Chapter 157: [157] Rip off

“You know about spirits?” Eliron asked, his voice tinged with suspicion.

Although Satoru’s domain had made it clear that he was not from this world, Eliron still had suspicions about his true origins.

Earth did have shoguns… but there were no sword skills, auras or even spirits, at least as far as he knew.

That meant Satoru must have been from an alternate version of Japan, before he wound up in this world as a demon.

“I’m not an expert or anything, but we had a summoners division during the war so I picked up a few things.” Satoru explained.

“What war?” Eliron asked, his curiosity getting the better of him.

Satoru shook his head and sighed, a strange look flashing on his face. “Let’s just focus on the spirit…”

The sword demon who was often brash, comedic and assertive actually seemed a little calm for the first time…

’I guess that must have been significant to him in some way….’

“So you said you sense some great power behind this mark? How am I sure it won’t be another dud like you are.” Eliron asked, changing the topic.

“D-dud? Who are you calling a dud?!”

Eliron smirked. “What do you call a summon who can’t even make physical contact with anything?”

Satoru stared at him wordlessly then muttered a curse underneath his breath.

“Sit down, let’s get this over with…”

Following his instruction, Eliron found a comfortable place that wasn’t too wet to sit, his legs folded together.

Satoru floated next to him, and let out a sigh before he started speaking.

“Spirit summoning is like trying to use a spell, or skill. You know the basics right?”

Eliron nodded. It was simple…

First, you get a feel of the mana in your core. Eliron focused, blurring out every other sound into the background.

Getting a feel of your core was like trying to sense your heartbeat, it was always there, but quiet.

Soon, he felt the rush of mana moving around in his core. It was like trying to contain a stormy sea within a ball, the flow terrifyingly powerful.

’To think I’ve grown it by this much…’

The second step was channelling. Just like any machine, or even the human body, energy was required to do work, but in this case that energy was mana.

Normally, Eliron would summon this mana to the tip of his fingers, or to coat his sword if it was a sword skill.

But this time…

“You’re doing pretty well.” The sword demon smiled smugly. “You know what to do don’t you?”

Eliron nodded. This time, all he had to do was channel the mana to the strange tattoo.

The moment the rush of mana reached his wrist, the serpent mark flared, giving off a bluish-white glow.

It was only so flashy because it was the first time he was summoning the spirit. Subsequently, he would be able to summon them with as simple as a word…

“You said you sensed a great power behind this mark?” Eliron asked as he watched the mark charge up.

Satoru nodded as he stared at him, just as curious for the grand reveal. “I was actually shocked, the power is unlike anything I have ever seen…”

’Could it really be the great spirit?’ Eliron wondered.

From revealing that memory from the past to branding him with a summoning mark, the great spirit seemed to have taken a great deal of interest in him…

’Just what have you done?’

He was about to find out.

A burst of energy was unleashed from the mark, and then a large fog filled the area, restricting their vision.

And then Eliron sensed it, a very potent mana that trumped anything he had ever been exposed to, an ancient aura that made the hairs on his neck rise.

A silhouette moved within the fog—

Both Eliron and the sword demon gulped as they watched.

And then out of the fog, the spirit majestically stepped through.

“…”

Eliron and the sword demon shared a look. Then Eliron breathed out…

“What the actual fu—?”

<•••>

Eliron tilted his head to the side, and the spirit tilted her head as well, as she watched him with her purple eyes.

“A fox spirit?”

The spirit was in the form of a small light-blue fox. It had fluffy fur that looked incredibly soft, white patterns on its underbelly, and a white patch of fur in the shape of a crescent moon on her forehead.

Instead of one tail, like regular foxes, the spirit fox had about seven tails, each of them swaying as she moved.

She was like a nice, huggable plushie…

But—

That was not what a great spirit was meant to look like! Where are the ferocious claws? Where is the sinister energy? Where was the large pool of mana?

All the potent mana she appeared with seemed to have completely vanished with the fog.

It was just like gacha games, where the summoning system flashes a deceptive golden glow and then bam! You’re hit with a useless standar character.

’I’ve been ripped off!’

“Huh…” The sword demon pointed at the spirit, watching it with disbelief. “Kid… is that really it?”

Eliron glared at him. “You said you sensed great power!”

The sword demon raised up his hands in defence.

“Hey don’t put this on me! It must have spent all its mana on that flashy entrance, only God knows where that midget came from!”

The fox’s gaze alternated between Eliron and Satoru, then it hissed before lying on the floor.

Satoru blinked. “Huh? Did it just curse at me?”

Ignoring Satoru, Eliron squatted down to have a proper look at the spirit.

’How does a fox even originate from a snake mark?’

As far as he knew, the marks were representative of the spirit. Just what game was the great spirit playing by sending this proxy here?

“Alright, let’s think this through…” Eliron muttered under his breath.

He had a bad habit of underestimating things based on his prejudice. There was no manual of how a great spirit should look right?

And even if she wasn’t a great spirit, she was bound to be powerful, considering how he had gotten the mark.

Who knows, maybe it was the trope where the little garbage spirit turns out to be op!

As though on cue, Eliron noticed something with his spirit sense.

When a mage or swordsman concentrates, they can often see the mana waves circulating an individual.

For regular humans and elves, it was just a quiet hum that hovered around them like a second skin.

For mages, the mana surrounding them was so vast that for experienced mages, it could fill up a house.

Swordsmen were different, the mana often more compact and concentrated rather than spread out.

But there was something off about the fox in front of him. Spirits often had the former type of mana flow, but the one in front of him had a compact type of mana instead…

’It is suppressing its mana!’ Eliron suddenly realised.

Once again, his heart swelled up with hope.

“Hey? You can understand me, right?” Eliron smiled at the little spirit.

The spirit stared at him, intelligence evident behind its violet eyes.

Eliron clapped. “Great! Alright…”

He pointed at a tree. “Show me what you can do!”

“Fhruuuu…” the fox huffed, waved her hands at him as though to say, “fuck off,” then rolled over, lying on her back.

“….”

“That is one lazy spirit…” Satoru muttered as they both stared at her.

Eliron ran a hand down his face. ’This is going to take some work.’

By now, the sun had begun to peek from behind the clouds, and the rain had slowed down to a drizzle.

The day had officially begun, and as usual, there was work to be done, after all, today was the day of the baron’s ball.

’I guess I’ll figure it out later.’

“Alright Satoru, I guess I’ll see you later…”

Satoru did a mock salute as he vanished, leaving Eliron and the fox alone.

“Till next time little fox…”

Eliron tried to cancel his summon…

Nothing happened.

“Hmm?”

He continued trying repeatedly, only to have the same result.

“Great, it looks like the summoning mechanism is broken as well.”

He walked up to the fox and lifted her off the ground, raising her to his face, when he was suddenly hit with a feeling of emptiness.

’What the…’

The sensation was just like how he felt when he entered the spirit corridor for the first time, only several times more profound in the nature of the emptiness.

Eliron stood still, doing his best to not drop her as his gaze quickly moved to the source of the strange feeling, the tattoo on his wrist.

Something odd was happening—

Right before his eyes, a dark, eerie energy coated the mark, eating it away. In place of the serpent, a black mark in the shape of a crescent moon was formed, six faded black stars circling it.

Only then did the sensation stop.

Eliron let out a heavy breath and brought the fox to his face.

“Wait, does that mean your affinity is…?” Eliron stared at the lazy fox in disbelief, while she gave him a smug look, eerie purple energy slowly fizzling away from her eyes.

For the shogun, it had been ice, but as for the fox spirit, it was something Eliron would never have guessed.

The all consuming element…

’Void??’

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