The Protagonist System

260 Demonic Overtures

I didn't go to bed to catch a few hours of sleep, because I had to grab the big tractor and flatten out the farm trails around my parents' farm. I had been serious that Martha should have a golf cart, just because it was so much easier to use and a lot more convenient. I'd modify it as well, of course. It was child's play to have the battery never lose its charge with the addition of kinetic chargers to each wheel.

It wasn't quite a perpetual machine that would never need any additional electricity to run; but, it was close enough to qualify. Having a lot of technical knowledge in my head was quite nice, even if a lot of the concepts and thought processes were very alien to normal thinking.

I also added a small road to connect my farm to the back 40 of my father's just so Martha didn't have to drive around the long way every time. She probably still would if she had to go to town beforehand, since it wasn't a waste of time until she had to go back home. So, I widened it out enough that the truck would fit as well. It should be a nice surprise for her when she visited later today.

I worked for a couple of hours and went back to the farm to have breakfast and to finally get some sleep. Not surprisingly, the 'girls', as Illyana affectionately called the ten demon slaves, also wanted to go to bed when they finished their meals.

After I tucked them in like a parent does a child, which both amused and confused them, I went to my own bed and fell right to sleep. I had a few hours before Martha would show up and I wasn't going to waste them by forcing myself to stay awake and disappointing her by not taking care of myself.

*

Doctor Fate put down the high-level demon by slam-dunking him through the ritual circle that a group of idiot cultists used to summon him. Why they thought he would hand them power without any strings or consequences, always baffled her. She turned and cast another beam of light at the copy of a ritual book she had destroyed several times before and the last of it disintegrated.

She regretted not asking Clark to come along as one of the cultists pulled out a pistol and shot at her. Her cape flipped up and caught it, then flung it right back at the idiot. He cried out as it hit his shoulder and dropped the gun, giving her the chance to kick him in the face and broke his jaw. He wouldn't be chanting any more restoration spells to save the book.

A large red hand grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the fool and Doctor Fate almost laughed as the other large hand couldn't grab her by the neck. There were several reasons she wore such a restrictive helm and that was one of them. No one was choking her to make her submit... without her permission.

Doctor Fate cast another powerful light spell and split it through the eyes of her helm, an idea she copied from seeing Clark's heat vision, and the demon screamed as his eyes were burned out of his head. That is such a useful way to distract them.

The demon screamed as it was bound in mystical light chains, breaking his arms and legs, and a portal opened up beneath him.

“NO!” The cultists yelled as their benefactor disappeared back into the hellflame that spawned him.

“We worked so hard...”

“Spent so much...”

“Sacrificed so many...”

“Then you should join him.” Doctor Fate said, feeling vindictive after having to fight the same demon for the sixth time. She used telekinesis to pull them over to her, let them squirm for a moment, and dropped them through the portal, too.

“NOOOoooooo!” They yelled and their voices faded as the portal closed.

Doctor Fate floated down to land on the bloody floor where several young women had been slaughtered to open the gateway. She shook her head at the wasted deaths, since all they had bought was more death.

A few spells cleaned up her presence at the place and removed all of the evidence of the forbidden rituals. That way, no one would try to recreate what happened there. She left the evidence of the murders and who was involved, because she would see the legal justice done, even if she had already dealt them a final justice anyway. The victims and their families needed closure, too.

Doctor Fate checked the time and sighed, she had used up the entire night and wouldn't be visiting Clark like she had planned. She knew he was usually busy during the day and didn't want to disrupt his life, then she remembered he was going to fix his wards to hide the magic she had detected.

A quick visit shouldn't be too disruptive. Doctor Fate thought and swung her hand in a circle and a swirling orange portal opened up. She stepped though it into the living room of his trailer and staggered at the pervasive feeling of chaos that assaulted her senses. The portal closed behind her and she cast a detection spell, only for the entire place to light up with blackish-red energy.

Another spell told her Clark was in bed and not outside working on the property like she thought. She rushed to his bedroom, ignored the massive expansion charms she could feel, and entered his room. She cast another detection spell and almost nothing lit up with chaos energy and she relaxed briefly, then she frowned and walked over to his bed.

