~ Chapter 4: Akraella the Cruel ~
[Alseus’ point of view]
In my previous world, the demonkind were blessed with a powerful Magic Core they could use to cast powerful spells. Demon Kings were special among all demonkind. They were gifted with an immense Magic Core that turned them into living weapons. Wide-area destruction was always left behind when we engaged in battle; as such, we never needed to summon powerful creatures in battle.
It was not as if we lacked the knowledge to do it. No, the problem was that the summons were… energy hungry. These abominable creatures required a huge amount of Magic Energy to be called into this world, and depending on the type they were, some of them actually needed to be fed constantly.
So, it was like this… Big bad Demon King summons a powerful magical creature… and then he has no more energy left to fight. If the summoned creature is enough to destroy the enemy in front of them, that was good, but usually that is not the case. Thus, summoning in battle was seen as a weakness by us.
Demon Kings were specialists when it came to wide-area attack spells or single-point focus attack spells. This did not mean that we had no idea how to do other, less destructive spells. On a day-to-day basis, most demonkind used quite a wide variety of quality-of-life spells such as [Yarek], a cleaning spell that removed all the dirt and grime from the body or targeted item. Infuse it with enough magic energy and you could even clean an entire castle with it! Trust me, I tried it after one of the Slime Lord ate an explosive concoction he found in the Lich’s laboratory.
Summoning spells, as far as I was aware referred to the act of either calling a contractual or non-contractual being to your vicinity, usually the middle of the magic circle where you focused your magic energy. The beings summoned were either beings from the same world as this one or a different one; the origin of which, for some reason could never be revealed to the summoner by the summoned creatures. There was a restriction placed there by the outer world gods or interplanetary gods who lived in the void between life-breathing worlds… Sometimes, accidentally summoning a god had its benefits, but… this was also what allowed me to see past the restrictions placed on the Demon Kings and grasp the truth of my own chained existence as humanity’s punching bag.
When referring to these beings that could be summoned, they could be anything: spirits, divine beasts, monsters, undead, ghosts, demigods, basically anything that was characterized by the divines as being part of the said world’s structural existence.
Hell, Heaven, Pandemonium, Purgatory, Spirit World, Ghost World, River of Death, Elyssium Gardens, all of these were nothing but fancy names given to an illusory realm existing on the frame of an existing world. Without the base, without the world itself, they were destined to self-destruct as their necessity was gone and means of sustaining themselves also vanished.
In other words, they were built around the concepts imagined or constructed by humankind or whatever other sapient species evolved there.
Spirits existed because mankind thought that these beings were the representation of the soul of elements, fauna and flora of the world around them. Ghosts existed because mankind believed that upon their death, fragments of their existence still lingered around in a non-corporeal form. Angels and Demons existed because they believed there were things like Heaven and Hell where their souls were judged. Demonkind, unlike the others, were a creation of the Eternal Gods, not a creation of mankind’s concepts.
Then again, I never figured out where these concepts appeared initially. Heaven and Hell were the most mysterious ones as the beings who reigned there seemed to follow an existence they themselves were unaware of. Spirits were believed to have resulted from ancient shamanism, while ghosts were the direct result of human regret.
Other monsters and creatures… were kidnapped from other worlds.
So, how did one such as myself go about with summoning demonic entities and other hellish creatures pulled out from whatever underworld spawned them while also making sure they did not make an unfair contract with you?
The answer was simple. If you had already made a contract, then just add enough to call them over. However, if you had no contract, then you had to prepare for one. Whether you were calling upon an Angel, a Demon, or a Boot Imp, they were ALL the same: greedy bastards!
The summoning spells and magic circles required a certain fixed amount of Magic Energy, but this was deceiving. Do that and you were in for a few hours of negotiations with a starving monster! As such, you pushed into that spell and magic circle so much Magic Energy that even a single drop more would shatter them to bits!
To ease this process, some mages invented summoning methods with the help of catalysts. These materials contained the sustenance needed for high-quality meal for these summoned creatures. Some wanted magic crystals, others a variety of rare metals, while some were just plain weird.
Demonic beings, depending on their pervasive nature and the hellish land you summoned them from needed all sorts of weird stuff classified as unholy materials. I once heard of an Archdemon being summoned by the stolen underwear of a Saintess and the mixed breastmilk of 1000 widows. The latter was apparently harder to get, while the first… well… there were a lot of perverted priests in the temples. And it did not matter that the said Saintess was 90 years old.
