Starting With an SSS-Rank Goddess Summon!

The cool mountain breeze rustled through the courtyard of Blessed Land, carrying the crisp scent of pine needles, crushed herbs, and damp stone.

Surrounding Silas on all sides, the circle of women stood firm on the flagstones.

Lupina leaned forward with her teeth showing, her silver wolf ears pinned flat, waiting for an answer.

Aurelia remained still, her hands clasped inside her white sleeves, watching him with calm measuring eyes.

Rowenna held her little notebook to her ribs, her knuckles white against the cover, while Solenne’s nine silver tails stayed fanned out like an impenetrable silver hedge behind him.

Silas shifted Kaelia slightly in his arms, feeling the chef’s tired weight against his chest, and let out an easy rumbling chuckle.

”I was serious,” Silas said, looking at each of them in turn with a slow teasing smirk. ”I never joke about territorial defense, girls. Blessed Land has grown too fast to leave empty spots in the ranks...”

The immediate response was practically synchronized.

”Then I’m watching every single second of it!” Lupina declared, planting her boots wide and crossing her arms over her leather vest. ”I want to see who walks out of that portal before she even takes a breath of our air!”

”I’d like to watch as well,” Aurelia said, her melodic voice smooth and measured as her golden-amber eyes held his. ”It would be remiss of me not to be there to welcome a new sister to Blessed Land...”

”M-me too!” Rowenna blurted, her blue eyes peeking out from behind her violet-black bangs. ”I want to see the runes when the portal wakes up... please?”

Behind him, Solenne’s silver fox ears twitched forward, the tips of her nine tails swaying slowly over the flagstones.

”I-I’d like to watch too, my Lord,” Solenne said softly, her cheeks turning pink. ”If... if that’s alright.”

Morrighan uncrossed her arms, her spiked mythril gauntlets clenching at her sides, her molten gold eyes fixed on Silas with steady unshakable devotion.

”I’ll stand beside you while you summon, Lord Silas,” Morrighan said simply, her deep smoky voice leaving no room for argument.

Silas looked around at the wall of determined fiercely competitive faces, the golden ring in his dark blue eyes humming with quiet amusement.

”Well,” Silas laughed, turning his boots toward the central courtyard, ”why not? It’s not like the portal is hidden behind locked gates... You’re all welcome to come watch the show.”

He began walking down the road, carrying Kaelia with effortless ease, while the girls fell in around him in a tight protective escort.

”Besides,” Silas added over his shoulder. ”I’m not stopping at a single recruit today. We’ve got the resources, the territory is expanding, and the outer valleys need constant patrols... I’m planning to summon about two Heroes and some troop girls too.”

Lupina let out a low breathless whine that was half-growl and half-pout, while Rowenna hugged her notebook even tighter to her chest.

Aurelia merely closed her eyes for a moment, taking a slow, meditative breath, clearly preparing herself for a very crowded Keep by the time the evening bells tolled.

The wide avenue wound through the inner bailey, passing beneath the shadow of the Keep and opening into the sprawling central courtyard.

Standing in the center of the expansive flagstone plaza was the Summoning Portal.

It was a modest structure, built during the earliest days of the territory.

Two upright pillars of smooth plain white stone rose ten feet into the air, connected at the top by a simple unadorned lintel that formed a clean rectangular archway.

...What caught Silas’s attention, however, wasn’t the plain stone itself, but the vibrant living color encircling its base.

The entire circular perimeter around the archway had been meticulously cleared of stray gravel and weed-choked cracks.

In a broad, five-foot border ringing the platform, thousands of radiant, glowing blossoms grew in dense velvety clusters, their petals shimmering with soft magical luminescence in the cool mountain twilight.

There were pale silver moon-lilies that wept crystalline dew onto the soil, golden star-ferns that pulsed with gentle warmth, and deep violet night-blooms that released a faint calming fragrance of spring rain and sweet clover.

The vibrant floral ring was the handiwork of Eluned who had tended the soil with her quiet divine grace before retreating to the inner gardens of the Keep.

