The Dive: Birth of a Wordsmith (33 page)

“
Uh, yeah…
Since you aren’t making them magical, you could use half the
mana you used and still get a really good weapon or armor.”

“
Let me try
something..” I dismissed the weapon, and surprisingly the mana
all came back to me rather than dispersing.
Huh,
neat.
I set that note aside for late, and
raised my hand again.
Alright… focus…

After concentrating on the
image I wanted, I felt a piece of paper fall into my hand. I only
used about twenty mana this time, but all I needed was a sheet of
paper. On the paper was blurred writing, which was not what I had in
mind. “Okay, need to practice before I can make instant
documents.”

“
That exercise I
told you about earlier should help, since it’s about shaping
your mana!” Lilith quickly exclaimed, clapping her hands
together like she was proud that she was useful.

“
I still say you
don’t act much like a demon queen.” I joked with her, and
she puffed up her cheeks in protest. “Too cute for a demon
queen.”

I could hear her mumble
under her breath, “Demons can be cute too..” But she
didn’t argue too much, seeming to just like that I said that
about her.

“
Okay… first,
the rune. Then, I can work on this. There are a lot of things I want
to try making.” I smiled to her, patting her head again as I
sat down. “Okay, help me out here. I need a rune that acts to
target all of the components of the contract that are identified.
What would the proper definition be for something like that…”

“
Uh.. Well, you’re
already selecting them with the detection magic. It’s just a
matter of making a rune that will apply to all of them so that you
don’t miss any.”

“
Right… so,
rather than the Twin rune, where I targeted multiple objects of the
same origin, this one would be to target multiple pieces of the same
object.” I smiled, closing my eyes and focusing on the
definition.
Parts of a single structure.
I had the image in my mind, and had just finished drawing it out when
it dawned on me. “This rune won’t cover the spell to put
the contract back into you. I’ll need to make a third one after
all.”

“
No you won’t~.”
Lilith smiled to me, wrapping her arms around my chest and leaning
over my shoulder. “Demons already use contract magic that can
do that. You just seemed so intent on making it unique I didn’t
mention it earlier. Just these two runes will be plenty.”

“
Think so?”

“
Yup. I’ll
cast the merging spell myself, so it won’t be a problem. Just
don’t put anything weird in the contract before I do, okay? I
don’t want to end up as a mere plaything.” She winked
playfully to me.

“
I wasn’t
going to do anything like that, don’t worry. But, I’ll
need to wait to choose what edits to make until the ritual is being
cast. If we’ve only got one shot to get it right, I don’t
want to waste it.”

“
I understand~. Do
you want to cast all of the other spells yourself?”

“
Honestly, I’m
not sure I have the energy for all of them. The only one that I
absolutely have to cast is the spell to rewrite the contract.
Everything else I can write out and trust your more experienced
casters to handle.”

“
Yeah.. this is a
really big spell you’re changing. In a way, the ritual is like
a Grand Magic spell, though each part is no greater than an Adept
spell. How they come together and amplify their potentials to rewrite
such a powerful contract, that’s no small magic.”

“
Yeah, about that..
I was thinking..”

“
Hmm?”

“
Well, after we do
this, I’m going to be targeted by every angel that realizes I
changed the contract, right?”

Lilith nodded slowly,
frowning. “Yeah.. probably.”

“
Well, how about
this? What if one of the changes I make is so that neither side can
harm, by any definition, the representatives of the other faction?
With your blessing on the grimoire, I am practically your
representative already. After the alteration, neither the angels or
their accomplices would be able to attack me.”

She nodded quickly. “Yeah,
that would be good. Though, we wouldn’t be able to attack their
representatives either.”

“
Ah, but you see,
you don’t have to attack them. You said that to get into Hell
without a demon guide is impossible. There were traps and monsters
waiting for people who tried. You don’t have to hurt them, just
don’t help them. Let them hurt themselves.”

Lilith slowly grinned to
me. “Are you sure you’re not a demon in disguise?”

“
Well, I did mention
being your representative.”

“
You did…
and, I think I need to give you something to make that more official
than just a simple mark on your book. Something that nobody would be
able to deny came from a demon.” She slowly had me stand from
my chair and turned me around.

“
Oh? What did you
have in mind?”

“
Close your eyes,
silly…” She blushed a bit while looking me in the eyes,
but I did as requested, and closed them. I could feel her breath over
my lips just a few seconds before she kissed me, holding us together
like that for several seconds. But, this wasn’t just a normal
kiss. I could hear system messages popping up all around me, just
waiting for me to open my eyes. “There..” When I opened
my eyes, I was dumbstruck from the messages waiting for me.

Okay… motherlode
of all rewards.
I blinked reading the
messages several times, before looking to Lilith, who was blushing
and looking away. “Is… is it really alright to give me
all of that?” Not only did I get the title and a new field of
magic, but that field of magic immediately became as high a level as
all of my other magics put together.

“
Do.. you not want
it?”