Anyway, the materials I required to make this summoning easier for myself were: a maiden’s heart, souls of one thousand living beings, rare metals from a deadly abyss, the skeletal structure of a behemoth creature, and one thousand liters of blood.
“Good thing I’m at sea.” I said to myself as I looked down at the water.
The souls of one thousand living beings and one thousand liters of blood were easy to get. It did not matter if it came from fish. While behemoth creatures were often found in the deep sea. It did not need to be alive. As for the rare metals, well, those could be procured from here as well.
The only thing I could not get was the maiden’s heart. As such, I would have to substitute it with Magic Energy.
Closing my eyes, I began to chant slowly as I poured my magic energy into my hands. Seven Magic Cores could be used to direct and cast the spells I needed to gather the materials: [Omunas], the spell that helped me scan the entire area beneath me, all the way to the seabed; [Rinza’Ulkur], a mining spell that literally ripped from the ground the targeted metals that the previous spell identified; [Nietliviare], a life denial spell that targeted the one thousand fish and other lifeforms with sharp needles of Death Magic, piercing them through their vital organs; [Cusskuk] to gather their blood into a perfect sphere; and [Sola’Ruvien’Kora] the soul-gathering spell for all the killed creatures. At the end of it all, I would cast [Telkarazarak], a spell that allowed me to move things from a distance with my mind, bringing all the bones, metals, and blood spheres to the surface.
Now, the summoning spell was pretty large and would be easily noticed by random passengers on this ship, so I cast [Nemuda], also known as [Veil of Illusions], it was a wide-area illusion spell that could hide everything that would happen during the summoning process. The spell to summon the creature in question was [El’Zedoran’Karak’Avionis’Sola’Liviare], which targeted the world Zedoran, the species Karak, and the method of passing for the soul and body of the said creature.
The moment the last word left my lips, and I triggered the spell, the magic energy in my body began to drain at a rapid pace, flowing towards the circle. It was like letting loose an entire waterfall in a single black hole.
The water surface in front of me was used as a drawing board on which the magic circle was formed. The glowing black and purple light emitting from the intense magic energy within it was invisible to the passengers on the yacht.
Well, it was not perfect, but even if there was a skilled wizard around to try and figure out what was happening, it would take a while before he could break [Nemuda]. A hero could also do it; that annoying creature was able to break through any enchantment or illusion because of his blessings. As far as I could tell, luck was on my side, and no such being was present tonight on this boat. Actually, I felt like the security was a bit… lacking, but maybe that was just my impression?
A glowing golden light at the edge of the magic circle was the signal that the amount of magic energy poured into it had reached the peak. I stopped the flow and with a flick of my wrist, I activated the spell, sending the scent of this feast through the portal that began to form in the middle of the magic circle.
Now, it was like fishing. I just had to wait until something bit.
In order to get the best result out of this summoning ritual, I pictured the demons I desired to call over from the other side and then allowed my intention to flow towards the magic circle. Subtle changes, imperceptible to the naked eye, were formed in all the inscriptions. The words did not change, but their aroma for the demon did.
Others chanted long verses of long-forgotten poems or complicated magic rituals in order to get a similar result. It did not always work and usually only nasty creatures poured through the portal.
Summoning was delicate. It took a long time and had to be precise.
In the records of old, there was once a hero who could cast summoning spells immediately and worked with a legion of monsters that did their bidding. He was useless with other spells, but for the most part it was believed that the Eternal Gods helped behind the scenes, otherwise, it made no sense. Magic was a complicated art that required one to know how to read, use, and efficiently generate the desired result from the chaotic law-altering energy that was magic energy.
Right now, what I needed the most was a loyal servant; someone who would listen to my every command and be powerful enough to face even a hero in battle. Lastly, this loyal servant had to be female, since her humanoid form should resemble humans to a high degree. Walking around with a 10-meter-tall twin-headed draconic monster with snakes for horns and eight eyes while also having four pairs of wings and twelve spider legs… would have probably been a bit too much for my parents and the maids at home.
While it was not necessarily a mandatory skill, it would have been beneficial for me if she could use something similar to a shapeshifting skill and have a way to blend into the shadows. Being proficient with shadow magic was a good bonus, but there were a lot of other spells that could do the job just as well; however, I was not picky; I could support her with my own spells if she had none of these.
