Why Did You Summon Me?

The being was not a vampire, a mummy, or a zombie. What crawled out from the coffin was a sky-blue suit of armor. It flexed its limbs and twisted its wrists while staring at Tisdale. “Dale, why did you summon me?”

“Is that, um, you, Grandpa Sword Saint?” Tisdale asked.

The numbers carved on the coffins in the room referred to the seniority rank of the Voidwalkers, and the number two belonged to the Second Voidwalker — the Knight.

The black orbs and the coffins were trump cards that Baiyi left behind. Each coffin had a Pseudo-Descent Formation inscribed in it. One needed only to place the black obs into the slots on the coffin, and the Pseudo-Descent Formation would automatically activate. It would use one of the many chunks of Baiyi’s consciousness as a container for the Voidwalker being summoned to the real world.

Baiyi had left this trump card behind for extreme cases that occurred in his absence, whether that be his sudden banishment into the Void, loss of consciousness, or worse, his death. This way, the girls would still be protected by other Voidwalkers in his absence.

Baiyi felt proud of himself for preparing for the worst. The situation that Arfin City had faced was dire enough to require the activation of his trump card.

The black orbs were made by several Voidwalkers with insight and knowledge they possessed in magical craftmanship. Using the Divine Energy Crystal they had obtained earlier as a blueprint, the Voidwalker had managed to create an inferior imitation of the Divine Energy Crystal, which they used to store surplus Void Energy. Baiyi had named them ‘Void Crystals’.

Compared to the original Divine Energy Crystal, the imitation was unremarkable and cheap. It was fragile, and its storage volume was small. Its composition was so unstable, anyone who carried it had to do so with the gentle touch of a lady; otherwise, it would shatter, and the Void Energy within it would disperse. Nevertheless, the inferior Divine Energy Crystal was the best tool Baiyi had at his disposal to store energy, using it as a power source for the Pseudo-Descent Formation inscribed on the coffin. It was also used to power the summoned Voidwalker, granting them full power the moment they needed it.

The Knight Walker’s suit of armor was not made from rare and precious materials, but Baiyi had spared some effort to finetune, leaving the armor in pristine condition. The armor was sure to meet the Knight Walker’s need on the battlefield.

“How are you feeling, Grandpa Sword Saint?” Tisdale hurriedly asked. She had learned of the Knight Walker’s real name and backstory from her Baiyi, but she refrained from addressing the Second Walker with anything other than his formal title.

“Not too shabby,” the Knight Walker nodded and replied. He drew a weapon from the scabbard tied to his waist; it had been prepared by Baiyi beforehand.

It looked like a normal longsword, but it had been crafted by the Blacksmith Walker, who had utilized smithing techniques from Earth and this world. He had also received pointers from Baiyi when calibrating the sword to match the fighting style of a Southern knight. The sword was a weapon only the Knight Walker could use — a personal weapon. Although it was not a divine weapon, the longsword was the best weapon for the Knight Walker right now.

“Dale, what is so serious that you summoned me, instead of that wayward Archmage?” The Knight Walker asked. He knew that an inter-realm war had broken out, as the Fairy Walker had announced it in the Void. However, he did not know the situation at Arfin City.

Tisdale quickly explained their predicament to him, and with a worry-filled voice, she pleaded, “Um, Grandpa Sword Saint, the students sent to guard the western part of the city are in great danger. If you could, please…”

“Understood. I’m on it,” the Knight Walker calmly replied. To him, the sea of undead monsters was nothing more than a petting zoo containing woodland creatures.

“Pfft. Behold the First Walker, the Sage-Emperor of the Magi! Behold, the Strongest Emissary of all Voidwalkers — the Hope of the Void! Bah! Where are they now that they are most needed?” The Knight muttered under his breath. His expression was sour as he turned to Tisdale and said, “Dale, I need to remind you that the energy stored in my armor can only be used for a single strike. It will be best that you prepare a backup for any trouble we might face. You can start that right now.”

“What? Only one strike?!” Tisdale exclaimed, visibly disappointed.

The Knight Walker did not say anything more and left.

At a loss for what to do, Tisdale took out her communication slab and contacted the Engineer Walker.

The Engineer Walker was silent for a while before saying, “Well, if Hope left more Void Crystals there, use them to summon more of us. That would surely help.”

“Got it,” Tisdale replied and hurried back towards the hidden safe in Baiyi’s lab. There were several safes in that area, and Tisdale hurriedly opened them all. When she had, however, she froze in her tracks, flabbergasted.

There were so many Void Crystals! If five Void Crystals was all it took to summon a Voidwalker, then the number of Void Crystals in the safes was enough to summon all thirty-three Voidwalkers — twice!

“Umm… Our invincible Grandpa isn’t here, and our second invincible Grandpa, Sword Saint, has just been summoned… Welp, it’s your turn now, Lord Divine Dragon,” Tisdale muttered, carefully placing some Void Crystals on the Coffin with a “3” carved on it. Unlike the Knight Walker’s coffin, the Dragon Walker’s coffin was several times larger, and it required a few more Void Crystals.

