by Jez Cajiao
“No,” Oracle corrected me. “Jian learning to summon demons is granting him a substantially greater power than those that can summon mere Golems. He can choose from several demons when he first opens the summoning portal, and they will become… well, ‘familiars’ is probably the closest I can come; not as close as us, but far closer than a normal summoned creature. He will gradually start to manifest their powers, and they will gain intelligence, as well as returning to the pit with a portion of the power they gain while serving him.”
“Did I just make a huge mistake?” I asked, concerned.
“Noooo…” Oracle said slowly in my mind. “You just gave a man who’s fiercely devoted to you, and in love with another of your team, the chance to change his class to that of a Warlock, though, and believe me, that’s going to come with a massive jump in power for him.”
“But he’ll be safe?”
“No, but I think he can handle it, or I’d have asked you not to give it to him. I know it wasn’t planned, but he’s clean enough in his soul that I think he’s actually one of the best possible choices you could have made. I’d been considering him for some time now as one of the only people I’d recommend for these books.”
“Really? Cool.” I cleared my throat and went on in a voice that everyone could hear. “It’s something that Oracle and I were discussing already; Jian, we trust that you’re strong enough to walk this path, but only you truly know, and I understand if…”
“I can do it!” Jian said quickly, clutching the books to his chest and glaring around at anyone who was too close.
“Okay, then, people, take turns and get those books read, then we move on.” As I was the only one not reading a book, I moved to the front of the group and activated my Dark Vision, staring into the depths of the corridor.
“So, fill me in on the details here, and what I’m missing?” I asked Oracle, and she slipped forward, sitting down on my shoulder in her tiny fairy form. I heard a growl from her a second later, and glanced up, realizing too late that she’d been waiting for a reaction and I’d totally missed it, being too busy watching the corridor.
She was out of sight of the others, the way that she was half laid, half draped across my shoulder and down my arm, and she had changed into something that could only be described as provocative. The tiny red lacy outfit definitely served to enhance her figure, rather than conceal it. Her skin was pale as ivory, and her hair as black as… a very black thing. My brain had stalled at that point as my eyes traveled over her body, and I swallowed hard, feeling a very clear stirring from below the belt as I admired the view.
She smiled and nodded in satisfaction before straightening, materializing clothes over the top of the little lacy red outfit. The new black halter top and yoga pants, with two black lines of camo paint up each cheek, was more in keeping with the situation, but the crimson that peeked out as she moved, revealing that she still wore the red outfit underneath, just short circuited my brain entirely.
“I… uh... I…” I mumbled coherently, and she beamed a thousand megawatt smile up at me, reaching out to pat my cheek.
“That’s better,” she said happily. “Just checking that you weren’t taking me for granted now…”
“God, no…” I muttered clearing my throat. “… and that outfit…”
“For your eyes only, when we’re alone…” she said, winking and laughing in satisfaction at the frantic nod of my head. “Good! Anyway, moving on,” she continued, smiling, “a Warlock isn’t entirely the way you remember them being described in your world’s tales. A Warlock makes pacts with demons, who are denizens of an entirely different realm, somewhat like your Earth is a different realm, but they need our mana to survive here. In return, one of the things they bring to their Warlocks is a massively boosted manapool, but it’s almost unusable, as they need it all to survive here. That’s also why demons don’t tend to be seen wandering around on their own; they literally starve in hours.”
“Are they evil?” I asked dubiously, thinking I should have asked for these details earlier.
“No,” she reassured me. “Well, not in the way you mean. They’re literally denizens of a hellscape; their realm is all war and fire, so don’t be expecting a discussion on the scholarly pursuits… but they’re not evil.”
“Scholarly pursuits?” I asked, grinning.
“A Warlock that used to live in the Tower used to summon his demon regularly to… entertain… him. He said it was in pursuit of the scholarly arts. Personally, I never really understood it.”
“Why…” I started to ask as she stepped in closer and hooked a thumb under the edge of her top, lifting the red outfit up into view before going on in a low whisper.
“This was an outfit his demon used to wear for him.”
“Seriously?” I gaped, frowning as a sudden mental image of an enormous bright red demon from the pits of hell dressed in that came to mind. I shuddered as Oracle went on.
“Yeah, it was what she wore for him on occasion; that’s what gave me the idea. So, moving on, the Spellbooks for summoning demons aren’t so much for any general demons, as they are each for an extremely specific demon. As near as I can remember from the things I overheard, the demons themselves create them and use their magic to seed them through the realms. Part of most pacts with one involves helping them to seed another book through the Warlock, as once a book is used, that’s it; it’s destroyed. The creator of the book is tied to that summoner until death, but they live much, much longer lives than most, usually into the thousands of years range, so if they ever want a chance at being summoned again, they need more books out there. As they’re tied to a particular demon, you can’t summon the same one if someone else has already read the book. As near as I can remember‒and bear in mind, he didn’t spend much time in the Tower talking to her‒the deal is that if you summon a demon, you get a fragment of their power, and they get some of yours. You get access to their abilities, and they get a small portion of your level increases, more Strength, Intelligence, and so on. You summon a specific demon, and once they’re summoned, if you then use a second book, and it belonged to the same demon as you’d already summoned, they gain the ability to make pacts in their own realm, and they help to find you a new demon that fits your needs. They don’t want to do that though, generally, as they then get less of an increase due to your levels being split across multiple beings. Whenever Dimi would suggest it to his demon, she would distract him, making sure he forgot about it.”
