Blood Magus Chapter 82

It was gruesome, but Zeth cut the prisoners open without hesitation, lying each of their bodies upon the ritual circles so their blood would seep straight into the lines to power them.

He’d have to take so much out of their bodies that they’d be on death’s door, so he couldn’t afford to waste any time in summoning the demons that would claim their lives. Not only was he on a time limit with the monsters currently rampaging through town, he was also under time pressure to get negotiations with the demons done in time before he lost his bargaining chips.

The two prisoners were technically human, but were both so far gone from the Wicked Skill that they couldn’t really communicate like humans. He’d attempted to get information out of them long ago unsuccessfully, so he had no qualms in unceremoniously spending their lives here in order to save the lives of others. So, after driving a knife into each of their chests and letting the blood spew forth, he knelt at the first ritual circle, tensely awaiting the moment the completion percentage would reach one hundred and he’d be able to conduct the first summoning.

As he waited, he listened closely to Astrys’s continued description of the low noble district he’d be taking his demons from, his attention only slightly distracted by the muffled groans and shouts of pain by the bleeding prisoners. She’d probably already given him enough detail for him to successfully target the area, but as far as he was concerned, the more detail, the better. So he asked her to continue listing every single physical descriptor she could of as specific an area as she could in order to ensure a successful summoning.

“This specific room has six chairs,” she was saying, “arranged in a circle around a low table. The seats of the chairs are made from steel, and the legs and armrests are lined with hellion scales for decorative purposes. The table itself is made from the shell of a cavitrum.”

“I don’t know what those are,” Zeth said. “Also, the seats are steel? Am I thinking of the right thing?”

“There are not many soft things to sit on in the thirteenth realm. These chairs are made from steel because it is a weaker metal that is very easy to heat up enough to manipulate, so the chair seats can be perfectly fitted to a person’s shape. As for the other two, hellion scales are about the size of a person’s hand colored a brownish gray, while the shell of a cavitrum closely resembles obsidian.”

“Got it,” he said. As he spoke, he felt the ritual finally become ready, receiving enough blood to become active. Instantly, he closed his eyes and focused, his hands already placed on the ritual’s lines. They lit up like they always did, drawing mana from him as he was prompted to select a location. As vividly as he could, Zeth imagined the exact room Astrys had been describing. It was apparently a sitting room at the place of a noble who frequently threw balls and parties that she had gone to often when she was younger to try and garner favor with them. Since it was in the middle of a populated area, even if the room itself was empty, the radius of the summoning beacon would quickly expand to envelop nearby streets and houses that would likely contain someone who would accept the summoning.

Zeth waited desperately for a demon to quickly accept. He counted every single second that passed, feeling the time go by like molasses. But thankfully, it seemed like Astrys had picked a good location, as it didn’t take long before he felt the call get accepted. The ritual lines went dark, and slowly, a heat began to expand outward from directly above the wide circle.

But Zeth didn’t stand idly by as he waited for the demon to appear. Instead, he instantly leapt to his feet and ran over to the other ritual circle, which had also received its blood sacrifice and was waiting for him to activate it. He would waste no time here; instantly, he slammed his hands down and selected the exact same location for this one, too. As he felt the heat from the first ritual continue to grow in intensity, he mentally pushed harder and harder for this one to hurry up and find someone to accept the summon—not that there was actually any way to speed up the process.

Thankfully, once again, it didn’t take long before the lines suddenly shut off, and this circle, too, began giving off their signature heat and glow. With both of them activating, there was little he could do but stand up and back away, watching them with Astrys standing beside him.

“As a side note,” she said, watching the ritual with interest, “are there any people aboveground in the forest still?”

“No, I don’t think so. Why?”

“Ah, good. I was wondering if there would be anyone that would hear any loud noises coming from here.”

“Hm? I mean, yeah, I doubt anyone would hear any noise coming from all the down where we are anyway. But why do you care about noise right now?”

“For negotiation.”

He frowned, not fully recognizing what she was talking about, but now wasn’t the time to ask. Because he’d just received a notification.

[Demonic Covenant’s Rank has increased to 6.

+1 Skill Point. You have 13 Skill Points.]

As the message came through, fire erupted from the first ritual circle, licking the ceiling of the lair. And standing in that fire was the silhouette of a demon—wide shoulders, head held high, horns curved to point straight at him. As the fire puttered out, the beast’s full form came into view. It was a man, with skin that was a far lighter shade of red than Astrys’s, though not totally pale. His clothes were made of that same leather that most demons seemed to wear, with ornate stitchings and designs covering his jacket.

He glanced around the wide room, eyes landing on Zeth and Astrys.

“Stop,” Zeth said instantly. “Don’t move.”

