Ivan listened to the sounds of the Ocean as the late evening tide rolled in. The moon hung high in the sky and late summer insects chirped all around him. Penelope relaxed into his side in her new mostly human form.
Myrn was still a wreck from Tila's death. Her and Ivan had spent a great deal of time together that morning gardening as they used to. It was a calming and regular task for both of them. They had cleared a spot today where Tila would be buried soon. She would never be far from the family home now. Marvin and Andy were going on hunts to clear their heads. Davian was playing his heart out and writing songs every night. He took a few different women and girls to bed each night too.
There was news that some kind of trouble had broken out at the Army of Light's camp, but Ivan couldn't really care less about that. Not right now, and not any more than it had let Quixla perform her first service to her Lord. She had done very well. Ivan would have to reward her with something.
But for right now he finished the dinner he had shared with Penelope. They had kissed for a time as they had left off before, but now they were just watching the moonlight waves together. Ivan would have taken Tanya out to a place like this had he the time, and had Tanya been a little better at riding horses. They were a long ride out of the way here.
Ivan ran his fingers over Penelope's ribs and up to her breast. He gripped her softly making her gasp in pleasure before he leaned down, kissed her neck, and took the scent of her. She kissed his cheek, and stroked his face with one hand. Her other hand was busy doing things under his belt line, but for the most part that part of the night was already over.
Ivan had been surprised by her offer of returning the service he had provided her twice now, but it had certainly improved his mood some.
Penelope chuckled. It was an impish and girlish sound in this new form.
Ivan nibbled at her ear turning it into a full giggle. She squirmed, and eventually he pulled her all the way into his lap. The demoness laid back against him with her arms laid over his own, and her head turned just enough to look up at him from where she lay.
Ivan gave her a questioning glance before the lanterns within the Shroud, within himself really, filled once again with Azalea's ghostly blue gray flames. Ivan nearly stood up as if he would rise and answer the door for her, but Samiel led her into the Shroud without trouble.
Azalea's presence was immediately stronger than it had been before. Her robes were still ragged and gray cast off looking things, but now thin blue iron chains hung about her waist, her neck, her wrists, and arms. She clinked as she walked, but even with the added chains she moved with a deadly certainty about her now.
Her candle flame eye lights were now overflowing lantern blazes. Tongues of blue gray fire leaped from within her ragged hood and somehow covered her face as much or maybe more darkness than before. It was a little hard to tell within the Shroud since Ivan was pretty sure it was dark in there all the time, and he could just see everywhere in it.
“I have returned Master. I am home. Tila has moved beyond the gate, and safely lies within Eternity now. Samiel was a welcome aid to my journey though I fear his presence was more than enough to deter any who might have sought to strike against me, but I am gladdened to see that not only Mistress Penelope's kin but those others of the Demon Court of Hell have moved to assisting the Pathfinders instead of battling them.” Azalea reported, her voice firm, but filled with a sober contentment.
Samiel chuckled.
“It's become clear to even the fiends that Hell has become so full of demons set against the pathfinders that we can battle and gain to our hearts content by safeguarding the Poe. Too late may they realize that the pathfinders gain strength akin to Dungeon feats with each willing soul they bring to the gate. They might try to turn against them in the future, but if they are not careful they will end as Soul Ash to fill the mighty Urns of the pathfinders for their foolishness.”
Azalea frowned, her eye flames bending with the expression, and her aura broadcasting wry humor as she poked Samiel with her blazing lantern pole.
“Hey!” Azalea said, her voice filled with about as much mirth as annoyance.
“Ope. I umm..didn't say that. I meant the journey was quite boring and I learned nothing.” He covered with a rather lame and flat faced lie.
He bowed slightly, and made a silent goodbye with a wave of his hand. Somehow his intent was clear on what was happening on the outside of the Shroud and gave them space.
Azalea shook her head at him, but seemed to have warmed up to him during the journey.
Ivan gave Penelope a look and she nodded, finally drawing her hand from his trousers.
Ivan did up his belt then, and stood with Penelope at his side. He cast a glance behind him into the dark where limp forms, held in what looked like sacks in the dark, swung limply where they hung from exactly two dozen branches. Quixla moved among the trees, first coming to his hand after skittering down from a nearby tree, and then ascending to let down each of the captive victims at Ivan’s direction.
