Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

That evening, as everyone went about their night partying, Mary stared at the cute silver bracelet that she'd gotten from her new Familiar while she contemplated where she went wrong in the summoning.

It might have been a group effect, where they had all gotten them for a specific reason, but really, her Familiar should have been fluffy. That was all that she cared about. She was getting power passively from the others, and they wouldn't begrudge her being a bit of a drag on their progression just because she wanted the perfect Familiar, right?

That giant undead was everything but fluffy. In fact, it was more than a little bit scary.

Reluctantly, she called it back out of the bracelet, and the Guardian appeared in front of her, hunched over under the low ceiling. Then, it slowly shrunk down to two metres tall, so it was properly able to move about the room and exit through the door.

"Good evening, Miss Mary, how can I help you?" It asked politely in its haunting voice.

"You can shrink? I was going to talk to you about how inconvenient your form is, but it seems that you can change it." She replied, shocked.

"Of course. The body of any Guardian is a magical construct, it's not our actual body. If needed, I can take on the form of monsters as well. But in practice, the bipedal form is the most practical for the duties of a Guardian, as well as a Familiar," the Guardian replied.

"So, you're saying that you COULD be fluffy?" Mary asked hopefully.

The Guardian sighed, and with a shimmer of magic, the cape over its shoulders turned to a giant animal pelt.

"Oh, that is much better." She cheered, then moved behind the Guardian to pull it into a hug.

The undead was cold to the touch, a stark contrast to the surrounding warmth, and Mary let it go only a few seconds later.

"Changing my appearance defeats the purpose of the guardians being identical, Miss Mary. If the enemy knows which of us belongs to a certain witch, they can target you in order to stop us." The undead Familiar informed her.

"Are you saying that I am the weak link here?" She asked skeptically.

"Can you reform your body from mana imbued by your host?" He retorted.

"Point taken. But won't you lose your memories if you're killed and called back?" Mary asked.

"Killed? Even in the Great War, we weren't killed. The host items remained intact in the Sacred Mountain where our creator fell. We were merely in stasis until summoned. If you were to dig up the mountain, you would find that the rest of the fifty are still there.

It is nearly impossible to destroy the magical items that host us, but if that were to happen, then yes, we would be summoned back without our memories. Until that happens, it is just our constructed bodies that are destroyed, and they can be instantly rebuilt."

Mary wasn't sure what to say to that. This was the strangest Familiar that she had ever heard of. It wasn't even alive, not in a true sense of the word, it was a sentient magical item. Maybe that meant that it had an actual soul in it, so it might be an undead magical item, but that just sounded weird in her head.

"So, you've actually been alive for hundreds of years, just in stasis? How does that work, were you just inactive in the dark?" She decided to ask next.

"For the most part. Our bodies were destroyed when we killed most of the remaining Witch Saints. Some of them fled, so I can't say how many might still live after all this time, but at least three, and maybe four." The Familiar agreed.

"We were told by the witches from the United World Army that only two Saints remain in the world, both of them witches, of course. Unfortunately, there isn't one on this continent, and the United World Army is attacking us again." Mary informed him.

The Familiar seemed to pause for a moment as it took in that information, and then it cast an Unholy Spell that Mary couldn't identify.

"What was that spell? It was powerful, but I don't know it."

"It's called [Detect Life]. Similar to the [Detect Hidden] spell, it looks for specific signs of life, but without as much detail and over a much larger radius. I was checking the capabilities of your defence force.

From what I can tell, it won't be easy for the Saints to break through the spells over this place with only the two of them, so you will have to stop them from coming with an army. But on the positive side, they likely won't do that."

That was good news.

"Why wouldn't they come here? Are they afraid that we will use something like the Nerve Gas that the mundane army uses?" Mary pushed, trying to get as many answers as she could out of her new Familiar while it was feeling talkative.

"There are still a breeding pair of Dragons in the Mountains. Two Witches, Saints or not, are no match for a pair of Ancient Dragons, but a whole army of witches invading would be a nuisance that the dragons wouldn't ignore."

Mary smiled. "So the Dragons are on our side?"

The Guardian tilted his head as if confused. "Why would you think that? It's somewhat shocking that they haven't killed everyone here for being too close to their territory, but the Dragons only take the side of Magic. Unless the Saints threaten their peaceful life, their territory, or the balance of the Mana flows in the world, they're unlikely to take any action to intentionally assist you. They would only act to stop the outsiders from annoying them."

"But they seemed so nice when they came here before. They congratulated Wolfe on casting a Grand Magic and helped him finish it, or add another layer to it or something." Mary explained.

The Guardian went silent for a moment and then nodded. "Yes, they put an extra layer on the Grand Magic that floats above the spire. But they are Dragons, they can see everything that is under the purview of their spells."

"What does that mean, exactly?"

Mary got the impression that her Familiar was smiling under that shining helmet.

"Have you ever heard of Reality television?"