21stDecember 2016.

The ticking of the clock. The only sound she could hear. People often said that when your eyes can't see, your ear make up for it. That's what the girl was thinking in the middle of a room beside a summoning circle.

There were a few lamp in the room, but all of them were turned off, making the circle the only source of light in the room. She closed her eyes and remember what her father told her, over and over again.

"Always start the summoning near midnight, that is the most optimal time.The time when barrier between worlds is the weakest."

"Use other sources of magic, the more magic you use, the higher the chances of attracting strong spirit. "

"And finally and most important, never lose your concentration during the summoning ritual."

She already prepared everything perfectly. It was almost midnight. She had prepared 10 magical jewel, each containing more magic than even a first class mage could contain within their body. She had placed it around the circle. The distance between each other was measured so that they were placed at the same distance as the other.

Her heart beating fast and sweat rolled down her forehead. 'There is no way i could mess this up' she tought. She took a deep breath and started the incantation of summoning ritual.

It began, the circle in front of her and the jewel around it started glowing red. They illuminated the dark room, revealing rows of desk and bookshelf, a sign that the ritual was underway. With her beautiful voice she spoke foreign words, words that only a select few in this world could recognize the meaning. She executed the ritual without even a single mistake, but she overlooked one simple mistake--- the clock.

The hour arm pointed at twelve causing the bell inside to rang. The sound was not that loud, but the sudden sound is enough to make her heart skipped a beat and broke her focus.

She starts panicking. She almost finished her incantation and she doesn't want to mess this up. She doesn’t want to mess one of the most important moment in her life. The moment that she has been preparing for over 10 years. But she can’t regain her focus because she was panicking, and she panicked because she can't regain her focus. A deadly cycle, which she knew all too well, yet she ignored it before, thinking that she couldn’t possibly made that mistake.

She started to stutter, making the ritual unstable and making the glow from the circle to became strange. She wanted to finish the ritual, she has to, she can't afford to abort it midway like that.

She had only two choices, using all her magic to stabilize the ritual, making the summoned spirit weaker, or using all of her magic to complete the unstable ritual, allowing her to summon a strong spirit at the risk of failing.

She shifted all of her magic to complete the ritual and to summon her spirit, abandoning all effort on stabilizing. She thought that the reward was greater than the risk.

The room was filled with blinding red light, the ritual was completed.

She narrowed her eyes. Soon the light started to dissipate and she could see again. As she began to regain her vision she saw something standing in the middle of the room. Her heart beat faster, and she smiled. She knew that even though she messed up the last part of the ritual, she was perfect with the rest of it.

Despair filled her heart when she realized that the figure she saw was nothing but the product of her own imagination, of her own excitement. She stared blankly at the empty circle for a few moment. She shook her head,] and slapped her own cheek. Her father once told her that if she messed up the incantation, the spirit she summoned could be summoned to another place near.

Her finger started to light up as she draw symbols in the air. In that instant a hologram showing the detail of her house, like a security camera popped up in front of her. She couldn’t believe her eyes. There must be something wrong with her surveillance magic. She gritted her teeth.

There was no one, no one but her inside the house.

Her legs trembled, her whole body was shaking. She slumped down, her leg lost all of its strength. She screamed and cried, letting all of her frustation out. There was no way she could do the ritual again. She had used all the magic she saved for years on the jewel, all for this failed ritual.

Suddenly she saw a glimmer of hope. From between her finger that covered her face, she saw a faint red light coming from somewhere. She moved her hand from her wet face and noticed the gem in her necklace, a memento of her family, was faintly glowing red. She only noticed it now, but the gem contained some amount of magic. Of course it can't be compared to the jewel she used, but it was a glimmer of hope she needed, a reminder that there was still a second chance, even if she has to wait for another ten years.

Regained her composure, she stood up. She picked up one of the jewel that was placed around the summoning circle. The jewel that previously was glowing because the abundant magic inside, now doesn't hold even a drop of magic.

She walked up the stair and out of the basement past the kitchen and to the living room. She sat on the sofa and leaned back. She looked up to the photo of her father that was hanging above the TV.

"Father....... i failed you." She held the gem in her necklace. "Thank you for giving me another chance."

She closed her eyes and tighten her grip on the gem and the jewel. She couldn’t help it, she didn’t want to, but tears started leaking from her eyes. It was not the fact that she failed to summon a spirit that made her cry. It was the fact that she let her father down by failing it. She was the only child , she was supposed to succeed her father and make him proud. But now, now that she failed her first summoning ritual. What will her father said were he still alive.

