You are Summoned

Chapter 290. What’s to Come.

Quinn was unconscious, but not dead as Elida pumped healing spells into him. Before long, she ran out of spell slots and activated her Channel Mana ability to restore one of them. While she channeled the ability, I dropped another health bloom. My own mana was starting to drop, and I had only enough for another cast after this one.

As I cast my last health bloom a pair of paramedics arrived and began working on Quinn. I wasn’t sure what modern medicine could do, but the two young paramedics seemed to know their stuff. In moments they had Quinn hooked to an IV and were loading him onto a stretcher. Elida cast her last healing spell just as the paramedics took him away.

“Where will he go?” I asked.

“We have a helicopter inbound. They’ll take him to where you were treated after your fight with the Plague Warrior,” Marie explained.

“I’d like to go with him, do you need me here right now?” A rather distraught Julio asked.

“We’re fine here, Agent Lopez is on his way to help sort things out, let us know how Quinn’s doing,” Marie said.

“I will,” Julio said, before grabbing me by the shoulder. “Thank you, Rico, you and your minion might have helped save my nephew’s life tonight,” Julio, tears in his eyes, ran off to meet the helicopter that we could now hear approaching. I stood there stunned for a few moments, gathering my thoughts.

“Is this kind of attack common in your world? It seems more dangerous than back home,” Fitzfazzle said, breaking the silence.

“Uh, no, we usually don’t have hordes of crazed attackers in the middle of the night. Anyone have any idea who these freaks were?” I asked.

“Maybe, I heard one mention Lord Bhalkur just before I turned him into a human torch,” Elliot said.

“So, they’re from the cult that captured me before,” I said, remembering my brief captivity, and the young woman, Celeste, who died in our escape attempt. It had been Fitzfazzle’s reward, the mech figurine, that had saved me that night.

I had run into the cultists again, when the Plague Warrior summoned being tried to capture Tran. After that, between the government and the Grimslade Group, I had thought the cult had been pretty much wiped out. It looked like I was wrong, and I could only hope that our trouble with them was finally over.

We joined Jeanette in her apartment, and over a cup of tea infused with her class power, we started to recover. Somehow, Fitzfazzle had pilfered a fallen agent’s submachine gun and started fiddling with it. In a panic, I had him keep his hands off the weapon and explained how to load, fire, and how to safely handle it. The time with the military and Julio’s firearms instruction was paying off.

“A nice bit of kit, this is. Too bad it’s so susceptible to Fail Weapons spells,” Fitzfazzle said.

“Keep it, who knows, you might figure out some way to keep it from malfunctioning after a spell hits it. There’s always the chance you get one as a reward after the summoning,” I replied.

Julio called Marie a few minutes later, giving us the good news that Quinn had regained consciousness just as they landed at the hospital. He had a long way to go, but it looked like he was going to recover. I could only hope that my healing spells had helped, but it could also have been chalked up to his class having a high constitution stat.

A clean up team from the government arrived a bit later and began to bag up the cultists’ remains and tow their vehicles off. I was more than happy to have them deal with it, that was a task I wasn’t looking forward to having to do myself. Along with the cleaners, Agent Lopez arrived along with another agent carrying a computer case.

“Is everyone okay?” Agent Lopez asked as soon as he spotted us.

“Quinn was hurt. They had a summoned being with them that shot him with some kind of toxic quills,” I explained.

“So that was Quinn who was medevacked out. How’s he doing?” Lopez asked.

“Julio is with him, and said that Quinn’s doing well, but might be in the hospital for a while,” Marie answered.

“I’m glad the rest of you are here, we have some things to go over. It appears your attackers are more of the cultists from this Bhalkur being,” Lopez explained.

“We figured that out given one of them was overheard shouting his name, but how did you find out?” Marie asked.

“This isn’t the only incident with these cultists. Something has them riled up, and there are far more of them than we anticipated. At least ten other incidents have happened across the country. For now, this cult only seems to be present here in the US,” Lopez explained.

“How are there so many? We hadn’t heard a peep from them after our last run in, now a whole horde of them invade our home. They seemed to have been after Fitzfazzle. Do you have any idea why?” I asked.

“From what we’ve gathered from the few prisoners taken, they are seeking sacrifices to bring their god back into the world. With the summoned beings among their ranks, it stands to reason one of them might have a class that can sense someone like Fitzfazzle appearing here in our world. Maybe sacrificing a summoned ally like that releasees more energy for their master, or maybe they’re just nuts,” Lopez said.

