Chapter 1: An Idea
A gray-haired man in a tattered wizard’s robe crawled along a stone floor dabbing red liquid below him using a coarse paintbrush. He grunted and breathed heavily, struggling to hold such a taxing posture at his advanced age. As he neared completion of his task, the final shape of his artwork became obvious. It was a magic circle, complete with several concentric rings, geometric shapes, and curly offshoots. With no windows, the room was only dimly lit by candles.
As he stood, droplets of blood landed on the floor, fortunately outside of his artistic work. He grabbed his bleeding left shoulder with his right hand, but otherwise paid it no mind. Staring down at his masterpiece, he muttered to himself, “I hope I get a different one…”
He staggered, almost certainly due to blood loss. Not wanting to waste this opportunity, he limped over to the northern end of the magic circle and picked up an old book from a nearby table, already opened to the correct page. He held the book with his left arm while reading an incantation. Throughout, he positioned his right hand extended in front of him, just inside the threshold of the magic circle’s outermost ring. His muscles were tense; he’d need to retract his hand quickly.
“Through timespace and spacetime, I beckon you. Heed my call in accordance with the ancient pact. Seek out my lifeblood and come to me. I compel you with the keywords Gro’tung, Psi’vod-nan, Tang, and… Sproo’Deng. They will envelop your all to the north, south, east, and west. May your demonic signature match my glyph.”
The magic circle, sealed in blood, glowed in a strangely greenish light but the man expected this. He’d done this once before, long ago. When the light grew brighter the man covered his eyes with his left arm, but he didn’t close them; he needed to know the moment the light faded. It did, and he pulled his right hand out of the circle, breathing a sigh of relief.
The light continued to fade until the greenish hue was gone. The blood glowed faintly, only this time with a subtle blue color. At the center of the circle stood a creature that humans refer to as a demon. This one looked surprisingly human itself, like a man, perhaps in his mid-twenties, wearing clothes which might not stand out in a human marketplace. If not for horns, the tell-tale sign of a demon, he could probably fool people. His mid-length dark hair was messy, but in a way that might be popular.
“It is done…” the old man whispered, but clearly the demon heard him.
“Yes.”
The two stared at each other for a good while before the old man finally broke the silence. “You’re not going to jump into some tirade about how you can help me?”
“No.”
“But the last demon I summoned long ago immediately—“
Before the man could finish his thought, the demon held a finger to his mouth, as though to shush the old man.
“I—I don’t understand. As a demon, shouldn’t you be searching for any opportunity to exploit my careless words? Don’t you want me to talk?”
“So young.”
“Hah! I wish that were still true. I only settled for demon summoning because my remaining time is short. I don’t care what happens to me so long as I get what I want. Caution be damned.”
“What do you want, youngster? Clearly not a long-term contract. What is your one wish?”
“Fifty years ago, at the height of the previous magic cycle, I summoned a demon to contract as my familiar. However, she was trying to seduce me and control me with lust. Rather than form a contract, I judged it safer to dismiss her from the circle right away.”
“Smart.”
“It was the most difficult decision of my life. Having failed, I was unable to live up to the expectations of my position. It’s a long story, and I won’t bore you with it.”
“Thank you.”
“For the next five decades, I was betrayed several times, but I only recently came to know this, by chance. And to think I was so close to taking my own life before learning the truth.”
“And so, you want?”
“Revenge,” the old man replied darkly. “Whether you kill them outright or make them suffer first, I’ll leave to you.”
“Most demons would choose the latter.”
“As I said, I will defer to you, wise demon. Allow me to tell you about the target.”
“You’re early.”
“What?”
“You didn’t summon that demoness fifty years ago. It was closer to forty-nine years ago, wasn’t it?”
“Y—Yes,” the old man acknowledged. “I’m a bit ahead of this magic cycle’s peak, but as I said I don’t have much time left. Also, I wouldn’t want a certain someone to contract a separate demon that got in your way. Is it too early for you to use your power to full effect?”
“That depends. Who is the target?”
The old man explained the organization of the kingdom’s royal court, identified the target, and offered some additional information about exactly how that target was protected, both magically and politically.
“Very well. If we can come to terms on payment, I’ll grant your wish.”
“Was I not clear? I care not what happens to me. My life, my knowledge, whatever you want of me, I offer it to you, so long as you take care of that one task for me. It’s beyond my abilities now, but hopefully this request is a mere trifling matter for a great one such as yourself.”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“Youngster, what if I use your knowledge in a way that causes the destruction of your kingdom and all the others?”
“I—I can’t imagine I hold any incredible knowledge of value to one such as yourself. My only hope is my life’s worth is enough to serve as payment for the wish.”
The demon frowned as his eyes glanced around the room. They eventually settled on a wall-sized mirror in the back of the chamber. “What is that?”
“What?” The old man looked past the demon at the mirror. “Oh… I was curious if demons would have a reflection or not. Honestly, I’d forgotten about that since you arrived…”
“Do I?”
The old man tilted his head in confusion, then his expression changed to one of recognition. “No, you are not showing up in the mirror for me.”
The demon walked right up to the southern border of the magic circle, as far as he could go, staring at the mirror across from him. His eyes traced the four edges of the reflective surface, causing him to turn his head in a big circle. Then, he stared at the old man’s reflection, although eye contact was impossible since the demon didn’t have a reflection. “This is nice.”
“Y—Yes. It’s only within my lifetime that such large mirrors became available. As for payment…”
“Three things.”
“Three?”
“Yes,” the demon confirmed. “There are three things I want. If you give them to me, I will grant your wish, and easily at that.”
“I’ve never heard of needing multiple things for payment, but still, that’s wonderful. I don’t know what three things I have to offer you, though.”
