Demonic Magician

Ren rubbed at her face before looking at the demon laying a little way off. Her eyes were tired. Perhaps already full of tribulations for the day. “I don’t know, trickster. It sounds like a lot more trouble than it’ll be worth.”

I shrugged. It definitely would be - I couldn’t deny that. “You’re curious, though, right?”

She rolled her eyes. “Yeah. But I’m also looking out for my own neck.”

Another very fair point. “Your thoughts, Wolf?”

“I feel my morals are vastly different due to my simple nature. My heart does not care for the nuance.” His eyes turned back to our injured captive. “And my stomach hungers to be filled.”

I exhaled through my nose. Well, I knew it would be a hard sell. Keeping a prisoner to see what happened if they didn’t get the Lady’s blood, if they could be cured, was a drag both in the figurative and literal sense. Plus—the part of me that was keen to rip his head off added—they had joined up with her by choice at first, anyway. It wasn’t my job to fix their life choices.

Ren put her hand on my arm. “Do you think they would offer us a shred of the same leniency?”

Normally, I might argue that we should be better than them. That sort of cliche argument. But did we need to be? We’d be doing the System a favor to erase such a bad actor. Surely the Players in the first area had seemed irredeemable, and Rolo was also a demon. A demon.

“If you want to override our views,” Ren relinquished her hand. “I won’t like it, but I won’t argue against it. Follow your heart. I ask nothing more.”

I nodded. Star of the show, I turned and walked over to the bleeding body of the scout.

From atop my head, I removed my hat and held it over him so that his face would be shaded from the sun. His white eye was half-closed, but still glaring at me. He was fading away and would need Ren’s healing soon, before his wounds took him away from us.

“Don’t worry,” I said softly, a smile across my face, “you’re safe now.”

Before he had a chance to respond, the stolen safe dropped out from the underside of my hat and crushed his skull with a dull crack. Top hat returned to my head as the large metal cube rolled off of his pulped face, and I furrowed my brow.

Ren stepped up beside me. “That was a little more sociopathic than I was expecting.”

“Hmm?” I turned to her, a little confused.

“Your eyes are back to normal now,” she noted. “Purple eyes mean pendulum mood swings?”

I looked back down at the dead body and waved the safe away back into my Inventory. Would have been nice if that opened it, but I winced slightly at seeing the damage done. I kneeled down to loot him.

“My turn after you, Max?” Wolf pushed his head alongside me to sniff at the body.

“Yeah,” I replied. Leaned to the side slightly into his warm fur. Comforting. Took the magic cuff from the demon's wrist as I looked through the other items. No incriminating diary or secret letters, the usual gold and healing items.

“Some Dex equipment on him,” I announced out loud, intending the words to meet Ren’s ears. Something inside me had… it felt like elastic that had been stretched too far and was having trouble resetting to the normal shape.

“I’ll have a look.” She came down beside me, placing her hand on my shoulder as she crouched.

My jaw clenched, and I felt like shrugging her off, although I remained steady. Her hair hurt my eyes. I needed to stand and move away, and waited for her hand to get off my fucking shoulder before I… oh, something was definitely not right.

“I need a minute alone.” My feet were already taking me away. Not too far, just to somewhere they weren’t in my peripheral. Clear fields and hills ahead of me. My eyes closed, and I enjoyed the breeze trying to calm me. Thank you, breeze.

To their credit, they did leave me alone. I winced as Wolf started to crunch through the body, but that meant Ren had finished looting and was probably standing and staring at me. I couldn’t feel her glare melting a hole in the back of my head, which only meant that she was worried.

Was it the cold-blooded murder? Not really. It was probably the right call in the long run. We had seen what they were capable of. I couldn’t take the chances of putting my companions in danger.

It was that he was a demon. I was sure of it.

Even after my souls had merged, I still felt like the normal, showman Max was the one in charge for the most part. Seeing the demon drew out the deeper memories and feelings. Demon Hunting was apparently a harsh and constantly stressful profession, often Hunters would fall to insanity or corruption if demons didn’t get to them first. I was trying to hide this from myself. Let a little mania slide through in the tricks and visceral combat, but the true horrors were locked away.