“Do we have any idea why they all seemed to suddenly go active?” I asked.

“We’re still investigating, but there is some information that might tie in with them. That was another reason I wanted to meet with all of you in person. One of the summoned beings working with us has the class of Seer. She can predict coming events and has focused much of her research on Earth and our integration,” Lopez said before stopping to take a drink from the cup of tea that Jeannete brought him. She also dropped off a plate of shortbread cookies that both Fitzfazzle and I immediately helped ourselves to.

“Can she really predict the future, what tier and rank is she?” Marie asked.

“Lillian is tier three, rank zero right now. From what I understand, she can only see various possible outcomes. The closer we are to an event, such as Earth’s integration, the more accurate her predictions can become. I should also mention that she’s incredibly powerful in combat, despite only having a few combat related abilities. Knowing what your opponent is going to do before they act is quite the force multiplier, as the cultists trying to capture her found out,” Lopez said, joining me and Fitzfazzle on our cookie binge.

“What outcome is she predicting and how does it tie into the cult?” I asked through a mouthful of shortbread.

“A couple of predictions keep coming up. In addition to that, the mana gauge is filling even faster than normal. The estimate now is that integration is somewhere between six and nine months. As for her prediction, two things will come to pass before integration occurs. The first is that a prison will open on our world, and a challenge to destroy the evil one will begin.

“That, we think, is a reference to this Bhalkur, and the cult is trying to wake him sooner, and feed him more power through these sacrifices before those that come to destroy him arrive,” Lopez explained.

“So, this Bhalkur is imprisoned somewhere here on Earth?” Marie asked.

“That would make sense,” Fitzfazzle interjected. “Your world has long been starved of mana. If he was imprisoned here, there would be nothing to power his attempts to break his bonds. Of course, the imprisonment device would have to be one that isn’t affected by mana either. Now that your world is close to integration, someone, or something, that powerful could begin to break free.”

“That’s something to look forward to, but I suppose we have no idea where his prison is located,” I said.

“No, only that we think it is somewhere here in the US. We have placed a team on locating it, and with our seer, Lillian’s, help we hope to narrow the location down quickly,” Lopez said.

“If you find it, I’d like to be in on any attack we launch. His cult has caused all kinds of pain, and I’d like to have a part in bringing it, and their master, down,” I said, thinking back again to Celeste’s body on the cold, concrete floor of the warehouse.

“I’ll do what I can to get you involved, in fact, we would have probably solicited your help anyway,” Lopez told me.

“And what about this second prediction?” Marie asked. I had been so caught up with the cult that I forgotten there was a second prediction from the seer.

“That one is a bit less urgent, as it’s something that is supposed to happen to herald in the day of integration. Lillian predicts that the bringer of war will enter our world to battle an old foe. The destruction this bringer of war causes will also lead to hope for our world,” Lopez explained.

“Well, that’s something to look forward to. A destructive force that’s also somehow helpful. Must be another pyromancer like me,” Elliot chimed in.

“We’ll have to wait and see what that means. One thing I can tell you with some level of certainty, is that most, or maybe even all of you won’t be around to see this bringer of destruction,” Lopez said.

“Wait, what? Are we going to die or something?” Elliot said in a panic.

“No, sorry to give you a scare. This is the last thing I was going to tell you about tonight. It’s becoming clear that the higher tier and rank summoned beings are being sent somewhere else. Everyone seems to disappear somewhere between tier three, rank zero, and tier four,” Lopez explained.

“Is something bad happening to them, or is the system going to kill us?” I asked with some concern.

“No, we don’t think it’s anything nefarious going on. Another summoned being bought some information, very expensive information, from Somhagen. It turns out that right before integration, or when a summoned being reaches a certain level of power, they’re pulled from Earth. Supposedly, you’ll return after the integration at some point,” Lopez explained.

“Any idea why?” I asked.

“Nothing concrete, but we think it’s the system’s way of keeping things fair in the early days. You’d be the most powerful people on the planet the day that integration occurs, and we think the system wants the rest of us to catch up a bit. It’s more than likely when you return, you’ll still be the highest power in terms of tier, rank, gear, and practical experience. At least by the time you get back, everyone else will have started to adjust to our new lives,” Lopez said.

I had wanted to be here to help when integration occurred, and now, I had to worry about what exactly was going to happen with me and the other summoned beings while we waited to return. Elliot was asking Lopez another question when I received a new prompt.

A summoning link has been activated.

You are Summoned!