Chương 186: 176. The demon herself

I took a quick look to my right, noticing some movement by the window, but judging by the fact that Sally wasn't reacting, it must have been something non-threatening. So, bringing my attention back to the chanting, I began approaching the obelisk. Once the veil was on the verge of tearing, I took the dagger and began sacrificing the people. The smell of sulfur filled the room, and a presence could be felt on the other end. Then the veil finally tore, and a hand popped out of it.

It was surprisingly smooth and delicate-looking. Where I expected a muscled, scarred arm from some massive creature, this was nothing like it. Next, the rest of the demon slowly materialized in front of the obelisk, and I realized my mistake. The book I had from Solomon's collection wasn't exactly a complete work, and the demon of control and domination wasn't a war demon, as I expected, but—"So who's the naughty boy who summoned me?" asked the creature in a low, sulky voice. It was a succubus.

I could see the people around slowly waking up from the trance. To my horror, I noticed that Myhur had managed to regain his senses first, most likely because he had reached the third circle recently.

"Heee's the one," the mushroom said without hesitation, pointing at me.

"Ohhhhh. Is he?" asked the demon. I let out a deep sigh, reminding myself to have them continue the trance for longer in any future ritual, and turned toward the arrival. It, or rather she, judging by her figure, took the form of a beautiful red-skinned woman with a pair of long horns on her head. The demon was dressed in a leather dress that didn't leave much to the imagination, the ensemble complete with a long whip secured to her belt.

I caught a sidelong look from Ophelia and, sighing again, approached the creature, making sure not to cross the protective barrier marked by salt.

"I have summoned you."

"Did you?" the demon asked.

"So what do you desire, pleasure? Pain? Both?" She proposed each word, accompanied by a sway of the hips. A lesser mage might have focused on that, not noticing it was a spell. The circle prevented her from invading my mind directly, but it didn't block hypnotic magic using an image. I shook off the attempt at seduction.

"I need workers," I said.

"Workers?" she asked, tilting her head with a slight smile, showing the tips of two sharp fangs.

"Not that kind of worker," I groaned, as I could feel the conversation was draining my mental strength more than some battles.

"Builders. With experience in arcane geometry." The demon clicked her tongue lightly.

"Sure. I could whip some into shape for you, buuuut that's a costly ask."

"Speaking of cost," I said, happy to push the responsibility onto someone else, "the contract will be negotiated by Andreea. I give her the authority to negotiate in my name." As I said that, the old fortune teller moved in front of me with a wide smile and pulled out a massive stack of papers. I could see the demon visibly deflate at that sight.

'Yeah, you and me both.' I understood the feeling. It took the old woman barely twenty minutes to somehow scam the demon, rattling off sentences so convoluted I had trouble following the legal language. In the end, we agreed on 100 souls as the base price in the contract, and the rest was calculated based on the energy required for the workers to materialize. And that was where the old woman's scam lay.

I had 170 souls available and signed an agreement with the old fortune teller for 50 obols per soul saved, hoping to keep around 20 at most for my experiments, with 150 being a good deal. What I didn't expect was that the old crow would first tire out the demon with legal language to the point it didn't inspect the bodies for possession. The succubus ended up signing a deal for 100 souls flat and two souls per body the demon builders would possess.

In normal circumstances, the body would have to be heavily demonized for the creatures to work at full strength, which would mean the flesh would deteriorate fast, and we would have to go through many bodies for each demon. But the vessels were picked and prepared by me. The flesh was enchanted, and the inhabiting souls were barely alive within it, meaning the demons shouldn't switch bodies at all, or once at most, according to our calculations. So the cost would be between 120 and 130 souls.

The only winner of the bargain was the fortune teller. I exchanged a tired look with the poor succubus and, shrugging, moved on to the last part of the ritual. Opening the soul cage, I dragged out the souls and fed them to the demon as she pulled them back through the opening in the veil. Once 120 souls were paid, I could sense a formless energy slip through and into the unconscious bodies. The ten vessels began twitching and spasming before going still. Then, suddenly, they opened their eyes all at once.

