Chapter 52: My 2nd Summons, Makes The Secret Realm Tremble?
Chapter 52: My 2nd Summons, Makes The Secret Realm Tremble?
Loki collapsed onto the stone floor like a dead dog, staring blankly at the ceiling. Above him, Yin Meng pouted, her expression a mix of stern discipline and worry.
"Master, do not fall asleep," Yin chided, nudging his shoulder. "You must activate your new Fourth Circle power to restore your body. If you pass out now, you will wake up in so much despair you'll want to jump off a cliff."
Every muscle in Loki’s body ached with a deep, hollow fatigue. Trusting his coach’s instincts, he forced open his eyes, dragging his depleted aura from the depths of his core.
"Alright, alright... Ayala, let's see you try to match this. Fast Healing!"
A warm, swirling aura erupted from his skin, glowing with a soft, pulsing light. The magic worked rapidly, mimicking the very regeneration Ayala had used against him in their duel. Every six seconds, a rush of vitality surged through his veins, restoring a tenth of his health. Within a single minute, the exhaustion evaporated entirely.
Loki sat up with a sudden burst of energy, rotating his shoulders. "Hell yes! Goodbye, lower-back pain!"
Grinning, he leaned toward Yin Meng, his eyes flashing with mischief. "Let’s celebrate, wife Meng'er! I’m going to give you ten rounds of baby-making right now!"
Yin didn’t blink. She reached into her robes and calmly held out two glowing crystals: a Fifth Circle Life Core and a Fifth Circle Air Core.
"Master, before you give anyone ten rounds, you need to breakthrough to a Fourth Circle Summoner," she said coolly. "The Easterners and Elves are closing in."
Loki’s eager smile froze. He looked like a student who had just aced an exam, only to be told he had to retake it because he used the wrong color ink.
"Ah, Meng'er, not even a quickie?"
"Master... cultivate properly," Yin warned, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper. "Or I will tell Shehuang to bring Mamba over to motivate you."
Loki recoiled, a look of ultimate betrayal on his face as he snatched the cores. "Just for that, you only get five rounds instead of ten. Sigh."
A small, satisfied smile tugged at the corners of Yin’s lips. Her method was harsh, but keeping her Master strong was all that mattered.
A mere fifteen minutes later...
"Hahaha! Take that, Yin Meng! I’ve already reached the Fourth Circle!" Loki roared, jumping up from his meditative stance. "Get over here, I need to celebrate!"
Loki lunged toward the bed, but Yin deftly shifted out of reach, adjusting her posture. "Correction, Master. You are not a true Fourth Circle Summoner until you cast your 2nd Summons. Memorize the spell."
Loki groaned, tempted to grab the cheeky woman and spank her—though knowing her masochistic streaks, she would probably view it as a reward.
Why did she have to make him work so hard for a little affection?
"I swear, if I cast this summon and we don't dual cultivate together immediately after, I am going to lose my mind!" Loki vented.
Yin’s expression softened, a deep warmth entering her eyes. "Your wife will cooperate with any position you desire after the summoning, Master. For as long as you want, even if I lose consciousness. Deal?"
Loki’s eyes lit up. "Hahaha! Deal, my lover! Don't blame me if I end up calling the Eternal Dragon Shenron to grant my wishes, oh yeah!"
As Loki closed his eyes and sank back into a deep meditation, Yin watched him silently. Beneath her strict exterior, a quiet hope fluttered in her chest—the hope that she might finally become a mother.
Rewinding a few hours prior...
Swoosh!
Lana tumbled backward into the yawning abyss. Panic surging through her vein, she reached for her teleportation talisman, but the rushing wind ripped it right out of her trembling fingers. It fluttered away into the darkness.
"Ahhhhhhhhh!"
Tears streamed upward across her face as terminal velocity tore at her clothes. Desperate, she reached into her bra to grab the second—and final—talisman. Her fingers clamped onto the paper, but as the wind forced her dress open, her grip slipped again. Another talisman vanished into the void.
