A Typical Summoning

Explosions of smoke and fire cascaded into the room as he appeared. Corsunio, a revered demon among his kind, did not care to be disturbed from his slumber in this manner. The last time someone summoned him, he leveled out an entire small village in order to let off some steam. He had a lot of steam to let off right now. If his summoner begged and wept suitably enough, he might consider not killing them….until later, that is. Though once his form did scare a human so badly, the poor wretch died upon seeing him, so maybe he wouldn’t even have to bother with an empty promise.

As the smoke cleared, he got a better look at his soon-to-be-deceased awakener. He was met with surprise upon realizing that the summoner somehow managed not to get blown back by his forceful entrance. She stood tall--for a human, anyway--occasionally coughing and fanning smoke from her face. In her hands were a wooden tablet, a pen, and a short, white scroll. The human looked at him, shook her head, and nonchalantly started marking something on her scroll.

“Are you not afraid?” This display of irreverence offended Corsunio. How could a mere weakling stand in the face of chaos itself and not be reduced to a trembling whelp? She didn’t even look like a particularly strong human! He could easily snap her in half with one hand; she should be begging for mercy!

“Nah.” She kept writing on her scroll. “Only thing that scares me is the possibility of not finding a cool enough demon.”

“Do you not know who I am?” his voices boomed. “I, Corsunio, extinguisher of light, the embodiment of destruction and woe stand before you!”

A muffled voice came from outside of the room. “Hey, Mai! Could you keep it down in there? Mamoru already threatened to kick us out twice this month, and I’d really rather not have to put up with him a third time.”

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll pay whatever fine he gives us!” The human looked up from her tablet this time, but at the door, not at the hulking demon in front of her.

“Who goes there?”

“Oh, that’s just my roommate, Higgy. Don’t worry about him.” Finally she looked at Corsunio. Her expression showed not fear but boredom. “Oh yeah, probably shoulda introduced myself. I’m Mai Nangong, daughter of Lei and Valerie Nangong. Feel free to eat them or whatever you do with people.”

She must be mistaken about the way Corsunio operated. “I do not partake in bargains, human.”

“First of all, I’m a vampire, and second, that works for both of us!” She tossed the the tablet, scroll, and pen away from her and picked up a book and a stack of scrolls lying on the ground. “Y’see, you didn’t quite meet all of my credentials? I mean, don’t get me wrong, you have the kinda face I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t wanna run into in a dark alley, and how many sets of arms are those? Four? Five?”

“Just four.”

“Yeah, that’s nice. The many voice thing is cool, too, but...that lightshow you had in the beginning. I wasn’t really feeling it. It felt like you just woke up, and I’m gonna need a lot more energy than that from a demon who’s lucky enough to possess me.”

“You’re looking to be possessed?” Corsunio has heard of the occasional entity seeking out demonic possession in an attempt to gain power, but had never met one personally. This one seemed a lot pickier than the others he heard of.

“Long story short, I got possessed by a wimpy demon before I properly became a vampire, and I’m looking to rectify that. Reclaim my honor, y’know?”

Corsunio didn’t know.

“Anyway!” She handed him the stack of colorful scrolls. “I’m gonna send you back home now, and after you take a nap or whatever, could ya do me a favor and hand out these flyers to any stronger demons you come across?” She started to flip through her book.

“I told you I don’t partake in bargains! Human, y--”

“Vampire.”

The voice from outside interrupted again. “Stop telling people we’re vampires!”

“Well I can’t un-tell him!” She then turned to Corsunio, continuing to flip through her book. “Sorry about that, you can continue.”

“Vampire, you will pay for your insolence!” As he said this, the demon began to summon a ball of fire.

“Mm-hm.” She had stopped paying attention to him. He would make her regret her actions as soon as he’s finished. “A-ha! Found it!” she said as she found the page she was looking for. The vampire then started to mumble something under her breath. Suddenly, Corsunio felt a force pulling him out of this realm. It then struck him that his victims were usually too petrified to recite the dispersion incantation before he had the chance to kill them.

“Annnd done! I really need to have that bookmarked somewhere.” she told to no one in particular. She then tossed the book aside and dusted off her hands. As she looked up at Corsunio and his fireball, she laughed. “You are aware you can’t kill vampires with a fireball, right?”

That was the last thing he heard before being returned to his realm. He never did get a chance to blow off steam, but at least he could stew in hatred as he tried to resume his slumber. Before he went to sleep again, he incinerated the fliers. Ha! That would show her.