Novel Full Chapter 320: Summoning Failed
About an hour later...
Percival had gone over their encounter with Ethan, what little they had gathered, and what had been said. Ethan, in turn, had filled in the gaps from his side.
Between the two of them, the picture wasn’t complete, but atleast they understood a great deal of what they had to deal with.
Isabella wasn’t here at time. She had gone back to the palace with her siblings still within her shadows.
Valerie and Eduardo had also returned not long after, reporting that the workers had been evacuated from Stark Industries without incident.
Everyone was seated in the living room at this time.
"This is bad." Valerie said, still shaken from hearing the talk between Percival and Ethan. "How are we supposed to beat someone like Audrey?"
Percival gave his most straight forward thoughts. "Don’t we have the advantage in numbers, especially for reawakened?"
He began counting them off with small gestures.
"On our side, there’s the king, the princess, Mr. Eduardo..." He tilted his head toward Hayley. "This freakhead here—"
Hayley shot him a look immediately, but he waved it off.
"—and then there’s you and your summons."
Then he turned, pointing toward Ishtar. "Even her output is crazy high. She’s like you guys who are reawakened."
He shrugged. "Meanwhile it’s just Audrey... and that Anton guy."
Ethan lifted his head. "It’s not that simple man"
"Like Eduardo said before, battles at Grand Class level are usually based off skill sets. I’d personally like to call it the counter factor.."
He gestured lightly.
"Audrey controls time. Anton has some ability to manipulates dimensions and displace things, both people and spells too."
Ethan had confirmed that much after hearing Valerie’s account of what happened when Anton and Audrey first arrived at Stark Industries, especially how Anton was able to interfere with their sealing barrier spell.
"Under the right conditions, Anton could thin us out quickly." Ethan continued.
"I don’t fully know what the king can do. But outside Isabella, maybe... the rest of us don’t have direct counters to time manipulation."
His gaze moved between Eduardo and Hayley, gesturing to them as he explained
"Take for instance, they are both physical fighters, but against time-based control, it doesn’t mean much."
Then to himself. "I’ve got a few tricks... but in the grand scheme, it’s not enough on its own."
He exhaled. "So it doesn’t matter if we have numbers. Without the right counters...We’re still fucked."
"The only advantage we have in numbers is our level and our magic resistance.
"As powerful as their abilities are, they won’t be able to hold another Grand Class for long. The resistance from the target limits that."
"The more of us there are, the less effective their control becomes across the group."
Then he looked back at Percival. "Now you see the real problem?"
"...Damn, Percy said."
It was quiet in the room for a second until Hayley broke the silence.
"Okay... we know our weaknesses," she said,"but they’ve got to have one too, right?"
Ethan turned to her.
"I don’t know if I’d call it a weakness," he said slowly, "but there are limitations."
That got their attention.
"Anton," he continued, "can’t just send anything anywhere. From my little experience, I think he has to place this mark on it first."
"And Audrey, her ability to manipulate time operates within a range she calls her time zone."
"So we just... don’t get marked," Hayley said, then added with a shrug, "and don’t stand inside that bitch’s zone."
Ethan’s eyes widened. "Hold on."
The corners of his lips slowly grew into a smile. "Oh, Hayley, you beauty."
She grinned and made giddy body movements. "I know."
Ethan let out a short laugh, shaking his head before the expression faded back into focus.
"I don’t know about Anton yet," he said, thinking out loud, "but Audrey... I think I know how we deal with her."
"If her time manipulation is truly confined to that zone, then we just need to limit it by reducing the space her zone can spread it into"
He laughed a bit, suddenly certain this would work. "She had basically done herself in by telling me of her timezone."
"So, if we compress the usable space, then her ability to expand or distribute the effect time gets choked, since there isn’t enough room for her to properly extend the zone."
Valerie’s eyes lit up slightly. "So... the space sealing spell?"
She quickly added, "But master Ethan, the spell’s only tier six. Even with your amplification, that might not compare to her time magic."
"Yes unfortunately," Ethan said immediately, "but i’m not just going towards the direct of sealing now."
He shook his head, then turned to Eduardo.
"We need absolute control. Which is why we’ll need extra help... from my mother."
Everyone looked surprised at that, but it was nothing compared to the shock in both Francesca’s and Eduardo’s eyes.
Ethan held their gaze, a smile on his face.
"With how powerful she was as a space dragon is, I’m pretty sure we’d be able to take down Audrey"
Francesca stepped forward for a bit, looking concerned. "My sweet boy, are you sure?"
Ethan nodded. "Yes."
Eduardo and Francesca exchanged a brief look, then both nodded back in acknowledgment.
Ethan exhaled, then stood up. "I’ll be back."
He turned, walking the length of the space to get upstairs. Short after, he was in the large room that belong to his parents.
He stepped in, taking in the space for a brief moment. In truth, he had never stayed here for more than a few minutes at a time.
It wasn’t unfamiliar, but it didn’t feel like his place either.
Additionally, It wasn’t the first time he considered summoning them, but every time the idea came, he had pushed it away.
Asides that the fact that he got by without their aid, it also felt like a line he had chosen not to cross. His way of respecting the soul that had once lived in this body, the real Ethan.
He considered that there was a possibility that his parents were truly with him in the well of the undying, so dragging them out had always felt... wrong.
Unfortunately, however, he needed them—even if only for a short while.
He exhaled quietly and moved further into the space. Reaching for a cabinet, he opened it to pick out an item belonging to his mother.
A small brooch.
He then returned to the center of the room and placed it carefully on the floor.
Then he raised his hand and bit into the side of it with his fang, breaking the skin just enough to let blood fell in slow drops over the brooch.
It spread outward as if guided by an unseen force, to form a magic circle. Then his voice slipped into a peculiar chant, the one that belonged to him as the bearer of the Spirit King’s Authority.
"Ascends from the realm where souls rest eternal, and become the instrument that heeds my call"
Those were the last words he said, but after that, nothing happened.
For a brief second, he simply stared at the circle, then a screen showed up.
[Summoning Failed]