“Gaahh!!” Damien’s eyes snapped open, and he immediately tensed, his senses sharpening as he took in his surroundings.
The familiar walls of his room at the Mercenary Guild were gone. Instead, an endless plain stretched in every direction, barren and featureless, with no trees, structures, or landmarks to break the monotony.
The sky overhead was clear, painted in soft hues of blue and white, yet something about it felt unnatural. The air was still, completely devoid of sound.
A wave of unease settled over him.
“Where the hell am I this time?”
He pushed himself up, his body tense, his instincts already on high alert. That was when he noticed them—his five summons.
Fenrir, Cerbe, Aquila, Luton, and Skylar stood in a perfect circle around him, their expressions unreadable as they stared at him in silence.
Their sheer presence was overwhelming, their imposing figures casting long, dark shadows over the dry ground.
For a brief moment, dread clenched at his chest.
His mind flashed back to the dream—or whatever it had been. He had seen them turn against him. Controlled.
Used as weapons against him, forced into a battle where he had no chance of victory.
The memory sent a shiver down his spine.
He swallowed hard and cautiously called out, “Fenrir?”
The massive Monstrous Wolf perked up, its ears twitching at the sound of his voice. Then, to his immense relief, it padded closer and nuzzled against him affectionately.
Damien let out a slow breath. They were still his. “At least I own them here.”
He reached out, running a hand through Fenrir’s thick white fur. The warmth beneath his fingertips reassured him, grounding him in the moment. But even with this relief, a bitter truth settled in his mind.
Someone had been able to control his summons.
Someone—whoever that woman had been—had exerted more authority over his own creatures than he had. He had felt utterly helpless, powerless to stop it. It was a feeling he despised more than anything else.
His fists clenched. “I can’t let that happen again.” He shook his head as he made his declaration with no one around to witness his promise to himself.
He had relied on his summons too much, trusting that they would always be under his command. That illusion had been shattered.
If there ever came a time when his summons turned against him again—whether through manipulation, external control, or their own will—he needed to be prepared. He had to be stronger.
Stronger than his summons or at the very least, as strong as they were.
Stronger than anything that would try to take them from him.
A new goal had rooted itself firmly in his mind.
But first, he needed to figure out where he was.
Damien took one last look at his summons before making a decision. He dismissed three of them, keeping only Aquila and Luton.
Aquila was his best option for aerial reconnaissance, and Luton… well, Luton was essentially his portable storage unit. The others, for now, weren’t needed.
With a flick of his wrist, Fenrir, Cerbe, and Skylar vanished in bursts of light.
Aquila stretched its powerful wings, waiting for Damien’s command.
He climbed onto the griffin’s back with practiced ease. “Take us up,” he instructed.
“Krreeeii!!” Aquila let out a sharp cry and launched into the sky, the force of its takeoff kicking up dust from the dry ground below.
As they ascended higher and higher, Damien’s view of the endless plain expanded, stretching so far that the horizon itself seemed blurred.
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Luton, still perched atop his head with it’s gelatinous red form glowing under the daylight sun, shifted slightly before dropping something into his hands. Damien caught it instinctively, glancing down.
A map.
A smirk tugged at the corner of his lips. “Good work, Luton.”
The Stellar Slime quivered happily in response.
Unfolding the parchment, Damien scanned the layout of the terrain, trying to match it with the view below. But as he looked around, frustration began to creep in.
It was all the same. Flat land as far as the eye could see, completely devoid of significant landmarks.
No roads. No towns. No rivers.
Nothing to anchor his location.
Hours passed as Aquila soared across the land, Damien’s eyes flicking between the map and the world below. His muscles tensed with growing irritation. “Where the hell am I?”
Then—finally—he saw it.
A shimmer of water in the distance.
A lake.
His heart pounded in his chest as he looked down at the map. His eyes darted across the inked markings, searching—then locking onto the same body of water, its distinct shape unmistakable.
A thrill of recognition shot through him.
“There,” he muttered. “We’re heading there.”
Aquila adjusted its trajectory instantly, banking in the direction of the lake.
Damien’s grip tightened as he stared ahead, his mind racing. He still had no idea how he had ended up in this place, but now he had a lead.
And once he figured out where he was…
‘I will never be this powerless again.’
A wide grin spread across Damien’s face as he and Aquila descended toward the shimmering lake. The journey had been long, and his excitement grew at the thought of finally cooling off in the water.
Aquila landed gracefully near the shore, its large wings stirring up a gentle breeze as Damien slid off its back.
