The kids looked over at Ashton, not sure what to say. But Millie... she was staring at Ashton eagerly. Almost with excitement in her eyes.

  It was unnerving, even to Ashton.

  "Just... wait a little longer, and be as quiet as you can for this next part, okay?" Ashton's heart was beating fast. He didn't like the presence of what he was about to call.

  Beings like the Daughter of the Scarlet Heart; higher beings that were practically gods amongst demonkind were one thing, but what Ashton was about to call wasn't that.

  It was a thing that was born from pits of boiling flesh, a creature that couldn't help but be vile, because being as such was in its very nature.

  Ashton placed the eight flames over different parts of the summoning circle he drew on the ground in blood.

  He knelt down in front of the magic circle. His hands were pushed together, his fingers interlocked, touching at the frontmost joints with the tips of his thumbs pushed together against his chin. He spoke into his tented fingers.

  "Aram, Milas, Orus, Kift. I call upon you, Spawn of Akrazoth. Hear my voice and taste my blood."

  The flames around the summoning circle started to flicker, despite being magically controlled.

  "Hagus, Bort, Pren, Het. Doctor of the oldest hell. Bind yourself to me, to this mark in my flesh."

  The blood pooled up in the centre of the summoning circle began to sink down, as a small hole opened up in the ground.

  "Milas, Pragus, Konta," Ashton had already started. He couldn't stop here, or he would face the consequences, but the last word of the chant still came out as heavy as lead. "...Orus."

  The flames were snuffed out completely, and with that, an unnatural darkness seemed to come over the classroom. It was still bright out, and the windows were no longer blocked for safety. Even so, it was pitch black, with the only light coming from the dark red summoning circle on the ground.

  The hole that had opened up in the pool of blood let out a sinister glow, which was only blocked by the fingers that slowly pushed their way out. They had blackened nails and scarred skin, and were terrifyingly long. A pair of hands, fused into one mass, forced their way out, widening the hole further.

  Finally free, the hands crawled out from the summoning circle and onto Ashton's arm. Now that they no longer had to squeeze through, they looked like a spider made from human flesh, its legs being the hands' fingers and the thumbs taking the place of fangs.

  This was the spawn of Akrazoth, a demonic doctor that wandered the lowest, darkest realms of hell. Just like many greater demons, Akrazoth's offspring soon began to wander that realm, and could now be summoned by someone stupid enough.

  The demon found its way to the sigil Ashton carved into his arm, and pushed its fingers inside. Just as it had forced open a hole in the summoning circle, it was doing the same with Ashton's flesh. It wasn't actually tearing open his physical body, but instead linked with this sigil in a gruesome, disgusting way.

  It felt like it was tearing into his body, though.

  As the spawn of Akrazoth fully disappeared, the sigil immediately began to heal, turning into a blackened, dark red pattern that smoothly sat on his skin.

  And with that, the contract was complete.

  [[Demon Summoning] Category is being created under the [Summoning] Skill]

  [[Spawn of Akrazoth] is being registered in the [Demon Summoning] Category]

  Ashton could practically feel his blood be syphoned away into the sigil as the payment for the initial summoning was given. As far as payments went, a relatively low price, especially since just a small bit of a potion could help him recover that.

  The biggest issue was that Ashton didn't have much to truly pay the price for the spawn's ability.

  Akrazoth was a collector, taking parts of the bodies of other demons, cobbling together its own creations, altering the bodies of others, and sometimes, even if just rarely, healing the injuries of other demons for a fair price.

  As such, the price that Ashton would have to pay were body-parts. Monster corpses would work fine, but there were none around here. Using James' zombified corpse as payment would be too risky; Ashton didn't know if it would spread the fully infected flesh and blood elsewhere in the process of taking the body apart.

  This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  There were other notifications that popped up in front of Ashton, ones that he was waiting for, but that could wait. He pushed them aside and out of focus, and rushed over to Millie's body. Like a switch was flipped, light flooded into the room again, and Sean and Joey, both unable to truly see what had happened due to the sudden darkness, were cowering slightly.

  "Both of you, look away please. Drunken Bear, could you..?" Ashton looked over at the spirit, who walked over without hesitation. The Drunken Bear was a versatile spirit, and a vastly kind one. There was no need that they would hesitate to comfort a pair of terrified children.

  As they pulled the kids to the side, holding a glass bottle between their teeth, Ashton leaned over Millie's body. She stared right into his eyes.

  Ashton smiled lightly at her. "Everything will be okay now, I promise."

  He touched the sigil on his arm, and called the spawn out of his vessel. The ways that demons interacted with the soul were rather unique. They didn't just fall apart into magical particles like others, and they didn't share the same space in one's vessel. Instead, they were housed specifically within the sigil, since it was essentially like a small piece of hell was placed into the world.

