the edge of the sexy librarian short shirt she is wearing.

   Sakura chimes in, "So what is this project you're working on Mirai? Maybe I can help."

   "Well," says Mirai with a *deep sigh*, "Okay, you all know the different kinds of spirits that appear here right? And the confusion everyone had about Tempestia and the others that showed up that looked just like her, well."

   She pauses a moment, "Don't go spreading word on this but there is another kind of spirit, a very powerful kind of spirit, that for the life of me I can't figure out what mechanism is preventing them from being summoned here. The Battle Spirit cards draw on the same power they do, Mystic Monsters are based on them, and Elemental Faeries were created by them as emissaries to the physical world."

  "What?" asks Lance, "I took the same classes you did Mirai, Elemental Faeries are theorized to be the young versions of Eldritch, and Mystic monsters are living mana, some of this sounds like the sorts of lies a dark lord would say."

   Mirai pulls out a green gem.

   "Where'd you get that!?" shouts Cherry Blossom from Sakura's shoulder surprising them.

   "The little fairy knows what it is," says Albia.

   "I uh..." stammers Cherry Blossom.

  "Cherry Blossom," says Sakura, "what is that?"

  Cherry Blossom puffs up her cheeks, "Something that can't be here."

  Lance's leprechaun appears on his shoulder, "She's right boyo, that there gem cannot be on this world. We cannot tell you what it is or what it does as we are bound by powerful magics. But we can tell you it cannot be here."

  "Its a summon stone," says Mirai, "specifically an Elemental caster gem. I suspect something like them are buried under the summoning spots at the Grand Summoning School, a way around the need for the quests to go to the temples to contact a fairy queen to gain a spirit partner. However I don't know how the founders of the school got them, and of course I can't just go digging in sacred sights to confirm my theory. But,"

   She stands up and looks around, "Nikkie! How is is going?"

   A woman's voice shouts off from somewhere in the library, "What? Oh, sorry Mirai I was taking a cat nap. Havn't found anything, the magic on this world is pretty bland, these books read like sterio instructions."

  Mirai's eyes show some panic, "Thanks! Hey those friends I told you about, well two of them have stopped by."

  From atop the book cases a human sized cat girl with black fur comes leaping over and lands beside Mirai, the little sheep glances up at her.

  "Hey there," she says, "I'm Nikkie,"

  "Another summoner," says Sakura, "and bonded with your nekojin partner I see."

  "Bonded," says Nikkie with a laugh, "I am a Nekojin, and I aint no spirit."

  "Something aint right boyo," whispers the leprechaun, "your friend must be messing with some dangerous magics, that gem, a full living Nekojin, and there is no seal on that Eldritch, she is no one's partner, she is free and loose, no eldritch can be summoned to this world like that."

  "Of course!" shouts Mirai looking directly at the leprechaun on Lance's shoulder, "why didn't I think of just asking the elemental faeries?"

  The sheep hops onto the desk, "Mirai," it says in a woman's voice, "clearly they know something but are bound by magic, possibly the same you are looking for, from telling us. That gnome or whatever it is was just whispering to that guy some stuff he shouldn't be."

  "Huh?" says Mirai.

  "That I'm not under any contract," says Albia her eyes glowing red.

  "Or," says Nikkie her cat ears twitching, "that I'm even here, although I don't know why that's important or why I couldn't be. I'm just a Nekojin, I'm magic yeah, but I'm not an elemental spirit or anything, just a cat person. I mean not all mermaids are water fairies, some are just fish people."

  "I am...so confused," says Sakura.

  Mirai *sighs*, "Lance, Sakura, okay you know about Agaron Town and the whole past life thing well...I remembered a spell to contact individuals spiritually connected to my past life self and well here they are."

   "and Albia and I," says Luke, "are partners, just not some sick slave and master kind."

  "Luke," starts Mirai.

  "Sorry, sorry," says Luke, "I'm working on that."

