by A L Issett
The Demon of Ket
Jon woke from his bed groggily as he remembered all that had happened to him. He was now a demon, well sort of and Chavez was dead. The demon Drommul now was a part of him, although Jon had pushed the demon deep down into his consciousness. The demon was not in control of this body, Jon was. The demon had the ability to shapeshift to a point, he could take on Jon’s shape because he had once been inside of it but Jon had been unable to mimic other humans. After Chavez had been killed, Jon had returned to his room after telling Mariah he was unsure about their business, she took it surprisingly well. Now back in his room, Jon heard a solid knock on his door. Jon walked over and opened it up and could see a muscular man peering down at him. The man was tall with jet black hair, thick dark eyebrows and a goatee. He wore the red robes of a fire mage and Jon knew he had the Mage Vulcan, looking down at him.
“Where is my apprentice” the mage said with authority.
“Who is your apprentice Master Mage?” Jon replied.
“Do not play dumb with me boy” Vulcan spat. “He was seen going to apprehend you for the Ketians, something they have already admitted to. They also said they left him and his demon along with you”.
“I have no idea what you are talking about, I have seen no Ketians” Jon replied suddenly scared to tell the mage what the demon inside him had done.
“If I find out you are lying” the mage let his threat hang in the air and turned away. Jon was going to shut the door when his friend Juan came walking up.
“Jon my friend” Juan said as Jon could see his friend had lost a lot of weight. “Juan has heard you have been taken advantage of by the second son of Jafe the idiot. Juan is sad he spent his time fucking through the countryside instead of being here in your time of need”.
“Don’t let it bother you Juan” Jon said as smiled at his friend. “I think I came out of it much stronger. You look good Juan, the weight looks to be falling off of you”.
“Juan does look good” the mage said as he spun around. “I think Juan will have a better life, Juan did not mind the extra pounds but the women I wanted to fuck did. The only bad part about it is that now Juan has to get married. Juan’s Queen wants Juan to marry her niece, it is not her daughter but Juan doesn’t mind”.
“I’m starving Juan, let’s go get some food” Jon closed his room door as Gwendolyn stepped into the building and headed straight for them.
“Don’t look now, it looks as if the ice princess herself is heading this way” Juan said as he stepped in front of Jon despite being several inches shorter.
“What do you want” Jon asked in an unfriendly tone.
“My father wishes your presence to thank you” Gwendolyn replied.
“Tell your father to fuck off” Jon replied.
“Yes, tell daddy to fuck off” Juan began. “Tell him Juan said that him and your brother should share a goblet like the girls who travel doing the two girls one mug show”.
Jon was taken aback by that insult, he remembered Magus’ Historian Google telling people never to ask him about two girls one cup. Jon himself was ready to vomit after he pleaded for google to tell him.
“Are you sure about this Jon?” Gwendolyn asked. “You have not had an easy year here and you have already healed your King, whether you wanted to or not. Now you stand to gain a great reward and you don’t want it?”
“Perhaps I wasn’t clear, you and your father can fuck off” Jon said angrily.
“If fact” Juan began. “Tell your father and brother to save some of the cup for you”.
Jon watched Gwendolyn stomp off angry as they went to eat breakfast. Breakfast was good, the dining hall was filled with returning students and everyone was excited about the buzz of a new year. Jon enjoyed Juan’s company as Mage Gaea came by and sat down, her familiar nowhere in sight.
“Jon I have heard what happened and I am sorry” Gaea began. “Now that it is over Arian has asked me to relay to you that she hopes you will stay on in Magus”.
“I plan on finishing the year and then leaving Master Mage” Jon replied. “After what has happened I am sure I don’t belong here. Are you excited for break to end?”
“I am saddened to hear you will leave, I wanted you to stay also” Gaea began. “I have not had an apprentice yet, there are no human earth mages I know of beside myself and this was the first time the orcs or elves sent anyone. Since you would need some type of master I was hoping to fill that void”.
