Unruly Summon Chapter 40: Home (Patreon)

"Hey, are you okay?" asked someone. "You passed out for a moment there."

"What?" I asked, feeling completely and utterly discombobulated. "Where am I?"

"Okay, that's it. I'm calling for an ambulance," replied the other voice. "First you go off on a whole spiel about sparkly purple whirlwinds, then you faint, and now you don't even remember where you are?"

"I... Simon?"

"Oh good; you recognise me. Do you remember who you are?"

"I'm... back home?"

"No! We're still in the street! We were out drinking, remember?"

"No, not that home. I mean, this is Earth, right?"

Simon didn't respond, but I heard the beeping of his phone as he dialled a three-digit number.

"Stop that," I sighed, snatching it off him. "I'm fine. I've just had a rather interesting adventure. For a value of 'interesting' that's probably going to leave me needing years of therapy."

And there was my phone on the floor. And I was back in my original clothes, too, despite the way I hadn't seen them since the first vomit incident.

"I really think you should go to hospital," replied a concerned Simon.

"Look, I'll explain. Just... My room, okay?"

Simon shrugged, but complied, following me as we made the journey back to our university dorm. A journey that had been so rudely interrupted little more than a week earlier. And there I explained exactly what I'd been through in that week.

"Yeah, let's circle back to your therapy comment," he responded. "A good psychologist sounds like a great plan right now."

"You really don't believe me?! You said I was passed out for a few seconds. How am I supposed to have dreamed up all this in those few seconds?"

"You aren't. You could have made it all up on the way back. Either you're messing with me—in which case, I really don't think this is funny, and you should have stopped at the purple sparkles—or else you are very seriously ill."

"Lux!" I shouted, holding out my hand, but nothing happened.

"You're not helping your case," he pointed out.

With a sigh, I pushed him out of my room. I knew that logically he was being perfectly reasonable, but everything had really happened. Hadn't it?

Some of my memories were starting to fray around the edges. Could the previous week really have been a dream? Nothing more than the side effects of too much rum?

... No. And the rum was the reason I could be absolutely certain. Pre-fainting, I'd almost been drunk enough that I thought poking a sparkly purple vortex was a good idea. Now I was stone cold sober, and I had been ever since waking up. If, as Simon claimed, it had only been a few seconds, where had the alcohol gone?

And, if it was all real, then I'd just killed Wendy, Christine and Minoru. Perhaps I'd saved countless others, including the entire population of Odimere, but if I was the sort of person who could justify murdering a few to save many, I'd have never completely lost respect for the royal family in the way that I had. The whole second half of my adventure would have been different.

"I don't want to leave things like that..." I declared, mostly to myself. I'd killed Wendy, Christine and Minoru. Two senior priests. Jane. Daniel, Mary's father, on the very day they'd been reunited.

Wendy must have considered that, too. Unlike Christine, Wendy had never quite been on board with the involuntary sacrifice of others, but if she honestly believed Daniel was going to die anyway, and she wasn't certain Pereo would kill them, then it wasn't sacrificing them. It was the opposite; the only chance she had of saving them, and it simply hadn't worked out. That didn't make me feel any better, though. I was still the one who'd cast the spell. I was still the one who'd killed all of them.

And I'd been robbed of the chance to even apologise.

"Send me back!" I shouted. "That's not how this should end. Anypha? Bryax? Vena? Any others who are watching? Send me back!"

There came no response.

Logically, what reason was there to go back? Hadn't I done my job? I'd saved the kingdom. Glenda was still there, and still knew the spell. What would going back even achieve? Was it worth it, if all I could do was retrieve Christine's corpse from beneath the pile of monsters and give the dead a proper burial? To apologise to Mary for killing her dad?

But... some small part of me held out hope. Maybe Miraculum could raise the dead. Perhaps there was another spell on that level that could rewind time?

The memories continued to fade as I paced my room. All I needed to do was wait, and I was fairly sure I'd cease caring. It was already getting hard to picture the faces of Jane and Johanna, the priestesses I'd had little interaction with. But forgetting would cheapen the entire thing. It wasn't fair. Why should I be allowed to wash my hands of my own actions?

Just as the memories of that world were fading, my memories of this world were snapping into focus. At the point of returning, I couldn't even have said what day of the week it was. Now I'd not only remembered that, but also the set of lectures that awaited me tomorrow. A couple of bits of homework, too. And as one set of faces faded, another set returned. I looked at the pictures on the wall. My parents. Grandparents. My girlfriend, Eve, whom I would never ever cheat on no matter how much my memory was messed around with, or however many temptations the girls of the other world threw my way.

The logical thing to do would be to forget that other world. To prepare for tomorrow. To do homework, or to sleep. Of course, I did neither. I shifted my bed to the side, freeing up as much floor space as I could, and dug out a black marker pen.

This was totally going to cost me my deposit, but I continued anyway, drawing my own summoning circle onto the floor before my memories of it faded. I was reasonably sure I'd remembered it properly, but of course, nothing happened. Wendy had said something about charging it with mana, and either there was none here, or else without my divine blessings, I couldn't manipulate it.

By four in the morning, tiredness won out. Perhaps it wasn't even tiredness. The memories of the place had faded to the point I couldn't even picture Mary's face or imagine her voice. As much as I wanted to remain worked up, it was hard when the memories of the people I'd met were being methodically drained from my head, so I pushed my bed to cover up the circle as best as I could, and went to sleep.

"Lyrryuim fu," whispered a quiet voice, echoing oddly despite being right at the cusp of my hearing. "Ah, but I forget. You do not speak that tongue."

