Chapter 82: Summoning
"The new era is upon us all.", Olivier spoke with reverence, holding the reliquary as her steps slowed down. She walks as if a trance.
"Your Eminence, please be careful.", Eris walked behind her, "We don't know if something unexpected will come out..."
But the Saintess didn't seem to hear him. Her golden eyes were fixed ahead, seeing something beyond the physical realm.
The ground beneath their feet changed. No longer volcanic rock nor jungle soil, now it was crimson, pulsing slightly with each step. Like walking on flesh, the texture gave slightly under their weight, warm and disturbingly alive.
Jim stopped at the border where normal earth met crimson ground, his instincts screamed at him not to follow further. This was holy ground, or perhaps something far more dangerous.
Either way, he wasn't meant to tread there.
"I'll keep watch.", he called out, and Eric nodded understanding.
The expedition team continued without him, their footsteps leaving temporary impressions in the living ground. The air grew thicker with each step, that overwhelming scent of blood becoming almost tangible.
They found it at the heart of the crimson land.
A tree bigger than the rest, much bigger. Its trunk was easily thirty meters across, bark the color of dried blood with veins of darker crimson running through it. And hanging from its branches are eyeball-like fruits.
Dozens of them, each one perfectly round, each one seeming to watch as the expedition approached. They blinked occasionally, in perfect synchronization.
The Saintess stopped before the tree, her entire body trembling, not with fear, but with joy.
"Goddess of Madness...", she whispered, "We have come."
She knelt, placing the reliquary on the crimson ground before her. Then she began to chant, her voice rising with religious fervor.
"Crimson Mother of Insanity!
Lady of Blood and Salvation!!
Forever Changing Savior!!!"
The eyeballs all snapped toward her at once. The tree itself seemed to breathe, its trunk expanding and contracting rhythmically.
The Saintess opened the reliquary with trembling hands. The Crown of Thorn sat within, radiating an aura of ancient suffering. She lifted it carefully, reverently, holding it up toward the massive tree.
The Crown began to glow, not with light, but with something darker. A crimson radiance that hurt to look at directly.
"I present your Crown upon your Kingdom!!", Olivier declared, her voice carrying across the unnatural landscape, "To welcome the Child of Prophecy into the world!!!"
She pressed the Crown against the tree's bark.
The reaction was immediate.
The ground screamed, not a sound, but a sensation that vibrated through bone and marrow. The tree's trunk split open, revealing not wood but something that looked disturbingly organic. The Crown of Thorn sank into the opening, absorbed by the tree as if being swallowed.
Then the eyeball fruits began to weep blood. Red tears that ran down their surfaces, dripping onto the ground below. Where each drop landed, something sprouted.
White bone spikes erupted from the crimson ground, growing at impossible speeds. They surrounded the expedition team in a widening circle, rising higher and higher. Each spike was easily three meters tall, curved slightly inward like ribs like a cage.
Eric stepped back instinctively, but the Saintess remained kneeling, her expression rapturous.
She whispered, "The birth begins."
The bone spikes continued growing, enclosing them completely. The eyeball fruits watched from above, unblinking.
And deep within the tree, something started to move. Something that would change the world.
In the North, the mysterious continent, it began to stir...
=0=0=
"I'll make it myself.", Dawn stated.
"Huh?", Lea turned back, looking at the princess, "What do you mean?"
"You want a gun with Surge, Melody, and Resonance, right?"
Lea blinked, "Yes, but you said you didn't have the necessary seastones with those specific Paths imbued. That was weeks ago, Dawn. The war—"
"I don't have them.", Dawn interrupted, her eyes still fixed on the blueprint, "But I don't need them."
She looked up finally, and there was something fierce in her expression. Something that made Lea's emotion radar ping with a mixture of determination and barely restrained mania.
"I'm Fifth Step now, partially merged with the Chalk Princess's Divine Throne.", Dawn's hands moved to the workbench, where components and tools lay scattered, "I create things, Lea. That's what I do. So I'll create the necessary components myself."
"That's...", Lea hesitated, "Is that even possible?"
"Charlotte the Heretic created indestructible pages from Memory and Void. Why shouldn't I be able to create mystical materials even though I don't have the right Paths?", Dawn's voice had that edge to it, the one that appeared when she was working on something ambitious and possibly dangerous, "I'm a demigod now. It's time I acted like one."