  Lance looks at the man and at the others, "So none of you are human?"

  "I'm human," says Luke, "only I'm also immortal, long story, not your business. We're Mirai's friends, and she invited us to check out her new digs, catch up on what we've all been up to since...well...she was reincarnated."

   "Yeah," says Nikkie, "Luke and I grew up with Mirai."

   "So did we," says Lance indicating himself and Sakura.

   "Only in this life time," says Sakura eying them, "Mirai have you talked to the guild masters about any of this? and you summoned...people, not spirits, and an eldritch without a contract. Mirai this is very serious what are you trying to do?"

  Mirai picks up the green gem, "Okay, I get you two are getting suspicious, probably think some dark lords are whispering weird things in my ears. I didn't call you guys in on this because well..."

  She eyes their elemental faeries, "because the attitude this world has towards spirits. Mewmew...Tempestia, was right. This world's attitude towards spirits isn't one of reverence but more akin to tools, we listen to their life histories and it becomes backstories, we even call it that, like its just some story to go along with a cool summoned monster and not their tragic or serious life histories. Really think about it, Mr. Farns  partnert spirit, Daiyakisar, how often has it talked about once leading a bloodthirsty cult; have you ever stopped to think that thing really has killed people, massacred them, controlled whole cults of people, shadow governments; and it wants to do that again. If it ever got free."

  "It won't," says Lance nonchalantly, "Mirai that's why there are contracts, it gets passed down to family members, new people."

  "Dark lords," says Mirai.

  "Then," says Sakura, "a team of adventurers gets together with their own spirits to subdue it and..." Sakura pauses and thinks, "Mirai, Daiyakisar hated Tempestia, and several other spirits were afraid of her."

  "No surprise there," says Albia, the others there nodding causing Lance and Sakura to look back and forth between them and each other.

  Sakura continues, "I think I get where you are going with this, every dark lord on record was either a mystic monster or a ghost, there has never been a recorded instance outside of a few legends of either daemon or an eldritch ever breaking loose and becoming a dark lord even though..." she pauses wide eyed.

  Mirai picks up the thought continuing, "even though the exact same thing that keeps mystic monsters and ghosts bound is the same thing keeping daemons and eldritch bound, sometimes even less. Most mystic monsters will just be sent back to the Inferverse if their cards are destroyed or they're beaten in battle without one, dark lord mystic monsters happen because someone intentionally freed them. Ghosts are because someone passed away and didn't pass down the contract; but why couldn't that happen with Daemons and Eldritch? The only thing preventing that is that most Daemons have contracts that specifically state they will be sent back to their realm if the contract isn't renewed."

  She taps a stack of books, "and I have been looking up contract history with the guild records to double check that."

  Mirai walks back and rubbing the gem in her fingers, Sakura notices both Cherry Blossom and the Leprechaun have not taken their eyes off of it this entire time.

  Mirai continues, "it takes on bad contract or someone re-writing it and a daemon would be free, but hey not as big a deal if an eldritch got free. but here,"

  Mirai picks up a guild book and opens it for Lance and Sakura, "there is only one summoning contract that can be made with an eldritch and it states if the contrct is not passed down to someone by the time of the summoner's death then the eldritch is free. Seriously,"

   She sets the book down and continues, "So that's what I am working on, what if someone neglects to have a back up bequeth before going an adventure and gets killed? Heck just look at the adventurer guild records of people with eldritch partners they barely go on adventures, they end up running shops, or becoming teachers, same with those with powerful daemons."

  "That sounds like personal records," says Lance.

  "Not the point," says Albia interrupting him and smilintg a toothy smile.

  "The point," says Mirai, "is that we have no real defenses against an eldritch, the thirteen fairy queens are bound to not appear outside their temples in their full form and power, I mean look what happened with Tempestia in that dream walking form she was in, that alone was enough to destabalize some of the magic of our world. But the trick is they arn't the only ones,"

  "Wait, hold on," interrupts Sakura, "Mirai, what is this about Tempestia."

