SSS-Ranked Awakening: I Can Only Summon Mythical Beasts

Arielle stared at him in stunned silence. For a long moment, she didn’t breathe, didn’t blink. She simply watched Damien as though waiting for him to take the words back.

As though she was hoping they were nothing but jokes. She hoped it was a prank.

Leaving.

He had actually said he was leaving!

Her lips parted, but no sound came out at first. Her eyes trembled, her hands curling unconsciously at her sides.

“…No.” It finally slipped out as a breath.

Damien met her gaze steadily. “Arielle—”

“No.” She stepped closer, voice rising. “You can’t just say that. Not now. Not after everything we’ve been through. Not after what we had to go through in Delwig. You can’t just… leave.”

Her heartbeat was so loud it almost drowned out the quiet pulse of the forest around them.

They stood near the cracked Gate where they had confirmed the seal held, where the beasts had begun to return, the world slowly stitching itself back together. The air was cool, the breeze soft.

But Arielle’s voice cut through it like steel sword drawn from a sheath.

“You can’t,” she repeated, almost pleading. “Not like this.”

Damien held her eyes. He didn’t flinch. “I’m not leaving forever.”

“That doesn’t make it any better,” she snapped.

Damien inhaled slowly, letting the air settle in his lungs before he spoke. “Arielle… I need to get stronger. Stronger than I am now. Stronger than anything we’ve faced so far.”

“You are strong!” she shot back. “You’re already—Damien, you killed Ivaan. You survived that Gate. You—”

“And it still wasn’t enough,” Damien cut in quietly.

The words froze her.

He didn’t raise his voice. He didn’t have to. The truth in them was heavy enough to shift the air. “I won by sheer luck. Each movement could’ve been my last. Each block could’ve taken my life. I won that battle by pure luck. Nothing else.”

“Ivaan wasn’t alone,” Damien continued, tone low. “There are demons stronger than him. Smarter. Crueler. And now, there are armies being created by someone we haven’t even seen yet. You saw what he became, what he turned the city into… and that was just one man.”

Her breath hitched—but she didn’t interrupt.

“If we face someone worse than Ivaan,” Damien said, “someone like the ones creating those new variants… do you honestly think I can protect you? Or Lyone? Or anyone?”

Arielle swallowed hard. Tears threatened at the corners of her eyes. She looked away, jaw shaking.

Damien stepped closer. “I can’t gamble with your lives. Or mine. Not with the war against the demons being this close. Not with the demons already breaching borders here and there. Delwig was only a matter of time even if Ivaan hadn’t attacked.”

Her eyes snapped back up at him.

“You said you’d stay with me,” she whispered. “That you wouldn’t just disappear again.”

“I’m not disappearing.” His voice softened. “I’m preparing for what’s to come.”

The anger in her slowly broke, sliding into something rawer. Something that trembled when she spoke.

“Where?” she asked. “Where are you going to train that’s worth leaving us behind?”

Damien paused.

He didn’t answer—not directly.

“Someplace far,” he said. “Someplace dangerous.”

Arielle’s eyes widened faintly.

He then added. “Someplace I barely survived the first time.”

She seemed to understand instantly.

Her throat tightened. She whispered, “…You’re going back there.”

Damien didn’t confirm it aloud. But his silence said enough. She knew. The place he had escaped from—the same place he had refused to talk about. The place he’d barely lived through.

Her fingers curled, digging into her palms.

“How long?” she asked quietly.

“I don’t know,” Damien said. “A few weeks, a few months… maybe longer. But I’ll come back. I swear it.”

“And what are we supposed to do until then?”

This time she wasn’t angry—only lost.

Damien took a long breath. “You keep moving. You keep getting stronger. Both of you.”

Arielle blinked. “…Both?”

“Lyone needs guidance,” Damien said. “And he trusts you more than anyone. He’ll grow faster at your side. Especially if you go to the Eastern Shirefort Continent.”

Arielle’s brows lifted faintly. “Why there?”

“Because the strongest warriors on this side of the world train there,” Damien said.

“Because the continent borders two demon territories and trains for war every day. And because…”

He hesitated.

“…because it’s most likely that Lyone’s maternal bloodline originated there. Whatever strength he has left to unlock—he’ll find it faster in Shirefort. You don’t even have to go find them since they’ll find him if he really is from there.”

Arielle’s eyes widened. “His family—”

Damien shook his head. “I’m not sending you there to reunite with them. Just to train. To survive. To grow.”

