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[Influence check failed.]

Instantly, the most intense sensation of fear he’d ever felt flooded Zeth’s mind. He gasped in horror, kicking away from the source of his terror, feeling his heart pounding in his ribcage and his entire body trembling as he did.

The appearance of the demon seemed to twist and morph to fit the needles of fear stabbing into his mind. The scowl screwed into its humanoid face became a hungry snarl on a bloodthirsty monster’s. The calm, indifferent stance it held became one ready to lash out and slaughter the first living being it spotted. Drool dripped from its sharpened teeth, ready to tear into Zeth. It was going to kill him. It was going to kill him!

The demon’s eyes met Zeth’s, seeming to carry with them the murderous intent of an enraged god. Even the slightest moonlight glaring off the white in its eyes was like a beam of energy, piercing his heart and preventing him from moving a single inch more. Its red irises seemed to glow a fiery light, like Zeth would instantly catch aflame the moment the thing decided he should die.

In the back of his mind, Zeth knew something was wrong. He knew he’d failed a Stat check and what he was feeling was clearly an artificially enhanced sense of fear, but that knowledge did nothing to change the dread clutching his chest, closing his blood vessels and petrifying his muscles. He felt like he may black out if this kept up. The fear was so intense it was painful.

As shaky breaths escaped his lungs, Zeth watched the demon take a step forward, toward him. Instantly, the feeling doubled. The entire earth fractured and crumbled beneath its feet. Its murderous gaze was fixed on him. Its drooling mouth was open, ready to swallow him whole.

Zeth had no idea what was real and what wasn’t. The beast took another step, and he felt like his heart might stop beating. It was pumping as hard as it could, pushing energy through his body to escape from his imminent death, but he couldn’t move. He sat and stared, gasping for air as the demon continued in its stride toward him.

His sight flickered between what existed in the physical world and what his compromised mind was trying to show him. One moment, he was faced with a calm, muscular demon wandering over toward him with a curious, displeased look on its face. The next, he saw a beast with sharpened claws, fiery energy surrounding it as it dashed at him, face ever morphing between more and more terrifying monstrous depictions of the exact same expression—unending hunger.

It stopped in front of him, beside his trembling body as he lay on the ground, and stared down at his face.

“You’re clearly new to this,” it said, voice garbled between a deep masculine tone and a snarling growl. The first voice held the intonation of an unimpressed remark, while the other sounded like it was saying ‘you’re new and innocent, which will make you taste all the better.’ It continued, “The summoning felt different. Do you have some sort of evolution to the normal Skill I haven’t heard of? It almost feels like…”

The demon trailed off as Zeth finally found the ability to move his legs. With shaky, jerking movements, he kicked back, desperate to get as far away from the murderous figure as he possibly could. Every instinct in his mind screamed at him that he was the luckiest man in the world to have survived this long, and he couldn’t count on his luck to continue. Death was just around the corner. The demon was just about to kill and eat him. His mind felt like it was simultaneously shutting down from stress and cranking into overdrive, sending signals haphazardly across his body in hopes that maybe it would randomly stumble upon the combination of movements that could get him out of here.

“Huh,” the demon said, stepping forward to follow him. “Looks like you’re basically comatose. You must’ve had no warning whatsoever. Well, may as well get a free kill in while I’m here. Classed humans give such juicy rewards.”

It reached down to grab Zeth’s throat, and for once, it felt like Zeth’s fear-enhanced perception agreed with physical reality. This bloodthirsty beast was going to murder him.

“D—” Zeth could barely force his vocal cords to move. “Don’t h-hurt me.”

The moment the words left his mouth, the demon froze, then frowned. It straightened back up and sighed, looking off across the forest. “Oh well. You had to come from some settlement, I guess.”

With that, it strode off into the trees. And with every step it took away from Zeth, he could feel the weight of the fear lessening. He could form coherent thoughts again. Reality seeped back into his vision. He felt the cool breeze blow against his body, drenched in sweat.

