The summoning circle glowed with an eerie red hue, hellfire licking at the edges as the scent of sulfur thickened in the air.
"Who dares summon me?" a guttural voice growled from the center of the ritual. The room's temperature spiked, the air heavy with an oppressive heat.
Luke coughed, waving away the thickening smoke.
"You fuc—ahem, mighty demon of hell," he corrected himself hastily, barely stopping himself from cursing outright.
"I am your most devout follower," he continued, throwing in some extra reverence for good measure.
"I find myself in dire straits and seek to borrow your power. As much as possible."
The words flowed more naturally now, though his tone still held the unmistakable air of a desperate gambler trying to finesse a loan.
He could almost hear himself asking,
'Hey, could you spot me three hundred bucks of demonic power?'
Silence filled the room.
Limbo
In the vast hellscape of Limbo, a demon with a grotesque horse-like face, leathery wings, and fiery red skin stood frozen in disbelief.
"I… I actually have a believer?"
N'astirh, a low-ranking demon captain who spent his days patrolling the desolate outskirts of Hell, was dumbfounded.
Only the most powerful lords of hell had followers, those with the influence to spread their name beyond dimensions.
And yet, here he was, being summoned.
A rare opportunity.
One he could not waste.
With a sudden boom!, the flames in the summoning circle surged, hellfire stretching over a meter high.
Within the inferno, N'astirh's form gradually materialized—first his twisted head, then his muscular upper body, until he loomed over Luke, his crimson eyes glowing.
Luke's stomach dropped.
'Damn. That's one ugly horse face.'
"Speak, my follower," he intoned, his voice dripping with malice.
"What is it you desire? Wealth beyond measure? Women worshiping at your feet? The power to control life and death itself?"
He leaned in, his fiery breath washing over Luke.
"All of this can be yours—for a small price."
Luke held up a hand. "Yeah, yeah, I already told you—I need power. The stronger, the better."
N'astirh's prepared speech faltered. "Uh—right. My believer, I can grant you unimaginable power, but in exchange, you must—"
"Yeah, yeah, my soul, right? Got it. Do you have the contract?"
N'astirh blinked. "...Yes."
A tattered parchment materialized in Luke's hand.
Without hesitation, he scrawled a name at the bottom.
"Your name is Mordo?" N'astirh asked, tilting his head.
The N'astirh's lips curled into a smirk. Foolish human.
The contract was not bound by a mere name but by the very soul of the one who signed it.
Regardless of what he wrote, Luke was bound to the deal.
Luke tucked the contract back into N'astirh's waiting claws.
Something in N'astirh's expression shifted.
He glanced around the dimly lit room, suddenly uneasy.
The architecture seemed oddly familiar, ancient inscriptions lining the walls.
Then his eyes landed on the corner of the room.
A faint glow. Two strange symbols drawn in chalk.
Something about them sent a primal, creepy feeling inside him
Ignoring it, N'astirh looked at the contract,
The contract had worked!
While N'astirh remained suspicious, he still transferred nearly half of his demonic power to Luke.
Just as the transfer was completed...
Regret struck N'astirh like a lightning bolt.
This wasn't just a bit of energy—it was half a lifetime of cultivation!
Though the contract dictated that the power was only loaned for a year, after which N'astirh could reclaim both the power and Luke's soul, something about this deal felt... off.
Why did he feel like he had just been scammed?
"Haha! So this is what true power feels like?" Luke exclaimed, his voice brimming with excitement.
His eyes ignited with hellfire, glowing an eerie crimson.
An uncontrollable aura of dark energy surged from his body, filling the room with an oppressive force.
[Ding!]
[Abnormal energy detected!]
[The Supreme Exorcist System is cleansing foreign influence!]
A mechanical voice echoed in Luke's mind.
The next second, the wild and foreign demonic power in Luke's body suddenly calmed.
No longer chaotic, no longer resisting—it felt like a natural extension of himself, as if he had been born with it.
"What?!"
Inside the six-pointed star formation, N'astirh, who had been about to leave, froze.
His massive, grotesque horse-like face twisted in shock.
His glowing eyes locked onto Luke.
"What did you do?! What have you done?!"
Panic surged through the demon's voice.
He couldn't sense his power anymore.
It was still inside Luke, but something was missing.
The spiritual imprint that bound the energy to him... it was gone!
His power had been stolen, purified—no longer his.
"Wait... did my exorcism cleanse it too?" Luke muttered to himself in surprise.
He hadn't expected this.
Not only had the Supreme Exorcist System taken the demonic power, but it had erased N'astirh's connection to it entirely.
Which meant...
The contract was now useless.
No demonic energy pledged to Luke meant no debt to be paid.
Even if the contract somehow remained valid, he had zero intention of honoring it.
"You tricked me?!" N'astirh's voice rose to a deafening roar.
"Filthy human! Damn you!"
Rage twisted the demon's features.
He raised a massive, clawed arm, hellfire crackling around it.
Just as he was about to strike—
WHOOSH!
Two golden exorcism arrays, carefully placed by Luke before the ritual, flared to life.
Blinding white light exploded from the symbols, engulfing N'astirh.
"NO!"
In an instant, the demon lord was gone.
Along with him, the room's sulfurous stench vanished. The oppressive energy lifted, replaced by an almost divine freshness in the air.
Kamar-Taj Library.
