A Gunslinger’s System in a World of Magic

A few moments passed with the only sound in the room to be heard being Maude Aleric's monotonous spell chanting and the groans of the redheaded siblings chained to the center of the Pentagram.

"-Mmm, I was expecting a bigger reaction than that but no matter, I can work with…-"

"What does it mean to be an Infernal Spawn?" Yelena interrupted to ask with her voice low and the last word leaving her lips in more of a gasp.

The System had given her a description but it said very little about the underlying connotations so who better to ask than the one responsible for it?

"-Well, my dear,-" The Demonic voice said,

"-It simply means you have been fed so much infernal energy for years that you are doomed to become a Demon. It will either happen while you remain on this Mortal Plane or happen the instant you die and your soul comes home to me.-"

"Oh gods…" Yelena said with a horrified expression on her beautiful face as she took a step back from the Vykers who were still looking at her talking to herself like she was insane.

Yelena placed a hand on her stomach. She wasn't sure if it was real or if she was imagining it, but she could feel something within her. Something otherworldly— infernal, rearing its head within her guts.

"Oh, gods!" She said again with her voice hiked a few octaves higher.

"-Oh honey, stop that!-" the Demonic voice said,

"-Invoking the gods that many times burns me- Argh!-"

"Really?" Yelena asked and perked up. She began to bring the names of gods she knew to her mind. If invoking vague gods was chasing the Demon away, then would it not be better to invoke a powerful divine god to rid her of this evil once and for all?

And then she heard a hearty cackle from the voice,

"-HAHAHAHAHA! My dear, you delight me! I was just joking. Demons have a sense of humor, you know. It's oftentimes twisted but it is there.-"

Yelena's heart sank,

"So… invoking the gods doesn't hurt you?" She asked.

"-Of course, it doesn't! What do you take me for?-" the voice asked and laughed even harder.

Yelena flushed at the sound. Feeling embarrassed and naive that she had fallen for such an obvious trick.

"-No, no, my dear, we are forever linked, and you can't be rid of me.

Besides, no member of the pantheons of gods will ever look upon you favorably.-"

"What do you want?" Yelena asked.

"-I want what every Patron wants; For her charge to succeed.

And to succeed, you're going to need some help.-"

Yelena was going to ask what she was supposed to succeed at when the Voice nudged her and turned her eyes back to the Pentagram.

"Wait, can you help them?" She asked with her eyes wide.

The voice chuckled,

"-How quickly you go from rebuking me to asking for help.-"

"Can you help?" Yelena asked again knowing that the longer she spent conversing with the voice, the closer Maude got to completing the Awakening Ritual.

"-Help them? They don't seem to be in any danger.-"

"They're about to become subjugated against their will," Yelena pointed out.

"-And?-"

"What do you mean 'And'?" Yelena asked, confused before she added in a slightly more exasperated tone,

"It's wrong!"

"-Wrong? My dear sweet girl, has it not dawned on you that you're speaking to a Demon? Does 'morality' seem like something I'd be remotely invested in?-"

"Just help them," Yelena pleaded, "Please."

"-Fine.-"

Yelena felt the voice cease after that and she felt whatever entity had been in her head vanish. She was about to start wondering exactly how her Patron was going to help when the Pentagram that had been glowing a soft blue color turned a bright red.

Maude Aleric's spell chanting faltered as he felt his connection to the Pentagram and the Awakening Ritual break even though the violent energy of the ritual continued.

And then he felt a powerful heat —A heat that didn't aim to burn his body but his very soul— roar out of the Pentagram in a force that would have blasted him into a wall had he not been rooted to the spot by an otherworldly authority.

The force spread all over the Awakening Room with an intensity that spared no one besides Yelena and bore down on all shoulders with an overwhelming command to kneel.

*THUD!*

The knees of everyone in the room, besides Yelena, hit the ground at the same time. That included Triss and Stefan who were still groaning in the pain of the Awakening Ritual.

"What the hell is this—?" Maude struggled to say as he mustered his Mana only to have it stifled out before it could even take shape for a protective spell to shield him from the pressure.

