章 162: Contract
And Simon, it turned out, was incredibly cool. I already knew that a conditionally immortal magical chimera, created to fight demonic spawn and able to cast dark spells without any serious consequences, can't be lame by definition, but the way he deftly went through the head of not the weakest creature in the rank of archdemon to unravel a clever verbal trap really deserves respect. In addition, after moving to the center of the Gate structure, he did not stupidly seal it, cutting off all connections, as any adequate person would have done when faced with the Beast projection lodged on the border of two worlds, but figured out the management and became a full-fledged Guardian. What can be said, but simple mages could manage the transition only through complex rituals, so as not to burn their brains with a stream of information in the process and not to burn out the energy channels with alien mana, and demons in general had to be very twisted, using puppets of suitable people, so that the built-in protection did not work.
And in general, access to the control structure was very useful, because not only helped to create a portal to another world for a tourist trip overeaten demonic pseudo-flesh elemental, but also allowed to cut off the channels that hold in this dimension remnants of the Order of Devils and all the small demons in the territory of Gotham.
It was worth noting that as we scrambled through the maze like the usual adventurers in a second-rate manga, the number of infected people had almost reached the critical fifteen thousand mark. It seemed a drop in the bucket compared to Gotham's population of many millions, but they were all part of a massive ritual that had begun to work as soon as Simon had passed through the veil. Any more and the government would have declared Gotham a quarantine zone, which would have entailed canceling the parade and awards! And the excessive concentration of dark creatures in one place would have thinned the veil between the worlds and allowed for the creation of gateways to the infernal dimension independent of the Gate, from which the demonic creatures would have poured in.
So, everything is correct. Simon's information turned out to be wrong, and the performance arranged by the master actually had a double meaning, which allowed to hide the true state of affairs even in the Infopole, and the plan itself provided for a backup option in the form of a full-scale invasion even without the Key, which, as it turned out, was a magical chimera.
You could say that just a little bit more and the whole Gotham would have been dragged to the hellish wasteland, but at the same time the adventure pushed my development and brought very nice pluses. And it is not about another portion of divine energy, which I really do not know where to go, but about quite material things. It is even unusual somehow.
But let's start in order. After making sure that we wouldn't have to fight off any more alien creatures from behind the dark veil, or save the city from possessed zombies, I got down to the most important thing of all: putting Tom back together. Suddenly it was quite easy, because his limbs were literally growing back on their own and, fortunately, to their proper places, or else Harley tried to swap his arms and legs for the sake of interest. However, such regeneration was rather slow, so I had to create a concentrating seal on the basis of the spatial barrier to saturate Kirk's body with the appropriate mana.
And here's the weird thing. Originally, I didn't really want to waste blood, and since the altar was no longer in the way, I switched to magic gel, but for some reason it started to lose its properties after five minutes of work. Naturally, I could not resist a little experiment and suddenly discovered that if you add a little fresh blood to the main knots, the resistance of the seal to demonic mana increases many times, and at the same time the lines of weaves do not even think to close on each other. But despite the discovery, the last remnants of the discharged diamonds, which had been used as fuses, had died a brave death at the end of the session, turning into small shards, at most suitable as a base for gel.
When I get back, I'll be sure to replenish my supplies so I don't end up bare-assed against some other demonic cult, though that's definitely going to be a problem. I've noticed before that natural stones allow about five to seven cycles of rapid discharge before damaging the structure, while artificial ones last for three to four times due to the presence of micro-defects invisible to the human eye. At the same time, the price of artificial stones is still quite high and still only partially allows to compensate for the quality with quantity.
Theoretically, one could get in touch with a supplier to buy natural diamonds without a markup. Or even go to Africa and buy up the local natives for the necessary materials, because the portal will allow you to travel back and forth until you get sick, and if you want to, you can even start mining on your own. Surely in the library there is a suitable spell for finding minerals and organizing a mine, which can then be turned into a full-fledged secret base. As the memory from the past life suggests, its presence can be very useful if one of the heroes suddenly goes crazy and opens a hunt for comrades. Kryptonite and lead would have to be obtained to protect themselves from Superman' attention. Although the strength of the Kryptonian is so much that he can literally pull the base from the ground in one piece and turn it into one compact cube with a couple inches of rib...
Hmm... And at the moment, most synthetic diamonds, if we omit some details and a couple of expensive methods of creation with their pitfalls, are actually coal that was simply compressed under very high pressure. Hell, Clark, thanks to his contact telekinesis, could actually turn a whole carload of coal into one huge gemstone, and its structure would be almost perfect due to the enormous pressure! Or try to set up your own production. How much pressure do you need? Five gigapascals and a temperature of 2,000 degrees? I think magic should be able to handle it, and where it's lacking, technology will come to the rescue. Just like in the case of your own development, you can't just fall into one thing. If Harley and I weren't meta, the first demons we encountered would have chopped us up into a vinaigrette, despite any spells.
