LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 41: The Infernal Host
Esstrey is reading through the books the witch owned that detail various magical concoctions, rituals and items. There are notes at specific items detailing what she wanted to use them for, a container for magical power that could work as a bomb, a concoction that muddies someone's mind and makes them susceptible to suggestion, and a... peculiar item considering the other items on the list. A slime core, one apparently capable of sapience and being attuned to a rather uniquely described element. The way of acquiring it simply states 'trade with basement', but the only thing that was in the basement was a goth's attempt at contacting the beyond.
Esstrey rethinks on that last thought, in a world of magic such a thing could easily be real. Magic is a conceptual force, and such attempts would bear actual fruit as long as the intent behind it is large enough. Filtering her searches in the book down to rituals, it doesn't take long for her to find the symbolism in the book that matches the basement. Details on contacting what seems to be organized demons called The Infernal Host. Esstrey compares the section and time of writing with the slime core and The Infernal Host. Quickly establishing a timeline at which the witch did things, Esstrey finds out with some small investigating that the witch somehow had contact with The Infernal Host who had offered her the slime core. Considering most pages afterward are research on what demons value, and subsequently how to acquire powerful ritual reagents, it goes to show that she never succeeded in acquiring everything needed for payment.
Esstrey is about to dismiss the project entirely, as she herself is certainly not planning to die trying to appease actual demons, when she finds one of the powerful reagents acquisition plan. Kidnap a royal, or a high-ranking noble, and bleed them dry. It details how, at a certain point, the blood of royalty becomes valuable to the divine and the infernal. Of course in a world of magic the mandate of heaven would be a tangible thing, Esstrey can't help but sigh. In a world with heaven and hell, churches that suppress the influence of their opponents by resource denial is the logical next step. The witch never even considered keeping a royal or high-ranking noble captive for long-term blood harvesting, the tracking methods of their counter terror operations are most likely rather well-built.
In the field of royalty, Esstrey does have a few advantages over the witch, that being that Esstrey is royalty herself. She scoffs at the thought, everyone praises monarchs acting like a benevolent ruler is the norm. Feudal scum. Regardless, everything is a weapon if wielded right, and she would be a fool not to exploit such an obvious target. Granted, buying out the demons entirely is probably a bad idea. Wouldn't want anyone to get any ideas that Esstrey might be undefended royalty ripe for the taking after all.
Making the necessary preparations, she begins making her way to the basement. The books she found on the topic indicated demons being extraordinarily tough, and only magical attacks having any effect on them. Esstrey brings a few jars of blood, her crossbow, and some of the heat-resistance potions. The demons along with their magical toughness prefer to use fire magic, and according to the witch 'never deceived when it came to their magical aptitude'. When Esstrey came to the section of how to contain the demon during summoning, or otherwise prevent it from trying to harm the summoner, she found that where the protection measure should have been that that specific section was blanked out. Erased on purpose, perhaps the witch leaving a nasty surprise for anyone going through her stuff without her supervision.
No matter, Esstrey is confident in doing it the old-fashioned way.
The corpses of the dogs are still in the basement, and they will now serve another purpose than fertilizer. Esstrey lets her blood magic take a hold of the corpses, and they rise with a savage and hungry look on their faces. Ghouls. They will be adequate as backup. Ordering the ghouls to pour their own blood in the pentagram, it begins to quickly glow with an eerie red light. Esstrey loads her crossbow and points it above the pentagram, expecting a visitor any moment now.
A red clawed hand appears in bright light at the center of the formation from the ground, as if trying to pull itself up from a hole. Fire envelops the formation for a moment, and a scantily dressed woman with red skin and horns stands at the center of the circle. The creature spreads out its bat wings, and opens her mouth before she opens her eyes.
"♪My my♪ someone is being daring by doing a summoning without prot- what?" The demon locks eyes with a giant mermaid pointing what amounts to a handheld ballista at her, two dog-ghouls flank her on either side with hungry looks on their faces.
"Hello redskin, you and me are going to have a nice long chat about business opportunities. I recommend you put on some nicer clothes, rather than looking like a stripper." The demon quickly recovers, and switches to a suit that wouldn't be out of place on Wall Street.
"That's odd, our system has you tagged as a man, I didn't know I would be visiting one of the famed witches instead. You guys don't usually summon us." A quick word and a sway of the hips is usually enough to convince many to lower their guard around demons, but not for this one, not today.
"Cease the chitchat, I have brought you here for a deal on this item" Esstrey brings up the book with the picture of the slime core drawn on it with one claw, while keeping her other claw firmly on the crossbow.
"Oh? That one? I don't think you could afford it. It's a rather important item, after all." The demon pretends to look offended by what is practically a window-shopper to her, but is clearly entertained by the idea that this massive mermaid could have some tricks up her sleeve.
The demon is proven right, when the mermaid puts down two large jars filled with blood. A quick inspection reveals it to be [5th Tier Royal Blood], the blood of a powerful royal. The demon launches a quick inspection on the mermaid, but doesn't find much special other than... a peculiar creature acting as her spine. It feels like a space-attuned monster, but is clearly something different. It's no big miracle that this mortal managed to capture herself such a large quantity of excellent ritual material, what's the real miracle is one interested enough in the deal to contact demons.
"Quit staring at the blood and hand over the core, then we can all be on our merry way." The demon regains her composure, and thinks to herself for a short moment. No doubt trying to think on whether to betray the person she's dealing with at this moment.
"Fine, by the way, my name is Zha'klos. If you ever need the services of The Infernal Host again, do not hesitate to call me using my name." The demon reaches into the ritual circle, and pulls out a gem covered by rock, the slime core. An ally truly on limited by one's creativity.
"Well, Zha'klos, I'm Esstrey. It has been a pleasure doing business with you. I look forward to further fruitful endeavors." Esstrey shoves the jars forward as the demon hands over the slime core, both parties being somewhat surprised the other side stayed true to their word on the deal by the end.
By the end, Zha'klos has gotten herself great prestige with a deal like this, while Esstrey doesn't even try to hide her greed as she takes a hold of the rock.
