CH 8.5

Summoning magic is a very difficult thing.

The first thing it requires is being able to connect a parallel world with a dimension; In order to draw out the being that you want, it requires a high level of competency to accomplish. If an unskilled magician performs a bad summoning misjudging the aimed location, it is also possible to draw out some unexpected beings.

The next step in the process is that you needed to be able to protect yourself with magic, from the being that you summoned. There is no such thing as a meek demon that would just instantly obey all your commands. Far from it, it is much more likely that a demon would target you and try to eat up your soul the moment a human summons them.

The textbook method is to draw a magical formation in which the demon will be summoned into and that it cannot exit, however, depending on the type of the demon and how strong it is, if you are not careful in the process of strengthening the magic formation, there are demons that would be able to easily destroy it. Another thing is that, if there is even a single imperfection in the magic formation, it won’t even work as a barrier. Additionally, you won’t actually know if the barrier you set up is sufficient and effective until a demon is actually summoned.

Furthermore, it isn’t the end after merely being able to successfully summon the demon that you desire.

It is necessary to negotiate with the demon and create a binding contract. The demon who is summoned knows of your desire for its power. Thus, they will usually try to negotiate unreasonable and excessive terms.

Moreover, they are very sly and skilful in their words, they will try to manipulate you in order to obtain advantageous terms, or they may even threaten you while trying to get you to free them from the magic formation; wisdom and a strong will is required to do the negotiations.

Once you are able to fulfil all those conditions, you are finally able to have a single demon working for you. If all we are talking about is the weak imps, then making them serve you and submit to you is something that could be easily done in a couple of minutes; however, if we are talking about intermediate level demons and above, the time it takes drastically changes. If it is high level demons, then it wouldn’t be strange if the preparation for summoning actually takes several years.

For that reason, for the past one month, Aur has been steadily improving on the magical formation that he created and was making his final checks. The surface of the magic formation had very complex patterns covering it and amber coloured magic on top of it. This was a test, and it was already his third attempt, after confirming that his magic could flow smoothly into the magic formation without being interrupted, Aur was finally satisfied.

「Girl, come」

Aur beckoned the girl that was standing a few feet away from him towards him, she has a slightly confused face although she quickly rushed over. She had chestnut colored hair and a simple braided hairstyle; this girl had just been summoned today and was one of the sacrificial young maiden’s.

She wasn’t someone you would call beautiful, but her face did have its own charms, she was like a country side girl who wore little to no makeup she was a naïve maiden. Her name was Mio.

「Take out your left arm」

She had a tense countenance but without saying a word of complaint she presented her left wrist towards him, Aur ran a short dagger against her skin. There is no pain, only the sensation of a cold blade running through her skin remains. The moment drips of blood dribbled down from her left wrist, a shining light was being emitted from Aur’s hands which covered her left wrist. In an instant, the blood stops flowing and the wound immediately disappears.

「Alright. You may withdraw」

Just as per ordered, Mio withdraws and gives Aur a sidelong glance, Aur begins the incantation of his spell. Mio’s blood shines red and without any warning it disappears.

Next flames began to spout from the center of the magic formation. When the flame swells up to the edge of the magic formation, it stops from exiting the outside as if it was being contained by the formation, it coils itself like a snake and surges to the ceiling in a whirlpool-like motion.

The moment it seemed like the flames were spreading inside the magic formation.

A thunderous sound explodes and the flame vanished at the same time.

「Are thou the one who has called me here?」

Instead, in the center of the formation now stood an ugly looking demon. Behind Aur, Mio could only swallow her breath. The fact that she didn’t raise her voice to scream was quite impressive. After all, the more a person fears a demon the more they will take advantage of you.

「That’s right. The consideration I paid is my magical energy and the virgin’s blood. Serve me, lend me your power」

「What a meaningless conversation」

The demon responded with an unpleasant sounding voice, it sounded like a fingernail was scratching the surface of a metal board. The demon’s whole body was a dark red color; not a single trace of hair was on its body. Its muscles shone like red copper, and it had four arms. Each one of its arms were at least as thick as Aur’s waist, and on the tips of its fingers were steel like claws.

Its head was like a wolf and it had a mouth that protruded outwards. The being had horns that curved like a goat, and had bitter orange pupils that shone like fire as he glared right at Aur.

「I don’t need blood, hand me her soul. If you provide me with at least 10 pure virgin souls, I will think about your proposition」

The demon was declaring it’s price haughtily, and Mio could only tremble in fear after hearing its words.

However, Aur doesn’t even falter as he answers back.

「Now that is a load of crap. For a lesser demon like you, to be demanding something like this… You’d best give up. My conditions won’t change. If you want to decline my offer, then I can just send you back to hell」

Muuu, the demon groaned as he crossed his four devil arms. “Lesser demon” even though Aur designated him with this title which was a generic term, contrary to its title, this particular demon was actually quite strong.

Of course, it is impossible to deny that an “Arch Demon” and or ” Greater Demon” would be much stronger, however the only beings capable of controlling such creatures are legendary ancient gods, or Demonic Kings. In modern times, when a magician is capable of summoning a Lesser Demon, it is already considered a top notch demon.

Nevertheless, in front of this demon, Aur acted in a fearless manner and he treated it as if it was a common thing.

「After all you are only a small demon. Don’t you understand? I have 666 demons beneath me serving me, can you not sense my magical power?」

From Aur’s body, an amber magical energy surges like a flame. It wasn’t a small linear amount, the magic erupts and covers his entire body; it was by no means an amount that any normal human could possess.

「Did you say……… 666…..?」

It wasn’t a realistic number. If this was a normal magician, at best he could have 10 demons serving him before his magical energy dried up. However, if you saw the amount of magical energy exploding out of him, it isn’t impossible for someone to believe his claim. Above all, it wasn’t a lie and he actually did have 666 demons working for him.

