Chapter 541 541 The True Guardians
Even though it was a romance novel cliché that Stephanie had read, Wolfe still went with the "stand here and look impressive" strategy. Mostly for a lack of a better plan on his part.
It seemed to work, the witches looked suitably impressed when they walked in and saw him standing by the stage, and even Ella gave him an impressed look when she saw his new outfit.
[Looks like we got it right.] Wolfe congratulated Stephanie.
[Of course we did. You look like every romance novel's drool worthy bad boy, what witch wouldn't go for it?]
Wolfe looked around the room and realized some of the attendees just looked awed and intimidated instead of impressed by the Family Elder look. The young witches were already super nervous about their first summoning, so it wasn't necessary to impress them, it was just making them more nervous.
"Welcome everyone to the second night of our big summoning event, where we will have another ten attempts for our Rank Three Witches to get something that we have never seen before. As you all remember, we have already had a Chimera and a Mana Beast among the Rank Three summons, along with many other, more familiar magical beasts.
I thank you all for coming to support our Witches tonight, and I know that they appreciate your well-wishes." Wolfe began.
Just as he finished, the moon rose above the horizon, and the witches of the Second Pentacle plus Cook, their last remaining Rank Three Witch, took to the stage, leaving the four from Wolfe's first pentacle to go second, per their prearranged schedule.
Or, at least, Wolfe assumed that it was arranged. There wasn't any arguing about it, and everyone was in place, waiting for him to say some final words.
"On behalf of Myself, the Noxus Family, and most importantly, all the residents of Forest Grove and the Fae Forest, I wish you everything that you might need for your future ascensions." Wolfe announced.
The Fae in the room cheered at that declaration. They didn't like luck, they could bend probabilities with magic, so wishing someone would get what they needed or deserved was considered a much better, or much more hostile, blessing.
The witches began their summoning, and Wolfe felt that familiar pull he had felt when the portal to the Lower Realms had opened, and they had gotten the six Succubi. This was definitely one concentrated spell, pulling all the Familiars from the same spot, but Wolfe couldn't tell exactly where.
If they were to summon another batch of powerful Demons, it might not be a bad thing. The city could use more powerful magic users who could work with Inscriptions.
But as the black fog began to coalesce, the feeling became much more familiar to Wolfe. Not a feeling of the Lower Realms, but the familiar feeling of the Underworld, where the Undead, the Magi souls and others gathered.
Technically, that was a Lower Realm as well, but it was a distinct one.
At the same time, the clouds coalesced, and six giant armoured knights in ornate plate armour, each carrying a massive two-handed blade and a spell book, formed on the platform.
"What exactly is that?" One of the onlookers asked, while the witches stared in shock at their undead Summons.
"We are the Guardians." The undead responded in unison.
That didn't really answer the question, but it was enough that the witches all recognized what had been summoned.
"The Guardians of the Eternal Saint. Lesser Liches trained for combat in both magic and blade work. It cost the Combined Armies a hundred thousand soldiers to make it through the fifty of them during the final battle." Mary whispered, clearly audible in the silent room.
They might only be six of them here, and they were at Rank Three right now, but with that sort of reputation, there was no doubt that they were a fearsome force.
Standing three metres tall, they were still impressive looking, and they were male Rank Three Demons. Wolfe could clearly sense the three fully formed Mana Cores in each of them. They might look like, and probably were technically undead, but they hadn't lost any of their power as Magi between one life and the other.
In unison, they gestured to their Witches, and vanished, turning into the form of a single piece of jewellery on each of them.
"Well, that was certainly impressive. How about we have our last four take the stage?" Wolfe suggested.
Cassie, Ella, Mary and Priya took the stage, and were about to begin the summoning when Stephanie hopped down off Wolfe's shoulder and stood in a fifth circle, transforming into a human, but wrapped in a thick black cloak and mask that hid every bit of her body from sight.
"Correction, we will have the last five go now." Wolfe amended, and the full Pentacle began to cast.
The response was instant, and five more black clouds formed, faster than the first time, and five more Guardians stepped out to greet the Witches. They were identically equipped to the first batch, right down to the matching armour and spell books. Perhaps there was no variance to their group, as they were all trained to do a bit of everything, but it would be difficult to tell whose Familiar was whose when they were active.
[Could this be a result of me being the Patriarch of the Noxus Family, and so many of these Witches being in my Pentacles?] Wolfe wondered.
The five new Guardians bowed politely to their Witches, but Stephanie's raspy voice was the only one that spoke.
"You're a big one, aren't you? Are you sure that you're up to the task?" She asked her new Familiar.
"Forever." It agreed, then turned into a shining silver collar as she turned back into a Familiar Cat and returned to Wolfe's shoulder with a nimble leap.
"We await your orders." The others agreed before transforming, and all the Rank Two witches stared in jealousy.
Not only did they get a talking, magic using Demonic Familiar that could be called back if it was somehow destroyed, it turned into beautiful accessories and didn't need to follow you everywhere.
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