Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

The verification didn't take long. The Wind blades were set on a ten-centimetre spacing, and there was no piece left larger than that. The blades had even cut into the surface of the ground, showing the unlikeliness that any lucky soldier had survived the attack, so she just kicked a few bits of metal around and walked back to where Wolfe was waiting at the bike.

"Alright, let's go. That was brutal. Do you usually do that sort of thing in combat?" She asked.

"No, we usually try to save as much as possible so that the locals can use it to top off their supplies for the year. Crushing and dicing everything is a huge waste, but it's much faster and safer.

Can you imagine how much of an idiot I would look like if they had spotted us and you had gotten shot? I'm trying to make a good impression here." Wolfe told her with a wink that made the soldier give a very undignified giggle.

"Alright, I will admit, you've got the power to spare. We should inform the rest of the convoy so that they know whose territory this is now. Myrrh has a standard practice not to start fights with high-level Demons outside their territory, but I'm not sure I've heard of one seeking out a positive arrangement before."

Wolfe shook his head. "That part is a very long story, but suffice it to say that there is a grudge between the reborn Demons and the Witches that probably can't ever be settled. But I was born in a Fortress City and then cursed, so I'm not a solidified angry spirit that has been torn from eternal rest to be a Familiar."

The witch nodded. "I can see how that would cause a grudge. I never really thought about it that way. The rest of the summons are just summons, you know? Not things that existed before, just created by the spell."

Wolfe shrugged back. "I'm not totally up on how the spell works. But as far as I know, both Fae and Demons had lives before being summoned, but they're also the only truly sentient summons that I have heard of. I know other talking creatures, like the little Reaper, and none of them have mentioned a life before summoning.

Reaper will be happy today. He should be close enough to absorb those souls. There really isn't much killing around the Den, and I know he's gotten bored."

"Are there a lot of powerful Familiars here then?" The Sergeant asked.

"The ones that everyone got at Second Rank have been pretty good, and we will be doing another summoning soon since the moon is getting full, with more Rank Two witches waiting for their new Familiar, but all of the ones that the first batch got were somewhat intelligent magical creatures, and the lone rookie that summoned last time around got a Faerie," Wolfe explained.

The Sergeant whistled. "Now that is a haul. I see that Priya has a horned rabbit of some sort, and the Reaper is an undead type, right? What else did you get?"

"There is a Hell Hound back at the Den, but that's all the Witches that have summoned their second so far. They have a theory that the evening of a full moon, with both the sun and moon in the sky, surrounded by a balance of the Elements, will give the best outcomes." Wolfe explained.

The witch thought about that for a moment, then nodded. "Yes, that should theoretically give the best results. I just don't think I've ever heard of it happening before."

"I could awaken some of your soldiers that have potential, and they could try along with our witches next time so that we can see if there is a difference between First Rank and Second Rank Familiars," Wolfe suggested.

"You can do what now?" She asked as they rode back to the meeting site.

"If you clear the blockages caused by the bloodline Curse, then most witches can use magic. It's not really a big deal at my level. I could do it at Rank One."

"And we are just learning that Demons can do that now?" She asked.

"Would you trust any other Demon to do it and not cripple the target out of spite? It's a delicate procedure, and even if they knew how, they would never allow it to happen."

"You have a point. I will ask the leader about it, and they can make the decision. I assume you know that our group is the same as most units." She agreed.

"Six fully trained witches and two hundred fifty soldiers with limited to no magic. I was deployed with a Sylvan unit like that once before. They all responded well to the process before the army showed up with the Nerve Gas. What did they call them, the Grand Dutchies Army?"

"With the assistance of Gormana, yes. However, the amount of help that the Gormana Army has been is questionable. It looked more like they were taking advantage of the situation to grab witches and weren't really trying to capture anything for territory. But that's someone else's problem."

They reached the meeting spot, and the convoy leader looked to the Sergeant for verification.

"One spell. He annihilated the entire convoy, tanks and all, in one spell." She confirmed.

Priya sighed. "I take it there's nothing left to salvage?"

The Sergeant shook her head. "There is no piece left larger than ten centimetres across. Not only can't it be salvaged, it would be difficult to identify most of it."

Priya turned to Wolfe. "Was that really necessary?"

"No, but it was effective. It only took a sixth of my mana pool as well, and I didn't draw anything in from the Witches to make my life easier." He explained.

"Well, whatever. The threat is gone. Now, as we were talking about, do you want to come and see the Den? It would set your leader's mind at ease to know that the Witches there aren't enslaved or anything else. We're all free to leave as we want, but once you get there, you will see why we stay."