20 Chapter 18

When Sona and Raizel arrived at the place where everyone agreed to rendezvous, they found out that they were only the second group to arrive there.

"Raizel!" Rias happily rushed up to him, smiling brightly, and he could guess that she had found something quite special that had her so happy about it.

Freya was not present there, and Raizel guessed that she was somewhere in the Forest, searching for something or possibly helping others if they had fallen into some harm.

"Surprise me." He grinned at his crimson-haired fiancee, and she matched it as she quickly summoned her Familiar.

An adorable crimson bat appeared in the air, above her left shoulder, flapping its wings slowly. And Sona curiously looked at it, her mind trying to guess its origin. Soon her eyes widened when she saw the bat change form and turn into a girl with bat wings.

Watching the girl bow to her only ascertained her guess, and then she smiled.

"Congratulations, Rias!" She sincerely said. "Though I am not sure what exactly she is, she is definitely an Amorphous and maybe a Blood Bat. And they are extremely rare and special."

"Yes!" She smiled. "But she isn't really a Blood Bat."

Sona curiously raised her brow and looked at the girl again, and frowned a little.

"She isn't a Blood Bat, but a Cursed Bat. And she is a result of Succubus who mated with an Amorphous Creature, who was partly a Blood Bat and Shadow-Bat Hybrid," Raizel spoke, clearing things up for Sona.

The Hybrids of Blood and Shadow Bats were usually addressed as Cursed Bats.

"Her mother must have been in heat, and satiated it with the best thing she could find in her proximity." He could smell its Blood and origin, and he informed them what exactly this creature was. "She's likely to be the only creature of her kind."

Neither Rias nor Sona liked how he worded it, but they both knew it was true.

Succubi were quite vulnerable when they fell into heat, and it usually happened when they failed to satisfy their bodily needs for a prolonged time.

Unfortunately for this creature's mother, the thing she chose to satiate her lust with happened to be an Amorphous Hybrid, and Amorphous creatures were capable of reproducing with nearly all living beings, including Demons, which unfortunately made her pregnant.

"She has the potential to become a powerful Familiar, and will live a very long life thanks the Demoic Blood, but she is more on the side of Beast than a Demon." He pointed out the lack of emotions and intelligence the creature possessed because of her Amorphous and Beastly heritage which were very dominant, but that was not to say she was not an intelligent creature. She was likely smarter than most Magical Creatures.

"Her Amphormus Blood isn't too strong, so she can not change into a variety of forms." He told Rias. "But she possesses the abilities of both the Shadow and Blood Bats, and Demonic Power, thanks to her mother. It will help her develop some magical abilities. However, she has not inherited any of the abilities that Succubi possess."

"I guessed as much." Rias nodded her head. "By the way, I gave her the name Bella." She smiled.

"Nice to meet you, Bella." Sona smiled at the Amphormus Cursed Bat and watched the girl bow to her again. "I guess she can't talk much?"

"Yes." Her friend nodded her head. "Did you find one for yourself?" She curiously asked.

"I did."

"Show me!"

"Look up." Sona smiled when Rias immediately looked at the sky and her mouth cutely dropped open.

"It's beautiful!" She exclaimed.

"I guess you don't know what it is?" The Sitri Heiress knowingly asked, and Rias soon pouted as she shook her head. "It's a Snow-Spirit Owl."

And Rias was still clueless about it.

"Don't tell her. She will go and learn about them in the Library." Raizel stopped Sona from explaining what Spirit Owls were, and Rias pouted some more but obediently nodded her head.

Raizel was always trying to make her study, and she knew she had to do it.

"Have you given it a name?" She curiously asked as she looked up in the sky, and watched the Owl silently circle above them, once again appreciating how beautiful it was.

"Cloud."

Rias nodded her head and then stepped forward to hug her friend. "Congratulations!"

"Thank you," Sona replied and then glanced around. "Where's Freya?"

"She told me she had to go someplace and left after she dropped me here."

"To find a Familiar?"

"I don't know." Rias shook her head and they both turned to look at Raizel.

"I don't know either." He told them.

"I hope everything is fine." Sona seriously said, and Raizel just shrugged his shoulder.

"She will be fine. She is not the reckless one."

The two girls smiled at his words and nodded their heads.

Freya was indeed not the reckless type, and everything she did was done with great care and calculations. There was almost zero chance that she was taking some risks right now or did not know what she was doing or where she was going.

"Did you find a Familiar as well?" Rias excitedly looked at him, and he smiled at her before he drew his left arm forward.

She jumped back in a scare when a snake suddenly slithered out of his shirt, but then she gasped when she saw how pretty it was.

Sona too was looking at the snake from up close for the first time, and she had to admit that it was truly a creature of immense beauty.

"It's beautiful!" The crimson-haired girl reached her hand forward to touch the pretty scales and spikes on its head, but the snake dangerously narrowed its eyes, which made her retract her hand. "And terrifying..." She again curiously looked at it, not in the least scared since she knew that Raizel would not allow any harm to come to her. "What's its name?"