Tisdale placed seven Void Crystals into the coffins formation. She looked as though she was using a vending machine. The formation lit up, and several seconds later, a metallic claw emerged from the side of the coffin and pushed the lid aside. Within the coffin was a dragon with a metallic body!

“Bloody hell, Hope! Why is this body so small?!” The metallic dragon bellowed. Its current body was only two meters tall and three meters wide — larger than a human, but much smaller than its real size.

“What the hell are these? Human’s machinery? Why must I wear the work of that horny Engineer!?” The metallic dragon continued to bellow.

Unlike the Knight Walker, who quietly accepted the body he was made, this Voidwalker was dissatisfied, and it was verbal about it. The metal on its body was not armor; it was a magical marionette specially designed by the Engineer Walker.

When the metal dragon had had its say, it sharply turned to face the frightened Tisdale. When the Dragon Walker saw her expression, it adjusted the cogs that made up its jaw in an attempt to smile, but it ended up resembling a hungry tiger baring its fangs. “You’re Dale, yes? Do not be afraid; you’re not my enemy. But, why did you summon me?”

“Lord Divine Dragon, the dire situation we are in calls for it,” Tisdale said and began to fill the Divine Dragon in on Arfin City’s current dilemma.

“Ah, I see. I shall go out and take a look,” the Divine Dragon replied. The huge Voidwalker flapped its wings and shot out of the Magus Lab, smashing a hole through the wall of Baiyi’s basement, as it headed towards the transporter portal linked to Arfin City.

“Now we have two new Voidwalkers with us,” Tisdale murmured to herself. “Hmm… Perhaps, for good measure, I should summon one more.”

She glanced at the remaining coffins in the room and began to read the inscription on every one of them. The seniority of the Voidwalkers and a Pseudo-Descent Formation was not the only thing carved on the lid of each coffin. Baiyi had also written a simple summary of each Voidwalker.

The summary on the Fourth Walker’s coffin read: ” Battle prowess unclear, but his weird behavior is very clear. He works in mysterious ways. Summoning not recommended.”

The summary on the Fourth Walker’s coffin read: ” This coffin is empty. I only added it so that the number of coffins reaches thirty-two. Honestly, I don’t know what circumstance would require anyone to summon a tree.”

There was also a coffin for the Cleric Walker coffin; he had taught at Da Xue for a while, but he was often banished to the Void for his misdemeanors. This coffin also had a summary inscribed on it: ” Should you consider summoning him, please first ensure that you’re wearing the most conservative outfit you can think of. Do not wear a short skirt, and absolutely do not wear a silk sock.

After reading the summaries on all the coffins, Tisdale realized that only two Voidwalkers still in the Void possessed the amount of power she required: the Sorcerer Walker — who was in the Void waiting for his suit of armor to be fixed — and the Caveman Walker, who had always been eager to leave the Void, but never found the chance to do so.

Tisdale got to work, summoning the two Voidwalkers. Afterward, she wasted no time in briefing them on the unfavorable situation at hand.

“That desperate, huh?” The Sorcerer Walker muttered to himself. He walked around Baiyi’s Magus Lab and stole a training quarterstaff from the Fifth Walker’s collection. This staff was of high quality, and it had been gifted to Baiyi by a noble that specialized in the trade.

“Hahahaha! It’s been a long, long time since I get to move my muscles around! My muscles, Papa has missed you!” The Caveman laughed out loud, flexing his olive-green armor. He was two meters tall, and his fierce disposition made him look intimidating and wild. “Before I rub my knuckles all over the faces of my enemies, I gotta’ go talk to the Ancestors first!”

The Caveman froze for a few moments before bursting into gleeful laughter. “Haha! The Ancestors commend my mettle! Now, I’m going to punch things! ”

“Hmm. This is sufficient, I think?” Tisdale muttered, looking around hesitantly. However, she still walked out of Baiyi’s lab, arriving at the basement of his chalet. The charging Voidwalkers left the place looking like the scene of a battle.

“Note to self: clean this up before Sir returns, or else I’m getting an earful.” Tisdale facepalmed helplessly. She was more worried about something else, though. Had she had made the right call summoning four Voidwalkers in one go? Would she get in trouble for that, too?

Baiyi paused the flashback at this point and said, “So, why did you summon four Voidwalkers in one go, then?”

“There was little reason to hold back, as the situation was dire enough to demand the use of our trump card,” Tisdale replied.

“Hmm… Wise rationale.” Baiyi agreed and resumed the flashback.

It took Tisdale thirty minutes to summon the Voidwalkers, and in that time, the battle had taken a turn for the worse. The fleet of skeleton dragons had reached Arfin City, and they had already begun a massacre. They formed a circle and targeted the city walls, first.

Should the walls fall, Arfin City would lose its most basic but important protection. When that happened, the city would meet its demise.

The city’s walls were slowly accumulating damage. Thick black smog seeped out from the walls as the acidic draconic breaths rapidly corroded them. If one were to look at the city from high up, they would realize that the city had been surrounded by toxic smog, and no one count come in or go out of the city. The draconic breaths were so toxic, even the city’s sturdy granite within the city’s walls were being reduced to rubble.

The city guards had long since fled their stations, knowing all too well that they would not survive the attack of the skeleton dragons. This reduced the number of casualties suffered from the attack.