Chapter twenty two

I activated the ritual exactly as instructed by Jules . There was a bright flash of light then the room was filled with smoke that smelled like rotten eggs.

The first thing I saw after the smoke cleared was a pair of shiny red ass cheeks.

Then the baboon who was the owner of said ass cheeks turned around, sat on its haunches and stared right at me.

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A few minutes earlier,

The first thing I needed to do was check if the ARM worked properly. I was pretty sure it was OK , but then again I didn't want to be proven wrong by a demon from hell chewing my face off or some other such mishap, so for its first ritual I chose an empowerment ritual to make myself an extra dimensional storage ring. (A.n. these things aren't that uncommon, if you remember Leo had one.) I could continue using my own method to store things, but enchanting each and every thing I wanted to store seemed not only tedious but also impossible with items that already had an enchantment on them. This ritual that Jules had dug up from her records of ancient Chinese texts would hopefully be a solution.

I placed a normal looking ring inside the circle and activated it. There was a mild throb of light and that was it. I picked up the ring and wondered how it worked. When I put it on I suddenly was able to sense an extra space the size of a warehouse through the ring somehow.

"Its intent controlled dumbass , you just think at it to do what you want."

After hearing her helpful, if not quite polite words, I touched one of my Caines and imagined it being stored in the ring. Suddenly it disappeared from my hands, and I could suddenly sense it in the dark space connected to the ring. I imagined it back in my hand and voila it was in my hand. After I practiced taking things in and out of the ring, I made five more rings because they seemed useful, then moved on to the next ritual which was the main event.

Which brings us to the present.

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For a moment I thought something went wrong with the ritual and it accidentally summoned an innocent baboon, but then I looked into its eyes and what looked back weren't the eyes of an animal. They were eyes that have seen everything and knew everything. Eyes that have gazed into the depths of time and space and were irrevocably altered by them. I was nearly lost just looking into those dark bottomless pits.

"Greetings John fairweather, master of magic who is not a magician, twister of laws and destiny, destroyer and salvation, future king and conqueror, this lowly duke greets you."

There were a lot of things I expected when I summoned the duke of hell Gusion, but this civil almost subservient attitude wasn't one of them.

What did it say about my future that a duke of hell that knows everything that was and will be was bowing to me?