Chapter 23: Arc 2 Ch. 11: Shift Happens

She was waiting for me. Even before I finished teleporting to the witch’s backyard with my ‘cargo’ in tow, somehow I could almost feel her sharp green eyes staring at me. But from what I could make out of the witch in the light of the moon, something was different about the earthy brunette figure seated in her conjured rocking chair in front of me.

“I was going to let you off the hook,” an oddly shrill, high-pitched voice spoke, “but I knew you would return. There’s just no helping some people, is there?”

A quick spell created a sinister orb of dark light above us that illuminated the witch. She was still a full head shorter than me, carrying that same tall wooden staff, wearing that same flowery dress, and with that all too familiar, god-awful gargoyle minion perched atop her chair. However, rather than that wrinkled old hag I had known, instead it was a surprisingly young girl around my age staring back at me with her own wicked, toothy grin.

“L-Lady Vexina?” I uttered.

“You should be pissing yourself right about now!” she answered. “I only dispel the Glamour and reveal my true form to the pitiful, treacherous souls I am about to ruin beyond all hope.”

It was impossible to take the witch seriously like this; with that tiny frame and squeaky voice, she was practically a loli!

“…Why are you staring at me like that?” Lolina asked.

“Um, why does your ‘true form’ look that young?”

Her rosy cheeks contorted with rage. “I will have you know that my one of a kind potion of eternal youth was a complete and total success,” she squeaked, “and I will hear nothing else of it!”

I fought back a snicker. “Are you sure it didn’t work a little too well?”

The witch slammed her suddenly glowing staff into the ground with a ferocious hiss, and the earth began to violently churn around us. “Let’s play a game. Would you rather I break your arms, or your legs?”

“Wait! I-I brought you a present! I’m here to make another deal with you!”

For the first time, the witch seemed to notice the once illustrious, now blood-stained suit of Ciedrich’s corpse on the ground next to me. “Bloody hell!” she gasped, lowering her staff. “What have you done?!”

“Well technically it wasn’t me, it was—no, that’s not the point! You said you wanted a male cadaver, right? Or was it a… sacrifice? So basically the same thi—”

“What were you thinking?!” she shrieked. “You brought a dead nobleman to my doorstep? The Grey Widow will have our heads! Why, we’re both… Oh, my. That’s quite a pretty face, isn’t it?”

Wait, what? “Is this really the time for that?”

“Of course it is!” she snapped. “The body is still fresh. Raglius! Bring me… ‘the book.’”

The gargoyle croaked to attention before darting into her house, returning a moment later with a heavy tome in its stony claws. The witch levitated the giant book in front of her, its many pages quickly turning as she waved a hand back and forth in the air. When she found the page she was looking for, a feverish grin spread across the girl’s lips.

“You wanted an apprenticeship?” she asked. “Start drawing this ritual circle in the dirt around the body, and be quick about it!”

Lolina thrust a swiftly conjured stick into my hands before it was her turn to disappear indoors. Most of the floating tome’s two visible pages were covered with illegible, questionably sane scribbles, but what stood out the most was a giant diagram that looked suspiciously like a pentagram. Except instead of just an upside-down star enclosed within a circle, there were three extra circles on the inside connected by an intricate pattern of triangles, and crazy shapes, and…

Okay, this was all happening way faster than I could reasonably keep up with. But at this point, what was really ‘reasonable’ anyway? I should probably just get started on this before I ended up wondering what the hell that crazy witch was up to and invoke her wrath all over again.

By the time I had completed the border of the diagram and a mere fraction of the inner part, Lolina returned with a trio of items trailing in the air behind her. Her face scrunched up into a scowl at the sight of the mostly unfinished project, but thankfully she refrained from making any snide comments. With a few of her calculated hand gestures, the rest of the diagram began carving itself into the dirt with frustrating speed.

When that was finished, she carefully guided a glowing mana crystal, the first of her three retrieved items, into one of the inner circles. Next came a black handkerchief into the second, followed by a bottle of… some kind of sickly-colored fluid into the last.

“What exactly is inside that?” I asked.

“Liquid irrelevance,” she deadpanned. “The ritual is ready; stand back and watch.”

The witch bent down and began channeling her mana into the circle. Every line in the diagram lit up with an ominous red light that emitted a low humming sound, and a dimly visible stream of energy flowed from the three disappearing items in their inner circles toward the center. A rainbow of warm, dark colors coalesced around the corpse, solidifying by the second into a hellish cocoon.

“Seriously, what the fuck are you doing?!”

“Do not interrupt!” she squeaked. “This is the most important part!”

With a deafening pop, every light on the ground winked out of existence except for a glowing red ring around the edge of the circle. A horrifying chill ran down my spine as I watched the body of the dead nobleman… open its eyes. It blinked a few times and wiggled its fingers, then wrists, then feet, and gradually every muscle like it was sensing everything for the first time.

