Demonic Magic Part 1

(Adam the mage’s POV)

After having my dinner, giving my respect to the earthen jars of my parents, take some hits from my sister, and taking a short nap in Amanda’s home, the ex-soldiers that have been tasked around the village has returned return. I tasked one of them to always be on the lookout since most of our village’s capable youth has sustained injuries that need long rest and require a cleric from the capital to heal their wounds. If Ester is here, she could probably even restore lost limbs or return disabled limbs to their working form, and can even mend broken bones, but all that is in the past, as I’m now a fugitive of this retarded kingdom now. It’s probably better if I don’t meet the hero or any of his party members at the moment. I gathered them all together. I got up from Amanda’s call, and I thanked her with a kiss to the cheek. It’s going to be a busy night.

I take 10 men with me to my house, and together we operate the workshop. This workshop has been my production centre when I was experimenting with enchantments and accessory making when I enrolled in the military as hero party’s candidate. But tonight, I would be making a different thing. I take several iron ingots from the military supply of the army (that was defeated) and put it into the furnace. The heat of this furnace is not hot enough to smelt iron, so I operate the blower to compensate this, as blower was able to pump more oxygen into the burning charcoal to increase the heat in the confined space of furnace. This knowledge is not known in the kingdom, but I know from my past life knowledge. I can feel that some mischievous god is probably watching and stealing this knowledge from me, but I can’t do anything about it.

I tasked one of the men to operate the makeshift air pump, and I go on to break a small piece of pure coal into powder and pour this on top of the heated iron. It soon melts, and they mix together. This process creates wrought steel. I stir the content with an iron tong and pour it into the cavity with shapes that I have made on clay. The actual process involves shaping most of the parts from thin metal strips, but I don’t have the machinery for it. I soak the hardened clay mold into the water to quench the steel and with a piece of stick, I push out the steel part from the clay mold. I repeat the process of pouring, quenching and pushing out to get all the parts needed and to ensure there is no flaw in the molding process, and I get another two men to replace me in this process. We will be assembling the parts needed to make a chain for gears to operate on. I operate the filing tool by spinning a grinding stone wheel and file away the excess parts from molding. I get two men and ask them to assemble the chain parts with a sample I have given them. The entire process takes some time, and in the end, we got the chains ready. I took the remaining mixture of wrought steel and pour it into a specially shaped clay mold to make a simple gear, and attach it to the axle of the cart that I took back with me when I return from the slave dealer’s place with some molten wrought steel. I attach the chain to another set of gear and put pedals on them, and create a crude cycle that can operate the cart with human power.

After quenching the flames of the furnace and keeping everything in place, I tried out the crude cart cycle. A horse pulling a cart filled with ten people or more may tire down the horse quickly, and having a cycle cart means that it can operate both ways. I cycle back to Amanda’s place in the cart cycle together with all ten of the men in it, and it is quite convenient.

“What is this thing you made? It looks strange, and it can move on its own” (Amanda)

“A cart cycle. It can be operated by people without a horse or a puller. One person needs to cycle the wheel to provide the power to move this cart forward. You can also go backward with it, but the chain and gears aren’t that flexible and you can sometimes get jammed if pebbles went into them. Do you have any oil not made from plant or animal, as in mineral oil?” (Adam)

“My dad keeps some oil that he extracted from some shale rocks near the swamp. Can that be used?” (Amanda)

“I guess that would be good lubricate the chains of this cart cycle” (Adam)

Amanda got the oil, and I use a piece of wool to smear the oil onto the chain to lubricate them so that they don’t rust easily and to keep them from wearing out too soon. For the test drive today, I’m going to attach the horse together with the cart cycle to form a hybrid horse cart cycle. I get Amanda and Lucinda to follow me this time to the slave dealer’s place. I feared that Lillie will have a phobia to return to the place she was once locked up before, so I didn’t invite her. However, Lillie wants to go together with Amanda, and with Amanda’s pleading, I relented and let her follow us. I made the ten men cramp into a corner of the cart with their backs turned, and let Amanda, Lillie, and Lucinda sit in another corner. I told Amanda that we are going to treat some people I rescued from the slave dealer, so she brought a lot of medicine and ointment with her. I paid her with the gold and silver the slave dealer’s peons plundered from the slave dealer’s safe that I never take notice. Amanda intends to reject, but she would need the money to buy some of her supplies and to pay tax. I’m worried that the wheat and grain supply to this village will be cut off by the kingdom due to the recent battle.

