Conjuration

Wonwoo had read up on the so called AM to his satisfaction. The information seemed to check out. Now he need a plan. He was going to steal an object of extreme value and even greater power. An ancient item from the underworld. He – a mundane boy.

Obviously he had to get himself some magical help. After going to Pledis for a few years he should have a firm grasp on how to use a wand, right? Just shake the thing and point and then maybe mumble some stuff. How hard could that be?

The first thing he needed was a wand. He wasn’t going to steal it, just borrow it for a bit without asking.

Even before leaving his room he had to admit that this idea was stupid and would likely go horribly wrong but after reading about the AM’s powers for so long he couldn’t give it a rest. If one thing could make Mingyu fall for him he had to have it. Even if it meant stealing from monks.

Wonwoo strolled down the corridors, looking for a wizard whose wand he could borrow, but nobody was conveniently asleep in the usual spots.

Chan came running along the corridor, screaming.

Pledis School survival rule number one: if a wizard runs away from something, you run the same way.

Wonwoo jogged along the younger boy. “Hey Chan. What are we running from?”

“Outside…conjured…horrible… Must. Get. Help.” He took a deep breath. “Don’t tell Seungcheol!”

“Outside?” Wonwoo slowed down and fell back. No reason to keep running then. And certainly no reason to exhaust himself.

“Yes…outside…find…help…”

Chan turned around a corner and was out of sight. For a moment Wonwoo considered his options. Chan hadn’t had his wand ready which probably meant he didn’t have it on him at all. Would Wonwoo bring himself to the point of breaking into the dorm’s maknae’s room and stealing his most prized possession?

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Five minutes later Wonwoo was up on the roof, Chan’s wand carefully tucked away in his pocket. He had left the little boy a bar of chocolate in return.

With a thick saw in his hand, Wonwoo went to work. The inverted lightning rods on the roof were collectors of stray magic. The things going on in the school produced a lot of power that didn’t go anywhere. And the mundane boy needed a power source to use in conjunction with the wand if he wanted to use it at all.

He sawed off one of the metal sticks and duct taped it together with the wand. There, that should work. Maybe.

Wonwoo wasn’t stupid of course. Alright, he knew he was about to do something stupid – but he was going to be clever about it.

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Black flames formed a vertical split through reality, an even blacker line emerging inside the cold fire. Jun stepped into the ritual room as soon as the rift was broad enough.

The vampire held his dadao in a tight grip. “We could have done that this morning before our class left.”

Jihoon waved his concerns away. “I didn’t know you were still on permanent excursion. Anyway, I’m having my own. And this huge puppy is coming with me for some reason.” He gesture over to where Mingyu was leaning against the wall.

“Whatever,” said Jun, “Let’s just get it on with. Shadowtravel is not the most comfortable way to get around but… wait, does Mingyu know what he’s getting into?”

The tall boy looked unsure but nodded. Jun could only hope against hope that Jihoon had explained everything patiently.

When the rift in reality that had brought him here closed, Jun raised his dadao and created a new one by slicing right through the universe itself.

He pushed and pulled until the split in the world was big enough to let two boys through. One tall and intimidated, one short and intimidating.

Once the duo had gone to hell, Jun let the rift close and reopened the original one. The one that led him back to the beach. He found his classmates engaged in open warfare, the castle under brutal siege.

*************************

Mingyu exited the portal and went on his knees, hitting the warm stone floor. He fought the nausea from interdimensional travel with deep breaths. The heat didn’t help but the light was comfortably dim, a blue glimmer falling onto the hellscape from no discernable source.

He got up and pulled out his wand. Whispering a cooling charm did the trick and kept him at an agreeable temperature.

It was a huge cave. No, it was a steep valley. Or a canyon? In any case, the boys were surrounded by stone on both sides, rising high into the non-sky where fog obscured the potential ceiling. The walls were smoothed from ancient erosion – lava or water, Mingyu didn’t know what was likelier – and led in a repeatedly widening and narrowing manner along winding paths. Smaller caves branched off every hundred meters of so. The area was sparsely populated with vegetation but what was there was spectacularly deformed, with thorns and teeth and even claws all over.