The demon explained. “First, I want that mirror.”
The old man looked confused but quickly composed himself. “Of course, it is yours, o demon!”
“Second, I want that book.” The demon pointed at the book the old man read from while performing the summoning.
“This book? Why?” He paled even more than normal, sweat beading on his brow.
“It will make sense when I tell you the third thing I want.”
“And that is?”
The demon gestured toward himself. “I want you to summon me again.”
“What?”
“I want to see if you can include that mirror into your summoning ritual. For that, we’ll need to consult your book.”
“But… Wouldn’t it be taboo for me to teach demon summoning to a demon?”
“I think not. We’ll work on a new way to summon demons using a mirror instead of a traditional magic circle. You need not even share the new method with other summoners.”
“I see… I do not mind, except performing another summoning is surely beyond me. As I said, I don’t have much time left and I’m also frail. I doubt I could muster the blood, magical energy, and spiritual energy to succeed with summoning such a great demon again… Oh! Shall I find someone else to summon you?”
“No need.”
“Then?”
The demon pointed at the old man. “Once you accept my terms, I’ll be empowered to grant you the strength necessary to summon me a second time.”
“In that case, I accept! You will grant me my wish, so I will help you with the re-summoning to the best of my ability!”
The magic circle rapidly expanded to encompass the mirror at the edge of the room as well as the book that the old man was still holding. As a result, the man was inside the circle along with the demon, no longer protected. The old man looked around at his circumstances in instinctive panic, but the demon made no move against him. “Why would I attack my partner?”
“Of course…” The old man sighed and presented his book to the demon. “The book is organized into—“
“Wait,” the demon stopped him. “Just hand me the book.”
The old man pressed his lips together and passed the book to the demon. The demon gestured towards the old man who froze in place, no different from a statue.
For several days, the demon read the book from cover to cover multiple times. Nobody interrupted the demon with a visit to the chamber. The man remained suspended and unharmed. Once the demon was satisfied, he gestured towards the old man again, unfreezing him. “I have questions about this book.”
“O—Of course! I was just about to explain to you which pages to start reading—“
“I’ve read the book already.”
“Already? But you just received it.”
“I’m a fast reader. First, look at this part.”
The old man stepped closer to see which page the demon was talking about, then paused. “Oh, um, when do I see my wish granted?”
“Hm? Oh, right.” The demon snapped his finger dramatically. “That should do it.”
“What? Already?”
“Hold on, let me confirm.” The demon closed his eyes as though in a trance. After a few seconds he opened his eyes again. “It is done, congratulations.” The last word sounded almost sarcastic. “Now, look here.”
For a few minutes, the old man struggled to wipe the tears away from his eyes, but eventually he succeeded in reading the passage in question. They discussed one particular sentence and how it was inconsistent with a passage on another page. With the old man’s help, the demon was able to confirm that the book contained a simple error, although one that likely wouldn’t have any impact on their ongoing experiment. Still, the demon insisted on fixing it.
They discussed several more problems the demon found throughout the book. The conversations continued for several days, but strangely, the old man did not grow hungry or tired. He was able to work nonstop alongside the demon. The candles never burned out, either. At first all the man cared about was his wish, but now he was finding himself intrigued by an academic exploration into the fundamentals of demon summoning. It wasn’t a bad way to spend his final days.
By the time the errors were all fixed, the demon’s knowledge of summoning was at least comparable to the old man’s. Still, in order to summon the demon a second time, they needed a way to select a specific demon through the summoning process, something that, to date, had eluded summoners. The details of magic circles and the keywords were partly randomized. The exact same summoning circle couldn’t be used twice, but two different magic circles could possibly summon the same demon on two separate occasions, provided the correct keywords were used in each case.
The pair’s other challenge was figuring out how to incorporate the mirror into the summoning. The demon wanted himself summoned to the other side of the mirror. Was that even possible? The old man was doubtful, but he dutifully aided the demon in modifying the summoning ritual. This ended up being the easier problem to solve. After a few months of nonstop work, they felt their solution to the problem was adequate. In theory, they could summon a random demon to the other side of the mirror right now, but this demon refused to try that.
Instead, they got back to work on the first problem: specifying the demon to summon. The book included several examples of what summoning circles were previously used and which demon resulted. By comparing these examples with everything the demon understood mechanistically about demon summoning, he hoped to make a breakthrough. For the next year, the old man became more of a sounding board than anything else. The demon was leading the research effort.
As the pair felt they were finally close to a breakthrough they had their first visitor. Although humans were easily kept away through the demon’s influence, this visitor was unaffected. He was taller than a typical man and bulkier too. In addition to the horns adorning his head, folded wings sprouted from his back. Unlike the first demon, this one had clearly non-human purple skin.
“What do we have here,” the purple demon called into the room as he struggled to squeeze through the stone doorway. “It’s strange for ritual magic to persist for so—“
As the demon finally broke free of the doorway and laid eyes on the two figures in the summoning circle, he froze.
The dark-haired demon looked up from his notes and glanced at the purple demon side-eyed, clearly annoyed. “What?”
“N—Nothing!” The purple demon scrambled to exit through the stone doorway, getting caught even more spectacularly in his haste.
“Wait.”
The purple demon froze once again at the command.
“What happened to you?”
The purple demon stammered before finally collecting his thoughts and answering the question. “M—My summoner failed to contract me properly so I ate her. I thought I’d sightsee a bit before heading back with her soul…”
In response, the dark-haired demon only narrowed his eyes.
“I—I’ll go back right now!” The purple demon resumed his abrupt exit.
“Let’s get back to work,” the demon politely proposed to the old man, who was all too willing to pretend that last scene never happened.