I didn't even notice that the detective's arm was finally healed. But Simon did.
"Great, now we can finally leave this place," the guy said quite contentedly, and then turned to our colorful allies, switching to the demonic language and receiving three affirmative nods in return.
"Did I miss something? - I decide to check with my faithful companion.
"Gaius and Co. decided to stay in this world to try and undo the evil done to the humans while they were under the Master's control," the blonde reported cheerfully, managing to make out something in the cacophony of growling and wheezing sounds.
"Yeah, and why the hell would they want to go to Hell if the only entertainment there is torturing sinners and fighting other demons? Especially if they are only conditionally classified as dark creatures, and I'm not even sure if they can eat souls without standing out among the group."
"You can't argue," the girl shrugged, turning her gaze to the far end of the temple.
As I touched the archway, Simon was doing something serious with the veil. Even with my normal vision, I could see huge glowing structures crawling out of the floor, only to disappear into the dark fog a few moments later. The language was completely unfamiliar, but the monumentality of the weaves hinted at some serious protective structures, against which my stone skin was like a simple T-shirt with a couple of pockets against the world's most elaborate exoskeleton. The performance didn't last long, though. Soon the fog disappeared completely, showing that behind it there was an ordinary stone wall with the image of a black shapeless mass with a lot of mouths, and then the stone blocks began to quickly stack into each other, reminding of the scene with the opening of the passage to Slanted Lane from the movie about the kid with a scar. The crackling of stones and scraping of metal lasted for another five minutes, and after that only a small bronze-colored cube was left on the floor, covered with many symbols and looking like a puzzle cube from the movie "Hellraiser".
Fortunately, the cube that remained of the arch was not Lemarchan's puzzle, but the casket of Casimo Leto, an ancient magician who, with the active support of his colleagues, had curbed space itself to create a gateway to another world. Although there is an opinion that he used a ready-made passage left over from the Aztec civilization, having hung a bunch of protections with restrictions on it and changed the anchor point. Given the functionality of the box, it was obviously made using lost knowledge and not the weakest rituals requiring specific materials, because even Zatanna uses a large portal arch connected to the Dragon Vein for long-distance travel rather than something more compact.
"Now we can go," Simon said, tucking the box into an inner pocket of his coat and following his words, he began to move the marble spikes out of the way.
"Stop! You're just gonna walk away? - My voice was full of genuine indignation.
"Yeah... I cut all ties, so the demons connected to the Gate, if not dead, will do so as soon as they run out of mana. Our world won't allow them to survive long without a binding. There's nothing more for us to do here."
"I rubbed my eyes, trying not to swear. The guy had grown up mentally, but he still acted like an impressionable teenager in some respects, aided by the presence of several souls. - The manor and the labyrinth beneath it had been home to a strong demonic cult for years, not to mention the fact that the Master of the Order was not the weakest blacksmith before he met the Lord...
The young man's eyes were frozen in incomprehension. Hell, even if we put aside the presence of magical trinkets, or even if we just grabbed other people's dark artifacts, there were more material values. Geo Populus with its methods looked more like a mafia clan, so they must have a lot of money, and in cash! And I just need to improve my financial situation to buy new consumables, because I don't know when I'll be able to organize diamond mining.
Seeing Simon continue to be obtuse, Harley decided to gently intervene.
"How many magical artifacts and knowledge do you think are hidden in this place?"
"Ah... Ahhhh," a realization hit him after all. - You want to hide all the dangerous items so that ordinary people won't accidentally stumble upon them?
~Slap~
There was a savory sound of facepalm from the blonde's side.
"No... - the girl started to say, but I quickly interrupted the unnecessary explanations, hugging the beauty from the back and gently clamped her mouth.
"That's exactly what we're going to do! - my voice was full of enthusiasm. - And since the trophy... There's probably a lot of dangerous artifacts here, and maybe there are parts of demonic creatures somewhere, we could use your help," the last part of the sentence applied to the whole team.
I saw understanding in Kirk's eyes, but the detective did not explain the real background of my statement, and first, with a quiet muttering about a decent pension, began to tear off the golden candelabrum fused into the marble floor, which had previously stood on the altar. Here, at least someone here demonstrates the right approach to business. I even began to regret cutting off his arm during the fight, but death in the form of Tyndall the Hound Dog breathing down my neck was very restrictive to my maneuvers.
