The twelve holy stars that formed the magic circle lit the scared hall with a storm of iridescent light. Mana swirled and swept through the hall like a raging tempest. Teressa knew her spell was a success.
She can feel the all mighty presence of the hero who answered to her summon. He would be the light that liberates the world from the darkness that is the demon lord. He would be the savior and protector of this world. He is the mightiest hero who walked the hall of the Companion of Justice.
Tessa knelt solemnly the moment the light faded and the storm of swirling mana settled. "O great hero, please save our world from the villainous hands of the demon king," she respectfully asked.
There was no sound. The hero spoke no word. Intrigued, Teressa looked up to the majestic figure of the all mighty hero who would save her world.
His hair was dawn itself, a majestic red, enchanting and mysterious. His body was not a bulk of muscles just like that of the paladins who served the temple. He was lanky, tall and lean just as she has imagined, yet appeared to be solid as if every fiber of muscles on his body was forged by fire. Yes, he was half naked. Tessa had no idea why he would answer to her summon while being in such a state. The hero stared at Teressa with widened amber eyes, then made a fist and punched himself.
"Hero?" Teressa could not help but let the confused words slipped off her lips.
A booming voice of fury shook the entire scared hall, "You imbecile!" The hero's countenance was that of fury like an erupting volcano, "I'm basically on vacation leave. What have you done? No, what have you done? You have just destroyed my honeymoon."
"Hero?" Teressa could not understand a word that the hero said. Vacation leave? Honey moon? Those were strange words. She should have understood the hero through the magical bond that she used to summon him.
"Nincompoop, can't you even read the clauses of our company before making a summoning? There are still like dozen of them still on duty and currently not taking any job. Why would you use the Emergency Summon to summon an off-duty hero like me?" the hero clutched his head. His fingers dug into his red hair and started tearing at them, "Can't you see this giant notice on the board?" He then used his magic power to conjure a board out of thin air, a list of heroes that worked for the Companion of Justice.
"Can't you see the status? It reads <Currently of duty>. Are you perhaps illiterate or too stupid to understand the meaning of this notice? What do you have against me? This is the first holiday I had in thirty years. I had planned for this honeymoon for over twenty years and you have just destroyed it completely."
Tears filled the hero's eyes and wetted his ashen cheeks. His amber eyes turned into the angry red of ruby and fire.
Teressa found herself completely stupefied, unable to mutter a word. She was both confused by the strange words that the hero spoke and the fury that radiated from his eyes. Even when he was angry, he's still dreadfully beautiful and dreamy.
"What? Say something! Are you pretending to be deaf or muted?" The hero shouted and the entire hall seemed to shake, tilting to his booming voice.
Teressa did not expect the hero would shower her with such wrath. Then, she remembered the words on the summoning manual and muttered them again. "O great hero, please save our world from the villainous hands of the demon king,"
"Now you are pretending to be a broken radio. And why would you summon me for this case? Did you even take a look at my resume? See? See this section? I have written very clearly here." The hero furiously scratched his head and stomped his feet. He summoned another semitransparent board in the air and pointed his finger at it.
It was a familiar board which Teressa has read again and again for many years until she remembered every word on it. It was the resume of her beloved hero.
<Specialty: Experienced in dealing with Demon Gods, Mad Gods, Evil Gods, Mischief Gods, Prankster Gods or any kind of Immortal Deity.>
The hero's finger was pointing at that one specific line on Teressa's favorite bible.
"Why would you use an Emergency Summon to summon me? Demon Lord is not a specialty of mine," complained the hero. His handsome face was awash with tears.
"But Hero, if you are powerful enough to deal with Demon Gods, surely you can deal with a demon lord," reasoned Teressa.
"You imbecile. Demon Gods and Demon Lord are completely different. The procedures and methods of dealing with them are not the same. Why? Why do people as stupid as you even exist? Can't you read the clauses first before signing the contract with my company and summon me? What do you say to defend yourself?"
"O hero, please save our world from the villainous hands of the demon king?"
"Fuck, the story of my life," the hero cursed, violently banging his head thunderously against the wall again and again and again as he set all sort of advanced vocabulary loose.
That was the first time Teressa met with the beloved hero of her dream, hero number 013-Nafla Summer.
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Matter and anti-matter, light and darkness, life and death, they are the opposing forces that perpetually counterbalance each other. So are Hero and Demon Lord.
They are meant to fight and destroy each other from the moment of their birth. It is the hero's duty and destiny to preserve, create, and protect the world while the Demon Lord would destroy, consume and undo the world.
However, the world is imperfect. While there are universes and dimensions that have both Hero and Demon Lord to counterbalance with each other, there are also universes and dimension that only have either a Demon Lord or a Hero. There are even universes and dimensions that have too many of either Demon Lords or Heroes.
That's how the heroic company The Companion of Justice was first founded. They consist of ready-made Hero who would answer to the summon of people in need across universes and dimensions. These Heroes would then fulfill their destiny and duty, and combat the opposing force of the Demon Lord to protect the people who called for them.
Nafla Summer is one of them, one of the thirteen Heroes who founded the Companion of Justice. His identification number was 013 and his rank within the company has consistently stayed at the number 13 from the beginning, unchanging without moving up or down once.
Nafla Summer is one of the Heroes who specialize in a specific field within the Companion of Justice. For instance, the Hero number 073 Matt Scott is a specialist in dealing with Demon Lords who have weakness to cute things. The Hero number 055 Martha Waynekent is a specialist in dealing with a sub-specie type of vampiric nature Demon Lord that known as Children of Trypkon.
Nafla is a specialist in dealing with the evolved form of Demon Lord. He is specialized in handling those Demon Lords who have evolved into Immortal life forms. Just like most specialized Heroes, he is extremely ill-equipped at dealing with anything that he is not specialized. While he had a mean at dealing with the strongest and most powerful evolved form of a Demon Lord, he is unable to deal with the weakest of Demon Lords.