A portion of the wall recessed and slowly swung open. The hinges on the door were well oiled and made almost no noise. Endrance left the sword in the wall and walked over to examine the secret passage. His skin crawled with the sensation of powerful magic coming from down the passage. Endrance took a breath, and walked in.
Chapter 03
The stone walls of the passage were smooth cut, evidence of its purpose as an escape for the king. Walking down the passage led him into darkness, as the lights in the throne room grew farther and farther away. Endrance knew that at a certain point the passage led into the mountain itself and used to be a sort of cave system before Kalenden had made his modifications.
Endrance stopped, having counted his paces. He traveled in the dark and was sure he'd gone the exact distance Kalenden's memories had prescribed. This way led to the important chamber. Endrance channeled some of his power, held up a clenched fist, and with a word released more specks of light. The glowing specks bounced off a much smaller room and every time they collided with each other before settling they would merge into a bigger, slightly brighter light.
The room was only barely a room, more of an expansion of the passageway. It opened up into rough-hewn rock almost twenty feet across and twenty high. On the side walls were two burnt out torches on each side. The far end had a disc of stone, set into the floor of the chamber. While composed of several blocks, the circle had been specially cut to sit seamlessly without mortar.
Across the stone floor lay a perfectly round circle that looked to be fifteen feet across as far as Endrance could guess. The circle, including all script, lines, and symbology, were carved in stone and filled in with gold. Several precious gems were set at key junctions in the circle, further channeling the power it was meant to use.
Endrance hadn't looked at the information that Kalenden had left behind, but he did know enough about circles to know that this one was a very powerful, very large circle. It was meant to be permanent and the protection spells were something to be admired for their power and elegance. It was too elegant for it to have been Kalenden's design.
"So this is what Valeria gave him." Endrance whispered reverently. The skill used to make this was definitely of wizard caliber talent and experience. Kalenden was a skilled summoner, but many of the designs in this circle were something learned from study of more than just the summoning arts. It also required skill at crafting, something Kalenden had no experience in.
Endrance looked down at his bracer, and then over at the circle. The script on both matched perfectly on several key phrases. The carving style had no variations to indicate a different caster had designed them.
"Damn it!" he exclaimed. "It was the same person."
He knew he had a problem. A huge problem. Valeria was the Archmagus of Ironsoul until she passed the title on to the Magus Talos, nearly seventeen years ago. She died almost a year later.
Kalenden had believed he had been making deals with her for the last fifteen years. The fact that Endrance knew the bracer was made by the same person who had once trained his master, the same person who had made this circle some time after her 'death', meant that either she had never died in the first place, or she had planned far more in advance than he thought.
Endrance needed to destroy the circle without causing any damage to the castle. With it, he could then tell the people outside that he'd cleansed the place of Kalenden's evil. Then he needed to find out what happened with the past Archmagus. The first person he would seek out to ask was Kaelob.
Endrance drew up some of his power and prepared to unleash it when he heard a ripping growl cut through the air behind him. Whirling, he saw the black shape of a horned woman with wings rushing down the hallway at him. For an instant, he thought he recognized her.
"Selene?" he asked, backing away. His hesitation was foolish, as what came at him was not the woman he was expecting.
It was too late to react when she burst into the light and the wizard recognized the succubus that had accompanied Kalenden. Despite her supernatural beauty, the succubus looked starved and tattered as she flew through the air at him. Whatever remained of her clothes were in shreds that barely covered her.
"Finally!" She hissed, slamming into the mage in a full-on tackle. Endrance cried out in pain and surprise as he crashed into the stone floor, but his cry was cut short as she kissed him full on the mouth, her tongue snaking into his mouth and twining with his. Almost instantly Endrance felt a wash of power cut into him and take away his pain. His thinking grew fuzzy and his vision swam as the succubus finally disengaged the kiss. Inhaling deeply as she did so.
The wizard felt a drain on his aura and a thin stream of luminous golden wind slipped from his mouth into hers. She swallowed it down, and the change was immediate. Her body became healthy and no longer looked starved, her breasts filled out, and her hair regained its sleek black shine. Instead of moving off of him or killing him, she instead lay across his body and rubbed her chest against his, gyrating her hips.
Endrance blinked repeatedly, confused and knocked off his center. It must be a succubus thing, because Selene had done much the same thing a month ago. Endrance knew succubi drew their sustenance from magic gained by acts of physical intimacy, but he didn't think that she'd recover that much.
"Oh so delicious." the demon purred, nuzzling his neck, the mage acutely aware of how pointed her fangs were. "So much food, and in such a small package." she caressed the side of his face with a talon as she did so. "I guess they might be right. I shouldn’t judge a mage by his… cover. I could just keep you"
Endrance struggled to get his focus back. "Keep me?" he managed to stammer out. The motions of her body were making him twitchy and his masculinity uncomfortable. He felt a tickle along his side and her pressed flesh felt hotter against his.