And then a red haze rose from the Pentagram and took the form of a buxom figure with large horns. The figure's face was unclear. The haze merely took shape and left out further details like the eyes, nose, and mouth.

"Much too incomplete to serve as a true summoning Pentagram but it'll do." Said the voice that came from the red haze.

The red Demonic haze.

Maude had had very few encounters with infernal beings.

Not being a Sorcerer who had to borrow his Magical talents from them, Maude had very little business with the Otherworldly but how could he not recognize the nature of the energy —the heat—, he was feeling all too clearly.

Immediately, all thoughts of resistance left his mind and he bowed low. This was merely a haze, a pressure of this being, and it was powerful enough to incinerate him.

'It would be foolish to be rude.'

"Your Infernal Majesty—" Maude started to say.

The voice interrupted him with a hearty laugh,

"'Infernal Majesty'? You're not wasting time, are you? Straight to the bootlicking… The Ass-kissing?"

Maude gulped,

"Your Infernal Majesty," he repeated before he continued, "I'm sorry but you weren't summoned."

There were rules for the infernal to interfere with matters of the Mortal plane and precise summons were almost always required. While the Awakening Pentagram has similar fundamentals to a Summoning Pentagram, they are not at all the same. It should have been impossible to catch the attention of a Demon from hell to the point of causing it to break through.

"I assume you're aware that the rules can be partially subverted by the presence of an Anchor." The Demonic haze said.

"Anchor—?" Maude started and then turned his head slowly to where Yelena stood. The only one not forced to kneel.

'Yelena?' He thought, 'Your talent attracted a Demon?!'

Meanwhile, the chains that had held both Triss and Stefan down turned bright red to match the energy of the Pentagram.

Stefan's Vyker Transformation was already underway before the arrival of the Demonic haze and so when the Infernal energy that infected the Pentagram, drove into his body, it resulted in a mix of sorts between Vyker Mutation and Infernal subjugation.

Triss was different. Her body had been prepared for the mutation to come but the ingredients were turned to ashes before they could become a part of her.

Instead, she felt the heat of Hell roar through her body. The flames licked at her soul but rather than burn it and destroy it, they transformed it.

"ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!"

Triss yelled at the top of her lungs as she felt more than a burning intensity. She felt the pain of multiple damned souls. Their torment drove into her, turning into something more. Attaching her to a being so depraved, it watched her anguish with intense delight.

"Stop it, you're hurting her!" Yelena called out as she stepped forward.

"Of course, I'm hurting her," The Demonic haze said,

"Without pain, there can be no gain."

"I asked you to help. I asked you to stop the Ritual but you're completing it!"

"Yes, I'm completing it," the Demonic haze said, "You'll need help for the things to come. These two, while subpar, will work well enough."

The Demonic haze began to dissipate then and it let out a sigh,

"It appears my time here is at an end," it said before it turned to Maude,

"You. Human Wizard!"

"Yes?" Maude answered in a tone of utmost respect and fear.

"Take good care of my Spawn," the Demonic haze said,

"I'll be watching."

The haze fizzled out.

The pressure all over the room lifted.

The Pentagram returned to being an indentation in the middle of the floor and the chains that held both Triss and Stefan to it vanished.

Maude finally raised his head off the ground and he looked at Yelena with a mixture of horror and awe as he wondered if, by taking her in, he had invited disaster or great fortune.

Yelena's eyes, however, were on Triss and Stefan.

Stefan recovered from his pain first and clutched a hand over his heart as it pumped with power he had never in his life experienced. And as a bonus, when he looked at Maude and had an urge to haul insults at him, nothing stopped him from doing it.

However, rather than follow through with his basal instincts, Stefan worried for his Sister and turned around to her.

Triss was laid down on the Pentagram with her eyes closed but when Stefan stretched his hand out to touch her, her eyelids flew open, and in her originally brown eyes were two mini-infernos that seemed to bore right into her brother's soul.

"Holy—" Stefan said as the stare forced him to recoil.

Triss said nothing. She simply raised her hands to the front of her face to eye them. She felt changed. She felt like she had been forced into a deal with the Devil.

And in a sense, that was exactly what happened.

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