Chapter 13: Chapter 11 – Familiar summoning

3 hours to summoning.

The high elf witch elder, Catherina La Croix, stood outside the occult building. She scanned the crowd gathered outside, pausing on Alex for a sec, before continuing. She then looked up in the sky. The purple and red twin moons of Ekkaryon were about to eclipse each other. During the eclipse, the fabrics of reality and space would become thinner on the planet. That enabled some rituals and spells to be easier to perform. Among them, the summoning ritual was the one they would do tonight.

Catherina opened her mouth and announced, "Tonight is the double moon eclipse! All third-year students, you are now about to take one of the final steps to becoming a true witch! All third-year students enter now and go to the ritual floor! For the rest, enter orderly to your seats on the viewing platform!".

The third-year students, including Alex and co, began entering the building. Just as Alex was about to enter, her mother, Catherina, stopped her with a serious face. She said, "Alex, this time you are summoning last... alone. Because of your skill, the council and I concluded that there might be a danger during your summoning ritual. Except for you, only the elders, matriarch, and the grand elder herself will be present. I know that you wanted your friends to watch your summoning, but it is just too dangerous.". She said the last line with a slightly sorry face.

Alex was surprised but did not complain. After what happened in the library, she held a deep fear of her skill. She nodded resolutely and replied, "Ok, I will tell the others.".

Catherina showed a motherly smile, brushed Alex's hair a bit, and went inside.

Alex soon joined the trio. As they walked in, she told them what she talked about with her mother. They were a bit dissatisfied, but they could not do anything about it.

The occult stadium, as the name implied, was a stadium for occult rituals. It had no roof, and there were viewing platforms in the surroundings, maintained with earth magic and runes. The occult stadium was built for large scale occult rituals. The summoning ritual was no exception. They needed to house 300 summonings in the span of 3 hours, so they needed to construct and maintain 30 different ritual circles.

At the center of the stadium stood 6 women. They were the matriarch of Gorgon academy and the other 5 of the 6 elders of the academy. Each of them looked at their late twenties or early thirties. All races usually get a longer lifespan the higher their level reaches. Normally, people could reach 100 years, give or take. However, people can live longer when they reach certain thresholds. At lvl 100, lifespan is increased to 200 years. At lvl 200, lifespan is 500 years. At lvl 300, it is 1000 years, and so on. Usually, the higher your level, the slower you age. In fact, it slows to a crawl in the appearance of late twenties to early thirties. Only when you reach the last years of your lifespan, you age rapidly. An example is the grand elder of the academy, the librarian. She is now old and wrinkly, even though she is the strongest in the academy. She is reaching the end of her lifespan.

For a witch to become an elder at Gorgon academy, she needed to reach lvl 250. A testament to how powerful each of them is. As for the matriarch, she exceeded lvl 300 already and lived for over 500 years.

The elders were a heavily armored human, Birthe Brix. A gnome wearing gadgets, Julie Hoyer. A dark elf wearing leather armor and black cloak, Griselda Shadowmoon. A white-haired rabbit-kin wearing a white fancy dress you would normally see in a ballroom, Lily Doucet. An Oni wearing formal witch clothes, Evangelina StoneBlighter. And of course, lastly, was Catherina La Croix, Alex's mother.

The matriarch was a short-statured and petite dwarf, flat as a board, and wore formal witch cloths. She wore a golden circlet on her head. It was shaped with a gorgon head in the front. Two ruby eyes were inserted in the eye sockets, giving a mysteriously chilling vide. She had small red vines with beautiful rainbow-colored flowers growing across her body. Her name was Ninia Vallide. 

Catherina soon joined them and stood behind the matriarch. The matriarch took a glance at her, nodded, and continued staring at the assembling girls. The girls were disciplined to stand in 3 rows, 100 each, at designated spots. For the viewers, they just sat wherever it was free in the viewing platform.

When all the girls assembled, the matriarch took a step forward and announced, "Students of Gorgon academy! As you know, tonight is the double moon eclipse! All of you will now summon your lifelong familiar and take the most crucial step towards being an official witch!"

At those words, no student cheered or uttered a sound. However, pride and excitement were threatening to burst out of them. They were finally going to summon their own familiar! They can finally get their own class! The first and second years looked on envy and longing. The official witches were reminiscing on their own summoning. It was the most important day for all witches.

The matriarch looked solemnly at the students in front of her and continued, " We do not have much time right now, so I will leave sermons for later! Each of you was assigned to a circle and should have already been informed a week ago! Each of you will now go and wait in a line in front of your designated summoning circle! May Daheia, the Goddess of magic, be with you! May the twin moons guide your path!"

