Ursei stared blankly at the piece of paper that hung outside the inn before she reached up and ripped it off. There was a rendition of her image on the paper and she cursed softly under her breath. That cursed necromancer must've met with one who had the skill to draw her image from her mind in order to make a poster this accurate.

It stated that she was extremely dangerous and there was a 8,000 GP bounty on her head. The small village was still fairly close to the capital and she needed to rest. It was time for her to summon another fiend to serve as her second companion. Ursei was well aware of the fact that warlocks were rare due to the cost of their summoning magics. Many of the fools died because they made bad choices. Little by little, they gave up more and more of their souls until there were something less than human.

Over the years Ursei had been careful to take on reasonable jobs that were not high risk. A few adventurers here and there were not much to deal with, but a high level necromancer was another story. The girl's minions were strong and they would have easily destroyed that thieves' ambitions had she not been there. Even so, it had cost her a minion. A portion of her soul had been forfeit upon the demon's exit from this realm and she felt a little more hollow than she had before.

Why would a necromancer be in the Adventurer's Guild. It doesn't make sense. Those goody two-shoes would never allow something so dark among their midst, would they? Perhaps they don't know what she is and that's why she came with only one other living soul.

It grated at her to no end that she had lost a minion to that girl and her companion. She had lost minions before, and she probably would again sometime, but she didn't intend to go out the way that many of her brethren did. Her succubus, Ath'tazon, stood next to her and looked down at the paper.

The female demon had remained at her side since she first became a warlock and performed her very first summoning ritual. She was definitely Ursei's favorite pet. Ath'tazon was the most beautiful and deadly creature that Ursei had ever encountered and if she were to have said to love anyone, it would be the succubus. 

Ath'tazon had served her extremely well over the years in both business and pleasure. She was an expert at infiltration missions and the two of them had performed many high profile assassinations over the years for the Villain's Guild. Men and women alike were attracted to the succubus thanks to her special skill set. Fools lined up to be killed by the demon, and her skill set had been invaluable.

Maybe it would be good to summon another of her type instead of a fiend. Fiends were warrior types of demons and while they had more in the way of brute strength, they were also incredibly stupid and no fun to talk to. They didn't think ahead and could not even change their form, which made it impossible to hide them. When travelling with her previous minion, she had done so by wagon so as to hide his presence.  

Sure, she could have hired a wagon or something to carry the two of them with the money she had liberated from the thieves, but she didn't like to waste money if she didn't have to. Every penny she earned was carefully stowed away towards her retirement. Ursei saw herself as nothing less than practical. She had no intention of doing this kind of thing until she was old. She wanted to relax and live lavishly when the time came. Greedy villains always wanted more, and that was why, in Ursei's opinion, they often ended their lives at the end of an adventurer's sword. 

"What should we do, mistress? Do you still want to perform the summoning ritual in this town? We will need much blood. It will be high profile when the dead are discovered," Ath'tazon said.

"Yes. It's better to have an extra demon in case things go bad. Considering how quickly news has traveled from the capital, we may have need of a third set of hands. Let's begin."

The village was small and there was only a single inn, a general store, and about a dozen and a half houses clustered together in this isolated place. It would be perfect. The ritual would be high profile when people found out, but there wasn't anything to do about it. They hadn't seen many travelers on the road and that was probably due to the fact that winter had begun. 

Terribly cold weather was an impediment to travel for most normal people and it was about a days travel from here to Rivean. Once they completed their task here, they would leave this wretched kingdom and find work in a warmer climate. They still needed to travel almost a week to get to their destination. 

"We'll backtrack to the other side of town and go house to house."

Ath'tazon simply nodded and the two of them made their way to the first house. Rain poured down around them and people seemed to be huddled in their homes. They had no idea what was about to happen to him. She only needed about twenty-five victims, but the entire town needed to be silenced. There could be no witnesses to report exactly what was about to happen in this quiet village.

The succubus kicked in the first door causing a shower of wood and splinters to fly inward. A startled husband and his wife had been sitting down for their evening meal. 

"What in the name of the gods do you think you're doi⁠—"

Ath'tazon moved like a viper and had gripped the man by the neck, cutting him off. The woman screamed and tried to attack the succubus with a steak knife. The demon casually snapped the man's neck and grabbed the woman's hand just before the knife had come into contact with her. 