Ivan caught them, blandly noticing the terrified expressions of the men and women inside as he dragged them carefully down the beach toward a large ritual circle. Once Quixla had all but one down and they both had arranged the victims about the ritual circle Ivan returned the last webbing sack hung in the trees.
There was a fire dwindling below it. The man was hung upside down too unlike the others. He was panting, squirming and struggling where the others had been paralyzed. Ivan had instructed Quixla not to poison this one, and to let him writhe. Ivan had also lit the fire under him not to cook him, or to be a potential hazard if he fell. Ivan had made the fire to give him light. So that as he hung there suspended, the man could see what lingered in the shadows all around him and try in vain to escape.
Ivan kicked the fire out and grabbed the man by the hair through the webbing. When he used his left hand the web didn't even stick to him. That was how he had moved the others so easily. Quixla snapped and clacked her fangs at the man from below, furthering his terror and fright.
“Let me go. Let me go. Please. Please. I won't tell anyone. Make them stop. Make the hounds stop. Pleasepleasepleaseplease.” The man whimpered, but Ivan watched him with a dead man's gaze.
Azalea looked up from within the shroud and then blinked.
There was a barrel full of water in front of her within the Shroud.
“Azalea. Bring that out please if you can.” Ivan asked.
He hadn't inspected her, but he guessed that with her new strength handling the water barrel would be no difficult task. Azalea looked about at her flaring lantern flames, and then nodded, her manner cautious even before she took up the barrel.
She stepped out of the Shroud and placed the heavy container down with a little effort. In the material world once again she seemed much more solid. She even stood straighter, and was able to conjure and dismiss her lantern pole at will now.
Indeed too as Samiel had made a slight jest of she wore an iron urn like thing on the chains about her neck, but that wasn't all. Ivan had yet to inspect her, but the chains hadn't just appeared or been a gift. They were part of her power. Ivan didn't really have to check to know her job had changed.
“Your metal spark awoke? When you brought Tila home?” Ivan asked.
Azalea nodded respectfully.
“Yes Master. My Pathfinder Cleric Job wasn't strongly compatible with it, but it bonded anyway. The Job transformed into the greater militant aspect, becoming Crusader. I've kept my skills and abilities from the Cleric job however, and I've gained an Innate Ability through my spark that has allowed me to manifest properly in the material realm as I am. My teacher at the Gate told me that it will scale well as I progress though it is a little unnatural for our kind to gain such skills.”
“I'm proud of you.” Ivan told her.
Azalea's aura flooded with pride of her own and embarrassment. Her lantern pole had been flaring in her hands, reacting to Ivan's corruption.
“Back in the Shroud now. Your ghost flames feel like they are about to chill me to the bone.” He said with a smile
Azalea let out a little girlish huff of laughter, but ducked back under his arm and into the Shroud.
The man who had killed Tila watched the whole thing with an expression of horror on his face. Penelope was smiling at him too which probably helped. He hung but about a foot over the water of the barrel.
Ivan looked at him and smiled as he pulled out a plain steel knife from the shroud. The man fought and wriggled, eyes locked onto the blade of the knife until Ivan very simply dropped the weapon into the barrel. It splashed and sunk to the bottom.
“I'm going to lower you half way into the barrel.” Ivan told him calmly.
“But that knife will be at the bottom. If you can rip your arms free, grab the knife, and cut yourself loose I'll let you go.” Ivan said, not sure if he was feeling cold because of Azalea's purifying flames, or because of what he was about to do to this man and how much he wanted to do it.
The man stared at him, eyes wide, and hardly looked as though he believed him. But Quixla was already up the tree, and was slowly lowering the man down. He bucked and swayed, trying to escape the barrel even then. He was swearing and cursing and screaming.
Ivan shushed him like he would have a child.
“Hold your breath now. Quixla's webs are rather strong.”
His forehead and then eyes went into the water, guided there by Ivan’s grip on his hair. He struggled a great deal at that part until finally managing to take a breath before Quixla put him past his nose. He sank further, still shaking and wriggling his arms now where Quixla had not only pressed them to his sides, but tied them behind his back securely around his groin and belt line besides. Ivan watched as the man fought, stepping back enough to double check the ritual circle that had once been around the fire.
He corrected some little messy things there and there, but it was ready. With casual ease he drew a ewer of blood from the Shroud. The Priest of Light it had belonged to was low ranking, but it served. Quixla had done well to take him unnoticed too.