Larsen comes over from his house and he offered to watch over Amanda’s family while we were gone, which I had arranged earlier. Amanda and I thanked him as we prepare to move. I got the horse to move, with Amanda as the coach, and I focused on cycling the pedal. The cart is having difficulties moving with the horse alone when loaded with so much weight. I start my cycling, and the cart starts moving reasonably faster. Though it can’t be as fast as a full drawn carriage with all six horses, this cart is moving as quickly as a bike based on the memory of my former world. We got to our destination quickly and we got down at the slave dealer’s compound at the edge of the village.

I quickly direct the men to divide themselves to collect and do a proper burial of the dead slaves. The three slaves that just died earlier were missing, and I got inside the building. The demi-human freed slaves came out to greet me. I go to check and inquire about the condition of the others. Luckily some of the demi-humans can speak human language. They said that two more slaves that have heavy injuries and undergone operation have died after I went home. I felt bad, because they tried their best to stay alive, while I was taking my sweet time regarding their life and death matter. I perk myself up to avoid being down and go visit the slaves to check their condition. I instruct Amanda and Lucinda to treat as many slaves as possible, starting with the most seriously wounded. I coordinate the freed slaves and continue to remove the slave seals of the slaves that I deem trustable. I have released most of the demi-human slaves off their slave seals, so they can roam freely. The beastmen are a close second, as most of them are still so wounded that they can hardly move, so I can trust that they won’t have the time or attention to attack me or the girls. Only a handful of beastmen showed fear when we handle them, so I let the other beastmen or demi-human freed slaves to handle them. Most of the human slaves still show signs of fear and anger at me even after I save them, probably due to my reputation. I will leave their slave seal on, and only release two human women’s slave seal by corrosion due to needing to move them out of the room.

I was wondering where the demon race girl, the grand succubus who can only speak demon tongue went to. I go around the buildings and noticed that she is behind the last building, seemingly speaking to someone else in a language I never know, most probably demon tongue. I saw two figures are standing near her in the cover of the dark, their silhouette seems to be that of a small figure and a medium one. I quietly approach the grand succubus from behind and grab her with a chokehold. As an ex-mage, I can sense traces of heavy magic used here. The two silhouettes approach us, and a figure that has been lying on the floor is now getting up. The two slaves are the beastmen with severe injuries that died earlier, and the small silhouette is the little girl that died in my arms in the afternoon. There were two more bodies on the ground, and traces on blood can be seen on the floor with some runic pattern. This type of magic is similar to the magic of fantasy from my past life memory, using runes to invoke magic, although the principle of causality still applies and one needs to pay a price equal to the magic invoked.

The face of the grand succubus is very pale, and she who has just suffered severe injuries and just recovered from it now looks like she is about to die. I hold her in my arm as she faints. She looks defenseless and pitiful, her clothes all torn and tattered. I look towards the walking corpse that she just summoned. They walk slowly towards me, but they seem to be in quite a hurry and tried to tell me not to harm the demon. It seems like the subordination spell is quite powerful, I’m surprised.

“Uuhh, uhha uugaggaaha agrahara, uaghhaagraaa (Please, don’t harm our benefactor, kind sir)” (little girl)

Hmm, I can subtly understand what she says through all that mumblings.

“Are you the one from this afternoon? So you managed to survive? That’s good.” (Adam)

“Gu, grugya. Gruguagugahagugaaagararahaeyagoaeo. Dogogagyaodadogaaeda, garayaaeaedaega. (No, kind sir. Please don’t view us as monsters. We plead our benefactor here that our soul couldn’t rest in peace because we still have unfinished business here, so she put us back into our body so that we can complete our task and be happy.)” (little girl)

“Wait, I can’t understand what you are saying. Are you telling me that this succubus resurrect you as undead or ghoul (a term the mage community call them), and you are happy with it?” (Adam)

The little girl nods her head. Due to rigor mortis, her body’s blood has been hardening because the heart no longer heats up and pump the blood. There have been some people who are into the research of necromancy or undead during my time as a hero’s party candidate, but none made it far in their research, and there has been great opposition to that branch of knowledge as it is closely linked to demons. The church called the knowledge an abomination and has persecuted all the people involved in the research. Some of us tried to oppose their persecution, but the kingdom did nothing when the paladins from the Holy Land came and wipe out all members who study about necromancy, undead, and demonology. The two people that mastered in necromancy and demonology, a man and a woman, have fled the kingdom and it is claimed that they were slain in the forest bordering the Demon Lord’s domain. They were good people, and they happen to love studying knowledge that was forbidden by the church and lose their lives. The action taken by the church has shaken my belief at that time, but not to the point that I denounce the religion. The religious body has been getting more and more involved with politics lately, and it’s getting to the point of nauseating.

