Book of Mors: Summoned

Arc: Knowledge is Power

The so-called physical examination Mors was forced to complete was similar if not higher in standards to what Acoria's most elite special forces were put through, though, to his surprise, it was the standard training of the Huntsmen and the lowest level he would need to pass to become one.

On the first day, he fell just under the half way mark, which was still impressive for someone of his age and abilities but it was not enough for Jack, who mercilessly started a harsh training regime to get the draconic demon into shape.

A gruelling six days later, Mors was barely able to pass, mainly thanks to his body's constitution and his ridiculous healing ability. His muscles could break down and rebuild in minutes, making it possible for him to gain strength at incredible speeds.

Jack and Kelora did not show it, but they were shocked at the rate of Mors' growth. It took most trainees a little under a year to achieve what he had done in as little as six days, and they were the cream of the crop.

Being demons, heavily influenced by Verz, this was a bad sign for Mors as they decided to push him harder than any before, finally understanding what their Captain saw in him. They became so engrossed in training that they ended up neglecting their other responsibilities causing resentment with their peers as they were forced to pick up the slack, escalating the rumours that Mors was getting 'special' treatment and further alienating him from the other recruits.

Immediately after completing his physical, Mors was thrown into a daunting regimen of being privately trained by Kelora while taught the basics of a demon knowledge, mainly focusing on racial traits, evolution types and demonic pacts, by Jack.

Mors learnt that demons, although physically powerful, gained most of their powers through absorption of ambient mana. While passively this was pretty weak, when the mana was influenced by a sin, for example, lust, it could empower demon with that sin, giving related abilities a significant boost in power.

Like everything that involved mana, it wasn't always black and white. An example would be Mors being a demon of wrath. While he could feed off anger and resentment, it was fear that gave him the biggest powerup. This confused Jack for some time until he put it down to his draconic side and secondary sin, pride. There had never been a demon with both sins, some believing that they conflicted each other and so, he accepted that there might be some quirks.

Regarding evolution, Demons were one of the most versatile races, their experiences and environment dictating what they would evolve into, however, in rare cases, this would be ignored for specialist types, Demon Lords, Demonic Generals and Apostles being more common, though still extremely rare. Demon Lords were the rarest as somehow, only one per sin could exist at a specific time. No one knew why, but it was thought that this was due to their devil heritage.

The information Mors was most interested in was Demonic Pacts, mainly because he had already accidentally executed one and wanted to know what impact it would have on his life.

His pact, triggered when he removed his horns and made his vow, was that he would, if in his power, protect the twins. Jack slapped Mors on the back and laughed heartily, congratulating him for not being dumb enough to link his life force to them.

Mors could only nod his head in agreement, realising how close he had been to doing something truly stupid.

As Mors and Jack discussed, going through all the loopholes that existed in demonic pacts, most racial secrets as they were often used to trick others, they found that Mors' pact was pretty open termed contract and did not hinder him in any way. In fact, if he just stayed ignorant of any danger they were in, Mors didn't have to do anything.

A wicked smile grew on Mors' face, sending a shiver down Jacks' spine. Mors had potentially found a loophole that even most demons did not know of, linked to magic and was extremely tempted to try it out. The topic of the twins was never brought up again.

The second pact, one he still had trouble in believing, was a submission pact.

When a demon was so thoroughly overpowered, and their instincts told them they had little to no chance of survival, sometimes they would submit to another, in all but name, becoming a slave.

This sickened Mors, his very body and soul disgusted that one would submit their everything to another just to continue existing.

The only bright side of this pact was that if the submissive one ever felt they were significantly stronger than the other, they would challenge them in an attempt to gain their freedom.

Ryen was then introduced to Mors for the second time, losing her temper when it was evident Mors did not remember or even care she had submitted to him, causing her to lose everything. Mors simply waved her off saying do as she pleases and to stay away from him.

Being a demoness, she took what he said as an insult at being too weak to even bother looking at her and declared she would gain strength, regain her freedom and kill Mors.

He only chuckled and released his aura, causing her to scream in fear and run away. Even a blind person would be able to tell she was serious but to Mors, who planned to take on entire kingdoms and powerful organisations, it was almost laughable. 

During his limited free time, after a lot of bribes/threats and almost constant irritation, Mors caved in and joined Beth in her liberation of shiny things, terrorising the fortress.

On their first heist, Mors discovered that Kelora was following them but did not attempt to stop them. After carefully watching her, he realised she was evaluating their performance and could only laugh. To her, this was just another form of training.

