455 QUITE A CHANGE (HOW NOT TO SUMMON A DEMON LORD – ANIME)

Appearing back in the space between worlds, I let out a soft laugh as new memories flooded into my head. It was funny how I only had to get the ball rolling in order to change the fate of the entire galaxy. The Vulcans had studied my upgrades and made the rest of their ships better, since I had promised to only redo one of them each month. That didn't mean they couldn't do the rest themselves and they did so.

I also inadvertently became a Pon Farr master, with each unattached female Vulcan coming to me to sate their lusts every seven years. Since they could choose to become pregnant or not, my methods to help them enjoy it to the fullest was their preferred choice. No other man could make the same guarantees.

Funnily enough, only the cook wanted a child, so she could pass on her knowledge to the next generation when it was time. I didn't begrudge her that, since she had been one of my first Pon Farr partners. T'Pol had to wait almost five full years before she entered her next one and it scared her just as much as our first sex session had. She kept coming back for it, though.

It didn't take long before it was the Vulcans that were the dominant race in the galaxy. Not even the Klingons or the Romulans could touch them, and that was the way the Vulcans liked it. I helped them protect themselves and gave them hope for a better future. It was the best thing I could have ever given them and they admired me for it.

I felt a presence at my side and I put an arm around them. “Hey, reading buddy! Do you have another book for me?”

There was a sad feeling and I put my other arm around her.

“No, don't be like that. I was just curious if you wanted to choose again, not that you had to.” I told them and felt happiness. “We can just float here for a while and talk if you want.”

There was a feeling of agreement and that's what we did. For a few weeks, I did most of the talking and got a lot of things off of my chest. I had spent so much time and effort in several trek universes fixing things that I was almost trekked out. Space was an adventure, and it always would be. I had no real desire to get back out there to keep exploring, however.

“I think I need a nice relaxing time in the next world.” I said and pet the invisible presence's head as it rested on my chest.

There was a questionable feeling and I chuckled.

“No, I've got too many options in my own head to pick from, since there's so much that I want to do, so I'm going to put them aside for now and let Fate choose again. It kind of worked out the last time she did that for me and I'll give it another shot.”

We do have a world in danger that could use your help. Fate's little blue box said when it appeared.

“I heard a huge but there.” I said, knowing there had to be a huge condition to it, otherwise Fate would have just sent me on my way.

You won't have access to any technology, like power reactors or replicators. The world just does not have the ability for things like that to work. Fate answered.

“Wait, it's a medieval world, isn't it? With too high of a magic quotient for tech to work?” I asked.

Correct. Even if you somehow create electricity, it won't support anything more than making small lightning bolts and that's it. No sustaining charge to run a television or anything.

I thought about that. “I can still enchant things, right?”

The box was empty for several moments and then showed a small 'sigh'.

I laughed and the presence on my chest gave my lips a kiss. “All right, I'll stop teasing. No enchanted television screens or computers. No tech means no tech, even if I adapted some to use magic a long time ago.”

Thank you. Fate's box said. Whenever you're ready to go, just say so.

I gave the presence on my chest another kiss and sat up. “I'm ready.”

Good luck. Fate said and everything faded to black.

*

I came to myself in the same sitting position, only on a hard stone floor. I opened my eyes when I felt two sets of lips, one on each cheek, kissing me. It took me a moment to compose myself as a small flood of memories went through my head and settled into the back of my mind, then another flood went through, only the second one didn't make any sense.

How the hell was I both a reclusive twenty-something year old gamer and also a powerful Demon Lord? Neither of their memories matched at all until I sorted through the gamer one first. There were bits and parts that matched the Demon Lord and it was quite confusing. They were separate and also the same person somehow? It really didn't make sense.

By the time my thoughts were settled, the two females that kissed me were standing in front of me and looked proud. The shorter one had large black cat ears and a tail, that swished behind her and lifted her skirt provocatively, while the other was a tall blonde elf with breasts that rivalled Rias Gremory's.

“Now the Enslavement Ritual is complete!” The blonde elf happily said and bounced a little to make her chest jiggle. “Way to go, me! The summoning was successful!”

“Try to not get the wrong idea. I'm the one that summoned him.” The black haired cat-girl said in a calm voice.

I somehow knew her race was called a Pantherian.

“Huh? But, I'm the one that summoned him! You saw that, didn't you?” The blonde elf argued. “Besides, I performed the Enslavement Ritual myself!” She said and put a hand to her lips. “The kiss and stuff, too.”

“I kissed him, too.” The cat-girl argued back.

“It was my kiss that worked!” The blonde elf countered. “I'm also the one that said we should go to Starfall Tower!”

I kind of froze as information came to the front of my mind unbidden. It was about Starfall Tower and how it used to be the old Demon Lord's domain. It was located at the border of the Kingdom of Lyferia and adjacent to the Man-Eating Woods. The closest town was the border city called Faltra. The tower itself had been used for summoning a lot and was also where the enslavement ritual usually took place.