“It would have been nice” Jon replied. “But after what has happened with Ket, I know this is not my place. I am excited to learn though about how to get a familiar or about demon summoning”.
“Demon summoning would be Vulcan, he is the most powerful mage here” Gaea replied. “I help with how to acquire a familiar, depending on what kind you want”.
“Juan thought the high Mage Arian was the strongest mage here” Juan replied.
“She is close, but it is Vulcan in terms of power” Gaea explained. “Vulcan is the strongest mage we have ever seen in terms of power, he is almost off our scale. His father and mother were both high level mages who caught the great pox and died. He is a level 18, Arian is only a level 16. However Vulcan can only use fire magic, while Arian has some talent in all magic, even healing as you can attest to when she healed your face when you first came to us. Demon summoning involves raw power, but you some demons if not compatible with your affinity can shrug off your attempts no matter how strong you are. But enough of this demon talk, they will attempt to take over your mind you are much better off with a familiar”.
“Juan does not want his mind dominated” Juan replied.
“Well I can’t wait to start; do you know what class are we learning first?” Jon asked as he thought about nothing but demon summoning, the demon Drommul had big plans to get his own kingdom and Jon thought they seemed sound, except for the part where he was supposed to go along with the Ketians. Breakfast ended and Jon made his way back to his room to find it trashed once again. Jon had definitely gotten used to the treatment but wondered how they managed to it so quickly and how come there were never any witnesses. The first thing Jon would do when he got a demon would be to leave it in his room to protect his stuff. Classes started tomorrow and Jon knew he should be focused more on that, if demon summoning was such an ordeal then he might not be able to summon anything. The demon Drommul had these plans when he learned Jon was still inside of him and still was a mage, what he didn’t know was that as far as raw power was concerned Jon was amongst the weakest mages here, unable to do anything outside of healing but speed the growth of a single flower and not by much. Jon stayed in his room until the end of the day cleaning, deciding to forgo even eating in fear of his room being trashed again, luckily for him Juan had brought back food which made his time easier. The night passed too slowly for Jon but soon he found himself on his way to demon summon after eating breakfast.
Jon found his seat and could see the severe looking face of Vulcan peering down at him. The man looked even angrier than when he had demanded to know where is apprentice was. He stood there surveying the room until everyone else had gotten seated.
“I am Vulcan, Head of the Fire Mages here in Magus” the man began as he walked down the aisles of the class. “I am the strongest mage here; my power level is 18 the highest found in centuries. I do not bother teaching the lesser classes, other than advanced fire magic I teach demon summoning and how to form a bond with a familiar. I do not like my time wasted nor do I like to waste time, I am supposed to slowly get you ready for demon summoning but I am going to forgo that garbage. You are either ready for it or you are not. Demons increase your magic level over time faster than a familiar can if you are in constant contact with your demon. While demons make you st
ronger they also take away, they take away how much magic reserves you ultimately have, permanently. Demons are not for everyone, you will take on some of their tendencies, and their ultimate goal is to see you dead. Demons are compelled to never hurt their summoner and to follow orders. They do not like this arrangement and want freedom in the lands of man to do whatever they wish. They gain freedom from their original summoner by the death of that mage. The demon can then roam free until it is put down where it will respawn in the pit unless given the true death”.
“When will we learn how to give a demon the true death?” asked Jorax, an initiate from Harlock.
“You will never learn the magic unless you stay on here in Magus” Vulcan stated harshly. “That magic is closed off to outsiders. The only other way a demon can be separated from its original summoner is by the gifting magic, giving the demon to another mage. No mage will do this since his stores of magical aura would still be cut down from its original splendor. And no, I will not teach you how to gift demons, that magic is closed off to you also. Catching a demon also depends on your affinity, water mages will find it easier to catch a basic water demon, they are normally preyed upon by other beasts in the pit and eagerly look to be summoned. Water will have a hard time catching other types. Wind users have it the hardest, I do not know why they rarely catch anything, they just don’t. If I had to take a guess it would be that demons do like the wind and run from it whenever they can. “I do not know about earth mages, the only one I know is Gaea and she has never tried for a demon. Orc I know your people have their own ways of catching demons, I know less than they do. Elves I can give you basic knowledge if you want to make the attempt, what success you will have is something I do not know. Finally we have fire mages, the demons they capture are the most dangerous over all”.