To a certain extent, it was quite simple for a demon of this calibre to detect any human lies. Obviously, there was magic capable of concealing and trickery, however, this time around the demon was in close proximity and could use its nose to smell the magic on the body of the magician.

The lesser demon was convinced that the magician in front of him was not telling a lie.

And if this was the premises, it was understandable as to why this magician was acting in such a confident manner. In order words, calling a lower rank demon like him was something that was a cinch for the magician in front of him. If his conditions were to be refused, sending him back to hell was not merely a bluff.

Coming across a magician of this calibre was not something that occurred very often.

「…..Alright, one is enough. I only want the soul of a single virgin girl, and then I will lend you my strength」

This was a substantial concession. Its demands were reduced, and its arrogant words of “I will think about it” changed into “I will lend you my strength”. Even though it did not accept the first condition of the contract, it already conceded quite a bit. And with this, the demon had thought that the other party would accept its new conditions without complaint. However…

「It is no use negotiating. I will provide you with my magical power and the virgin’s blood, with this you shall serve me and lend me your power……..The soul of the person you kill, I don’t mind giving that to you」

Even after all that, Aur barely yielded any ground. For evil magicians that this demon killed, it would without a doubt be impure, defiled souls. It will be rare that he will be able to get his hands on a virgin’s soul.

「…….In that case, the negotiations, are off!」

Flame begins to blow within the magic formation. No matter how powerful or great the magician in front of him was, there was no way he was willing to accept such a meagre salary. If this was a small as lending his power, then it might be fine. However, the magician used the words “serve him”, this would mean there was no right to veto or go against his instructions, and it would mean that no matter how much time passes, he would need to work for this magician. There are no demons willing to accept such a ridiculous term.

Although the magic formation was really well done, if the lesser demon felt like it, he could probably destroy the formation within minutes. If it is not possible to form a contract and he was going to be killed, then it would be better for the demon to take its chances and revolt and attack.

Preparing himself for the situation, the demon put his strength and tried to destroy the magical formation, it was at this time that…

「Aur, sama. It’s time, to eat!」

The new door creaked open and a very young looking girl entered the door.

「Wha……」

The flames that was about to blaze up momentarily stopped, and a *pusun* sound came out as black smoke lingered in the air. The demon opened its eyes in astonishment and watched the girl.

「When you talk about a virgin’s blood, are you referring to this child?」

「…….If that is what you desire, then I will allow it」

When the demon suddenly asked him this question, Aur answered with a slight puzzlement in his voice.

「I understand, I’ll do it, I’ll take the contract! Young lady, may you please tell me your name?」

「? My name is, Mary—…..」

Just before she was about to dangerously introduce her true name to the demon, Aur closes her mouth.

Mary, Ahh, Mary. The demon used its four arms to try to write her name in the air as he muttered her name in a low voice.

Although he realized that this was not her true name, such things did not matter.

She was the finest quality. Ahh, the finest young maiden he had ever seen. He has never seen any human like this ever before.

Her hair was wavy and gold. Her pure eyes shone like jewels. Her face was soft and full, and her cheeks were rosy like a flower, she had a soft and warm looking body. On top of this, he could sense that a strong blessing of magic was placed on her being.

「O, oi, your former tone of voice has changed, are you alright?」

Aur was a skilled magician, and when he saw that the demon’s attitude had a 360 degree change, even he became curious and asked the demon.

At first he showed her Mio, who was a young girl who seemingly did not have a high value, and the moment he laid his eyes on Mary, he didn’t even continue to negotiate and he just suddenly wanted to create a contract. This was going as per Aur originally planned, however, he never expected the demon would have such a drastic change of heart.

「Ahh, I only acted like that so that I can intimidate humans, it doesn’t really matter, right? More importantly, let’s quickly do the contract!」

……Don’t tell me that this demon has a loli con complex….

Aur muttered out his words under his breath and at the same time, he took out a long clatter of text from his pocket and it was provisions that seemed like a contract. The demon could not take his eyes of Mary, and without even properly reading the contract, the demon agreed to the contract.

「Hey you, you tricked me didn’t you!?」

The devil who was called Logan was about to catch Aur’s neck and twist it like a twig.

If all types of violence against Aur was not prohibited by the contract, it is likely that he would have done just that.

「I did not lie」

「You told me that you had 666 demons under you, aren’t more than 600 of them just small imps!?」

「It would be more accurate to say that 650 of them are imps. The remaining 10 are gargoyles, 5 are hell hounds and 1 succubus」

For a normal magician, they would not normally take into account imps as part of the demon army they control. After all, imps were known as the lowest of the low, the worst of the worst type of demons. In the first place, calling two or three of these useless demons normally served its purpose, and there is usually no meaning to calling hundreds of them.

「Moreover the virgin’s blood! I mean, you are right that Mary’s blood tasted absurdly delicious……. however… What do you mean you will only give me one or two drops of blood in one full week!?」

「I’m sure that all of these terms have been properly written in the contract? The one who didn’t read it was you」

Usually when someone talked about giving blood to the demons, it is generally assumed that it is all the blood of the sacrifice. In order words, whilst it may not be the soul, their whole body is dedicated to the demon.

「Ahhhhhhh! I got tricked! Ahhhh!」

It was already too late. Having been bound by the contract, Logan could not attack Aur let alone the girls.

「It seems that Aur really goes all out when he deals with men doesn’t he……? I’m kind of glad that I’m a woman」

Whilst realizing what would have happened to her if she was a male when she created the contract with Aur, Lilu brushed her chest and heaved a sigh of relief as she gave a side long glance to the pitiful Logan.