Ch. 1: Summoning

"You're in my way, loser." I let the random bully push me into the locker as he passed by, but not before reminding him,

"There's a whole hallway." Not that he cared. I didn't either, really. The school wasn't that populated, but there were probably dozens of people who would push whoever was in their way into the wall, not thinking much of it. No point in even remembering the names of those types.

These were the thoughts that ran through my head as I rushed from English to Math. Once I got to the class, I sat in the back corner and plopped my head on the desk, instantly zoning out, or trying to at least. A few seconds later, I heard a groan beside me.

"Ugggh. I don't want to be here." I didn't bother looking up. It was this girl in my class, I remembered her name. I did… Parker? Yeah, it was Parker.

Parker was probably my closest friend, but that wasn't saying much. Despite her groaning, I could hear her pulling her pencils and math book out of that ugly messenger bag that she'd been carrying everywhere since middle school.

Parker and I made pretty similar grades, mostly A's, and our attitudes about school were pretty much the same, but I was far more apathetic than her. She tried in every single class, and cared about what everyone else thought, while I was regarded as the school outcast in every manner.

I hung around with the same crowd as Parker, but only at the edges. I did good in school, but I hated learning from people, so every once in a while, I'd skip out on part of an assignment, or anything else that I couldn't see the purpose in. On top of that, I didn't see much value in relationships with other people, so I was incredibly blunt and detached. If I didn't like someone, or something, I wouldn't hold back.

Parker and the people in our friend group were mostly good people, so they more or less appreciated my bluntness, but it wasn't especially rare for someone, even teachers, to hate me for weeks on end for something that I said or did.

"You're right. This is stupid." I agreed with Parker's remark, idly wondering just how much she did.

"You're gonna fail the class if you keep sleeping through it." She told me.

"I don't sleep through it. I drift off. There's a difference." There wasn't much point in telling her that I'd already gone through the whole book problem by problem by the second week of this useless class, and was confident that I wouldn't have trouble passing the final exam if they gave it tomorrow.

I'd probably only retain enough to get an 80% or so when they actually gave out the tests, but that was fine with me. This teacher went by the book, so I theoretically had all of the homework for the next three weeks stuffed somewhere into my bag just in case I forgot to do it when he gave out the actual assignments. At least, I'd pass the assignments within one or two problems.

"You need to pay attention, Grant. Seriously." I didn't bother to respond. None of it really mattered to me anyways. I couldn't exactly get myself motivated about going to college, learning nothing from people who sucked at teaching even more than my current teachers for four extra years, even though I was rearing to get out of this stupid town.

Our teacher never got to show up to the class in the end. I guess he got off lucky in a sense, because the remaining 18 or so people in class disappeared from the Earth without a trace before he ever got there.

I only noticed what was happening because a bright light caught my eye, so I looked up and noticed a portion of some sort of circle of white light floating ever so slightly off of the floor in the front of the room.

I didn't really know what to think of this circle at first, maybe it was some sort of illusion, because there were some sort of symbols inside the circle. They had a pattern to them that caught my attention, so I tried to figure it out by looking at the whole pattern.

Had I not noticed that pattern, I would have thought it was some sort of illusion, but following the pattern with my eyes made me notice that part of it was just casually floating through my shoe, the light melding with it in a way that was hard to describe.

Are we being summoned to another world or something? I wondered, recalling dozens of books I'd read with this same trope. I wasn't really convinced, but I figured that I'd go with it.

If I'm being summoned to another world like all of those stories, then bring it on.

Since I didn't believe it, I quickly let my mind wander, excited adrenaline already speeding up my thoughts in this wild hope that something was going to happen, something was going to change. Maybe it would actually matter, even if it was a stupid hope.

If this is really some sort of summoning, I'll be getting some sort of power, right? Skills and stat-type powers, maybe? If that were the case, then what would I want? In my mind, this was just idle musing, and someone was going to come in any moment and turn this thing off, maybe explaining it, maybe not, it didn't really matter, but the answer to the question that my mind posed was answered instantly by that same voice in my head.

I want my own power. I want to create my own power with my own hands.

I wouldn't settle for anything less. I was sick of it.

And with that thought pushing itself out through my mind like an indomitable force, the summoning spell finished its course, and the class disappeared in a blinding light.

...

Ava Amale strode through the halls of Castle Amale with purpose. It was all hers, after all.

The whole kingdom would be hers as soon as her useless father was out of the way, and that time would come soon. Her influence among the noble class had finally surpassed his, and all of her requests were on track to being fulfilled despite any protests he could have.

Her current request had been to summon Heroes from other worlds using the castle mages and the little used "Hero Summoning" Skill. By summoning heroes with unique skills, training them a little bit, and sending them all to the Demon Nation Gustavia, they could push the front lines of the war back quite a bit, and lower the strain on their own troops, since no nations would send aid to the aggressor of a one-sided genocidal war.

Once the Heroes had the front lines pushed back far enough, Gustavia's Demon Lord would be forced to massacre them personally, allowing the Amale kingdom to trigger a dragon swarm, getting rid of all of the X-factors at the same time. Once Amale's armies, and the Heroes were gone, Ava would be able to easily seize control and take her time rebuilding.

No rival would dare attack a nation capable of destroying the Demon Lord himself, and control dragons. All of the pawns would just line into place to allow Ava to control an Amale far larger and stronger than the current one, and all of her irritations would be gone. If the Heroes turned out to be a disappointment, Ava would simply do away with them the same way that she would do away with her father. A strong enough poison would surpass all resistances, after all.

Even if there happened to be a Hero with a power totally resistant to poisons, it wouldn't be a large hitch in her plan, since she had several ways to kill the Heroes that weren't able to or didn't want to fight, starting with Contract Magic.

Contract Magic would force the signer to adhere to anything expressly written on the contract, so if the Contract told someone to die at a certain time, their life force would be sealed, and they would drop dead on the spot no matter how strong they were.

Using Contract magic on the Heroes somewhere along the way would be absolutely vital to Ava's plan. Any threats to Ava's power would need to be dealt with, no matter the sacrifices. Knowing that her future as queen of a large nation, waiting on her hand and foot for the rest of her life was entirely assured by this summoning today, Ava strode confidently to the summoning room, where nearly a hundred of their two hundred court magicians had been casting the Summoning spell for over two days straight.

"How long?" Ava asked the head mage, whose name she didn't care enough to know. He was an elderly man who looked like he was at death's door, but he was very loyal to Amale, so he would never complain about poor treatment like this as long as it was for the country.

Barely able to raise his head, he answered her,

"Any moment now. The summoning targets have been found, and they are in the midst of transport. Seventy five of us have already collapsed from exhaustion, and five more are currently out of mana, including myself, but we should have just enough to finish the ritual.

"Good. Once you are finished, I want the ones who collapsed to be placed on the castle wall as part of the guard unit. Once that is finished, they will be retrained. That sort of gross incompetence is not fit for a member of this kingdom's finest mage corp." She told him.

"Understood." The elderly mage said with a defeated look.