He stared at the back of the demon as it walked off, choking in quick breaths as his consciousness fought against the fear that still attempted to invade it. What had it said? His memories were jumbled. He still had no real idea what had just happened—all he could remember was the fear, the sensation that he was about to die. But buried in there, had the demon said something about finding the place he came from? Was it trying to find more humans to kill?

“S-stop!” Zeth shouted, and once again, the demon froze. Mid-stride, it stopped exactly where it was, incapable to even turn its head to look back at Zeth.

With his wits only barely collected, Zeth shakily got to his feet, sweat dripping from his forehead into his eyes. This thing was bound to his word, right? He could command it to do whatever he wanted. There was nothing to fear. He chanted it to himself. There’s nothing to fear. It’s under your control. There’s nothing to fear. It’s under your control.

He took a long, deep breath. “Turn around.”

Still stuck in place about thirty feet away from him, the demon slowly turned to face Zeth, body moving in mechanical motion. Its scowl looked much more genuine now. “Looks like you found your nerve. Most don’t get to the point of speech so quickly.”

“S-stop using that Skill on me,” Zeth commanded. “The one that caused the Influence check.”

“Ignorant slug,” the demon spat. “It’s not something I can turn off. Get used to it.”

“Oh.” Zeth sighed, exhaling deeply as he attempted once again to calm his rapidly pumping heart. He was doing everything he could to keep himself from turning around and fleeing.

“You look like you’re about to have a heart attack,” the demon said. Zeth still caught flickers of its face morphing into a sadistic grin, like it was about to charge ahead and tear his ribcage asunder. “Go ahead. Die for me. All you worthless beings are good for is fueling our power.”

Zeth closed his eyes to try and shut out the disorientation. His mind was playing tricks on him, and it seemed like the demon knew as much. It was playing into the trick. He opened his eyes, chest rising and falling with each heavy breath he drew. “No. No, you have to obey me.”

The demon chuckled. “Have to? Ugh, you really are ignorant. No, slug, I do not ‘have to’ obey you. I’m currently choosing to do so until I hear your terms. Which, I’m going to go ahead and ask you what they are.”

Zeth frowned. “W-what?”

“Your terms. What are you—” it stopped and rolled its eyes. “I do not have time to educate worthless things like you. You probably don’t even have the mental capacity to understand.”

“Tell me,” Zeth demanded.

“Commands as general as that won’t work,” the demon said. “But I’ll tell you anyway, I suppose. I accepted your summons, which does indeed mean that, for as long as I am physically manifested in your puny realm, I am forced to do your bidding. However, I can leave whenever I want. If I don’t find my time here to be worthwhile, I will simply dematerialize and return to my own realm.”

“What?” Zeth asked. He hadn’t known that. Was this demon really about to just leave after all the work he’d gone through to summon it? “Th-then what would make it worthwhile to you?”

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It tilted its head, and Zeth couldn’t tell whether the sadistic smile he saw in the expression was true or if it was simply his fear-addled mind interpreting everything it did in the most hostile way possible.

“Isn’t it obvious?” the demon asked. “I’m here to kill humans.”

Zeth frowned, taking a shaky breath. “Why?”

The demon groaned in frustration, muttering something about how ‘slugs like this one are so much trouble.’ Then it spoke up. “As pathetic as you things are, you’re worth quite a lot, as far as the System is concerned—it overvalues you, for some reason. I have a combat-oriented Class, meaning I only Level up from killing. And nothing in our entire realm is worth more toward a demon’s next Level than taking a human life. So, I’m here to get stronger. Presumably, you’ve summoned me because you’re too weak to kill someone yourself, and you want me to do it for you. So, little slug, point me in that human’s direction, and I’ll end them for you.”

Some small part of Zeth’s mind felt enraged by the constant insults coming from the demon, and wanted to command it to stop speaking to him that way. But the terror shoved that part down, desperate to do nothing that might anger it. He clenched a fist, digging his fingernails into his palms, as if the pain would distract him from the fear.

