Chapter 594 Too many...
[OP: ]
The green firework ended soon and the green particles of light that came out of it flew with the winds and spread all over the sky island, meeting the creatures on the ground, water, sky, and underground.
It was an invitation to all the creatures for the periodic gatherings of this year's summoning event. And, at the invitation of the guardian father of this land, just how many could decline the chance to visit his home and pay him their eternal greetings?
Certainly not many, but there were still a few who refused this invitation either out of extremely personal circumstances, or, just because their presence wouldn't be a good thing for the young and weak humans present here.
The three great species that were under their great queens, the blue honeybees of the academy, the rainbow flamingoes of the outskirt skies, and the earthly creatures that served the fungus queen of northeastern lands, had also received an invitation from the ancient tree.
But, the flamingoes rejected it, as usual, so only the other two species of creatures were visiting the academy.
The creatures of the underground were going to arrive through the underground passageways that opened on the east side of the academy, and the creatures of the water were going to arrive through the open waterways that opened at the northern part of the academy.
The creatures of the sky were going to arrive through the sky road that ended at the top of the library on the western end of the academy while the intelligent creatures with a teleportation ability will arrive through the central summoning area at the middle part of the academy.
The last few remaining creatures who lived in the city area of Sky Island would arrive through the front gate and pass through the magic engineering lab's area before reaching the place all of them were in.
And they all were on the move already so it wasn't going to take long for them to reach their destination.
It was only a little while away... and the students gathered in the garden before the ancient tree couldn't help but get excited as they thought about how they were soon going to be in the presence of a large number of energy beasts.
They were excited, and though the speech of Sir Quesnel had confused them a little, they still knew a familiar, at the end of the day, was their partner and a friend.
And... the fact that some will consider the familiars their slaves, servants, and tools, was going to remain unchanging, at least for the following few months.
Disciplining their house members was the job of all the house captains and since the familiars were an undeniably important asset of a house, they couldn't possibly overlook their existence...
All familiars were important, be it a simple (Red) rank poison rat, or an (Indigo) rank intelligent species.
It was the house captain's job to look after what their house members bond with, so, as the captains, all twenty of them were also looking forward to the creatures that were about to arrive in this garden.
And though six out of the twenty of them already had familiars, they were looking forward to seeing the end results of this entire event.
This familiar summoning event was going to be the start of the 'house battles' so there was no way they wouldn't take this event more seriously than any other person in this academy.
Their careers as captains depended on this, so, they were serious... or were having fun with everything that was going on, putting the unnecessary burden to a side, just enjoying everything happening at the moment.
It was fun, certainly.
From how there was a grand stage set under the great tree, how all the teachers of the academy were here, how the headmaster and vice headmaster were here, to how the familiars of the people who already had one were present here.
There was excitement and anxiety in the air, happiness, and restlessness too. However, the most prominent emotion standing above all was the joy in this air... which was quickly replaced with uncertainty when the very first creatures of the island arrived in the summoning area of the upper center of the academy, or it was better to say when they appeared outside of it.
[{ Hahaha, Peripir seems to have missed the coordinates just like every time. }]
From what they all could see, there was a giant elephant floating beside the central part with the grand summoning circle, and this giant elephant was so humongous that they didn't even have to guess who or what it was.
"That's the speaking ancient mammoth?"
"I... didn't think it would be this big..."
"He's one of the last surviving creatures of past times, his presence on this island alone is a miracle."
Quin and Lizzy were flabbergasted at the appearance of that creature, but Eon's answer reminded them of what they had read or heard about him in the books.
"I have seen bigger ones though."
But the way Rein said this while looking at Eon with a smile completely distracted both of them, as well as a lot of the people around them, bringing them back to the present.
It sounded totally inappropriate, she knew that and still said it, knowing full well he would know what she was referring to.
"Certainly."
Eon nodded too without giving any deep expression which made things even more complicated... however, they were talking about the keeper they had seen during their encounter yesterday so in truth, there was nothing inappropriate with this little talk of theirs.
People weren't going to know of it anyway though so, they started thinking about many worldly things, fantasizing about the two of them, flying in their own sky of imagination until...
"PHEMAAAAAAA!"
The sound of an elephant's roar rang all throughout the garden as the creature visible in the sky shrunk down and vanished after breaking all the fantasies of the poor students.
Then, some creatures appeared on the open stage with a bright flash of light, standing on one or multiple legs, or floating in the air if they couldn't normally stand for personal reasons.
{ "It ptssssssis nice to meet you all again." }
"Nice to see you as well Master Cod and everyone else. It seems like you arrived before-"
The headmaster's voice was audible to all of them as always and he was talking with the snake-headed humanoid being, a Naga by species but someone who wore a mage outfit and carried an old-looking magic staff in his hand.
With him were a few other Nagas, humanoid creatures that were unique in themselves, creatures that were floating or were inside a bubble like the giant elephant from before, and, normal energy beasts with eyes that contained a kind of wisdom that no normal creature could ever possess...
The elder Naga seemed to be an important figure among them but aside from a few, most students didn't know of his identity, and it was fine that way.
They were only students of this academy for now so they didn't need to know the internal matters or the identity of all the people like him that would be present there today. They weren't qualified to know it anyway and they could just spend some money to get the information about them if they were ever too curious.
The info dealers charged an absurd amount of money for that though so they should just feel satisfied with what they all were getting already.
The snake person, or Master Cod as the headmaster called him, greeted him first but just when he was greeting him back, they all felt a great presence from the back and turned around with a smile on their faces.
"They are here as well."
In the distance, if one focused a little, they could see a strange presence of a large wave of water, and above this wave of water was a creature resembling a whale, possessing even more majestic size than the elephant they had seen a moment ago.
"The maintainer of the northern lake."
At the same time, from their right side, another strange voice was heard so some of them turned their heads to that side, and an enormous flock of flying creatures with a ginormous eagle-like bird in the lead.
"The heavenly messenger of the gods."
-Zum. ZuM. ZUm. ZUM,.
Then from their back, vibrations of the earth's shaking were felt so they all looked behind, only to find another large wave of ground creatures, mostly small and medium ones with the size of an insect to a normal elephant.
There were a few large creatures in the lead of these ground creatures but the most noteworthy ones were a normal-sized cat with majestic purple fur sitting atop a blue camel like some queen, a pure white rat that sat atop a palanquin lifted by six strangely muscular rats, and a lone tiger cub walking alone like the king of these creatures at the very left side.
"The dealer, the owner, and the little tester."
They looked cute... at least for the most part and in the eyes of most people like Eon, Rein, and Zoe but, for the normal students, even some of these common creatures were a source of fear, uncertainty, and dread.
Not only did they look intimidating, their presence was also making many of them uncomfortable.
It was strange how all of it happened in only a few minutes but by the time the students had calmed their wildly beating hearts, they were all already surrounded by creatures on all sides...
And, there were too many creatures here now.
Including the first ones who stood on the strange, the aquatic creatures inside the wave of water that circled around the giant whale, the ground creatures that covered the ground, the underground creatures that came last, and the flying creatures that were now either sitting on the branches of the ancient tree or other trees in the area, there were just... too many of them here.
It had all happened in a short while but, the moment of truth was here.
The creatures had now gathered all around the ancient tree and, even though a little intimidating, they were their guests in this event today so the students had to be in their best behaviors.
Still, the fact that their numbers were more than any of them expected was true.
There were just, too many of them.
Too many...