Daheia was the Goddess that all good and neutral aligned magic casters worshipped, even if only symbolically. It was customary to praise her name in sermons like this, as a symbol of good luck. The second praise was customary between summoners, to bring good luck in summoning magic. Whether you are good or evil, the second praise was even customary between ordinary people and especially between summoners.

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The apprentices quickly gathered in their designated summoning circle, and each circle was maintained by a senior witch. The summoning circle that Alex and the girls were designated to was with Anna, the PE teacher. She looked almost identical to her familiar, save for the animal parts, excluding the ears and tail. Her familiar, Fang, was not present. She was most likely inside her contract space.

Anna looked at the assembled girls in front of her before shifting her gaze to Alex, who stood on the side and nodded to her. She has naturally been informed of her situation.

Anna quickly told the girls to start the summoning. The summoning was nothing too fancy. You only needed to place a drop of your blood and pour your mana towards the circle, and it would do the rest. When a familiar is summoned, it is usually an infant. Infant monsters do no possess a level until they reach toddler age. Also, infant monsters have a simple mind that can be easily influenced. Because of that, contracting is extremely easy.

The first one to summon was a brown-skinned wood elf. She pricked her finger, dropped a drop of blood into the circle, placed her hand on the circle, and poured mana into it until sweat dripped out. When she finished, the circle began shining dimly and hummed. After 5 minutes, the circle shined brightly and what came out was an egg the size of a fist. Most familiars were summoned this way, in egg form or newly born. The elf girl quickly went and pricked her finger, smearing a drop of blood on the egg. She then chanted, "In the name of the twin moons, I, Zenita Goodshire, hereby ask for a contract of equals, do you agree?". At those words, the egg hummed, and the contract was finalized. Contracts were a two-way street and needed the agreement of both sides, even if unconsciously. Since equal contracts were viewed as beneficial for weak undeveloped monsters, they would almost always agree on the instinctual level. If a slave contract was offered, however... It would be a blessing if they did not outright attack the one who offered it.

Anna smiled at this and instructed her to move to make way for the others. For the next 2 and a half hours, the witches summoned their familiars. Natasha summoned a golden horned lightning panther cub, with its eyes closed due to its young age. Ecna summoned a black floating blob that had 2 tiny white eyes, a shadow elemental. Claris, much to the surprise of even the elders, summoned a foal. The foal was white, had white wings and a tiny silver spiral horn. It was a winged unicorn, one of the most powerful holy aligned familiars. Winged unicorns were the equivalent of summoning a phoenix or dragon. It was just that powerful.

Lily Doucet, the rabbit beastman elder, had an especially sharp glint in her eyes as she stared at Claris. Meanwhile, Griselda Shadowmoon, the dark elf elder, nodded in content when she looked at Ecna. They were of the same clan, after all. Birthe Brix stared at Natasha and nodded with a hidden smile under her helmet. Natasha was the daughter of her niece, Gorgon city's general.

The rest of the summonings went smoothly. A handful of apprentices summoned twice since the familiar either refused the contract or were not content with it and decided to summon again. All in all, it ended at 23:30. After each one summoned the familiar, they put them inside the contract space.

Alex was the only exception. Having to wait until the end. She was happy for everyone and congratulated them. What she did not show was her hidden agitation, of her worry towards her summoning.

The matriarch, Ninia, smiled widely and congratulated the students, "Congratulation to all the students! You are now only a step away from officially becoming a witch of the academy! Remember, do not pick your class just yet, as tempting as it is! Before you decide on your class, please consult with us! We are here for you!"

She then continued with a glint in her eyes, "Today everyone goes and rests! Tomorrow we PARTY!!!". As she said that, she childishly raised her fists to the air, pure ecstasy on her face. The elders and seniors at the side covered their mouths and giggled. They all liked this childish side of Ninia.

After she shouted, all the girls jumped and cheered.

Gorgon City and Gorgon academy had a joint holiday in the form of a carnival each year after the double moon eclipse. It was called the Twin Moons carnival. Not just them, but most of the world of Ekkaryon shared this holiday. It marked a new year in the world of Ekkaryon.

After that, all the girls started exiting the occult stadium while chatting excitedly, some bragging about their new familiars, others about the carnival.

Alex said goodbye to the trio and went to her mother. At 11;45, everyone finally left, and the grand elder arrived. Now there were only 9 individuals in place, Alex, the 6 elders, the matriarch, and the grand elder, the librarian.

Ecna's status:

Claris's status.

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