“This makes no sense to Juan” Juan began. “Why not keep demon summoning to yourselves?”
“Because every nation wants to know the secret and cannot replicate the process” Vulcan laughed. “The process is straight forward; the difficult part is that to summon a demon the first time, you must be on a particular type of land. The magic must be right and the connection to the pit weak. I can sense these points; other mages cannot due to them having levels beneath mine. The orcs have one in their lands I am sure they know about, many of you have it in your lands although I will never tell the secret. Now on to demon summoning, knowing the risks, which of you dares to try? There are no do overs and you will be bonded to that demon for life”.
“I will know how this magic is done” Lax spoke as she stood up.
“I want to give it a try also” Jon said as he thought about how powerful he could become. In the entire class five people wanted to give it a try including Princess Gwendolyn. Vulcan for his part described the process and Jon didn’t think it was too hard, focus on finding your aura then instead of using whatever other words the rest of the mages knew for conducting magic they would all say stefna, thoghairm, convocare and focus their magic into whatever pentagram shape he was talking about. From there we should be able to feel our magic like a whip or something and see if we can absently hit a demon. The higher the level of magic the stronger our whip would be and the longer we can wield it. Vulcan led us down into a part of the tower Jon had never been before, this part of the tower had dirt instead of a stone floor and a pentagram was already deeply carved into it. Vulcan had a place for the summoner to stand just outside of the pentagram and Lax walked over to be the first. Vulcan had let all of the initiates view this lesson, it was unlikely they would attempt it and those who did were likely to catch nothing anyway. Lax closed her eyes and began chanting and although Jon didn’t see anything, he knew she was using her magic.
“We have demons in Orcx, but now I think I see why ours are different” Lax explained kept her eyes closed in deep thought. “The energy I am getting from here is different than in Orcx, the feel is different. This must open up someplace different than the one we have, that is why humans are allowed to catch different demons. I feel something is examining me”. Lax then gritted her teeth and her body began to shake, sweat poured off of her skin as it looked like she was in a great struggle with something. Lax screamed out in rage as Jon could see she clenched her fist so tight together that her claws must have punctured her skin and caused her to bleed. The struggle suddenly stopped as a white light shone brightly in the pentagram, when it dissipated inside the circle was a demon. It was yellow and looked to be armored. It was as big as a cow and had short thick armored legs with feet tipped in claws not unlike what a badger would have. In fact Jon thought the whole thing looked like a badger with armadillo plating. It had a thick neck and oval head and a mouth which Jon could see was filled with sharp teeth. The demon bucked and rammed into the invisible walls of the pentagon, but could go nowhere.
“Orc you must force this creature to obey you” Mage Vulcan said loudly. “I have never seen a demon like this before, it could be due to your earth magic you were able to conjure it. Now control it with your mind, if you wish this creature to feel pain it will do so”.
Jon looked as Lax scrunched up her face then relaxed as the demon did the same. Jon was admiring the demon when Vulcan started talking again. “The demon cannot directly harm you, since you have dragged it here from the pit it will always appear when you wish it, your minds are linked together. This looks like a powerful demon; I would say it is at least a class 2”.
Jon watched as the demon calmed itself and eventually set down. Lax for her part had a small smile on her face as her demon popped out of existence. People all around him gasped as Lax left her place in the summoning circle with a look of triumph on her face, which made Eloen look like she was about to throw up.
“I HAVE NOT SEEN ONE OF THOSE IN QUITE A WHILE” Drommul said in Jon’s mind. “THOSE ARE BURROWERS, I USED TO KEEP THEM TO LAY SEIGE TO STRONGHOLDS, THEIR BURROWING CAN WEAKEN WALLS TO THE POINT THEY TUMBLE ON THEMSELVES. THEY ARE SLOW BUT GREAT FIGHTERS AND HARD TO TAKE DOWN, I HAVE NEVER SEEN ONE OF THOSE CAUGHT BY A MAGE. THE ORC’S EARTH MAGIC MUST BE THE REASON IT WAS CAUGHT”.
