The Summoner Guild (On Hold)

After the Storm

"Here, this is yours." Livana abruptly walked up to Kyle's desk the next day and leaned a familiar looking staff against it, which he immediately knew to be the one that the wraith boss had dropped last night.

"Are you sure that you want to give this to me, seeing as your slime killed the boss all by itself?" Kyle asked sarcastically.

"A good dark lord makes sure that their generals are as best equipped as they can be." Livana shruged with a smug smile on her face. "Besides, I've already got my future sub-class planned, and I won't be needing a staff."

"So you're just pawning it off on me then..." Kyle sighed. "But thanks. Is it enchanted?"

"I believe so, though I think it's only a minor magic enchantment." Livana explained thoughtfully, and Kyle knew that such enchantments actually held some magic in them so that they boosted the user's own magic capacity.

"Thank I'll gladly take it, thank you." Kyle replied.

"Hey, what's the big idea with bribing my general?!" Morgan asked angrily towards Livana.

"Bribing? I'm just giving him a reward for helping me kill undead yesterday. That is what dark lords do after all, though it makes sense that you wouldn't know about it." Livana said in a gloating tone.

"He what?!" Morgan yelled in surprising, looking between both of them before his hand suddenly shot out and grabbed Kyle by his robe's collar. If that wasn't bad enough, the large man then proceeded to lift Kyle completely off of the ground while putting their faces only inches away from each other.

"We are going to go and kill undead ourselves today. Do you understand?" Morgan asked menacingly.

"Yes sir!" Kyle responded instantly. Despite his occasional courage, he was a coward at heart after all.

"There's no way that I'm letting you go off alone with my general." Livana stated from beside them.

"And what makes you think that you have any say in this?" Morgan looked over at her and asked before getting a thoughtful expression on his face. "Actually, you're free to come along if you want to. I'll show you what a real dark lord can do."

"Can you put me down now?" Kyle asked before being dropped into his seat without warning.

"Remember, don't go anywhere after class." Morgan reminded him before thankfully Guisen entered the classroom and started the lecture.

"Good morning class. Please stand and say the oath." Guisen stated in a distracted tone as he already started drawing on the blackboard at the front of the room. He drew three circles on the board of equal size before drawing several arrows between them, and he only stopped when the students finished saying their oaths before turning around and addressing them.

"Alright, we've got a lot of material to cover today and a shortened time to do it. The lecture will be ending early today in order to repair the classrooms, so let's get started immediately." Guisen stated before eyeing Kyle with a cold look. "But before I forget, Mr. Grandell, please speak with me before you make any more changes to anything else in the facility. The last thing we need is a repeat of yesterdays... events..."

"Sorry." Kyle apologized in a miserable tone before Guisen sighed and started the lecture.

"Today we'll be learning what exactly the 'Flash Summoning' spell consists of and how it is preformed. We'll also be learning just what the purpose of a dark lord is and where the minions that we summon come from." Guisen stated as he wrote everything he just stated in separated bullets up on the board. "For starters, we'll learn what the flash summoning is and how it is preformed before you all practice it for the rest of the day."

"First of all, just what is a flash summoning?" Guisen continued without stop. "Quite simply, it is an emergency spell that activates in an instant that a summoner can use even if they are silenced or incapacitated. It requires no chant, but because of such positive effects, it's use has a high magic cost and is quite dangerous if used recklessly. Though, even if it is dangerous, it is still a necessary spell for a summoner."

"In order to use the spell, a strong image of the creatures that you summon is necessary. Gather magic into your mind instead of your hands, picture the creatures you wish to summon, and release them around you." Guisen instructed. "This process will be painful for the first few times that you use it, but as you grow accustomed to the technique, the pain will lessen and the spell with grow in effectiveness."

"A useful spell indeed, though not one that I will ever need to use." Morgan smirked to himself. "There isn't a force in this world that could hinder me!"

"Now that we've finished that, let's begin the discussion on where out minions come from when we summon them." Guisen continued, and Kyle was surprised to see that almost everyone in the class fell asleep immediately once he started speaking about something that they didn't have any interest in. "Who here has heard of Hell?"

"The realm of demons and the afterlife destined for all criminals, right?" Kyle stated what he knew.

"That is the common view on it, though it is only partially correct." Guisen replied. "Actually, Hell isn't a place for the afterlife, but an entirely different realm of existence similar to our mortal realm of Enmit. And just as the mortal races are from Enmit, Hell is where demons come from, but there is also a place known simply as 'The Deep' where all monsters come from. The veil between all three realms is rather thin, and that is why we see both species in the wilds here in Enmit. However, when we willingly summon them to this realm, an effect similar to taming takes place, causing the creatures to be under your complete control. And even if they are dismissed back to The Deep, they remain loyal to the summoner and build different factions in the other world with the summoner and their familiar as the leaders. And while this happens for all summoners, it is the duty of the dark lord to unify all monsters under a single purpose. And just like both the mortal and demon realms have their kings, a dark lord will become the king or queen of The Deep with their purpose being to use monsters to fight against the demon king and protect Enmit."

"Um... Mr. Noyal?" Kyle raised his hand slowly, afraid that the teacher would scold him if he asked any questions because of the shortened time limit for the lessons that day. Though, seeing as he was the only student paying attention, Guisen didn't seem to mind it that much.

"Yes, Mr. Grandell?" Guisen asked kindly.

"If the dark lord's purpose is to fight against the demon king, which is possibly the largest threat that Enmit has ever faced, then why have the dark lords in the past invaded the kingdom?" Kyle asked curiously.

"Because the kingdom and it's rulers are a gathering of imbeciles." Guisen replied sourly. "They grew fearful of the dark lord's power and attempted to quell them... though I'll admit that our predecessors could chosen different actions rather than wiping out half of the kingdom... but nothing can change that now, I suppose. Especially seeing as we need the royal family in order to select the next dark lord."

"Why do we need them?" Kyle asked, worrying that the creation of a new dark lord required the sacrifice of a princess or something.

"Hmm? Why wouldn't we?" Guisen asked as if the answer was obvious. "This entire program is funded by the kingdom, and the royal family does endorse our efforts fully. The king himself is the one who elects the new dark lord in the end, after all."

"He does what now?" Kyle asked, feeling as if his entire world was being turned around with the new information. And even though he wanted to believe his instructor was lying, for some reason, Kyle simply didn't believe that was the case.

"Of course, the royal family has always wanted us to be viewed as villains in order to curb our power, and everything is done without most in the kingdom even knowing." Guisen stated with a smile. "Why, Mr. Grandell... you didn't think that we were doing this under the kingdom's nose, did you?"