The Girl who Devours the Sun Part 2: Brighter than a Star

The girl looked around, trying to take in her surroundings. For some reason, she didn’t seem to notice me. For a moment, I wondered if the summoning had been unsuccessful again and that I had just brought some random girl here. Especially since she seemed to be performing preworkout stretches.

“Um... Hello?” I called out.

“Oh?” The girl turned and looked down at me. “Oh! Are you the one who summoned me? Golly! You look absolutely gorgeous in that wedding dress! Are you getting married?”

“M-Master?” I turned to ask Master Erda for help, unsure of what to do in this situation.

“You’re the summoner,” she said. “This girl must be what you summoned.” She seemed to want to stay out of it.

I looked down at my right hand, and sure enough, there was a crest signalling that I had made a contract with a familiar. Looking at the girl. She seemed to have the same crest on her right hand as well. That meant for sure that she was the one I had summoned.

“Um...right.” I stood up and faced the girl. “I am your summoner. You will be my familiar starting from today.”

“Really? Lucky! I was startin’ to get so bored just lazing around all day!” The girl finished her stretches and walked over to me.

“Um... Are you by chance, an Archangel?”

“Huh? Do I look like an Archangel to ya?!” The girl seemed a bit offended by my question.

“Well, you have wings like one.”

“Huh, so I do.” The girl started turning her head halfway around to try and get a better look at her wings. She reminded me of a wolf pup trying to chase its own tail. Eventually she got dizzy and sat down on the dais.

“We’ll have more time for your comedy routine later,” Master said. “We made a bit too much of a spectacle. I’d rather we get somewhere to regroup before someone comes to investigate.”

“R-Right,” I said as I turned back to the girl. “Let’s get this settled then. My name is Lunar and I am your summoner. Will you accept the contract?” I held my right hand out with the crest facing forward. It was customary for a summoner and familiar to touch their crests together to mark the contract as complete.

“Lunar, huh? Nice to meetcha! My name’s Solvaleu.” The girl—Solvaleu—unexpectedly took my hand into a firm handshake. I supposed that was close enough to having the crests touch, but that wasn’t the thing that concerned me...

“A familiar that has a name?”

“What’re ya talkin’ about? Course I’ve got a name! Seems like I’ve got a rude summoner.”

“No, it’s just... I’ve only ever really heard familiars called by their species names before. Even the Archangel was only ever called ‘Archangel.’”

“Not to cut your meeting short. But I can sense some people approaching,” Master Erda said.

“No! That’s not good… Solvaleu, can you teleport?” I asked.

“I could probably learn the spell if you taught me, but best I can do on short notice is fly us out of here,” Solvaleu said.

“They’ll definitely notice that,” Master Erda said. “I’ll put up a barrier. You two hide behind it until you’ve recovered enough mana.”

Master Erda cast a spell that put a barrier around us. It was one that refracted light and sound, so our presences would be hidden to most people.

“Master!” I cried.

“This is the beginning of your story, Lunar. You cannot waver now. Bide your time until you are ready. Your quest is the same as always: Search for Lapis Pandora. The whole world should be open to you now.”

“The whole...world?”

So that’s why she’s come up with this plan… Now that I was both a summoner and a conjurer, I would be able to enter pretty much any country without suspicion. All of the countries that we had been avoiding until now…perhaps they were just countries where conjurers were not welcome.

While I was lost in thought, Solvaleu scooped me up in her arms. I tried to ignore the little “eep” I made as she pulled me in close.

“Summoner, I am going to protect you with everything I’ve got.. Once we have the chance, we will fly out of here at top speed. Oh, I should probably teach you wind resistance. I’ll cast it on you for now though since you’re out of mana.”

“J-Just Lunar, is fine…” I felt a magic circle flow into my mind and lock itself into my memory. Even without accounting for the things I had learned about magic theory over the last eight years, I could instinctively tell that it was a spell to dampen the damage that the wind would cause if we flew into the sky.

“Aight, we’ll be ready to lift off as soon as there is an opening. They’re so close now that even I can sense them,” Solvaleu said.

“But Master Erda said to stay put. I think it’ll be better to wait it out.”

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea. One of the presences feels a bit too strong…”

“Strong?” I looked towards the direction that Master and Solvaleu were looking. I could feel the pressure coming from that direction now as well. I instinctively wrapped my arms around Solvaleu’s waist and hugged her tight. After a moment, a squad of about 7 men in knights armor appeared. They were all riding atop horses, but some of them were definitely horselike familiars like my mother’s Kelpie was.

“You there! What are you doing here?” One of the men atop horses asked angrily.

“Me? I’m just out here conducting some experiments in the wilderness. This land isn’t owned by a local lord, is it?” Master Erda was trying to play dumb. She approached the men with her arms raised.

“Don’t move any further. Where is your familiar?”

