Summoning

'My greatest creation is almost complete. I just need a few final touches, then everything will be set into motion.' A middle aged man thought to himself as he worked on his forbidden magical masterpiece.

He sat down at a nearby table tinkering with a magical green orb. He would scratch his short white beard from time to time thinking about how to perfect his creation.

Never once did it cross his mind about being caught and sentenced to death for his crimes against magic society. He didn't care if he were to die. He only wanted enough time to finish what he started.

A knock at the upstairs door pulls him out of his trance like state as his eyes widen. However, he checks the time on his magic powered clock and calms down a bit.

"I didn't realize how late it was." He says as he takes his attention away from the glowing orb and heads upstairs and opens the door.

When he opens the door, he sees a young man staring back at him wearing a slightly worried expression.

"Sorry to disturb you Master Reginald. They told me I could come into the house."

"What else did they tell you?"

"They said the only place that's off limits to me is the basement where you do your research."

The young man watches as Reginald shuts the basement door and walks past him. "I didn't know where you wanted me to put the supplies.

"Just set them in the living room." Reginald said as he heaved a sigh. "And pour me some coffee."

"Is catering to your needs part of the internship?"

The young man understood the answer when Reginald ignored him. He went into the kitchen and made some coffee. A while later, he came out with a cup and handed it to Reginald.

As Reginald takes a sip from the cup, he glances at the young man. "What's your name?"

"Peter."

"Tell me Peter. What are your thoughts on the current laws restricting magical practices.?"

"I'm sure those rules are in place for a reason." Peter answers. "I remember a few years ago when that necromancer accidentally raised everyone from the dead from the nearby cemetery. I can't imagine how the family members felt about seeing thier loved ones desecrated like that."

"My son was one of those who was brought back." Reginald said as he stares at his cup. "We all owe it to Lady Melina for stopping such a tragedy."

"I'm sorry, I had no idea. I wouldn't have brought it u..."

"It's alright." Reginald cut Peter off. "I'm just glad to have another assistant. I was surprised that they sent another one after the last two had died." Reginald said as he took another sip of his coffee while looking Peter in the eyes.

Peter tried to speak, however, he had a hard time saying anything. His voice trembled everytime he tried to open his mouth.

Reginald couldn't help but to feel sorry for him. He had specifically requested an assistant who had no family members. That way, no one would miss him.

"Why?" Peter finally got a word out.

"What the hell. You deserve to know what your life is being used for." Reginald stood up and paced back and forth while trying to think of the right words to convey his master plan.

At first, Peter agreed with Reginald when he talked about his plan to overthrow the current government that is controlled by the royal family. However, the way he wanted to do it was insane.

Reginald had mentioned how the royal family was responsible for his son's death. How his son had fought and died in a pointless war started by the royals.

Then Reginald mentioned how he would summon a demon to destroy the current political system set in place. However, in order to summon this demon, he would need a human sacrifice.

"I know what your thinking." Reginald said. "Don't worry. When I summon it, I can choose to wipe the demons memory and nurture it to only destroy what I want."

"At the cost of my life." Peter pointed out. "I don't want that."

"You misunderstand. The summoning only kills the caster. The reason why my assistants die is because they didn't want to fight against the royal family."

Peter finally understood what Reginald was getting at. He would sacrifice himself to summon this demon, and he would use his assistant to nurture it.

Peter saw many flaws in his plan. However, Reginald kept talking and most of his doubts went away.

Reginald had everything planned out. Years of planning and research had led up to this moment when he found a suitable heir to pass down his teachings to.

As the weeks went by, Reginald had spent most of his time in the basement to continue to work on the magic spell. The spell needed to be perfect. If one mistake were to occur, his plans would be ruined right out of the gate.

He couldn't allow that to happen. As he continued to work diligently, he had given Peter a book detailing all of his plans. This included detailed instructions for Peter. Peter was excited to go along with everything, however, when he got to a certain point in the book, he found out that Reginald had lied to him.

The spell needed additional human sacrifices. Reginald wanted Peter to find humans to complete the spell. He wanted to protest against the idea, but Reginald was too convincing.

The plan wouldn't work otherwise. This had to be done.

'There's going to be a special place in hell for me when this is over.' Peter thought.

Peter would commit to Reginald's plan. At night, he would find victims to kidnapp and take back home.

The amount of sacrifices depended on many factors. Summoning the most powerful demons would require hundreds if not thousands of sacrifices. However, these numbers could be lessened by adding restrictions to the summoned being.

The first restriction Reginald had thought of was limiting the demons power. This would be the most significant decrease in humans they would need. Also, it would mean this demon would be easier to control. He needed the demon to be powerful, so he would need the demon to grow.

This wasn't bad for Reginald. He had planned on raising it as if it were his child. He wanted to instill his beliefes and vengeance in it.

The second restriction was its memory. He wanted a clean slate, but he also wanted it to have its innate talents so it could learn magic faster.

In the end, the orbs Reginald had placed in a specific pattern had started to glow after killing the final human inside its boundaries.

Reginald held up a small orb that connected the rest of the orbs in the pattern with glowing magical strings. He then chanted something in a foreign language and saying the name of the specific demon he wanted to summon. However, just then, Peter tried to grab the orb from Reginald's hands.

"What are you doing?" Reginald yelled. "Do you realize what could go wrong if I mess this part up?"

"I'm not going to let you die." Peter yelled back. "I can't live with myself after what I've done to these innocent people. I came here to become a greate mage like you, and instead, I became a serial killer. I don't want this anymore. I can't let more people die because you talked me into it."

Reginald tried to rip the orb away from Peter's hands to no avail. "Innocent people will die if we don't do this. We target the people in power. We kill a few to save a many."

"And who are we to decide that? We're no better than the royals if we do this. Playing with people's lives like a game of chess is what they do, not us."

Peter had initially wanted to go through with the plan. Killing those people was harder than he had imagined. He thought he could bottle up his guilt, however, that bottle broke just now. Every evil deed he had done flowed out into his mind causing him to change his mind at the last second.

He couldn't bear to see the chaos that resulted from his actions. Stopping this now was the least he could do. It was better late than never.

Reginald and Peter continued to argue and fight for control of the orb. However, when Reginald saw there was no hope for him to regaine control, he let go of the orb.

Peter laughed when he saw that Reginald had let go of it. He tried to throw it on the ground to smash it to pieces, but he soon found that he couldn't let go of it. He turned to Reginald who was smiling at that point.

"Like I said, the caster dies." Reginald said as he watched Peter do everything in his power to rip the orb out of his own hands.

However, the orb started to glow brighter. The spell was activating and Peter couldn't do anything to stop it. Before he knew it, the orb started to drain Peter of all his magical energy. Peter soon found himself being consumed by the orb. His skin started to shrivel, his muscles shrank, and he started to take on the appearance of a mummy.

As Peter's lifeless body fell to the floor, a figure started to manifest inside the inscription circle. It started off as a transparent figure before solidifying into a humanoid figure.

Reginald's eyes widened when he saw what it was. The demon's appearance was not what he had expected. It was not the demon he had tried to summon. The creature that stood before him was an anthromorphic wolf.