The Road to Magic (Book 1 of the Way of the Demon Series) (4 page)

She just smiled.

‘If you really want to lose your human essence in the pursuit of mightiness, then there is another way, and for you it would be much easier,’ she said after some hesitation. ‘Demons – well, and gods, too, of course – are endowed with a natural immunity to the manifestations of elementals’ powers…’

‘But what’s that got to do with me?’ Oleg asked in surprise.

‘Well, you’ve got the body of a demon, and what’s more, obviously a high-ranking one. That means that somewhere in your soul there’s a bit of demon and the wish to become one completely. So I would advise you to keep that body, even after you return to your own…’

At this point Heliona cut her speech short and listened very carefully. Then she said hurriedly: ‘Which will happen any second now.’

Suddenly a huge pillar of flame rose up in the middle of the clearing. Already used to various fiery phenomena, Oleg stared at it curiously. The flame, however, didn’t cool down nor did it turn into any useful object, but went out slightly. The outline of something in its midst could be discerned. That “something”, like a gigantic vacuum cleaner, drew unto itself all the flames raging around it; finally, when the flames had all but died down, that mysterious “something” became clear. To Oleg’s great joy it turned out to be his body, his own dear body, dressed in a leather jacket and jeans, with his guitar on its back – in short, precisely that body lost as result of a fight in a dark alleyway, which it was so hard for him to part with.

Forgetting himself in his delight, he rushed closer, but was stopped at once by the salamander.

‘Stop. I wouldn’t recommend you touch it yet.’

‘Why not?’

‘If you touch it, you’ll immediately reincarnate and lose the body you are in now. And you’ll need this one – really need it--to go to some world different from your own, for example. The most convenient way to transport to a suitable world is to use some invocation of a demon. So I would advise you to try and keep both bodies.’

‘How does that work? Do I need to tear myself in two?’ Oleg didn’t find the idea inspiring.

‘No, you’ll become a shapeshifter. If you want, you’ll be a human, at least, as far as that’s possible for you now. And if you want, you can crawl into the demon-body. By the way, if you are in demon form for long enough, and if you fortify it with the corresponding actions so people believe that you really are a demon, then you
will
be. And that’s exactly the path I would advise you to take.’

‘No, I’d rather turn myself into a magician. I don’t fancy the idea of ripping heads off and torching cities.’

Having said this, Oleg began nervously pacing about, looking at the body lying in front of him. He obviously couldn’t wait to return to it, although Heliona’s publicity for demonic capacities hadn’t fallen on deaf ears.

‘And how am I supposed to keep this appearance?’ Oleg stopped at last and stared straight at the salamander.

‘It’s very easy. Feel that it’s yours. Feel yourself as a demon…’ Heliona’s voice changed, it became deep and broad, with hypnotizing power. ‘Feel the cold fury and the hot hatred of a demon… the ability to fly and the thirst for the torment of your enemies… don’t feel hair on your head but malicious snakes ready to pounce on anyone who is careless enough to approach you… feel the reliability of your armour and the sharpness of your claws…’

As the former goddess pronounced these words, Oleg fell into some sort of deep trance. Her words went through him, imprinting themselves deep in the twilight of his soul, dissolving in it and giving birth to an answering reaction.

Hatred was the first to come; a bright red burning wave flowed through his body, making him feel every muscle in his mighty body. Yes, Oleg felt his strength and power which needed no other support because it stemmed from the sharpness of his fangs and claws, the strength of his muscles, the resilience of his armour of scales, and the lightness of his wings which enabled him to overtake any enemy trying to escape. That was the second feeling to overwhelm Oleg, and for long seconds he revelled in the sense of incredible physical strength which was new to him.

But then Oleg was covered by the next, the third wave, and he shrieked in pain and amazement. In the blink of an eye he understood why there are so many strange legends about demons and he understood that the legends don’t contain an ounce of truth. The third wave was thirst. Thirst for the blood and pain of his enemies, the thirst to kill and terrorize, to lord over slaves and throw down adversaries.

Then it all passed. Oleg stared at Heliona, dumbfounded.

‘What was that?’

‘A few emotions of a real demon of the High Circle. Now you can imagine what it means to be a real demon.’

‘But what did you do that for?’

‘You liked it, didn’t you?’

‘N-no.’ Oleg’s answer sounded hesitant.

‘Oh, really?’ The girl smiled her most cunning of smiles.

But Oleg stood firm.