Until now, at least.

I palmed at my eyes, poor tired orbs of mine. Exhaled, and turned back to the Party with a smile. The elf did have a pensive look on her face, but her arms were also crossed. I was wasting good grinding time, after all. With the mobs, to get experience, I meant.

“Anything to declare, trickster?”

“I hope to never meet another demon in this world,” I said. “Now let’s kill more Monsters so I can summon Roger.”

I expected some rolled eyes at that, but she just tilted her head. She read me like a book, one perhaps even more miserable than the journal I attempted to keep. Her body language was permitting me to go ahead and start killing things for the Quest, but her eyes burned for some actual answers.

My jaw clenched, but I gestured her over to me with a finger. She strode over and stopped in front of me, arms still crossed all the way.

“The other soul really doesn’t like demons, and it brought up some… repressed trauma, I suppose?”

She nodded. “How are you feeling now?”

“Better.” I shuffled around in my suit jacket. “Fragile, still. I don’t think I meant to kill him that way.”

“It would have been more amusing in the heat of battle. We’ll decompress tonight, okay?” She narrowed her eyes at me, but they were full of concern rather than annoyance. “But if you need to tap out…”

“I’ll let you know, I promise.” Although the start of our adventures had started with me being closed off with my stability, I had learned to be more open. It made us a stronger Party to know our limits.

This time, it earned me a soft smile. A rarity and always worth the anguish of baring my issues. It faded just as quickly as she nodded towards the Wildfolk patiently awaiting their murders. “Let’s go, a long day ahead of us.”

Wolf passed on the demonic meal, one crunched leg and he decided it wasn’t to his taste. He much preferred the comforting meal the Wildfolk could provide. I took things easier, too. It gave me time to process the battle with the demon. The Domain and his transformation into a snake to try to defeat us. The way part of me wanted his death so furiously was probably part of the reason the other me swung hard the other way to try to save him. Balance, lest I fall to… something worse, I supposed.

For all the physical damage I had accumulated on our journeys so far, it often felt like my brain got the worst of it. The killing, bravado, mania, showmanship, anger - all bubbling around inside me as the different souls fought to become stronger. It was exhausting in a way a good sleep didn’t fully satisfy. I brought Roger back out, and after a brief look of disappointment in seeing he wasn't Rolo, he got back into the violence with his usual aplomb.

Wildfolk fell to our advances. I weaved the cards around, once again a conductor moving the glowing purple objects along smooth trails. Through a head, into the eyes, hands and forearms to disarm or waylay. It warmed my hands to feel it, a soft comfort as they grew brighter. Went further forward to start drawing in more Monsters before Wolf and Roger were ready to catch up. I hummed a tune, smiling.

The elf stepped into my view, disrupting the show. “Max?”

I dropped the cards and clenched my bleeding hands. “Yes, Ren?”

“Took you a while to hear me there. I said the Quest is ready to hand-in, you’re wasting kills.”

My head nodded. Understood the words and what she meant. Remembered why we were doing this, but also the promise made. “I seem to be dissociating a little. Autopilot.” I wondered how the System would translate that over to something she understood.

“Are you in the right mind to know when to stop or not?” She tilted her head, concern once again across her expression.

I blinked slowly and frowned. “This is going to sound strange, but could you heal me?” Although I wasn’t physically wounded, there was something else knocking away inside my head.

She nodded and held her hand out, and the radiant energy flashed into me.

I winced and shirked away from it. “Ah!” My face was a grimace as I shivered from what felt like an icicle being jabbed into me. As it cooled away, whatever fever hung over my mind faded away. “Thanks, much better.”

“That’s… a really unusual reaction.” Her eyes narrowed at me.

“Is it? I mean, knowing where my power comes from…” I pulled a face. Radiant energy was the polar opposite of demonic, as far as I knew. If I was having waves of demonic influence clouding my mind, a little inoculation via the divine kept me grounded to who I really was.

Ren put her hand on my arm and sighed. “As if I didn’t have enough reasons to babysit you. Just tell me when you feel you need ‘cleansing’ then, okay? I’d hate to see what happens when you go off the deep end.” With a pat, she moved away to go and loot the bodies.