She cursed her own foolishness. She cursed her own confidence. She curse----- her train of thought stopped. The sound of a flushed toilet behind her caught her attention. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone within her house beside her.

"WHO'S THERE" She shouted after she got up.

She started preparing her spell. The moment the intruder step outside her bathroom, she could blast their head in an instant with her spell. The door started to creak. It opened slowly.

"Man, toilet in this age sure is convenient."

From the bathroom emerge a man in a black breastplate beneath a white trench coat. His appearance was bizarre. His skin was white, really white, but not pale. It was beautiful, a skin that would make many women jealous. His hair was the exact opposite of his skin, as if not letting a single light bounce of it. But the most striking of all was his eyes. His pupil was white and his sclera black.

His appearance distracted her for a second. But she had learned her lesson, a simple mistake at an important time could be fatal.

"Who are you?" She asked. She stared at him with her hand still pointed like a gun.

The man ignored her. Instead of answering, he walked to a nearby desk, picked up a jar, opened it and start eating the cookies inside. She was pissed, that man ignored her like she wasn’t even there. He was somehow able to hide his presence completely that she doesn’t notice him until she heard the sound of the toilet being flushed. She almost wanted to just blow his head up. But she know that man was not a normal person.

The man still ignored her as he was still eating cookies. The girl couldn’t stand it any longer. She released a magic bullet from her fingertips. A sound like a gunshot echoes through the house, followed by the sound of a breaking jar. The man finally looked at her direction.

"Who are you?" She repeated her question.

"Huh? Aren't you supposed to be the one that summoned me girl? How do you not know me?" He asked back and took a bite of the cookie in his hand.

She was dumbfounded. She never considered it to be a possibility. Not only that man didn’t have the aura of a hero, he felt..demonic. He also doesn't match the description of any spirit she knew.

"Girl, are you thinking what kind of spirit am i?" He asked.

"Eh?" She was surprised.

He chuckled. "I can read your expression like a book you know. Well, sorry to inform you, but i'm not a heroic guardian spirit." He continued while smirking.

"So i failed huh?" She sighed.

"Failure? You hurt my pride you know girl." The man replied.

"Oh! Is that so? If you are my guardian spirit then tell me your name, if i know who you are then i would know your true worth." She stared at him and stompped her feet. Seeing the girl lose her temper the man teased her even more. He made a gesture saying he didn’t want to tell her.

"As i expected from some lowly spirit." She start chanting something. "If you doesn’t want to tell me then i'll force you!"

Her chant was almost finished, but something stopped her. Her voice won’t come out.

She placed her hand on her neck to check if something was wrong, but there was none. She could breath and move her mouth just fine, but no sound came out.

"Did your parents teach you manner girl? You should give your name first before asking someone elses." She realized then, it was him that made her couldn't speak. The man snapped his finger and then, she could speak again. "Tell me your name."

"Fine! I'm Rose, Rose Acturus ." She was reluctant at first but she answered. Hearing her answer he smiled.

"Well Rose, I'm Aldwin, your spirit." Said that man while holding his hand out asking for a handshake. Rose was taken aback, but she shook his hand anyway.

"Aldwin, tell me. Why did you canceled my magic? it was just a scanning magic. I'm your master so i should know all about you right?" She asked.

Aldwin laughed. "Master? You? You want to be my master girl?"

"Okay-okay not master, but since i have summoned you, at least we can be partner." She answered.

"Well then Rose, tell me your three measurement, tell me the man you like, your greatest fear and your most traumatic moment." He replied with a smile on his face.

"Wha..why would i tell you that? We don’t know each other yet." Rose answered.

Aldwin smile became even broader. "Exactly! since we're a partner, not a master and a servant, or a master and slave, we should withhold our personal information until we know each other better. How about it?"

"Fine." Rose folded her arm. Even though he was correct, spirit usually don't argue against their summoner. When they were told to do something, they were supposed to carry it out. Of course, spirit might refuse when given an extreme order, but rarely spirit reject such a simple order.

She looked at the clock. It almost 1 AM and she was exhausted after the summoning ritual.

"Aldwin, this is my house. I'm going to sleep now, you're free to familiarize yourself with this house, but don't mess it up."

Without delaying anymore she walked to her room and laid on the bed. She took a pillow and hugged it tight. Honestly, she was disappointed, the guardian spirit she summon wasn’t the one she wanted, but at least she was not a complete failure, and it look like Aldwin was a strong spirit. If not for his personality she might like him.

The alarm beeped. It was just a moment ago that she closed her eyes and yet it was already 6 AM. She pulled herself out of the bed, walked to the bathroom downstair, washed her face, and looked at the mirror. Her hair was a mess, and so does her face. Her eyes was a little red and a little bit dry. "Gosh, I hate morning."