"Nagini." He told her, and even the snake turned to look at him curiously.

"Do you mind it?" He smiled at his Familiar and watched its eyes sparkle before it slithered back inside his sleeve, hiding again. "She likes it." He told the two girls, and they both nodded their heads.

"What is she?" Sona asked.

"I will tell you about her some other day." He refused to answer, and they frowned a little.

"Is she special?"

"Very." He nodded his head, and Rias smiled at him.

"Honestly, I did not think that you would find something tonight. I expected you to be very picky, but since you have chosen her, she must be very special."

"Well, truthfully, I was not expecting to find one tonight either." He smiled at her, making her giggle, and then they all turned to look at the group that was arriving at the location.

It was Erza and Reya, and the three of them heard two childlike voices arguing with each other. It was what led them to notice a pair of Winged-Cats sitting on Erza's shoulders, one blue and the other white.

"Erza won't forget about our fish, Happy." The white one sighed, and then curiously looked at Raizel, Rias, and Sona. "Shut up now."

"But Carla... I am hungry..." The blue one sighed too, and then its eyes sparkled when it noticed the people they were approaching. "Hi! I am Happy!" It flew over to them and happily greeted them.

Rias and Sona looked at the two creatures in surprise, their eyes glued on them, and then they both stepped forward, surrounding Erza and the two Exceed.

These winged creatures were Rare-Class Magical Beats, capable of using Magic, as well as flight. And they were well-known for their high intelligence. Not to mention, they were adorable to the extreme!

Reya too found herself a Familiar, and it happened to be a Magical Rabbit.

She happily told everyone how the two Exceed helped them out when they accidentally trespassed Tiamat's territory, how Erza challenged her to a fight, and how she met her own Familiar.

The reason she chose it was that it was truly very pretty, but it turned out to be quite useful as well since it possessed a few Magical abilities including the ability to breathe fire.

Raizel was quite amused to learn that his dear Knight challenged a Dragon King, and needless to say, the outcome was as expected. She was overpowered.

Tiamat, the Chaos Karma Dragon, was one of the most powerful Dragons known in the Underworld, and though she was weaker than Old Baha, she was still someone who was considered very close to becoming a Heavenly Dragon one day.

Funnily, the Familiar Masters responsible for guiding people through this Forest were mischievous enough to tell the young Devils that they could even manage to make her their Familiar, when the truth was that it was impossible to make her a Familiar.

She was far too old and strong, and she did not need to rely on anyone's Magic to grow stronger. Besides, she could even overpower a Satan-Class Devil.

"She's too strong," Erza told him, frowning a little, clearly not happy about her loss.

"But that would not stop you from challenging her again, right?" He could see that her Dragon's Pride had taken a hit, and Erza wouldn't rest until the day comes when she manages to overpower the Chaos Karma Drgaon now.

"I need to grow stronger." She nodded her head, making him chuckle.

it was all good, after all, he was interested in the Chaos Karma Dragon as well. She was one of the targets whom he was quite interested in to make a part of his Peerage, but she was not someone he could convince into it just yet.

He too needed to grow stronger to achieve his goal, after all, as things stood, she was way stronger than him right now.

Besides, he would not be his Mother's child if he did not have a few Dragons in his Peerage. She had five of them in her Peerage, and he wanted, at least, three in his.

The group waited for a few more minutes as people kept arriving one after the other.

Akame and Kiba arrived first with the Familiar Master, both of them have found their Familiars.

For Akame, it was a Magical Raven, and for Kiba, it was a Magical Swallow, both very useful and intelligent creatures.

But not everyone managed to find themselves their Familiars tonight, and to everyone's amusement, they got to see Moka wearing an ugly expression when Ban smirked at her and showed and boasted to her that he had found himself a Familiar when she had failed.

It was a Goblin, a pesky little greedy creature, small enough to carry in your two hands and on your shoulder, and the girls found it quite cute.

When Raizel congratulated Ban on finding himself a very suitable Magical Familiar, it only added fuel to the fire.

But Moka was soon relieved to find that she was not the only one who had failed to find a Familiar.

Loup, Gasper, and Shera had failed in the task as well. And it was soon agreed that they would visit the Forest again on the next night of the Full Moon which would happen six months later.

Among those that found themselves Familiars, Tsubaki found herself a Magical Serpent, who for some reason looked at Raizel in sheer terror, and Akeno found herself a group of cute little Oni, seven of them, all siblings, and the girls were gushing over them.

Shirone, as expected, found herself a white Magical Cat, and it was truly heartwarming to see her hold onto it as if it were her child.

But there was a creature that terrified a few as well, and it happened to be a giant Cerberus, whom Guts had beaten up and forced into submission to become his Familiar.

However, the real surprise came when Freya arrived with her Familiar, and there was not one of them who was not shocked or did not evey her for what she had gotten her hands onto.

The Familiar Master nearly fainted at the sight of it.