“Uuhh, uaghhaagraaa. (Please, kind sir)” (Little girl)

“For now, I will do what is necessary for our safety first. I will look into this matter another time, but I forbid her from making any more undead or ghouls for the time being. Come, let me take a look at you guys.” (Adam)

The other two undead beastmen joined the undead little girl and they follow me inside a room with proper light from a torch and I take a good look at them. Their condition looks the same as before they died, so we can still mask this from the people for the time being. I wonder how I want to settle things for them, like how long does it take for them to fulfill their undone business in this world. I place the fainted grand succubus on the stack of grass on the floor. I wonder what she uses in exchange for the soul bind or create undead spell she uses to create this three undead here. So far, in my battle against the demon and observation of their shamans and mages, they also have to follow the law of equivalent exchange when invoking magic. However, most of their spells are more potent, and the invocation cost is usually easy to overlook and don’t harm the caster. Therefore, many of their magic invocations involve using organs or bodies of other creatures or humans, as they are considered high-class magic invocation material and they don’t adhere to morality in their actions.

That’s why I have been wary of this higher ranked demon. Her condition looks like she has a run-in with many troubles, as she got scratched and cut in many places, with only her high-recovery to help her get out of those tough situations. I go to where Amanda and Lucinda are treating the slaves. They did a better job than me at treating the slaves. Amanda would apply ointment over the wounds of the slaves, and invoke healing phenomena to let the ointment absorb into them and the wounds get healed faster, closing them, and prevent infection. Lucinda goes over to a very seriously ill patient and places her hands on the wounded area, and invokes her ‘Regeneration’ together with her ‘Minor Heal’ magic phenomena to close larger wounds. The loss of limbs was regrettable because we don’t have anyone able to invoke ‘Greater Heal’ magical phenomena here.

I continue to let Lucinda equip the blue pendant because of her magic invocation nature utilizes more mana than Amanda’s healing magic that is closer to alchemy. Lillie also never misses out in action, as she comforts the slaves, and feed them food that she prepares herself in the kitchen. Seeing her like this makes me feel a little better. I tell one of the soldiers that performed the burial of dead people in the slave dealer’s compound and cleaning up the mess there, to come and take the other two remaining dead slaves at the back of the building, and to ignore the strange blood marks drawn on the ground where their bodies lie on.

The efforts of the healer girls have paid off, as there are no more slaves suffering to the verge of death. Their condition improves and they are healthier now. I went around the buildings to look and counted all of them, and I feel elated that their condition has one by one getting better and are recovering, rather than trying to hold on to dear life. I go to the cart cycle and procure some food material to prepare a meal. Having a warm soft meal after healing is necessary to give them the will to survive. I take the food material to the kitchen and prepare them in a pot of water over the fire. I cut and dice the vegetable small, and let Amanda prepare the herbs and just put it into the pot and close the lid. While waiting for the food to cook, I brought Amanda, Lillie, and Lucinda over to the building where the grand succubus is laid asleep. They were surprised that a high-ranking demon is here in this building, and their hate for demons and demonkin is apparent in their expression.

“Gasp! What is that thing? Isn’t that a demon here? What is it doing here?” (Lucinda)

“She’s a grand succubus brought in by the slave dealer. The soldiers apparently want her dead after I killed the slave dealer. I decide to rescue her since her fate is similar to us. I don’t want to just believe the old sayings that all demons are evil. I want to see it for myself.” (Adam)

“I feel that what you say has its merit. But no demon has ever submitted to humans, who are deemed much inferior to them in status. This demon here must have an inferior status to have submitted to the slave dealer.” (Amanda)

“…..” (Lillie)

Lillie hid behind me when she saw the grand succubus. Her body is trembling and she behaves similar to when she was young when there are loud thunders. It seems she has a hard time dealing with the presence of a demon. I give her a soft hug.

