Familiars are dwellers of the Astral Shadow Plane. The Astral Shadow Plane is a plane for partially dead creatures.
When some creatures die, their souls instantly travel to the dead domain, but others don't, and their consciousness get transferred to the Astral Shadow Plane.
Death has one beginning and one end, but what lies in-between differs. The Astral Shadow Plane makes creatures half alive and half dead. With that state of existence, they can either visit the living or the dead plane at will, if a contract is being made.
Creatures in the Astral Shadow Plane are more like the undead. They do not get affected by old age and can live for as long as they want, if they don't get killed.
Swoosh!
Ryder tilted his body to the side, narrowly dodging another swipe of the creature's forelimb that left a visible red arc of energy behind him.
Swoosh!
Ryder ducked beneath another attack, feeling the heat radiating from the mantis's limbs as they passed overhead.
"This is the major disadvantage of contracting weak familiars is that when they dies." Luxy continued. "Those who are unable to contain more than one familiar in their space will have to live as ordinary humans."
"So if I kill this mantis now, then I'll have effectively ended that Red-Eastern summoner's career?"
"If you kill this mantis now, then I'll have to admit that it is the worst punishment for anyone to whom such a fate happens to on planet Terra."
"Punishment, huh? For trying to hurt me, right." Ryder gaze tensed up into seriousness. "Well, when you put it that way..."
The mantis must have sensed Ryder's change in demeanor, causing it to desperately attempt to attack Ryder despite its critical condition.
With deliberate casualness, Ryder took a powerful leap forward, meeting the creature's charge head-on.
Wham!
His fist connected with the mantis's torso, a heavy punch that lifted the creature into the air.
Wham!
Before the mantis could regain awareness, Ryder was there again, appearing above it with another punch that sprayed molten blood into the air. The droplets sizzled and hissed where they landed, burning small holes in the ground.
"Careful," Luxy warned. "That blood can melt through most materials."
"Not you though," Luxy added. "But your clothes are another matter entirely. Your cloak is gone, you won't want your trousers to be next."
"Oh, right," Ryder realized as he grabbed the mantis by the neck.
With the creature struggling in his grip, Ryder crouched up, and then took a single extraordinary leap upwards, carrying the struggling mantis up to the clouds blowing serious ripples from where he departed.
Up in the clouds, the air grew thin and cold around them, overpowering the weakened heat emanating from the creature. Far below, the city looked like tiny buildings arranged like toys by some giant child.
"I hope you're not afraid of heights," Ryder said conversationally to the mantis, which responded with a screech and a futile attempt to escape.
"I'll take that as a no... Or maybe yes..."
"Good anyway. Because it wouldn't be nice to die from your fear without overcoming it, would it?"
"I hope you know," Luxy commented dryly, "property damage does have consequences. You'll pay for all of this if you get restrained by the FSG agents."
"Send me the bill."
Quite a statement from someone who doesn't have a dime.
As they began to descend, Ryder positioned the mantis right under his feet, like a shortboards as they fell, towards a tall skyscraper, fifty stories of steel and glass.
Crash!
They smashed through the roof and glass-and-steel beams of the tall building right below them, shattering like glass paper due to their combined momentum gathered in the air.
Crash!
Crash!
Crash!
They continued their descent, leaving a Ryder x giant mantis sized hole through each floor and a trail of the mantis's red-hot bubbling blood.
Finally, they crashed to the ground floor, creating a crater in the previously tiled lobby, cracking the floor outward.
Dust and particles from the destroyed building rained down through the vertical tunnel they had created from the violent collision.
And amidst the unsettled dust that was still in the air, Ryder walked away from the mantis's body and then stopped after a few steps to glance one more time at it.
The familiar was nearly unrecognizable now.
Its limbs were missing, as if they had been ripped off, its bones or whatever passed for an internal structure in these creatures were broken, sticking out from various places in its body.