Lea studied her friend carefully. Dawn looked exhausted. Papers covered every surface of the workshop, not just invention designs, but financial reports, church organizational charts, supply requisitions for the military, and diplomatic correspondence.
"You're overworking yourself.", she said quietly.
"I'm managing it just fine.", Dawn corrected, though her tone suggested otherwise, "The Church of Progress needs a proper hierarchical structure. Father needs help balancing the war budget. My brother can't handle the diplomatic negotiations with Kres alone. The military wants modifications to the communication network, and I still need to—"
"Dawn."
The princess stopped, taking a breath.
"You're drowning, Dawn.", Lea repeated, "You're trying to do everything yourself."
"Because no one else can, they are also swarmed with work.", Dawn said, frustration bleeding into her voice, "The church is mine to build, the kingdom is my family's to protect, the technology is mine to develop. I can't just... stop."
She sat down heavily on her workbench stool, suddenly looking every bit as tired as she was.
"I'm Fifth Step. I'm partially divine, I should be able to handle this.", er hands clenched, "So why does it feel like I'm barely keeping my head above water?"
Lea moved closer, reading the surface thoughts Dawn wasn't quite suppressing. Anxiety about the church's structure, worry about her father's health.
Frustration with nobles who didn't understand technology. Fear that she'd claimed a Divine Throne too ambitious to fully control.
"What if...", Lea started carefully, "What if you asked for help?"
"From who? IS7 is stretched thin with the war. The nobles are useless. The church leadership is still figuring out how to merge two philosophies. You're already doing interrogations and spy-catching on top of your Shadow Guard duties."
Dawn looked at her blueprint again, "No. I need to be more efficient. Work smarter."
Her expression shifted, becoming calculating, "Which is why I'm going to summon Lady Keter."
Lea's blood ran cold, "What?"
"You heard me!!", Dawn stood, moving to a clear section of the floor, "Her summoning requirements are loosened now. Random trinkets or food, instead of years off my life. I can manage that."
"Dawn, no—"
"She's trapped in the Monochrome Library, desperate to walk the world again. She as good as told us that during the last meeting.", Dawn started sketching four overlapping hourglasses in the shape of a star with chalk, doing it like a normal ritual, "I'll offer her a deal after the summoning. Help me create the seastones for your gun, help me with some administrative work for the church, and in exchange... I'll find a way to bring her into the physical world more permanently."
"That's insane.", Lea said flatly, "Lady Keter doesn't value human lives, remember how she summoned the Tome of Light just for the sake of it? You'd be inviting a walking catastrophe into Renar."
"I'm aware of the risks.", Dawn didn't stop drawing, "But I'm also aware that I'm building a church, managing a kingdom's technology infrastructure, and trying to fully claim a Divine Throne all at once. I need assistance from someone who operates on a divine level."
"Dawn—"
"My ambition is that strong, Lea.", the princess looked up, eyes burning with determination. "I will become the Goddess of Technology. I will unify the church. I will help Ryteline survive this war. And if that means making deals with dangerous entities, then so be it."
She finished the summoning circle.
"This is what it takes to reach the heights I'm aiming for. Risks, sacrifices. Ambition that doesn't flinch from danger."
Lea wanted to argue, wanted to grab Dawn and shake some sense into her. But she recognized that look in her friend's eyes. She'd seen it in the mirror often enough.
The look of someone who'd decided the price was worth paying, no matter how steep.
"At least let me stay.", Lea said finally, "If you're doing this, you're not doing it alone."
Dawn smiled, a bit maniacal but genuine, "Thank you."
She heads to the kitchen, taking a slice of cake meant for dessert, an offering for the One hidden in the Cracks of Time. And something else, a small vial of what looked like liquid starlight.
"What's that?" Lea asked when the princess got back.
"Insurance.", Dawn replied, tugging it into her pocket, "Something I've been working on. Just in case Lady Keter decides to be difficult."
She placed the slice of cake on the symbol of Lady Keter. Then she spoke the Honorific Title.
"Chosen One of Time;
Embracer of Origin, Child of Purity and Silver;
The Monarch clad in Argent Light."
The workshop went silent. Then the air cracked, and reality folded.
Lady Keter was coming.