Ah. Now how to begin my journey?

The first step, he reflected, would have to be mental magic. It was already a miracle that he’d gotten this far. If Hexaura had ever decided to read his mind, he doubted he’d have been allowed to leave the city at all. Likely, however, that monstrosity of a god didn’t even know he existed, or if it did, it viewed him beneath its notice. A fatal error, but one he was happy to take advantage of.

Indeed, when he returned to Emer’Thalis, he’d need to have the mental fortitude to resist any attempts on his mind, along with enough knowhow to fix Aarris once he removed Hexaura from the equation.

That left him with something of a conundrum, however. How did one go about learning mental magic?

For obvious reasons, openly practicing mental magic was frowned upon in most kingdoms. Legally frowned upon, in the we’ll-kill-you-for-this kind of way. A pity.

On top of that, if he somehow did manage to find a master to teach him, what was stopping them from turning him into a mindless thrall? Getting involved with mental mages who worked outside of the law seemed like a fast way for his journey to end before it even started.

So how exactly am I going to learn?

Do a spin.

He spun around while eyeing the pulsing, purple crystal that now sat in his palm. What a delightful find it was!

Hop on one foot.

“I didn’t know that such things existed!” he exclaimed while hopping on one foot. “How much would you want for it?” He grinned wildly at the shopkeeper, well aware that he was about to get fleeced. He was showing far too much interest in the item, but then again, how was he supposed to help himself?

It had been a year since he’d set out on his own, and he was no closer to his goals. For all his surety of himself, it had been too long since he’d had to interact with much of the world outside the church. A high level in light magic and a can-do-it attitude weren’t quite enough to fix all of his problems.

Pull your ear.

He pulled up the information for the crystal while simultaneously pulling on his ear.

Shard of Intrusive Suggestions

This crystal has been enchanted with mental magic that delivers intrusive suggestions to anyone it comes in contact with. Each suggestion is backed with a low level of magic that makes the suggestions difficult to resist.

He loved it dearly and still considered it his home, but Emer’Thalis had been tucked away in a fairly remote part of the world. It had taken quite a good deal of traveling to hit anything truly resembling a true trading power. Once he had, though, he’d discovered that such cities had a number of novelties he wouldn’t have expected.

The crystal before him was one such example. He’d found it in a magical pawnshop of sorts and had immediately known he wanted it.

“One gold,” the shopkeeper chimed in. The price, while high, was much more reasonable than expected, especially given his visible interest. “I’d feel too bad going higher than that. Truth is, no one wants these things. They were part of a big initiative to get every noble to train up mental resistance for national security, but all it did was make them look like fools. Nowadays they use less strange ones, like shards that try to make you lower your voice when talking or hold your hands behind your back. You want an old shard like this, one gold’s enough.”

What delightful fortune I’ve come across. My mental resistance will be trained up in no time!

“In that case, if you have more, I’ll take five.” Why bother with the slow route when he could speed things up? He’d already wasted enough time as it was.

Moments later, the shopkeeper was five gold richer, and an overjoyed Ephesis walked out the door while doing spins and clucking like a chicken.

High Priest Ephesis stood shirtless and barefoot in a musty wine cellar, an arcane diagram painted across his chest in blood. Surrounding him were a host of cloaked figures eyeing him closely.

Rip your arm off.

He stifled a sigh as the intrusive thought hit him at full force. It’d taken a good bit of effort and some favors to a corrupt nobleman, but he’d long since upgraded his mental resistance training charms. While he still kept some of the weaker ones on him, the stronger versions were less benign in their suggestions.

No thank you. I’m fairly busy right now, and it was very painful the last two times. Thank the Light that he knew some high level healing spells. Besides, I think that would set me off on the wrong foot with these folks.

Indeed, it was often a touch and go affair when it came to joining a demonic cult. Or at least he imagined it was. This was his first time, as it were.

Eh. They look like nice enough folks. Actually, kind of hard to tell with all the cloaks, but they can’t be that bad, can they?

It was funny, that. Back when he’d told Aarris about his plans, he’d pretended he was going on a journey to broaden his mindset. Learn more about the world. And in a manner of speaking, he had. It had been about four years since he’d left, and he knew with certainty that the Ephesis of four years ago would never dream of doing something like this.

Consorting with demons. Truly almost as bad as those kexids. At least there’s a summoner and a summoned, though. It’s not as if demons will be out and about on the streets.

As much as it would have been unthinkable for his past self, however, reality was a cruel teacher. There was no way to learn the sorts of things he wanted to learn without getting his hands a bit dirty. In the end, it was fairly simple: Which did he care more about, his pride or saving Aarris?