She has to get up early today because she has to go to class. While preparing her morning coffee, she saw Aldwin watching the TV. He seemed to enjoy watching the morning cartoon. He looked like he doesn't even care what she was even doing, he didn't even took a glance at her.

After her morning coffee, she took a cold shower as her last attempt to wake herself up. She never liked it, but it always have been effective. After she was ready, she passed Aldwin in the living room and opened the door leading outside. She stopped and glared at him.

"Aldwin! Wasn’t there something you supposed to ask me?" She folded her arm and asked.

"What? What am i supposed to ask?" Aldwin asked back. His raised his eyebrow showing no concern whatsoever.

She got near Aldwin to scolded him. "Wasn’t a guardian spirit supposed to protect their summoner? Don't you want to know where i'm going, how can you protect your partner if you doesn’t even know where she went?"

"Why do i wa-" Aldwin smiled."OH! So you say that you NEED my protection?"

"FORGET I ASK! You're going to be an embarrassment anyway."Rose slammed the door.

Her day went smoothly. Almost everything was usual and went as Rose expected. But, there was something different that day. Rein, a guy in her class have a very very bad day. She occasioanly watched him from afar, not because she liked him or anything, but out of jealousy.

In one glance there was nothing from Rein that could make Rose jealous. Rein is just an average looking guy with an average intelligence from an average family who is on good term with everyone but doesn't have anyone that he's really close to. But from Rose perspective there is one thing that made Rein stood out from the rest. He always able to enjoy everything, no matter how bad his day is, he always smiled. Not a fake smile, but a genuine smile.

A fact that was very clear that day. Rein came to class late, with his face full of bruises, soaked from his own sweat, and jacket that was covered with dirt. Rose couldn't imagine what could make someone sweat that much in winter.

the professor was angry at him for being late. When he passed her, he looked to be in great pain, and there was a strange scar on his neck. After the class, she saw him with a condition even worse than before, there was a trace of blood in his nose, probably after being beaten up.

Rose came home in the afternoon. When she came home, Aldwin has just got out from the shower, and he only wore a towel that covered his private part. Rose just noticed it right now but Aldwin has a very nice muscle tone, not too bulky, and not too ripped, just enough to fit in with Rose preference. That, and combined with his pure white skin that was glistening after the shower, enough to made Rose blushed.

"Wh-why didn’t you wear anything? There's a girl in here." She looked away.

"Okay." Aldwin answered quick. Rose was surprised, she expected him to show off or tease her after seeing her blushing. Suddenly the coat and breastplate he wore yesterday appeared from thin air. "Rose, did you expect me to show my body off? Ckckck, that is not a good expectation you have for someone you just met."

"N-No! Of course not why would i?" Rose replied. She looked at Aldwins direction, his usual smug face is nowhere to be found. Instead, she saw a serious eyes.

"Can we talk now? I wanted to talk about something." Said Aldwin with a serious tone.

"I have to go somewhere first, we speak later. Stay here! Don't go anywhere okay?" Said Rose. She walked to the nearby desk and pulled out something from her bag.

“Rose, it’s important.” Aldwin said.

“My business is also important, much more important than yours” Without waiting for Aldwin reply , she left the house.

She catched a Taxi to a field just outside the city border. It was an open grassy field, but now it was covered with thin snow. She waited a few minutes there until she saw it, a convoy of military jeeps and a trailer truck. Leading the convoy was the man she had been waiting for, Arthur. The convoy stopped near her and Arthur came out from the car.

The setting sun was still on the horizon, letting out a streak of yellowish orange light. Its ray shined off of Arthur golden eye and hair as he walked to rose. His posture was full of confidence.

"Rose! good to see you here. I'm glad you choose to support us this time." Arthur said so with a smile on his face. He looked directly at Rose eyes.

"Of course Arthur, my family has always been supporting the Heroic Faction for a long time. I don't intend to change that." Rose replied with a smile.

“Let’s go inside! it’s too cold outside here at winter. we discuss about the game there. ” They walked to the jeep, he opened and held the door open for her.

Arthur haven't changed much since she last saw him, when they were still a kid . He was still charming as always and she still liked him. Arthur has became the leader of the Heroic Faction, and since ancient times the head of Acturus family and the leader of the Heroic faction have always been on good terms.

"Do you know anything about this century Game of Spirit? Like when it's going to start or the rule?" Rose asked.