  "Oh," says Mirai, "well as I said my past life self was contracted with her, I did say that right, anyway, so in this life she followed me here. She wasn't the only one actually."

   She picks up the sheep, "Vicky here is a daemon, she too was contracted to me in a past life and the two of them actually raced here, but Tempestia being what she is was able to send just a piece of herself here, hence appearing in a form that had never appeared on our world as a pure elemental spirit, before taking on a less disruptive form, but just by appearing here was enough to interrupt some magic channels. That's what happened with the cards and the temple of storms. That was her, Tempestia was the avatar of the great storm fairy, that's why so many high level spirits were afraid of her, why she broke so many rules."

   "Mirai," says Lance, "you really think.."

  "Luke pass me that book," says Mirai as Luke passes over an old book with a bookmark in it, Mirai opens it to show a page showing a drawing of thirteen women in long white robes with long dark hair each with a symbol of one of the thirteen temples beside them, "when they appeared in the past to make the temples they appeared in these forms. Those others, Nina at the circuis in Yoko Town, and the ones that appeared at the Grand Summoning school, while they arn't great fairies, they are of the same species, give or take, and appeared in these forms. Elemental spirits."

   "The sea temple one didn't look like that," says Lance dismissivly.

  "Axuaria was inside the temple behind a portal," says Mirai.

   "Azuaria!" shouts Luke, "that kaiju is here?"

  "No," says Mirai, "its not...wait...she did look like...oh my god it was. Well it makes sense given what happend at the end there, so glad she ditched the giant dress that would have looked so weird underwater."

  "Well now I'm curious," says Luke.

   Albia shoots him a look.

  "Not like that," says Luke, "imagine that dress she was wearing but if she wore while in the ocean."

   "Hold on, hold on," says Sakura, "you are seriously saying your partner spirit was one of the thirteen greay fairies?"

  "Yes," says Mirai, "as crazy as that sounds in context to everything you and Lance would know about, yeah. But hey, we suspected something was up, especially with the timing. Her presence along was causing disruptions. Its one of the reasons she had to return to the spirit world."

  Mirai holds up her blue card, "I can summon her though, but she can choose to appear or not to appear, hey she might be busy."

   "That other woman is behind this isn't she?" asks Lance.

   "Hollia?" asks Mirai as she looks at Sakura, "right you havn't met her.

   Mirai continues, "Hollia did give me the idea. Its one thing to have high level beings in avatar forms. But they shouldn't be neccessary, and given everything else here and the danger eldritch pose; there is another type of spirit that shouldn't be as disruptive, heck those others that took on the Tempestia forms weren't disrupting anything, but Tempestia being here was disrupting the balance of our world's magic. So take a few steps down, take a step back while we're at it, and there is an option to defeat an eldritch should they break loose from their contract."

   She holds up the green gem, "A true Elemental Spirit, they are just as powerful if not more so than the average eldritch, they can lend their power or appear fully, and they are so indifferent to mortal planes that they will appear, perform the task, and leave; usually, but they are nothing like most eldritch, they don't lust after the flesh or devour the living or want to be worshipped or even really care about any of that."

   "Which," shouts out Cherry Blossom, "is exactly why you shouldn't summon them."

   She claps her hand over her mouth, which even as Sakura prods her for more information its like her hands are stuck there.

  "Powerful magic," says the leprechaun on Lance's shoulder, "she'll be stuck like that. But girly, I can tell you, you are messing around with dangerous and powerful forces you don't understand."

  "Tempestia is Rokonaka," says Mirai nonchalantly.

   "WHAT!?" shouts the leprechaun and Cherry Blossom at the same time.

  "Not just any elemental," says Mirai smuggly, "My past life self had the stone of storms and contracted with the Celestial Empress of the Dark Void herself."

