Unruly Summon Chapter 62: Procedure (Patreon)

When I regained consciousness, I did my very best not to show it. If that dwarf was around, there would be value in fooling him into thinking I was still asleep. I just hoped I hadn't already slipped up during the transition.

Of course, sitting unmoving and with closed eyes limited my options somewhat. I was sitting, which was an interesting point of information, but not one I could do much with. From the feel of it, a metal chair, my arms on armrests. From a feeling of pressure around wrists, ankles and torso, I'd guess I was bound to it. That was not ideal. It implied that Wendy hadn't been able to escape.

On the other hand, it implied that whatever the dwarf was doing, he was doing here. It seemed unlikely that whatever he was doing could be done without magic. I gently exhaled, preparing for a cast of Maius Omnia Visus.

Pain and nausea flooded my body the moment I reached for the mana.

So, there was mana here, but I couldn't use it. It felt like the final stages of mana overuse, which was strange, but since mana potions were commonplace, it wasn't completely implausible that their opposite also existed.

In the absence of magical sight, I opened my eyes a crack, hoping it would pass unnoticed. It revealed the dwarf only a few metres in front of me, stooping at the edge of a magic circle.

"I was hoping I'd be done before you woke up," he commented matter-of-factly. "I know that sleeping gas isn't long lasting, but it's only been a few minutes. Doesn't really make much difference, thankfully. Just a little more unpleasant for you."

I didn't answer, desperately searching for anything that could help me escape. He wasn't even looking at me. How could he know I was awake?

"Not going to say anything?" he continued. "Or maybe you're just still groggy. Either way, you've stopped snoring, so you're either up or about to be."

"I don't snore!" I denied.

"You snore louder than that demon girl you have with you, and that's saying something. Anyway, I'm all done here. Based on previous experiments, this will hurt like hell, but will only last a few seconds. I'd apologise, but you brought this on yourself."

This situation was growing less ideal by the second. What had the greater chance of success? Struggling to break free, or trying to reason with the crazy person?

I knew enough crazy people on Earth to discount that possibility. Struggling it was.

The dwarf walked over to what appeared to be a small empty area of the magic circle, and I couldn't help but notice it looked identical to the one my chair was in. My chair that was, it turned out, securely bolted to the floor. The chair that I was quite thoroughly strapped into. Struggling failed to achieve anything. The dwarf didn't even comment on my attempts.

A look of concentration passed his face, and the entire magic circle started glowing. Then, for some reason, he clamped a metal collar around his neck. "You are forbidden from all movement," he declared, staring straight at me, but if that declaration was supposed to do anything, I didn't notice. Besides, I was already pretty immobile.

The situation was now so far from ideal that even a telescope wouldn't suffice to see it. I still had no clear idea what the dwarf was trying to do, but I hoped it was reversible, because there was no way I could stop it.

... Then again, why not let him take over? If he stole my powers, stole Vena's Grace from the church and then set about methodically cleansing miasma from the entire continent, what was the problem? He may well end up killing a few church members to get the circlet back, but how many slayers would he save by cleaning up the miasma problem more quickly? It would leave a bad taste in my mouth, for sure, but it wasn't as if I'd deliberately let him win. Me and Eve could simply go back home. Maybe bring the others with us, if they wanted.

Assuming he was telling the truth about letting everyone go, of course.

An almighty boom sounded from behind me. I briefly thought that whatever the dwarf was planning was about to come to fruition, but then I saw his look of alarm.

The magic circle erupted with light, blindingly bright, leaving me with no idea what was happening.

"Ventus Ferrum!" came a shout from behind me at the same time as a dwarfish scream sounded in front of me. Then the pain hit, every bit as blinding as the light as the sensation of something stabbing needles into every last inch of my flesh occupied the entirety of my attention.

The dwarf had lied; it lasted for far more than a few seconds.

"Thomas!" yelled a voice I recognised as Wendy, but sounding somewhat distant. "Dammit. Were we too late? Minoru? Where are you? Thomas is unconscious! We need healing!"

"No, I'm..." I started, originally intending to finish up with 'not', but the sound of my voice stopped my sentence dead. My voice was... wrong.

... It wasn't just my voice. Everything felt different. "What the hell?"

"Minoru? What are you mumbling about? Get over here, right now! He's hardly breathing!"

"Wendy? Are you, right now, standing with Thomas?"

"Yes? What's up with you? Please don't tell me that magic circle did something to you?"

"You could say that, yes. For a start, I'm Thomas," I answered.

My eyes were starting to recover from the blinding circle. Or rather, Minoru's eyes were; she must have been inside the circle when it fired, and hence was hit as badly as me. The scream was probably her disembowelling the dwarf.

I looked down, and yup, there were two mounds that I really shouldn't have.

So the dwarf's plan was to switch bodies with me? But Minoru had rushed in just as the circle activated, and I'd switched with her instead? Then was she now in my body?

My body that I could now see from the outside, still strapped into the metal chair, Wendy standing over it staring at me in disbelief. My body was looking rather pale...

"Maius Sanatio!" I declared, managing to squeeze the spell out despite the wave of nausea that assaulted me. The effects of whatever the dwarf had done to block my mana weren't so easily overcome.

... Wait, when had I overcome them at all? A minute earlier, I hadn't been able to touch mana at all, yet I'd just pulled off a pretty large spell. Yes, it had wiped out my capacity in one go, but even so.

