Standing on the edge of a circle formed by my own blood, I took a moment to steady myself. Breathing in deeply, I exhaled a series of heavy breaths, each one an effort to calm my racing heartbeat and steady my nerves. The air around me felt charged with electricity, my own fear mingling with anticipation and determination. I reached for the bottle of disinfecting alcohol, its strong scent filling my nostrils as I poured it onto the freshly opened wound. A sharp sting cut through the area, causing me to flinch involuntarily.
But I quickly forced myself to continue, knowing that any hesitation could lead to disaster. Swiftly, I proceeded to bandage the wound, cocooning it and preventing any further bleeding or infection.
"What are you doing?" questioned the real Favian inside my mind, his voice laced with fear and uncertainty. In this world, devils were as dangerous as poisoned honey, and he knew it all too well as he too sometimes gave thought on doing this.
I smiled back at him, trying to project confidence despite the tremble in my fingers as I tied off the bandage. "You'll find out soon enough," I replied cryptically.
I plopped down in the center of the circle, making myself comfortable on the cool stone floor. The cool sensation allowed me to give one last thought on what I was about to do . The entity I was about to call upon was one that would grant me immense power and help me survive in this treacherous world. And luckily for me, he was just as desperate for a deal as a baby turtle trying to make its way to the sea after hatching from its egg.
In this world, devils and demons are like different kinds of animals, sort of like how dogs and wolves are. The story says they both came from an hellish-like planet, and they used to be part of the same group. But then something big happened – a massive fight, a civil war, tore them apart. This turned them into two separate groups: devils and demons.
Now, the reason behind this huge fight is a big mystery, adding even more interest to their history. But what we do know is what happened afterward.
Ejected from their homeland, the demons embarked on a desperate journey through the stars, pillaging and conquering new worlds in search of a new home. Each leader from the bloody war became a king in their own right, leading their armies with an iron fist and unquenchable thirst for power.
They fought hard on each new planet they found, either taking control of it like parasites or disappearing if they lost.
This whole story is like a wild dance of power, where the demons are trying to be in charge of the places they find, or else they might just disappear if things don't go their way.
The novel didn't bother explaining how many tribes of demons won or lost—it kept that part a mystery. But one of those demon groups landed on this planet, and that's when the whole "Call of Narlai" thing went down.
Now, while demons were getting stronger by beefing up their bodies to take over new planets, the devils stayed put on their home turf. They went all-in on tech and magic, figuring out how to open doors to other worlds. They weren't thinking about conquering those places, though, after all they had no reason to .
Instead, they decided to make deals with the natives living there. In exchange for something, the devils got powers from these pacts. The more deals a devil made, the more stuff they got and the stronger they became.
The catch was, there were specific requirements for other's planets natives to reach out to the devils. They couldn't just ring them up. One rule was knowing the devil's name. If that box wasn't ticked, there was no call from the other side.
Luckily for me, I happened to know the name of a powerful entity whose identity got lost in the ancient tales. This being hadn't made a deal in ages, like we're talking thousands of years. That meant it was kinda stale in the power department, and that made it desperate to snag more contracts. The fear of falling behind other demons was probably eating it up.
Now, how did I get this inside scoop? Well, Lucas spilled the beans in the later part of the novel. He stumbled upon a shrine dedicated to this entity in some dungeon. But being the cautious guy he is, Lucas wrecked the whole thing. Once he read about how strong that creature could get, he didn't want to risk anyone else getting that power, so he just trashed the shrine.Which in a certain sense makes him my benefactor as without his cautiousness I would not have known of that entity.
Anynow I believe it is time to call it .I took a deep breath, feeling the weight of the moment settle in. With a focused determination, I tried to etch the words into my memory, knowing that what I was about to say held the key to summoning that ancient entity.
''As mortals wither and perish,
as even the heavens crumble and fall,
your power reigns supreme.
Depravity and violence are your domain,
where only the strongest can answer your call.
Blood is your throne, a crimson seat
where shadows writhe in fear.
In the endless abyss, where darkness holds sway, your name echoes with haunting screams.
And as the mortal world trembles in terror,
your influence spreads like a plague
with each passing night.
Oh ancient force, cursed and dreaded, your name whispered in tongues of fire.
I call upon you now, oh Baalkaroth,
to heed my plea and return to this world.
Let my enemies fall before me at your command, for you are the ultimate ruler of all."
made most of It myself cool right?)
As the final word left my lips, a thick crimson liquid began to seep from every crevice of the room. It glowed with an otherworldly radiance, casting a haunting sheen over everything it touched. The darkness crept in swiftly, engulfing me in its suffocating embrace. With each step I took, the air grew heavier and colder, sending shivers down my spine and stealing my breath away.
The once-familiar room now bore the weight of an unspoken presence, a palpable sense of dread that made every hair on my body stand on end. And in front of me loomed a throne made entirely of human skulls, reaching towards the heavens in a macabre display. Each skull was twisted and distorted, their faces frozen in expressions of terror and agony.
Perched upon this grotesque throne sat a demon, a being so horrific that it defied all bounds of imagination. Its skin was as white as freshly fallen snow, stretched tightly over a skeletal frame adorned with protruding ribs that hinted at its malnourished state. As it turned to face me, its sunken eyes seemed to bore into my very soul, emanating a sinister energy that left me trembling with fear and disgust.
The head, an abomination in itself, resembled that of an elephant in size, yet lacked any semblance of the majestic of that animal.
The face was a nightmare given for,a gaping maw filled with countless rows of serrated teeth, an insatiable abyss ready to devour all in its path. Two sets of unyielding eyes glared with an unsettling intensity, devoid of any compassion or humanity. The absence of a nose only heightened the fear I was feeling.
Calm down , everything is all right , it's as it has always been ....you either win or you die.Nothing more nothing less....
Tremors wracked my body as I stood before the ancient throne, a towering figure of pure malevolence perched upon it.
"It has been eons since someone dared to utter my name," the voice echoed through the obsidian darkness. Its monotone timbre resembled the ceaseless patter of falling rain, an unsettling calm that pervaded the space.
"Did they not teach you the folly of locking eyes with a god?" The words dripped with a chilling indifference, a warning carried on the breath of the spectral air. The grotesque figure seated upon the throne continued, "And you, standing there, towering more than I deem appropriate."
I found myself mysteriously lowering my head, my gaze now fixated on the base of the throne, avoiding the piercing intensity of those soulless eyes.
Suddendly I find my head forcefully lowered at the base of the throne,I tried to get up but I continued to fail .
Not understanding what was going on I looked back and I couldn't believe what I was seeing... my legs were missing. Despite the shock, I remained surprisingly calm. The Devil wouldn't dare kill the only person who knew his true name, that was my only card and reason for which I was still alive
As I forced myself to calm down I observed the power of the demons,my blood instead of flowing outward from my wounds, flew in the air before being pulled towards the demonic figure. It opened its mouth wide and the crimson stream disappeared into its dark depths with an eerie gracefulness. In that moment, everything became clear to me. The words from that forbidden book that Lucas had stumbled upon before destroying the shrine echoed in my mind: "Blood is your domain." This gruesome scene solidified the sinister meaning behind those cryptic words. And yet, I couldn't help but find it strangely mesmerizing. (picture of demon in comments)