The Grimoire's Chosen Ch. 39 (Worm)

A/N: Amelia is... intrigued.

-x-X-x-

Even as his word salad is hanging in the air, Jason is beating himself up for it. His thinking had been along the lines of wanting to get ahead of Vicky’s own reveal by sort of just… ripping the band-aid off, so to speak. Only now though, as he thinks back on just how much he revealed and watches Amelia open and close her mouth, does he consider that he might have gone about things a little differently. Maybe by easing her into everything they were up to slowly, rather than just telling her everything right off the bat.

Silence hangs for a long moment as he, Victoria, and Taylor all wait to see how Amelia is going to react to the revelations he just threw at her feet. Just when the quiet is starting to get more than a little awkward and verging into unbearable however…

“Show me.”

Huh? Jason is pretty sure he’s not the only one who blinks owlishly when Amelia suddenly leans forward with distinct interest in her eyes. This was… not how he was expecting her to react.

“Um… sorry?”

Amelia’s face reddens a little bit, but she doesn’t back down.

“Show me what you’ve been doing. I want to see it. This demon summoning, the blood magic. Show me everything.”

Its his turn to open his mouth and then close it after a moment of shock. Glancing to Taylor and Vicky, he receives a shrug from the former and a victorious smirk from the latter. Victoria is definitely one second away from saying ‘told you so’ in this moment.

In all fairness, Amelia had every right to demand this. She was going to be their sponsor and they were going to be representing her clinic on the streets of Brockton Bay. She had a right to know exactly what she was getting into before she got into it. At the same time though, Jason had to admit… when he started summoning demons, he really hadn’t expected everyone in his life to be so… okay with it.

Of course, the other minor issue Jason foresaw if he went through with this was that they might get a demon, or even multiple demons back to back, who were aware of him via his growing infamy in Hell. And that might lead to Amelia getting the impression that these demons weren’t so bad after all, just because they would be too busy cowering and kowtowing to him to show their true colors.

… Still, at the end of the day, what other choice does he have?

“Alright, but if we’re doing this, there are some ground rules I can’t budge on. You cannot interact with the summoning ritual in any way. You won’t be able to touch a demon directly with your power because we can’t let them out of the ritual circle. And whatever happens, you cannot speak while the demon is here, because even though I’m the summoner, the demon can and will try to make deals with any mortal in their vicinity, even if they have to twist your words in their head to get there.”

Amelia frowns but slowly nods.

“I understand, I suppose. You’re the expert.”

He can tell she’s not happy about something though. Perhaps the fact that she won’t get to touch the demon?

“We’ll make it give us some of its blood. Once its gone, you’ll be able to use your power on that okay?”

Her eyes light up, making it clear Jason was correct in his assumption. Noticeably more pleased even though she’s trying to hide it behind a nonchalant façade, Amelia sits back as Jason moves to the center of Victoria’s apartment and gets started again. You know, he never thought he would be doing quite so much demonic summoning outside of the relative privacy of his own home either. And yet, here they were…

By this point, the ritual circle is extremely easy to get up and running. That doesn’t mean Jason doesn’t take his time with things, however. Even the slightest bout of laziness and the smallest mistake could give a demon room to escape into their world, either to attack them or more likely flee out into the city and cause who knows how much harm. That couldn’t be allowed to happen under any circumstances, so of course Jason double and triple checks his work before performing his first summoning.

He can feel a sort of pull on the kernel of Chaos Magic inside of him now as he brings forth a demon, but he avoids actually using it here. While the more he used his Chaos Magic, the stronger it got… he definitely didn’t want to test a source of power like that on something already volatile like demonic summoning.

After a moment, a disgusting red skinned demon drops into the center of the circle. Jason tenses up as it raises its head, gazing around the room it finds itself in. The demon’s eyes fall upon the ladies first, leering aggressively and licking his lips as he grins at them. Then, he finally sees Jason.

When the demon’s eyes widen, Jason at first thinks his reputation has preceded him again. But then, rather than growing afraid and begging for mercy, the demon’s eyes proceed to narrow in in thoughtful interest.

“A nascent Chaos Mage… how very intriguing.”

Jason resists the urge to breathe a sigh of relief. The demon didn’t recognize him by the reputation he was steadily building with the denizens of Hell. He only recognized the power that Jason had gained literally last night.