Once the deal was finished, the demons had possessed the bodies, and the souls had been paid, the creature dematerialized into a shapeless mist and went back into the tear hanging in the middle of the air. The moment silence finally fell over the room, some of the people collapsed to the floor, completely out of mana despite the potions and crystals used to help sustain the ritual. It took all of us a while to gather ourselves after the surprisingly long rite.

Well, all of us, aside from the old fortune teller, who had stalked me like a ghost, waiting to be paid. With a heavy heart, I passed her the money, and after she counted it, the woman smiled widely and made her way to her car.

"You sure she wasn't the demon all along?" asked Ophelia, looking after the woman.

"That could explain how she's so good at contracts." I turned my head to her, looking Ophelia over. Her face was set in the same neutral resting expression, to the point that I couldn't tell if she was joking or not.

"You have a case for tomorrow?" I asked.

"Yeah." Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Good. You should stop sitting around with the cats. I can't tell if you're serious," I said, earning a raised eyebrow from my apprentice, and then, sighing, made my way outside after giving my official thanks to the participants. Once the mansion was finished, all the people here would be invited for a banquet, but for now, their role was over.

"We had a small interruption," one of the dark elves approached us as we walked.

"Mhm, I saw. How did you handle her?"

"She's knocked out. A reporter of some sort, from what it looks like." I raised an eyebrow.

"Did she have a camera?" The man nodded and then handed me an expensive-looking device. I quickly checked the photos.

"Cassandra!" I shouted toward the group of mages talking outside, and a woman in a massive hat approached us. I gave her the camera as she eagerly began looking through the photos.

"This is great!" she finally exclaimed, seeing the results of her work.

"Sad she didn't try to record. We could've seen how the record-blocking runes work with sound."

"Yeah. Good work," I said with appreciation, then turned to the elf, handing him the device back.

"Leave her in the field. She has no evidence. We'll check how she found this place later." The man nodded and left with the others. A few of the group stayed as a cleanup crew while I went out with Ophelia and Q'Shar and began loading the newly possessed workers into prepared vans. It took us a few hours of driving in the not-so-pleasant company of a sharp sulfurous smell, occasional cracking of bones, and tearing of skin as the bodies demonized at a surprising pace.

But I didn't keep them submerged in demon blood for nothing, and despite the changes, the flesh could easily withstand the process. By the time we transported them to the construction site, the passengers had small horns, twisted spines, red eyes, and black tongues. But the bodies held, and as we unloaded them, I went to get the mansion plans and handed them to the chief demon.

"Looks good, boss," the thing said in a coarse voice after reading them.

"It will be three months." I nodded in confirmation, and the demon wobbled away to join the rest.

"Let's go," Q'Shar proposed as the workers began moving around the materials, preparing to dig for the foundations. The next week was mostly spent at the construction site, as I instructed the creatures on where everything went. The succubus really did hold up her side of the deal, as the summoned creatures were proficient in arcane architecture. Sadly, teaching and doing were two different things.

One could bargain for a demon to curse someone, but to teach that curse was an entirely different beast, and the price would skyrocket for any piece of knowledge. So I just answered questions and pointed the demons to the materials as they discussed things among themselves, making sure their discussions stayed out of my earshot. After a week, they knew what to do and where to do it, so I left them to their own devices, only playing the construction supervisor from time to time.

The mansion was slowly coming along, with the help of a 24-hour, seven-day-a-week crew. We expected the walls, ceilings, and floors to be done in around two months. After that, decorating was on me. Around two weeks later, Peter was slowly being prepared for astral projection, as the pain was chipping away at his resolve. We were two days away from the first real attempt when Q'Shar called for an official meeting, which meant clan business. I arrived at his place, curious about what it was about.

Sitting down on the cushion with the Maine Coon in front of me, I tried reading the cat, as he looked strangely… suspicious. As if not sure what exactly to say to me. I'd pulled quite a few stunts in my life, most of which he was aware of, so this reaction was a first.

"So. What's up?" I asked.

"The FBI investigation is back on track."

"Okay. New evidence?"

"No." The cat shook his head.

"But they're good. They are cross-referencing license plates from all traffic cameras around the crime scenes." I shrugged.

"That's why we used rentals."