Clearly his goddess came first. If that meant dealing with demonic cults… well, he’d make do. He had a very concrete goal in mind, and he would see it done.

He carried out the desired entrance ritual to a T. When at last it was done, the figures intoned as one.

“Welcome Brother Ephesis.”

Five years passed in the blink of an eye. Who knew summoning demons was such an ordeal?

At last, however, he’d made all the proper preparations. He knew exactly what he was doing. He’d isolated and warded his workspace, and the ritual diagrams were painstakingly drawn out before him. An unconscionable amount of blood sat in buckets behind him.

A funny thing, that. I had no idea blood could be so handy for empowering rituals. His knowledge of blood magic was scant, but perhaps it would be worth looking more into in the future.

It was a long and drawn out affair, but after pouring both blood and mana into the ritual just so and chanting just right, it was done. A dark void subsumed the ritual circles, the stench of sulfur hanging in the air.

The scent, however, rapidly shifted, as if the sulfur had never existed at all. Flowers. Honey. Nostalgia and warmth in sensory form, wafting all around him. Inviting him.

A lithe and naked figure emerged from the portal, purring out a greeting. “Well hello there. Have I been summoned?” Though much of her was indistinguishable from a human, horns coiled about her head, and dark wings sprouted from her back. She leaned in close to Ephesis, nearly whispering in his ear. “Is there something I can do for you?”

Without pause, the high priest pulled out a lengthy scroll and shoved it in the demon’s face. “Yes! I’d like to form a contract. I think I could benefit greatly from working with a succubus.”

Slowly arching a brow, the demon took the proffered scroll, studying it with amusement. As her eyes scanned further and further down the page, however, she frowned.

“This is a rather… curious offer. I’d love to discuss it in depth, but we can do that whenever, can’t we? Why don’t we get to know each other a little before we pour over a stuffy scroll, hmm?”

He was about to refuse, but he paused. Why exactly should he?

Say yes. How long has it been since you’ve enjoyed yourself like this? There’s nothing wrong with a little pleasure. And how long did it take you to figure out how to summon a succubus in any case? You’ve worked nonstop for so long. You deserve this. In fact, if you loosen up a little, you’ll be even better at everything afterwards. You’re shooting yourself in the foot if you don’t accept. It’s both the enjoyable and responsible option in this case.

As all of this occurred to Ephesis, he felt a wave of joy wash over him as he grinned at the succubus.

“You’re exactly what I need!” he cried.

The succubus grinned back, a predatory glint in her eyes. “Oh?”

Ephesis nodded, still visibly giddy. “Indeed! That mental attack actually had some kick to it. I’m glad this won’t be a waste.” He gestured to the scroll in the demon’s hands. “Now, if we could get back on track, please.”

The succubus made a huff of displeasure before turning back to the scroll. “No fun. So? It says you want me to teach you mental magic?”

“Quite right.”

After a good amount of thought, he’d realized that finding a master in mental magic just wasn’t possible. How would he discover them in the first place? If by chance he did, what would he have that would make them want to teach him in any case?

Summoning a master in mental magic, on the other hand, was an entirely separate matter.

While master mental mages were either far, far underground or kept tightly in the service of certain kingdoms and nobles, demonic cults on the other hand, were a dime a dozen. Why, it hadn’t even taken him two months to find one once he got the mind to start searching.

Of course, he’d ended up having to join a few, which had slowed him down greatly. Many were working from fairly shoddy source materials, and he didn’t have the time to have his soul snatched up by a summoning gone wrong, but he’d gotten there eventually.

And if you were going to summon a demon to teach you mental magic, a succubus was the natural choice, was it not? More so than most of its demonic ilk, a succubus had an innate mastery over suggestion and mental persuasion.

Best yet, it was fairly easy to pay them. As long as he could resist the demon’s persuasion himself, all he needed to do was find the occasional sacrifice and a few people with more virility than brains.

And now I’ve done it! This will go splendidly, I’m sure.

He was so thrilled, he didn’t even resist as one of the lesser shards activated. Do a spin.

And thus it was that the high priest enjoyed a nice spin in the presence of one baffled succubus.

High Priest Ephesis sighed as he looked in the mirror. Gray hair stared back at him.

By all rights with a Constitution like mine, that should have taken longer.

It had been a stressful few decades, running from one fire to another. First had been the succubus — for all the trouble that had gotten him into, he still considered it a rousing success — then after that, the vampire clan.

Didn’t even go looking for that one. Really just a matter of odd happenstance. He’d nearly ended up as someone’s dinner at least a dozen times over his stay there, and was still vaguely shocked he’d managed to avoid getting turned into a vampire himself. The amount he learned of blood magic, however, made every second worthwhile.

