It had been apparent that the sub-system update for the Trade Shop had been a boon of the highest order. In fact, he had thoroughly enjoyed the fact that he could purchase helpful specific items in their time of need, instead of having to buy general items that had passed through his mind before he traded their corpses.
But what made him cognizant of that veritable boon was the item he held in his very hands. It was a parchment scroll, wizened and yellowed, tied with a blue ribbon made from an unknown fabric.
A spell scroll, not the first one that he had held, but certainly the most expensive one. Just the thought of having to use this ached his heart, much like it ached his virtual wallet when he bought it from the Trade Store.
He just hoped that the spell would be worth the 250 credits he burned. He cringed at the thought of that number, having thanked his lucky stars that he had the mind to trade the demon and its vessel beforehand. Otherwise, he would have to scrounge southern California for any signs of monster infestation.
Alas, it was a necessity, for he had a growing retinue of murderous, demonic, and often hostile prisoners in his home. He had to make one of them crack and, frankly, he'd rather it be the witch.
Charlotte, one of the first supernatural entities he had hunted and the first he had captured. He had kept her in the third floor locked three-fold, a Witchcatcher in her neck, a Warding Circle around her bed, and lock enchantment on her room. Her room rivals the security of most nuclear silos and makes her look more dangerous than any serial killers combined.
Hesitating no more, Irwin crushed the scroll, causing it to burn up into ashes and flow into his mouth, tasting like bitter coffee melted in dry ice water. But he pushed through the taste and activated his system, gazing at the detailed description of the spell.
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▪︎Soul Domination▪︎
Level: MAX
Type: Manual
Classification: Special; Enchantment; Ritual; Natural Order; Pagan; Celestial; Human
Chant: Sikonbe nan Rada Iwa a ak asire w ke lènmi nou yo te vire jeneral. Ostilite te vin chame, kòlè fè zanmi, ak lapenn vire kè kontan / Se pou dam mambo gide nou nan sereng sa a epi yo ka Bawon Samedi aksepte ofrann nou an / Kite m pran yon dife nan kè l. Pote lapè ak kè kontan pou l akonpli objektif li pou mwen
Range: Touch
Components:
(1) Ritual Circle: Caster's blood, 400-year-old white Ginseng root, spinal fluid of a saint, mortar and pestle carved from andesite, and wax from a Cathedral's oldest candle
(2) Offering: Gem dust, item of great or sentimental value from the caster
(3) Mind Link: Caster's blood, target creature's blood, and angel grace
Ritual:
(1)...
Effect #1: The caster enters the target creature's mind and defeats both its unconscious and subconscious will.
Effect #2: If the target creature is defeated, the spell will manipulate and replace related memories to convert the target creature's allegiance to that of the caster.
Effect #3: If the caster is defeated, the spell will manipulate and replace related memories to convert the target creature's allegiance to that of the target creature.
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He blew out hot air from his mouth as he sat back and digested the information in front of him. Although quite powerful when used properly, the components alone would put a large dent in his virtual pockets.
In fact, if he still had all his credits from buying the spell, he would still be hesitant to waste all that credit. But he figured that's why it was called credit in the first place. It was meant to be spent. At least that's what he tells himself to not tear his scalp apart.
He severed his thoughts and burned through another seventy credits, leaving him with nothing but a measly three credits. All that credits for just one portion, each of the harder to get ingredients, having not enough for a practice round like his usual routine for new spells.
He took out a pen from the drawer and began writing the missing ingredients from the spell. He, then, removed himself from the study, intent on finding Ella, and found her in the kitchen along with Andy as they shared a Tiramisu without him. Again.
"An act of betrayal, Ella." Irwin growled, taking a fork and partaking in the desert. "You're on thin ice, Andy."
"Whoa, man. It's not my fault your girl likes me more." Andy waved off Irwin's warnings.
"She's not my girl."
"I'm not her girl."
They replied simultaneously, earning Andy's laughter.