“Wait, was she a succubus?” I asked, suddenly remembering the species, and Oracle nodded. “Oh, thank god; I had visions of Hellboy in that outfit…” I shuddered involuntarily. “Urrgh!”
“Ass,” Oracle muttered fondly, and I grinned at her before going back to watching the corridor.
“Yes, yours is amazing; thank you for reminding me,” I whispered, shooting her a wink in between long glances down the pitch-black tunnel.
A few minutes passed, and in the distance, we could hear occasional noises; clanks, crunches, and every so often, the floor would shake, but when Bane rejoined me, he shook his head as I asked if he could sense anything.
“Whatever they’re doing, it’s creating a lot of vibrations, which is making it hard for me to see… but I think there might be a lot of them down there…” he said, worry clear in his voice. “As near as I can tell, there’s nobody coming around the bend, but…”
“Okay, mate. might be a situation where you sit this one out, then,” I offered.
“No, but thank you,” he said adamantly.
Chanting rose behind us, and I turned to watch, knowing that Bane was monitoring the corridor far further than I could see.
Jian stood to the side of a small circle he’d drawn in his own blood on the floor and was chanting a series of words over and over from the book he held. Each time he finished the chant, the blood would flare with an inner light, then die away. The light continued getting brighter and lasting longer each time, until, on the fifth rend
ition, it flared upward, forming a cylinder that shuddered as the space between the walls of light seemed to fall inwards. From the collapsed column, a new shape arose, lifting into the air inside the circle.
“Holy shit…” I muttered, straightening up and tightening my grip on my naginata.
“Wow…” Oracle whispered, wide-eyed. “I don’t remember seeing anything like that before…”
The newly summoned demon was maybe five and a half feet tall, with a flat head and wide horns that flowed out to either side, then arced up and curled in toward a disc of golden light that hovered in the center. The being wasn’t particularly heavily muscled, more… wiry in frame, with a humanoid shape and glowing eyes.
It touched down in the circle, having lifted into the air as the portal below it closed, and it raised its right hand to the glowing wall, drawing a single clawed finger down it in wonder, trailing sparks and a burning ozone smell.
It turned and fixed Jian with a glare, and the two of them seemed to freeze in position. Long seconds passed, the only sound being a solitary low growl from the creature and occasional grunts from Jian, as though he was in pain.
I shifted my grip on the naginata, growing more and more concerned, and saw that the rest of the group was doing the same, when Bane spoke up.
“They’re coming…”
Chapter Sixteen
I swore and spun around to look further down the corridor, and although I couldn’t see anything yet, I could feel a reverberation in the floor.
“Grizz, Lydia, with me. Bane, Tang, back it up; you’re with Miren and Stephanos. Yen, Arrin, smite the fuckers. We need to give Jian time to get this done.” I said, snapping the orders out without hesitation.
I got a round of affirmatives as everyone moved into position, and a few seconds later, Bane grunted.
“You’re going to want to see this…” he said, lifting one hand and firing a Firebolt off into the darkness ahead.
I heard the awe in his voice as he cast his first spell, and I couldn’t help but grin inside my helm, remembering how rare it was for a Mer to have access to magic. Well, that’s sure as shit going to change, I thought to myself.
The Firebolt flew straight and true, slamming into the front of a… device. That was the only way I could describe it, and as the flames washed across its surface, I saw a manically grinning gnome pop his head back up from where he’d clearly ducked.
The thing that was stomping towards us was big; alarmingly so. It rose maybe five feet high, but it stretched at least that wide across as well, and the front of it shone in the dying light, reflecting the flames back to us. It was circular in design, the front, at least, and appeared to extend behind itself in a tail. The entire contraption was being driven forward on multiple sets of legs, and a shivering, shuddering motion ran across it as it progressed.
I was trying to figure it out when Grizz spoke up suddenly.
“It’s a damn battering ram!” he gasped in shock.
“What?” I asked him, surprised.
“A battering ram; back in the days of the Empire proper, the gnomes made weapons to breech walls and doors, and they could ride them. That’s what it must be! It’s got a mobile shield on the front, shaped out of extremely thick metal, and it just keeps going. It’ll take a wall out if you let it get close enough… Hell, they might even have the old weapons onboard! They’re…”
“They’re in for a fucking surprise, is what they are!” I snapped. “Magic! Hit those fuckers!” I snapped out, straightening and beginning to build a Fireball.
“Magic won’t do anything if it’s a real siege weapon,” Grizz warned grimly, but I shrugged.
“Well, it’s a good way to test it.” I squeezed extra power into the spell, compressing it down and shaping it, while waiting for the first of the new round of spells to light it up.