Then there was that town which had been infested by body-snatching mental parasites. That one he had gone looking for, although he’d nearly paid for it dearly. They did not take kindly to him once they discovered he could resist them. Excellent training though.

He’d ended up forming something of an underground research den while there — having mental parasites in the area, as it turned out, was a great cover for his own mental magic. It had taken quite a while, but he was now leaps and bounds ahead of where he’d been with the succubus.

A few years with a tribe of half-elementals who lived near a naturally occurring light dungeon. They were normally far too insular for such a thing to happen, but a little bit of suggestion had won them over. Their insights, coupled with delving their dungeon, had catapulted his offensive light magic to new bounds.

On top of all of that, a large number of dead ends, traveling, and general adventuring about. Much of it had done him little good, but at the very least, he’d come across rare reagents on his travels which would aid him greatly if he ever needed a burst of power or a ritual to fuel.

He would have been lying if he said that he’d never thought about just stopping. Especially with his mental magic, it would have been child’s play to live a well-off and easy life.

This was doubly true as each year dragged on. Sure, Aarris was a god. Yes, he’d known this would be no short journey. But he’d still never imagined that it would take him this long. He’d spent decades away from his goddess.

So what if he just continued to stay away?

He treated such thoughts the same as those that used to come from his mental training gems. They popped into his mind. He acknowledged them. He denied them and pushed them away.

He was still, after all of this, faithful to his goddess. And besides, what had all of this been for if not for her?

To that end, he was once again at work. These days he was part of the upper echelon of a group calling themselves the Heretics Guild.

An amusing organization for a high priest to belong to, eh? Even now, the idea brought a smile to his face.

Having traveled far and wide, he’d eventually stumbled upon a theocratic nation of sorts, run by a number of political parties backed by different gods. While quite a number of citizens were often fed up with how their nation was run, what could they do? How could the average person fight one god, let alone a pantheon of them?

As it turned out, in quite a number of ways.

Thus the Heretics Guild had been born. It held the accumulation of multiple generations of people who’d taken classes specifically aimed towards fighting and resisting the deities.

Of course, the gods didn’t take this sitting down. The guild, once discovered, was promptly branded a terrorist organization, and members were hunted down religiously. Knowing it was far too dangerous to get seriously involved with such a group, Ephesis had planned to briefly infiltrate the organization and learn what he needed before leaving.

Much to his surprise, however, he found himself able to contribute just as much as he learned. There were some truly novel ideas he discovered in his research there, but few if any of the heretics had his breadth of experience with ritual magic, sacrificial magic, or blood magic.

It was an uphill battle to gain the group’s trust, and he had to be very cautious about his use of mental magic, but eventually he succeeded. Helping one another, he and the heretics had been able to springboard their combined knowledge to new heights.

Any day now, they’d find something perfect, he knew. He’d long since given up his dream of flat out killing a god — it wasn’t impossible, but in any reasonable time frame, it was impossible for him, he’d realized — but they were close — so close — to figuring out how to trap one. Already they had a host of rituals that could affect deities in smaller ways.

Soon. Soon I will have at last reached my goal.

With each new step, the high priest’s shoes clacked against the simple dirt road. For long distances, he rarely walked these days. Light magic came with a good variety of tricks for speeding up travels.

In this case, however, it felt right. He didn’t want to mar the magic of the moment.

There. It was still just a speck in the distance, but there was no mistaking it. Emer’Thalis. Home.

Now that it was in sight, he felt an urge to arrive at top speed, but he quashed it. His journey had lasted over half a century. There was no reason to rush now. Instead, he’d savor the slow walk there.

As he walked, he reflected on his most recent travels. A shame the heretics never went through with my design. It would have been nice to see it in practice, at least once before trying it myself.

Bah. They were cowards, the lot of them. They’d finally figured out a ritual that could theoretically trap a god. Instead of testing it out, however, the others in the guild had nearly unanimously rejected it.

What were they expecting working with sacrificial magic? Butterflies and rainbows?

Well, no matter. It had been painstaking work, but he’d eventually collected all the necessary reagents. All that remained was to perform it.

Some time later, High Priest Ephesis walked through the gates of Emer’Thalis.

I’m home. I’m home! True, in many ways, he hardly recognized the city at this point, but underneath the changes, it was still unmistakably his city. While much of his sentimentality had been beaten out of him in the past years, he still felt a powerful wave of emotion wash over him.

Like all things, it passed.

Now, let’s set up a ritual, shall we?