He gazed at Zeth for a moment, then said, “So the slug can resist my aura. And already has another of my kind, as well. Just don’t get it through that worthless brain of yours that you actually—”

“Shut up,” Zeth said, and he was forced to stop speaking. In a way, it was almost nostalgic, hearing the instant string of insults spew from the demon’s mouth. But he certainly didn’t miss it.

The demon gave him an incendiary look, and after a moment, the second ritual circle also erupted into flame. As the fire faded away, yet another demon was standing there, as well—this one another man, with darker skin than the first and a slightly larger stature—though, like all demons, both of them were absolutely shredded compared to most humans. This one’s clothes seemed much simpler than the first one’s, however Zeth wasn’t really sure what would be considered ‘nice’ in their culture, so he had no idea what that meant.

“You, don’t move either,” he said to the newcomer as he looked around, eyebrows raising as he saw that there were two other demons already in the room.

“You must have quite a bit planned if you require the help of three beings as superior to you as we are,” the second demon said. “Tell me, slug, do you require us to destroy an army? Topple an empire? I would like to stretch my arms a bit.”

At least this other one hadn’t directly insulted Zeth with his first words—only indirectly. As far as demons went, that made him practically a saint.

With the two demons in front of him, Zeth breathed in and out, trying to steel his mind. He was in a desperate hurry, but he couldn’t let these two know that or they’d use the situation to extort him for everything he was worth. “Listen. I don’t quite like your kind, so I don’t really want to have an extended conversation with you. Here’s the deal: sitting on each of your ritual circles is a human currently in the process of bleeding to death. I’ll let you kill them right now and get the Level-up progress from their deaths, but only if you agree to refrain from unsummoning yourselves for the next four hours, following my exact orders that entire time. Deal?”

The second demon narrowed his eyes. “What labor would we be performing? Spell it out exactly in your terms, or I will not accept.”

The first demon shook his head, but didn’t say anything.

Zeth frowned. “Why aren’t you…Oh, right. You may speak.”

“I agree with my brethren,” he said, the restriction having been lifted. “It seems you are too stupid to realize that the value of our labor is not measured in the time it takes from us—it is measured in the value it gives to you. You, futile slug, are in need of something specific from us. And by the fact that you need three of us, it seems that you have absolutely no hope of getting it on your own. My labor is worth far, far more than a single one of your meaningless lives.”

“Fine. I want you to fight some monsters for me. But none of your opponents should give you any trouble—the reason I want multiple demons to fight them is more because of their numbers than anything else. So that shouldn’t be an issue.”

The first demon barked out a laugh. “It certainly is an issue, you moronic slug. Combat is unbecoming of a higher being such as myself—especially when fighting in a weak, gentle realm such as this one. If you wish for my help, I demand a minimum of five human lives to begin with, plus an additional human for every two enemies I defeat.”

The second nodded. “I, too, would require greater payment to consider completing such a task—especially if it is of the importance that you have already killed two humans just to speak with us.”

The first barked out a laugh. “That’s right. You’ve doomed these two humans to death already just to perform these summonings. That means you're desperate. My price just went up. Fifteen human lives up-front.”

Zeth pinched the bridge of his nose. This was not going well. Maybe it was wrong to summon them both at the same time like this, with how they were both driving each other’s confidence upward, but he hadn’t felt like he had enough time to negotiate with each of them separately. He’d really just been hoping they’d accept the initial deal.

“Listen,” he said, “you’re not getting any of that. There will be humans in the area, and some of them may be hostile to me. In the case that it’s necessary, I’ll let you be the ones to kill them. But you will only be guaranteed this one life. That’s good enough for it to be worth your time. So—”

“I refuse,” the second one stated calmly. “If you do not need my help, then simply unsummon me. Because I will not accept those terms.”

Zeth stared at him, biting the inside of his mouth.

He looked down at himself, as though showing that Zeth had, indeed, not unsummoned him. “It seems you do need me, then. So we will negotiate on my terms. If there are to be humans on the battlefield and some of them may be hostile, then it should be no issue to you if you guarantee me the ability to kill as many of them as I like in the process of fighting these monsters.”

“No,” Zeth said. Needlessly slaughtering Inquisitors would solve nothing here—it would only get the attention of the empire and convince them to send even more of those damn people to find the one who did it. He was growing very frustrated at this point. He knew demons were fine accepting a single life in exchange for four hours of labor—he’d made that exact deal with them many times in the past when he was getting them to dig out this lair. It was only because these two thought they could get more out of him that they were refusing that deal. “That’s not an option. Listen, just take what I’m offering you. I know it’s worth it to you. It’s no use trying to convince me to give you any more. Can you just be reasonable fucking people for once in your lives and take the deal that benefits you?”