Ella, mouth open in astonishment, scoffed at Irwin. "Who the hell are you to tell people that I'm not your girl?"
"What? It's true, Innit?" Irwin responded, a rough British accent coming through at the last second.
"It is. But only I have the right to say it, because you want to fuck me and I don't." She replied.
Irwin was appalled, clearly evident in his face as Andy covered his mouth to hide his laughter. "I don't want to- my god! You vile huntress! Fine, you win."
Her full lips morphed into a brilliant and mirthful smile. "Thank you." She said sharply, before asking why he was here.
Irwin took out the list and handed it to Ella, savoring the fork in his mouth as he tasted her baking. Ella groaned as she read the list, having been the one entrusted by Lady Anastasia with the safekeeping of her room and the menagerie of ingredients.
In fact, she had specifically entrusted Ella not to allow Irwin inside of her room without her supervision. The man, of course, complained about the matter, but even Archibald had no choice in the scenario.
Irwin smiled as she stomped off to the third floor, turning towards Andy in the meantime. "How's your brother?"
Andy shrugged. "He doesn't like being jailed, that's for sure."
"Is he still monologuing?" Irwin asked.
"Pretty much." He replied with a soft chuckle. "Says he can teach me how to tell people-"
"Telepathic commands." Irwin corrected, earning Andy's light surprise. "If he sees someone, he can control them with his mind. You can do it, too."
"I can?" Andy asked.
"Eh, but maybe you'll get a new power." Irwin was not exactly sure how Andy's abilities would develop once he gets a proper training, but just making his mind control powers more potent and lasting longer would make the entire ordeal with his brother worth it. "The animal delivery will be coming tomorrow. You'll be training with them non-stop since we need you to be ready before the year ends."
"Wait- What'll happen before the year ends?" He asked, fear creeping up his voice.
Irwin smirked. "I gotta go."
Leaving the slightly terrified Andy alone with his tiramisu, Irwin jogged upstairs and ran into Ella, who was carrying a wicker basket full of the missing ingredients. Saying his gratitude, Irwin carried the basket and walked towards the only other room on the floor.
He looked back and saw Ella following after him. He hummed at her. She rolled her eyes, lightly scoffing before stomping her feet and turning her feet towards the staircase.
Irwin continued on his way, opening the metal door and entering the room. Seeing the slightly matte hair, jagged and bitten fingernails, traces of dry drool on her face, and dark bags under her eyes, he could not help but shake his head in delight and shame.
'I really have to scrub her down after this. God, what a hot mess.' He severed his thoughts of her, placing down the basket on the table next to the door. "You may reply, but no spells. Have you taken a shower yet, Charlotte?"
Charlotte merely looked in his direction, blinking slowly. A dull look on her face, as if she had no life in her at all. Anything capable of resistance inside of her was gone. A delightful sight for what Irwin had planned for her.
He removed the slate of wood that completed the enchanted circle around her bed, allowing Charlotte to step over the line. To which he ordered him to do as Charlotte stood from her seat at the edge of her bed and trudged out of the circle for the first time in three months, gait so slow and painful that Irwin had no choice but to order her to walk faster.
Setting her on the eastern side of the room, Irwin took out his knife and poured his blood onto the mortar. Seeing the bloodstain on the smooth rock, Irwin gritted his teeth as he procured the rare ingredients from the Trade Counter and the ones from Lady Anastasia's room before pouring it into the mortar.
He grabbed the pestle, mixing and grinding all the ingredients until it turned into a coagulant paste-like substance. Its sight reminded Irwin of the soups he used to feed homeless people during his stint on community service.
Drawing the pentagram with Charlotte inside, Irwin cleared his throat as he chanted the invocation, "Sikonbe nan Rada Iwa a ak asire w ke lènmi nou yo te vire jeneral. Ostilite te vin chame, kòlè fè zanmi, ak lapenn vire kè kontan…"
The sigil glowed with a dim blue light, illuminating the room of its magical energy. The circle itself was fairly easy to inscribe; it was merely the draw from his magical reserves that made him breath hard from the act.