What mattered was that she was not a weakling.
She had to be strong.
Terrifyingly powerful… This was my strongest intention for her…
A few moments later… I felt it… she bit…
“Come, my loyal minion! I summon you into this world as your sole Master and Ruler! By my orders you shall die, by my orders you shall live!” I declared and pulled the magic string, guiding her to my world.
I could sense her… she was powerful…
A big diabolical smile formed on my lips out of the eagerness to meet her, and the joy of having someone like her under my command.
If anyone happened to see me right now, they would just see a kid standing on the edge of the stern of the ship, hands pointing towards the apparently calm and peaceful sea, not the overwhelming black and purple whirlpools of lightning energy swirling above a massive magic circle that split the sea in half with its sheer force. Yup, nothing out of the ordinary here, just another toddler Demon King summoning the fiends of the underworld!
“Hiii!” a girl’s frightened scream came from behind me.
“Huh?” I blinked like an idiot and when I looked back I saw a little girl in a cute frilly golden dress looking straight at the magic circle with big eyes and trembling from head to toes.
Again, like a certain cat meme, I made a stupid sound accompanied by a stupid look on my face “Huh?”
The girl then looked at me, started tearing up and before I had a chance to make another sound, she ran away.
“Huh?!”
What in the world… just happened? I wondered.
Then… an overwhelming ominous and powerful presence poured out from the sea towards me, stopping right at the tips of my fingers.
“Master, I follow thy command!” a woman’s voice came, confident, powerful, seductive like the call of an ephemeral queen.
When I turned to look back at my summon, I saw a woman floating in the air. Her demeanor was that of pure royalty. Her skin was light dark gray in color, with black markings moving around as if alive. Her eyes were cold and of a deep bloody red color. With a single gaze, she could freeze the oceans and pour the bloodlust of a battle hardened general upon her prey. Her hair was white and long, flowing freely in the wind. Her ears were long and pointy, reminding me of the el’doraw woman I met earlier. A spiked full-body armor adorned her chest, stomach, pelvis and legs, leaving her arms bare, revealing her powerful toned muscles. A giant two-handed sword was on her back, emitting a powerful presence as if it was alive as well. The handle was covered with a thick black leather, and the blade was like obsidian from what I could see.
Considering the amount of magic energy I poured into the magic circle, it would not be a surprise if after her feast, she went up in rank.
“Hm? I knew I had a good feeling about this!” I told myself and smirked “She’s a good catch!” I declared.
Summoned humanoid demons were the most difficult to obtain a contract with. They were immensely powerful and highly intelligent. While I was expecting her to be somewhat humanoid, this degree of humanization was incredible. She wouldn’t even need a metamorphosis spell to walk around. She could just introduce herself as an el’doraw in my service.
In my past life, there were only ten humanoid demons that were recorded to have been successfully summoned. While all of them were eventually killed by the heroes of their time, it was without a doubt true that they were all just a step away from killing them as well. The Eternal Gods always stepped in through some miraculous way to save their precious chosen one.
She was technically the eleventh one, but in this world, she was probably the first.
A sense of achievement filled me up and with joy in my voice, I shouted “State your name, minion of mine!”
“My name one, oh Great One, is Akraella the Cruel, Destroyer of the Vazirak Clans, Hunter of the Domansqus, Slayer of the Shinzo!” she declared, but I didn’t know what any of those names meant.
Since when were there any Vazirak Clans? Domansqus? Was that some sort of deer? Shinzo? Was she talking about the God Shinzo, the Merchant Shinzo, or the Pie Shinzo? Was she telling me that she was the Slayer of Pies? That was cruel indeed.
“Ah, yes... Lots of titles... I shall call you by the contracted name of Kleya. It’s simple, efficient, and cute!” I nodded, proud of my naming sense.
“Very well, Kleya shall be my name henceforth!” she declared as she punched her chest plate.
“Oh no, you can call yourself Akraella and whatever else you are called, I’ll just be using the name of Kleya to call you, personally.” I explained.
“I understand.” she nodded.
“Now, clear off the sea of any magic summoning trace and then jump into my shadow. We’ll talk more later, for now I want you to pay attention to the people around me and take note of when I say or do something that the others believe is odd. I’m interested in their reactions.” I told her.
