The Summoning King

A light novel written around Teyvat's wildly popular card game "Genius Invokation TCG." Characters are inventively designed, the plot twists brilliantly—a recent hot work.

The end of a duel-journey that crossed many worlds.

On the many canopies of heaven this supreme rite appeared—and opened in a way no one could have foreseen—

"The final chapter of a story is pretty much always like this form. Sorry, my friend."

The opponent's figure came down the "Secret Foundation Long Ladder," removed a crocodile mask, and showed a pale-blue face whose features were as if the same as his own…

Abu's motion of drawing cards from the Book of Secrets' box froze for a moment.

Go on, say some complaint, some anger, some sarcasm—so thought the one who had taken off the mask.

But the youth only took the cards from the box and set them steadily on the table:

"If every story's last chapter is like this form, that isn't bad either. After all, I've wanted to duel you for a long time."

"Boss Duba, can little Abu win?" someone among the sailors said. On the night sea, the wind carried the stink of hanging dried sea goods.

The man who once won the seven seas by the rite of the duel sat among them with open spirit and raised a cup that shone greenish under the moon.

"If he loses, I'll twist off his head as agreed—but for drinking, new things still aren't as good as old…"

"The dice are a bit off, heh—looks like the dice stand on 'that side' too. Ah, well, I told you—as long as you use the right technique…"

"But hey, cheating methods probably can't fool the Duel Between—better bring more dice-reroll cards," said a little fox with a tray of bowls, coming near. "That's exactly why Brother Abu won't learn it, and why Sister Cui fell from master of the Cui Pavilion to where she is now… Ah, right—this is the fish soup for table seventeen; take it over before it cools."

All right, all right, said the girl as she rose from the table, yet her eyes never left the sky-canopy's image.

"Can't… do it. Can't connect." A black-haired girl with her face hidden in a hood—arcs of electricity jumping at her fingertips—yet as if warned, the dice floating about her shattered one after another. "The Duel Between, that place… is more sacred than a sanctuary."

"Ah, you're still trying. If it won't work, never mind. Even the 'Crocodile King' himself can't escape from inside—it'd be stranger if you, Nimiao, could. Better trust him a little more—though the odds are small." Alitos, the knight king of duels, seemed unconcerned that a friend who helped him restore his country might lose and die in a duel.

"…Still, the opponent is the 'Crocodile King.' Abu, I'm a little jealous."

It would also be fine if the story ended with the youth's unbelievable last-stand counterattack.

In the last round there was no more turn of fortune. Once he had tried to erase the barriers of worlds for a grander war and been sealed here by the Ibis King—but even a king who rules battle may have times when battle does not favor him.

As the story hoped, the victor was the youth Abu.

"Speak your wish…"

This ragged body could not last much longer—he did not want the youth opposite to know.

Abu tilted his head, watching him, watching his body turn gradually to flying ash.

"You lived by war—yet all along the way you've been calming strife," the youth said.

He lowered his head.

That would be too boring, Abu said. Without you the world would be too boring; as for you…

You don't understand. But I just remembered—even now I haven't asked your name.

The Crocodile King saw a dangerous smile the youth had never shown before.

Then all these many worlds heard the youth's wish that day—

"Let every barrier vanish. Let world clash with world. I want to see blood there flow like rivers and bones piled into mountains."

"Thus I will make the king who rules the duel immortal forever."

— The Summoning King, Part One, grandly complete! —