What did he need the demon to do for him? Killing someone certainly sounded nice, but he wasn’t sure that he was ready to send a demon into town and start ripping people apart just yet. Really, what he wanted was more information about that ritual circle he found in that storage closet in the guild offices. He needed to know who had drawn it. More specifically, he needed to know whether or not it was Garon.

“I-I don’t want you to kill anyone right now.”

It stared at him blankly. “Do you have a prisoner I could kill instead?”

“What?” He shook his head. “No, I don’t have any prisoners for you. Listen, I just want you to go investigate someone. Maybe I’ll end up needing you to kill him, maybe not. I don’t know. But just sneak around, tail him for a bit, and report back to me if you find him doing anything suspicious. After that, I can figure something out for you.”

The demon chuckled mirthlessly. “You understand nothing, slug. I’m not doing anything for you unless you can make a deal with me where I am guaranteed to take a human life at some point along the process. That is the cost of doing business with a demon. Instead of having me ‘investigate’ this human, simply ask me to kill him, and I will do it easily.”

Zeth’s mind screamed at him to accept all terms and do everything the demon wanted, but he forced himself to take another calming breath and think before responding. He couldn’t let this demon go over and kill Garon right now. Not only would it be ridiculously dangerous to do something as big as that without at least thinking about it first, but he also needed to know whether or not Garon was the Blood Mage before he died so that Zeth would know if he still had to be on the lookout afterward. “I can’t do that. I need information on him first. Besides, I will be the one to kill him. Not someone else. If I were going to have you help me kill him, I’d let you protect me from his lackeys or something while I did the deed. There’s a chance he’d be summoning demons to fight for him, too, so I’d need you on my side to do so anyway.”

It frowned. “Your target is a Blood Mage?”

“Oh, I guess it would be a problem for you to fight other demons and Blood Mages, wouldn’t it?” Zeth asked, sighing to himself. Were these demons really going to be so useless for him?

“I have no standing deals with any of the societies of Blood Mages that would prevent me from killing theirs, nor do I have qualms with attacking other demons while in this realm,” it replied. “The summoning you Blood Mages perform only brings a demon’s physical body to this place—not our souls. If we were to fight, ‘dying’ would only send our consciousnesses back to our own realm to be placed back in our souls, where a new body would be formed around it with the help of the mana you put into that spell of yours. I am effectively immortal while here.”

“So you’d have no problem with it?”

“Do not put words into my mouth, slug. I said no such thing. While there is no risk of death while here, there certainly is a risk that my time and effort will be wasted—something that is happening right now. If I were to die before taking any human lives and I was forcibly unsummoned, that would mean all of my time spent in this disgusting realm was wasted. As such, if you are to have me try to investigate a man who may be guarded by demons, I absolutely will need up-front payment. If you cannot guarantee me that right now, I am leaving.”

“What’s to ensure you don’t just kill whoever I let you kill, and then you leave anyway?”

“Just how ignorant are you, little slug? Were you taught nothing? The Skill that allows you to call me here and issue commands allows you to give conditional commands as well as simple ones. If you were to say ‘you are allowed to kill this man only if you stay in this realm afterward in order to attempt to complete this task for me,’ I would be bound by your word after killing him. Such a type of command is the only way to prevent me from voluntarily leaving this realm.”

It was difficult for Zeth to take in everything the demon was explaining to him in his current state, every word that entered his ears being twisted and morphed to drip with venom, shadows creeping all around him. He tried to stay focused. “Fine, okay. So, if I get you some sort of up-front payment, can you go and look into this guy for me?”

“If you are to give me a conditional command, you will need to give a more direct order than ‘look into this guy,’ as you have so uncouthly worded it.”

Zeth took a shaky breath, rubbing his temples. “Okay, yeah, sure. I’ll figure that part out later. But can we just unofficially agree for now that the offer’s on the table? I get you someone you can kill, and you just tail this guy without getting noticed? Demons can do stealth and stuff, right?”