Silas stopped at the edge of the fragrant flowerbed, looking down at the blossoms with a warm appreciative smile softening his features.

’Eluned really knows how to make a cold stone yard feel alive,’ Silas thought, admiring the clean peaceful boundary. ’She takes a barren patch of rock and turns it into a sanctuary without asking for a single word of praise... I should kiss her some more.’

He stepped carefully over the low stone border of the flowerbed, walking up to the central platform of the archway, and gently set Kaelia down onto her boots.

The chef swayed slightly as her feet touched the solid stone, blinking her tired eyes against the soft glow of the moon-lilies.

Silas kept a steadying hand lightly on the small of her back until she found her balance, smoothing down the rumpled hem of her white coat.

”You don’t have to stand through all of this, Kaelia,” Silas murmured, offering her an affectionate grin. ”You look like you’re about to fall asleep on your feet... You can head inside, find a warm bed, and sleep until noon tomorrow if you want.”

Kaelia shook her head firmly, her dark bangs fluttering across her forehead as she reached up to straighten her pleated linen cap.

”No, my Lord,” Kaelia said, her sweet voice carrying a sudden resolute spark of curiosity. ”I want to stay right here... I want to watch the whole process of summoning a Hero from the very beginning.”

She looked up at the towering white archway, her eyes widening with quiet reverent fascination.

’I spend all my days locked away in the kitchens,’ Kaelia thought, her hands clasping tightly over the front of her white apron as she looked at the silent stone pillars. ’I hear the thunder rolling across the courtyard, I see the strange terrifying women who walk through the dining hall with weapons of fire and claws of steel... but now, I want to see the light that brings them to Lord Silas.’

Silas smiled at her stubborn curiosity, giving her shoulder a gentle encouraging pat before turning to face the Summoning Portal.

He stood with his boots planted on the white stone dais, folding his arms across his broad chest as he studied the plain unadorned archway before him.

His thoughts drifted back to Aki’s Wonderland.

”Hm?”

Silas remembered the look on Aki’s face when she’d pressed Y at her Troop Summoning altar.

He remembered the blinding pillar of multi-colored celestial ether that had blasted skyward, and the jaw-dropping results of her ten-ticket summon... five pristine, disciplined Shieldmaidens, and five actual, genuine dwarven smiths with braided beards and iron-hard shoulders.

’Wait a minute...’ Silas thought, his eyes tracking the smooth simple lines of his own white archway. ’My Summoning Portal has been sitting at Tier 2 ever since I first arrived in this territory. Is the reason Aki pulled five master dwarves in a single casual batch because her altar’s tier was higher than mine...?’

’I’m not leaving this to chance,’ Silas decided, his jaw setting with resolute authority. ’If I’m going to summon Heroes, this thing’s getting an upgrade first...’

Silas focused his intent, locking his gaze directly onto the white stone archway.

He channeled the vast shimmering pool of his Upgrade Points, reaching out toward the structure with a decisive pulse of his will.

Instantly, the air before his eyes fractured with golden light.

A brilliant translucent interface pane flared open against the twilight sky with its runic borders glowing.

[Upgrade System: Would you like to upgrade Tier 2 Summoning Portal directly to Tier 4 Dawnspire Gateway?]

[Cost: 1,200 UP]

[Y / N]

Silas didn’t hesitate for a fraction of a second.

...He pressed Y with an effortless snap of his will and the ground beneath the courtyard gave a sudden violent heave.

BOOOM!

A deep, tectonic vibration surged up through the bedrock, rattling the flagstones and sending a soft shower of golden pollen drifting from Eluned’s surrounding flowerbeds.

From the base of the two plain white stone pillars, brilliant, blinding geysers of incandescent molten gold and radiant pearl-white ether erupted from the flagstones.

The humble, ten-foot white stone archway began to groan and shudder, its plain rectangular blocks softening, liquefying into liquid starlight, and then expanding skyward with terrifying majestic speed.

CREAK!

The two modest pillars surged upward, climbing twenty, thirty, forty feet into the evening air, transforming into soaring fluted spires of pristine polished alabaster that gleamed with internal celestial radiance.

