It's unbelievable how much effort has gone into this story. Summons has been the first novel length work I have completed. And it's funny to believe how this all got started. If you will permit a rambling author to have a few last thoughts about this piece of work, please read on.
I never expected to complete this work. Personally I don't like writing cross-overs because of the demands it places on the reader. Whenever I write, the reader is almost always foremost in my mind. How much will he already know? How will she see the scenes I write? Since this is a Lunar fanfic archive, I can't expect my readers to have played Vay and Popful Mail . Indeed, many of the readers I've spoken with haven't.
Summons began as a thought, just for fun, of what it would be like if the most powerful video game wizards I knew joined together in combined effort to defeat a common enemy. Ghaleon, Kazyr, and Sadoul became those wizards.
Starting the fanfic was the hardest part. One must understand that the stronger the heroes, the more powerful and dangerous the villain has to be. An evil god? Forget gods. Ghaleon could take one of them down by himself. Hiro and company could beat Zophar, and there's no question that this trio of wizards could trash Hiro and party from here to next century. I actually hadn't decided on the Maker until chapter 3 (kinda funny since I already had chapters 1-2 up on the web by then). The only way to create a villain worthy of those three was to give them something so powerful, so omniscient, that nothing, not even gods could stop it. The Maker could not be beaten by conventional means. He manipulated, he thought, and he corrupted. Most of all, he existed outside of Althena's creation.
The fact that Kazyr also comes from another world brings credence to the idea that Althena is not the creater of all, as the inhabitants of Lunar would like to believe. That knowledge lends much of the edge to the Maker's advances. One could think, "Well, maybe the Maker really is who he says he is." And that's the scariest thought of all. Would he truly have the right to destroy and create as he sees fit?
People may have also noticed that the most difficult trials the three wizards face aren't physical in nature at all. So little can stand up to them that the battles must come from within. The without has already been mastered. The Maker realizes that as well. Perhaps the greatest battles were fought not against the Maker (though he may have instagated them), but against the doubt, the pride, and fear that each of the wizards has hidden within himself. And, from a writer's point of view ^_^, if their heads weren't bashed around a bit they'd never get around to helping each other.
Ghaleon's slaying of Sadoul in chapter 9 was as much of a surprise for me as it was for my readers, and hey, someone had to get those guys back on track. Sometimes those three seem alive enough that I can't control them. Though of course, that's part of the fun. And for that chance to have wandered beside them, I am deeply grateful. Now it is time for the four of us to part ways. Perhaps we'll meet again, but for now the stars beckon me, and the shine off silver hair.