Ivan followed the lines of the ritual done in the sand and traced them out again in blood. The blood soaked into the dry sand, but that was just fine. He did a double lap of the lines just to be sure. Demonology 1 identified the sigil this next summon needed to function as the Elder Sign, a specific and deadly symbol of the Ek’Thun. It was two mutilated five pointed stars that were each hard to focus on while keeping the other in mind. Ivan liked the design, and saw it begin to glow as the man inside the barrel began to lose his air.
Ivan began the chant, carefully, with Penelope by his side and nodding as the twisting words of Hell Speak writhed in the air. Ivan didn't know exactly what the words meant, but they were full of hunger, alien lust, and seething corruption.
Inside the Shroud Azalea was sitting within her own ritual circle she had put down, purifying Ivan at about the same rate that he was being corrupted as he spoke words that should never be uttered on the material plane. It was a frightening level of corruption given that the Shroud shielded Ivan from a large amount of any corruption. Still Ivan was not afraid.
He was excited.
He felt the man realize it was hopeless through his flailing aura. He felt him call out for his God, to be unanswered. Ivan smiled at that and the ritual circle of blood magic above woven by Quixla that shielded such prayers from reaching their intended targets. Ivan watched and raised an eyebrow as the man managed to get one hand free.
It was covered in blood and didn't have much skin left above the wrist, but he had to give him props for trying. The ritual circle came alight in full violent red light as Ivan watched the man reach for the bottom of the barrel. The man jerked, and the tree limb he was attached to bent and groaned. Something that could have been a breathless scream left the man in a burst of bubbles as he was ripped inside the barrel with such force that water and blood sprayed at least ten feet into the air.
Ivan thought he had seen at least one of his new summons’ tentacles wrapping about the man before he was pulled down, but for now he just laughed as he felt the summons complete before the water settled.
After the brightness of the red glow of the ritual circle he was blind for a few moments as something writhed and rose from the barrel of sea water in the dark. Its head rose, and then what Ivan took for shoulders, and then more certainly arms. The creature flailed, having been summoned from the deep of Ocean Hells only to arrive here at the surface level.
Ivan went to her, knowing it to be female prior to this being the only way he could tell, and tentacle arms took up his hands. Using his strength he hefted the creature from the ruins of the barrel and took her over to the sea where she settled and sank into the salty ocean waves.
Ivan conjured his scroll with a thought and bound her with blood and shadow. The creature hissed something of Hell Speak in discomfort, but Penelope was right there beside Ivan using her aura to calm the demon's more supernatural nature.
Ivan dealt with the creature long enough to see something of a pale and swollen face, but once he had bound her as another of his familiars he let her sink into the waves. She retreated immediately into the dark waves of the moonlit sea as a pale shadow of writhing two tone tentacles and hints of bare skin. Her aura contained a great deal of frustration as well as excitement.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
Ivan took a deep breath of the sea air before returning to the larger circle. There Quixla was laying out the living sacrifices for the next and larger ritual to come. Ivan channeled his focus, and even put a hand to his chest to administer his best mana bolstering tonic to himself.
Ivan took out the ewer of blood once more and lightly coated the work of the circle one last time. His victims would begin to feel the tonics wearing off now, but they would still be in Quixla's webs. Their recovery would only serve to heighten their terror, another entirely necessary ingredient for the ritual.
Ivan put away the ewer and stepped carefully around it one more time. The waves lapped at his feet at the bottom of the circle. Again the Elder Sign appeared in this ritual circle, but it wasn't alone. A dozen more runes appeared in the sub-circle supporting the greater summoning, and they stung the eye to look upon. Ivan had been very careful in placing them, and felt the world around him shriek and groan even when he just outlined them in the dirt.
All symbols holy and sacred to the Ek'Thun were like that. Mind bending, and reality tearing. Their worlds were alien abysses; ocean worlds drowned in darkness. Ivan had worked carefully with Penelope to craft this circle. It had taken all of his knowledge gained from Demonology 1, and in the making of it Ivan had earned Demonology 2 and a second level in Witch Doctor. It wasn't what he was looking for in a second skill, but oddly enough Demonology 2 included ritual spells that were useful for healing summons.