“It is your turn now healer” Vulcan said in a tone of revulsion. “It is unlikely anyone under a level 8 can catch a demon, but my lost apprentice was only a level three and he succeeded; let’s see what you can do”. Jon stepped into the summoning circle and felt for his aura, as he pushed it into the pentagram he felt a wave of heat and could tell his magic was dwindling to nothing. Wherever he was in the pit he could tell Drommul had been there before. Jon tried to do a wide sweep but something was stopping him from using his magic properly, it was Drommul. Jon went to punish the demon when it spoke inside his head.
“STOP FIGHTING ME HUMAN” Drommul said loudly making Jon’s head hurt. By opening a window of sorts into the pit he could tell Drommul was much stronger, he wasn’t strong enough to take control but he was strong enough Jon couldn’t crush him anywhere near as easily. “YOU NEED DEMONS TOO WEAK TO FIGHT BACK, ALL DEMONS HERE CAN RESIST THIS PITIFUL MAGIC YOU HAVE”. Jon let the demon work and could feel him magic getting a little stronger as it started moving with a purpose. The sensation felt weird to Jon, it was like Drommul had snaked his magic off into three different strands heading in somewhat separate locations. One of the strands hit on something, this Jon could tell as another found it’s mark then another. Whatever demon one of the strands found Jon could tell it was in bad shape and couldn’t fight back even if it wanted to. The other two felt a little odd, they were quickly ensnared but they did not seem like they wanted to fight. Jon focused on pulling all three of them back, although none were fighting him Jon could feel a huge strain on his magic as black spots started dancing before his eyes. With a flash and a pop Jon brought all three demons back as he fell to his knees in exhaustion. Jon heard gasps all around the room and when he looked into the pentagram he could see three demons. Two of them looked like the cross between a man and a dragonfly; they were skeletal skinny and the size of the average 11 year old with bu
lbous insect eyes and four translucent wings. They had two pairs of arms a piece that ended in not fingers but some sort of claw like a crab or lobster would have. They had no hair and were green in appearance, Jon thought they would not be much of a fight to anyone as he could already tell they had no real magic and looked extremely fragile. The other demon on the ground though is what caught everyone’s attention.
This demon was definitely female; she was lying in a heap covered in thick black blood. She had wings like a bat, not totally unlike what Jon had when he was in Drommul’s form just daintier. The webbing part of her wings looked like they had been purposely shredded and cuts covered her light pink skin from head to toe. The female demon was stark naked and well proportioned, Jon would have thought it was pretty if were not covered in so much blood. “WE NEED TO SEND THEM AWAY TO MY CAVE, THE INSECTOIDS CAN WATCH THE SUCCUBUS” Drommul said in his head, his former power now gone since the link to the pit was closed. Jon heard people talking but ignored it as Drommul’s cave popped into his head and he thought about it as the demons popped back out of existence.
“How did you do this?” Mage Vulcan said as he roughly pulled Jon to his feet. “I don’t know what you did but you are a fool for not listening to me”.
“How did you summon three demons at one time peasant?” Geoff said as he got closer to Jon.
“It doesn’t matter” Vulcan began. “That was a succubus he summoned, that I am sure of. That demon will kill him and he will beg for her to do it. You are better off keeping her where she is at, if she doesn’t kill you, then splitting your mind between three demons will drive you insane, even if they are at such a low level”.
“YOU ARE NOT HUMAN, WE DO NOT FALL PREY TO THE CHARMS OF THOSE LIKE HER” Drommul said loudly in his head as Juan started shaking him.
“Are you okay my friend” Juan said as he looked worried. “I do not know what you did but Juan does not like this, you should have just followed directions is what Juan thinks”.
