Chapter 55 – The Sleepwalker's Announcement
Part 2: The Familiar That Shouldn't Be
Word Count: ~900
Midnight.
The air above the south courtyard buzzed with quiet tension. Not noise—mana. The very stones hummed with residual summoning chalk, drawn in rings and layered runes, glowing faintly in shades of violet, bone-white, and blood-red.
A hundred students stood in loose groups, cloaked in black and silence.
No instructors in sight.
Except one.
Leaning back against a stone wall, eyes half-lidded, arms folded like a man waiting for someone else to finish dinner.
Velgraith.
He didn't speak. Didn't smile. Just pointed at the circle lazily and said:
"Whenever you're ready. One by one. No helping.If you bleed too much, call someone who cares."
Ariz stood near the far edge, arms crossed, watching the first few students step forward.
A werewolf girl knelt inside the glyph and summoned a spectral direhound made of frost.A vampire conjured a crimson bat-thing with a serpent's face.A shadow-elf pulled a twin-eyed wraith that hissed even at its master.
Some cried. Some smiled. Some passed out.
Velgraith snored once but didn't seem asleep.
When it was Ariz's turn, the courtyard pulsed.
Not from the summoning.
From the way everyone around him stopped talking.
Even the familiars already summoned recoiled—as if recognizing something older.
Velgraith cracked one eye open fully.
"…Huh."
Ariz stepped into the circle.
The glyph reacted instantly—shifting, unraveling, folding inward like paper catching flame. It restructured into a third-layered summoning matrix, something no first-year should trigger.
Not by accident.
Not even by talent.
[System Warning: Familiar Circle Responding to Forbidden Pattern]
Mana Profile: UmbrakinStatus: Unknown Legacy
➤ Binding Route: Deep-Seal Core➤ Familiar Class: ???
"Proceed with caution.Or proceed without understanding. Your choice."
Ariz didn't blink.
He extended one hand—slowly.
Pale fingers traced with violet veins. Still. Ready.
"Come out."
The glyph burst with silent pressure—no sound, just force. A ripple of shadow spilled from the stones, flooding the air in a dome of black mist.
Students staggered back. Some fell. Even the summoned familiars snarled and retreated, whining into their owners' legs.
Something was moving inside the circle.
Crawling up.
Forming.
Not out of mist.
Out of void.
First came the shape.
Not beast.
Not spirit.
Something tall, thin, faceless, with limbs like silk-draped blades and a cloak of flowing shadows that dragged against the stone like liquid silence. Two violet lights hovered where its eyes should be—burning, not blinking.
Its chest bore a mark.
An Umbrakin sigil. Ariz's sigil.
Not carved.
Grown.
Velgraith finally stood straight.
Not joking.
Not sleepy.
"...What in the old moonlight is that?"
The being stood beside Ariz now.
Not behind.
Beside.
As if it chose this.
As if it remembered him.
And from its mouthless form came a sound like breath through a dying flute:
"You are the first since the fall.You are mine.And I am what they sealed."
[Familiar Acquired: Name Unknown]
Class: Bound EchoSubclass: Ancient Line Memory
Abilities:– Shape-Walking– Aura Suppression– Loyalty: Irrevocable
"This is not a familiar.This is something your blood once commanded."
The dome vanished.
The mist cleared.
Ariz stood perfectly still.
The familiar stood next to him, unmoving.
No one spoke.
Even Velgraith didn't say anything for a full ten seconds.
Then he exhaled.
Scratched his jaw.
And muttered, "Well... shit."
The class stared.
But Ariz didn't meet their eyes.
He just looked down at the runes still glowing beneath his feet.
And then back at the thing beside him.
It didn't move.
But it whispered in a voice only he could hear:
"You walk among sparks.But you were made from ash."
The moon above pulsed crimson.
And the courtyard didn't feel like an academy anymore.
It felt like the beginning of a ritual no one else understood.
Not yet.