The dark goo that covered the statues began morphing, small bits of it slithering from the five to create two more. Now seven devilish figures stood over the ritual circle.
The knights tried to respond, but they were all frozen in place. Whatever was going on was leagues above even full-fledged artisans.
"I, Morning Star, recognize you as one of my descendants," one of the statues said mockingly, its smile blackened like the abyss.
"To you, my child, I present the Soul Monarch's codex. A crafters tool, one that has chosen you to be its master," the statue continued, and an old book floated up from the hole through which the priest had been dragged through.
~D-Demon's,~Caspian thought to himself. What the hell was going on? Had it just called him its child? Was he really a descendant of a demon? Who the hell had his mother fucked?
"I sense doubt, child. However, I implore you to consider this carefully. These humans do not wish to let you live," the statue said, referring to the knights who were currently staring at Caspian with wary, fear-filled eyes.
As the book approached, Caspian could make out the faint outline of a skeletal figure carrying it, though he was unsure whether it was just his mind playing tricks on him.
"Do you accept responsibility of the Soul Monarch's artifact? Do you promise to uphold the principles of the one true necromancer? Do you swear fealty to this artifact, and vow never to uptake another?"
Caspian thought over it for a moment. What was he hesitating for? Sure, these were demons, beings they were taught never to trust. But what was the alternative? Rejecting it and being slaughtered by the church over treason? Or perhaps they would be kind enough to let him go, then what? Would he live the rest of his life in the mud because he had rejected his chance at power?
"I-I do."
"Then from this moment forth, you shall be it's master. I give to you everything. And in exchange... I shall one day take everything back."
It was at that moment that Caspian knew he had fucked up. Everything? Sure artifacts usually took an eye or a leg if they were powerful, but what kind of artifact took everything?
Before he could even complain, he felt a mind-ripping pain emanate from his left eye and right arm.
His screams echoed throughout the church, though funny enough, nobody else entered to see what was going on.
"Calm down, child. We give you these tools to help you use your new gift. The necromancer's left eye and right arm," the statue explained. And after a moment, the pain stopped, and his vision seemed different.
His right eye could see things normally, but his left could see... souls. Or what else were the floating wisps within the knights?
"As payment for the ritual, we will take 1000 souls," one of the other statues laughed, and in that split moment, Caspian could see a thousand wisps being sucked toward the statues.
Mass murder.
The odd thing was that he felt no dread. At best he was scared, but he felt no sympathy for the large-scale loss of life. Was he truly the spawn of devils?
"Show them who you are... remind them who the true rulers of this world are," Morning Star said, before the statues crumbled, and the menacing aura disappeared.
Of the humans who had been inhabiting the church, only three remained including Caspian. The other two were the knights who had been in the room when the ritual had happened.
He tried to keep his calm, but he couldn't contain his excitement. Okay, so he had given up 1000 souls, an arm, and an eye... as well as everything, but imagine what kind of power that equated to.
He could become emperor of the kingdom... no, of the continent.
~I'll probably be ranked disaster class, no maybe they'll make a new rank for me?~ he thought to himself as he held out his necrofied arm. It looked like it had been tattooed with the darkest ink possible, and oozed a menacing purple mist.
Once he waved it, the codex came into existence, floating right in front of him. His right eye couldn't see it, but his left could.
~Perhaps the demons aren't so bad after all. If they wanted to, they could've left without giving me the arm and the eye,~ he thought to himself as he gestured for the codex to flip its pages.
~Hey, what's this about? Only one page has any writing?~ he thought to himself, his heart beating fast at the realization he had been swindled.
~~In order for one to have sovereignty over the gift of death, one must have given and received the gift first.~~ the words written at the top of the first page read.
"No, no... you've got to be kidding me. You want me to die?" he whispered to himself. Suddenly, he became painfully aware that he was not alone in the room.
The two knights had been staring at him the whole time, one of them was on a communication gem and from the sound of it, he was reporting the matter to the church.
"W-wait, I'm not a demon. I-I don't know what happened... I'm just a little child," he tried explaining, before feigning fear. However the knights were no fools, they had been trained well, and his poor acting skills were fooling no one.
"Enchant!" the both of them shouted. One of them had a sword surrounded by a flaming aura suddenly appearing in his hands. And the other had had a frost aura surrounding his fingertips.
Caspian turned to run, even if his artifact wasn't a complete scam, there was no way he would be able to fight against fully trained knights.
However, before he could even so much as take a step, his feet were bolted to the ground with ice. The cold chill made them so numb it was as if they weren't even there.
The next moment was filled with incredible pain, a smoldering hot blade punctured right through his heart, boiling his blood.
~Fuck, you... demons,~ he thought to himself as the world around him turned black.
"That was easy. Are you sure that was a demon?" the pyromancer asked, before using his blade to melt the ice.
"Of course it was. Look at its arm," the glaciomancer said, pointing towards the still ominous arm.
" I guess it doesn't matter, it's dead now. Demon or not, it was a threat. Let's just take it to HQ before it starts to rot," the pyromancer said, before checking Caspian's pulse. Once his death was confirmed, the pyromancer deactivated his artifact and picked Caspian up.
"I'll go get the horses," the glaciomancer said, before leaving.
"This was a disaster class threat at least. We had like 100 men here, and they all died in a flash?" the pyromancer said as he looked out of the church windows to see all the dead bodies.
~I'm still... alive?~