Summoning

"Haha! It worked! I finally did it! I never thought a randomly summoned soul from another world could perfectly fuse with an Efiash Insect Egg."

Inside a sealed little room, the floor and walls were covered in unfamiliar symbols. Faint streams of light continually flickered across them, lending the place an air of mystery and eeriness.

In the middle of the room, a tiny white egg no bigger than a fingernail floated in midair, bobbing gently up and down under the influence of some unknown force.

A humanoid creature wearing a strange robe and standing only about five feet tall danced excitedly nearby.

Dole was overjoyed. The Efiash, known as the Infinite Evolution Bug, could take on all sorts of shapes as they grew. The ancient book described the Insect Egg in detail, but any pictures of the adults were labeled as merely possible depictions.

As a result, even the Efiash themselves probably couldn't tell their own kind apart. This made their breeding rate extremely low. There was even a rumor that they could produce an Insect Egg only when they were nearing the end of their lives, and even then, only by chance.

Their harsh breeding requirements had long since driven them to extinction, but that flaw couldn't conceal how powerful they had once been. When energy was plentiful, they could rapidly evolve to adapt to all kinds of hostile environments. If carefully raised, they could even rival a fifth-tier Grand Wizard once they reached Mature Form.

With the strongest wizards on the Nier Continent currently only at the high end of the third tier, such a creature would be like a God, powerful enough to unify the entire continent.

Dole was a high-ranking second-tier wizard. He had reached that level three hundred years ago and had once been famous among his people, hailed as the genius most likely to become a third-tier wizard before turning a hundred. Then, just as he was making a name for himself and riding high on success, he discovered this Efiash Insect Egg during an ordinary exploration of an ancient ruin.

Of the people who had gone with him, he alone learned the origins of the seemingly ordinary Insect Egg, thanks to a stroke of luck. So he acquired it at very little cost.

After that, Dole seemed to become obsessed, devoting himself entirely to hatching the Insect Egg. He dreamed that one day he would sweep all opposition aside with a fifth-tier magical beast at his side and rule the entire continent.

Unfortunately, it seemed fate had played a joke on him. After conducting numerous experiments, he was furious to discover that although the Larval Form inside the Insect Egg remained intact, its consciousness had long since been erased by the passage of countless years.

He began frantically poring over all kinds of records and conducting every sort of experiment. At first, his methods were fairly normal, but as time went on, his thinking grew more extreme and his obsession more all-consuming. His methods also became increasingly cruel.

A genius who made no progress in his cultivation for decades was bound to draw the attention of certain people. A closer investigation unearthed a shocking revelation.

Over the course of several decades, more than a hundred of Dole's apprentices and servants had gone missing without explanation. He had also been linked to several cases of illegal human trafficking.

With no other choice, Dole fled with the Insect Egg while continuing his experiments, hoping to reactivate it and reach the pinnacle of his life.

Two hundred years slowly passed. The once spirited young man had grown stooped with age. His formerly thick, short green hair had dwindled to a small tuft around his ears, stubbornly clinging to life.

At last, his efforts paid off. A few years ago, Dole acquired a blueprint for a summoning wizard array during an expedition. After modifying it to use the Insect Egg as its foundation and conducting several experiments, he finally succeeded today in summoning a soul from another dimension that could perfectly fuse with the egg.

With a soul infused into it, the Larval Form inside the Insect Egg could come back to life. His efforts of more than two hundred years hadn't been in vain. Before long, those fools who had driven him from his home would pay the price.

At that moment, outside a rocky outcrop, dozens of black-robed figures stood facing one another.

"Captain, we found traces of a hidden wizard array here. Our investigation confirmed that Dole made it. But we didn't dare make a move and risk alerting him, so we don't know whether he's still inside."

The Captain nodded and directed the others to set up a wizard array around the rocky outcrop. Once everything was ready, he raised a hand. A wand hidden inside his wide sleeve slid out, and he gripped it tightly.

He murmured an unfamiliar incantation. The energy around him began to roil, and a beam of green light shot from the tip of his wand and struck the rocky outcrop.

