![Novice [250]](https://i.imgur.com/lrYlde6.png)
Sigurd had been doing some pretty interesting reading in recent days. A man known as Joseph Crowler long ago, had done intense research into the world of summoning magic, Joseph Crowler himself was a summoner mage who focused on summoning beings from an underworld-like dimension, where demons ran rampant. Joseph Crowler had a cousin on his mother's side that was a celestial spirit mage. Jesse Crowler, as her name was, unfortunately got tangled up in the wrong crowd, and eventually joined a band of mercenaries that was causing trouble across Fiore, rising through the ranks, ending up as its leader. On the other hand, Joseph found himself in the service of Joseph had fought her on multiple occasions, but found that they were evenly matched, and as they grew as individuals, it seemed that Jesse's pace was much faster than his, and eventually she would be able to handedly beat him with relative consistency. Realizing this, Joseph set out to discover a way to enhance his power. He recorded his findings in a series of scrolls which he dubbed the "Antithesis Summoner Scrolls," which Sigurd had found after scouring several libraries in residential areas across the nation of Fiore. He had been reading them thoroughly, and it seems that Joseph was onto something.
The first scroll was titled "Theory as to the Nature of Summoning," and from its contents, Sigurd was able to glean information concerning what sort of tasks he was performing whenever he cast a spell. Joseph wrote this:
"Among all mages, there is one distinct ability which has defined summoning magic in texts to date. That is to say, the ability to 'create' complex life is unique to any magic which to anything which has been defined as summoning magic. This can range from storybook heroes like the Chevalier family to the mechanical warmachines of the Mordenites. Essentially, the claim of many of my contemporaries is that any magic that creates some being that can operate autonomously is the definitive requirement to qualify as summoning magic. This, I have found, is a complete misunderstanding, which has become a widespread belief, despite any support research efforts, purely based on observation. A simple in-depth analysis, however, would reveal a few flaws in this reasoning. Firstly, no observed summon has ever died by natural means, nor has significant damage caused them to expire. No matter what happens, they always seem to fade from our world when they've been defeated, only to be able to return, in almost ever observed case, fully healed, in less than an hour, with certain beings seemingly able to regenerate within a matter of minutes. In addition, it has been observed that summons capable of higher level thought display individual personalities, memories, and when asked, several summons from varying mages have been able to recount historical events, none of which occurred according to our records. This is all to say that summons are, in truth, beings existing in worlds separate to our own. This explains a great deal. A summoner is, in truth, using a very specialized form of temporaspatial manipulation magic which pulls beings from either a neighboring dimensional plane or from somewhere else on this plane, and creates for them a substitute form, shaped using the mage's own magical power. This provides, at the same time, an explanation as to why more powerful beings sap more magic power. More powerful creatures require more magic to create vessels which are able to house their abilities and essences. This also, however, explains how they don't actually receive any lasting injuries. I was able to confirm that while in their home dimension, beings who are summoned with magic can die. I found that one of my summons was no longer responding one day, and inquired with another summon as to their status. It seemed they were a high ranking member of royalty who was assassinated. Neither polydimensional magi-theory nor politics are my area of expertise, so I will refrain from exploring either of those topics any longer, for fear of spreading further misinformation. This is all to say, however, that despite popular understanding of the subject, summoning magic is simply a form of space/time magic. This ties into theories about the Origin of Magic, which state that all magic can be broken down into simple concepts."
Sigurd was currently in the middle of a blizzard. In order to explore the meaning behind the findings as detailed in the scrolls he now had possession of, he intended to experiment in the solitude of Snowfall island. There was something that drew him to that place. Some underlying magic current that told him it was the location he was meant to be training his magic at for this particular venture. Regardless he decided to see if indeed the scroll was telling the truth. He opened up a portal, and out stepped his reliable companion, Godot, Defender of Earth. Previously, Sigurd's understanding was that all of his heroes were being created utilizing his own memories of the comic books. However, if this scroll was telling the truth, then there would be an easy way to find out. Sigurd, in the midst of the crisis concerning all of the monsters appearing around Earthland without explanation, and a menagerie of mage work, had missed the last installment of Godot's comic. It seemed that somehow, the universe his heroes were in was a directly one to one of the world outlined in the Lees' comics. If this trend continued, then his universe should have experienced the last comic installment without Sigurd having read it. He inquired the alien about what the last major event to happen to him was.