Crawling up to the edge of the circle, the demon grins as he stops just short of pressing himself against the invisible barrier preventing him from escaping.

“I could help you, little mage. That power lying within you is capable of so much more. There are many things I could tell you about Chaos Magic… if you were willing to pay the price.”

Oh? Heh, judging by the way the demon’s eyes flicker over to the others, ‘the price’ in this case is obvious. Which is perfect for Jason’s purposes truth be told.

“And exactly what sort of price would you be expecting me to pay?”

The demon’s greed is obvious, even as he licks his lips again and positively coos out his response.

“Oh, not your soul like you’re probably thinking. Not for something so simple as some information. No… all you would need is to sacrifice one of your servants to me and I would gladly tell you everything I know about Chaos Magic.”

Amelia, Victoria, and Taylor all stiffen up at that, but to their credit, none of them makes a sound. They know better. Jason, meanwhile, just smiles all the wider. In one fell swoop, the demon has made himself amoral and ‘other’ in their eyes… specifically in Amelia’s eyes. That’s perfect. It’s exactly what Jason needed.

“And what would you do with the servant I sacrificed to you?”

The demon’s eyes light up at that.

“Oho? Want to strike some fear into the hearts of the others, eh? Well, obviously I would do unspeakable things to whoever you decided was worth the least in your eyes. Any one of these three would be such a delicious morsel. Mm, I imagine I would play with them for quite some time before finally cooking and eating them.”

Looking at the three young women, the demon grins wickedly, revealing rows of sharpened teeth perfect for tearing into meat. Jason can tell that his words have deeply unsettled all three of them. Probably time to bring this to a close. He’s gotten what he needed out of the demon.

Rather than invest more time in a conversation that Jason knows won’t go anywhere, he simply raises the Staff of Magnus and begins draining the demon’s life force right then and there. The creature lets out an unearthly screech as he collapses to his hands and knees, and Jason soon has him begging for mercy like all the others.

At which point he lets up to allow the demon to give them its blood in the prepared container within the circle. Only once the vessel is full does Jason unsummon the demon, sending him right back to Hell. As soon as he’s gone, Jason breathes a sigh of relief and turns to the others, specifically to Amelia.

“And that… was a demon. Not exactly pleasant creatures to say the least. That’s why I really don’t feel guilty using them like this. Especially not when draining them of their power is what let me capture Hookwolf without breaking a sweat last night.”

Amelia slowly nods, but her eyes are fixed on the container of demon blood.

“… I see. May I?”

Feeling slightly nervous even though he knows it’s perfectly safe, Jason nevertheless nods right back.

“Sure, go ahead. It shouldn’t be dangerous to stick your finger in it. I wouldn’t lick it afterwards mind you, but just a single finger dip should be fine.”

Amelia just nods again, almost transfixed as she walks forward and kneels in front of the container. With barely any trepidation, she leans in and dips her pinkie finger into the demon blood. Jason, Taylor, and Vicky all get closer as well, with Jason in particular feeling undeniably on edge. If anything happens, he’ll probably Seal the brunette immediately until they can figure out what’s going on and how to fix it.

Of course, the question becomes… what does ‘anything happens’ actually look like? Because the slightly insane giggle that leaves Amelia’s lips is kind of concerning but probably not Seal-worthy... right? Jason glances to Vicky to see her looking a little worried herself.

“Uh… Ames. You good?”

“Huh? Oh yes, I’m fine… better than fine really. This blood is absolutely fascinating. The DNA is so… alien. Which is weird, because my power usually makes sure I understand everything intrinsically, you know? This… it’s like reading a textbook in a language I can’t read. Except, I can almost feel it being translated into English in real time.”

Amelia’s brow furrows as she keeps her finger in the demon blood.

“Wow… this is truly amazing.”

Jason hesitates for a moment before clearing his throat.

“That’s not even the end of it, Amelia. We still have the other part as well. Namely, Blood Empowerment Rituals. Using the demon blood, Taylor has increased her agility, Victoria has increased her intelligence, and I’ve increased my regeneration.”

That gets her attention. Flashing a look over at the three of them, Amelia furrows her brow.

“What? Show me.”

Taylor is obviously the easiest to show. Her speed is pretty inhuman now, and she also shows off a few feats that are clearly beyond the dexterity of a normal human being, like tossing something across the room and then managing to catch it on the other side before it can hit the ground.