“She even invokes magic phenomena that brought back three of the dead slaves as undead. But in doing so with her already weak body, she has now fainted here. So I just want you to check on her condition.” (Adam)

“I don’t know how the demon body works.” (Lucinda protested)

“I will give it a try. I hope to check her vitals and see if they are the same as a human.” (Amanda)

I try to guide them with what little knowledge about demon physiology that I gleaned from the kingdom’s library during my studies there.

“It seems that this demon here sacrifice its blood and organ at where the kidney and liver are. Its condition is terrible, and it's developing fever” (Amanda)

“Can you help heal her at those affected areas, Lucinda?” (Adam ask)

“No. No way. I’m never going to touch a demon.” (Lucinda)

At that moment, the three undead lead by the little girl approach us from the entrance. The undead little girl comes forward and said something to try to get us to help her benefactor.

“Puaagaga, uaaarggahahhrra (Please, help her. She save our souls from wandering aimlessly)” (undead little girl of human origin)

“”“KYAAHHHHH!!””” (Amanda, Lillie, and Lucinda, all hide behind me)

“I guess she’s trying to ask us to save her benefactor, which is the grand succubus over there.” (Adam)

“You guess? How do you even understand something so inaudible as some random mumbling? Are you sure they won’t attack us?” (Amanda sounded worried)

“I understand your worries, but they won’t attack us like what our elders always told us. I somehow felt some connection and understanding with this little girl here because I tried to help her earlier, but her injuries are too severe for me to handle, and it would take too much time and preparation to get you all here, so I did the best I could to console her, give her sweetened water, apply some ointment on her wounds and dress them up to avoid infection, and cuddle her to give her warmth. In the end, I still failed to save her.” (Adam, feeling a little remorse)

“If that’s what happened, then I will take your word for it. Will you please help me with the healing of the grand succubus over there, Lucinda?” (Amanda said with a smile)

“Uuh, if it’s Amanda’s request, it can’t be helped then. I will try, but I cannot guarantee my magic invocation will work on a demon” (Lucinda said dejectedly)

“It’s kind of vexing, but it seems that this little Lucinda now only listens to Amanda and not me.” (Adam)

Lucinda fearfully separates from the girls and bend over to the grand succubus in order to place her hands over the belly. She invoked her magical phenomena of healing and try to heal the grand succubus. After some time, Lucinda lifts up her hands and I supported her from falling on the floor. The process seems to have drained Lucinda's mana a little too much. I praise her for her good work and carry her in my arms. She seems reluctant, but she has no energy left to protest. Lillie goes over and starts hitting me. I hope she can stop that as I may accidentally drop Lucinda.

The grand succubus slowly opens her eyes, and her eyes then meet with mine. She tried to get up hastily and run, but tumble on her feet because she is still weak even though she has recovered with Lucinda’s help. The three undead went over to her side, dragging their feet along the way. The three undead then consoled the grand succubus and calm her down. The grand succubus then looks at me and Lucinda and lowly bowed her head to both of us, which I guess is her way to express her gratitude to us. I felt grateful that the undead is able to bridge the communication gap between the demon and me. I tell the undead little girl that I will allow them to stay at this room to avoid attracting too much attention.

Next, I get all the girls with me to grab the food I prepared in the kitchen and serve them to the slaves. It seems that the ewe demi-human slave girl has come with some helpers and waited in the kitchen too. What an obedient bunch. I would like to give her an award in the future, I said to myself.

The food is distributed and served to all the slaves, and I introduced the grand succubus with the three undead slaves to the ewe demi-human and the helpers. They were greatly shocked at the beginning to learn that their dead slave comrades have now returned to the living as undead, but they managed to get over their fear and spoke to them as if they were still living. After making sure all of the slaves had their fill, and checking all the buildings to make sure that no bodies are left without care, and the floors are scrubbed and clean, I decide to make an announcement. Earlier at my home, I roll a piece of flat iron into a cone shape and form the base into a cylinder shape. It is a crude loudspeaker, as I couldn’t invoke wind phenomena to carry my voice over the distance anymore. I speak into the crude loudspeaker for the first time while standing on a wooden stool.

“Hello, testing. Hello, can everybody hear me!” (Adam)

There is no response. Or rather, they don’t know how to respond.

“If you can hear me, please raise up your hands!” (Adam)

All of the slaves and even the army, Amanda, Lillie, and Lucinda raise up their hands.