She licked the side of his neck as she pulled herself up to whisper in his ear, all the while rubbing against his body with hers. The contact of her tongue to his neck put the hairs on his body on end, and more wisps of power seeped off his neck and into her mouth. "I mean," she whispered, nibbling on the lobe of his ear. "If I didn't need you to get home, I would keep you in a room and suck every last drop of power out of you before I grant you a death men only dream of, you beautiful, powerful man." her voice was breathy and hot, and again he had to struggle to concentrate.
This was a very dangerous situation, Endrance realized somewhere in the back of his muddled thoughts. If he didn't stop her from proceeding, she'd probably molest him to death and he wouldn't even have the will to stop her. Joven would probably laugh if he saw him now.
I have to get her off...of me. Off of me! Get her away! Endrance thought desperately.
Endrance closed his eyes and tried to concentrate. His attempt faltered as he realized he felt something soft, smooth, and pliant in his palms. She had placed his hands... somewhere.
"You have enough power you could feed me for an hour and still have enough left to open the portal..." She purred, her talons slicing easily down the side of his shirt. "Maybe I'll play with you for a while after all."
The part of Endrance that was terrified was being swiftly overwhelmed by the part of him that wanted her to... play with him. He was young, and surely he could still take care of the problem after he sent her home happy, right? All he had to do was cooperate and take control of the situation as it progressed. He could feel his body ceasing its resistance.
The wizard shook his head violently, drawing on what little was left of his will. Instead of saying anything in resistance, he slid his right palm under her to her stomach. She took his clumsy pawing as giving in to her power and brought their lips together for another kiss. His vision swam once again and his mind felt wrapped in fluffed cotton. He had to act.
Drawing on some of the energy she was draining from him, he channeled it through to the spell scribed in his right palm. The spell he had tattooed on the palm of his hand was designed to propel whatever rested in it with great force, turning sm
all objects into lethal arrows; or flinging larger targets a short distance. In his confusion, he wasn’t sure how much power he had put into the spell.
Gold spell light radiated out from his hand and across her skin and the succubus was launched off of him by her midsection. Her fangs sliced his lower lips open as her mouth and tongue whipped away from him, drawing up splashes of fresh blood. The demoness crashed into the ceiling with a loud crack. Endrance immediately felt his mind clear some, and he was able to roll out of the way as she fell back down towards him. By the twisted angle of her wings, he could guess they were broken by the impact.
The succubus curled into a ball, cradling her stomach and gasping for air. It seemed that even some demons needed to breathe. She looked at him from where she curled; her square-pupil eyes were wide in pain and fear.
"You... you hurt me?" she whispered. "You weren't supposed to hurt me."
Endrance, his head rapidly clearing with no small help from the practical buzz of power in the air coming from the circle, shrugged. "You weren't supposed to rape me or eat me, but you were trying to." He said, with a wince at his bloody lips. He formed the quick hand symbols as he channeled power, murmured the words and wiped his left hand over his lower lip. White light crackled at the edges of the cuts and his lips healed.
"I can't help it!" the succubus groaned, her head rocking back. Endrance saw one of her horns had an inch of the tip broken off. "It's my nature!"
A shudder ran through him and he realized at last that he was shirtless; nothing of his shirt remained and the front of his pants had been undone. When had she done that? Endrance felt a twinge of sympathy for the creature, but knew to ignore it. Succubi were known for being manipulative and crafty. He backed to the wall farthest from the demon and crossed his arms.
"It may be your nature, but you shouldn't be here in the first place, demon." he said. "That is not your nature."
She managed to pull herself up to an upright sitting position. A trickle of black blood dripped from the corner of her mouth. Endrance could see that part of her stomach was caved in from the spell, shaped like his handprint. Any normal creature would have died from the spell, but a demon was something tougher and stronger. She would eventually recover from the injury, given enough time. In her starved state, it could be days.
"I can't leave on my own." The demoness responded. "The circle is designed to bind for a year and a day. You killed the man only a few days after the binding." She raised and dropped her hands uselessly, a very human seeming gesture. "I'm here until the binding ends, or someone banishes me back."
If she tried to leave the castle, she'd have to fight past a dozen armed men and several more crossbowmen outside if she tried to fly off. Returning to her plane of hell sounded like a better option. Endrance knew in his head lay the method to banish her back to the hell she came from, but he was loath to try accessing such knowledge without absolute need.
Demonology and summoning was treacherous but powerful work. He had to try to get something out of this exchange. He could also just destroy the thing. It was a demon, and would try to do the same if the odds were any different. It might even be the safer option; demons had long memories, from what he had been taught.
"I know how to banish you." Endrance offered, tying up his pants again.
The demoness looked at him evenly. "You do?" she asked, curious. "Kalenden never said anything about you knowing any of his magic."
Endrance shrugged. "I do now," he said, "and I won't even have to destroy you to do it, if you don't try to molest me any further."
The succubus looked regretful. "I can try not to." she promised.