The scenery around them began to twist and shift, revealing its true appearance. A deep, dark hole appeared where the rocky outcrop had been.

Dole was still brimming with excitement when he sensed an unfamiliar pulse of energy outside. He was about to investigate when he realized his hidden wizard array had been broken. His thoughts shifted at once. After more than a hundred years on the run, he had plenty of experience with this sort of thing. Though the laboratory had been built in haste, he had prepared several escape routes. As long as even one remained open, he could get away.

He put away the Insect Egg and hurried down a tunnel in one direction.

Ten minutes later, Dole returned, his face ashen. An unknown wizard array had sealed off the space around him, trapping him in an invisible cage. There was a clear path ahead, yet some unseen barrier blocked the way.

The leader of the enforcement squad shouted from outside, "Dole, you think we'd keep letting you escape without preparing for it? Surrender and hand over the Efiash! Lord Leon might still spare your life!"

Leon had always been Dole's inferior. He had also been the first to discover Dole's human experiments. But more than two hundred years later, their positions had undergone a complete reversal.

Perhaps Leon's original motive had simply been to get back at Dole, who had always kept him down. But over the years, Leon had learned the truth. His original purpose had long since changed; seeking justice for those who had died in vain was a joke. The Efiash was worth obtaining by any means necessary.

They had competed with each other for so long in their youth that Dole scoffed at the idea that Leon would spare him. If he handed over the Insect Egg, they would simply kill him to keep him quiet.

Now that he was trapped by an unknown wizard array, he considered his options. The only way out was to blow up the crude elemental furnace powering the summoning array. The massive surge of energy would reverse the array and send him somewhere else.

If this array could summon souls from another dimension, then a mere containment array shouldn't be able to stop it.

As for where he would end up after being summoned elsewhere, he would have to leave that to fate. As long as he survived, that was better than dying.

Having made up his mind, Dole began casting protective spells on himself. Lights of every color rose from his body. As for the Insect Egg, the seemingly ordinary shell of an unhatched Efiash was its strongest protection.

The Captain stationed outside the cave wasn't worried. His master had told him that Dole couldn't destroy the Efiash Insect Egg. So, to be safe, he had chosen to surround the place rather than attack, hoping to complete the mission at the lowest possible cost. After all, Dole was a seasoned veteran; if driven into a corner, he might pose a threat.

But it turned out the Captain had been worrying for nothing. A blinding flash of white light burst out. Dozens of black-robed figures, including him, vanished, leaving behind only a semicircular crater more than six miles across.

Dole had also misjudged the situation. He had overestimated himself. How could someone below the third tier withstand an elemental furnace exploding at close range? The surging torrent of energy vaporized him instantly.

Only the Efiash Insect Egg disappeared in a flash of light just before the surrounding wizard array was destroyed.

When Rowan regained consciousness, he felt like his world had fallen apart. He had merely closed his eyes to rest during work. After all, staring at a computer for hours had made his eyes dry and sore. Who could have guessed he would somehow fall asleep the moment he shut them?

When he woke up, he found himself in a dark cage, surrounded by thick, disgusting liquid. What kind of show was this supposed to be? Surely they didn't need to go this far just because he had fallen asleep at work?

Rowan tried to shout, but no sound came out. He tried to struggle, but it felt as though he had grown several extra pairs of hands and feet. That terrified him.

After a few dazed seconds, he began struggling even more frantically.

At last, the cage couldn't take any more and cracked open. Rowan hurriedly crawled through the gap.

Huge rocks surrounded him, but once he escaped the cage, his strength seemed to return—and then some. He easily pushed the boulders apart with his body, making himself a small space.

Were the production crews really going this far these days? It looked like they hadn't just locked him up; they had even buried him alive. Perhaps some unfamiliar journey between worlds had left him still groggy, and his thoughts were jumping all over the place.

But soon, he realized the horrifying truth.

He stared at his own hands: their smooth, pitch-black sheen, the hairs on them, and the pair at the very front—whatever those things were. He didn't even know if they were claws.

Blankly, he looked down at his body. It was just as black, with two pairs of jointed limbs growing from his belly, and a segmented rear end. He completely fell apart.

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