“Thank you. So all of you can understand this kingdom’s language, so I will speak in this language in the future. All of you here, as those of you that have been treated as slaves and owned by the slave dealer, have now hereby changed their ownership to me. This is because now I own the slave contract that binds all of you to slavery under me now. Some of you have already got freed from slavery when I removed the slave seal on your chest. That means you are free now. The ones that are still bound by the slavery contract, you are still bound by this contract, and so I will not destroy them, because these represent your life. If anything were to happen to this contract, there will be repercussions, set by the deceased slave dealer.” (Adam, catching his breath and looking around to grasp their attention)

“That said, I’m also just a man, and I’m imperfect. I have been betrayed by people whom I have known for two and a half years. So I can’t easily trust you guys, and you have to earn my trust for me to release you from the slave seal. Don’t worry, I don’t intend to abuse my authority or lord over you without a reason. What I need is just:

1) Never betray me or lie to me with the malicious intent to cause harm to me or the other freed slaves.

2) Obey my orders with a proper conscience. You can ignore harmful commands or you can tell me the reason why you think it’s wrong. I will listen to your reason. Other than that, follow my command properly.

3) Do not bring harm to others around you. I know that there are many other slaves beside you now. They may come from all types of races, so please accept them as your fellow friends for now. Unless they do harm to others, you would need to treat them with care and proper respect.

4) All of the slaves are equal. No one is above the rest. The merit of action speaks louder than racial superiority.

5) All slaves would be freed, but some will be freed later because I need to monitor their behavior. By proving to me in a proper way and in the long term that they can be trusted, your freedom is guaranteed. Betrayal is not tolerable.

So just follow these five precepts and I guarantee that all of you will be free and happy with your lives.” (Adam, catching his breath for the long speech)

“Do you have any questions?” (Adam)

One of the beastmen raised his hands

“Are we free to move around here? We won’t move out of the area you specified.” (Beastman 1)

“Yes, you are free to move around or interact around. For now, I allow you to move around this slave dealer's compound and outside of it. You can pick some wild plants or food nearby but never stray too far away. Make sure all of you gather here again before sunset. Any that didn’t return will be deemed as turning fugitive and will be treated as such. Is that clear?” (Adam, explaining in full detail)

“Understood.” (All slaves)

“Also, I got an announcement to make. Sooner or later, you will encounter a girl with two ebony horns on her head, and a pair of wings covered in skin. I guess most of you understood her race and nature. Her language is also different, so I can understand that you all are avoiding her. I am a human, so I also have some prejudice against her. However, I also believe that we all have our own circumstances. Her being held as a slave is a condition you all have gone through, and she is also the same. So I want all of you to give her a chance to prove her worth, as I have also given her an equal chance just like all of you. She has invoked a certain magic phenomenon that may disgust some of you, but I assure you that she didn’t use any of you or your friends as the sacrifice, but instead, she used her own body as the invocation cost. So, I hope you can be tolerable to her if you meet her. Also, on another note, there are three of your fallen slave comrades that have been revived with the said magic invocation, so please treat them with care and don’t look down on them, even though they may be a little different from us. If things permit, I will properly explain their nature to all of you again.” (Adam, panting because out of breath)

“Until then, please work hard, and do your daily chores to maintain your life here. Once you all have recovered sufficiently, I will explain the next step of our plan again. Good night and thank you.” (Adam)

I put down the loudspeaker and got down from the stool. I assign some able-bodied slaves to take care of guarding themselves against wild animals and assign them to take care of the keys and locks. I made sure to give them a stern warning that rebelling is not tolerated, with the kingdom soldiers as an example. I pass some of the food I prepared from home to the ewe demi-human and assigned her and her colleagues that help out earlier to take care of the food, kitchen, and laundry in the slave dealer’s place.

I brought the obedient soldiers, Amanda, Lillie, and Lucinda to the hybrid cart cycle, and we return home. Amanda wanted to try cycling on the pedal, so I let her. She proves that she really has the strength to operate it, what an amazon. I ride on the horse and guide us back home safely. I drop Amanda and Lillie at Amanda’s home and leave the horse there. I pedaled the cart with Lucinda and the obedient soldiers back to my house, and after tying and putting the soldiers in the storeroom, I bring Lucinda to her room, then I go to bed. Another day will start soon, so I fall asleep on my bed to get some necessary rest.