She absorbed every word carefully.

“And you’ll meet us there?” she whispered.

“Yes.”

“When?”

“When my training’s done,” Damien replied. “When I’m someone who won’t die in the first real battle against the demons. When I’m strong enough to fight and still protect you without slowing down.”

Arielle’s breath shuddered. For a moment she just stared at him, trying and failing to keep her emotions steady.

“…You idiot,” she whispered.

Damien blinked. “What?”

“You think I care about that?” Her voice cracked. “You think I want you to fight beside me because you’re strong? You think I’m scared because of demons or war or anything like that?”

Arielle stepped forward and grabbed his cloak, pulling herself closer until he could feel the heat of her breath.

“I’m scared because you’re going somewhere dangerous alone,” she whispered. “I’m scared because you’re the one I—”

Her voice broke.

She didn’t finish the sentence. She didn’t need to.

Damien exhaled faintly, expression softening. He lifted his hand and rested it gently atop her head.

Arielle froze.

“I know,” he said quietly.

His fingers threaded through her hair, warm, grounding, steadying her with a tenderness he rarely showed.

“And that’s exactly why I’m telling you this now,” Damien murmured. “Because if I didn’t leave today… I wouldn’t be able to leave at all.”

Her tears fell then, silent and warm.

She didn’t fight him anymore. She simply stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his torso, burying her face into his chest as though trying to hold him in place through sheer will.

Damien held her.

One minute passed.

Two.

Five.

Neither spoke. Neither moved. The wind carried the sound of distant returning beasts through the trees—quiet growls, rustling leaves. The forest was healing.

Eventually, Arielle forced herself to pull back. Her eyes were red, but her expression was clearer. Resolved.

“…Then promise me,” she whispered. “Promise me you’ll come back.”

Damien met her gaze.

“I’ll come back,” he said simply.

She closed her eyes, taking strength from his certainty.

“How will you get to your… training place?” she asked, wiping her cheek.

Damien gestured to the sky. “First, I need a detailed map. Then I need to head through one of the major kingdoms to resupply. I can just get both from same place.”

“And after that?”

“After that… I go alone.”

Arielle swallowed hard.

Damien stepped back and lifted his hand. “Summon Aquila.”

A swirl of wind gathered at his palm, rippling the grass around them.

A moment later, Aquila materialized, feathers gleaming as she stretched her wings with a cry that echoed across the clearing.

Arielle’s eyes widened instantly—and watered again. She knew what this meant.

Damien stepped aside. “Get on.”

Her breathing hitched. She stood there, frozen between refusal and obedience. But after a tense moment, she moved—slow, reluctant—and placed a foot on Aquila’s lowered wing.

She climbed up.

Damien approached her, placing his hand on her leg just above Aquila’s saddle.

“Arielle,” he said quietly.

She looked down at him with tear-bright eyes.

He smiled faintly. “I’ll be back soon.”

He paused. “You two better not die before then.”

Her throat tightened. She nodded once, sharply—soldierlike.

Damien leaned in and pressed a soft kiss to her forehead.

Arielle’s breath broke.

“We will see each other again,” he said. “I promise.”

Then—because her tears were seconds from falling again—Damien stepped back before she could grab him.

“Aquila,” he commanded softly. “Take her back to the city.”

The griffin let out a sharp cry, wings spreading.

“No turning back,” Damien added.

Aquila launched into the air.

Arielle looked down at him, eyes wide and aching, until distance swallowed them.

Damien stayed there, watching until Aquila became no more than a speck against the sky.

Only then did he exhale.

He closed his eyes.

“Summon Luton.”

A ripple of soft energy shimmered, and the slime appeared beside him, quivering with understanding.

“…Watch over me,” Damien murmured.

Luton glowed faintly.

Damien sat down on the forest floor, crossing his legs.

Then he activated it.

(Sensory Link)

His consciousness flared outward—racing upward, latching onto Aquila’s spirit like a second heartbeat.

And suddenly, he felt the wind under giant wings.

He smelled the cold air. He tasted the dryness in Arielle’s breath. He heard her heartbeat—fast, trembling, breaking.

And he felt her weight on Aquila’s back.

One last time.

His real body sat motionless in the Verdant Verge.

But his mind flew with her.

The world blurred into wind and sky. And Damien whispered into the empty forest.

“Until we meet again.”