A low sound echoed off the walls, shaking Nick’s bones and making him grit his teeth as it grew louder, until it felt like it would deafen him completely, only for it to suddenly stop.
Something splattered onto the ritual circle, a thick, oozing purple mass that bubbled and writhed for a moment before coming together into a humanoid figure.
It lacked definition, being a mere parody of human life, but Nick could recognize a few signs that showed this demonic creature hadn’t just chosen any form, but was attempting to mimic his own.
I guess that’s what I get for using an artifact meant for infiltration and subterfuge as the sacrifice.
The more seconds that passed, the clearer the reflection became, until it was a perfect copy of him, if it were made of purple slime.
Surprisingly, it didn’t attack right away, as all the other demons had so far. Instead, it looked around, as if it needed to turn its head to see, even though Nick knew it had no eyes.
In fact, [Empyrean Intuition] was telling him it was nothing like the natural slimes he’d fought either, although it shared some features with the ooze he encountered in the tunnels beneath the grassland.
That wasn’t too surprising, considering those had been corrupted by demonic influences for over a century.
Then, its mouth split open, and it spoke. “Interesting.”
It was a faint warble, almost hard to recognize as speech, but Nick immediately grew cautious. Speech suggested intelligence in the absence of something to mimic. He certainly hadn’t spoken in its presence, and [Blasphemy] would have warned him if it had tried to enter his mind.
Even worse, it was speaking a recognizable language, which indicated that his probe had been aimed at it for a reason.
The World’s power surged around him, almost begging him to use it to crush the invader, and he calmed it with a promise that he would do just that in a moment.
It sulked, curling around him in a way that reminded him of Talbot, but it didn’t fight him like it used to, letting Nick focus on the demon.
“What is it that you seek, human?” it asked, still eyeing the numerous ritual circles it was surrounded by with curiosity.
Nick got the impression that they thought they were cute but not a real threat, which would have scared him if he didn’t know how strong his protections could be, especially if he brought to bear all the power the World was willing to give him.
Also, this seems like a typical summoning. It thinks I called it here to get its assistance.
In a way, that was true. It just wouldn’t end the way it thought it would.
“I seek more power,” he said, following the cliché. The feeling of wrongness each demon carried urged him to purge it, but he wanted to understand why his probe had been sent to this particular one and what it thought it could do for him.
Getting it to agree to help me would actually let me enforce the binding and use its very essence as fuel, rather than just its symbolic meaning.
Maybe it was greedy of him, especially considering how badly things could turn out if the ritual failed and the demon escaped, but the potential benefit was even greater.
Using a demon’s essence to forge his new focus could potentially grant it a natural resistance to their corruptive properties, allowing more of the World’s power to be used for attack since he wouldn't need to shield his spells anymore.
The demon’s face shifted in an approximation of a smile, though seeing his own face do that was quite unsettling.
“Yes, power. Such a plentiful thing for those who know how to grasp it, but out of reach for everyone else. I can give it to you, should you pay the price. I can make you surpass even the greatest of your masters if you agree to my terms,” it offered, and the sensation of wrongness intensified. Nick was again forced to soothe the World, impressing upon it that he didn’t actually want to go through with the deal, at least not in the way it feared.
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“What is the price?” he asked, deliberately making the most basic mistake. Without first figuring out what form the power he wanted would take, he was essentially handing control of that clause to the demon. Or rather, he would have, if he hadn't already spread [Territory] through the room and wasn’t capable of enforcing a magical contract of his own.
Its eyes were not real, but Nick had the distinct impression they would have flashed with greed if they could. The demon believed he was a naive yet talented apprentice and thought he would be easy to manipulate.
Admittedly, expecting him to actually be an experienced Occultist when all other clues pointed to the opposite would have been crazy.
“You will agree to aiding me in the task of remaining in the material plane,” it hissed out, its slimy form shivering in pleasure.
If Nick had really been a teenager, that would have been too good to pass up. “No soul snatching?”
“Ah!” it barked, mimicking laughter, though its presence in the ether felt exactly the same as when it first appeared, showing no real change in emotional state beyond a growing greed. “No, those are far too crude. Only mindless beasts would think they could trap someone in such an agreement, and you wouldn’t care for it, would you?”
“No, I wouldn’t,” Nick confirmed, and he was secretly impressed.
This is still a demonic creature, not a Lesser Demon, but it demonstrates actual understanding of human nature. Anyone summoning a demon would be willing to pay a price, but their own soul would be a deal breaker for all but the most desperate. It is adjusting its response to suit the current situation.