She had exactly one talisman left. Clinging to it with shaking hands, she funneled her yellow mana into the paper. Below her, the thunderous roar of rushing water echoed up from the blackness, signaling imminent death. Lana closed her eyes in resignation. She remembered Loki telling her the talisman required three seconds to activate. She didn't have three seconds.
Loki, wait for me in the next life. I'm sorry...
Pop!
Unbeknownst to Lana, Loki was a trickster by nature. He had lied.
A single second after activation, Lana's violent descent stopped with a jarring halt. Thud! Her boots struck cold, damp stone.
She blinked once, then twice, shaking away her tears. The terrifying freefall was gone. Instead, she was standing on a narrow rocky outcropping projecting over a violent, churning underground river. The dark waters rushed past about thirty-five feet below her, carving a path into a pitch-black subterranean cavern that seemed to lead straight to a dead end.
Lana stared at the water, then burst into a mixture of breathless laughter and anger. "That bastard! He lied to me! He knew I'd wait until the last three seconds and cut it close... What a lovable asshole, hahahaha!"
Her relief was short-lived as she surveyed her surroundings. The ledge was tiny—barely large enough for her to stand on. She couldn't summon Blitz to fly her out because the massive beast would instantly lose its footing and get swept into the deadly current below.
"Poopsy," she muttered, checking her spatial ring. "All my camping supplies are back in the cave, and I'm low on food." She actually had plenty of jerky left, but a little dramatic flair felt appropriate given the circumstances.
Lana sank down, pulling her knees tightly to her chest and clutching the final tracking talisman. It remained completely dormant, indicating Loki wasn't anywhere within a hundred-mile radius. Fresh tears pricked her eyes.
"If I ever find you, Loki, I’m telling you I love you. I don't care about the consequences anymore; life is too short," she whispered to the dark cavern.
"But if you ever cut my hair again, I will never forgive you."
Shiver.
The moment Loki etched the final mental stroke of the 2nd Summons spell formula into his soul, a violent shudder ran down his spine. It felt like a dark omen.
The sun was already filtering through the cracks of their stone shelter. Loki rubbed the back of his neck, wondering if he had messed up his spine-tempering technique the night before.
"Good morning, Husband," Yin Meng's soft voice broke his thoughts. "It has been ten hours. Did you succeed?"
Loki nodded, stretching his aching limbs. "The 2nd Summons is fully engraved. But the other two spells are going to take at least a night each. They require too much focus now that I'm a mid-class Summoner."
Yin stood up, her fingers sliding over the sash of her robes. She untied it, letting the fabric pool at her feet as she stood before him bare. "In that case, we don't have time for a full session. We only have time for a quickie. One full drive before we must break camp. Be as rough as you like, Husband."
Loki swore he could hear heavenly choir music in his head. The tension from hours of intense cultivation had left him incredibly high-strung, and Yin—with her unique, submissive desires—was the perfect outlet.
Throwing off his sleeping pants, Loki scooped Yin into his arms and carried her to the makeshift stone bed. He placed her down in her favorite position, catching her chin to pull her into a fierce, breathless kiss.
Yin’s eyes drifted shut, her breathing growing heavy and shallow. Finding her already slick and wanting, Loki guided himself forward and drove deep inside with a wet, heavy friction.
"Mmm... Husband," Yin gasped, her fingers clutching the stone edge. "Just finish fast... hard... Husband!"
Slap! Slap! Slap!
Loki smiled down at her tenderly, even as he accelerated his pace, delivering powerful, rhythmic drives. For all her quirks, she held a deeply special place in his heart—even if memories of their past life remained locked away. He tightened his grip on her hips, anchoring her to the bed.
Twelve minutes passed like a blur of intense, unbridled passion.