“Understood! I’ll follow your orders to the letter!” Kleya declared, and with a snap of her fingers cleared the sea of all the volatile and dangerous magic phenomenon.
With a triumphant smirk on her lips, she then jumped into my shadow like a bolt of lightning.
“I’m impressed. Did you gobble up all of that?” I asked out of curiosity.
“There was not much left after… I entered this world. The energy you fed me with was delicious.” she said, smacking her lips.
The summoning was now over, and I was pleased with the results. Kleya, despite being the very first humanoid demon I managed to summon in this or my previous life, was incredibly promising as a powerful ally for myself. I was getting excited, and I could not wait to test her out and see what she was truly capable of!
However, just as I was about to turn around and head inside, from the corner of my eye, I spotted something far away from here. I caught a glimpse of a high-speed boat heading straight towards us. There was no doubt about this little fact, but why would anyone do that? Especially if they saw that massive magic phenomenon out at sea?
Ah, wait… [Nemuda] hid it from everyone except me.
Was this my fault?
At first, while looking in that direction, I thought that it was some sort of messenger, but would they really be using this method to send a message of any kind? This was not the age of letters anymore. They could have just given them a call. Then again, nobles in this world were weird, so maybe this was also part of their high-class fancy weird laws?
Either way, I didn’t sense anything dangerous to me, so I shrugged and decided to return to the party. At least this did not turn out to be such a boring first night on the boat. I summoned Kleya, got to use a powerful spell, and also got to frighten a little girl!
However, nothing could have foretold that the moment I stepped back into the ballroom, the same yellow dress would enter my sight and then subsequently dash off, hiding behind a pair of adults.
Crud… I thought.
That magic taste… holy? Kleya mumbled something.
Well, nobody would believe the mumbling of a little girl, so I ignored her for now and turned my attention to the demoness hiding in my shadow.
Kleya, what are your magic specialties? I asked her, using the mind link between us.
Body Strengthening and Regeneration, Shadow Magic, Lightning Magic, Fire Magic, Water Magic, and Wind Magic, but I am more proficient in hand-to-hand combat, sword fighting, ranged attacks, battle tactics, and dragon-slaying magic. I can also do a bit of druidic shapeshifting. she replied.
There were a few among those which I found a tad bit weird, but overall, it seemed as though Kleya was what the humans in my previous world called a magic swordsman.
Have you actually slain any dragons? I asked out of curiosity.
One this morning, for breakfast. I still have some meat left in my inventory. she said.
Excellent! I’m curious about the taste! I replied and smiled.
There was nothing wrong with enjoying some exotic meat from time to time. Human meat wasn’t as tasty as some of the other demons in my kingdom told me it was, and I couldn’t see myself eating pixies or fairies. They were so small their bones could easily get stuck in my teeth. Then again, I was a human now, so maybe I was not supposed to eat any of that unless I wanted to have an upset stomach.
Then it clicked…
What’s an inventory? I asked.
It’s a special Space Magic that creates a compressed area of space which you can carry with you and access whenever you wish. It is something like a portable mini-dimension. I’m not highly proficient in it, so my inventory is only around 200 cubic meters. I heard that some demons like the Atlantian Sky Whale can use an inventory the size of an entire planet. One of them even stole the moon of the world it was summoned to once. she explained.
200 cubic meters was already quite big by my estimates. While it could not eat up this entire ship, it was more than enough to store a lifeboat. As for the Atlantian Sky Whale, I wondered if it was worth summoning. Well, if I ever wanted my own planet, maybe?
I’ll have you teach me that spell when we have the time. It sounds interesting and useful. I told her.
Understood, master. she replied.
Given her description of her abilities and what I personally noticed, Kleya was a powerful fighter. If I had my old body, I would have wanted to spar with her. It made me wonder, though, when I would get the chance to see her fight. This peaceful world was not going to offer me such an opportunity anytime soon.
Or so I thought…
Maybe I jinxed it?
“Pirates, sir! Pirates are coming!” shouted a sailor on the other side of the ballroom.
The music came to a stop and everyone turned their attention to the captain who was more furious with the sailor who disturbed the party than the incoming threat.
“Why is everyone worried about some wannabe mermaids?” I wondered out loud, completely oblivious to the fact that these were not the same pirates as those in my previous world.