38 Trifling with Unnatural Forces

Harry is blown back as the rift suddenly releases a shockwave... A thick plume of ash is shot from it which quickly begins filling up the room... Fortunately, the ritual circle keeps the ash contained within its boundaries, it does prevent Harry and Kali from seeing the creature that is spat out from the rift however...

The fit abruptly closes as the ash settles, leaving Harry and Kali staring at the pile of ash sitting on the floor...

"Erm, did it work?" Harry sheepishly asks, wondering if his familiar was... This... Just a pile of ash... Oh! Maybe it was some kind of ash elemental? That sounded cool!

Kali shakes her head, "Master, close your eyes until I tell you." she states as she walks towards the ritual circle. "I can sense you hiding, creature."

...

Nothing happens as she waits for it to react, and a couple minutes pass with her just blankly staring at the ash with crossed arms... She was about to ask her question again with some ash falls away to reveal steel-grey snake eyes silently glaring at her.

A grin makes its way onto Kali's face as she returns the glare, "Your eyes hold no effect on me, continue this attack and I'll personally pluck them out." she sultrily states, though, despite how seductive she sounds, the threat shook the creature to its core, even if it couldn't understand her words.

It holds the glare for a couple more seconds before eventually blinking a see-through eyelid over its eyes. Stopping the attack on the demon before it... Still, it did not move even with this newly made neutral ground.

Kali just shakes her head and smudges one of the ritual's many restraining runes, causing gravity inside the circle to reverse... This causes all the ash to float to the ceiling while leaving the creature on the ground. It was simply too heavy and magic resistant to be affected by such a weak cluster.

This is what she intended though, now she was able to get a good look at the creature Harry had summoned, she wasn't disappointed either.

It was a snake that was around ten feet long, but it certainly didn't look like any snake she'd seen before this. It was almost entirely covered in some sort of bone exoskeleton, it was segmented of course to allow it to move around, but it definitely wasn't from any realm she knew of.

The bone exoskeleton also had hundreds of uniformed divots covering it, but the most interesting thing about the snake was its head that looked like a certain pokemon... Cubone Harry called it? The snake had a skull-like exoskeleton that made its eyes look gaunt and sunken in, it also had bone fangs extending from the skull itself.

Truthfully she had no idea what this thing was, but judging by the amount of magic it possessed. It must've been fairly strong, though, not as strong as she'd been expecting... She'd thought her master might just summon a baby dragon or something.

"Master, you can look now... This is the creature you have summoned." she states.

Harry nods and tentatively opens his eyes, which immediately lock onto the strange snake that was currently held in within the ritual circle, "W-what is it?" he asks, unconsciously slipping into Parsel Tongue.

The snake perks up in surprise at understanding the warm blood's words, "SSss-I am no thing! Who are you to Sssteal me from my home!" it hisses threateningly but quietens down significantly when Kali glares at it.

"Er, I summoned you to become my familiar... I'm Harry, by the way..." he awkwardly says.

"Familiar? I am not aware of Ssssuch a thing!" it glowers.

Harry takes a tentative glance towards Kali before determining himself to explain, "The familiar ritual would bind us together, it would bind our magic and make us able to communicate over long distances... It would make you stronger, increase your growth and slowly make your magic match my own."

...

"Why would I wisssh to bind myssself to Sssuch a weakling!?" it grouses in annoyance, completely disregarding Harry.

He scowls, "I'm not weak!" he angrily exclaims, the insult hitting a sore spot that concerned his relatives. Each of his hands become enveloped with fire as he steps towards the ritual circle challengingly, "It is me who should be reluctant! You are weaker than what I was expecting, maybe I should dispose of you and perform the ritual again!?"

"YOU DARE!?" it loudly hisses before opening its translucent eyelid, attacking Harry in the same way it had Kali.

Harry feels a wave of magic wash over him but he forces himself not to step back in response. He locks eyes with it instead, mustering his magic to try and resist whatever it was attempting... Unfortunately, his resistance was futile, as his skin slowly begins turning white... No, his skin was turning into bone!

Kali's about to step in and stop this and liberally apply the torture runes on the circle when she feels her heart stop in shock, "Harry, no!"

Harry was too deep in concentration to hear her though, seeing his magic be ineffective against the snake's assault, he summons his raw demonic magic and coats the skin on his right arm where the transformation had begun... "Haarghk!" he suddenly screams as fire and power flow through his veins.

The calcification that'd occurred on his arm quickly disappears, but is replaced by grey scales that begin to meld to his skin. He screams out in pain and tries to stop it, but is unable to as his demonic magic attempts to take control of his body.

Fortunately, he had a guardian angel... Or guardian demon watching over him.

*Thud!*

Kali knocks Harry unconscious and immediately begins the process of drawing out the taint that'd infected his body, completely disregarding the threat of the bone snake as she gets to work... "Master, what have you done to yourself!" she grumbles to herself as she prepares herself for a long night.