Ivan put those other thoughts aside. He lifted a bronze knife, a looted weapon, and ritual tool from the dungeon. He had inspected it some time ago when everyone's grief had left him with all but two options. Sort and inspect the massive haul of loot, a tolerable and possibly rewarding act, or chase down and violently murder the man who had killed Tila with all haste.
Inspect Object: Inspection Successful: Enchanted Weapon
Bronze Athame of the Owl-Kin Sorcerer, Ritual Dagger, Tier 3 Magic Item
This ritual object enhances any ritual enacted with it especially when enacted under the light of the moon. The night and phases of the moon were sacred to the Owl-Kin so beware use you put this item to. The results may turn out darker than you expect.
So he had done both. And this knife was among some of the more valuable things, but there was also an Owl-Kin Alchemy Set included in the loot Ivan had either plundered or gathered up with the others. Some of it they had just taken by looting the whole chest.
If things had just kept going the way they had been...if Tila hadn't been killed... If Thomas hadn't stuck his nose in things... Rage seethed inside of Ivan as he looked over his twenty three victims before him, set evenly at points about the greater circle.
Ivan cut his hand with the brilliantly sharp bronze knife. Squeezing it he dribbled his blood into the bottom of the circle next to feet of his victim before stepping back and watching the circle come alight.
Strange things began to speak in the growing darkness. The stars above all began to fade as if winking out one by one. The moon's light became balefully pale and distant. Ivan watched as his victims began to panic. Some were regaining the ability to move, and began to try to twist, shake and move. One that had either been biding its time or had a perk or ability providing strength and resistance nearly wriggled out of their place.
Ivan didn't move. Quixla struck the man just with her first front legs, and pinned him to the ground with a hiss. The beautiful and giant albino spider terrified the hell out of the man as her mandibles clacked over his face right before his eyes. Her spittle, toxic venom dripping from her fangs, was probably burning his face. It made Ivan smile as he watched the ritual begin.
He stepped out into the water as he felt his mana being channeled into the circle, and held out his arms. He welcomed the gentle drain of mana from himself, and relished the torment of the victims as their mana was taken by force. The runes came alight all along its inner edge, and filled the air with a misty haze that started out red, and then turned sickly yellow, then green, then black. Finally, the Elder Sign ignited. Blazing flames of blood rising through the fog and suddenly consuming all other sources of light.
The twenty three around the circle began to scream. Ivan felt the countless tendrils of malevolent thought appear and taste each and everyone of them. The level of terror Ivan had brought them to was simply foreplay. The Ek'Thun on the other side of this greater summoning now reached out for the main event.
The inhuman animal sounds might have once frightened Ivan. It might have terrified him. Once. Not now. Now he simply smiled, and opened his scroll once more, his skill gains from the previous level were still there. He hadn't checked them.
Congratulations! You have completed a Greater Summoning!
Your Witch Doctor Job has advanced to level 3 of 15!
Witch Doctor Level 3 Skill: Wave of Terror: This psychic attack uses your charisma to damage others and fill them with feelings of dread. This is a type of aura attack. Good news is that you can unleash energy around your friends and it won't harm them. Bad news is that if the enemy leader or group has a coherent aura stronger than yours your attack might not have any effect!
Costs high mana, and low stamina to use.
Witch Doctor Level 3 Perk: Malice: The road that has led you here has filled you with hate. Your victims and foes will now feel that in your aura, and your psychic attacks increasing their damage and decreasing the odds they will be resisted.
Witch Doctor Level 2 Skill: Demonology 2: You now have access to the Demonology 2 spell school. Unlike Demonology 1 this book includes a great deal more spells included with the ritual work and knowledge. Hard work does pay after-all!
Shadow Whip: (Shadow Affinity) Conjure a short tentacle of living shadow to rip and rend your foes. Causes the Bleeding Affliction, and can disarm opponents. Thirty second cooldown, moderate mana and stamina cost.
Imp-fire Haze: (Fire Affinity) Conjure a burning cloud of acrid smoke around a target or over an area for a larger mana cost. Causes slow building damage while remaining inside the cloud and itching lingering burns! No Cool Down, extremely low mana and stamina cost.
Health Funnel: (Blood Affinity) Rip the life force from one creature into another. This spell is best used to heal your familiars! Low mana and stamina cost per second, Channeled ability.
