The Seven Demon's Tamer

Chapter 5

The Astral Shadow Plain is made up of multiple smaller plains. About how big each of these small plains can turn out to be, it is easily three to four times greater than the biggest planet in the galaxy Ryder came from.

It can also be relatively small, like the Dracogon's domain, which is just as big as a whole country back on Ryder's planet, Terra.

The Dracogon's domain, despite its relatively small size, holds within it a power that would make even the mightiest beings pause.

Each demon, even the weakest, can cause great chaos if brought to earth untamed. This fact isn't just for the Dracogon plain but also for other exclusive plains owned by demon monarchs.

Rumors speak of a giant cave of raw, crystallized gamma energy at its center, where the Dracogon himself rests upon his throne, overseeing the activities of his plain from there and managing the conflicts of his plains in order to protect beasts from killing one another.

This is the reason why the Dracogon made its plain so small.

This didn't seem quite the case for Ryder when he was there, though; he clearly saw some devils fighting against each other.

In the Astral Shadow, powerful beasts with incredible destructive capabilities that are also feared by many other beasts can create their own plain or dominate a free plain.

After creating or dominating their plains, some introduce Astral wanderers into them, making them free for any beast to enter and exit at any time, willingly.

Some other plain possessors create their plain to be more refined and exclusive, just like the Dracogon's. They create their plain to be exclusively for beasts that they choose and beasts that they find worthy.

Although most demon monarchs of the plains believe in the strength that comes from numbers—inviting as many devils and lesser demons into their plain as possible—not all the monarchs do this. The Dracogon selected the inhabitants of his plain by judging their strength and intelligence.

This selective process has earned his domain the nickname "The Crucible" among demons, who view an invitation there as the ultimate proof of their worth. The rejection rate is rumored to be 99.97 percent, with the remaining 0.03% often wishing they were rejected too just a short while after receiving their entry permit.

Due to how intelligent these devil and lesser demon familiars are, they know they had to endure because the Dracogon plain is not a wannabe plain. Even demon monarchs do not mess with the Dracogon or anything that relates to it, so why should they leave?

"Power or extinction" is literally the daily reality of familiars in the entire Astral Shadow plain and in the demon/devil division as a whole.

Furthermore, in order for a beast to enter the Dracogon's plain, the beast will need to pass a trial—much the same way humans receive a trial from a familiar that invites them. The Dracogon's plain is an exclusive plain, after all.

Exiting any exclusive plain is very easy, but coming back into it might not be as easy, especially if the beast is a previous member who left the plain. One may exit a plain if he is banished or if it is by will—AKA, self-banishment.

Exiting an exclusive plain willingly is extremely rare for beasts. It is mostly unreasonable, but right now, Luxy had no option but to do so in order to save his host.

At least, he had a reason.

Knowing fully well he never stood a chance against an entire horde of demons and devils, he took the action.

Ryder was quite confused about what Luxy meant by banishing himself away from the plain, but after Luxy spent some time explaining, he finally got it.

"Oh, so that is how it is then," Ryder spoke to Luxy via his mind. Even up until now, he was still unable to move his body.

Although his body remained damaged, he could feel he was recovering. The sensation was peculiar, like watching a video of paper being turned in reverse—broken body parts slowly joining themselves back together, as well as squashed flesh regenerating into clear skin.

Earlier, he was almost certain he was going to fall unconscious, but now he was not having that feeling anymore. His eyes, which were blank previously, recovered to the extent that they were now blurry. The world around him resembled a painting viewed through a wet, rain-streaked window that only allowed the colors of the world around to be seen.

All the pain he was feeling as well was gone, but he still couldn't move. His broken bones, unfortunately, remained broken.

"I can guess my recovery is due to you, Luxy," Ryder continued.

"Of course." Despite being unable to see Luxy's face due to his blurry eyes, Ryder could still guess that Luxy smiled as he responded. The smugness in his voice was practically tangible to Ryder.

"I told you earlier, didn't I? All my capabilities have been cloned into you. You are supposed to be capable of all that I can do.

"Though I must admit, watching you try to access these abilities has been rather like watching a wingless butterfly baby larva attempt to fly—entertaining, but slightly concerning due to the situations we have found ourselves in," Luxy added with a chuckle.

"You can heal just as fast as my healing speed, even faster if you wish—as far as you have control," Luxy explained. "Your current body is still quite foreign to you, so you might not be able to do more than use my natural agility and strength for now."

Luxy circled Ryder's prone form, his tail dancing thoughtfully as he observed. "The transformation is not complete. Your body remembers its human limitations and still hasn't let go."

"You must learn to let go of those memories and access the new benefits of your new race. You aren't just an ordinary human anymore; you are a summoner." Luxy spoke this with the gravity of someone announcing a royal title to a new ruler—penetrative and thoughtful—but Ryder, in his blurry-eyed state, completely missed it.

Walking towards Ryder's head, Luxy placed his paw on Ryder's face. The touch was surprisingly gentle, the paw pressing softly against his skin despite the lethal claws that curved just above his cheek.

Those claws, Ryder realized, could tear through his flesh like a piece of paper, yet they hovered harmlessly on his face.