However, he soon found that she was not completely impartial. If they got caught, well if Mors got caught, Beth was harder to catch than a shadow, Kelora handed out harsh punishments which initially made Mors laugh at their spartan like ways, only punishing you if you got caught, however that laughter was soon replaced with anger.

Kelora's most favoured punishment was the Spider Pits, a place Mors soon detested more than the chamber he was born in.

The wolf's Den was built on top of a conquered dungeon specialising in spiders, hence its unoriginal name. Quick, venomous and deadly, the spiders were, in large enough numbers, able to overpower even the most powerful of foes. As such, they were culled regularly as part of training.

Fifty-four wells stood in the middle of the fortress, along with a large, cavelike entrance.

Each well led to one of the levels of the dungeon, enabling rapid access to the floors. Mors learnt that the reason for this was that the trainees were always dropped a level or two beyond their comfort zone and had to fight their way out. Pushing their limits while also hammering home the point that even a weak enemy can kill you as they struggled upwards, their exhaustion sometimes overtaking the lowering difficult levels.

Mors ended up spending most of his free time when he wasn't appeasing Beth's addiction, and even lessons, in the Spider Pits. Kelora and Jack visiting him as he progressed towards the exit, carrying out their training and then leaving without aiding him in any way. In fact, he swore that a horde of spiders would always appear just before or after they did and vowed to have a little vengeance as soon as he was able to.

The days carried on like this until one day; Beth did not show up to morning practice. 

Since Mors' appearance, she was always around him somewhere, even in the spider pits, chasing off any other goblins that got too close fearing that they wanted to steal her shiny guardian. Mors paid it no mind however on the second day, Kelora decided to check on the demonic goblin and found something that shocked her.

Beth had evolved, and soon reports came in from Huntsmen infiltrators that most of the other summoned, the ones left in Vonia, had similarly changed. Ecstatic at the prospect, Kelora increased Mors' training regime to the point that he, for the first time in memory, considered giving up, barely giving him time to catch his breath let alone heal but was disappointed when he showed no signs of evolving.

Though shocking, especially considering their age, the Summoned, at least the ones that evolved instead of growing, were created at the peak of their first stage and so this wasn't completely unexpected, and Kelora could only vent her frustrations that Mors seemed to be different.

Mors was completely shocked by Beth's transformation, she was pale-green, thin but shapely, two curved brown horns stuck out from her messy, black hair and her green whip-like tail was almost a metre long.

To say she was an exotic beauty was an understatement and it wasn't long for her evasion skills to be put to a new use, escaping the many admirers that attempted to gain her attention, though, if they offered something shiny, she would normally put up with them for a bit.

While not ugly, goblins were not considered that attractive. Only average by human standards, but her demonic heritage had given her a certain allure and the fact that she was powerful, gaining the respect of many with her shadow skills, did not help.

Beth now looked to be around the age of an eighteen-year-old human, but that was not what shocked Mors the most. It was the change in personality.

The duo continued with their robberies at night. However, the dynamics had changed, and Beth's instincts told her to dominate the draconic demon while he was still young, which did not go down well.

Two days later, a small portion of the Wolf's Den collapsed as Mors finally had enough and tried to kill Beth in the Undercity, causing a lot of damage to the support pillars.

It ended in a draw; Beth could not hurt Mors enough to surpass his regeneration and Mors couldn't catch Beth, only landing a few lucky blows.

Unlike the trouble they had got in before, the damage to the fortress caused a manhunt and they knew that their punishment was going to be extreme.

Surprisingly, Beth was wounded enough to allow a team of trackers to capture her, though they did use her ill-gotten gains as bait, however, Mors was nowhere to be found.

When Kelora finally found Mors, she grimaced.

Standing on top of the Fifty-Fourth Well, gazing into the Abyss, his devil marks were illuminated as blasts of flame, and dark misty menacingly crackled around him. The fight with Beth as well as the suffocated feeling of being restricted by Huntsmen was too much and he needed to vent or he would likely try to incinerate the fortress. He needed to Hunt.

Before she could stop him, he stepped forward falling into the depths, but not before locking eyes.

Kelora knew that she would not be about to change his mind, having spent so much time with him and so, decided to let the demon be, a large part thinking that this struggle might be what he needs to evolve making her secretly excited.

The four weeks he was meant to be training came and went, and on the sixth he emerged from the dungeon, battered, bruised and giving off a much colder aura than when he went in.

Kelora was disappointed that he didn't evolve, but they were already late and so, without waiting for him to patch things up with Beth, took Mors, along with a couple of divisions east, the the Republics borders and Verz.