Ursei delighted in watching Ath'tazon work. She was like an efficient butcher, only instead of slaughtering farm animals, she slaughtered weak humans. The woman screamed in agony as the demon crushed her forearm. The demon smiled and delivered the killing blow a second later.

The two of them searched the rest of the house and found no other signs of inhabitants. They needed to move quickly in case the people in their houses nearby heard anything. There was a decent distance between houses in the quiet town, so Ursei had calculated that the risk of that was minimal. That was why she had allowed Ath'tazon to have her fun instead of ending the weaklings' lives herself with spells. 

Over the next hour, the two of them had methodically worked their way through the town like a plague. None had escaped them and soon a town that held nearly fifty people, was completely devoid of life. It. was. wonderful.

Ursei waited inside the inn while her succubus gathered the bodies and piled them in the room. While she was waiting, she moved the various dining tables out of the way and created a large open area for the ritual. The summoning would take hours and would be taxing on her body, but it would be worth it. 

Twenty-five bodies were laid out in a line and Ath'tazon was already hard at work harvesting their life blood before it got too old. The blood filled two large barrels that they had found in the inn when all was said and done. Ursei removed all over her clothing and dipped two fingers into the room-temperature blood. 

Ath'tazon followed suit and the two of them began frantically writing runes all over the floor of the inn. Intricate geometric signs were scrawled across the floor and the blood that had once been warm was now cool and thickening now that they were done with the circle. The succubus dipped her fingers in the blood once more and began to draw runes all over Ursei's body while she stood perfectly still in the center of the diagram. Extra care was taken to ensure that every single rune was correct as they went on.

Once everything was prepared, the demon stepped back and Ursei began to chant. The blood on the floor began to glow. It became bright in the room and Ursei could feel energy pulsing through her. The runes on her naked skin became hot and then began to burn as they always did in these rituals.

She clenched her eyes shut against the pain and imagined the type of servant she wanted to summon. The pain was immense, but nothing worth doing had ever come to Ursei without a bit of pain. She chanted until her throat ran dry. Her lips cracked from dryness and her voice became raspy, yet she continued still.

She finished the incantation and opened her eyes. The world was gone, nothing but blackness stood around her. A figure of a short, beautiful demon with wild hair the color of dried blood that ran down past her hips, faded into existence in front of her in the void.

"Do you wish to enter into a contract, mortal?"

"I do."

"Collection of my payment will be due upon the death of my vessel, or upon your death, whichever comes sooner. Until then, I, Rel'gan, a succubus will be at your service to use as your wish. I will do you no harm, nor voluntarily do anything that will cause you harm for the duration of our time together. Do you wish to form a contract?"

Ursei took a deep breath. "I wish to form a contract."

Rel'gan gave her a smile, her sharp teeth showing in her mouth. "It is agreed then."

The succubus moved forward and in a quick motion slammed a clawed fist into Ursei's ethereal form. Agony erupted in every fiber of her being as Rel'gan ripped at something inside of her and pulled it out. A tiny, glowing shard floated above the hand of the demon. A tether of light ran from the shard into Ursei's ethereal form.

She was looking at a shard of her own soul. Rel'gan grabbed the shard with her index finger and thumb and eyed it for a moment. While maintaining that smile of hers, she slammed the sharp end of the shard into her own chest. The soul shard sunk in and the tether remained, attaching the succubus to the owner of her new contract.

The realm of the living slammed back into existence around Ursei all at once and she collapsed to the floor. In front of her, stood her new demon. "It is done. I, Rel'gan, am at your service, mistress."

The demon bowed to her and before her eyes, she shifted to human form. She looked much the same as before, only human looking. "We have much to do. Help Ath'tazon burn the bodies, if any people come to town, dispose of them. I must rest. We will leave here in 3 hours."

Her pets immediately got to work and Ursei retired to one of the inn's bedrooms, not even bothering to get dressed. She was exhausted. It was a shame that she had to start over with the new demon. It was definitely a huge setback, but she would make the demon strong soon enough. She flopped into one of the beds and passed out within seconds of her head hitting the pillow.