Self-Summon [Demon Summoning/Evolution LitRPG]

“Is Fioso around?” Gelic inquired. “My master would be willing to meet him soon if he’s still interested. Uhh, like not right now, but maybe in the next few weeks if that works.” Yes, it would be great to sit down for another chat with him. She had so many more questions, and if he was willing to answer, there was no reason to refuse his hospitality.

“Unfortunately, the master is out of town, and will be for quite some time,” the butler relayed. “Something in the Middle-West. Hrm, what was the country again? Oh, who cares. I can dig up a mailing address if you’d like, or relay a message mentally. Though…” Diamen paused, looking annoyed about something he was about to say. “I was instructed that if you or your master… Merlina, correct? If either of you came here for an emergency, then he would return immediately. Is this an emergency?”

“Uhh, no.” She couldn’t say it was, and would feel bad about him travelling halfway around the world just for her, though he likely had some magic to do so more simply. “But uhh, if you wouldn’t mind letting him know that he’s welcome to reach out when he’s back, please.”

“Very well.” He nodded amenably, surprisingly cooperative. “It is my duty to relay messages for my master, after all.”

“Oh, in that case, I, or rather Merlina had a somewhat urgent question for him, but maybe you could ask him and let me know. It doesn’t have to be right now, but she’d like to know what phone carrier he uses, whether there’s a special one for Summoners, like with the bank, so they can’t be tracked.”

“I can just tell you,” he offered. “I don’t know if it’s special or not, but since I pay his bills, I know the one that he uses is called Cell Saver Mobile.”

“Huh? But that’s… err, thank you.” She pivoted quickly, thrown off for a moment by her confusion. That was the current provider she already used, so she was taken aback by the coincidence. Except it wasn’t a coincidence at all, was it, since she had originally been on a plan with her mother. It had never made sense to Angelica why they were on some cheap scammy-sounding provider instead of one of the popular name-brand ones when her mother made good money, but since the woman was a Summoner, now it all lined up. Since Fioso was on it too, that had to be the reason. So as it turned out, she never had a reason to worry about her phone being tracked to begin with.

“Speaking of passing messages, though,” Diamen interrupted the sudden silent moment while her thoughts were processing. “Fioso did request I deliver one to you, Gelic, should we happen to cross paths again. Likely an unnecessary warning, but he is worried for your circumstances. To confirm, you are still doing work for other Summoners while Bound to Merlina, correct?”

“Uhh, yeah.” She didn’t see a reason to deny it, but it made him sigh.

“Very well, then it would seem I do need to explain. Just… be careful. Odds are it will never be relevant, but it is a lesson mentioned briefly to most Imps that you most likely missed out on given your circumstances. If you are serving two masters, and they give you opposing Orders, it will cause problems. Say a random Summoner Ordered you to kick a puppy, and your master, Merlina, told you to not kick that puppy no matter what. Do you see where the problem lies?”

“Err, yeah, I do…” It was a problem she’d somewhat considered before, like back when she was thinking of ways to get out of the museum heist. “Order Obligation would go crazy, I guess?”

“Hmm, sort of.” He looked for the right words. “If they are conflicting but not directly opposing, then yes, Order Obligation will throw a fit. However, if the two Orders completely contradict each other, then it comes down more to the Summoners will than your own. Whoever is a higher Rank will win for the most part. You can throw your will into the mix for what good that would do, but I have rarely heard of it tipping the scales. The result is that you will be forced to obey the stronger Summoner, and in some cases, it will even forcibly break your Contract with the weaker one.

“That… is the good outcome. Should the Summoners be roughly equivalent in power, then that is where the true danger lies. It will result in a phenomenon known as Contract Shutdown. Order Obligation will spike exponentially to the point that you can no longer stand it. Both your mind and body will shut down. In human terms, it would be something akin to a coma. And recovering from it wouldn’t be so simple.

“The first condition is that one of the Contracts would need to expire. Be it through a time limit, release, or Summoner death. If you’re still under the command of both, then there’s very little chance you’ll recover. Should you regain consciousness, you could of course try Order Rejection, but odds would be you’d already attempted it at that point. And even if you can get the Contracts cleared, since you are in such a debilitated state, it’s still more likely you’ll just die. That is the reason my master requested to inform you, and be sure to pass it onto yours. Make sure she understands that she should never try to save you from a bad Order by issuing one of her own, at least not in a directly conflicting way.”

“Wow, okay, thanks for the warning.” Damn, it was a good thing she didn’t actually try to stop herself from stealing the Quillaced Tiara. That would have been an end to the legend of Gelic before it ever began. “Hey, what happens if I just fail a regular Contract?” Since they were on the subject, she figured it’d be a good time to ask. “Like, say I have an Order to transport a vase, but the vase breaks. What happens then?”

