Chapter 9: Evocation
Location: Unknown
Date: Unknown
In the middle of the night
Three strange-looking people stood inside a random cave,
A middle-aged, strong bald man, His body was a bit muscular and he was standing in the middle of the group
On his right stood a person wearing a bland mask and a bland robe with no distinguished features
On his left there was another masked figure who looked exactly the same as the other one, The only difference was that the figure on the left had much longer, Black hair
The bald man spoke in a dignified tone
"It seems the timing is about right, Shall we begin?"
"Yes my lord"
"Understood"
The masked figures started by drawing a circle on the floor
Then they started drawing all sorts of things inside the circle, From geometric forms to strange illustrations to random alphabets
In the beginning, it seemed like they were drawing random shapes, But by the time they were done, It felt like everything connected together, Just like pieces of a puzzle
If you looked at the circle's final form you wouldn't understand what it represented, However, You'd instinctively feel that it's correct
When the two figures were done drawing, They stood up
The bald man kneeled down, Touched the circle, and started chanting something He kept chanting for a long
Long enough that the two figures couldn't help but feel amazed about how he could remember such a long chant
When the man was done, A diagram in the shape of a cube started floating about 1 meter above the circle, Then he stood up
The diagram looked like an open box
The man extended his arm forward, keeping it above the box-shaped diagram
Then he turned to the masked figure on his right and ordered
"Do it"
"Understood, My Lord" Replied the masked figure in a manly voice
The masked man unsheathed his sword, Raised it up in the air then slashed it down with all his strength, Severing the blad man's arm
The bald man didn't even flinch
For a while, His arm kept spelling blood into the diagram, Then he chanted something and covered the end of it with white light, Stopping it from bleeding
The arm and blood fell directly into the diagram
The diagram became dark then it greedily consumed the arm and the blood, Making both disappear
The bald man turned to the figure on his left and said
"Now bring the object"
The masked figure nodded without saying anything and walked deeper into the cave
A couple of seconds after the diagram consumed the arm, It disappeared, Then the circle on the floor shone brightly
The long-haired masked figure returned and said
"Here my lord" It was a feminine, soft, and pleasant voice
The bald man noticed that the figure's voice was a lot warmer than usual, And he immediately understood the reason
'She's feeling bad because of my arm'
He said in an easy-going tone
"Now now, Don't let such a minuscule incident affect you, It's a small price after all"
"Understood" She replied with a machine-like cold voice
Then she went to place the object she brought in the middle of the circle
"Now what my lord" Asked the masked man
The Bald man replied
"Now we wait"
A chair materialized out of nowhere and the bald man sat on it
The masked female asked with a neutral voice that had a tinge of tenderness in it
"Can't you regrow your arm in the process, My lord?"
The bald man replied evenly
"Not currently,
I'm already Maintaining different spells, connecting Realities, and Summoning.
Doing all of that at the same time can consume a big portion of even my Mana and Life Force
I'm not planning on consuming even more and becoming completely defenseless, We will just wait for now
After everything is over, I will do it"
"Yes my lord"
A short time passed then the masked female asked in a weak voice
"Do you think we'll succeed this time, My Lord?"
"Eventually" The bald man replied
His eyes were glued to the shiny circle
The masked man joined the conversation
"We've done it countless times until now My Lord, Why is it not succeeding?"
The bald man sighed then explained
"The first couple of hundreds were mostly failures,
I was not even able to correctly manage the spells, Nor did I have sufficient mana for the entire process
After I was able to solve these problems, I discovered even more problems with the spell itself,
Only recently I was able to stabilize it
But it still summons randomly, I fixed the species so it doesn't summon anything other than human souls
I also managed to limit the number of Realities the spell summons from"
His voice became bitter
"But even after all this, I do not have any idea how to make it limited to a specific timeline in these realities,
I have a rough idea of how to set a couple of filters on the soul, But I still need more tries to understand, My goal is to limit the gender and age"
The masked female said in a concerned voice
"But my lord, If you keep on increasing the complexity of the spell then it'll eventually demand more sacrifices"
The bald man nodded
"You're right, My arm will only take us so far,
After we reach a certain point I'll have to sacrifice another arm or leg ... Then ..."
The tone of his voice changed
"Don't worry ... I will fulfill my deal with The Archivist"
Both the masked figures didn't like that
But because they didn't have anything else to suggest, They only kept quiet
The masked man said
"It's simply a matter of time"
The bald man replied
"Yeah, And we have a lot of time, But will you follow me until then?"
"Of course, My Lord" Said the masked man confidently
"As long as I'm alive, My Lord" Said the masked female with her usual, Machine-like voice
The bald man said
"Ahh, Beta, As long as you are alive? Do you think I'll let you die?
If the situation is tough then Alpha will die first,
As I told him, If push comes to shove, His highest priority is protecting you rather than staying by my side, Right Alpha?"
Alpha replied without hesitation
"I'll protect her with my life, My lord"
"Under~stood" Said Beta
She tried to keep her voice in check, But it trembled for just a second
After that, No one said anything
Hours passed
The circle kept shining but no change happened,
The 3 figures kept staring intently at it
Days passed
Finally, After a couple of days, A change happened
The circle started blinking and the earth began shaking
Alpha shook the bald man's shoulder
"It's happening, My Lord"
The bald man extended his remaining hand and stopped Alpha from shaking him
"I can see that"
"Ah, indeed" Replied Alpha awkwardly
Beta snickered watching them
Then everything went quiet
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone