First Demonic Dragon

Unaware of the conversation that was taking place about his love life, Exedra and his wives were all standing around in the castle alchemy room in front of a big empty cauldron.

Next to them was a table lined with materials they'd need.

Gaining a familiar was less about summoning something, and more about imbuing mana into certain materials and giving them life.

The created familiar would then be completely loyal to its maker and carry out any and all orders faithfully.

The danger of this was that there was a high chance of failure and then whatever extremely valuable and rare materials were used would be ruined.

The upsides were that depending on the strength of the materials used, the strength of the familiar could be doubled as well.

A strong familiar could provide a boost to its contractors mana pool, fight on their behalf and the rarer ones even possessed elements which the contractor could use as their own.

They even grew alongside them so every evolution the contractor went through was also an evolution for the familiar.

While this appeared to be a simple condition for Lailah's evolution, the reality was that finding the right materials was slightly difficult as the components had to balance and enhance eachother without causing friction.

"Alright.. you ready to begin?" Exedra asked Lailah as he prepared to throw the materials into the cauldron.

Lailah took a deep breath before she looked at friends for moral support.

Bekka : "You can do this!"

Lisa: "We'll be right here. Don't worry."

That seemed to be all she needed and with one last nod of affirmation from her husband, they began to pour materials into the cauldron.

They first started by pouring in the recently obtained blood diamonds.

These special jewels from the vampire continent were basically palm sized diamonds dyed red with human blood for hundreds of years, making them a highly valuable source of magic power.

Next, they poured in the leftover snake venom from Lailah's first condition.

Finally, Exedra slit his own wrist and let some of his blood spill into a vase of water to dilute it before pouring it into the cauldron.

Dragon blood was rich with mana and made a great ingredient but Exedra's blood was much too potent so steps had to be taken to avoid failure.

With all of the components finally combined, Lailah began chanting in an ancient language.

This would undoubtedly be the hardest part of the process as any interruptions or delays in the chant would cause the chances of failure to skyrocket.

During this entire process, no one uttered a word.

For several minutes, the sound of Lailah's chanting was the only sound that could be heard.

She had begun to sweat, and her forehead crinkled to show the difficulty of casting this spell.

Slowly but surely, a small tornado of mana began to spin above the cauldron and a fierce wind blew throughout the room.

At the spells end, Lailah collapsed but was quickly caught by Exedra.

"Did we.. do it?"

"Let's find out." Exedra carried her towards the cauldron and both peered inside.

Sitting at the bottom of the cauldron with blood red scales as hard as diamonds and vibrant green eyes, was a small cobra about 23 inches long.

The snake tilted its head curiously as it looked at the two above it who were staring at him in awe.

"I did it!!" Lailah's cries of joy echoed off the walls and everyone present smiled brightly when they realized how much this meant to her.

Lailah had been told she was talentless and a waste, and yet she succeeded on creating a familiar on her first try.

As her husband and her friends offered her their congratulations, she wriggled out of her husband's arms and reached into the cauldron to get a better look at her new familiar.

The snake instinctively slithered into her hand and Lailah brought it up to her face for a closer look.

'Mother.'

"Guys! He spoke! He spoke!"

"I didn't hear anything?" Bekka wriggled her ears to make sure they were working properly.

"Familiars speak telepathically Bekka." Lisa explained.

'Name me.' The snake asked.

"What should I name him?"

The group went silent as they thought about this.

Naming a familiar was a crucial step because a weak name would limit the potential for growth of the beast.

Exedra stared at the serpent for a long time.

Whilst he knew what he was supposed to eventually become, a single name kept ringing in his mind.

"Apophis." he said after a moment of silence.

He couldn't remember where exactly he'd gotten the name from, but the more he stared at the small snake the more he felt the name fit.

"Oooh that's good!"

"I like that!"

"It's perfect!"

Lailah turned towards her familiar once again. "Okay, your name is Apophis."

Suddenly, Apophis began to glow with an eerie red light.

When the light disappeared, his scales were a much deeper red and his eyes were now pitch black.

On Lailah's forehead, a small red tattoo appeared.

"I'm… really sleepy all of a sudden." Lailah began to stumble and have a hard time speaking.

Exedra picked her up in a princess carry and prepared to carry her to their room.

"I'm sure she's just tired from doing so much."

"We should let her rest."

Only Exedra knew that her sudden sleepiness was not entirely due to her recent efforts and instead her evolution conditions were being rewritten since her fate had been altered.

'I'll have to check later but I'm excited to see if her potential has grown or not.'

Opening the door, the group was surprised to see Duke standing their waiting for them. "Ah, pardon the interruption but an important guest has come to visit the young master."

"Oh? Looks like my gift from the old man is here."

"Honey what gift? Lisa asked with a curious tone.

"Something that'll make me stronger." Exedra wore a small smile as he thought of how his potential would grow with this gift he'd asked the old man for.

"Take her to the training grounds and I'll be there shortly." He informed Duke as he continued on to take Lailah to their room to lay down.

"Training grounds?!" Bekka's tail began to wag furiously as she heard her two favorite words.

"Her?!" Lisa's claws sharpened and electricity crackled at her fingertips when she heard her husband say her least favorite word.

-

"Is that really her?"

"What's that fucking monster doing here?!"

"Wasn't lady Bekka enough?"

"We're all going to die."

The subject of all the guards chatter was a young woman wearing black and red clothing and carrying a large spear.

She had skin so white it looked like she'd never set foot in the sun, and a pair of black eyes with yellow irises.

She was Seras Bloodflame, the blood dragon and she was Antares' most destructive warrior second only to the king himself.

The guards weren't sure why such a monster was here but they were absolutely certain it wouldn't be good.