"Ah, is that why you've called me? I must say it's rare for you to summon me for conversation. Regardless, if you truly want to know, the last thing that happened was that I fought Duke Marzifelt of the Plains Demons. We weren't aware that there were still demons in the western sector of Pleco, and so I was immediately dispatched to go deal with them. Is that everything?" asked the white and blue skinned alien. This certainly did confirm a number of things. Firstly, Godot was completely autonomous and was experiencing his own universe. Secondly, it could be gleaned that the universe Godot inhabits involves some passage of time that is not in line with Sigurd's realm. Based on the way time progresses in each installment of the comic, it would seem that it passes at an irregular rate relative to Earthland time, which certainly was an interesting concept. Regardless, even though Sigurd was disappointed at the spoiler concerning the last issue of "Adventures of Godot and the Six," he was glad to have learned this information. Sigurd continued, "When I call you to this world, what happens to your own world?"
Godot nodded, a gesture that recognized the valued of the question, "In my experience, when I am transported here, time in my own world stops. When I am sent back I'm sent back right to the moment I was pulled from. Whether by fate or coincidence, you never seem to catch me, or any of us for that matter, at a bad time, hence why we're all so willing to help you. Besides, whenever we are defeated here, we're sent back home without so much as a scratch. There's not much at stake while we're here, if I'm being honest, which only aids our willingness to help you defeat evil on this plane."
It seemed to be that Godot knew much more about the subject than Sigurd, which given his history of multi-planar travel, actually made a great deal of sense. Sigurd thanked him, and returned him to his homeworld. He opened up the second of the three scrolls.
It was titled "Exploration of the Possibilities of Multiplanar Temporospatial Magic."
"It can be gleaned from the nature of summoning magic that most summoners are, in truth, extremely limited mages. They are only truly capable of performing two acts with their spells, the transportation of a being's essence through time and space, and the formation of the shell in which they can operate, with any variations being purely on the part of the summoned being. This in turn leads us to the realization that summoning magic is one of the most under-explored fields, as more time and effort are put into acquiring new pacts instead of seeing what other sort of spells can be cast using this unique planar-crossing magic. Something no one seems to realize, however, is that there is a second spell in the arsenal of most all summoning mages, which is the desummon spell. While desummoning the shell is a nonissue, seeing as it should act like any other basic form of magic, and as it was created, should be able to be destroyed by the mage. Desummoning a being's essence on the other hand, is far more complicated. I would relate this phenomenon to a pulley mechanism. All summons are tied to a rope, which the summoner can then pull or push to move the summon's consciousness between planes. This creates the possibility, one might garner, for other things to be tied to this pulley, and moved through dimensions. For the sake of ethics, it's important for the summoner to develop a dimensional plane which to move things to, so as not to upset the planes he or she is connected to. I have already done this. It took quite a bit of focus, but ultimately I discovered the secret. There are a seemingly infinite number of planar universes. Summoners seem to be adept at sensing these planes, and can also sense life in these planes. There are a number of planes with no life to be sensed, and one needn't create their own empty field, there are plenty already in existence. The next step in the process would be figuring out how to use this 'negative zone' to my advantage. There must be some way to make myself stronger to defeat Jesse."
Sigurd followed the directions on the scroll, and surely, he was able to feel his magic exploring alternate planar fields. The tingling sensation was interesting, but he persisted, until eventually, he felt hollow. The tingling was still there, but he felt an emptiness around his soul so vast that it felt like it was pulling at him from all directions, hungry. This must have been what Joseph found. He continued onto the next scroll, "Anti-Summoning Magic and its Uses."
"The possibilities are far greater than I ever could have imagined. Firstly, anything lacking an "essence," which is to say anything that possesses no autonomy, can easily be transported. Projectile attacks, magic beams, what have you, I have learned to protect myself with this new form of magic. I have attained flight. It seems I can erase gravity around certain beings, including myself, in order to take to the air. I can fire bullets of desummoning energy as my own form of projectile attack. It seems that beings who have essence, and who are unwilling to be moved between planes, still take damage both physically and magically while attempting to resist the magical forces trying to pull them into my dimension of nothingness. I have developed a new form of magic, which I dub Negative Magic. Surely, Jesse will not be able to stand up to this. It is my hope, however that these scrolls never fall into the wrong hands. This magic has destructive potential that rivals even the famed crash magic. I shiver to think what would occur if used by someone with villainous intent. As such, I will keep my findings to myself until death. I hope the inheritor of these scrolls has a true heroic heart. -J.C."
Sigurd had been trying for hours. Nothing was working for him. No matter what he attempted, it seems as though he was completely unable to use this so called Negative Magic in any capacity. He could not fly, nor could he fire blasts of spatial rift, or create shields with portals. Though he could feel a connection to the negative space he had discovered while searching the planes of existence, it seemed he could not use his "pulley" to move anything to or from it. Frustrated, he felt his blood boil. Without this magic, he knew his ever powerful younger brother would surely surpass him in strength. After that, who knows what havoc he'd wreck with his villainy? He needed to stop Victor, as much as it pained him, but at the same time, Victor had always been the better summoner, and there was no way Sigurd could fight him and win with just summoning magic alone. He had turned to these scrolls because it seemed Crowler was in a similar situation to his own, but now it seemed that Sigurd was not the mage Crowler was. He slammed his fists into the ground and let out a pained yell. That's when he realized--- all around him there was no longer snow. As the snow fell down to him, it suddenly disappeared in thin air. It was as if there was some sort of protective sphere around him. Embarrassed at not having noticed it before, Sigurd broke down into tears. In his heart however, there was only a righteous sense of justice. Darknight was about to become a much greater force of heroism for Fiore.