Endrance watched her for a moment before he realized that trying to discern a lie from a demon was a harder feat than killing one. "Fair enough." he responded, his eyes unfocused. He didn't want to present so weak a target as to completely go slack and close his eyes in meditation. He didn't even think meditating would be possible to him in that environment with so much power around, it felt like his skin was buzzing.
He quickly accessed the information he had gathered from Kalenden, wheedled out the parts he needed, and closed the information up with as little trouble as he could manage. He did get a rather strong picture of what the succubus could do for him, as well as to him, from a memory of Kalenden that leaked out. She seemed so much smaller then. She also resembled Selene a great deal.
That might have been the other reason he was not yet willing to destroy her.
When he regained focus she had not moved, but the visual damage to her stomach had mostly disappeared. She was watching him curiously.
"What are you thinking about?" She asked, curious.
"Just... sorting the process to send you back." he said carefully. Succubi could inherently sense strong sexual desires or responses and he was already being focused on. He had to keep her from forgetting to not jump him again.
"Okay," Endrance said, taking a step forward. "I have the means to return you."
The demoness stood, statuesque in her unnatural beauty.
"But!" Endrance added, raising a finger. "I can't unless you're bound to me.
The demoness hissed, her broken wing twitching. "If I'm bound to you," she stated angrily "you could order me to stay, mortal."
Endrance scowled at her. "I don't want you here anymore than you wish to stay!" he said. "I will bind you. You will let me. I will ask you to do something easy, and then I will send you back as part of the binding. You have my word." Already in his mind some ideas were forming.
The succubus snarled, her left wing cracking as the bones forcefully set. "Fine!" she cried out. "Do it soon, or I will just kill you and take my chances outside!"
Endrance nodded and directed her to stand on the circle. The wizard held his hands out to the demoness, palms facing her. On his right palm was the violent starburst of arcane lines that made up his fling spell. On his left a mesmerizing swirl of lines that trailed down his forearm, allowing him to use that hand to touch elemental forces like fire or lightning and redirect it without harming himself. It had been incredibly useful when battling against Kalenden.
He reached out with his power, touching the circle and activating the initial protective magic. The demoness barely flinched as the circle closed, the gold inlays gleaming of their own light. Now she was contained, he pushed through to the second stage of the spell.
His mind touched on hers and he immediately felt how alien and deep it was, like some form of thinking that he was not able to find any common understanding with. Regardless of her desires to leave the castle, upon his contact she immediately tried to push her will onto his. As she would say, it was 'in her nature.'
Either way, if she could make him succumb, he would have to do what she said instead. He pushed back, and now that his mind was clear of her alluring power and sharpened by the bite of the cold drafting through the passage, he was able to slam into her mind with equal force. The two struggled for what felt like hours, but neither Endrance nor the demoness was willing to budge.
As he pushed his will against hers, he could feel himself hesitating to push harder. It was the part of him that didn't want to harm himself, and kept him from really pushing except when he was in a life or death situation. He reached that barrier long before the demoness' will showed signs of giving in.
He struggled and strained, but whatever ground he gained wasn't enough to bind her. At best, he could hold her at this point for a few seconds. He had run into his ceiling.
He couldn't give up. If he failed, he very well would be killed by this demon. He had hardly the strength to hold her off, and if she turned up the charm on him again after he was mentally worn down from a battle of wills he would be utterly at her mercy. He strained against her will, his body tensed from head to toe and sweat beaded on his skin despite the cold.
He felt the barrier give only the tiniest bit, and he hit it again as the demoness relentlessly pushed her will onto him. He had to beat this, or else he would be l
ost. It was then the barrier in his mind broke, and he was able to push back harder. Blood trickled from his nose as he leveled the full amount of his considerable will against the demoness without restraint for himself or her. Something else broke when he shattered his way through the ceiling, but he couldn't devote even a split second of his attention to it.
Endrance's body was on fire with pain, but he had the demon trapped. He clamped down on her will and pushed back until she finally yielded. Once she did so, he felt the spell confirm she was now bound. He released his hold on her and dropped to his hands and knees, trembling from the exertion. Blood spattered down his smooth chest and several drops of it splashed on the stone floor as he struggled to remain conscious.
"Your spirit is worthy of binding me. What are the terms?" The demoness said, her voice sounding hollow and empty.
Endrance swallowed, trying to clear his head. He looked up at her, his eyes bloodshot. "The terms of your binding are these:" he began, pulling himself up into a kneeling position. "You are to tell me information on a topic of my choosing and level of detail upon my asking for it, and upon completion of doing so, destroy the summoning circle you were called here with. Then will you will return to hell immediately." He was pretty certain he had worded the binding so that it wouldn't be misinterpreted, something that demons were well reputed to do.
The demoness nodded once. "The terms are accepted by the Baphomet accord." she said, and her eyes came back into focus on him. She stepped out of the circle onto the floor gracefully. She kneeled down and put a finger under his chin, her fanged teeth showing in a smile. "What do you want to know?" she asked, her voice no longer sounding impersonal.
Spellscribed: Ascension Page 4