From a purely intellectual perspective, this entire encounter was incredibly fascinating, and Nick was certain he would revisit it many times in the future to gain more insights than what could be understood at the moment, but for now, he just nodded.
“Then I agree. Give me the power I seek, and I will ensure your stay in the material plane.”
This time, he didn’t need to imagine the greed that flickered through it, because the demon nearly lost cohesion in its eagerness to agree. “The pact is signed!”
Two things happened simultaneously. First, Nick felt his own mana move independently, meeting the demon’s corrupting power in the middle and merging with it before returning to him and spreading through his body, bypassing [Blasphemy] as he had been the one to allow it in.
Secondly, the demon’s power surged, washing over him in an overwhelming pulse and trying to enter his body along with his own mana.
“You shall become a wonderful vessel, child!” it rumbled, transforming into a wave of purple ooze that threatened to cover him completely.
Despite the truly terrifying circumstances, Nick couldn’t help but grin. “I’ve always wanted to trick a demon,” he said conversationally, before finally letting the World take over.
Its natural energy filled every gap inside his body, immediately preventing the demon from gaining a foothold, and Nick combined it with his own mana, transforming himself into a living cauldron for the two catalysts to blend together.
The pressure his [Territory] exerted a moment later was enough to dispel any corruption from his coils and slam down on the demon, pinning it in place.
It let out a roar of anger unlike any sound human vocal cords could produce, accompanied by a strong tug on the link connecting them.
The demon was not yet out of the fight, it seemed, as even in its shock, it tried to enforce the laws of the pact they had struck.
That was when Nick finally started working. Until then, everything had been a clash of brute force, but when it came to magical contracts, finesse was essential, and luckily, he had enough to spare, thanks to [Parsimonia].
“The pact has been sealed, and its word shall be followed,” he intoned, pushing his interpretation of the wording through his mana, and flooding his end of the connection with it.
The demon responded in kind, trying to leverage the open-ended nature of the agreement to its advantage. While that might have worked on a novice or even a talented mage with little experience in the occult, Nick was neither.
He knew exactly how to let the magic see his point, and since this wasn't an actual trial with a judge or jury to persuade, being reasonable enough was all he needed.
His end of the pact was fulfilled the moment he activated the secondary and tertiary rituals, trapping the demon in place and beginning the process of stripping it of its power, giving it a new, eternal home.
It warbled in anger and frustration, leaning hard into its anti-magic properties and trying to corrupt his rituals, correctly understanding that those were the true paths it could use to deny Nick his success.
Yet the World would have none of it. Guided by his will, the planet unleashed incredible power, stripping away any corruption from the demon's control and leaving it little more than a ghost.
That was when Nick swooped in and directed his rituals to incorporate the new ingredient, using the divine power that was radiating from the relics to counterbalance its nastiness.
The entire operation probably didn’t last more than a few minutes, but it felt like hours, and Nick was left trembling and sore in places he wasn’t quite sure should be able to ache.
Yet he didn’t relax, because now that he had successfully entrapped the demon in the ritual magic, he needed to get through the actual forging process.
You know what, the World still hasn’t receded yet since the demon is technically still here, and I haven’t received the System notification. I should take advantage of that while it lasts.
And so he did. Pulling more power from the planet and mixing it with his own mana to gain control over it made his teeth chatter and his muscles jerk, but he kept going, flooding the rituals with power and guiding it to fill every corner, empowering every rune, and eventually coating the divine artifacts.
Even the Compass of Interesting Times, which had been resistant to almost everything he could think to use against it so far, gave way to the World’s power since it wasn't technically magic.
Lights that didn’t belong to the material plane appeared through the chamber in bright flashes at first, then stabilized into arcs of power that traced the length of the ritual circles, connecting them into one major Work.
Through it all, Nick directed the disparate energies into a cohesive whole, channeling them through his own body to attune them to himself, and finally, guiding them into the orichalcum spear, which began glowing with impossible colors, bleeding off more power than Nick had ever used for a single spell, yet absorbing even more.
The World’s strong presence somewhat hampered the process's efficiency. Its energies were simply too different from the mana that mages could use, and he had tested that before, but it more than compensated with its sheer intensity and purity. For every mote of mana lost, ten were added, of a higher quality than he could hope to produce on his own.
Nick maintained the flow of power until the demon’s essence finally disintegrated, allowing the System to recognize its defeat and causing the World to withdraw as the threat disappeared.
That left Nick with the closing ceremony, and he concentrated all his willpower on the new focus, shaping it into the mighty weapon he envisioned.
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