Sazaeniraz

In the middle of the night, Jess sat on the edge of his bed. He knew he wouldn't be able to sleep. Not a chance. Until he tested his idea, he wasn't going to get another full night's rest.

His idea was simple: hold the mysterious staff and summon an imp.

Judging by what had happened the last time he cast Fear with that orc staff, the results might be impossible to predict. Maybe a whole crowd of imps would appear. Maybe some terrifying, unknown demon would burst out instead...

He looked at the summoning spell and the spell for killing a summoned demon that he'd written down on the table. His gaze settled on the second one. That was the important part.

Jess repeated it silently over and over, so many times he lost count. He learned it until he could recite it without thinking, until the words kept running through his head even when he wasn't deliberately practicing. Still he refused to stop.

Bimsen Noxi, Kuteini, Elama Xijin.

If the spell went out of control, he'd say those words and kill every last thing he had summoned, no matter how many there were.

He didn't want to be like Gardes or Gakin, satisfied with summoning one ordinary imp servant. If those arrogant dwarf warlocks in Ironforge said summoning an imp was only the bare minimum required of a warlock, then Jess wasn't going to settle for an ordinary imp.

Doing something that easy wouldn't really help him move forward. If he was going to do this, he might as well go big.

He'd made his decision. Now he just had to do it.

You may suffer, struggle, even regret it. But when the moment comes to decide, you must decide. You taught me that yourselves.

Jess picked up the staff in his left hand. He felt a strange connection form between the staff and his mind. He couldn't tell whether he was imagining it or whether something had really happened.

He cleared a space in the middle of the room, carefully recalled Gakin's gestures, and practiced the movements for a while without saying the words. Once he was sure he had them right, he began to chant.

"Renea, Taeni..."

No turning back now.

"Anvi, Solemi, Orgasobims."

Sure enough, ominous purple light began leaking through the gaps in the rough cloth wrapped around the staff. The purple glow rising around Jess was much brighter than the shadows he'd summoned in the basement.

He covered the window with his bedsheet. Before him, the magic circle expanded beyond his control, and a dark crack opened in its center.

The magic rushing out made the papers, books, cloth bags, and other clutter in his room shake and flutter.

Jess grabbed the two notes the warlocks had given him and repeated the dismissal spell in his mind. If anything strange came out of that crack, he would immediately chant the spell and kill it.

What if he summoned a succubus?

Back when he played the game, he'd always imagined that if he ever became a warlock, he'd get himself a succubus and spend every day having sex until the sky went dark, the sun and moon lost their light, and he was completely spent.

But now that he was actually living in this world, succubi didn't seem fun at all.

He had to do everything he could to avoid having his mind twisted. A succubus was surely one of the greatest temptations that could lead a warlock to ruin.

And succubi were much stronger fighters than imps. If one appeared, Jess suspected he might be charmed on the spot before he even had time to use his demon-killing spell. Then he'd end up the succubus's slave.

Everything you took came at a price. The greatest pleasure would end in the greatest pain. Succubi weren't running a charity.

Before the crack had even fully opened, he was ready to cast the killing spell.

If it widened any further—wide enough for something bigger than a single imp—he'd cast immediately!

With the staff's power, surely he could execute anything that came through on the spot, even a succubus or a felguard!

Or would he be the one getting executed?

Luckily, the crack stopped widening. It was about the same size as the one he'd opened in the Slaughtered Lamb's basement.

Unlawfully taken from NovelPhoenix, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

A tiny claw reached through. Then the whole creature jumped out and landed on the wooden floor. The magic circle vanished, and the crack closed behind it.

The room fell silent. Only the monster and Jess, leaning against the window, remained.

An imp. No doubt about it. Two long horns, eyes burning with emerald-green magical fire, and the body of a hairless little monkey smaller than a cat.

But its body was dark gold, and its skin looked more like metal than flesh.

Whatever it was, Jess was already prepared to kill the little monster.

Then the imp stared at him and muttered something in a language he couldn't understand at all.

"Can you speak Common?" Jess asked.

"Common?" the imp repeated. "So this is Azeroth? Ha! My master is a human, and I've come to Azeroth. How wonderful! You have no idea what a great thing you've done, my master! You've just saved me from the hands of the Imp King Yarozbal. He was about to execute me!"

What was this nonsense?

"Where are you from?" Jess asked.

"Where am I from? The master asks, and I answer!" The imp bounced back and forth. "I served the Imp King Yarozbal, an imp ruler on Nastoy. He has his own palace and army, and I was one of his personal guards! But I made one tiny mistake. Just one tiny mistake, and he wanted to throw me into a furnace and melt me down into demon soul fragments! What a cruel fellow!"

Nastoy. Yarozbal. Jess had never heard of these strange names.

Gardes had said imps might come from places even other demons had never heard of. The Twisting Nether was so vast that even the Burning Legion couldn't conquer all of it. An imp living in some obscure place wasn't particularly surprising.

