Chapter 132 - The Binding

The being that emerged from the flames was a thing of terrible beauty. Oh, she wasn’t a voluptuous vixen with a body built for sin like a Succubus or a Lust Demon might be. No, instead this was the kind of beauty one sees when looking upon a professional athelete, the raw power and clear signs of ability, even when standing still.

Which was not to say that she wasn’t incredibly sexy, because she was. Standing eight feet tall with long, powerful legs, supporting a tight, firm rear end, and possessing six arms each bearing a wicked looking sword in hand, and a chest that was quite lovely, but more fitting for an athletic type than a runway model. Her hair was black, and long, and carried down her back just past her waist. Her eyes were like green flames carrying with them the prospect of death for those who crossed her.

A series of glowing sigils rotated about her neck, like a collar, and I took this to be the binding she was under, for I recognized some of them from the enslavement enchantment I had learned so long ago. That brought my attention to the rest of her gear. She wore armor made from what looked like blackened metal, covered in the device of skulls and bones to make it look as though she was armored by the bones of her enemies. And yet, I could tell that the armor was merely ceremonial, or perhaps a projection of her form, for it was too stylized, conforming too closely to the curve of her breasts, and leaving too much of her flesh unguarded.

And part of that unguarded flesh was the womanly swell of a child growing within her. It looked oddly out of place, being the only softness on an otherwise hard and honed body bred for war. Yet it also added depth to her look that one might not get with the demonic warrior woman getup.

Yserova Greater Shivarra Female Level 420 Berserker (Barbarian) / Mystic Swordsman (Fighter) Titles: Elf Bane, Demonbane, Executioner, Bound, Godlayer, Godbred

The archmage ignored the demon’s question about why she was here, and passed a tome to me, open to a certain page. “Read this aloud.”

Glancing at the words upon the page, I grinned, and then said, in a clear voice, filled with power, the words of a ritual. There is no direct translation in English, but loosely, the words I said went something like this:

Now I call upon the powers of Creation.
From the East, let Fire burn.
From the West, let Water swell.

From the South, let Earth rise.

From the North, let Wind howl.

All together, all in balance,

None in dominion over the others.

Make the circle, keep it unbroken,

And keep the evil locked within.

That activated part of the array, causing a white light to rise from the outer circle of the engravings, forming a protective barrier that kept the demon contained. She, naturally, was none too pleased about this, and the moment Vimoss released his binding upon her, six blades attacked the shield, but did little except cause a deafening boom throughout the room.

I continued with the ritual, before she could either get over her rage and start applying her magic to find a weakness in the barrier, or decided to harness her rage like only a berserker can, and break it down with brute force.

Now hear the words of the Binder!

Your darkness shall serve Me!

Your evil shall be done by my bidding!

Your body shall obey my will!

Your soul shall be bound to me!

By the Earth I seal your movements,

Never more to walk without consent.

By the Wind I seal your breath,

Never more to utter sound without permission.

By the Water I seal your power,

Never more to be used but in my Name.

By the Fire I seal your will,

Never more to act but by the Binder’s command.

By the Elements and in this circle,

At this place of ancient power,

Now you are bound to me,

YSEROVA, YOU SHALL SERVE THE BINDER!

As I spoke, I could feel the magic building within me, and then breaking forth like a dam was released, it poured into the circle, and caused the demon to scream in rage as the sigils of light appeared in the air around her, and began circling her faster and faster. She tried to attack them, but even magic steel needed something to cut to be effective. And then, as before, the blue-white runes were orbiting her neck like a collar, and I could feel the demon’s rage through the binding.

I staggered back, shocked to realize that I’d used up all of my MP (and since I’d had over 11K, that was saying something) and even lost two thousand HP from the power required to complete the binding. But it was done, and I’d gotten a new title.

Demon Binder You are one of the rare few that has bound a demon through magic rituals and the use of the demon’s true name. A portion of the demon’s power flows through you, and you are able to call upon the demon to do your will. A demon that is bound to you does not perish when slain, even upon their home plane, but instead resides briefly within their master’s soul, before being reborn at full strength once the master has provided the demon with MP equal to the demon’s level x 1000. A Bound Demon cannot be bound to another master while the binding is active. Bound Demons cannot attack their masters, but may attempt to subvert orders if they do not respect their master. Binding of the Greater Shivarra +25% to attack and damage with Swords or Hellfire +50% to resist all forms of magic except Light

Breathing heavily, I said, “Yserova, I order you to return to your home plane, and will call upon you when I have need of your services. For now, you may rest.” The demon looked pissed, but since I’d dismissed her and didn’t give her a loophole to get out of it, she simply muttered a couple curses about what she would do to me if she wasn’t bound, and then disappeared into the same flames as before.

Turning my head, I looked over to the former High Priestess, and said, “Strip.” Not having any recourse, Tamzrin did as she was told, displaying her naked form to the Archmage.

Vimoss cackled softly, and said, “Ah, how many years have I been waiting to see the haughty priestess of the temple like this, bound and obedient, humbled by a surfacer, no less! Now, I will finally get to see the bitch riding me like a surface whore! I can’t think of a better scene to be my last in this life!” As he spoke, he, too, stripped. For an old man, he was surprisingly fit, but then, he was an elf, and had access to all kinds of magic to help preserve his body.

He laid down within the circle, which had faded to a dull white with the demon’s dismissal and nodded to me, and I could see that he was already at full readiness for what was to come. At my command, the disgusted Tamzrin straddled the archmage, and impaled herself upon his cock, eliciting sounds from each of them at the suddenness of it.