The stone was banded at regular intervals by thick interlocking conduits of pure star-gold, etched with ancient high-tier spatial geometries that pulsed.

The flat lintel dissolved, reforming into a magnificent sweeping gothic arch that soared fifty feet above the flagstones.

Crowned at the apex was a massive multifaceted sun-crystal the size of a war chariot, spinning slowly in midair, casting sweeping prismatic beams of ruby, sapphire, and brilliant amber across the entire courtyard.

At the foot of the gateway, the circular stone dais expanded outward, stepping down in three wide concentric tiers of polished white marble banded in gleaming brass.

Complex runic rings, inscribed with stabilization script that even Rowenna had never seen before, flared to life beneath the stone and spun in opposite directions with a low harmonic drone that sounded like a choir singing from the bottom of an ocean.

VUUUM!

The blinding light slowly settled, leaving behind the Dawnspire Gateway... a towering, gleaming masterpiece glowing against the dark.

Behind Silas, an explosion of startled breathless reactions rippled through the women.

”Holy heavens above...” Lupina breathed, her jaw dropping completely slack as her amber eyes reflected the spinning sun-crystal fifty feet in the air.

Beside her, Rowenna had her notebook pressed flat against her chest, her blue eyes wide as dinner plates, her mouth opening and closing silently as she tried to comprehend the mathematical power of the spinning runic rings.

”The curvature...” Rowenna whimpered softly, her fingers trembling against its cover. ”The spatial stabilization array is self-correcting... It’s operating on six overlapping harmonic axes simultaneously! That... I need to learn that!”

Solenne’s nine silver tails were completely still, held rigid in pure stunned awe, while Aurelia’s hands slowly rose to touch her silver medallion, her golden-amber eyes glowing with profound spiritual reverence.

Standing nearest to Silas, Kaelia let out a sharp audible gasp, her small hands flying up to cover her mouth.

”Ohhh!” Kaelia squeaked, her knees wobbling slightly as the pure warm pressure of the gateway washed over her face. ”It’s... it’s like a palace gate dropped straight from the celestial heavens! Lord Silas... you can just build things like this whenever you wish?!”

’Why are you acting surprised...?’

Silas turned his head, offering the chef a roguish knowing wink before facing the newly crowned platform.

”Alright, everyone,” Silas called out, his deep voice carrying an authoritative tone that cut through their dazed murmurs. ”Clear the outer perimeter... Step back past the flowerbeds and give the array plenty of breathing room... When a gateway opens its throat, you don’t want to be standing in the spatial draft.”

The girls obeyed immediately, stepping backward in a coordinated hurried retreat, taking up positions along the outer edge of Eluned’s glowing moon-lilies.

Even Lupina tucked herself behind Morrighan’s shoulder, watching the massive alabaster spires with tense excited anticipation.

Silas reached into his inventory with a focused pulse of his will as the air at his hip rippled with faint golden ether, and a single ornate slip of heavy paper materialized securely within his fingers.

It was a Hero Summoning Ticket.

The ticket was thick, cool to the touch, and shimmered with dense iridescent silver and gold script that shifted like living mercury across the surface.

A heartbeat vibrated through the paper, carrying the sleeping potential of a soul waiting across the dimensional void.

Silas stepped up the three tiers of polished white marble, walking to the center of the platform.

Resting dead center between the towering alabaster spires was a newly materialized pedestal of solid polished quartz, topped with a smooth concave silver indentation designed to receive the ticket.

Silas laid the Hero Summoning Ticket flat against the silver plate.

The instant the paper touched the metal, the dormant runes on the paper flared with blinding brilliance.

A translucent golden window snapped open directly above the pedestal, hovering at eye level.

[Hero Summoning Ticket detected. Begin Hero Summon?]

[Y / N]

Silas drew a slow steadying breath, his dark blue eyes sharpening as the golden ring in his pupils ignited with unyielding lordly authority.

He raised his right index finger and pressed Y.

’Summon me a goddess...’