The kicker for that was it was completely random. You could get anything when you summoned something, even if you spent the extra cost in magic stones and rare catalysts. Since it was always successful, you could also risk summoning a rare one that had a low chance of succeeding, while only losing the magic stones and catalysts, which is why almost no one tried for a rare one.

Goddammit. I'm a rare summon and now I'm a slave to these two bickering hens. I thought and slowly stood as the two kept trying to claim that they were the one to summon me, when I knew for a fact it had been the both of them that did it, since neither of them had the magic power to do it alone.

I glanced down at my mostly black clothing and it looked a little pretentious. Golden boots, gold belt, small gold shoulder pauldrons, gold bracers, and golden edging on the shirt and long cape. With a flex of my magic, it was nearly identical, except it was now my mostly white hero outfit with the same gold accents and accessories, then I stored the cape.

That was usually the first thing your opponent grabbed to fling you around when you were in a fight. I even changed my hair to a blonde color instead of white and with a fade around the ears and the back of my head, leaving soft wavy curls on top.

“There's no need to argue. You both summoned me and your lips touched my cheek at precisely the same time.” I said and both girls froze, shock on their faces, and turned to stare at me.

“Th-th-the summon talked?” The blonde elf asked, trembling.

“I can tell that you two are actually friends. You couldn't have done this without the other, so stop arguing and make up like all friends do.” I said with a disarming smile.

“Why would I make up with...” The cat-girl started to say when both she and the elf were covered in a green glow.

They walked towards each other and hugged. “I'm sorry.” The both said at the same time, then they gasped and let go as thick iron collars appeared around their necks.

“Oh.” I said as both of them freaked out about it. “Um... oops?”

It took a few minutes before they both calmed down and looked a little sad.

“Why us?” The blonde lamented. “I thought the slave collar was supposed to appear on the summon?”

“I'm sure the ritual that would place the collar on him was successful.” The cat-girl said.

“I don't want to be enslaved by a summon.” The blonde whined and fingered the large metal ring on the front of her collar, which I assumed was for a connecting chain.

The cat-girl looked angry for a moment, then sighed. “It doesn't matter how it happened. We need to head back to the city to look for a way to dispel it.” She said and pointed at me. “You are coming with us, too!”

I held up my hands in surrender, since I had no idea what kind of magic powers she had, and my eyes caught sight of a black ring with a red stone in it on my hand. Again, I briefly froze when information came to the forefront of my mind and I learned it was a very rare Demon Lord ring that could reflect all magic from a game called Cross Reverie.

That effect is going to get annoying really fast. I thought and nodded at the cat girl.

“Then let's go. It's a long walk back to the city gates.” The cat-girl said and walked over to the stairs.

“Uhhhh, I hate walking! We walked all the way here.” The blonde elf groaned and followed her. “Can't we stay and rest for a while?”

“No, it's going to be dark soon.” The cat-girl denied.

“Aww.” The blonde pouted and crossed her arms, making her large chest bounce again.

I walked behind them and thought about telling them I could apparate us a good distance from the top of the tower, since it was quite high. I could only do it by sight until I learned my way around whatever world this was. I mentally marked the summoning tower and followed them down the stairs.

Once we were walking through a field that led back to the city, I wondered why there wasn't any kind of road or path to follow, since the place was used a lot. I glanced back at the tower and used a bit of transfiguration and earth manipulation to make the circular area around it look like the stones of the tower.

I then pulled various rocks and things from the surroundings to form them into a cobblestone road embedded in the ground all the way over towards me. I turned around to follow the two women and set the road building task in the back of my mind to keep it active.

I walked in a straight line, ignoring the little hills and other larger rocks in the way, carving out a path and used the dirt and things to make the road sturdier and completely flat. As luck would have it, the blonde elf stopped walking after a long flat stretch and jumped a little when she realized something important and turned to face me, completely missing the nice road behind me.

“Oh, yeah! We haven't told you our names yet.” The blonde elf almost shouted.

“Good grief, you're an idiot.” The cat-girl said and stopped, too. “Even at a time like this.”

“But, won't it be difficult for him to talk to us if he doesn't know our names?” The blonde elf asked, a little unsure, and faced her.

The cat-girl looked startled and then motioned for her to go ahead. The blonde looked happy as she turned to face me again and intentionally shook her large breasts at me. There was no other way for them to jiggle so much if she wasn't doing it on purpose.

“I am Shera L. Greenwood.” Shera said, proudly. “I'm hoping to become an adventurer.” She tilted her head and smiled. “It's nice to meet you.”

The cat-girl turned to look at me. “I'm Rem Galleu. I need to keep proving my strength as an adventurer.” She said and looked a little sad as she ducked her head. “So please, lend me your strength.”

I felt for her, since trying to summon a rare one must have cost a lot of their resources, so I nodded. “It's nice to meet you as well, Rem and Shera. My name...” A flood of information came forward and I forced it off to the side and ignored it. “...is Atlas.”