  Otherwise, it could be summoned like normal, using blood as a payment, though most of its abilities would take either a massive amount of blood, more than Ashton could provide, or some limbs.

  "You can have her arm when you're done, but remove it safely, and cleanly, painlessly, and without a trace. If she dies, I will rip the contract out of my soul again," Ashton whispered, though his words were unnecessary. There was a reason why he had even considered summoning this demon.

  Despite being such a grotesque thing... it was truly the spawn of the most skilled Doctor in hell. It also wasn't as though every demonic being was truly evil. Rather, demons adhered to contracts even more closely than any other being in the cosmos. They were the perfect partners for a summoner, if the terms of the contract were set up right.

  Akrazoth's offspring were skilled and clean, maybe even more so than trained surgeons and physicians on earth. Their methods were... unique, but the effect could not be doubted.

  The demon's fingers tapped onto Millie's skin, closely to her shoulder. It was trying to get familiar with the child's arm to figure out what it should do exactly.

  And then, the fingers that were its legs slowly changed. Like the flesh simply peeled back from the sharpened base, scalpels, saws, and needles of bone were revealed.

  Immediately, the spawn began to cut into Millie's skin. She flinched, scared, but Ashton held her hand with a smile.

  "It's going to be okay, I promise. Just look at me, okay?"

  The surgery wouldn't hurt. That was one of his requests, after all. It would extend the time of the surgery, and probably the price, but the spawn agreed to keep the arm in return, so that was alright.

  Millie looked at Ashton as he held her hand. He didn't know what else to do. There wasn't anything else he could do, not while this was happening. It took about thirty minutes for the surgery to be finished. Pretty fast, all things considered, especially for level one.

  Ashton felt bad for sitting here for so long while he could be out there, taking care of the rest of the zombies, but during the surgery, once they felt that Millie was safe, the Guardian started to speak properly again.

  [[Guardian of the Innocent] asks you to stay with the child]

  [[Guardian of the Innocent] explains that the others are safe]

  So the other kids were holed up somewhere? Ashton knew that the Guardian didn't particularly care about the adults, so they weren't talking about that. But as long as the kids were safe, Ashton figured it was fine to stay put for now. Zombies were weak. Adults should be able to take them down if needed, and Ashton would take care of the rest before long. It seemed like the Guardian was already preparing a quest, but Ashton didn't focus on all those other messages right now.

  [Contract | Spawn of Akrazoth - Level 1 -> Spawn of Akrazoth - Level 2]

  With this, it was clear that the surgery had been completed.

  Ashton watched as the spawn devoured the now detached hand, practically absorbing the small limb into its flesh. The demon climbed over Millie's body and back onto Ashton's left arm to disappear in the sigil once more.

  Nervous, Ashton looked at Millie's shoulder. The wound was closed neatly. It wouldn't create bad scars, but the healing wasn't done yet.

  Ashton quietly looked at the Backpacker, who gave him some bandages, gauzes, and a healing potion. He quickly wrapped her shoulder up. With this, she should heal up soon, and learn to live without her left arm in time.

  "I'm sorry for being so late..." Ashton whispered, not thinking that she could hear. But Millie shook her head.

  "It's... it's okay..." the little girl replied tiredly, almost as if she was trying to comfort Ashton in this moment.

  "... You two, come over." Ashton looked at Joey and Sean, who were anxiously waiting with the bear. They were leaning onto the spirit, waiting to be allowed closer.

  The two looked at their friend, missing a part of herself that was there not too long before, and just blankly stood there for a few moments. Ashton wasn't good with kids. He didn't know what to tell them, to stop them from crying.

  "... Drunken Bear, could you..?" he asked, trying to get them to carry Millie for him.

  The spirit's bottle was almost empty, so Ashton asked the Backpacker for another and re-upped the bear's supply. They clearly seemed conflicted. Their familiarity with Ashton had risen during this, apparently, so he could tell what they were feeling.

  "It's okay, just take the drink. It's part of our contract, otherwise you would have to pay for your time here yourself."

  The bear slowly and hesitantly nodded, taking a drink of the vodka Ashton gave them before picking up Millie.

  Ashton grabbed his staff and put his jacket back on, then looked at Millie's friends.

  "Come on, I'll bring you to your teachers," he said, and the two quietly followed behind.

  They stepped back out into the hallway, and Ashton led them around. He had an idea of where the others were, if they weren't in any other place he passed so far.

  And as they walked, Ashton finally glanced at the messages that appeared when he summoned the spawn. There were quite a few, but one sat there front and centre. In any other scenario, he would have been happy to see this, but now, he just felt bitter about it.

  [Class | Summoner - Level 9 -> Summoner - Level 10]