His boots sank slightly into the damp soil, the scent of fresh water filling his senses. The lake was very clear, its surface reflecting the sky above like a perfect mirror. However, the bottom remained unseen.
“Finally,” Damien sighed, rolling his shoulders. “This heat’s been killing me.”
Luton wobbled on top of his head, quivering slightly as if sharing his excitement.
Without wasting time, Damien stripped off his outer garments and waded into the water, shivering slightly as the cool liquid enveloped him. He let out a satisfied groan before diving in completely, cutting through the water with smooth strokes.
For the first time in a while, he allowed himself to relax. He floated for a moment, eyes closed, letting the gentle ripples of the lake soothe his body.
‘This isn’t so bad,’ he thought, a rare moment of peace washing over him.
Then, just as he was about to fully enjoy the tranquility—
Something moved beneath him.
Damien’s instincts flared instantly. His body stiffened, his muscles coiling as he treaded water, peering into the depths below.
The lake’s clarity allowed him to see deeper than most bodies of water, but what he saw made his stomach drop.
A dark shadow slithered beneath him, moving swiftly through the water.
‘That’s big…’
Before he could react, a sudden force yanked him downward. “Gaahh!”
Water rushed past his face as he was dragged into the depths, bubbles escaping his lips as he barely managed to hold his breath. His limbs flailed as he twisted his body, kicking against the pull of whatever had seized him.
His eyes adjusted just in time to see his attacker—a massive, serpentine creature with fish-like features, its scales shimmering with an eerie blue glow.
Its long body coiled around him, its sharp, webbed fins slicing through the water as it pulled him further into the lake’s abyss.
‘Oh, hell no!’ Damien thought, gritting his teeth.
The creature’s glowing yellow eyes locked onto him as it opened its mouth, revealing rows of jagged teeth.
Damien swung his fist into its snout, forcing it to recoil slightly, but its grip around him remained firm.
‘I am not drowning today!’
Kicking harder, Damien twisted his body, trying to break free, but the creature only tightened its hold, dragging him down faster.
His lungs were already burning from the lack of air, and the deeper they went, the stronger the creature’s hold seemed to become.
He needed a way out. Fast.
With no hesitation, he summoned Luton into the water.
The Stellar Slime materialized instantly, floating in the water beside him.
Through their bond, Damien sent a single, desperate command:
‘Absorb. The. Lake.’
For a second, nothing happened.
Then, Luton expanded.
The water around them churned violently as Luton’s (Universal Space) ability activated at full force. Within moments, the lake’s surface began to spiral downward, sucked into the slime’s vast internal storage.
The serpent-like creature’s grip faltered as the water level plummeted. It thrashed, its movements becoming erratic as its aquatic environment rapidly disappeared.
Damien took the chance.
With a powerful twist, he wrenched himself free from the beast’s weakening grasp.
The lake continued to drain, the once deep waters now turning into a muddy, exposed basin. In mere moments, the entire lake was gone—sucked dry into Luton’s space.
Damien landed hard on the damp lakebed, coughing violently as he gasped for air. His entire body ached from the fight, but he had no time to recover.
The lake monster thrashed wildly beside him, its gills flaring as it struggled to adjust to the sudden lack of water.
Damien smirked. “Now that the tables have turned, you’re not so comfortable, are you?”
The beast lunged at him, desperate and enraged.
Damien dodged, rolling to the side before launching forward with everything he had. He grabbed his sword—summoning it in an instant from within Luton—and drove the blade deep into the creature’s head.
The monster let out a guttural screech, its body convulsing violently before finally collapsing.
Damien panted, wiping the water from his face as he looked down at his fallen foe. “Yeah,” he muttered between breaths, “next time… maybe don’t pick a fight with me.”
Luton wobbled beside him, quivering proudly.
Damien chuckled, patting the slime. “Good work, buddy.”
Now that the threat was dealt with, he had another problem—he had just erased an entire lake from existence.
He turned to Luton, shaking his head. “Alright, let’s fix this before someone comes looking.”
With another mental command, Luton regurgitated the lake.
Water burst from its body like a flood, rapidly refilling the empty basin. Within moments, the lake was restored to its original form, the surface once again calm and undisturbed—as if nothing had ever happened.
Damien exhaled, stretching his sore limbs.
“Yeah… I think I’m done swimming for today.”
With that, he dragged the massive lake monster out of the water’s edge, preparing to deal with his unexpected prize. The fight had been both exhausting and ridiculous, but if there was one thing Damien had learned…
He really needed to stop letting his guard down. Nothing seemed ordinary to him anymore.