"Poo..." I commented, as I put two and two together.

"Uggg..." groaned my body. "I feel like someone just methodically stabbed me over every last inch of my skin."

"Yeah, likewise," I answered. "But glad to see you're awake."

"Why am I over there?" asked my body, before blinking a few times. "Wait..."

"Yeah..." I confirmed.

Minoru looked down. Minoru looked up. "Well... this is awkward."

"Yeah..." I agreed.

"The pair of you really swapped bodies?" asked Wendy.

"It appears so."

Then that collar the dwarf used on himself was probably intended for me. After all, if we swapped bodies, he'd have been the one strapped to the chair, and he'd have needed me to release him. Speaking of which...

"Umm... I don't suppose either of you would mind untying me?" asked Minoru, who was obviously thinking along similar lines.

"Where are the others?" I asked, taking two steps toward Minoru before I tripped over my own feet. Or, more accurately, over Minoru's feet. Her legs weren't the same length as mine, and it was throwing me off.

"Oi, be careful with that!" begged Minoru. "I want it back!"

"This is worse than the first time I tried using body strengthening," I complained from ground level. "Where are the others?"

"Still in the prison. I didn't have time to wake everyone; I did Minoru, then came straight after you."

"Fair," I agreed, trying to work out how to stand back up. "Please tell me you can reverse this?"

"I... uh... may have done a small amount of damage to the magic circle," admitted Wendy, cluing me in on where her wind blade had been aimed. Indeed, I spotted the large gash carved through the dense array of sigils. Shame it had come a split second too late. Likewise, I could see the remains of the dwarf, messily bisected at the waist. He'd be no help to anyone ever again. "I'm sure he left a diary or something around that will let me fix it."

So, the dwarf had been about to switch our bodies. He'd paralysed his body, knowing I was about to occupy it, and that left him defenceless when Minoru had charged at him. She hadn't been too late, cutting him in half and shoving his dying remains out of the circle—presumably in her transformed form—but leaving herself in his place.

"And done," declared Wendy as she finished unfastening the final belt.

"Thanks," said Minoru, standing up and then promptly falling over. "Ouch."

"Oi, be careful with that," I laughed, sending her words right back at her. "I want it back!"

Perhaps the laughter was inappropriate—we hadn't even confirmed there were no more enemies in this facility, let alone that switching back was possible—but I couldn't help myself.

Minoru sighed. "Wendy, it's probably a good idea for you to drag us both out of the circle, then go wake up the others. Meet us back here. And hurry up, in case that dwarf wasn't alone."

"You be careful with my body, too!" I told Wendy as she dragged Minoru across the floor. Minoru just watched in silence when my turn came.

"I'll be back as soon as I can," said Wendy, running back off the way she'd come.

"You stink," I complained as she left, the stench of my body assaulting Minoru's nose when Wendy dropped me next to her. "Or... I do, I guess? Sorry."

"What happened to your paranoia?" asked Minoru, resuming her attempts to stand upright. She seemed to be getting the hang of it a lot quicker than I was.

"Why? I know we're in the middle of an enemy's lair right now, but we're doing the best we can."

"That's not what I mean. I don't stink; you just have my nose. Literally. It's far more sensitive than a human's, remember? Everyone always stinks. And, while you have my nose, if the dwarf was telling the truth, I have all your heroic abilities. I have your mana, and ability to cast Miraculum. Both personally, and for the sake of the Ti'zharr Empire, aren't you worried I might be inclined to keep it?"

I looked up from my position on my hands and knees, staring at my own face looking down at me. Whether it was those heroic abilities or Minoru's natural abilities, she was already able to stand, whereas I was stuck crawling. If she wanted to avoid any chance of us switching back, all she needed to do was kill me here. How long would it take Wendy to wake the rest of our group? At the rate Minoru was improving the piloting of my body, there was a good chance she could take out Wendy on her return, or at least run away.

Or maybe even cast Pereo.

"No, I'm not worried," I answered truthfully.

If she really wanted to do that, she wouldn't say anything that would put me on my guard. She'd have just done it. She also had the option of simply not coming to my rescue, and letting the dwarf get on with whatever he wanted to do, purifying the continent. Besides, I'd like to think I knew her well enough to have worked out which bits of her behaviour were real and which were acts, and aside from the first few minutes of our meeting, I was fairly sure she hadn't been acting.

Despite her claims, I didn't consider myself paranoid. I just had an abundance of healthy scepticism towards people I didn't know.

"You're weird," she declared. "Also... is it normal that I kinda want to have sex with you right now? I thought humans didn't go into heat, but this feels exactly like the early stages of it. Oh, hell... Please don't go into heat in my body. Things are weird enough already."

"I think that's just how humans feel all the time, and you only did it the other day. It can't be time for a repeat yet."

"True, but that's not going to stop me worrying."

"Whatever sort of conversation have I walked in on?" asked Eve, stepping into the room. She was alone, so Mary and Stephanie can't have been as easy to wake.

"The sort where..." started Minoru as she turned to face Eve. "... Oh heck," she finished, desperately covering her eyes. "Why is it moving on its own?!"

Sure enough, 'it' was indeed moving, leaving her with a noticeable bulge in the groin area.

"Welcome to life as a male human," I laughed.