"I doubt they will catch on to those, but if they continue, they could get closer, Sam. I can get you an early warning, but that's all. We might need to throw a wrench in that investigation ourselves…"

"Doable. So you called to discuss the FBI's potential trouble?" I asked, confused. This was a what-if scenario, while the call sounded rather serious.

"No." Q'Shar shook his head.

"The elven valley case escalated." I tilted forward in my chair. That was bigger news.

"Define escalated. Are they at war yet?"

"No. But the elves will be. You guessed correctly, the board of directors wanted to make them disappear. But there's a bigger issue."

"How?"

"The company CEO… let's say he took a liking to one of the women the elves sent."

"Don't tell me he managed to do something to a mage?" I asked, surprised.

"No, she escaped without issue, but you know the elves' idea of purity?"

"Oh shit." I groaned.

"The corporation sent some people into the forest to find the supposed tribe they presented as during the talks. They'll spill blood soon."

"Are the mortal agencies aware?"

"Yes. The Vatican decided to contact the FBI supernatural branch to mediate, but… they are taking the side of the company." I was taken aback by that.

"Really? Between the Vatican and some twats, they picked the company?"

"The company arms them and the army, Sam. For them, we're the twats."

"I bet you their higher-ups are in the same pockets." I sighed.

"So what now?"

"Well, there were proposals, but bringing outsiders in on our whole world hastily is dangerous. And it paints us as weak—" the cat began slowly explaining.

"Ooooh, do I smell… a violent solution?" I cut in with a wide smile, to which Q'Shar put on a sour face.

"Told you it would end up like that," I added in a sing-song voice.

"Yeah, yeah. From what I heard from the Vatican, the plan for now is to knock on every door and have them say no. Try every legal way of getting this resolved, make sure we've tried every peaceful solution to the fullest extent…"

"And once they say no to all the peaceful solutions…" I knew where this was going.

"Yes. Go to the other extreme," the cat agreed, clearly not happy about my impressive political foresight.

"We are willing to negotiate, but we are not to be ignored. So create an incident that can be pointed to as 'what happens if we are pushed to the last resort.'""Right, it's good and all, but why am I hearing this in the official meeting?" I asked, confused. The strange look came back to the cat's face as he pushed some documents my way with a growing frown.

"You were chosen for the job. Apparently, the Pope requested you… personally."

"See?" I said with an even wider smile than before.

"I told you we're buddies."

"Mhm, sure," the cat said, although this time some hesitation made its way into his voice. Still smiling widely, I opened the case file. There wasn't much there aside from a basic description of the thorn in our side. Apparently, the whole aggressive approach was the company owner's idea. The corporation was named simply Vaugler, with Rayan Vaugler as the current owner.

It had been built by his father into the giant it had become, while its current owner was mainly playing at being a businessman, making money from contracts signed by the previous generation. The business section of the report was rather short, but the section on the man's nighttime activities was quite the opposite.

"For the love of the Abyss, what is it with rich people and being huge fucking perverts? I get murdering your competition, but what the fuck is this?" I finally blurted out after reading another page of filth.

"We assume the arcane materials were given to people who would be hard to work with and most likely to escalate."

"Mark seems fine," I said, lifting my eyes from the text.

"I mean, I did save his daughter and all, but he didn't have that… slimy aura." I finally found a descriptor for what I usually felt in the presence of certain individuals.

"Might have been a mistake, but yes, he doesn't fit the pattern. We're checking that." I nodded, finally finishing the file.

"Well, at least I won't have any moral conundrums this time around," I commented, putting the papers back on the desk.

"Like you ever had those," the cat commented. I was about to retort with something about my soft heart, but then stopped. An idea popped into my head.

"Wait. How does the FBI judge if a kill was made by me?" I asked.

"It's only by the killing method, right?" The cat nodded.

"And Rey is still always present at the crime scene, right? He didn't leave the crew," I asked, getting another nod in return.

"Oh, I have an idea."

"What kind of idea?" he asked.

"A great idea," I replied, as a plan to kill two birds with one stone formed in my head.

"Sam," the cat said, looking into my eyes, "no war crimes, please."

"Oh, don't be like that. When have I ever done something horrible to anyone?" I said, ignoring his flat gaze. No whining from the feline could bring down my mood now.