We had organized a storage area for dangerous magical items, demonic ingredients, and other valuables in a back room on the first floor of the mansion, which I had surrounded with attention-dissipating spells. I wanted to create something bigger, but I didn't have the energy for a normal spell. The surrounding background was too slow to return to normal, so using Taboo's magic seemed like a Russian roulette. Even the entrance to the labyrinth had to be blocked with a few large stones, because the concentration of foreign mana was still high, and the runes refused to work properly.
After creating a temporary warehouse, my faithful companion and I began to explore the mansion, checking almost every corner in search of valuable items while our companions searched the catacombs. Naturally, before that I still had to catch Simon and explain our true purpose, because only a complete idiot would quarrel with a fighting chimera, who from now on is the guardian of the Gate to the Underworld and has three demonic Pokémon as allies. And surprisingly he didn't take offense and even agreed that it was right to some extent, because demonic energy and dangerous knowledge can really hurt random people, but about the expropriation of money I had to appeal to conscience and complain about the universal injustice for almost twenty minutes, until the guy admitted that I, at least, have the right to compensate the cost of diamonds and get paid for saving the city.
Eh, I even wonder, in the comics heroes more than once and not twice broke the plans of villains who have at their disposal large secret bases, and sometimes the whole islands, stuffed with advanced technology, and did they every time threw the legitimate trophies to their fate? Take the encounter with the Steppenwolf, for example. I was busy evacuating the Amazons, but Bats only took a hundred alien rifles and one energy cannon that was conveniently located on top of a cooling tower. When we form the League, it will be necessary to work on this issue, or at this rate our brave squad will be left without pants, but with a sense of justice.
At the end of the two-hour run, I could say that Harley and I had become obscenely rich again (not officially, of course), and now I could definitely get serious about artifacting, thanks to a couple of tons of rare magical materials. There was a lot of stuff in the back of the warehouse: iron saturated with magic, and the strange black spikes that I'd seen before that blocked the regeneration of demonic creatures, and bars of dark silver, and the flesh of various magical creatures, against which the decapitated carcass of a Hound stood out. Almost everything was found, except magical literature. I didn't count a couple of tattered books on medieval alchemy, miraculously found in the local library. I was reconciled to this fact by two things: the high danger of the dark-magic art and the fact that Simon had a magical grimoire, in which I was sure to find methods of fighting various demonic creatures. In short, I left the walls of the mansion with a feeling of deep satisfaction, and a large bag of precious stones found in the safe of the head of the order, along with neat bundles of bills with a portrait of Benjamin Franklin, had nothing to do with it.
A new day had just begun outside. The dark clouds over the city parted, allowing the sun's rays to touch the ground, which was covered with a blanket of snow-white snow. As if by magic, the gloomy mansion was transformed into a fairy-tale castle. It was hard to believe that not so long ago, the projection of an entire Lord and a part of the demonic legion had dwelt here, and eerie rituals had been performed underground.
The fresh, cool air, despite the warming spell, was pleasantly invigorating. The rest of the team followed me, dragging some of the spoils with them. I would have liked to get them all to Shadow Peak, but most of the items smelled of demonic emanations that wouldn't pass through the magical mansion's defenses, so I had to make do. Luckily, the Impala was only about three hundred meters away, and then I had to use my tetris skills to place everything neatly inside the cabin.
"Oh, phew..." The detective dropped the heavy bag of personal trophies from his shoulders and straightened up tiredly. Without external support, he was no stronger than a trained athlete, and the wounds he'd received were taking their toll. - Joker, I'll try to slow down the investigation, but you'd better hurry up with the transfer of things. I don't know if any of the employees are attentive enough to see the back room through the spell.
"Don't worry, it'll only take me two days. I'll seal the entrance to the labyrinth as soon as the energy is right."
"Good, then call me if some demonic cult wants to enslave Gotham again," a crooked grin crept onto his face.
"No problem. Simon, I hope you and your friends would like to punch another archdemon in the face, too."
"Eh... I'd like to just check in on Rachel and take a couple years off, but if it's really serious, call me."
After agreeing to help each other, we finally drove home. The night was incredibly eventful, but it was too early to relax. The alarm clock on my smartphone rang for the third time, which means that before the start of the award is only a couple of hours, and I should hurry to have time to properly preserve the demonic flesh. Unlike the parts of parademons, it should not rot, but its mystical properties may lose a little.
***
At the same time, a large snowdrift stirred in a small clearing not far from Pinkerton Manor, and soon a beautiful dryad, wrapped in a colorful blanket, emerged from it. She stretched sleepily and looked around sleepily, squinting slightly at the snow sparkling in the sun, and then her body was bristling with thorns, and realization flashed in her eyes.
"Jay! Harley!"
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