Doctor Fate let her helm dissolve into motes of light and leaned over him as she glared down at his apparently sleeping form. “What the hell have you been up to, Clark?” She asked and he didn't move or react. “I can tell you're faking being asleep.”

“How?” Clark asked and didn't open his eyes.

“Your breathing isn't deep enough for genuine sleep.” Doctor Fate answered.

Clark sighed and opened his eyes. “I've only been in bed for two hours after dealing with a demon infestation.”

Doctor Fate opened her mouth to rant at him for that and to tell her what he did to have so much chaos magic around him, then she remembered she had also been up all night dealing with a demon infestation.

“Fine.” Doctor Fate said and her costume dissolved into motes of light and she crawled into bed with him. “You're telling me everything as soon as we wake up.”

“That's fair.” Clark said and pulled her into his arms, kissed her deeply, and went right back to sleep.

Doctor Fate didn't mind him holding her like that and cast a protection spell and a lock spell on the door. No one was sneaking up on her without her magic making them pay for it. The sound of a light crack of thunder and a yelp of pain came from the hallway and she smiled as she let herself be claimed by sleep.

*
I made us lunch as I filled Doctor Fate in on what happened and she seemed okay with everything, until I told her about what the demon slaves expected to happen when the basement was finished today.

“You can't seriously think I'm going to allow you to breed earth-bound demons!” Doctor Fate asked, her voice full of disbelief and more than a little anger. “When they're banished, they'll return here! That defeats the whole purpose of stopping them from invading in the first place!”

I wanted to argue that, except she was right. If I did breed demons here for the sole purpose of giving birth to them and make the demon slaves happy, this would be their home dimension and not the ones where their mothers had come from. When they died or were sent back to their spawning grounds, their inherent magic would make them appear here in the basement.

It was definitely not what I was considering as I mentally convinced myself to go through with the plan, and then I thought about what that would mean. If I had a significant number of them, and trained them up properly, then whenever they lost a fight, they would reappear in the basement and could be healed, told they were doing a great job, and sent right back out again.

My eyes went to Doctor Fate's and I couldn't help but admire how beautiful she looked, then inspiration struck me. It was such a novel idea that she might not curse at me for having it. Maybe. It would depend on if she was in a good mood after hearing about how we were dealing with The Hand.

“You are the Sorcerer Supreme for this dimension, right?” I asked and she nodded. “After telling you about the one I know about, you regret that you are having so much trouble finding suitable recruits to teach them the right magic to deal with demons and putting their lives on the line?”

Doctor Fate sighed. “Why are you bringing that up now?”

I smiled and nodded at the gathered demon slaves in the living room. “We took down the demonic leader of The Hand and his daughter, the one who ran the organization for him. What if you had your own force of magically inclined disciples that would see an invasion of their home dimension by other demons as a personal affront and will fight to the bitter end to protect what was theirs?”

A collective gasp came from everyone, including Doctor Fate.

“Do you mean it?” Polundara asked with hope in her voice and awe on her face. “Our children will be taught to fight with magic? To defeat their enemies and to die in glorious battle? Only to repeat it endlessly until their very souls are extinguished?”

“Yes.” I confirmed. “It will be done, even if Doctor Fate doesn't choose to help.”

The female demons exchanged several looks, as if coordinating something, then they all stood, saluted me, and knelt on one knee. “Please complete the breeding pit as soon as possible. Our children will fulfill your wish and will be yours for eternity, as are we.”

“Clark.” Doctor Fate whispered.@@novelbin@@

I stood and walked over to each of them and patted them on top of the head and gave each a chaste kiss. I walked back to the kitchen table and Doctor Fate looked very conflicted.

“You don't have to accept the offer and they'll be trained to fight anyway.” I said. “However, if you use some of those magical materials to create more magical rings to cast your portal spell, you could have an instantly mobile force that can be anywhere in the world to help defend it.”

