2 The Summoning

At night on Earth, when the clouds clear up and reveal the beauty of outer space as the stars light up the sky, one young man was appreciating the view from the rooftop of his house.

His house was a two-story building that had a rooftop instead of the typical steel roof. This rooftop was filled with clothe lines in the morning for when their servants did laundry and freed of them by night, thus, the view here was excellent for night-star watching. The roof edge was barricaded to protect everyone, even the foolish children who play in this very roof, neighbors and family children when they do visit. Bins and laundry baskets are arranged neatly near the exit for easy access.

At first this roof did not have any other things aside the laundry needs, however, growing up, he discovered how great and relaxing a place this was to stay on at night. So, he ordered for a folding bed to be set up here as his very own relaxing spot.

The wind was blowing gentle breeze in this residential district. The noise of the city is far away, and the industrial disturbances were located close to the mountains. This night was supposed to be just another relaxing night for the young man, Clay. He was wearing his pajamas and listening to his favorite music through a portable speaker. It wasn't loud yet it also wasn't silent. He was playing music from different anime soundtracks, opening theme and closing themes. While doing that his hands were scrolling over high quality comics; reading. Truly a night to relax and enjoy.

*Chime*

"Humm. There it goes again." Putting his pinky inside his ear and starting to grind it as if something was stuck there or that noise that simply comes as a long continuous ring. He has already heard that very same sound chiming since early morning and it was giving him some sort of metaphorical headache. He pictures a small bell, every time it chimes, and he couldn't help but wonder where it is coming from. Even when he was listening to great music like "Kimi ga suki dato sakebitai" and "Cha-la Head Cha-la" to name some, he could still hear the chime as if resounding inside his brain. If he weren't grounded to reality, he'd have already thought he was being summoned to another world because this was clearly a template. Clay was a fan of comics and light novels joining many sites that host several translated Japanese, Chinese, and even Korean Light novels. He always paid for content and signed up whenever he could. His family was rich, so he didn't worry about the expenses for his hobby. However, to him it was not as simple as a hobby. It was life itself.

*Chime*

The chime came again as the phone finished dialing his mother's phone.

*Click*

The line connected with a click and the ringing stopped. So, he spoke.

"Mom, I need to have the doctor check up on me, I've been hearing this chime in my head for a day already and it's stressing me out. Can you schedule a meet up as soon as possible?" So, he said towards his mom. However,

*Bzzt*

White noise came intermittently, as a shaky voice responded to him.

"I'm gra… ful for ans… t… call…" then suddenly the voice got clearer and cleaner as Clay's eyes widened in disbelief over what he heard the voice say in the end, "… Otherworld Summoning!"

Immediately after hearing that chant-like invocation, light bloomed under the folding bed with Clay as the center and his phone making noise clearly the voice of his mother as he dropped it in start from the blooming light below him. It was supposed to be a frightening thing to be involved in this summoning without prior notice, but his reading experience was rich, and he calmly assessed the situation after the initial startle. He ignored his mother yapping all alone on the phone, and welcomed the summoning he was going to be involved in.

"Oh~! I get to experience for my self the otherworld adventure! Awesome!" He shouted inside his head. Then, the light brightened up some more until blinding. Then, everything went dark.

Clay, who was clearly excited about a summoning to another world opened his eyes only to see nothing. It was dark. In fact, there was no shed of light that his light receptors could even hope to reflect. A world of darkness, not one bit of light existed here.

Clay wanted to move his body but were unable to do so and slightly gave him discomfort. He wanted to grumble but he was also unable to do so. All he could do was think and shout things in his mind. "No, no, no, no! Please don't let it be one of those summoning where the summoned are subjected to a curse to follow whatever the summoner orders! I don't want my otherworld adventure to be of being a slave!" He shouts. No one should hear him, however, as if some higher power heard his plea,

[Please calm down. I cannot release you from your bind but if you can hear me, then that's good. I am sorry that we must meet this way, but I need to impart to you something for your journey. And on that note, I need you to be calm and know that you are going to be alright.]

An ancient voice directly heard by Clay in his mind spoke to him to calm him down. It resounded quite clearly which gave Clay a slight peace of mind as he answered,

"What's happening? Where is this?"