The first demon shook his head with a smile of exasperation. “What a stupid, stupid slug. Do you not understand the most basic tenets of communication? Do you not understand—”

“No, I think I understand quite fucking well, actually,” Zeth said. “I understand that you pieces of shit are completely unable to just take a mutually beneficial offer when it’s given to you. I understand that you fucking demons can’t see a situation where everyone leaves happy, you included, and just take it. You have to make everyone around you as miserable as possible, don’t you? For no fucking reason. I guess I forgot that fact for just long enough to think you’d be useful in any way. But I understand very clearly now. Thanks for reminding me.”

He took a breath, genuinely considering just unsummoning these jackasses so he could quit wasting time. Evidently they weren’t going to work for him no matter how he asked.

But then Zeth felt a hand on his shoulder.

He was broken out of his thoughts, glancing over to see Astrys looking at him, calm look on her face as always. “Would you like for me to step in? I believe I could convince them.”

“Hm? Yeah, sure, go ahead. But this might just be a lost cause.” It was at least worth a try; maybe she knew something he didn’t.

She nodded, then walked forward, toward the two demons. The second looked at her curiously, while the first one started laughing.

“What, the slug is so weak he can’t even bring himself to speak to us anymore?” He nodded to Astrys. “It seems you have already taken some sort of deal with him. I hope you got something good out of it. If he’s forced you to speak to us, then just get it over with. Say whatever little thing he’s making you say. But tell me, if you’re allowed to, what did you get out of your deal?”

She continued approaching, her face betraying no emotion at all. “What are your names?”

“I am Sinthar Novagaard,” the second demon said, nodding curtly.

“My name is Withstrom Palinthanak,” said the first. “If you hail from the Thylmoor Kingdom, you may recognize me as being the son of…” He faltered as Astrys drew closer to him. “Wait. Those horns…I recognize you. You’re a Thylmoor. You’re—”

He was interrupted when Astrys came face-to-face with him, as she instantly reached out and grabbed his face, slamming him downward to collide with her knee with insane force. The entire room shook from the impact as he stumbled back. She took a step forward, reaching back and hitting him with a backhanded slap to the face so hard that the impact sent him flying into a wall, cracking the stone with a great thundering crash.

“You worthless, pathetic excuse for a demon!” she shouted. Her eyes were wide. Her nostrils flared. Her teeth were born as she spoke. Her face was a perfect picture of unbridled rage. She marched toward him where he was stuck into the wall, grabbing his body and yanking his torso out of the stone, where she threw him into her knee once again, his gut the target this time.

He coughed in pain and surprise, clearly not expecting such a treatment.

“You think you’re worth anything?!” she demanded, her voice giving off such furious volume that it practically shook the room just as much as slamming the man into the wall had. Even if Zeth practiced, training his voice over and over for decades, he wouldn’t be capable of mimicking the ferocity that was contained in those words.  “You think you’re worth expending resources on? You aren’t worth fifteen humans, you aren’t worth one human, you aren’t worth a pile of hellion shit lying on the road.”

The demon gasped in pain, leaning on the wall as she screamed in his face. “You…You have no idea who you’re talking to. I will—”

“I have plenty idea who I’m speaking to, actually,” she said. “Withstrom Palinthanak, son of Draksin and Cynthina of the same family name. You are a low noble’s son with no wealth to your own name, exclusively living off of the land granted to you by your disappointed father, who only wanted to get you out of his house so you would stop embarrassing him in front of their guests.”

“Wh—” His eyes were wide now. “How do you know—”

“I met you at a ball fourteen years ago. I had a horrible time. But afterward, as a proper demon would, I went and researched those I met and ensured I knew them well, in case I met them again. And you were the most disappointing little thing I saw.” She gripped him by the face, squeezing hard. “And now, fourteen years later, I see that you have made no efforts to improve yourself. Same pale skin, same weak aura, same pathetic little face. How about, if you do not accept the deal that my summoner has so graciously offered to a worthless wretch like yourself, I go to your home in our realm, and I kill you?”

He let out a shaky breath. “Y-you brute! Unhand me now! If you attempt to break into my home, know that I will be prepared, and my guards will slay you instantly.”

“Will your mother and father be prepared?” she asked. “Draksin and Cynthina Palinthanak, those two live on the northern side of the district, do they not? And what of Sarkhin, or Alishi? Your younger brother and sister would have little in the way of defenses against a brute like me, I imagine. Poor Alishi and her missing arm would have nothing she could do to prevent herself from being dragged out into the streets and disemboweled so I can hang you with her innards.”

Withstrom’s face paled at her words.

“Summoner," she called to Zeth, continuing to stare straight into her victim’s eyes. Her voice was perfectly calm now, as though she was asking about the weather. “I feel that you may wish to re-state your terms. Our guests may be more eager to accept this time around.”