‘Well, yes, that is, I liked it at that moment, but not now. I don’t want to be such a …’ he thought, searching for a fitting description. ‘… joyful killer.’

‘If you don’t want to be, then you won’t be.’ Heliona answered calmly. ‘But I needed to do it so you would completely unify with your demon body… OK, what’s happening behind you? Don’t turn round!’

Oleg thought for a second, then suddenly saw. He saw everything around him, 360 degrees, above, below, to the sides, with the eyes of the hundreds of tiny snakes growing on his head instead of hair. He realized that he could single out a hair-snake at will and send it wherever he wanted to, controlling its movement – an ideal spy and killer. That he could deal a blow with his hatred, cause pain or kill at will, and rip the strongest armour to shreds with his claws. He realized many things about this body which had fallen to him, and not everything that he realized could be put into words.

‘Well, what’s there?’ Heliona repeated impatiently.

Oleg laughed. Madam likes to joke? Well, we can do that, too! And with great pleasure he showed her the finger, drawing in his claws.

‘This sign, your ex-divine Flamingness,’ he informed her with maximum sarcasm.

‘Yeah, you win,’ Heliona said embarrassed, lifting a fiery hand to remove the sign from the top of the boulder Oleg was leaning his back against. But her embarrassment didn’t last long.

‘Well then, do you appreciate your advantages? And now quick march back to your own body. It’s been waiting for you long enough!’

Oleg obediently walked over and brushed the hand of the body lying next to him. The world about him began to spin dementedly at once. Instinctively, Oleg closed his eyes tightly, and when he opened them he realized he was lying on his stomach, face-down in the incredibly green emerald grass. And the world around him had changed once more. Now it was a perfectly normal forest clearing, the only difference between this one and the ones he was used to was the absence of any smell.

‘And nothing has changed,’ Heliona’s voice rang out above him. ‘It’s just that before you saw it through the eyes of a demon, and saw the real nature of this little place. I fashioned it in a hurry so that you wouldn’t freak out from being in our world so long. Of course, I created it out of the elements that I had to hand and your demon eyes easily distinguished them. But human eyes, which you are using now, are not so difficult to trick.’

A long silence followed. Oleg looked at himself and at the world around him, trying to find signs of the change in his condition. Not having noticed anything special, he turned to Heliona: ‘You said I’d get some sort of magical super-powers?’

‘Yes, that’s what I said, and you will get them. Why?’

‘How can I use them?’

‘How should I know? I’m not a human magician, am I? You’ll have to learn the art of wielding your powers from them, and you’ll have to study long and hard. My energy will only help you to control fire a bit. The most primitive way to use it is simply to make a wish connected with fire, imagine whatever it is and exert your will. It might work, your powers are already sufficient for many things.’

Oleg made a wish. After a few minutes of very hard straining and frowning, a small flaming sphere appeared on his palm.

‘Oh! A fireball! Not bad for a first try,’ Heliona passed judgement on his achievement. ‘Oh and by the way, besides practising and developing your fire talents, I suggest you develop your own strengths, too.’

‘My own?’

‘You have a natural talent for dark magic. It’s not by chance that you received a demon body here. So I would recommend you study that art, too, especially necromancy. After all, you’ve already been acquainted with death, and
those
kinds of meetings are never without their consequences.’

Oleg nodded silently, but thought to himself: something is pushing me intensely towards “the dark side of the force”. Why?

‘You’re pushing yourself!’ the auburn ex-goddess protested at once, still shamelessly reading his mind. ‘You think it’s my fault that you have that magical leaning? And for your information, to be a master of the dark magic doesn’t mean you’re a bad person.’

Oleg at once thought sarcastically: yeah of course, because you probably can’t become a dark magician and still be human.

The salamander neighed like an untamed horse.

‘You got it! But I didn’t say “magician”, I said “master”. And that is totally within a human’s reach.’

At this point Heliona suddenly turned her attention to Oleg’s long-suffering guitar, still hung over his shoulder.

‘Are you a bard?’ she cried out gleefully. ‘Sing something!’

Oleg frowned: ‘I’ll be happy to play something. But as for singing… You see, there’s only one good thing about my voice – it’s loud. As for the rest… Sorry.’

‘Bullshit!’ The salamander exclaimed. ‘Take on your demonic form and sing. Demons have a very wide vocal range, after all they have to be able to tempt and terrify. Demons are wonderful singers.’