"We don't know much, which is strange because it's almost the time for the game to happen. But what i know is that this century game is going to be a total war. All faction, the Hero, Warrior, Hunter, Devil, Church, Mage ,and even the Assassin faction are going to show up, which the last time this happened was 2000 years ago. And even stranger it seems that the United Nation are joining this game, instead of being neutral. Not to mention that in the last 20 years, the amount of person who summon B, A, and A+ ranked spirit increase by 10 fold, which mean a lot of strong individual are going to come to this city." Arthur explained

“That’s going to be a problem.” Rose replied. She placed her hand on her chin. “But, for all faction to participate, What is the prize this time?”

“The Source. The god power.” Arthur answered.

“The source? That’s…. Impossible. ” Rose narrowed her eyes and covered her mouth. “So that’s why every faction participate, Are you sure Arthur?”

“If our informant is correct then it is.” Arthur replied. “But even if our informant was wrong, we still have to use our full power. Since all faction participate, sooner or later, an open battle would occur. If that happened, we have to make sure to protect the civilian before they become a victim.”

The jeep stopped. They have arrived at their destination, a giant warehouse on the dockside area of the city. The area around the warehouse was already abandoned, which was perfect for their base of operation. Everyone in the convoy started moving and unloading their equipment from the truck to the area around the warehouse. Heavily armed guard start guarding the perimeter.

When Rose get inside the warehouse she was greeted with an extraordinary sight. Dozen of guardian spirit with their respective master filled the place. She could sense it, there were even some legendary spirit among them. Of course she couldn’t know which is which because spirit true appearance is usually different from their legend and myth.

Before Rose could ask about them, the warehouse main sliding door was opened by someone, causing the whole structure to shook. A man, a guardian spirit entered. 3 meter in height, wearing a chest armor and chainmail underneath. He wore a crown, plate mail,shoulder guard, bracelet, belt, and boots that all made of bronze and each carved with an image of war. He gripped a huge cleaver axe in his hand. A huge bronze shield, almost as big as his own body was hanging from his back. Rose couldn't see his face for some reason as it was covered with shadow, but she could see his glowing red eyes even from far away.

"That is my spirit. Gorm, the king of Sacred kingdom. No one know about him because he came from time before the great disaster, but nonetheless even a spirit that no one know exist can still be summoned." Arthur explained. He patted Gorm leg and pointed his finger to the middle of the room.

When Gorm passed, everyone moved out of the way. He emmited an intimidating presence. He walked to the middle of the room and stood there, keeping watch of everyone.

After making sure that Gorm stood in his place, Arthur turned his face to rose and asked."Speaking of which, how's your summoning? What heroic spirit are you able to summon?"

"Well, i think i failed in a way" Said Rose. She scratched the side of her head. Suddenly a voice she knew came from her back.

"Failed my Ass!"

Everyone looked at the source of the sound. Aldwin has been standing in that room all along and no one realized his presence at all. All the guardian spirit drew their weapon and pointed it at Aldwin, but he doesn't move. He knew that Arthur would intervene and stopped them.

Rose explained how Aldwin is his spirit and partner and she still doesn't know anything about him. His eyes made everyone there uneasy. The colour of his eyes matched the description of demonkin, not to mention his demonic aura.

Suddenly a middle aged man walked to her with a smile in his face.

“Look at that! the head of the Acturus family now not only failed to summon a heroic spirit, but instead summoned a demonic spirit!” He caught everyone attention."Hey Arthur, you aprove of this? Having a demon inside our rank. The next thing we knew she might as well curse us all!"

“Hey old man! It’s not nice to say such thing to a girl, you know.” Aldwin walked slowly to that man, challenging him.

“As expected of a demon, acting all high and mighty, even when you can’t do shit, just like your master!” The man was clearly provoking Aldwin. Suddenly a giant bronze axe slammed between them, separating those two. It was swung by Gorm, Arthur spirit.

“ENOUGH!” Shouted Arthur. “Have you lost your mind Herman? I don’t care what your grudge against Acturus family is, but Rose is our allies, no matter what spirit she may have! And Rose, please control your spirit better. Also you better leave now, it's getting late. Tomorrow morning come with me to the mage association office, there’s something i wanna show you.”

“Then i take my leave Arthur. Come on Aldwin!” Said Rose, then she walked away. She clenched her fist as she walked way. Aldwin turned to face Rose.

“Looks like it’s your lucky day today…. demon!” Said Herman as they walked away.

Hello everyone!

This is my first fiction here. Any suggestion and criticism is very much welcomed.

Since english is not my native language and i don't have any proofreader, i'm sorry if there are any mistake in my grammar or spelling. If you could point them out in the comment i will gladly fix them.

Thank you, hope you enjoyed my story.