I smiled as I watched her go, but the expression quickly sunk away.

Problem was, I wanted to see what happened.

No doubt it wouldn’t be something good for any of us, least of all me. There was this… pull of power drawing me in, however. Dragged through trauma and violence, I wanted to leap with both feet into the puddle and get soaked. Good way to get a cold—or my head shorn off—if I stopped miring myself in metaphor. The show must go on.

I shook my head off and went up to join the others, handing my Quest in along the way.

[Quest Complete]

[125 Gold]

[Healing Potion]

[Chance Box]

Terrible. They deserved to die just for the rewards alone. I accepted the Quest once again and decided the Chance Boxes could wait until we sat down to rest. One more attempt at it and we should level up. Being slightly behind the curve seemed to make the process take less time than we’d normally be sandbagged with.

“Power Token, trickster,” Ren flicked it into the air towards me.

I held out my hand, and it bounced off, onto the grass. Their eyes turned to me, suspense and confusion on their faces. My brow furrowed too, and I leaned over to pick it up. As I rose back to a standing position, the long pole of the Spear of Luck came up from the ground instead of the Token.

Ren’s exasperated sigh was all the applause I needed. Back to normal Max. Now with the weapon fully out, I spun it with a flourish to turn it back into the Token. Now the question was what to pick. It had been far too long since we had a boost in power, and I was hungry for it.

My eyes idly went from the gemstone over to my pact demon, and I raised an eyebrow.

“Hey, Roger,” I called him over.

He waddled the puppet body over to me, his purple eyes glaring at me through no fault of his own. “Yeah, Boss? This has been fuckin’ great so far.”

“You think so?” I tilted my head.

“Yeah, makes a nice change from the problems at home.” He deflated slightly and propped his awkward body up on the handle of the large maul.

“I’m… sorry to hear that, Roger.” Genuinely, I meant it. While he was an odd demon, he was part of the group, even if he was only temporary.

He shrugged. “We all got shit to improve on, right? I have an alcohol problem.”

“Oh.” I furrowed my brow, trying to imagine how that worked in Hell.

“Also a tiny cannibalism problem. But the docs say if I can stay clean, then some of the wives will let me see my kids again.”

I stood for what felt like hours, trying to find the words to address any of what he had said. All the while, he just stared at me impassively. Why did he specify only some of the wives? Did he eat the others? Did he eat some of his children? That seemed to be what he was implying, but it seemed too rude a thing to ask for clarification on.

“What did you call me over for, Boss?”

My brain clicked into some forward progress now he had jostled me out of my momentary stasis. “Oh, yeah. I was going to say that… you’ve been doing a great job… and perhaps it’s time for… your promotion?”

I wasn’t sure if he could read my face, as I struggled to compliment him under the revelation that his home life was perhaps just as dire as his existence here. Was this what it meant to be a demon? Perhaps I may need to reconsider my delve into this beckoning power. My eyes went over to Ren and Wolf. I didn’t think I could or would eat them? Would eating an elf even be cannibalism?

“That sounds amazing, Boss!” His fidgeting drew my eyes back. “No idea what that means, but it’ll sure impress my probation officer.”

Part of me was growing to respect the demons I could summon that didn’t talk. The dogs were cute, and the birds never complained about their often short lives. “Alright then, it’s a deal.” I gave him a show-smile. “Best if you vanish first, I think?”

With a nod, he did so immediately, washing away in an unseen breeze to leave the corpse to topple back over.

“Upgrading Roger?” Ren asked as she came over.

“Yeah. He’s been putting in work and is great for these Monster quests. Was it even my turn for a Token?” I wrinkled my nose up at her as I went through my STAR menus.

“Of course, you don’t get pity tokens.” She tilted her head. “You need another heal? You look pale.”

“No,” I gave her a smile. “Just, ah, Roger is quite the character.” I wasn’t quite sure how the others would take his… revelations, so I’d keep them as my own personal troubles for now.

[ is now Advanced: Pact Demon Stats and Duration increased by 20%.]