The first scroll was titled "Theory as to the Nature of Summoning," and from its contents, Sigurd was able to glean information concerning what sort of tasks he was performing whenever he cast a spell. Joseph wrote this:
"Among all mages, there is one distinct ability which has defined summoning magic in texts to date. That is to say, the ability to 'create' complex life is unique to any magic which to anything which has been defined as summoning magic. This can range from storybook heroes like the Chevalier family to the mechanical warmachines of the Mordenites. Essentially, the claim of many of my contemporaries is that any magic that creates some being that can operate autonomously is the definitive requirement to qualify as summoning magic. This, I have found, is a complete misunderstanding, which has become a widespread belief, despite any support research efforts, purely based on observation. A simple in-depth analysis, however, would reveal a few flaws in this reasoning. Firstly, no observed summon has ever died by natural means, nor has significant damage caused them to expire. No matter what happens, they always seem to fade from our world when they've been defeated, only to be able to return, in almost ever observed case, fully healed, in less than an hour, with certain beings seemingly able to regenerate within a matter of minutes. In addition, it has been observed that summons capable of higher level thought display individual personalities, memories, and when asked, several summons from varying mages have been able to recount historical events, none of which occurred according to our records. This is all to say that summons are, in truth, beings existing in worlds separate to our own. This explains a great deal. A summoner is, in truth, using a very specialized form of temporaspatial manipulation magic which pulls beings from either a neighboring dimensional plane or from somewhere else on this plane, and creates for them a substitute form, shaped using the mage's own magical power. This provides, at the same time, an explanation as to why more powerful beings sap more magic power. More powerful creatures require more magic to create vessels which are able to house their abilities and essences. This also, however, explains how they don't actually receive any lasting injuries. I was able to confirm that while in their home dimension, beings who are summoned with magic can die. I found that one of my summons was no longer responding one day, and inquired with another summon as to their status. It seemed they were a high ranking member of royalty who was assassinated. Neither polydimensional magi-theory nor politics are my area of expertise, so I will refrain from exploring either of those topics any longer, for fear of spreading further misinformation. This is all to say, however, that despite popular understanding of the subject, summoning magic is simply a form of space/time magic. This ties into theories about the Origin of Magic, which state that all magic can be broken down into simple concepts."
Sigurd was currently in the middle of a blizzard. In order to explore the meaning behind the findings as detailed in the scrolls he now had possession of, he intended to experiment in the solitude of Snowfall island. There was something that drew him to that place. Some underlying magic current that told him it was the location he was meant to be training his magic at for this particular venture. Regardless he decided to see if indeed the scroll was telling the truth. He opened up a portal, and out stepped his reliable companion, Godot, Defender of Earth. Previously, Sigurd's understanding was that all of his heroes were being created utilizing his own memories of the comic books. However, if this scroll was telling the truth, then there would be an easy way to find out. Sigurd, in the midst of the crisis concerning all of the monsters appearing around Earthland without explanation, and a menagerie of mage work, had missed the last installment of Godot's comic. It seemed that somehow, the universe his heroes were in was a directly one to one of the world outlined in the Lees' comics. If this trend continued, then his universe should have experienced the last comic installment without Sigurd having read it. He inquired the alien about what the last major event to happen to him was.
"Ah, is that why you've called me? I must say it's rare for you to summon me for conversation. Regardless, if you truly want to know, the last thing that happened was that I fought Duke Marzifelt of the Plains Demons. We weren't aware that there were still demons in the western sector of Pleco, and so I was immediately dispatched to go deal with them. Is that everything?" asked the white and blue skinned alien. This certainly did confirm a number of things. Firstly, Godot was completely autonomous and was experiencing his own universe. Secondly, it could be gleaned that the universe Godot inhabits involves some passage of time that is not in line with Sigurd's realm. Based on the way time progresses in each installment of the comic, it would seem that it passes at an irregular rate relative to Earthland time, which certainly was an interesting concept. Regardless, even though Sigurd was disappointed at the spoiler concerning the last issue of "Adventures of Godot and the Six," he was glad to have learned this information. Sigurd continued, "When I call you to this world, what happens to your own world?"