It was, frankly, weird as all hell to be the one standing off to the side watching two other people have sex. I mean, usually I’m either one of the ones getting it on, or I find someone to have some fun with on my own. But we couldn’t do that, since there was a whole ‘kill the archmage at the right time’ thing going on. I had Kinkiller in my hand, ready to go, as Tamzrin rode the old man.

Finally, the time came, and so did the ancient archmage, and I stabbed the Kinkiller into his chest, the enchantment of the blade killing him instantly as soon as the tip pierced his flesh. With his last gasp, he said, “FINALLY!”

Quest Complete! Chaos in Amyaththalas In your eagerness to avoid giving Lolth reason to smite you for your impertinence, you have instead given her an idea on a way to properly ‘test’ you, and some of her followers, as well. You must head to the citadel of the Drow, their great capitol of Amyaththalas, and complete three tasks. First, you must impregnate the Matron of the ruling House of Amyaththalas. Second, you must enslave the High Priestess of Lolth. Third, you must kill the Grand Archmage, the most powerful arcane spellcaster in the city. This quest cannot be declined, and the consequences for failure are… harsh. You have done what many had thought to be impossible, by taking the strange, and rarely used path of telling the truth to those you wished to do harm to. Somehow, through luck, guile, and charm, you managed to complete the tasks put before you, even though they should have killed you.
Rank	S - Divine
Success	Impregnate Matron Fosanri Kalreban, AND Enslave High Priestess Tamzrin Drorval, AND Kill Grand Archmage Vimoss Yilrat.
Failure	Fail to do any of the three tasks.
Rewards	Experience Gold Increased Reputation with Lolth Increased Reputation with Drow A scaling item for each member of your party.
Consequences	Death, with the souls of all your party being bound and enslaved to Lolth for eternal torment.

Demonstone Girdle of Soulstealing
Type	Belt	Rank	Unique – Divine (Scaling)
Created by the will of a goddess who was amused by a mortal’s cheek, but not amused enough to give a reward commensurate with the task, this item is bound to the wearer and the wearer may wear no other belt than this without the express blessing of a diety each day. However, the item is not all bad. Requires: Zayn Darkmore +20% to all resistances (does not improve) +100 WIS Soulkeeping – Stores one soul per 10 levels. A stored soul may be destroyed to instantly revive oneself or a touched creature to full health. Revived creature is set to their original level, or the level of the soul sacrificed to revive them, whichever is lower. Lifestealing – As long as the wearer of this belt has room for souls remaining, the soul of any creature that he strikes the killing blow on is stolen and stored within the belt. A soul captured in this way can be released to its afterlife if the wearer of the belt so chooses. Sacrificing the soul of a creature to reanimate their body is possible, but the empty husk would be a vessel easily filled by entities that would not necessarily be benevolent towards you.

In addition to the belt which was… well, it didn’t suck, but at the same time I was pretty clear that Lolth’s amusement at my actions only went so far, and I should probably not hang around her lands too long, or that amusement would run its course. Anyways, in addition to the belt, and the similarly useful but not items the rest of the group got, there was a healthy payday of 200000 Platinum, and enough XP to bump us to level 90.

Then the stone in the ceiling of the room cracked, and from a hidden compartment dropped a crystal glowing red with an inner light. It floated down until it touched the fallen archmage, and black lightning coursed through his fallen form. Using my rarely used (and even more rarely useful) soul sight ability, I could see the soul of the archmage contained in the crystal, and now reanimating the body which had once held it. As I suspected, the wizard was prepared for our arrival, and we had helped him in the ritual to become a lich. Which explained why Lolth was not entirely happy. We completed the quest, but didn’t really complete it like she wanted.

Vimoss Yilrat High Drow Archlich Male Level 320 True Seer (Diviner) / Archmage (Wizard) Titles: Prophet, Genius, Magic-touched, Elf Bane, Kinslayer, Demonslayer, Demon Binder, Dragonslayer, Terrorslayer, Defender of Amyaththalas, Grand Archmage of Amyaththalas, Angel Slayer, Undead Bane, Truesighted, Death Cheater

It looked like he had been weakened slightly, in terms of levels, from his peak before the ritual had started, but levels only told part of the story. I didn’t doubt that he was now far more powerful than he had been before. He looked at us, and said, “You have done well in aiding my transition to undeath. It was a process I could not have done on my own, without sacrificing more of my self and leaving my body in a state where it might rot and decay, which is unacceptable. As a reward, you may keep that book you are holding, the Demonomicon of Zer’gath, and its opposite, the Blessed Names of the Angels.” As he spoke, a second tome floated off one of the bookshelves to me, and I took it.

With a final look at the ritual space where his body had lain moments before, the archlich banished the crystal to someplace for safekeeping with a wave of his hand. “Now, you should leave. What you have done in this city will cause ripples for years to come. But for a while, it would be best if you were far from Amyaththalas. I will allow you to open a gate from this room for the next minute. After which, I will probably have to tell the guards why I’m no longer living.”

Taking that as the none too subtle hint that it was, I opened the gateway back to Lithaes Castle, and said, “Everyone through the gate. I believe we have outstayed our welcome in the lands of the drow. Grand Archmage, it has been a pleasure to aid you in your goals, and I hope you have a very long and prosperous unlife that never causes us to come into conflict.”

And as he laughed in response, I could almost hear the laughing of the Spider Queen as I, the last to leave, dove through the gateway, and shut it behind me.

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