   She holds up the gem, "by comparison this rock Hollia got for me is just a minor stone of summoning, a one time use; it breaks right after, summoning stone; this summons a Forest Queen. Not sure why the elemental faeries can't talk about this."

  She turns, "Hey, Nikkie could you write that down for me really quick, I'm kind of rambling on here so I might forget. Arg, Lance and Sakura must be so lost, I've been working on this for two months and trying to praddle off everything at once to catch you two up is nuts."

  Mirai gathers up some papers, "I've been writing it all down,"

  "I...don't recognize half these words, I mean the symbols, what is this?" says Sakura.

  "Oh," says Mirai, "past life memories kind of overlapping, yeah, funny story about that. See Tempestia contracted with me in  a past life about the same time as in this life, so what happened was when I reached the same age and level of magic she came back to me, caused all those disruptions and to be honest the spirit mirror in Agaron is mostly responsible, my higher self touching my current self and even getting a glimps of part of Tempestia's higher self."

  "Rokonaka," whispers the Leprechaun, "that's what was in the mirror."

  "I am jelous," says Cherry Blossom, "she should have taken Sakura and I with her, I'd have recognized the empress of chaos right away."

  "Doubtful," says the sheep that had mostly been silent in a woman's voice.

  Mirai laughs, "Sakura, this is Vicky, remember me telling you about the succubus at Oboro I went after? Well I did eventually get her. Heh, thing is at the time I thought she may have been an eldritch dark lord with how the mayor described her, didn't even occur to me such a thing had no record of ever happening. After all of the chaos was cleared up with the higher self stuff and I contacted my past life self's friends and got my head together, trust me mixing memories of two life times is...chaotic."

  Sakura gives her a worried look.

  Mirai continues, "So I got to thinking, has there ever been a recorded case of an actual eldritch dark lord, mix in some thoughts on that; and what could we do if one came to our world in its full power. But then I realized the only solution we'd have is the thirteen fairy queens, but our world is dependent on the magic from their temples that just dipping their little toe as it were into your world outside of them caused massive problems, if they showed up in full power who knows what would happen. So next best thing, i was talking with Hollia about the elemental faeries and battle cards and the topic came up about summoning actual elemental spirits; and well, what I thought would be a quick search in the library turned to days, I called some friends to help, and that turned to weeks and well..."

  "You didn't call us," says Sakura, "Mirai this is all a bt much, I mean my uncle has a ghost that came from some other world, and its not unheard of. Agaron does that whole contract your own spirit if you're the reincarnation of something powerful thing but...I have to process all this. But really, you probably need to get out of this library; you sound like you havn't gotten enough sleep lately."

  "Been telling her that myself," says Nikkie, "also been telling her we need to get out of this stuffy library. We havn't even seen this whole magic cards world, it sounds neat."

   "Well," says Mirai.

   "Exactly," says Sakura, "sounds like you need to take a step back from this, clear your head, focus on something else for a few days at least and come back refreshed."

   "Yeaj, you're right," says Mirai.

   "I know," says Sakura, "how about I contact Angela and we call go on an adventure together."

   She looks around the room, "I mean all of us. If you havn't already you can register as freelance adventurers, get out see our world, get to know each other."

  "Sakura," starts Lance, "I was there when Mirai went to Agaron, and I saw the aftermath, those other spirits, Tempestia's true form, Hollia, that Rhudra nearly breaking free of the arena,"

  Luke asks in a serious tone, "Rhudra, sir, describe who you mean please."

  Lance looks at him, "She was some spirit with black hair, electric powers, crazy powerful, Mirai's Tempestia had to stop her from breaking the battle grid of the arena battle."

  Luke turns to Mirai, "Is she still here?"

  Mirai *sighs*, "I thought she was but according to Hollia she went back their world. Guess she didn't find our world interesting enough or something."