Bile Spray: (Flesh Affinity) Fire a tight cone of infectious, stinking, acidic bile over a foe. Ten second cool down, low mana and stamina cost.
Sleep (Demonology): (Shadow Affinity) Demonology's twist on the classic sleep spell....don't use it on your friends... No Cooldown, low mana cost.
Nightmare: (Mind Affinity) Attack the mind of a sleeping target. Does high psychic damage. 15 second cooldown, low mana and stamina cost.
Lesser Summons: These short lived beings and living demonic entities can be called forth in a manner similar to some conjuration magic. Some can even be given simple tasks, such as to wait in ambush, target foes that are out of sight, or just to flank them.
Demon Toadstool: (Life Affinity) A small and angry walking mushroom creature. Don't try to pet it or be its friend. It just wants to die. Give it orders to that end, and maybe it won't take you with it. This being can expel clouds of deadly toxic spores two or three times before it withers. If it dies before it does, the remaining spores will explode from it in a cloud. Dead creatures sprayed with its spores will spawn more of its kind within minutes consuming the corpses of its master's foes, or its master's and anyone else's.
Demon Acid: (Flesh Affinity) This small slime is a bouncing, jovial little ball of terror. They like to stick to a target and slowly devour its flesh. They aren't very good at it, but they are extremely hard to kill by any physical means and they will not let go unless told to by the one who summoned them. If they grow large enough they will split, and seek more targets even if the master is dead.
Witch Doctor Level 2 Perk: Demonology 2 Spell Mastery: This perk allows you to cast the spells included in Demonology 2 as spell-like abilities.
Ivan regarded the almost famous Spell Mastery Perk he had gained. His practice really had worked out. Regularly if one was practicing their spells and rituals as they should the spell school should come as the skill and the spell mastery as the perk as Ivan's had. That was the common way to affirm that one was on track with their magic practice. Earn the next school and not the mastery however and things became awkward.
Ivan had heard of this, but only second hand. Penelope had explained more.
Ivan smiled and suppressed the sudden tingling urge to try out the new magics. Instead he looked over the ritual circle as one by one the twenty three people included in the offerings began to die. Violently.
The mist rose, and pulsed with the screams of the people as it slipped over their bodies. They writhed and tried to escape web cocoons Quixla had them in, but none of them were strong enough to pull away now. None of them had the sense left to scramble away still bound as they might have. They simply shook as the Ek'Thun invaded their minds and filled them with terrors beyond imagining.
Ivan waited.
One by one they were violently ripped into the center of the circle with bone crunching force. The sounds that came from within the circle were even worse than the screams, but eventually they faded and the mist rose once again.
Ivan waited a little more, the Shroud covering him now, and fluttering just above the waves lapping at his boots.
“Aaaaahhh........” The rumbling, screaming, all too large voice spoke into Ivan's mind.
Ivan understood its speech with Hell Speak and more, but this creature would have made itself understood regardless. It was a weight and pain that Ivan had to resist. Even then Ivan felt his sanity slipping at the edges just being in contact with the being. It's voice was something even worse.
“There he is.... Ivan, Son of Nathaniel, the young warlock. It is good to see you with my own mind... You show such...promise...” Its laughter nearly stole the strength from Ivan's knees, but he held himself up, and clung to his purpose and hatred within his mind.
His hatred was a bulwark against the madness of this thing's existence and yet Ivan needed it. Ivan needed the fourth familiar he had just summoned, and he needed the gifts the being might offer in the future if there was to be any hope of killing Thomas, Daybreak, everyone of Theadus's other Light Bearer's, and Theadus himself.
“Shall I tell you my name? Ivan, Son of Nathaniel?” The being asked.
The skies seemed to fill with storm clouds at the sound of his voice. The world seemed to want to pull away from where the fog surrounding the corridor to its realm touched its own. The corruption coming from it had Azalea's lanterns flaring inside the Shroud like someone was spraying oil over them from every direction. Atop that Azalea herself was enacting a ritual within Ivan's shadowy inner space to empower her passive cleansing effects.
“With respect I would ask that you not. I know it, but to hear it from you would damage me. Perhaps when I am stronger I will ask for such a grace, High Lord of the Ek'Thun, but I must beg you to respect my modest talents. For now I merely wish to contact you as a means of seeking my own strength, giving you pleasure in your required summoning tithe, and lastly offering you a further gift that you might find pleasing.” Ivan said, grating his teeth as he spoke. It was not by choice. It was a fight to stay sane in this thing's presence.