Doctor Fate sat up straight as her body was covered in her costume and the Eye of Agamotto opened. She blurred for several seconds and the magical eye closed. “I will help guide them to become the best magical fighters in the world.”

The demons cheered and celebrated as I gave Doctor Fate a knowing smile and nodded. I knew what it meant for her to compromise her morals enough to allow demons to fight on her behalf, even though they would be half-Kryptonian as well as half-demon.

“I also dealt with all the Kryptonite on the planet years ago, so you don't have to worry about them having any real weaknesses.” I reminded her and told the demons at the same time, making the demons cheer and holler more. Stronger children were worth celebrating, apparently.

Doctor Fate chose to stay when I went out to meet with Martha, Emma, and Illyana. She didn't specifically say she was going to check over the slave bonds to make sure the demons couldn't defy me; but, we all knew that was what she was going to do.

Yahcheth, the pterodactyl-like demon, had stepped forward and proclaimed her undying love and devotion for the ugliest and best master she's ever known. Her claim that my magic sang to her had the others nodding their heads and quietly agreeing, both that they could hear it and that it was a hauntingly eerie tune that they loved hearing.

I chose to not think about how my magic was music, since I knew I really could use music to cast magic. It was a skill I had used only a few times and I wasn't sure it was needed here, especially since the demons didn't need any encouragement to fight. However, they might like to feel the boosts they'd receive, so maybe I could sing a little bit when we went out again tonight.

Martha hopped out of the truck and looked happy, while Illyana had a red face. Emma had the life-size plushie with her and didn't look like she was going to let go of it anytime this year. I chuckled and helped her into the back of the golf cart and she refused to let it sit by itself, as I suspected.

I climbed in after Illyana and Martha and drove us past the three greenhouses and the worksite where the basement was, to show off the connecting road I had built between our farms. Martha caught her breath when she saw the nicely graded road and gave me a particular look that would mean something a lot different coming from a woman that wasn't happily married.

“I'll drive a golf cart over later tonight when I pick up Illyana and I'll leave it there and forget about it. There's no rush to bring it back or remind me of it.” I said and Martha smiled as Emma giggled. They both understood I was giving it to them without actually giving it to them, just like I had let my dad Johnathan borrow my farming equipment and forgot to ask for it back.

I drove us around the nice roads a little, to make sure Martha knew they were all over the farm and it wasn't only the one road to my place. She looked really happy and I was glad such a small thing could make her smile like that.

I drove us back to the basement and I spent the next hour finishing off the necessary attachments and things to build the 'roof' of the basement that would become the floor of the house. Once that was done, I took the time to carefully disassemble the wooden outer shell of the concrete basement.

When it was revealed in its perfectly smooth reinforced glory, there were several soft gasps from behind the bags of cement. I had to hold in my laugh at exceeding the low standards of the female demons for an appropriate breeding pit. They had apparently thought I had dug a hole and the ugly wood covering was the actual sides of the pit.

Boy, were they going to be surprised when they saw the factory where they were moving to. I thought as Martha made several comments about how well done the basement was. I couldn't help but preen a little and be proud, because I hadn't transfigured any of it, like I was going to do after I set the floor into place.

Once I was out of sight, I could work as fast as lightning and without restrictions, thanks to the enchantments I had added to the wards to hide what I was doing. Of course, Doctor Fate had grilled me about them and warned me that they were to never be released to the public, because it would make her job that much harder if the ones she hunted could hide so well.

I took it as a compliment, because I could stump the Sorcerer Supreme into thinking no magic was going on, when there was almost nothing but magic going on in the greenhouses and inside the trailer. Doctor Fate was going to copy them as well, since she alone was allowed, and she wanted to reduce the magical signature of the Tower of Fate to a more reasonable level from the huge beacon of magic it currently was.

For the final hour I had to work before supper, I built the roof on the basement and finally covered it over completely. I would build the stairs to go down inside later, once I could work without anyone watching me.

A soft sigh came from behind the cement bags and both Martha and I ignored the scurrying claws as whomever it was went back to the trailer to report what they had discovered to the others.

The breeding pit was done.