And yet, despite all that, it was still alive, though barely, its crushed head turning slightly toward Ryder, its eyes flickering with diminishing consciousness.
"These creatures are quite resilient," Ryder commented.
"Do you think I should kill it or leave it to die on its own? Its body was just one step away from becoming a corpse, you know."
"You do know that this creature is the same being as I am, right?" Luxy said.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Ryder retorted quickly, with a smirk that wouldn't have fooled a blind man. "Did I hurt your feelings by beating up your distant cousin?"
"Actually, we're not even remotely related," Luxy sniffed. "It would be like comparing a human to a sea cucumber... or something like that."
"Well then, i guess I'll leave this familiar to die on its own," Ryder decided as he walked off, trying to ignore the security alarms now blaring throughout the building now.
It was quite surprising that the alarm was still functioning after all the destruction done to the building by Ryder and the lava mantis during the descent.
Perhaps they didn't do most of the fighting in this area. "I really wanted to finish it off with my own hand as a punishment for those trash summoners from the Red-Eastern guild, but I guess I should pardon it."
"How merciful of you to pardon a creature despite the fact that you had put it on its last breath with your own hands," Luxy remarked dryly. "I'm very sure the building's owners feel just as blessed by your restraint."
Ryder hadn't gotten too far when he realized a sudden change in the temperature of the vicinity.
"Huh!" he exclaimed as he halted, then turned around toward the source, only to find out it was none other than the lava mantis he had bloodied.
From the beast, lava was bubbling out, flowing on the ground. Ryder couldn't tell if he was imagining things or not, but he could feel the lava getting hotter by each passing second.
"Um, Luxy?" Ryder called internally with a puzzled expression. "Is it supposed to be doing that? Leaking lava everywhere. Like, a lot of lava."
"Let's call that the ravaged state of the familiar," Luxy responded.
"What is a ravaged..." Before he could finish his question, the lava, right in front of Ryder's eyes, which had engulfed from the lava mantis, completely engulfed it, melting its broken form.
Rather than destroying it, the molten lava seemed to consume it, then started reforming the creature into a new body made of red burning heat.
Where once there had been a chitinous-looking mantis, now stood a being of pure flame and magma, its eyes burning red-hot like a face of liquid fire.
"Wow, it can regenerate with such speed as well," Ryder observed, taking an involuntary step backward. "That's... inconvenient."
"Of course," Luxy replied, and Ryder could almost hear the familiar rolling its eyes. "All beasts can regenerate, but some are faster than others."
"A little more detail might be helpful right now," Ryder suggested, as the creature began to walk forward toward him. "Don't want to hear they can come back to life after I kill it."
"No, silly. Beasts from the brown mark plane regenerate very slowly compared to other familiars, but fast compared to humans."
The lava mantis took a step forward, leaving behind a smoldering footprint on the ground, burning with an endless flame.
"Beasts from the orange mark naturally have fast regenerative ability compared to those from the brown marked plane." Luxy continued.
"They heal so fast that they can recover a lost limb in a matter of days."
"Beasts from the red plane heal in an extraordinarily fast manner in comparison to humans and even in comparison to familiar from the orange marked plane." Luxy pressed on. "They can heal critical wounds and cuts within hours."
"I am very thrilled to hear about their healthcare advantages," Ryder muttered, eyeing all the possible routes to get away from the vicinity in case things go south.
"The mantis didn't heal naturally," Luxy finally explained, apparently reaching the main point of his lecture. "It healed with its affinity."
"Which is fire. Or maybe magma. Or destruction. Take your pick."
"Yeah yeah, I totally get it, but maybe we could skip ahead to the part about how to calm it down. Do you think an apology would work?" Ryder muttered.
"Don't tell me you are afraid for real," Luxy laughed. "This beast is like a walk in the park for you."
Ryder knew this very well, but he wasn't afraid of the energy radiation; he was more terrified of the fierce-looking nature of the molten magma.