  Luke lets out a sigh of relief, he turns to Lance and Sakura, "Rhudra is a dangerous individual, not just for her insane power, but her rather nasty habit of spreading vampirism among populations seemingly just for kicks; it may be prudent to keep an eye out for that if she was here even for a day."

  "I'll let the guild know," says Lance, "just from what I saw I have no reason to doubt it, she was strong enough to break the arena."

   "Okay then," says Sakura interrupting the falling mood, "Mirai, Lance and I will head over to the guild hall. Can we tell them to expect anyone to sign up to be a freelancer, maybe get you to show up at the guild hall."

  Mirai thinks.

  "Please," says Nikkie, "I am sooo bored in this library. I don't know what we are looking for, why do you need to find some local way to summon elementals, you can just go to Aesperia and buy those stones at any adventurer store."

  "What?!" shouts the Cherry Blossom and the lephrechaun again.

  Mirai *sighs*, "Yeah, but its not like I want to buy them there, sell them here and that's it. Before I even try one here I want to make sure there isn't a real reason not to...and given how Sakura and Lance's partner's are reacting there really might be...but if they can't say why."

  "Mirai," says Sakura and Nikkie at the same time causing them both to pause and look at each other.

  "Okay, okay," says Mirai, "taking a step back, besides my family library clearly doesn't have the answer, and if it does its hidden so deep that it could take years to find it like this. Obviously I need a better strategy."

  "Then its settled," says Sakura.

   They say their good byes, outside however when they are down the road a ways; Lance's sword materializes on his hip and the spirit inside (Aegis Leo) speaks, "Master, I am a celestial spirit, not bound by the magic restrictions of the elemental faeries. I must warn you, this revelation that Tempestia was Rokonaka may mean something or it may mean nothing, there is no predicting the actions of such beings as that. However I can advise you if you can to convince your friend to supply you with elemental enhancement crystals, something that too can be found on the world of Aesperia, and can be equipped to our weapon and armor forms for special boosts in power."

   "Greedy bastard," mutters the leprechaun on Lance's shoulder, "and what happens if..."

   His mouth is shut tight, he grumbles forcing his lips apart, "what I can't even give a warning about this?"

   Lance and Sakura stop on the trail.

   "Do you know anything Aegis Leo about why they don't want those crystals being used on our world?" asls Lance, "and what that is?"

   "Perhaps," says Aegis Leo, "although I cannot be certain, perhaps they don't want to be replaced as the partner spirits by supperior spirits and be forced to only reside back in their own world as minor summonings for minor tasks, as they are the servants and messengers of the true elemental spirits. Why there is some magic to prevent them speaking about them however, I do not know."

  "What about you Lance?" ask Sakura, "You were stiff as a board in there. What you you think of Mirai's freelancer friends?"

  "Freelancers," scoffs Lance, "Mirai kept going on about eldritch dark lords but there was one in the room, that one eldritch had no contract on her."

   "Nor could she," says Cherry Blossom to Sakura, "that Albia she is an overlord...not an overlord class...no, the overlord of her own hell. I looked through the veils of magic at her. I also felt the love in the room, she and that Luke man are a couple."

  "So," says Sakura, "Mirai's higher self has a non elemental faerie living person Nekojin, an eldritch overlord, an immortal swordsman, and a new succubus sheep daemon as her partner; and can summon Tempestia...maybe some of the time."

  "We have to report all of this," says Lance.

   "No we don't," says Sakura, "well...not everything, you heard Mirai and Cherry Blossom, that Luke guy is obviously partnered with that eldritch, just not using the same contracts we do. Nikkie is a person not a spirit; we do however need make sure Mirai updates her guild information, she changed her partner. Well, everyone was expecting her to add her parents' spirits to her own deck at some point anyway and getting herself another daemon...yeah I'll talk with her alone later about that."

   As they continue down the road the leprechaun telepathically speaks with Cherry Blossom, "we both know that these people cannot get their hands on those gems."