Seeing Yin bite down hard on the corner of the blanket to muffle her cries so she wouldn't alert nearby monsters, Loki couldn't hold back anymore. He surged forward, burying himself to the absolute hilt, and unleashed a massive, pent-up release inside her.
"Oh, Meng'er... it feels too good... I love you so much... my wife!" Loki groaned, collapsing against her back.
Tears of pure bliss spilled down Yin's cheeks. To an outsider, the scene might have looked chaotic, but to her, it was paradise.
They lay tightly joined for a few quiet minutes before Yin spoke up, her voice trembling slightly. "Master Loki... that was hands down the best. Reaching the Fourth Circle Vanguard made you so much stronger... my body could barely keep up this time. I am so happy."
Loki grinned with the satisfaction of a man who had successfully satisfied his woman. He withdrew from her, though a sudden look of awkwardness crossed both their faces as the heavy, accumulated release began to spill over the stone bed.
Loki cleared his throat, rubbing the back of his neck. "Uh... I think a quick bath is in order. Oops."
A couple of hours later, deep within the yawning expanse of the Secret Realm’s central grasslands, the air grew heavy with a static charge.
Shehuang, Taki Tsuki, and Yin Meng retreated a cautious distance across the swaying turf. They kept their eyes anchored on me as I prepared to invoke my second Summon. Because we were insulated within the folds of an isolated pocket dimension, we had bypassed the tedious safety protocols required back on Myst. There was no need to waste precious mana erecting heavy, defensive barriers to contain a potentially volatile entity. Out here, there were no civilian eyes to see, and no fragile infrastructure to shatter.
I drew in a final, stabilizing breath, opening my eyes as I concluded my meditation. Extending my hands, I began channeling my pool of mana into the earth. Layer by layer, the glowing lines of a three-hundred-foot-wide array bled into the soil, weaving together the intricate, concentric rings of the Nine Magic Circles.
Just as the geometric lines began to hum with raw power, pulling the ambient energy toward the epicenter, the sky above us fractured with light.
"Lord," Taki called out, her sharp eyes tracking the sudden atmospheric shifts overhead. "The Elves and the factions from the Eastern Wastelands are crossing the threshold. They are entering the Secret Realm now."
I kept my gaze fixed on the horizon but didn't break my concentration. The topology of this realm was deceptively vast. While I had discovered a viable exit portal earlier, the spatial architecture of this place was far more complex than a simple one-to-one doorway. To prevent a single faction from getting bottlenecked or failing to cross the massive terrain within the designated one-month limit, the realm utilized a redundant transit system. Three separate spatial exits were anchored to the exact same external destination. Thorin’s vanguard could depart through one rift, while I slipped through another miles away, yet both of our paths would seamlessly deposit us right back at the base camp where we had originally entered.
Beyond our own designated exit points, Taki was currently watching six fresh pillars of light pierce the clouds—three brilliant beacons for each incoming regional group.
The probability of any new arrivals stumbling into our specific, isolated clearing was mathematically minuscule. Still, in a world like Myst, paranoia was a survival trait. I kept my spatial awareness wide open.
"Come forth, my fated Summon," I murmured, my voice carrying the weight of an incantation. "I seek my perfect partner..."
As my mana flooded the array, my consciousness tore away from my physical body, drifting outward into the vast, silent tapestry of the cosmos.
Normally, attempting to lock onto the precise dimensional frequency of Myst while buried deep inside a shielded Secret Realm would be like searching for a specific grain of sand in a localized hurricane. But having looked upon Yggi, I now understood the exact geometry of the celestial spheres. I navigated the void effortlessly, tracing the tether back to my home world.
The ninth circle of the array ignited with a blinding, pale green. It hung in the air, holding its glow far longer than it had during my maiden attempt. Had I fully grasped just how dangerously close I was to invoking a literal Guardian Beast, I probably would have broken my own casting in sheer panic. But without the necessary cosmic catalysts to anchor a deity of that scale, the ninth ring ultimately destabilized, its energy fading in a hiss of rejected mana. Even so, the brief connection left a psychic imprint; I felt the tether brush against the exact same colossal, slumbering entity I had accidentally disturbed back in the Eastern Wastelands.
