Heroine Creation: All My Summons Are Custom Made

The news reached the Serpent Society before the Penitentiary knew exactly what had happened to its transport.

Noctis stood in the Year Five lounge with one hand pressed against the edge of the table while a projection flickered above it. The image showed the wrecked transport, broken trees, dead Extractors and a road blackened by lightning.

One body had been thrown so far from the vehicle that the investigator speaking through the projection had to move the feed twice just to show where it landed.

Noctis’s face remained calm until the report ended. Then his hand tightened.

The table cracked beneath his palm.

”The Terrible Three are gone.”

Oden looked up from the couch. Reon stopped adjusting the thin frame of his glasses. Several lower Serpents shifted around the room, suddenly very interested in saying nothing.

The investigator on the projection nodded. ”Yes, Lord Cobra. All twelve Extractors were killed. The Penitentiary guards were already dead when our secondary team arrived. The prisoners were not found.”

”Any witnesses?”

”None alive.”

Noctis looked at the burns carved into the road. His jaw tightened. He couldn’t tell if it was caused by a Graceblaster, an ordinary blaster, a fire spell or any other explosive spell.

This could have been anyone.

”The experiment was already delayed.” Reon stepped closer to the projection and studied the damage. ”Now it is halted.”

”For the moment,” Noctis said.

Oden leaned forward, forearms resting against his knees. ”Mundy said he needed higher-ranked subjects. The Terrible Three were the best ones we had.”

”They were the best available,” Reon corrected. ”That is different.”

Noctis looked toward him.

Reon pushed his glasses higher. ”The method still exists. The laboratory still exists. We lost subjects, not the work.”

”And the people who knew where those subjects would be,” Noctis said.

That silenced the room again.

His eyes moved toward Oden. ”Where is Espel?”

Oden answered immediately. ”Gone with the King’s mission.”

Noctis’s stare sharpened. ”What mission?”

Oden gave Noctis a speculative look. Sometimes, his friend acted like he wasn’t even a student at all. Noctis was always oblivious to events happening inside the school.

”She was selected with several people from the Academy. Did you not know?. They left this morning with Romsgard’s people.”

Reon turned toward him. ”The King was here, I heard about that. And I heard that some students and professors left with him. Even Ordenance and that cold bitch.” He then turned thoughtful. ”But Seasnake? She was personally selected?”

”Yes.”

”With who?”

Oden listed the names he knew.

Vernon Heavenblum.

Valeria Bloodgood.

Nereus Grimlake.

Renan Falconhart.

Lancet Leogardt.

Espel.

Noctis’s eyes narrowed at the last two names appearing in the same group.

Reon noticed too.

Then his expression changed.

”That could work in our favor.”

Oden looked at him.

Reon rested one hand on the table. ”If the mission is tied to the government and the King, then Espel is about to enter a territory that we’ve been trying to gain access into.”

Noctis said nothing.

Reon continued. ”She will have access to information we cannot get from outside. Deployment plans. Ranger movement. Warning Gate preparation. Possibly even the Human Citadel operation if that is what this mission concerns.”

Oden frowned slightly. ”You want her spying on them.”

”I want her informing us.”

”Same thing.”

Reon gave him a small smile. ”Call it whatever makes you comfortable.”

Noctis finally released the cracked edge of the table.

”Contact her once she arrives.”

Oden’s eyes remained on him. He didn’t like the idea of his sister being put in danger like this. If they found out she was a spy...

”Do not ask her for anything reckless,” Noctis added, understanding how Oden was feeling. ”If she is inside a government operation, then her value increases every day she remains unnoticed.”

Reon nodded.

Noctis turned back to the projection.

The Terrible Three were still missing. That mattered more than he wanted to admit.

If they had escaped on their own, it was irritating. And if someone had rescued them, it was dangerous.

He pointed toward the road.

”Send another team.”

One of the Serpents near the wall straightened.

”I want the entire route searched. Vehicle records, witness statements, magical residue, everything. Find out who killed the Extractors and where the prisoners were taken.”

The man nodded.

Noctis’s voice hardened.

”And tell Mundy to stop waiting for the Terrible Three. We will find him new subjects.”

Reon glanced toward him. ”Radiant again?”

”At minimum.” Noctis’s eyes narrowed with determination. ”We need better lab rats.”

The projection shut off.

Across the room, the Serpents began moving again, passing orders and opening new communication channels.

The experiment had lost its subjects but it had not lost its purpose.

*********

Meanwhile, up in the sky, a giant ship covered the golden sun. Inside, Lancet felt the royal transport begin its descent.

The change came through the floor first. The steady hum beneath his boots deepened, then the ship tilted just enough to make the horizon rise across the long window beside him.

Several people looked up.

A royal attendant stepped through the central aisle.

”We will be landing at the Golden Barracks shortly. Please secure all equipment and remain seated until the boarding ramps are lowered.”

Lancet leaned back and looked through the glass.

The clouds had thinned below them, revealing an enormous stretch of fortified land cut by roads, training fields and walls so wide they looked like borders between cities.

Everything was covered in a paint of gold. But he managed to peer to the gleaming fog and see the structures of the legendary place.

Towers rose in clusters around a central keep. Airships moved between elevated docks while lines of Awakeners crossed the grounds in formations too small to identify from this height.

The Golden Barracks.

Renan sat across from him, one arm resting against the window.

He watched the encampment for a while before speaking.

”Do you feel guilty?”

Lancet looked at him. ”About what?”

”Leaving your Class Group behind.”

Lancet’s brows lifted.

Renan continued, ”The last two Competitions are usually the most important. You and I carried our year more than anyone else.”

Renan looked back through the window. ”I am a little worried about how they’ll fare without me.”

Lancet made a thoughtful face. Then he shrugged. ”I’m not worried at all.”

Renan turned. ”Really?”

Lancet smiled. ”Really.”

Renan studied him for a moment, clearly waiting for the rest.

Lancet gave him nothing, so eventually, Renan looked away.

So did Lancet.

Truthfully, Lancet had been worried before.

Miss Maecil had already lost him for the final two challenges, and Summoner-D did not exactly have a long list of people capable of replacing what he brought to the field.

But Lancet knew all of this, and that was why before leaving Awakener Supreme, he had made sure the Summoner Class Group received a small parting gift.