Magi: The Tale of Faith and Hope

Paimon and Ipos

"Ugh..." Seisyun groaned as he regained consciousness.

"You have awoken, Seisyun," Hakuei said while she held him, relieved.

"P-Princess, are you all right?" he asked earnestly, surprised to find that both of them had already had their wounds treated. Fortunately, none of them had been fatal. "What happened to Ryosai and them...!?" he asked anxiously, bolting upright despite the pain.

"They have been subdued," she replied calmly. Some loyal soldiers had arrived to help restrain Ryosai's men so they could be taken back to base for punishment along with their leader. "Thanks to him," she added, gesturing to the young boy who was standing nearby with two identical girls at his side. "He refers to himself as a magi," she whispered.

"Huh?" Seisyun said, surprised.

"Hey! Nice to meet you, I'm Aladdin. And this is Faith and Hope," the young boy said with a smile and wave, pointing to each of the twins in turn as he introduced them.

"Hi!" the twins said brightly with a wave, in perfect sync with each other.

"This is Seisyun," Hakuei said, introducing her friend as well. "He is an old acquaintance of mine, and he has captured a dungeon with me as my assistant."

"!" the twins said, surprised.

'Her, too...?' Hope thought. Was everyone in the Kou Empire's royal family a dungeon capturer?

"Dungeon? You two have captured dungeons before?" Aladdin asked excitedly. So that's how she knew so much about them!

"Yes," Hakuei answered with a small nod.

"My, now ain't that a coinkydink~!" said Faith. "So have we! My sister even got a Djinn!"

"Eh?" Seisyun said as their eyes widened slightly in surprise, impressed.

"Did you really..." Hakuei started to ask, when her flabellum and Hope's ring both began to glow. "My fan...!?"

"Yeah! That's it!" Aladdin said excitedly. "Onee-san, will you let me touch that? Hope, too!" Curious, both girls held out their metal vessels for him. Feeling a little nervous, Aladdin carefully reached out and touched both vessels at the same time.

"Whoa...!" Faith exclaimed when they were suddenly enveloped in two massive glowing orbs of rukh, and something huge and powerful shot out of each vessel. Hakuei's Djinn came out in the form of a whirlwind that soon cleared to reveal an enormous, blue, scantily clad woman with pointy ears and long nails, while Ipos leaped from Hope's ring with a mighty roar that made the ground shake.

"!?" Hakuei and Seisyun gasped in surprise. They had never seen anyone summon two Djinns like this before!

"Who is the one... who will become king?" Hakuei's Djinn asked in a booming feminine voice. "Although, I'm already on a contract... Oh well! Is everyone doing fine~?" Actually, most of the soldiers looked like they had been scared shitless. "I am Paimon, a Djinn created by Solomon from maniacal love and chaos. And thou are the queen... Ren Hakuei!!" she exclaimed upon spotting her master. "But where did you get enough power to summon me? Did a typhoon come, Hakuei-chan?"

"No, no. Look closer, Pai-san. It was obviously the magi," Ipos told her, nodding his head in Aladdin's direction.

"Oh, you're right!" Paimon said, surprised to see him there as well.

"..." Aladdin and Faith said, staring up at the Djinns in surprise.

"... That's your Djinn?" she asked her sister. A winged-platylion? That was undeniably cool...

"Yep," Hope replied with a nod. "His name is Ipos."

"I am a Djinn created by Solomon from Wisdom and Valor. It is an honor, magi," Ipos said, bowing respectfully.