Then, shifting toward the geographic coordinates of the Inner Sea region, the eighth-circle entity I had previously encountered caught the backdraft of my summoning spell. It didn't just notice the pull—it actively seized the link. The bond held for a long, agonizing moment. It was undeniably the same cosmic powerhouse, and through the raw empathy of the connection, I could feel it laughing at me. It was a conscious, deliberate tease.
I braced myself for the link to snap, assuming the spell would naturally degrade to the seventh circle to find a compatible partner. But the universe had other plans.
Buzz! Whoosh!
The entire three-hundred-foot array violently imploded. Every scrap of ambient magic and cast mana was sucked instantly into the geometric center, condensing into a localized singularity of absolute, blinding white light. The illumination stretched upward, molding itself into a towering, fifteen-foot silhouette.
Rumble!
A catastrophic tremor ripped through the bedrock of the Secret Realm. The tectonic plates groaned so violently that the entire pocket dimension warped, its spatial boundaries fraying as if the entire world were about to shatter into the void, threatening the lives of a million inhabitants across the zone.
[Oh my~ It seems my new Master possesses a rather apocalyptic sense of humor. Are we trying to flatten this tiny world on day one, haha?]
The voice was that of a mature, devastatingly elegant beauty. It didn't vibrate through the air; it resonated directly within our cerebral cortexes, projected across the mental link from an immense conceptual distance.
Swoosh!
In less than a millisecond—a display of speed that utterly defied the local laws of physics—the fifteen-foot white nine-tailed fox materialized directly over me. Her massive hazel eyes locked onto mine, her lips curled into a predatory, intensely playful smile.
Thump-thump, thump-thump.
Our eyes narrowed in unison as our souls collided through the contract. The familiar, intoxicating rush of a completed summoning bond erupted within my chest, sending waves of boiling, euphoric energy racing through my cardiovascular system.
The magnificent creature spoke again, her massive jaws remaining perfectly still as her thoughts flooded my mind.
[Hello, Master. You may call me Baihu... your most exquisite, entirely irreplaceable partner. I happen to know a few rather marvelous tricks, you know? Come now, Master, tell me your name.]
Staring up into those deep, mesmerizing pools of amber and hazel, my throat went completely dry. A strange, fluttering warmth settled in my gut. I found myself thinking: Am I seriously developing a sudden, profound fixation on a giant fox?
"I'm... damn, I almost forgot my own name," I muttered, coughing hard to break the mental paralysis. "Loki. Loki Sky."
[Hm? Oh my~ You really are quite handsome, Loki... Would you care to see my first trick? I promise you will adore it.]
"Given the emotional feedback bleeding through this contract, I don't exactly have the authority to deny you, do I?" I laughed, a nervous edge creeping into my voice.
Her massive hazel eyes crinkled with immense pride, and she gave a slow, deliberate nod.
Hum!
A dense, blinding shroud of white light enveloped her titanic form. The fifteen-foot beast collapsed inward, her mass compressing at an impossible rate until the silhouette resolved into the shape of a woman standing at five-foot-four—not counting the plush, twitching fox ears nestled atop her head.
From her tailbone, nine long, exceptionally thick white tails uncoiled, swishing through the air in a fluid choreography that blended absolute joy, overt seduction, and a subtle, dangerous agitation.
Her physical form was nothing short of perfection, seamlessly fusing the delicate, sharp facial structures of Eastern lore with the striking, statuesque curves of Western beauty standards. A cascade of long, rich chestnut hair spilled down her back, providing a stark, beautiful contrast to her snow-white fur and ears.
As I pushed myself up from the grass, I realized I had roughly six inches of height on her, creating a physical dynamic nearly identical to how Ayala stood beside me. I looked down into her highly flirtatious eyes.