The liquid flame was reminding him of the Dracogon. The mantis's healing speed was clearly beyond that of an average beast from the red plane.
BWOOM!
A forceful, flame-induced aura burst out from the mantis with explosive force. The shockwave shattered every remaining window in the buildings, sending glass shards raining down.
Outside, buildings caught fire, and even the sunlight seemed overpowered, as the brightness from the flaming lava that the mantis was exuding cast an orange glow upon everything within nothing less than a 100-meter radius.
"This is the second vicinity in this town that will be destroyed by us." Ryder sighed. "I should have ventured to this area during the ride I had with you. I should have returned to our original spot."
BWOOM!
The next burst of energy exploded outward with even greater force, and this time, the mantis went along with it.
Blasting toward Ryder with the speed and fury of a meteor, it stretched its legs in the air, preparing to impale Ryder with limbs that now resembled spears of liquid fire.
For a moment, Ryder gasped as he staggered left and right, still unable to decide which way to dodge the attack.
"Left! No, right! No, up!" Ryder tried to reason, but all his thoughts were unhelpful. "Make up your mind, damnit!"
Bang!
A loud explosion reverberated through the air as the mantis's scythe-like forelimb collided with Ryder's chest, sending shockwaves and causing all the buildings in this area too, to collapse.
Opening its mouth the mantis poured out lava at Ryder viciously, covering him in red lava that could have instantly incinerated any normal human.
Tightening its forearm, it made its fastest strike yet, slamming both blade-like limbs at Ryder's head with enough force to destroy a mountain.
Bang!
All the attacks delivered to Ryder by the mantis were successful. It had hit him squarely, with full force, unleashing its fiery attack directly against him with no obstruction.
In theory, he should have been nothing but ash by now, flowing with the wind, but... no.
Instead of being damaged, he stood there, covered in smoking lava, perfectly fine.
"Are you done?" he asked the mantis, whom he clearly knew wasn't capable of conversation.
The mantis's aura is incredible, but not to Ryder. It was by far weaker when compared to Luxy's aura.
Ryder dusted his body with his hands, as flakes of dried lava that had cooled into rocks fell away from where the lava had settled on his skin.
"Fancy magic and attacks that cannot hurt you should never put you in a state of panic." Luxy lectured.
"Right!" Ryder walked up to the mantis, rolling his shoulders and stole a glance sideways at the horizon. "Now is time to end this."
The expanse that has become something resembling a wasteland. In the distance, he could see the red and blue flashing lights of emergency vehicles, and beyond them, several black vehicles lined up along with quite a number of familiars flying around.
This, for sure, signaled the arrival of the FSG guild officials. They would clearly have questions, lots of questions, and Ryder wasn't ready for an interrogation.
Besides, he had done quite some harm to the FSG guild base, this surely wouldn't be a friendly reunion.
With a single hand, he grabbed the mantis's head, clenching his fist around its head, the mantis's fiery skull was squashed, splattering molten lava around.
At that moment, the flames burning on the mantis's body slowly died down. Not just its flames, but all the lava it had caused—in buildings, on streets, on the unfortunate remains of trees lining the street.
It was as if a switch had been turned off, extinguishing all heat and light connected to the creature.
Slowly, the mantis's body began to disintegrate into orange glowing particles, rising and swirling like fireflies caught in a gentle breeze.
They danced in the air, flowing alongside the wind toward the horizon and growing fainter with each passing second.
Ryder sighed as he stared at the distant horizon. "This sight reminds me of where you are from, Luxy. Since I visited the Astral shadow plain, things have been going awfully bad for me."
There was a pause, and when Luxy spoke, his voice carried a weight that Ryder had rarely heard before. "I know Ryder...
"And you should know the balance of this world changed ever since you contracted me, Ryder. The balance in the Astral Shadow plain and on planet Terra."
"Yeah, yeah," Ryder rolled his eyes, stepping through the rubble toward the direction he felt like going. "There's no limit on what I can learn from you, is there?