"But none of that matters now!" the imp said. "I'm on Azeroth! He can't catch me here! And I've made a pact with such a powerful warlock, one who could bring me all the way from faraway Nastoy! How marvelous! I'll begin a new life now, a new life on Azeroth! You have no idea how famous Azeroth is in the Twisting Nether. Even Sargeras, the leader of the Burning Legion, wants to attack this place! Ah... well, Lord Sargeras wants to invade it. That doesn't sound so good, does it?"

The imp scratched its pointed chin. "Still, he probably can't get here anytime soon. Ha! Ha!"

"You're not part of the Burning Legion?" Jess asked.

"Imp King Yarozbal would love to join the Burning Legion! But he's never had the chance. Not one eredar is willing to summon an imp king as a servant! So if he's not in the Legion, then of course I'm not either! And I don't want to join. I'm an imp who loves freedom!"

"Ah, freedom, contracts, masters, servants... It does sound a little contradictory. But never mind! You don't seem all that strong anyway. Maybe you'll die in a few days. Then I'll be completely free!"

"Mm." Jess nodded, picked up his note, and started reading. "Bimsen Noxi..."

"Wait!" the imp shouted. "Stop! Stop, stop!"

Jess crumpled the paper in his fist and copied its shrill tone. "You're hoping I'll die, so I'll just kill you instead. Seems perfectly fair!"

"Too fast! I'd be dying far too fast! I can't accept that!" the imp complained. "What did I say that was wrong? A weak warlock is bound to die quickly! This world's so dangerous. So many powerful beings! One little mistake and you're gone. Isn't that right? Suppose a dragon flies over one day and accidentally breathes a bit of fire. Could you survive that? Or a great demon walks by and accidentally exhales in your direction. Even your bones would be gone! They might not even know who you were!"

"That doesn't mean I want you to die, my new master! If you become stronger, then I become stronger too. If you never die, then I'll never die either! But we must be realistic, ha ha! Still, I wish you eternal life! Even if it's not very likely!"

Jess felt as if he'd just eaten something disgusting. He couldn't think of a reply. But the imp wasn't exactly wrong.

"Then can you help me get stronger? Help me live forever?"

"Living forever is hard to say. Mortals can die so suddenly! But how would you like to grow stronger, master?" the imp asked.

"Learn more spells, for example?" Jess suggested.

The imp hopped twice and scratched its head. "Knowing lots of spells doesn't necessarily make you strong, my dear master! Some astral mages can roam the Void with just one or two spells. Some weaker races learn seventy or eighty spells and die just the same!"

Jess thought it was talking nonsense. How could an astral mage possibly know only one or two spells? You'd need one protective spell to keep stray shadow energy from burning you in the Void, and another to teleport between planets. That was two already.

What, not a single attack spell? A stray dog could bite him to death, and he was supposed to be an astral mage?

"So do you know magic?" Jess asked.

The imp gave a sharp laugh. "Of course! Our kind is born knowing spells! Phase shifting! Fire magic! But those spells can't be taught. What a shame! You're not one of our kind. You can't use the power inside our bodies!"

So it wasn't really different from an ordinary imp. In the game, imps could even raise their master's maximum health with Blood Pact, and this one hadn't mentioned anything like that.

Still, the little creature didn't seem to mean any harm. Jess lowered his guard a little.

"You said someone who could summon you must be powerful. But just about any warlock can summon an imp. So I take it you're not an ordinary imp? Tell me, what makes you different?"

"Of course I'm not ordinary! Many imps have very weak phase shifting, master. They can fade from sight in this world, but they can't truly disappear and move to another plane. I'm different! I'm a mighty imp from Nastoy. I can become truly invisible. Even you won't be able to see me. Like this!"

With a flash of arcane light, the imp vanished before Jess's eyes.

Now Jess panicked. Where had it gone?

Unlike Gardes's imp, which still gave off a faint ominous presence, this one was completely gone, as though it had never existed!

Jess didn't want any trouble. He quickly grabbed his note and began, "Bimsen..."

"Aiya!" The imp popped back into view in a flash, jumping and shouting. "Don't chant! Don't chant! I only disappeared for a little while! I wouldn't hurt you, my great master! I was just thinking you'll surely become the greatest warlock in this world one day! You're even more ruthless and cunning than a nathrezim! You keep threatening to chant that terrible spell at the slightest excuse! You frighten me!"

This imp did seem fairly obedient.

"First tell me your name," Jess said.

"Which name are you asking for? My name, or my true name?"

Every demon had a true name that could only be spoken in the demonic language. Once someone knew it, they held the demon's weakness. Speak a demon's true name, and no matter what kind of demon it was, the speaker could easily suppress it.

"Both."

"You can call me Saeno!" the imp declared. It stood still, and the flames in its eyes seemed to swell.

"Next I'll speak my true demonic name, master, because you've ordered me to."

As the imp called Saeno spoke, the shrill, crafty tone drained from its voice. It grew unnaturally deep and dark.

"Sa—za—e—ni—ra—z!"