Wong, absorbed in a thick tome of ancient magic, suddenly snapped his head up.
"This surge of energy... That's a banishment spell strong enough to repel a Hell Lord!"
His brows furrowed.
"No... Stronger than that. And there were two of them?!"
Wong was stunned.
Only the Ancient One was capable of arranging a spell of this caliber in Kamar-Taj.
But Kamar-Taj hadn't been invaded.
Wong extended his spiritual senses, sweeping the entire sanctum.
Not a single trace of demonic presence remained.
Not a single shadow of a Hell Lord.
It was as if N'astirh had never set foot on Earth.
"Ancient One?"
He attempted to reach out through magic.
No response.
Meanwhile…
Limbo.
A blinding white light smashed N'astirh's towering form into the boiling lava of his home dimension.
"HUMAN!"
"AAAHHHHH!"
"Damn it! Mordo! You traitorous scum!!!"
With great effort, N'astirh clawed his way out of the bubbling magma.
His demonic horse-like face twisted in rage, teeth grinding against each other.
"Captain N'astirh?"
A low-ranking demon nearby noticed him.
N'astirh, still seething, said nothing.
His rage needed an outlet.
He grabbed the demon and started pummeling it.
Then—
Mid-punch, something felt wrong.
"Wait... Hold on... Stop!"
He stumbled back in horror.
The white light from earlier hadn't just separated his power from Luke.
It had weakened him.
Badly.
His strength had plummeted so much that…
That low-level demon just punched him back.
"...Oh no."
A second later, N'astirh found himself on the ground, bruised, beaten, and humiliated.
A single drop of molten lava dripped from his eye.
His miserable wail echoed through the realm of Limbo.
...
The moment N'astirh was expelled, a system prompt immediately echoed in Luke's mind.
[Ding!]
[Achievement Unlocked: First Exorcism!]
[Congratulations! You have received the achievement reward: Holy Soul!]
(Effect 1: Your soul is pure and untouchable by any dark force. No corruption, no destruction.)
(Effect 2: An irresistible temptation for any evil entities seeking a soul.)
"Huh?"
"Pure and untouchable?"
Luke squinted at the system's description, then quickly rifled through his memories.
Nope.
All his dark humor, questionable thoughts, and morally gray ideas were still intact.
He let out a relieved sigh.
Good. He was still himself—a 'kind' young man.
But then he saw the second effect.
"An irresistible temptation for evil entities seeking a soul?"
Luke's eyes gleamed.
Wouldn't this make him the ultimate bait for demons?
No devil would refuse a loan application from a holy soul, right?
Yes! This reward was amazing!
Shoving his excitement aside, Luke refocused on his biggest gain from this whole encounter—the demonic power.
Now that the system had purified it, it felt completely natural, as if it had been his from the start.
With just a thought—
Boom!
A ball of blazing hellfire erupted from his palm.
The power flowed seamlessly.
Channeling it into hellfire was pure instinct.
"The most basic energy conversion…"
He clenched his fist, extinguishing the flames, and decided to push the experiment further.
Taking out his Sling Ring, he raised his other hand and began tracing a circle in the air.
Boom!
A flaming portal, composed entirely of hellfire, burst into existence.
Luke's face lit up, the fire reflecting in his eyes. "No way… it actually works!"
He had replaced the usual mystic energy in portal magic with demonic power—and it functioned perfectly.
"So most spells are just frameworks…" he muttered. "Any energy can be used to power them, as long as it's compatible."
He was about to step into the fiery portal, eager to test where it led, when—
"Ahem."
A calm voice sounded behind him.
Luke froze mid-step. His raised foot slowly lowered back to the ground.
He swallowed hard. "Ancient One?"
Yep.
The legendary Sorcerer Supreme was standing right behind him, her gaze locked onto the hellfire portal.
Luke's heart pounded.
Panic swelled inside him.
Emergency question: What do you do when you're caught using demonic energy in Kamar-Taj?
"You wield demonic power," the Ancient One stated, her voice neutral.
Luke stiffened.
Oh crap. Was she going to eliminate him on the spot?
No way.
She had Dormammu's dark power inside her too, right?
What? Is this the 'she break the rules and she become a Sorcerer Supreme, I do it, I become the enemy' situation?
That doesn't seem fair...
"Don't be nervous. I won't harm you," she reassured.
Luke nearly jumped.
Is she reading my mind?!
"No, I'm not reading your mind."
Luke's breath hitched. "You sure about that? Because that's exactly what someone who's reading my mind would say."
The Ancient One simply gave him a knowing look.
Luke instantly shut down his thoughts.
No more weird ideas. Nothing. Blank slate. Better yet—
'Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you downNever gonna run around and desert you~'
The silence stretched.
The Ancient One sighed, rubbing her temple. "You follow me."
She flicked her wrist, opening a golden portal, then stepped through it.
Luke hesitated only for a second before shrugging and stepping in.
He had already crossed the line. Might as well see where this was going.
A flash of light later—
Luke emerged at the peak of a snow-covered mountain.
The frigid wind howled around him, cutting into his skin like a thousand tiny knives.
His newly acquired demonic power reacted instinctively, conjuring a fiery barrier around him, shielding him from the cold.
The Ancient One observed him with an unreadable expression. "If I hadn't seen you before, I might have mistaken you for a demon born straight from hell."
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