Ivan had been practicing holding his mental shields together against Penelope each night before this. Even then had he not been on good terms with the Ek'Thun already he wouldn't have dared try this. That this ritual was included in Demonology 1 was some kind of joke. It was insane to attempt for almost any reason, even his own. -Not without other demons there to shield, guide, prepare, and protect him from this one.
The Great Old One laughed. It was a thing that stained the very senses. It wasn't just the slithering gurgling sound, but it's terrible aura came with it. The trees upon the beach grew dark and still. The wind died. The waves seemed to slow their steady beat upon Ivan’s calves. The dark of the night became almost absolute.
Ivan felt the ocean still gently moving at his feet, but he could barely move his dry lips from the snarl his expression had become. Azalea's ritual within the space of the Shroud flared, clearing the stain from his mind and thoughts leaving a grave like chill in their place.
Ivan looked up at the summoning circle. It was the only light in the darkness now. As if he was standing in a sea of black nothing with only the portal before him to behold as something of note. Inside a great and colossal eye met his own.
For a moment Ivan nearly lost himself. Screaming demonic...things...filled his mind from the simple eye contact with the creature, but Azalea's magic brought him clarity from within. She enacted the ritual before Tanya's grave, and the sight of that brought everything back.
Ivan's scroll came screaming into existence beside him in a wash of green and blue-gray fire.
Congratulations! You have gained a perk by performing a feat!
Eye of Madness: You have looked into the void, and it's stared back. You lived and are mostly sane. Sane enough to be reading this....I hope. This perk gives you increased resistance to psychic and curse type magics, effects, abilities, and items that involve meeting a person or creature eye to eye.
Additionally your charisma has a much greater effect on intimidating anyone foolish enough to meet your gaze.
Ivan had to push through the Great Old One's chuckling laughter again before he could speak. Or act... Or really think at all.
“I give you this chance to empower the lesser members of your kind, High Lord. I would give them the Oceans of Ballenlight on which to feed before becoming my personal demon host, and grow with but few conditions to bind them and no master but myself in this world.” Ivan said, sticking to a script that was actually laid out within the Shroud for him to read.
Penelope had warned him the pressures would be great during this task, but it was really testing Ivan's resolve. He clung to his hatred. He clung to the memory of Tila's pale face, of Jen's broken body run through with multiple swords, of Ral's bloody still warm corpse in the dormitory halls, of the defiled and half naked body of Mother Melda where she had been dragged into the garden shed, and of the bolts in Father Julio's back outside the rear of the parish when he had tried to run with the very youngest of the orphans in his arms. To say rage burned within Ivan was an understatement. It seethed and spat like a demon come alive in his chest, and in his mind. It spread through his limbs like white hot liquid iron.
Ivan stared back at the Great Old One and snarled, literally shaking with anger. Blood sprayed from a sudden wound on his left brow tickling blood into his eye and making his skull ache behind it.
“Kill no one, but the followers of light and my enemies. Take and sink all boats carrying Theadus's armies, his tradesmen, and craftsmen. Spawn, and grow, and thrive against my enemies when they are at sea until they can challenge the dungeons hidden beneath the waves and put them under siege.” He growled, actually shouting by the end before he managed control of himself and quieted before adding one last thing.
“-And if they are ever caught or overwhelmed by anyone...anyone at all...they must tell them as best they can that Istania's death opened the Gates of Hell. That she was responsible for holding them closed. That her death meant letting demon-kind into this world once again.” Ivan finished, his rage boiling in him still hot enough to make him feel sick.
The Great Old One seemed to consider that, its presence seeming to hold itself at bay for a few moments before it returned. Ivan held his chin high knowing the touch of the creature upon his mind, and the fact that he could little back from it. The creature would know his motivations one way or another, but the Ek'Thun were twisted, and liked to play games. Ivan would deal with them as long as it served his purpose and they knew it.
The eye returned to the portal. Ivan considered looking away for a heart beat, his mind tried to consider how exactly the being could appear to be looking so directly at him while the ritual portal had been laid out on the beach, but he pushed those thoughts away and stared back into the terrible void of its twisting iris.
It hurt, but he held its gaze for a long moment.
