Demonic Devourer's Development

After I finished telling Bishop about my brilliant idea to hide from the Twelve Bastards in Hell until I gather even more power, how the place itself should keep me safe-ish from their eyes, at least safer than now, and if we hurry my followers won't get outed either, I fell silent and listened to thoughts running through Bishop's head.

He was quite dismayed. Not by any danger the Twelve might pose to him or his cult while I'm gone, but just that I was leaving so soon. This man…

But then, he was all helpfulness again. "My lord, I think if everything is as you described, then there's no need for you to seek a warlock. Surely the goddess had a spell in her book that you can use to teleport to Hell. It's merely a matter of finding it, and I'm positive that it would prove to be an easier task than seeking an adventurer able to help you."

"Right!" I nodded and gave the book a narrow-eyed glance. "I should've thought that, except… Will that really be easier?"

I really knew more about finding people than about discerning spells, especially ones that were made with magical runes and stuff. It didn't sit right by me to basically give a task that vital to someone else.

"Definitely, my lord." Bishop gently, almost reverently, opened the first page of the book. "Yes. I can already see familiar patterns. The laws of magic are the same, no matter who uses them or how. Willorio had toyed with the concept of spell books as well." He traced a curved line burned into the paper. "This line, for example, should gather power for this one, which would rotate it to create a whirlwind of magic energy to—"

"Don't explain further." It was all curves and shapes for me. "Just find it."

'Hey, I can help, too!' The voice from my head butted into the conversation. 'You just have to let me do… something. How about talking aloud?'

Oh yeah, him. 'Fine. Pest, you can help Bishop with finding the right spell. Do what you need to do for it and not anything stupid.'

'Don't worry, I won't. As I said, I don't want to get exorcised.'

"Oh, Bishop, and meet my draining curse." I lifted a hand to gesture at him and finished lamely putting it back down because it'd be too silly to point at myself. "I just call him Pest, but you can call him whatever you like. He will help you."

"Yeah." Pest used his magic to speak aloud, and I grinned when Bishop almost jumped from his seat. "But you have to call me by my name! Toriaxius Magnificio Daresco The Best!"

"Ah… Forgive me, Toriaxius, but using your full name would be quite… cumbersome. May I call you only by the first name, instead?"

Pest didn't reply immediately, but I had a feeling Bishop just won a bit too much respect over the curse for my liking. I wasn't sure that I would do about this, if anything. One thing I knew—I won't be calling Pest by name, ever. It was a matter of principle.

"You may, mortal!"

"Mortal?" I spoke up. "Really?"

"Well, that's true! Bishop is mortal… Can't I call him that way?"

"Not if I have to listen to you, which I, regretfully, have to." I sighed and let myself, for a moment, focus on the feeling in my taste buds as my second mouth chewed a soft piece of bread. It would be a while until I get another. "Don't waste time. Get to work, both of you. This is an urgent matter."

If it wasn't, the first place I'd go would've been Yvenna's. She'd be the perfect stress relief after having to deal with Aivena.

"Yes, my lord." Bishop sat a little straighter and focused on the book. "Toriaxius, you should have a better idea of where to start looking. I also wonder if Goddess of Wizards used any sort of sorting system in this tome. It would make the search much easier if she did."

"I dunno about the sorting system, but I've seen some teleporting around and I think I can recognise the main parts of the spell no matter what is the destination. I can sort by them and then we can move on…" The pages of the book moved as if on their own, but in truth, with Pest's magic.

I let the two on their own and concentrated on cleaning the table from food and watching for any threats in the area. Not just my own area, too—I let out my mental projection to check on my girls again.

Everything was fine there for now, so I moved onto the churches. I expected some reaction from the priests… but they proceeded with their sermons as usual. I was sure they didn't even know that one of their beloved gods was recently killed. It was disappointing, but not entirely unsurprising. If I was in the goddess's place, I'd hate for people to make a fuss about my death, too.

Though, hiding it would've been too much of a bother for its worth as well.

Pest's and Bishop's search kept going into the night. They had to make breaks, and I had to listen to their voices as they kept droning on and on about things I was, apparently, too stupid to understand. That was annoying. But damn, it's not that I didn't try to understand what they were talking about… I just couldn't get all that magic when I couldn't do it myself.

The memory of seeing it with the goddess's eyes helped somewhat, but it was too brief.

The three of us sat, working, well into the night. Hector went home by that time, and Gi was put to bed. Pest was tireless, clearly enjoying just being "let out" of my body, while Bishop, despite his determination to do his best, was betrayed by his old and frail body at every step.

But they did it, my glorious servants.. They did it.