Next came the offering. Irwin took out a vial of ruby gem dust, pouring enough to fill the bounty circle inside of the sigil. Glimmering with crimson light, the bounty circle needed one more item.
He had thought about it for a long time - from the inception of the spell in his mind up until now - and still hadn't any clue on how to find an item of sentimental value to him. As such, he had decided to go with the most expensive one: the enchanted Iridium knife.
After saying his farewell to his most trusted weapon, Irwin's eyes glowed purple light, contrasting the blue illumination created by the entire sigil, as he chanted the second part of the incantation. " Se pou dam mambo gide nou nan sereng sa a epi yo ka Bawon Samedi aksepte ofrann nou an…"
The room shook with great intensity as Irwin unleashed the full extent of his magical power, shocking even the dull-witted form of Charlotte. From within his shirt, the Erishkigal's amulet grew bright with violet hue as it, too, unleashed its own essence and synergized with Irwin's own.
His voice echoed around the room like the mournful wails of damned souls, unable to reach their true destination and bogged down into the mire of uncertainty and unfinished reality.
Charlotte's eyes, once blurry and moored by the weight of her capture, dilated into deftness, exhibiting existence once seen in that abandoned mental hospital. She tapped into her own well of powers, but found it barren and wrung to the bones by the very clutch of the Witchcatcher.
The spell liquified the gem dust and the knife as it flowed, following the pattern set by the pentagram sigil before solidifying, covering the blue light with a crimson shade.
Irwin readied himself for the next part. It would be the most taxing and, more importantly, most expensive part of the ritual. Excluding his and Charlotte's blood, he took out the angel's Grace, at least a fragment of it; The only thing he could afford that was under fifty credits.
It brightened the room in a way he thought impossible. The mere presence of the viscous white liquid seemed to evaporate the magical energy coming from both of them. It was as if magik was prostrating itself in reverence to a higher form of energy.
The Grace of an angel. Fragmented beyond belief, enough for a fallen angel to go full power for one entire hour or for Irwin to suppress the will of a person's soul once.
"Kite m pran yon dife nan kè l. Pote lapè ak kè kontan pou l akonpli objektif li pou mwen!"
He had reflexively closed his eyes as he finished the spell, but he could still see the surroundings, albeit with wisps of colorful energy that pranced around the air like playful fairies. Charlotte's form was unlike he had seen in the real world for her very presence seemed to attract the nearby wisps of energy before devouring them in mere moments, not unlike a blood-thirsty orca playing with its food.
He felt the very essence inside of his body nearly succumb to the pressure of her essence, but he persevered and forced his will onto Charlotte's as she fought back unconsciously.
He now knew this was only the first battle of wills, a barrier to enter her brain with the consequence being wasting seventy credits, but he also knew that every part of the spell was as important as the ultimate battle.
He concentrated his synergized magical energy and formed multiple tendrils of corporeal purple light that surrounded and lunged at her physical and metaphysical form, engulfing her with their wriggling form.
Her own energy could not even form a defense before he opened a hole large enough for his will to pierce through and activate the penultimate part of the spell. The fragmented angel's Grace dissipated into a single wisp of alabaster energy, thin enough to be called a line, that attached one end to his frontal lobe and the other end through the hole and onto her forehead.
The very surrounding felt heavy, as if gravity had taken off its white gloves and bore down every bit of power unto him. He looked around the area and found nothing but a dark forest surrounding him, leafless trees reaching up to the very sky with hundreds upon hundreds of branches writhing in unexplained anger at the surrounding air.
The ground felt moist and soft to the touch, not unlike that of leaf compost without the accompanying smell.
He knew that this wasn't the real world, merely a figment of Charlotte's imagination and a defensive structure used by her subconscious to defend from her invaders - namely him.
"But it feels… too real." Irwin sighed, recognizing that he didn't actually sigh, but merely thinking of sighing. "Damn. I hate mind magic."