Jihoon had wasted no time and was already plucking leaves off a deep azure colored plant, that made noises sounding suspiciously like a high pitched “ouch”.

“Stop gaping, puppy boy. Start helping.” Jihoon didn’t even turn to face Mingyu. “Put on the thickest gloves in that bag and go over to the Flesh Maiming Mega-Thorn. Cast a calming spell. Might as well put you to use since you’re here and I’ve always wanted to grab some of its spikes. Don’t get too close. It bites. And it’s very hostile.”

“When are we going to get to the crimson valley?”

“The sooner you stop nagging, the sooner you can work and the sooner we can move further inland… or incave.”

“Yes, Sir.”

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Chan had alerted two of his friends that he had encountered while running around in a panic. Hansol was quick on his feet but merely mundane and as such of limited use. Minghao had been difficult to talk to. A rambling, gasping, screeching Chan was difficult enough to understand, even without the language barrier.

Regardless, the two boys accompanied Chan outside.

“Where did it go? Where is it? We have to find it before it wreaks havoc.”

The boy waved his dinosaur book in the air as if he was trying to catch invisible stray dinos.

“Listen,” said Hansol slowly. “Are you sure you saw-“

“There’s a T-Rex on the loose! Now help me look. Oh-“

The trio turned around and finally Minghao understood what the words meant that he hadn’t been so sure about.

The huge lizard peacefully stood by the fence, staring across onto the road. If it wanted it could easily have trampled over the wires and stared grabbing some appetizers. For example, pedestrians.

Hansol whispered “Nobody move. If we don't move it can’t see us.”

“It’s not even looking at us.” Chan watched in awe. “How do we get it back in the book?”

“You’re asking me? You’re the wizard!”

“But I can’t use my wand.”

“What? Why? Nevermind, I remember. Okay, well maybe Minghao… Where is Minghao?”

The Chinese wizard was absent and neither of the younger had noticed.

“He bailed,” said Hansol.

“He’ll tell the headmaster,” groaned Chan.

“I got bait,” said Minghao as he popped into existence between them. He held a box full of chicken. Frozen chicken that he had taken from the kitchen.

“No Minghao,” said Hansol forcefully, “that’s dinner. What are we going to eat if we feed that to a dinosaur? What are the others in the dorm going to eat? They’ll lynch us if we steal todays dinner.”

Chan grabbed Hansol’s shoulder. “One problem at a time, please. We need to banish the T-Rex. Please. Pleeeease.”

“Ugh. Alright. What’s the plan?”

Luckily Chan knew – roughly – what to do. “Someone baits the thing to make it stand still. Someone else speaks the charm. That’s Minghao’s job. And someone else holds the book to catch the image.”

“You’ve summoned the beast, you be the bait.”

“…Actually I need to hold the book. Only I can react to the de-summoning in the right way. The sigils on the page need to meet the manaflux at the angle of the least reflec-“

“Ugh, fine.” Hansol resigned to his fate. When he had gotten up in the morning he did not think he’d be dinosaur bait.

He grabbed the chicken with more confidence than he felt and walked up to the T-Rex. His steps slowed down as he got closer. The beast was huge. Really, really huge. Minghao would whisk him away if danger was imminent. Right? Right!? He realized that he should have cleared a few things up with the wizards beforehand.

The dino turned towards the boy, it’s comically small arms flailing aimlessly. Huge eyes looked down at the rapper, just a few dozen meters away. It's teeth were somewhere between huge daggers and small swords in their size.

Hansol felt very tasty and chewable. He laid the chicken on the ground and backed off, his fingers cramping as he let go of the poultry, while the rest of his body shook with horror.

Once the T-Rex moved the tiniest bit, the boy ran. The creature didn’t pursue. Chan could have told him that Tyrannosaurus prefers his food delivered, not caught. It was carrion eater. The young wizard had forgotten that not everybody was as well versed in dino-lore as he.

Before long, Minghao started casting, a faint net spanning the distance to the beast. Chan stood at attention, ready to catch. He could only hope that nobody had been looking out the window. And there were still two more of them on the loose.

Furthermore: Once that problem was solved there was still the very real possibility of him being roasted over open fire if he didn’t find a new dinner for the dorm.