Noticing how Oleg grimaced, imagining himself trying to play the guitar with fingers topped with hooked claws two centimetres long (and that was when they were drawn in as far as they would go) she came up with another variation:

‘You don’t have to take on the full form of a demon. You can just take a few demonic organs. And by the way, that’s a really useful ability. Could you sing like that?’

And Oleg sang. It took him about half an hour to learn how to invoke the necessary organs of the demon body, swopping them for his own, and then twice as long to learn how to use this “bodily assortment”, but once he had mastered the right tools, he gave a concert for his lone spectator, singing his favourite rock ballads.

Heliona listened, holding her breath. In that instant she no longer looked like a powerful flaming spirit, a salamander able to reduce cities to ashes and travel over continents like a fiery tornado, nor like a wise pagan goddess who’d lived over three thousand years, all-seeing and all-knowing. No, she was like a little ginger-haired girl, a first-year student at her first ever rock concert.

Heliona shuddered and suddenly came closer to Oleg with a flowing movement. Her graceful figure gave off a strong heat. Pressing her lips to his cheek for a second, she leapt away with a jerk and began to dance. Tongues of flame shot out around her and although Oleg was now quite far away from the girl, he could feel a tremendously strong heat like that from a well-stoked, red-hot stove. Unable to withstand the rising temperature, he took on his demon form which was more heat resistant.

The temperature was rising and Oleg was getting afraid. The guitar was already beginning to carbonize. And just then, what Oleg was afraid of happened. Having taken on his demon form to save himself from the heat, he continued playing the guitar but accidentally snapped one of the strings with his claw. It snapped with a loud twang. Heliona stopped and looked at Oleg. Her eyes were still full of dreamy longing

‘It’s wonderful! What did you stop for?’

Then her eyes fell on the half-charred guitar in Oleg’s hands, on Oleg himself, fully demonized, but even so clearly feeling extremely uncomfortable, and on his skull, quite bald of hair-snakes (so that his handy little beasties didn’t get burnt alive, he’d sent them further away). She gave a quiet ‘Oh’ and the fire abated at once.

‘A string snapped,’ Oleg answered as though nothing had happened, returning the snakes to their place and then taking on his human form. ‘Claws really do get in the way when you’re playing!’

‘Thank you.’ The girl hung her head guiltily and suddenly snuggled up to him. Oleg found her lips. Coolish at first, they soon warmed up and got hotter. The slim girly figure relaxed in his hands for a second. Oleg managed to feel a wave of heat running through her, and then Heliona carefully extricated herself from his embrace. Oleg couldn’t suppress a sigh of disappointment. To his amazement, Heliona blushed, embarrassed.

‘Remember I told you that most of your desires can’t be fulfilled yet?’

‘Yes. Sadly. And now I’ve just been convinced of that. I really have to bump up my heat resistant capacities as quickly as possible,’ Oleg gave a sly smile. ‘But once I do – watch out! I’ll seduce you and lead you astray!’

Still embarrassed at the beginning of this speech, by the end Heliona couldn’t hold back her laughter.

‘OK, it’s a deal. You can take it that you’ve already seduced me and led me astray. Now you just have to bump up your heat resistant capacities. But actually I wasn’t talking about that, but about your desires. I would satisfy them all with pleasure, and not just once, but, alas, until you bump up your “heat resistant capacities”, that won’t be possible. Nevertheless, one of your wishes can be met considerably earlier than the others.’

Oleg looked at her in amazement. The girl laughed.

‘No, not that one… and not that one, either… And what kind of position is that? Stop guessing right now, I’m getting horny!’ Heliona sighed. ‘Sadly, all of that is impossible for now. However, amidst all that chaos filling your head, there is one tiny little thought. I’ll quote: “Ah, if only I could take her to one of our discos all the guys would die of jealousy, and Lyova the mouse catcher would eat his hat!” I of course have no idea why the mysterious Lyova should eat his own hat… Ah-ha, a bet. Now I get it. But anyhow, about those desires. It’s unlikely that there’s discos in the world where you’ll be studying magicianship, of course, but there will be balls, receptions and other such events. So, if you like…’ At this point the girl’s voice sounded very solemn: ‘I, Heliona Clear Flame, a free fire spirit, give the human standing in front of me the right of immediate invocation of my true appearance in the world in which he finds himself for the purposes of…’ here she paused for thought, obviously trying to find a more-or-less ceremonial expression for dances.