Jason, meanwhile, gets a knife from the kitchen and cuts along one of his palms, allowing Amelia to watch as the skin slowly but steadily knits back together over the course of a couple of minutes. The pain is nothing really at this point. The biggest hassle is cleaning up the blood afterwards.

Of course, when it comes to Victoria, she can’t help but sit back smugly with her arms crossed over her chest as she gives Jason in particular a look.

“Well, I can’t exactly do anything super fancy like those two… but I CAN safely say that I’ve officially studied pretty much all of the material for the rest of this month. Even if SOMEBODY insists on continuing to tutor me anyways until the end of the month, I’m fully ready to take that test and pass it with flying colors.”

Jason sighs, even as Vicky just smirks like the cat who caught the canary at him. Amelia, meanwhile, is more focused on touching each of them, her brow furrowed in disbelief.

“This doesn’t make any sense though… I’ve seen the changes firsthand, but your biology is reading the exact same. There should be some sign of what makes Taylor faster, or Jason heal better, but there’s nothing there for my power to discern.”

Clearing his throat, Jason shrugs.

“Well… I can tell you why that is.”

When Amelia gives him a curious look, he just smiles crookedly.

“Magic.”

That gets a deadpan expression from the healer, but Jason just shakes his head.

“I’m not joking, Amelia. Not really. It’s literally described as magic as far as my power is concerned. And honestly, you said it yourself… I don’t register as a parahuman to you. What if… what if I’m something else?”

Amelia hesitates, thinking that over for a second before looking back to the demon blood.

“… It would explain why my power took longer to ‘translate’ that stuff than it ever has for anything else. But that would mean you’re summoning actual demons from actual Hell. Does that mean God is real? Religion is true?”

That… Jason hesitates for a moment before shaking his head.

“I honestly don’t know. Some of the descriptions I get from my power make me think I’m drawing on… other versions of reality. Other universes where everything is different.”

He can see that it’s bothering Amelia even thinking about it, so instead he decides to push the conversation along.

“Still, Vicky was right that you need more protection. And that means getting you a few Blood Empowerments of your own. They do need to be painted on your bared flesh however, so I’m not sure if you’re comfortable enough with me for that yet…”

Amelia blinks at that before blushing a little.

“Ah, w-well… I suppose it’s fine… s-so long as we’re all doing it of course!”

Oh. Sure, they could do that. It sounded like Amelia would be more comfortable if they were all naked then.

“Sure, we can make that happen. Right girls?”

Taylor and Vicky both shrug and nod, having no issue with it.

“Not like its anything Ames and I have seen of each other before. Oooh, what power up am I going to get this time? And what should Amelia’s first power up be? And what are YOU both getting?!”

Victoria’s eyes are lit up with excitement, while Amelia looks rosier than he’s ever seen her. Still, the blonde’s questions are rather fair.

“Well, why don’t you ladies move into the bedroom and discuss among yourselves while I get enough demon blood for all four of us? That way the demons can’t hear you while you’re talking.”

The girls all nod and move off to Vicky’s bedroom even as Jason prepares more containers and starts up the next summoning. He, of course, already knew exactly what he was going for this time around.

-x-X-x-

A/N: Will try to keep this up to date at the end of every chapter, get on me if I forget please. Though if it gets too out of hand, might have to change it at some point.

Jason's current banked points:

100 Celestial Points

Jason's current banked power:

= A Collection of Magic Rings (300 Points)

Jason's current powers:

= Flash Air (Gained in Chapter 1

= Transformation Pendant (Gained in Chapter 4)

= Keen Eye (Gained in Chapter 4)

= Blood, Death, and Demons (Gained in Chapter 6)

= Alchemical Prodigy (Gained in Chapter 8)

= Staff of Magnus (Gained in Chapter 13)

= Bind and Seal (Gained in Chapter 17)

= Hero of a Hundred Faces: Everyone's Leader (Gained in Chapter 20)

= Minor Regeneration via Blood Empowerment Ritual (Gained in Chapter 23)
(Taylor got Major Agility, Vicky got Major Intelligence)

= Restraining Order (Gained in Chapter 25)

= Focus (Gained in Chapter 28)

= Scarborough Fair (Gained in Chapter 30)

= Chaos Magic (Gained in Chapter 36)