"That was an impressive trick," I said, clearing my throat to combat the sudden rise in temperature. "But we need to find you some clothes. Immediately."
Baihu merely smiled, crossing her arms tightly beneath her bust to deliberately accentuate her assets. My eyes, acting entirely on instinct, drifted downward. Yep. Absolutely nothing but bare, flawless skin.
"Haha~ Loki, my dear... the trick hasn't even begun yet," she purred, her voice shifting from a mental projection to a sultry, physical hum. "I can manifest a wardrobe with a thought, but where is the fun in spoiling the surprise? No, here is the real trick..."
Whoosh!
Before my brain could register the movement, her arms locked securely around my neck and shoulders. Her legs vaulted upward, wrapping firmly around my waist, while several of her tails coiled around my thighs to anchor our bodies together. Before I could even draw breath to protest, her lips slammed into mine. Her tongue slid deep into my mouth, tangling with mine with an aggressive, highly practiced expertise that left absolutely no room for doubt—she was a master of her craft.
Just as I thought the "trick" had reached its peak, her hazel eyes flashed with unadulterated mischief. Two of her powerful white tails lashed down, coiling tightly around my wrists and physically forcing my hands down until my palms were planted squarely over her chest.
"Mm?! B... Baihu?"
A sudden, sharp warning flared across our fresh mental link: if I resisted her whims or rejected her advances right now, her temperament could turn volatile. Like any practical man dealing with a mythical entity, I knew better than to test the psychological baseline of a high-level Fox Spirit.
Squish.
My fingers sank into her impossibly soft, yielding skin.
"Ahhhhhh~! Master~!"
A sudden, warm dampness saturated the fabric around my waist. To my absolute bewilderment, the sheer intensity of the physical contact and the completion of the bond had caused my new Summon to climax while clinging to me.
Noticing the immediate shift in my posture, she offered a wicked, unbothered grin. "That was my trick, Loki... Hehe. Was it a good one?"
Rumble!
The Secret Realm groaned beneath our feet again, the tremor far more severe this time. Baihu sighed, sliding down my body until her bare feet touched the grass. With a casual, elegant sweep of her nine tails, a shimmering dress woven entirely from concentrated Light elements materialized over her skin. The playful, seductive aura vanished instantly, replaced by a cold, calculating seriousness.
"The fun is over for now, Loki. You need to store me inside your personal world before this pocket dimension suffers structural failure. My eighth-circle strength is putting far too much stress on the local spatial boundaries. Furthermore, that Lamia snake and Dark Elf of yours need to be recalled as well."
She cast a critical glance toward my other Summons waiting in the distance. "If they receive status buffs or engage in serious combat out here, the spatial core of this world will literally implode. Bring me back out once you exit the realm, and we can converse properly. For now, I will sleep inside your core, even if the space is currently a blank void."
She paused, her expression softening slightly as she locked eyes with me. "One last thing... thank you for choosing me. A thoroughly obnoxious human piece of trash back on Myst was attempting to force me into marriage, and I was running out of diplomatic ways to avoid his advances. Now, he can never touch me. But you get me, haha... Oh my, I almost forgot. Class-wise, I am a Light Healer. But when I assume my true Fox Form, I function as a high-strength, maximum-velocity Knight."
The sheer volume of conceptual data and sudden lore left my mind completely overwhelmed. But after a few more parting words and another intensely breathless kiss, I focused my intent, channeling my mana to safely pull Baihu into the depths of my magic core.
Meanwhile, far beyond the spatial folds of the Secret Realm, at the Royal Academy's external base camp...
"Achoo!"
Owen suddenly sneezed, nearly spilling his drink. He rubbed his nose, staring down at his goblet in profound confusion. "What the... I'm a cultivator of the ninth circle. It's biologically impossible for me to catch a cold. Is some incredibly gorgeous woman thinking about me right now?"
Review, Comment, and light up Favorite Buttons...