Shera beamed a smile at Rem. “He must be worth a hundred normal men, Rem!” She said excitedly and pointed at me. “I've never heard of a talking summon before!”

“Neither have I.” Rem said and gave me a pointed look. “Or a named one.”

“I know! It's my first summon and it's an amazing one!” Shera said with stars in her eyes.

“I summoned him.” Rem said, her voice flat.

“You both did it.” I reminded them and they turned to look at me. “You succeeded because you did it together. There was no other way for you to bring me here, so you both should be proud of yourselves.”

The elf and cat-girl blushed at the praise.

“With... with you at my side, I can finally register as a Summoner at the Adventurer's Guild.” Shera said and straightened her back.

I nodded and pointed. “We should get going if we want to reach the city before nightfall.”

Both of them nodded and started walking. I followed them at a discrete distance and continued my road creation behind myself. If the travelling over such uneven terrain this close to a man-made structure was this rough, having a road should improve both the time and method of getting there.

*

After several long hours of the blonde elf's continuous talking about nothing, we eventually reached a wide dirt road. I shook my head at it, since it was obviously a well used thoroughfare and was maintained to some degree. Why couldn't they do what I was doing with the road behind me? It was only using already available materials and a bit of magic.

Instead of trying to continue the road behind me, I merged it with the edge of the wide dirt road, flattening it out to not have any transition between the dirt of the main road and the cobblestone of the tower road. With that done, I transfigured a rock into a tall appropriate sign... and then realized in a medieval world that most people might not be able to read.

It took barely a moment to expand the sign and I used a memory snapshot of the Skyfall Tower, changed to black and white of course, to embed into the stone face and added an arrow that pointed to the new road. Since I didn't want anyone confused by it, I copied the sign on the back as well, so it could be seen when walking in either direction on the main road.

“What are you doing?” Rem the cat-girl asked.

“I'm admiring the sign.” I said.

Both the elf and the cat-girl walked over to it and stared at the picture.

“That's the Skyfall Tower!” The blonde elf said and pointed at it. “We were just there!”

“Yes, we were.” I said and stepped back.

“That wasn't there before.” Rem said and looked at me, then at the sign.

“Are you sure?” I asked, putting doubt in my voice. “It looks old and weathered.”

Rem looked at the elf and the blonde shrugged. “Let's keep going. The city's not far away now.”

I nodded and the three of us walked down the wide road. We stayed off to the side and continued to walk for another hour before we reached a gigantic walled city. It was difficult to tell if the waterway around it was natural or built, with how it seemed to be a part of the landscape. Magic was definitely involved in making it look so natural.

Surprisingly, the gate guards didn't even look at us as we passed through, let alone checked us for identification or anything. I supposed as long as we looked the part of adventurers, they didn't care if we entered the border city or not.

Inside was packed to the walls with large buildings, some three and four stories tall. There were no actual houses and it seemed like everyone lived packed together in apartment-like housing. The streets were fairly small if you stepped off of the main road and I realized then that the main road didn't divert around the city at all and must pass right through the middle to the other side.

I tried to not gawk at seeing so many animal races walking around and going about their business. I couldn't even categorize them all, there were so many. It wasn't until we reached the center of the city and the large market square there that I knew I was wrong. It was actually a crossroads and four roads left the walled in city in the cardinal directions, north, east, south, and west.

We went down another road and came to a stop when Rem said that this was the inn they were staying at. I noticed the sign was a symbol and there was writing on the bottom, only it was small and meant only for people who could read the name of the inn. We entered and a tiny cat-girl at the desk greeted us happily and her leopard ears twitched.

“Welcome to the Peace of Mind Inn! I'm Mei-Chan and will serve all of your needs! Nya!” Mei said and did a cute little pose like a pouncing cat.

Rem gave her a deadpan look, probably because she was perpetuating a stereotype.

Shera looked back at me as well and then at the hostess. “I'd like to have this man stay in the same room with me.”

“There's no need for that.” Rem said. “Atlas will be staying with me.”

“EHH? Why's that?” Shera asked, shrilly.

“I'm the one who summoned him. It's natural for him to stay with his master.” Rem answered.

“I'm the one that summoned him!” Shera argued and the two started bickering again.

“You two are being a nuisance by fighting at the reception desk.” Mei said with a fake calm voice.

I held in my sigh at the two girls arguing. I stepped forward and put my hands on Rem's and Shera's shoulders, pushed them apart, and stepped up to the desk. “I'd like your biggest and most expensive room, please.”

All three girls gasped when I dropped three blank gold coins onto the desk.

“With a bath if you have it. If not, I'll be happy as long as there's a big bed and a good view.” I told her.

Mei's ears and tail twitched happily as she swiped up the three coins and then she looked up, and up, and finally met my eyes. She was barely half my height. “The best room is at the top of the stairs at the end of the hall. It's usually used for important guests.”

“Then I'll fit right in.” I said with a charming smile and she blushed.