It was hard to find shelter for the night after deciding to rest in the shattered remains of the town. The amalgam that struck here primarily focused on earthquake-like attacks, so there weren’t any buildings left fully intact after its passing. Instead, we managed to find a previously three story building where a section of the second story’s floor was remaining. It wasn’t perfect, but it was shelter.

Kaneda volunteered to stay on watch through the night, since I had used most of my energy healing Griffith and needed to sleep to recharge. Thanking her, I laid down next to Griffith and closed my eyes. If we spent the entire meeting within this simulation, then that would give us just over nine days of real time. Given that we earned over a thousand points each on the first day… that was a lot of potential points.

It’s actually more than that. Terra’s voice spoke into my mind as I focused on drifting off to sleep. As long as all players are unconscious, the scenario automatically fast-forwards until either an encounter wakes them up, or they wake up on their own. Assuming an average sleep schedule of six hours a day, you could potentially stay within this simulation for almost twelve full days.

As nice as that sounded, I didn’t think I would want to be stuck here for that long. I did want to get back to my own worlds eventually, even if this was a replication of Kione’s system. I was more thinking about how we had that long to earn points and try to uncover whatever plot was behind the previous encounters. If simply defeating two amalgams had earned us that many points, then completing the entire plot would surely be far more profitable.

Shaking my head, I did my best to take my mind off of those thoughts, and let myself drift off to sleep. When I woke up, I found that I could hear Kaneda speaking softly. Opening my eyes, I saw her and Lyra sitting together. Lyra seemed to be feeling better than she had initially, but the smile on her face was a sad, forced one.

“We’ll be leaving once Griffith is recovered.” Kaneda told her in a gentle tone. “With everything that’s happening… we have to try to help people.”

Lyra gave a small nod, closing her eyes. “I get it… and I want you to. I… I don’t want more people to end up like this… like me. That pain… it’s worse than anything you can imagine. To… to have a part of your soul ripped away and shattered.” Her shoulders began to tremble as she tried to describe it, and Kaneda reached over to hold onto her, trying to calm her.

“I’ll get strong… so take me with you.” Lyra whispered. “Let me help… Or at least… let me get back at the ones that took away my Shelly.”

Kaneda had a difficult expression as she heard that, noticing that I was awake. She nodded her her towards Lyra, as if silently asking for my help, and so I sat up. “We weren’t going to leave you behind, Lyra.”

Lyra jerked subtly as she heard my voice, seeming to not have noticed I was awake, before turning to face me. Her eyes were wet, but she quickly wiped them. “Promise?”

“Promise.” I nodded with a small smile. After saying that, I turned my attention towards Griffith. My ki had recharged after a good rest, so I once again set myself to healing his injuries. Thankfully, most of the work had already been taken care of, so I was able to finish mending his ribs easily enough.

As I was working, I could feel Griffith stirring awake, the pain of his bruised bones and sore muscles. While I could mend the fractures, I didn’t have the energy to take away all of those aches and pains. Sorry, but it looks like we’ll be taking it slow today while we walk.

I couldn’t ask Griffith to carry the three of us in his current condition, and at the same time, Genevieve could only carry one person at a time. This world hadn’t discovered long distance teleportation magic yet, so we would have to walk until Griffith had fully recovered.

While I was finishing up with his wounds, I felt a small hand placed on my own, and glanced back to see Lyra standing there. She looked at me with a torn expression, her eyes shifting between myself and Griffith. “Before we go… I want to do the ritual. I’m no good to you like this.”

Kaneda’s eyes opened wide in shock when she heard that. “But Lyra, you haven’t allowed time for your soul to recover. Performing a summoning in your condition could cripple you.”

Her hand tensed as she heard that, yet she didn’t seem to waver. Seeing that, I searched through Slyris’s memories, looking for an answer. “We can help her.” I spoke up after a realization struck me, my eyes glancing to Kaneda.

“We can perform an assisted summoning.” While it was only a theoretical ritual discussed recently among different academies, the logic held up. Multiple individuals could contribute the spiritual energy to perform the summoning ritual, the hypothesized result being a more powerful familiar. However, it would also work to complete the basic ritual for someone like Lyra with a damaged soul.

Hearing my idea, Kaneda hesitated again, before seeing the pleading look in Lyra’s eyes. Finally, with a sigh, she nodded her head, agreeing. “Okay, but… we’ll do this carefully. Slyris, you’re in charge of the script.”

Hearing that, I sank into thought. Since this was only a theoretical ritual, there wasn’t an accepted script published. As such, it was true that I would have to make the preparations for this myself. “Alright… get me a piece of paper and something to write with.”

The preparations for the ritual took a few hours, during which Kaneda prepared breakfast for everyone. When it was ready, the three of us cleared a wide area in the abandoned streets, closing our minds to the death that surrounded us. This ritual had to take our full attention.

Once we were ready to begin, Kaneda and I took our positions behind Lyra, each of us placing one hand on her shoulders. Our other hands were placed over our chests. As for Lyra herself, she stood with both hands crossed over her heart.