“Then you would still follow the Order,” Diamen stated firmly. “If they did not specify that it needed to be delivered intact or in its original condition, then you’re off the hook as long as you get the pieces there. You should always look for such loopholes. Summoner ignorance is the best thing to save you from your own ineptitude. But… if they are someone competent with an iron-clad Contract, then yes, it can be a problem.

“Really, it depends on the Summoner and the route they wish to take. Some will bestow a punishment similar to our Curses, but they have to be fairly high Rank to know the really dangerous ones. Some will be content with watching you squirm a bit, especially if you’re their Bound. If you aren’t, they’ll likely cut their losses and just not summon you again. But a few have been known to demand reparations, usually in the form of Essence to cover damages. However, the more Malicious ones may demand you sign another Contract to make up for it with work, and it will likely be far less favorable terms.

“My advice would be to always refuse those if you can help it. Some are strong enough to not give you a choice, but if you can, refuse and refuse until the matter is sent to courts of Hell. They will evaluate the facts and render objective judgment, weighing it against the agreements that the Demon Lord has with the humans for our services. In some cases, you still may be given into the Summoner’s custody if your failure was egregious enough, but the terms will be much fairer than you’d get otherwise.”

Huh, so Demon court didn’t just deal with Demon disputes but Summoner ones too. That sounded like a nightmare. Angelica already wasn’t a fan of dealing with lawyers and legal nonsense. A Demon lawyer sounded like they’d be terrifying. So yeah, she’d do her best to avoid that ever coming to pass. “Thanks for all the info, Diamen.”

“Oh, I do have one more thing I’d like your advice on. It’s about my Deterring Field. Do you think I should take it down? Right now, since it’s visible, I kind of feel like it’s just attracting more unwanted attention, and basically saying, hey, a Demon lives here. And I caught one spying on me already. Plus, well, you did it too.”

“No, I wouldn’t suggest taking it down,” he refuted. “Since the deed is done, I’d say it’s too late. If you have no intentions of moving anytime soon and going completely into hiding, you’d just be removing your protections. It would be an open invitation to snoop or attack you. That said, I’ve been by on my rounds. Your field is very small, quite indicative of a weak Demon, which you are. You don’t want people to know how powerful it is, unless it’s so strong that being able to see it alone is an effective deterrent, like is the case here.

“My suggestion would be to obscure its visibility. There’s an array of Skills, but since you already have Transfiguration, probably the easiest to obtain for you would be another that’s part of Fraud Attunement called Conceal. It’s how I pop up without you noticing so I can see your bewilderment. I don’t know what your Weave is looking like, so you may need to prod around a bit. Hopefully, you won’t have to buy too many adjoining Skills before you get to it.

“There are also ways to get it for free since you’re already decent at animal Transfigurations. I’m not an expert on the fauna in this world, but if you study up, I’m sure you’ll find something. That can be a large commitment, though, to build the necessary familiarity. In most cases, it would probably just be easiest to buy it directly, assuming you can get it to show.”

“Thanks again for the advice!” She made sure to sound appreciative. There was plenty more she could ask about, but they’d been standing out in the street for a while now, and he’d made no notion of an offer to invite her somewhere more comfortable to talk. Meaning he was waiting for her departure, and she didn’t want to be too much of a burden, and her anxiety was definitely berating her for being a nuisance to him already. She’d gotten the tests done that she needed, and come out with more crucial details than she’d hoped. A good chat. Well, she could be a bit greedy and ask for one more thing.

“Hey, could I register you as an Accomplice? It would be nice if—

“No.”

“Oh, I promise you that I won’t just bother you randomly. It’d just be—

“No,” he repeated, making it clear from his harsh tone that he wouldn’t be budging. “We are not Accomplices. You are a weak Demon that I am forced to humor. Think of our relationship as nothing more than courteous neighbors. If you come here, I will oblige my master’s request to aid you to his specifications. But I will not have you disturbing my mental peace with you rattling off in my head.”

Okay, that was fair. “Sorry for asking… I didn’t mean to bother you so much.” The interaction definitely left her downtrodden, feeling bad about it now.

That made the Daemon sigh, relenting on his harshness a little. “It’s fine… I just enjoy my peace like many do. And if my master requested it, I would be forced to obey.” Hmm, it was almost like he was telling her to suggest it while Fioso was there, like she’d done with Xinder. “You may take solace in one thing as well. You’re now less of a bother than you were as an Imp. Evolve a few more times, and I may accept on my own.”

“Okay, thanks Diamen!” He was definitely more of a softy than he normally let show, but that could just be typical demonic pride. “I’ll see you around.” Gelic Returned to her apartment after that and did a few more tests in front of her mirror. While she had been sold on the results for some time now, she wanted to be extra sure. Because she had a much scarier demon to face tomorrow. Hopefully, her mother’s eyes would only see her daughter, and not the truth hidden behind the facade.

Spoiler

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