POV shift——————————————

I carefully sent tendrils of magic through the door in front of me to inspect the other side, many have fallen to certain due to carelessness and I was not planning on joining them. On the other side, I could sense a strong occult-like magic and a whiff of something that seemed... almost demonic. I could also sense a presence around the middle of the room that seemed out of place. On the far wall though was what I assume to be the word of demons, but I could only sense surface-level information from it due to what appears like a sensing ward engraved on the object. Telling from the fiery murderous aura emanating from the ward it was of demon make.

You always wanted to have the drop on demons instead of the other way around, so I was careful not to leave a trace. Though most of the powerful demons lay dead in piles of their minions there were still a few that managed to limp away. Instead of blowing the door down, I decided to be more discrete, though I couldn’t reliably make a spirit jump without an anchor in this dimension I still had plenty of ways to get in there. On my command, my body began to disintegrate until there was nothing but dust left, with ease I slipped through the minute cracks around the door, and as soon as I was through, my body reformed along with my items.

The room was a bit larger than the flesh sentry’s but there was less free space. A large stone alters filled up all of the far wall's space and several large black stone pillars lined the walls. In the center of the room on a small stone pyramid was the presence I had sensed. A young girl laid there with her arms and legs bound, she was dressed in a thin red gown and covered in wounds. Yup, a typical occult activity.

It could be a trap so I was extremely careful when approaching the girl. I created a small cushion of air under my feet causing me to hover slightly above the ground so that I wouldn’t trigger anything that requires a certain pressure or signature. I inspected the girl and the pyramid she was strapped to and found them covered in peculiar symbols, but just like the lantern, I couldn’t identify them. I also found out something very interesting about the girl, she had a strong magical signature and a faint trace of spirit in her, a shaman perhaps.

I only did a visual inspection and didn’t touch her or scan her with magic for fear of alerting the demon. I moved on to the alter and inspected it as well, it was also covered in foreign markings but there were also a few hieroglyphs depicting what I assume are the cult members performing a sacrifice and a tall demon standing on cloven hooves, very valuable information. Now that I think about it, the symbols engraved everywhere do resemble ancient cloven, just not the one I’m familiar with.

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Now that I knew what I was up against I could make appropriate preparations. Cloven demons are now one of the most common demons around due to most of the others going extinct. That doesn’t mean that they were superior in any way over the others, just a bit more craftiness mixed in with some cowardly instincts. Carved in the center of the altar was a large skull with two large rubies in its eyes. Telling from my past experiences and the hieroglyphs I could deduce that the skull was the means of communication.

There was something strange though, from the information I gathered from Buckferd there was no mention of what’s inside the room or if he even knew about the demon. I'm starting to have doubts about what his position was in the organization, I’ve heard of secrecy but this is a bit too much. He’s probably a figurehead of sorts, just there to sit and look pretty. I debated about freeing the girl before or after my fight with the demon. I finally came to the conclusion to forcefully jump her during the fight, I couldn’t really do it before as it would alert the demon. On the other hand, she probably wouldn’t survive that long due to the crossfire.

I began weaving a net around her with my magic before heading outside to make an anchor. I just picked a random tree and engraved the necessary symbols and magic into it. Once that was done I started to sort through my pre-made herbal mixes and picked out certain ingredients from them to make some bright oil and a suitable incense. I couldn’t make a lot but I had enough for my purposes. I placed the needed powder in one of my bowls and used some blood I had gathered from the corpse dwellers to mold it into a small stick. For the bright oil though I didn’t have some of the essential ingredients and had to supplement with my blood.

Once that was done I proceeded to place traps absolutely everywhere, there’s no such thing as too many traps after all. After that I was finally done and ready for combat, I grabbed the hollowed-out elemental and flooded it with threads of magic. I carefully attached the threads onto each strand of muscle and nerve and soon I could completely control it. I slowly gathered its residual magic and began circulating it, I also altered my magic to mimic its magic as well. Soon a core started to form and the elemental started to radiate the presence it once did. With the pseudo core formed I directed it to start healing its wounds. I assume the elemental was the one that performed all the necessary sacrifices and rituals that the demon needed, so I was going to use it to lure the demon out.