Chapter 6

I stared down at the kneeling demon before me. I had just gone toe to toe with one of the 12 princes of hell and won. Inside I was skipping for joy running around and giving high fives to everyone. My expression on the outside almost dismissive. Act like you have been there before.

The Demon looked at me consideringly. I noticed and gave him a swat with my newly enchanted mace. It looked like I had managed to make the enhancements permanent. He growled as his head snapped to the side. He kept his eyes down after that.

“Keep your eyes down in my presence weakling prince.” I said.

Another growl.

“You don’t have to like me. In fact it will be easier for me to know that you are going to try to rip my heart out. Remember this though. As mad as you get, you are still my bitch. Plot, scheme, and maneuver however you want. When I snap my fingers you are going to call me master and If I want you to dance a jig while wearing a dress you are going to do it. Did you have any questions? You can look up now.”

I HAVE SWORN FEALTY TO YOU, REMOVE MY COLLAR SO I CAN REGAIN MY STRENGTH he sent.

I had enough spirit juice remaining from the siphon to throw a small burst of Hellfyre into his face.

“Two things were wrong with that sentence. First their was no master at the end of it. Second It sounded like you were trying to tell me what to do.” I told it.

“Also I really don’t care for the fact that you thought I was so naive as to remove your restraint without having a contract in place. Stand your ass up.”

As he stood I went and put everything I had into a swing at his genitals. For the first time I heard an audible sound come out of it. One that was unfortunately mirrored in my head.

“Kneel your ass back down bitch.” I told it.

He dropped hard to one knee. It looked like my mace could actually do some damage to this guy now. Something to explore later. I used one of the first spells I learned and summoned a contract. I looked it over carefully and added a few extra clauses. I ran a another spell over it that would provide me with a list of loopholes. After fixing those and running the spell again I presented the contract to the glowering demon.

“Sign or die bitch.” I told him.

This was going to be the moment of truth. If he was going to make a move it would have to be before he signed that contract. Once it was signed he was mine. He rushed up in a swift motion and grabbed the contract out of my hands. It took everything I had do to stand there stoically and look at him impassively. He glared at me for a second and put his hand to the end of the parchment. I felt the tightening of the binding magic wrap around me and then expand to include him. It tightened almost to the point of pain, then released. I now had a top-tier demon slave.

“Let’s get this off of you. Although I like the idea of you having a collar. All tame dogs should have a collar that tells anyone who looks who the master is.” I said as I removed the collar.

Looking at it closely the platinum choker seemed to be in fine shape. I think I had me a good little idea with that one. I heard Ajak breath in heavily as his power was returned to him. When I examined him with my mage sight it was SCARY how much soul power he could command. One of the safeguards I had built into my deal with him was that he could never look to assess how much arcane punch I was packing.

“Get your weapon and make yourself presentable. We are getting out of here.” I ordered.

He went over to his axe and swung it a few times. Then he morphed into a 7 foot armored behemoth complete with inky black armor. We started walking back. He automatically fell into step a half pace behind me.

“No matter what happens you are not to attack anyone. Defend yourself and me if necessary but avoid killing.” I ordered over my shoulder. “The time for killing will doubtless come later.”

We walked up to the barrier. There was a large group gathered around looking through the transparent veil of the force field. With my new contract I could siphon soul energy from Ajak at will. I summoned enough to shatter the barrier and walked through. I couldn’t help but notice that my ability to channel and hold soul energy had increased, seemingly by a lot. Another thing to research.

The reactions on the faces of the crowd ranged from speculative (Alexandar) to fear (Jefferey) to anger (Luthair). The only one showing no emotion was Gwydion. I doubted this guy would sweat in the Sahara.

The silence was broken with an apoplectic fit from Luthair.

“What the fuck Melshimbar why is that accursed beast still on this plane? Our deal was for you to kill it. Not get you another pet!” He was turning a shade of red that I don’t think I had seen before.

“Actually if you read the contract,” I replied cooly “ you will see that the terms of our deal were for the use of any created artifacts and the attempt to stop the demon Ajak’crim’idallion’forseth from randomly terrorizing the Prime Material plane. I made the attempt and used the artifact I created, fulfilling the terms of our contract. Getting control of the crown prince of hell was just a bonus.”

“SOPHISTRY!” the wizard shouted. “Our deal is null and void you charlatan!”

“If you choose to back out of the deal I will be happy to use the power from your soul to feed Ajak here for his trip home. Of course I will also get the soul of Alexandar over there and he hasn’t done anything wrong yet. Maybe I will just use his soul energy to help facilitate a month long vacation to Fiji with my succubus mistress.” Actually I would hold off on using Alex’s soul power until when or if it finally came time to go head to head with the Paladins.

“Let me spell this out for you Luthair. You keep to the terms of the deal and I will get access to the archives and artifacts but you still get to plot and scheme against me. If you welch then I take out two major players in organizations that have been a pain in my ass for a while. So I really don’t give a flying fuck what you decide but I will not stand here and be yelled at by a fat fucker whose claim to fame is attacking more powerful entities from the shadows. Any time you want to throw down in a duel, you can grab your big boy panties and challenge me. Until that time I don’t want to hear another word from your mouth unless it is “thanks” or “this way to the artifacts and archives”. Do we have an understanding? Or am I gonna have to smack another bitch up?”

“Enough.” The word was spoken quietly yet forcefully. Both fat ass and I turned to the speaker.

Gwydion had risen from his seat in the back and made his way through the crowd. As he reached us he spoke clearly and succinctly.

“Martin, your reputation precedes you. I have no doubt that you fulfilled the terms of your contract to the letter. I am also quite aware that there will be aspects of our contract that we do not see until you choose to bring them to bear. As for now I will have a list of Warlock and Necromancer items to you within two days. I will allow you to visit each Paladin site one time to inspect for any hidden Artifacts. Any time you are taken to a black site you will be magically bound and blinded. We will be the sole arbiters of what is and is not considered to be a black site. Also this arrangement is not to take more than one year. You may send one authorized proxy to a site with the option to include another authorized proxy after 9 months. I will be meeting with you once every 3 months to discuss the actions of our paladins and their exuberance. This is to end after the term of two years. This will fulfill the terms of your contract and this is what you will agree to. Otherwise you can have Alexander’s soul right now and consider our deal to be void.”

Damn this guy was good. He laid out terms that would satisfy the contract then told me to take it or leave it. Oh well I still got unprecedented access to what I needed. I could figure the rest out later.

He gave me that expressionless look and stuck out his hand.

“Also, thank you very much for your assistance. We were out of our depth and your intervention was both timely and welcome.”

Huh.

Since Luthair was the Mage Council representative I decided I would get better service if I held off and dealt with the council directly tomorrow. I had to present Chloe.

The attitude of the command center was interesting. There was a sense of wanting to celebrate a huge victory but as long as I (and more importantly my new acquisition) was there they had a reminder that they really didn’t win.

I searched out Gwydion and gave him an address for our first meeting. We set it up for tomorrow at 8:00 in the evening. By mutual consent we decided to go somewhere neutral and come alone.

I teleported Ajak and myself back to my Tower. I was not expecting to see a fist of rage demons and 12 hellhounds standing at attention when we popped in. Xandra was dressed in typical fantasy body armor that looked horribly impractical but showed off every single feature. She always joked about her favorite weapon being a whip but the sword she had unsheathed was glowing with a dark, primal energy.