"Who's there?" I demanded, before spotting that I was no longer in my bed. Once again, I was in a plain of mist, but this time it was white, and the floor was a golden yellow. More like pure sand than ash. "Or a better question: where am I?"

"I think the first question the most important," whispered the voice, sounding amused. "But I do appreciate your analytical nature. We did not choose incorrectly."

"You chose? Then you are one of the gods of that world?" I asked, looking around for the source of the voice. It didn't appear to come from any particular direction, simultaneously sounding impossibly distant yet whispered right into my ear.

Stephanie had said I wasn't special, that they could have summoned anyone, but this voice was saying I was chosen?

The voice giggled quietly. "I am Anypha, and indeed, many of my children call me a goddess. However, I have to say, I'm rather disappointed at how quickly you've forgotten my teaching."

"What teaching?" I asked, confused. I'd never heard anything about her, beyond Mary's brief mention.

... Which I could remember perfectly. Here, in this place, the memories of both worlds remained in perfect clarity.

"My point exactly. Still, this is rare. It is normal for summoned heroes to form attachments to our world. To beg to stay beyond their time, that they may continue to enjoy positions of great wealth and power instead of returning to a mediocre existence back home. Never before has one who returned home prematurely gone so far in an attempt to return, though."

"Prematurely?" I asked, but in retrospect, wasn't that obvious? Had my job been done, the gods were supposed to have sent me back themselves. The fact that they hadn't implied that the task I'd been summoned to carry out hadn't yet been completed. "The kingdom is still in danger?"

"Not just the kingdom," came the whispered reply. "We don't play favourites with our children. We permitted the humans' summoning ritual not to save them alone, but to save the continent."

"... So it isn't over? If I don't return, the corruption will claim the continent?"

The goddess giggled once more. "You have made a good start, but there is much work still to do. Knowing that, do you still wish to return? Would you not rather remain here in comfort and safety than risk your life to protect those that wronged you? Our children can always summon another hero."

"Knowing that a whole continent is dying? No, I could never live with myself."

"And that is what makes you a hero. Not the power or the magic. Not riches or fame. It's love. The empathy, and the willingness to sacrifice yourself for others."

"... You're starting to sound rather cheesy."

That elicited a snort of laughter, loud enough to drive me to my knees.

"Sorry," apologised the goddess, reverting to a whisper. "I need to control my voice around you children. Making me laugh like that is dangerous. However, everything I said is true. You wish to return, to put yourself at risk, not because you'll be rewarded in any way, but to save those you care about. And some might argue that not all the targets of that care are deserving of it. You are fortunate Bryax is... elsewhere; he would berate you most harshly for your hypocritical attitude towards the child of wind."

"I..." I mumbled. "Okay, that's fair."

The mirthful goddess giggled again.

"But... what is there left still to do?" I continued. "Haven't I already given the people the means to cleanse miasma? But the continent hasn't yet been saved?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm not able to say exactly what you will face. There are... restrictions... even on the likes of us. I can, however, openly warn you what would happen if you did not return. Our children are distressingly selfish, and already there are those that plot to acquire the priestess for themselves. They would attempt to seize her child to control her. It would... not end well."

"What?" I snapped, frowning. People would be that selfish? They'd doom themselves in an effort to control the means of cleansing miasma? Given the warning, they'd even go so far as to take Mary hostage?

Never mind the continent, this just got personal.

"I ask you one more time, dear hero. Do you still wish to return? Will you put yourself in danger?"

"Yes!"

"Will you accept the responsibility that comes with your power? Can you choose when and where to use it? Choose who lives and who dies?"

"I... Of course I can. Everyone will live."

The goddess giggled again. "If only reality was so simple," she commented. "Very well. The restrictions I mentioned forbid me from moving you between worlds myself, so I shall give you my final blessing; the ability to move yourself. There will be side effects from such a gift, but that cannot be avoided, and I foresee you turning them to your advantage. Return, and if you want to fulfil that promise, remember my teachings. But one last thing... As much as I can say without attracting unwanted attention... Beware the Fallen, and those who would follow them into the abyss."

"The who?" I asked, but the only response was the world peeling apart.

I woke up again, lying in the middle of Wendy's summoning circle. Or anti-summoning circle, perhaps. Banishing circle? What was the correct term if the same circle could be used for both summoning and banishing? And why was I here, anyway? She said she'd given me the ability to teleport myself, so why was I already here? Had I done it subconsciously? And what side effects did I need to worry about?

The first time I'd been brought to this world, I'd ended up with my face a few inches away from that of a princess. This time, it was a few inches away from Wendy's corpse.

I didn't even blink.

What were those teachings Anypha was talking about? And what was that about the 'Fallen'? From the way she pronounced it, she obviously hadn't been talking about the deceased. For that matter, I'd just had a personal conversation with a goddess, and I'd barely been bothered. Even divinity hadn't broken through my melancholy. Despite the mountains of monster corpses that surrounded me, this battle felt like a complete loss.

... And then a little nugget of light finally beat its way through my thick skull.

I'd declared I wanted to save everyone. Anypha hadn't declared it impossible; she said I needed to remember her teachings. The only teaching I was aware of was her one quoted sentence from the story told by Mary. Magic could heal anything.

Then could it even heal death?

I'd been about to cast Miraculum, and only my overtaxed mana capacity had prevented me. Had it succeeded, would it have brought Wendy back to life?

Just like my time in this world had purged me of alcohol back home, my time back home had allowed my mana capacity to recover.

"Miraculum!"

Nothing happened beyond the usual purging of miasma. The corpses of the monster horde were purified, and the land cleansed, but Wendy remained dead.

But it was too soon to give up. If Miraculum wasn't enough, I just needed to go bigger.