“I don’t have one. I’m just a simple conjurer.”

“A conjurer?! In these lands?” A few of the men in the back started to whisper among themselves.

“Doesn’t seem like they like conjurers very much,” Solvaleu observed. Even with the barrier in place, she was trying to keep her voice down.

“It’s only natural,” I explained. “Most summoners and conjurers grow up thinking the other is basically from another plane of reality.”

I was speaking partially from my own experience and partially from the things I had seen and heard on our journey. Summoners would often give the two of us strange looks even when we were in neutral territories. It didn’t seem like things would be so easy to influence overnight, even if we did have the Lapis Pandora.

“What should we do? Should we take her into custody?” one of the men asked.

“I’d love to, but we have to think of our escort as well,” one of the other men said.

“Right. He told us to investigate, but we shouldn’t leave him for too long. Let’s just kill her and be done with it,” another said.

“My my, aren’t you all confident,” Master Erda said. “I can hear you, you know.”

“Impudent wretch!” The man who seemed to be the leader of the riders drew his sword. “Do us a favor and fall on this sword of your own volition!”

“Heh, I was hoping you’d say that.” Master Erda cracked her knuckles and took a fighting stance.

The leader of the knights swung his sword down on my master, but she managed to deflect it with her bare hands.

“You all see that? I was attacked first. That means this is all self-defense!” With a swift punch, she managed to knock the horse over, toppling its rider.

“Your master seems strong. Is she a martial artist?”

“Not really. She’s just used conjuration magic to strengthen her body. Her clothing has enchantments sewn into it as well, so it’s better than most armor. She probably intends to not kill them if possible.”

“Eh? So that kind of system exists...”

Solvaleu seemed to look down at her own fist before looking back to the fight. Master had managed to knock three of the riders off of their horses.

“Damn you!” The next of the riders came in, but this time Master fired a projectile attack that seemed to vaporize the rider’s familiar in an instant. He tumbled onto the ground face first.

“I thought you said she wasn’t going to kill them?” Solvaleu asked.

“I did. But familiars are an exception. If they get killed, they simply go back into the summoner’s soul until they can recover. It would probably work the same way for you.”

“That’s scary... I don’t wanna just poof like that!”

“Then try not to get into any fights you don’t think you can win.”

Before much longer, the riders were all writhing on the ground. It seemed like we would be able to make a clean getaway. But then...

“I wondered why you fools were taking so long... My master is getting impatient.”

“No way...”

A glowing golden figure stepped out from behind the treeline. She was a gorgeous and quite voluptuous woman with golden blonde hair. I recognized her immediately. It was none other than Archangel, my father’s familiar.

“That’s who you thought I was? Damn, I must be hot.” Solvaleu said. I quietly shushed her and squeezed in as close as possible. My father was the last person I wanted to see right now.

“Please, Lady Archangel! Avenge us!” the leader of the riders said from the ground.

“All I did was act in self-defense. They decided to attack me for no reason.” Master Erda did not seem as willing to fight Archangel.

Her motto for conflict was the same one I had repeated to Solvaleu earlier. She wasn’t one to pick fights that she didn’t think she could win. Whether she was weaker than Archangel or simply didn’t want to have that intense of a fight, I couldn’t be sure.

“So you say. But you seem to have done quite a number to our escort with nary a scatch on you. But I would expect nothing less from Erda the Heretic.”

“Gosh, has that moniker spread so far that even you know it? Archangel of Destruction.”

The two of them locked eyes in complete silence as a moment passed. Then, they both broke out laughing.

“Well, these men were weak anyway. They just proved to me that they weren’t worthy of being escorts if they couldn’t take out a single unarmed woman.”

“Yeah, I hope you can get a discount or even a refund for them. At least get someone with combat-oriented familiars next time.”

“We were on short notice, sadly. I assume you’ve been called to the conference as well?”

“That’s right. I was just finishing up some experiments before heading that way.”

“Perfect. You may ride with us then. There’s extra room in the carriage.”

“I guess I don’t have much of a choice. I’ll take you up on that offer.”

“L-Lady Archangel? What are you saying? This filthy conjurer viciously attacked us!” the leader of the riders objected.

“Silence, fool.” Archangel yelled. “This ‘filthy conjurer’ just so happens to be Erda Sakura of the Grand Magi. Even you idiots should have heard of her.”

“You could have left out the ‘filthy’ part...” Master lamented.

“Is your master that famous?” Solvaleu asked.

“Supposedly...” I wondered what kind of idiot I was that I hadn’t heard Master was a Grand Magi in all this time.

“I’ll heal all of you now. Please see Grand Magus Erda back to the cart.”

“Y-Yes, ma’am!”

A magic circle appeared above Archangel as she cast a wide-area healing spell. All of the men who were on the ground were able to quickly get to their feet. Those whose mounts weren’t dispelled got back on them and they all went back in the direction they had arrived from.

“Well, I guess we should get going too,” Master Erda said to Archangel.

“Yes... But first, I’d like to see what you’re hiding over there.”

“Crap! Solvaleu, fly! Now!”

“You got it!”

We took off into the air at breakneck speed as several swords of light pierced the barrier we had just been hiding behind. The barrier would have protected us, but it would have definitely revealed our position. It was a good thing Solvaleu had been prepared to escape after all.

I looked down to make sure that Archangel wasn’t following us, but she was just staring at us, wide-eyed. Master was waving goodbye with a big grin on her face. It seemed like this was her way of getting back at Archangel.

“So, where are we heading?” Solvaleu asked.

“Just head anywhere for now until we’re sure she isn’t following us.”

“Got it. Let’s head for those mountains, then.” Solvaleu picked a direction and continued flying.

I tried to remain vigilant, watching for any sign that we were being pursued by Archangel, but I couldn’t help but notice how fast we were flying. It had to be thanks to the wind-resistance magic that Solvaleu had cast. I had been able to fly using magic before, but never this high or this fast.

I turned back to look at Solvaleu who was holding me still in her arms. Her face was easy to read. She was having more fun than anyone I had ever seen. It was hard to feel so tense when someone so beautiful was smiling so much. I decided to hold onto her tighter.

“What’s the matter? Afraid of falling? Am I going too fast?”

“No, it’s just... I’m glad to finally have a familiar...”

I remembered back to how excited I was as a little girl. If I had summoned a familiar like Solvaleu back then, my life would have been completely different. Judging from how impressive she was, I probably would have just ridden on her coattails rather than study the intricacies of magic on my own. It was because I didn’t have her before that I was able to be so grateful to her now. It wasn’t like a part of me had been missing, but rather like a new chapter of my life had begun.

“Yo, uhh, don’t look now. We’ve got bogeys on our six.”

“What does that even mean? I swear your words are unintelligible.” I turned to look over her shoulder and spotted what I assumed she meant. There were three large flying creatures chasing us. “Wyverns?”

“So those are wyverns, huh? Not dragons?”

“No, Dragons are a type of familiar. You wouldn’t call a wild monster a Dragon.”

“Good to know. Are they strong?”

“Yes. They’re not the strongest monsters, but their scales are able to deflect most magic attacks. I doubt even Master Erda could take on this many.”

“Magic resistance, huh? Then, do you mind if I try something?”

“You intend to fight them? I told you not to pick fights you couldn’t win.”

“Sure, but. How will I know unless I try, right?”

“Don’t let your overconfidence drag us down. You might be able to revive easily, but I cannot.”

“Do you have enough mana to be okay if I set you down in the air?” My mind was filled with the magic circle for the spell she was using to fly. I already knew a flight spell through conjuration, but this one seemed to work a bit differently.

“I’ll be okay, but are you sure about this?”

“Let’s say about seventy percent.”

“Those aren’t great odds...but I’ll trust you.”

I had recovered enough magic to fly by myself. She stopped midair to let me go. It felt a bit awkward standing in the sky with my ceremony dress, but we didn’t have time to worry about it now. The Wyverns were approaching us quickly now that we had stopped.

“Hopefully this works, or else we’re gonna hafta haul ass.” Solvaleu cupped her hands together. A pink ball of energy formed in her hands as she pulled them backwards to her waist.

“I told you magic won’t work on them!”

“Just trust me on this one, will ya? This is taking longer to charge than I expected.”

I instinctively hid behind her. It wasn’t that I was afraid of monsters—I’d killed plenty in the past. But wyverns were a different story. Every magi knew to stay far away from them. And yet, this girl—my familiar—was facing them head on. I had no choice but to believe in her.

The wyverns were so close now that their scale was finally starting to sink in. Each of them was large enough to blot out the sun in the sky. They opened their mouths to show rows of teeth that were each as big as my arm. I closed my eyes, hoping that somehow I would hide myself from them.

“That’ll do it! What’s the phrase for it again? Comma...uh... Ah, forget it! Go!”

With a mighty shout, Solvaleu shoved her outstretched arms forward. A massive beam of light shot forth, disintegrating all three wyverns as they were caught in her blast. The light was so bright that it made the rest of the sunlit sky seem dark for a moment. Then, things went back to normal before my brain could process it.

“Th-That was...” I wasn’t entirely sure how I was supposed to react to this encounter.

I looked up at Solvaleu who seemed to be panting. That attack seemed to have taken a lot out of her. Still, she turned back to look at me and gave me a triumphant thumbs up.

“See? Told ya I got this. Pretty cool, huh?”

I wasn’t sure if it was her overwhelming confidence, or the power she had to back it up.

But just maybe...

I felt my heart skip a beat.