Godot nodded, a gesture that recognized the valued of the question, "In my experience, when I am transported here, time in my own world stops. When I am sent back I'm sent back right to the moment I was pulled from. Whether by fate or coincidence, you never seem to catch me, or any of us for that matter, at a bad time, hence why we're all so willing to help you. Besides, whenever we are defeated here, we're sent back home without so much as a scratch. There's not much at stake while we're here, if I'm being honest, which only aids our willingness to help you defeat evil on this plane."
It seemed to be that Godot knew much more about the subject than Sigurd, which given his history of multi-planar travel, actually made a great deal of sense. Sigurd thanked him, and returned him to his homeworld. He opened up the second of the three scrolls.
It was titled "Exploration of the Possibilities of Multiplanar Temporospatial Magic."
"It can be gleaned from the nature of summoning magic that most summoners are, in truth, extremely limited mages. They are only truly capable of performing two acts with their spells, the transportation of a being's essence through time and space, and the formation of the shell in which they can operate, with any variations being purely on the part of the summoned being. This in turn leads us to the realization that summoning magic is one of the most under-explored fields, as more time and effort are put into acquiring new pacts instead of seeing what other sort of spells can be cast using this unique planar-crossing magic. Something no one seems to realize, however, is that there is a second spell in the arsenal of most all summoning mages, which is the desummon spell. While desummoning the shell is a nonissue, seeing as it should act like any other basic form of magic, and as it was created, should be able to be destroyed by the mage. Desummoning a being's essence on the other hand, is far more complicated. I would relate this phenomenon to a pulley mechanism. All summons are tied to a rope, which the summoner can then pull or push to move the summon's consciousness between planes. This creates the possibility, one might garner, for other things to be tied to this pulley, and moved through dimensions. For the sake of ethics, it's important for the summoner to develop a dimensional plane which to move things to, so as not to upset the planes he or she is connected to. I have already done this. It took quite a bit of focus, but ultimately I discovered the secret. There are a seemingly infinite number of planar universes. Summoners seem to be adept at sensing these planes, and can also sense life in these planes. There are a number of planes with no life to be sensed, and one needn't create their own empty field, there are plenty already in existence. The next step in the process would be figuring out how to use this 'negative zone' to my advantage. There must be some way to make myself stronger to defeat Jesse."
Sigurd followed the directions on the scroll, and surely, he was able to feel his magic exploring alternate planar fields. The tingling sensation was interesting, but he persisted, until eventually, he felt hollow. The tingling was still there, but he felt an emptiness around his soul so vast that it felt like it was pulling at him from all directions, hungry. This must have been what Joseph found. He continued onto the next scroll, "Anti-Summoning Magic and its Uses."
"The possibilities are far greater than I ever could have imagined. Firstly, anything lacking an "essence," which is to say anything that possesses no autonomy, can easily be transported. Projectile attacks, magic beams, what have you, I have learned to protect myself with this new form of magic. I have attained flight. It seems I can erase gravity around certain beings, including myself, in order to take to the air. I can fire bullets of desummoning energy as my own form of projectile attack. It seems that beings who have essence, and who are unwilling to be moved between planes, still take damage both physically and magically while attempting to resist the magical forces trying to pull them into my dimension of nothingness. I have developed a new form of magic, which I dub Negative Magic. Surely, Jesse will not be able to stand up to this. It is my hope, however that these scrolls never fall into the wrong hands. This magic has destructive potential that rivals even the famed crash magic. I shiver to think what would occur if used by someone with villainous intent. As such, I will keep my findings to myself until death. I hope the inheritor of these scrolls has a true heroic heart. -J.C."
Sigurd had been trying for hours. Nothing was working for him. No matter what he attempted, it seems as though he was completely unable to use this so called Negative Magic in any capacity. He could not fly, nor could he fire blasts of spatial rift, or create shields with portals. Though he could feel a connection to the negative space he had discovered while searching the planes of existence, it seemed he could not use his "pulley" to move anything to or from it. Frustrated, he felt his blood boil. Without this magic, he knew his ever powerful younger brother would surely surpass him in strength. After that, who knows what havoc he'd wreck with his villainy? He needed to stop Victor, as much as it pained him, but at the same time, Victor had always been the better summoner, and there was no way Sigurd could fight him and win with just summoning magic alone. He had turned to these scrolls because it seemed Crowler was in a similar situation to his own, but now it seemed that Sigurd was not the mage Crowler was. He slammed his fists into the ground and let out a pained yell. That's when he realized--- all around him there was no longer snow. As the snow fell down to him, it suddenly disappeared in thin air. It was as if there was some sort of protective sphere around him. Embarrassed at not having noticed it before, Sigurd broke down into tears. In his heart however, there was only a righteous sense of justice. Darknight was about to become a much greater force of heroism for Fiore.