The demon stared at Zeth with obvious impatience. “You slugs have no end to your ignorance, it seems. Calling upon higher order species without even knowing of our capabilities. Yes, slug, I am perfectly capable of staying hidden from the dulled senses of humans. Simply ask me to attempt to hide while gathering the information, and I will do so. However, you seem to assume I will sit here and wait around for you to secure a bargaining piece. I would never make any sort of an ‘unofficial agreement’ with you, slug. You have done nothing but prove yourself as an unskilled, ignorant, weak little thing during our entire interaction—even when compared to other members of your species, you are especially worthless. I have no confidence whatsoever that you would be able to acquire a human before the time limit ran out.”

“Time limit? What are you talking about?”

“Really? The slug in front of me is not only this ignorant, but cannot even recall information? Every summoner I have ever met has known that any demon you summon will be forcibly unsummoned in twenty-four hours. You have seriously conducted this ritual without even stopping to think about what you’ve been told? Are you so utterly stupid that you would not think to do that? Or is there a hole somewhere in your head that the knowledge simply slipped out of? I cannot fathom—”

“Actually,” Zeth interrupted, his anger finally reaching a breaking point that pushed him to speak up despite his fear, “nobody ever told me that, dumbass. You sit there and act like you know every little thing that’s going on, but you’re pretty clearly just a stupid fucking egotist that can’t help but say whatever mean thing you can think of to feel good about yourself.”

The demon narrowed its eyes at him. “...What is your game here, slug?”

“There is no ‘game,’ dumbass. I’m trying to get something done, and I thought that the demons, with all that they’re talked about as being so bafflingly powerful and cunning, would, I dunno, be any help whatsoever to that goal. But apparently, no! Turns out, you fuckers are just a bunch of stupid, selfish bastards who can’t even understand the concept of doing something without being fed human lives in exchange. Turns out, you’re completely fucking useless to me! So yeah, go ahead and leave, I guess. I’ll figure out a way to do this without your—”

“No, not that,” the demon said, its voice carrying with it much less hostility now. Though, Zeth wasn’t sure if the demon was genuinely being less hostile, or if his rising anger was simply fighting off the magical fear effect and allowing him to hear how the demon’s words truly sounded now. It looked at him curiously. “What do you mean, you didn’t know about it?”

“I’m saying no one ever fucking mentioned it, dumbass. I don’t have some cabal of Blood Mages helping me out and feeding me information. So it looks like you were mistaken. Are you so surprised? Is this the first time you’ve ever been told you were wrong about something?”

“...Fine, I abide by your casual agreement. Find a human I can kill within two hours, and I will do what you ask.”

Zeth paused. “Wait, really?”

“Yes.”

He stared at the demon’s face, its expression unreadable not only because he wasn’t familiar with the species, but also because the fear effect kept throwing flickering hallucinations across his sight. It was impossible to see anything that wasn’t some variation of murderous aggression. But even so, the demon’s words seemed genuine.

Which only left the question, how would Zeth get this demon people it could kill? He’d started bargaining hypothetically, just so he could see if there was any way he could score its help, but now that he was faced with the problem of kidnapping and murdering a random person, he realized how problematic the situation he’d gotten himself into was.

“So then, slug, what will it be?”

Zeth frowned, realizing something. An opportunity. Quite the opportunity, in fact. “Can you help me acquire this sacrifice? It’d be risky for me to try and get it on my own.”

“If it is dangerous for you, it would be the same for me.”

“I won’t need you to do anything afterward. You can go right home after you help me acquire them. Sounds good, right?”

“Fine. If you give me…hm, two humans from this acquired sacrifice, I will assist you in taking them. What will your methods be that put you at risk?”

“Two’s fine,” Zeth said. “You see, there’s this group of humans I’ve been meaning to kill for a while now. They murdered my dad. And right now, they’re sitting in a comfy little jail cell waiting to be executed when the next round of Inquisitors come in town a while from now.”

“And what will you do about this?”

Zeth turned and looked in the direction of town, already creating a mental map of the area they would need to infiltrate. “What do you think? We’re gonna break them out of prison.”