The first part of the ritual came from the two of us supporting. We looked to each other and nodded, reciting the script that had been prepared while stirring our spiritual energies. “We freely lend ourselves to this pact, to call forth an ally for she who stands alone. Let our lives be as one, our wills connected.”

Our arms lit up with a blue, ghostly fire that seemed to connect to Lyra’s back. The girl in question let out a gasp as she felt the energy flowing into her, but did her best not to resist it, beginning to read her own verse. “Let what was broken become whole again. I call to the spirit that rests beyond the veil of sorrow.”

A flickering blue light appeared, hovering above the dirt road before us. “I call to my heart, lost to the darkness. Let our wills and our souls take shape as one. Guardian of the oath, keeper of the laws of magic, come forth.”

The blue light flashed, growing into a circle as tall as a person. I could feel a tug on my spiritual energy and did not hold back as it poured into Lyra. “Clad in the heavenly armor, empowered by my pact, step forward. Let my light lift you to the highest skies, so that you may carry me with you.”

The circle doubled in size, and we could see a great shadow lurking behind it, shifting within the empty void. When it stepped forward, a large claw emerged. Covered in green scales, a powerful leg appeared next. After that was its head, one with a fang-riddled maw and serpentine eyes, and it was staring directly at us.

With every step, more of the creature was revealed. Its back, covered with thick ridges and decorated by two leathery wings. Its tail, sweeping two meters behind its main body. As Lyra saw the familiar that had been summoned for her, she let out a gasp, covering her mouth before turning to look at us.

“Did I summon a dragon? Oh my god, I just summoned a dragon! This is so cool!” She turned again, lunging towards the green dragon and wrapping her arms around its neck, her body hanging a few feet off the ground. “You’re so cool!”

I could tell that this was likely more or Aurivy slipping through than Lyra, but I couldn’t help the smile that surfaced onto my face. Though, soon the three of us were broken out of our thoughts by Terra’s voice. For performing an assisted summoning, all participants have received three hundred points. For writing a functioning script, Player Dale has received an extra two hundred points.

So, the system even rewards challenges that we give ourselves to overcome… That’s good to know. Either way, I glanced back towards Griffith, who was staring at the dragon. “Looks like you’re not the biggest anymore.”

Hmph. He gave a mental snort, glancing off towards the side. Dragons were renowned as among the most powerful familiars, but were also incredibly rare. Most likely, we only received one this time due to the combined energies of all three of us.

Still, Lyra seemed happy, finally letting go of her new familiar’s neck. “I’ll call you Grace.” She said with a bright smile. “Because you look really graceful.” Grace seemed to enjoy that name, her lips curving upwards as her head dipped down in a nod.

“Can you fly, Grace?” Lyra asked. Typically, a flying familiar would be raised from infancy, so by the time they reached this stage of growth, they could do so as a natural. However, Grace had just been ‘born’. As such… nobody was really surprised when she flapped her wings heavily, but didn’t manage to lift more than a couple inches off the ground.

“It’s okay, we’ll work on it together.” Lyra promised, stepping up and placing one hand on Grace’s leg to reassure her. The dragon tilted its head down, rubbing against the side of Lyra’s.

“Just wait until it comes time to feed her.” I teased, Kaneda’s face going pale from the thought of how much food a familiar of that size would eat. As our huntress, it was naturally up to her to gather food, a task which just became far more difficult. A part of me wondered if simply feeding Grace would become a challenge that could earn Grace some points along the way.

“Well, let’s get going.” I spoke up to break everyone out of their thoughts. “It’s a long road to the capital.”

Or at least… I was expecting it to be one. Grace’s head suddenly lifted up, as did Griffith’s and Genevieve’s. Noticing that they were reacting to a sound, I turned towards the direction they were looking in. Dust was being kicked up along the road as a group of armored knights rode towards us.

The crest of the knights was that of an eagle clutching a staff. This was the crest of the Loren royal family that ruled over this region. Given that they were arriving now, and the tired expressions on their faces, they must have been riding ever since news arrived at the capital.

However, upon seeing the three of us, particularly Grace, the knights turned more vigilant. “Halt!” The one in front called out, spurring his horse to run one last stretch. He drew his sword, which I could see was etched with some manner of runes.

When he arrived near us, he dismounted, giving a gentle pat to his horse’s side. Given how he did not have another animal nearby, the horse was likely his familiar. “What happened here?” Even though he asked that, his eyes kept darting suspiciously towards Grace.

Kaneda stepped forward, a hand on her chest as she spoke. “We are from a nearby town. Yesterday, we had been attacked by an amalgam wielding black flames, looking like it was a form of giant bat. After myself and my husband defeated it, we rushed here, hoping to help. However… the amalgam which struck here appeared to be part elephant. The only survivor we found was this young girl, who had been trapped under the rubble.”

Hearing that, his posture relaxed slightly, but it was clear that he was not entirely trusting of the explanation. Which made me sigh, realizing that this was going to be a long day.