“Very well, Ivan, Son of Nathaniel. My youngest, most fertile living sons and daughters will spill from your portal until the blood you have given, and the offering spent, all sealed to the terms of our contract. Let them grow, let them hunt your enemies, and let them thrive.”
The portal was subsumed in hellish brackish water. Black things spilled from beneath the gaze of the greater being, and into the moonlight sea behind Ivan. Ivan's mana pool took hits with each summon sending shivers through his mind, yet he couldn't help smiling as unspeakable and nameless things slid past him. Penelope was clapping on the beach, and Quixla standing on her back legs, fore legs raised fangs clacking excitedly as Ivan's first demon-host spilled forth.
Though each demon took with it a cost of summoning and a weakened type of blood bond being summoned as part of demon host they still counted into Ivan's perk, Warlock Wanna-Be, that made him deal more damage per demon bound to him. He was really looking forward to using those new spells now. His scroll flashed, reeling out more text where it hovered beside him, an almost vile, brackish gray-blue-green flames writhing around a tattered scroll. For the moment it seemed the text was in some kind of Hell Rune script. Ivan could still read it so that didn't really matter.
Congratulations! You've completed a ritual compact and summoned a host of demons from the realm of a Greater Demon!
Hell Speaker Mystic has reached level 2 of 10.
Hell Speaker Mystic Level 2 Skill: Call Demon: When upon the material plane you may now call your demon to your side from wherever they may be for a corresponding mana cost based on distance. If they are in another realm they may return to you for a moderate mana cost as long as they are willing, regardless of position.
Hell Speaker Mystic Level 2 Perk: Hell-forged Soul: You are more resistant to Fire, Dark, Shadow, Water, Iron, Demonic, Mind, and Flesh magic wielded against you. You advance more quickly, and have slightly higher affinity in these magic aspects as well.
Ivan shuddered as he felt the various attribute gains he had managed today settling together in his body. It was exhilarating, but he knew he would be tired soon. He held his feet as the hell water finished rolling over him, and took with it any sign that the ritual had taken place on the beach.
Penelope ran to him, extending both of her hands to take his own. He brought her close and kissed her on the mouth, tasting her, and holding her tight for a few moments before letting her go. Penelope's face was scarlet as if she had been sunburned, but she was smiling brightly, and clinging to his hands even as he stooped slightly to give some very different affection to Quixla.
The spider clacked her fangs and scuttled under his fingers. Her multifaceted eyes sparkled like gems in the moonlight.
“You did it Lord Ivan! Just as Lady Penelope said you would! You withstood his corruption, and gained the host of demons you need for your later plans! I am proud once again to be in your service, and to have stood by your side as your demonic knight!” Quixla hissed.
Ivan smiled at the demonic beast, but led her and Penelope up the beach.
“It's high time we returned to Dentennek. Quixla hunt, have your fill of game, and ambush any lone scouts of the forces of light that are on any forested road. Let them regain the fear of the dark they push on others for themselves. I will use Call Demon when I am ready for you to return so do not be startled when I use it. It may be a day or more before I do, but I wish to respect your hunting spirit.” Ivan told them.
Quixla stopped in her tracks, all eight legs freezing before she stepped to the side, and bowed her head toward Ivan.
“My Lord I should be at your side!” She complained.
“You have been Quixla. I thank you for that, but you are hungry. I can feel it. Fulfill your body's needs. Build a nest, and become healthy enough to grow silks. You are a living demon beast, possessed of the flesh you once had, and I will have you at your full strength when I call upon you.” Ivan commanded, feeling his charisma and his new title job interacting with his mind, shaping the words on his tongue in the same way martial skills helped him fight.
“But the enemy my lord! I could not stay away!” Quixla complained even still.
Ivan knelt and lifted her cephalothorax, and felt the focus of her eyes meet his gaze.
“Azalea has returned to me and I will have her as my second Knight-Summon Quixla. I will not be unprotected. We will go into the dungeon again, and I will need you at your best when we do. Understand? There's little you could do if Thomas or Poplianna try something against me anyway. So we will do what we can. Prepare for the Dungeon.” Ivan instructed.
Quixla relented, nodding, and bowing her spider head.
Ivan smiled at her, and when he felt her gaze upon him again he produced her knife in his left hand.
“Besides, I already have one of your fangs close at hand.” He said with a smile.