Satisfied after a productive minute of ‘testing,’ the deathly pale body began standing upright with slow, careful motions. Its eyes instantly met the witch’s intent gaze, and she reached a hand out to it before finally speaking.

“O faithful traveler from the other side, heed my call! Will you accept this offering and submit as my thrall?”

The body smiled, gracefully bent down on a knee, and kissed the back of her outstretched hand.

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What was his reanimated corpse doing?! There was only one thing I could tell for sure: that definitely wasn’t Ciedrich anymore. The entity that wore his body carried himself with a more subdued manner, he showed a more genuine smile, and the irises of his eyes had a new hint of yellow to them.

The two backs of their touching hands burned with a miniature version of the ritual circle before quickly fading away along with the last lights of the circle itself.

“Luc, it’s so good to see you again!” the witch grinned. “How long has it been now?”

“It feels like it was only yesterday when this humbled one was last in your service,” he answered with a silky smooth voice and a deep bow.

Oh God, what’s happening now?! I felt like I’d gotten myself in way over my head this time! I should probably get the hell out of here before—

“Ah, forgive my ignorance!” he said, turning to stare directly at me. “Might you be the one who obtained this fine vessel for me?”

I gulped. “Uh, I mean, that is… yes?”

“There is no need to be so modest,” he smiled. The, well whatever he was paused to take a brief glance down at the stabbed, blood-red suit he was wearing. “I am honored. You even selected my favorite color!”

“R-Right… Vexina, for the love of God did you just summon a demon into his corpse?!”

“What corpse?” the loli witch cackled. “As your two good eyes can clearly see in front of you, Luc is perfectly fine!”

Ugh… Okay, deep breaths. Aside from the fact that this was all kinds of fucked up, was this actually such a bad thing? All things considered, if Ciedrich were still ‘alive’ like this, then would anyone find out that he was dead?

Oh, who was I kidding? This was an absolute disaster waiting to happen! But until then, it just might buy enough time to make me look innocent…

“You need not worry yourself so much,” Luc said in his strangely smooth voice. “You have done lovely work this night! As my mistress wills it, I would be delighted to fulfill a request of yours.”

“Wait, slow down. You mean you’re… granting me a wish?”

“Within reason,” he nodded.

Okay, more deep breaths. The way Lolina was sadistically grinning at me like she wanted any reason to deny my request confirmed that asking him to slay the Demon King for me was definitely out of the question. Even asking him to destroy one of Mao’s seven soul fragments keeping him immortal would only make my mission in this world marginally easier. I wanted to get as much as I could out of this insane opportunity, but it would have to be reasonably small enough. The winning answer in this kind of situation was usually to just wish for more wishes whenever that was an actual possibility. But how was I going to get that out of a demon?

A... demon? That’s it!

I clasped my hands together and innocently tilted my head to the side. “My dearest Luc, would you kindly summon a demon for me that will carry out any given command?”

It almost looked like it pained him to frown in response. “I am afraid to say that that is one thing I cannot do. But I may have something in my personal inventory that will assist you.”

After Luc cast an unfamiliar spell, a shadowy circular rift materialized in the air in front of him. The rest of his arm disappeared as he reached into his ‘inventory’ and shook around as if he were rummaging for something at the bottom of a bag stuffed full of items. After a few awkwardly silent seconds, he pulled out a book and offered it to me with a bow.

I read the title. “‘Demon Summoning for Dumbasses?’ Really?”

“That’s just a bit of Underworld humor,” he smiled. “Pay it no mind.”

“Right…”

Luc straightened himself and took on a more serious tone. “I strongly encourage you to read all of that in full before you begin your first summoning. And whatever you do, don’t step in the—”

“Yes, yes, that’s quite enough already,” Lolina groaned. “Experience is the best teacher of all, is it not?”

I raised an eyebrow. “Could you try saying that again without a wicked grin?”

“Nonsense,” the witch grumbled. “Now then, I have something for you as well.” She produced a single piece of paper and floated it in the air toward me. “I noticed that your spellcasting could use some improvement. Consider this an advance on your training.”

Why exactly did she have this prepared? At any rate, the page looked like it showed some of her wild scribbling and the symbol to cast Recall, but it was a bit different. From what I could make out of these scribbled instructions, apparently she was suggesting to start from the other side when tracing, and—oh! I didn’t even know you could combine those parts like that.

I ran through the symbol a few times. With this upgraded technique mastered properly, I could probably cast the spell in just under a second now! A long-awaited sigh of relief escaped me; I should be able to teleport out at a moment’s notice if I ever needed a quick getaway again like… earlier.

“We will discuss the full terms of our agreement later,” Lolina said with a tap of her staff. “It appears I will be quite busy in the near future. Off you go now!”

I sighed again. Just what the hell was she planning now? Actually, I think I didn’t want to know; I’ve already seen far too many terrible things tonight.

And there was someone I really wanted to see before tomorrow…

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