Closing his eyes, Luxy concentrated, and then a soft, golden glow began to radiate from his paw onto Ryder's face. The light, which felt like a scent of sun-warmed honey, bypassed Ryder's nose and went straight to his core. He strangely couldn't smell the scent; he could feel it.

Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack.

Ryder's body shifted and twisted abnormally as his bones cracked. Each crack sounded like a reloading gun in the quiet surroundings.

The sensation was indescribable—not painful, exactly, but strangely displeasing despite the fact that he couldn't feel pain at the moment.

His body felt like it had become a shuffled puzzle being rearranged by invisible hands. If his nervous system had a voice, it would be screaming in confusion rather than pain.

He could feel his broken bones not just mending but strengthening, becoming denser and more resilient than human bones could normally be.

"I am... healed!" Ryder was stunned. He had been broken and lying motionless a few moments ago, and now he was back up, like nothing ever happened. He flexed his fingers experimentally, half-expecting them to fall off lazily and broken or perhaps sprout additional joints.

Surprisingly—or unsurprisingly—they did neither, but they had suddenly improved in a way that made his old body seem like a lagging phone by comparison.

"Luxy, you can heal me!" Ryder blurted. All his life, he had never heard of a beast healing his summoner like this. Contracting a familiar can make one gain the capability to heal a lost limb and scars at a reasonable pace, but Ryder had just healed a critical wound in seconds.

He would have assumed that it was Luxy's affinity, but no—healing is not the kind of affinity that devils should possess, so that assumption was thrown out the window.

"Yes, and you will be able to heal yourself just as well and as fast as that when you get used to your new body," Luxy responded. "Quick healing is part of my natural physical capabilities, unlike humans who can do the same, but slowly."

Looking at the horizon before him, a gust of wind swept past Ryder.

Just as expected, another foreign landscape. Ryder then questioned, "Where am I?"

Luxy walked forward, standing on two legs this time instead of four; his posture made it clear that he was standing awkwardly due to how bent his legs were, nearly as if he were sitting on air.

"Well, welcome to a place where I don't know." He gestured as he spoke, spreading out his arms.

"You are kidding, right?"

"Of course, I am not," replied Luxy, showing no signs of being offended by Ryder's disbelief. "How do you expect me to know this place when I have been on an exclusive plain for as long as I can remember? I was a permanent inhabitant of the Dracogon's plain and not a wanderer of Astral Shadow." He sniffed slightly, his whiskers twitching with a calm composure on his face.

"The only information I can guess about this place is that it is a wanderer's plain. It is free for any and every creature to go in and come out as many times as they want."

Ryder, with a fascinated stare, commented, "It looks magnificent, not like that eerie plain of the Dracogon." And it did—where the Dracogon's domain had been all gloomy and scary, this place was light and beautiful, like a landscape painted by an artist who loved color and wasn't afraid to use it.

The area where they both stood was the peak of one of the highlands around. On the surface of the rock, beautiful flowers dominated, but these were no ordinary blooms.

Each petal seemed to have its own mind, shifting and moving gently whether it was windy or not. The flowers were beautiful, possessing an ethereal, luminescent glow that changed color after every short while. One moment they were all shades of blue, creating the impression that the mountain was crowned by the ocean; the next, they shifted to purples and reds, like an embodiment of beautiful sunset rays.

The effect was mesmerizing, even to Luxy, who subconsciously mumbled, "So such a landscape exists!"

"So what are we meant to do now?" Ryder asked, forcing his gaze toward Luxy, though his eyes betrayed him. Even though his face was directed toward Luxy, his eyes were still fixed to the side, staring at the field.

"We will live here from now on," Luxy responded nonchalantly.

"What! Who among us? You or YOU?"

Turning his head slightly backward and upward to lock his crystal red eyes with Ryder's, Luxy corrected, "Both of us."

At that moment, they were both silent while the whistling wind temporarily blew past Luxy's snow-white fur.

"Luxy, are you aware that I am not from this world! I need to find a way to contract with the Dracogon and exit this world as soon as possible. My real body is back there on my planet, lying without a soul. If I spend too long, they could assume that I am dead, and if that happens, then it is over."

"Oh, I nearly forgot about that. How silly of me," said Luxy.

"But here is the problem: you cannot pass the test the Dracogon bestowed upon you. If you never had me, you would have never escaped death back then. Now that you have me, you still won't survive if we go back there together. So you need to somehow figure out a way to conquer that unfortunate test."

Ryder scanned the horizon silently for a while, as if he were searching for something.

The plain was quite breathtaking. Distant golden clouds could be seen above with glimmering silver linings, as if each of them were masking a sun.

The sky was blue, like that of planet Terra, where Ryder came from, but quite different and unique at the same time.

Where Ryder and Luxy both watched the horizon from was a particular high mountain among all the various mountains bounding the plain in a formed circle.

The living area where beasts of this plain supposedly lived was filled with greenery and flowers, just like the rock on which they were standing.

There were buildings around, although scanty, but the structures looked more human than any other structure back in the Dracogon's plain.

The shelters around were built with bamboo and wood, like in the Stone Age of humans.

This alone was enough to make one wonder just what kind of beasts lived here.

"Let's check out this settlement."