A Hollow in Rainbow Sand

Location: Uninhabited Desert World (New Designation: Training Ground 0/TG0)/PoV: Jack

Here I am, on TG0. I've compressed a massive slab of sandstone the size of two football fields side by side, which now lays in front of me with an absolutely massive ritual circle engraved upon it. The inch-deep engravings are filled to the brim with blood that I have been storing for the last three months in a pocket dimension.

This took forever, not only did I have to compress the sandstone, which took weeks, but then I had to use loose sand to grind in the circles and sigils. That took a week but I luckily was able to speed up the process due to the fact that it was loosely compacted and easy to carve. I solidified the stone after, then waited until I had enough blood.

Speaking of getting enough blood, that was a nightmare in itself. I had to sneak off and extract it myself in the same pocket dimension I stored it in. I always had to consider my limits and drink a lot of fluids to restore the lost blood. I played off the excess drinking as simply having accidentally brought my vampire instinct to the fore and was drinking a non-alcoholic red wine to satiate it. On the bright side, I think I could be considered a bit of a connoisseur now.

Shaking my head to get back to the present, I focused on double checking that all the sigils and circles were correct. Even the slightest mistake could be disastrous. After all, Kaleidoscope, Blood Magic, and Reiatsu have never been mixed in the same circle before. With my paranoia satisfied, at least for now, I added the final component: a massive orb of Reiatsu in the center.

Taking a deep breath, I channeled the Kaleidoscope through both the orb and the blood. The orb quickly destabilized as I had calculated it would and I jumped back to the outside of the array. With a mighty flash of rainbow light, the circle was fully illuminated.

As the light faded, a single, massive form was seen in the middle of the remains of the baseplate. The smoke obscured its features until I cast a wind spell. The beast was an amalgamation of several Monster Hunter monsters about twice the size of a normal horse. It had the head of a Kirin, though its mane belonged to the Oroshi variant; a Nargacuga tail that ended in a Glavenus's massive blade with a second jaw on the outer thigh of one of the back legs filled with said monster's fangs to sharpen the blade; the wings belonged to a Valphalk, and the joint at the top of them had a Brachidios's slime; finally, it's body and legs were that of a Zinogre.

All in all, it was absolutely beautiful, at least in my opinion. At the moment, it was unconscious. Though I planned to change that. Quickly warping in front of the beast, I gently started to scratch in under its chin. It (or rather she, as I realized after a quick glance) gave a rumbling groan with a bit of purring and slowly opened her eyes.

"Hello gorgeous," I joked as her eyes met mine, "How are you feeling? Summonings can be rough from what I've heard, and an Alchemical Chimera Fusion Array triggered as soon as all of your 'donors' arrived."

She sniffed me, seemingly unsure of what to make of me. I could understand the sentiment. Her sentience was limited due to having only the amalgamate brain matter of eight animals, Though I did arrange it in such a way that she would have as much intelligence as possible. She knew enough to know that she was mostly made from deadly predators and the fact I wasn't scared probably confused her.

I just smiled and kept petting her, she really was an amazing creature. The best and most deadly traits of at least three elder dragons and a few traits of the more wild monsters blended into one deadly biological WMD.

Eventually, once she realized I wasn't going to run or try to hurt her, she simply gave in and rolled onto her side for a belly rub. I laughed a bit as I switched my attentions to the area she wanted. It was another few minutes spent in a comfortable silence later that I asked my next question.

"Say, how about a deal?" I said to catch her attention, "I need a familiar, and that's kind of why I created you. (Although saving seven of the most awesome creatures from dying is a big bonus.) If you want, I can make you my familiar so we can work together from now on. If you don't want to, I can just send you to a jungle planet to live out your life."

The beast stood and stared me in the eyes, seemingly staring into my soul. I stared right back, watching how her multichromatic eyes twisted and contorted within the iris. After a while, she stepped closer and nuzzled her head against my chest.

"So I guess that's a yes then?" I rhetorically asked with a laugh. I hugged her neck and slowly ran my fingers through her mane. "Well If we're going to be working together, then you're going to need a name."

I stepped back again and put a hand to my chin in thought. While I pondered, she decided to sit for a while, turning to look at the various dunes, then at the star-speckled night sky. I followed her gaze and saw that she was staring at a constellation I surprisingly recognized.

"That's Orion, according to legend he was a mighty hunter who took down his prey using his great strength and cunning. But he never came home very often, and it made his wife very angry. One day, when he was going to go hunt, his wife slipped a deadly scorpion into his arrow quiver without his notice. Later, when he found his prey and went to draw an arrow for his bow, the scorpion stung his hand. The poison was swift, and he died shortly after. Soon after, Artemis, the goddess of the hunt and moon, took his spirit and cast it into the sky to honor one of the few males to have ever earned her respect due to his skills."

As I finished the tale, I noticed the beast watching the moon intently, and came upon the perfect name for her.

"Artemis." I said softly, "Your name will be Artemis. You are made from sever predators that are masters of the hunt, and at least one of them is nocturnal. I think it's perfect, don't you?"

She gave a snort, then nuzzled me again. With that figured out, I went ahead and opened a gate to the courtyard of the old castle. I had a certain yellow pegasus I wanted to introduce my new friend to.

When we exited the forest, there was a mass panic as the entire town rushed to get inside their homes. I sighed and lead Artemis over to Fluttershy's hut. The place was silent as a church, no animals were out and about. I figured Fluttershy had brought them into her house for safety.

Knocking on the door, it opened just a crack as a blue eye peeked out. Immediately after seeing Artemis, there was a squeak of fright and the door slammed shut. Sighing again, I repeated the knock.

"Fluttershy, it's me, Jack! Look Artemis won't hurt you, I wanted to have you check her over so that if something happens you'll know what to do to heal her." I called just loud enough to be heard through the door as calmly as I could.

The crack re-opened and I heard a timid voice ask, "Are...Are you sure?"

"Positive, Fluttershy. Now come on out here so you can meet her."

Five minutes later, Fluttershy is going gaga over how much of a sweetheart Artemis is and several foals are crowding around petting her. I'm just standing back and smiling as I watch the kids trying to climb up onto her back, only to get gently shaken off. Eventually, Fluttershy broke off and came over to me.

"So Jack," She began with a smile, "Just what kind of animal is Artemis anyway?"

I winced, I was hoping to have more time to figure out how to explain this tactfully.

"Well," I replied nervously, "The truth is that she's not just one animal. She's an alchemically made chimera."

Suddenly, something in Fluttershy shifted. She stopped smiling and stared at me.

"What?"

I winced again, her tone was almost glacial. I quickly began to explain.

"Well, I was always a fan of all the animals that make her body up. But I couldn't choose between them, so I set up an Alchemical Chimera Fusion Array with four Double Layered Summoning Arrays connected to the Kaleidoscope and influenced by instructions conveyed through Reiatsu to..." I realized that she didn't want to hear all the details and skipped to the important part. "I had the circles seek out versions of the animals that were dying in agony and then merged the dying animals to save their lives."

The stare continued for a few moments as she tried to figure out if I was being truthful. I guess she believed me before breathing out an exasperated sigh with closed eyes.

"Well, as long as you did it to save those animals lives...I guess I can forgive you." She then gave a small smile that would have given me another Cute Attack If I hadn't learned how to stop them from happening. Then she turned and smiled a little more as the kids played with Artemis.