“
Of course I want
it! I was just worried that you’d get in trouble for giving
something like that to me.”

She let her shoulders
relax, and sighed. “It’s alright. You’ve helped us
more than any human in history, and you aren’t even done yet.
If anyone argues with my ruling, they can take it up with me.”
She winked to me and finally let go of me, taking a step back. “Just
remember… now you’ll be bound by the contract too, as a
representative of the Demons.”

“
Eh, I never really
felt like going to the city of angels anyways. Especially since you
told me the big man doesn’t really run the show there.”

“
So… you’re
alright with it?” She smiled hopefully.

“
Alright with it?
Lilith, the magic you gave me is literally more powerful than any
other attack spell I’ve made so far. Though, I’ll have to
check out what some of them do later. I noticed you gave me the spell
Hell’s Gate. I assume that will let me make a temporary gate to
come here whenever I want?”

“
Yup! You can summon
a gate that will last until you close it. And when you leave here,
you can choose to either leave to the same spot you arrived, or exit
at any of the permanent gates.”

“
Well, that will be
useful. Could you give me a map of where the gates are? Being able to
jump between them could save weeks of travel time.”

“
Why do you think we
spread them out so much?” Lilith grinned to me. “I’ll
give you the map later today.”

“
Thanks. Give me
just a second.” I smiled to her, and opened up my character
sheet. I had gotten twenty levels just from the infernal magic, so
that gave me everything I need to hit my benchmark for Wisdom.

Lilith had her head tilted
to the side, seeming worried as I allocated my stat points from the
sudden level increase, but then I grinned and she relaxed. “Don’t
scare me like that!”

“
Huh? What do you
mean?”

“
I thought you had
gotten upset about being marked as my emissary.”

“
Oh, no! Nothing
like that. Sorry, I guess I should explain a bit more about
foreigners.” I sighed, and walked over to the bed to sit down,
where Lilith sat right beside me to listen. “See, whenever
foreigners learn a new ability, they have the chance to.. how should
I put this.. better their potential? Like increasing their mana or
strength. The mark you gave me just now let me make a rather big
change, so I was working on that real quick.”

“
Ahh… you’re
weird.” Lilith smiled to me, and I laughed.

“
Thanks? But really,
that was a nice thing you did for me. Apparently, being the Queen’s
Emissary is the highest role a mortal can play in Hell?”

Lilith blushed, and
nodded. “Yeah. There’s only a couple higher positions,
but to get them you would have to become at least partially a demon.
Not just a representative.”

Noticing her blush, I
poked her shoulder to tease her. “Can’t have the Queen
marrying some lowly mortal, can you?”

“
U-uhm… I
meant a General! Yeah… you have to be at least part demon to
be one of my Generals…” She blushes further and looks
away.
Yup, I hit the bullseye.

“
Sure~.” I
grinned to her, patting her head. “Guess I have some authority
now, huh?”

Seeing the chance to
change subjects, Lilith pounces like a cat after a mouse. “Yup!
Only the highest ranked demons can disregard an order from you. And
myself, of course.”

“
Of course. It
wouldn’t do to let some mere mortal be the boss of you.”
I chuckled, and she blushed again.

“
R-right. But yeah,
the mark I put on your soul will also protect you from most lower
level infernal spells. Unless it was set up by myself or a General,
you might even be able to walk through a field of hellfire.”

“
That… is
very good to know. So, hellfire is a real thing I take it? Not just
something for the tourists?”

“
Yeah. Angels have
their Smiting, and we have Hellfire. All it really is is amplified
fire. Harder to extinguish, and all that.”

“
And the spells
about souls?” I asked, not upset, just curious. She looked at
me for a moment, like she was searching for signs I might regret it,
but then nodded.

“
Yeah. I’ll
understand if you don’t want to use those spells. But in most
cases, the monsters you encounter don’t really have a use for
their soul when they die. Oh, I’ll warn you though, if you try
to bind a creature to be your summon, and then take their soul when
they die, it’ll cancel the binding contract. No soul to summon,
you see?”

“
Fair enough. And I
didn’t say I wouldn’t use them. Might avoid taking the
souls of creatures that actually have a shot at an afterlife, but
otherwise I don’t see a reason to waste, you know?”

She smiled again, “Right.
So, any other preparations needed, or do you just have to work out
the final spells for the ritual?”

“
Once I work out the
spells, I should be good to go. It’s just a matter of finding
the right combinations to make it work.”

“
Sounds good. We can
have one person do the analyze and extraction, another materialize
the contract, another link them, then you edit it, and I take it back
into myself.” She winks to me playfully, grinning. “I’ll
have a piece of you with me always~.”

“
You shameless
succubus.” I shook my head and laughed. “But yeah, a
total of five spellcasters. That sounds like a good number for the
ritual. How long do you think it’ll take to get them ready?”

“
Once you have the
spells set up, give them a day to review and understand them, and we
should be good to go tomorrow.”