As soon as it reappeared in the distance, I fired. At the very bottom of the shield, I could see what looked like feet; they were made of metal, and there were lots of them, rocking in concert. I aimed for them, thinking if I could stop its feet, it would be useless.
I watched the barrage flashing towards the metallic form, and saw what I’d missed before. It had a goddamn magical shield, not just a mundane steel one!
I quickly triggered my ‘Examine’ and flash read the details as it faded back into the darkness.
Gnomish War Shield
This mobile war platform has been cobbled together by hacking and stealing damaged parts from dozens of other, heavier designs, creating a single working one that could be deployed in the tight confines of the Prax.
All Gnomish battle creations are imbued with both magical and mundane control methods, in case of theft.
HP: 511/2000
Shield Strength: 811/900
Mana Charge: 376/500
I read over the details and remembered where I’d seen the comments about control methods before… the Fenris! That meant that one of those little bastards had a way to control it, and if we could kill them all, then…
I shook my head, breaking off that line of thought. I couldn’t risk it. The shield was building up again, and as I dismissed the screen, I saw it increase from eight- hundred and eleven to twelve, while the mana charge dropped by a single point as well. That was our best chance, I decided, despite the high cost in mana. The corridor was narrow enough that it’d be slow climbing around it, and if we tried while it was still running, it could crush one of us against the wall. Our only option was to take it down at range, and to do that, we needed to burn through our spells.
“Keep firing!” I ordered. “It’s got limited mana to power it; drain its shield, and it’s a dead fucking duck.”
My order inspired a second and third barrage; the time we’d spent getting everyone a spell suddenly made me smile as I watched the glow of the shield on the device get weaker and weaker, until finally it shattered, and the entire thing collapsed to the floor with an audible crash.
There were several seconds of grunts and screeches arising from behind it, followed by a heavy clang… then another, and another.
With the third, a small figure shuffled around the edge of the device and came to a stop, two large plates of steel held in either hand. He grinned maniacally at us, then slammed them together, and started to slowly advance. As he moved, a second, third, and fourth gnome moved out and around the collapsed machine, taking up station behind the first, hunching down and hiding from sight as much as possible.
We stopped firing for a few seconds, as the last glimmers of light died away, and the small group vanished from sight.
“Okay, what the hell?” I asked aloud.
“Gnomes,” Lydia answered, shrugging.
“Well, yeah, but seriously? The damn anklebiters are tiny, but they act like they’re the ones who’re going to win…”
“Because they always do,” Grizz said grimly.
“What?” I asked.
“Gnomes…” Grizz repeated. “They always win in the end. If you kill a few now, it just means that more will come. They’re like sodding cockroaches, and vicious to boot. These seem a lot more mental than the normal ones, but that’s just making my asshole pucker more, to be honest.”
“I really didn’t need to hear that,” Yen grumbled, scowling at Grizz’s back.
“You said I had a nice ass, especially when we were…?” Grizz offered conversationally, and she grunted warningly, lifting her right hand.
“I’m going to throw a spell forward in a second or two, Grizz, and if you shut up right now, I might not ‘miss’ what I’m aiming for and ‘accidentally’ hit you. Maybe.”
“Yen, I really thought you had better taste, you know that?” I said, making myself sound disappointed in her.
“One night. A single goddamn night of weakness, when I was tired and filthy and we were hiding, and I swear I’m never going to live it down,” she muttered bitterly.
“One? What about…?” Grizz started to argue, and she growled to him to shut his mo
uth.
“Again,” I said, shaking my head disapprovingly, then I clarified my order, as nothing happened. “Magic them again,” I ordered slowly and clearly.
“Oh, thank god; I thought he was telling her to…” Miren started to whisper to Stephanos, and Lydia growled at her to shut up, even as her Flame Atronarch slammed its hands together, twisted them somehow, and then flung a Firebolt at the oncoming gnomes. That started the group off, as Miren made gestures of sealing her mouth to Lydia, and everyone that had an offensive spell started casting it.
Arrin was firing Darkbolts; fast and deadly, they impacted the shield and seemed to start it rusting. The necrotic energy clearly weakened the shields; the gnome carrying them started to screech in pain and fury as the barrage of Fireballs and Firebolts made one start to glow a cherry red.
The gnome shield bearer continued forward but kept up a furious screech that sounded like tortured metal, until he dropped both shields in pain and turned to dive back behind the gnomes that had been sheltering behind him. The next one swept the shields up and stomped forward, and I recognized the white skin.
“They’re using that stone skin ability or whatever it is; they’re acting as shields for the others. Hammer the little bastards over and over,” I ordered, growing more and more concerned that they would reach us and be impossible to injure.
“Oracle, I’ll bring the water…” I said, and she spoke up quickly.
“And I’ll bring the pain!” she finished grimly. “Arrin, lightning the water repeatedly; it’ll damage them all and hopefully let us kill the ones without the ability active, as well.”
I cast the fountain spell, sending the water soaring up behind the shields as the bearer stepped forward. The spray quickly soaked him, but didn’t give him the chance to plunge the shields into the water to cool them. Then the lightning started to fly, pounding one bolt after the other into the water as it spread and the little procession stumbled on.
