Spending time with Carmen was always eventful, and Jake thoroughly enjoyed it. Maybe it was because they were very much on the same wavelength, and both had a bit of a screw loose. Then again, which talented individual didn’t have a bit of a screw loose? It was pretty much a requirement in Jake’s mind.

Carmen was just his type of weird. Both were driven, fighting maniacs and were willing to do dumb shit to try and progress. Their little experiment with infusing her with Touch of the Malefic Viper was a prime example of this. Through their brief experimentation, they discovered that the problem wasn’t the amount of energy Jake infused but that Carmen was sitting still while he did it.

If she moved around and punched, the energy would be dispersed faster than even Touch could infuse it. What had happened was simply that the energy piled up too much for no reason. Jake also had to admit that the entire experiment was quite beneficial to him. It was rare he had the chance to use Touch on people without them dying pretty quickly, and especially to use it on someone with such high resitance to the skill.

Overall, it was a great time for them both, even if Carmen ended up losing a few more limbs before they figured stuff out. While she recovered and trained by herself, Jake worked on the Demon Prince ritual, making sure no time was wasted.

Anyway, he and Carmen had spent four good days chilling in the Valhal compound before it was time for Jake to head toward the Demon Prince. He had considered staying a bit longer, but he had gotten quite excited about pulling off the ritual once he had fully formed a plan in his mind. Shit, he had even made a few minor changes to make the ritual suit his particular set of skills better.

When Carmen saw him off, and he left the compound, Olaf was naturally also there, along with a few others who gave him knowing looks. In retrospect, maybe spending all his time alone with Carmen inside her private residence could lead to some unforeseen rumors. Not that it hurt Jake in any way, and these rumors had been around ever since their meetup on Minaga’s City Floor anyway… they weren’t exactly wrong either.

”I guess I’ll see you back on Earth,” Jake said as they stood at the exit of the compound.

”If you remember to show up,” Carmen teased him.

”Eh, I’m pretty damn sure someone will remind me if I don’t,” Jake played along. He had never missed a system event so far… but it had been kind of close a few times, hadn’t it?

”Worst case, we’ll just handle this Prima Guardian on our own,” Carmen said with a shrug. ”Shouldn’t be that hard, though I do expect our Guardian to probably be the most powerful in the ninety-third universe. At least that’s what Valhal’s intel indicates with how many Primas we killed.”

”Let’s hope so! That way, it can put up a good fight,” Jake said, looking forward to the fight in… slightly less than two years now.

”For sure,” Carmen agreed. ”I’ll probably be back on Earth before you, so see you there.”

”See you,” Jake said as he also said his goodbyes to Olaf and those muscly dudes who always accompanied him before he headed off toward the Demon Prince. Even if he was looking forward to this Demon Prince ritual, he was also looking forward to getting back to Earth and seeing how things had changed there.

They had been in Nevermore for just about three years in Realtime with the time dilation, putting the intensity of the dilation at about 16x. It was not extreme but far from insignificant either.

Jake also learned that he had been a bit misinformed regarding some things with Nevermore. Because one thing had kind of bothered him. When he initially heard about Nevermore, he was told that the time dilation would get stronger the more floors one did, but with how everyone seemed to finish so close to one another, he didn’t really feel like that was the case.

Well, it turned out that it did exist… it was just really dialed down for those competing on the Leaderboards. So rather than it going from 10x to 25x, the version he had done only went from 14x to 17x or something like that. Jake didn’t know for certain, but he had a feeling this had something partly to do with the upcoming system events and whatnot and to make sure that those who did badly wouldn’t end up being late. Either way, for all the other versions of Nevermore, the difference would be way more noticeable,

Either way, as Jake made his way to the Demon Prince’s place, he made sure to be seen leaving Valhal’s compound. A few teleports later, he was at what looked more like a grand estate rather than a compound. It was just one large building with two smaller ones off to the side, with a tall wall surrounding it all. It somehow looked both more prestigious and less prestigious compared to the Valhal compound, and it definitely gave off a ”rich people live here” impression.

Not that Jake should be talking, with his residence at the Order of the Malefic Viper and vast personal wealth.

The residents of this mansion clearly noticed Jake before he even fully arrived, as he saw the Demon Prince walking toward the opening gate as he approached, ready to greet him. The demon looked elated upon seeing Jake, making him guess the demon hadn’t necessarily believed he would actually show up.

”Welcome! I must say, I feared for a moment you would be preoccupied with more important matters and be unable to visit,” the Demon Prince said with a big smile as he looked at Jake like he was a living, walking treasure.

”I said I would show up, didn’t I?” Jake answered in a casual tone. ”I’m a man of my word, and having looked over the ritual in detail, I must admit I find it an interesting challenge.”

”Nevertheless, I know the Chosen is a busy man,” the Demon Prince continued as he motioned for him to follow. ”Please, this way. I’m sure you’re curious to see the real thing after studying it.”

Jake nodded as he followed the Demon Prince into the large mansion… and down into the basement. Yeah, Jake felt like someone was pulling his leg. To have a demonic ritual take place in a large creepy cellar was almost too on the nose, but nope, they were entirely serious. What’s more, when he arrived in the main ritual chamber, he saw that everything had been drawn in blood, and the circle was indeed shaped like a pentagon with a pentagram in it.

The pentagon was drawn with equally long lines around the perimeter, with the expected star-shaped symbol formed in the middle by drawing lines between all the different opposing sides. The borders also being well-defined, resulted in a total of eleven areas getting sectioned off.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Ten of these would house one Demon Lord Heart each, while the Cerulean Devil would stand in the very center. The ritual looked complicated at first glance, but it was a lot simpler than it appeared. Simple didn’t mean easy, though. Each of those Demon Lord Hearts contained intense power, and Jake would have to manipulate the energy of ten at once. And that wasn’t even close to the hardest part. No, that came when he needed to use this energy.

In the center of the pentagon, the Demon Prince would be the center of the entire ritual and also the one taking the biggest risk by far. Because when Jake gave him the signal, he would remove the crystal from his own forehead, as that gem was what Jake was supposed to infuse with energy. Removing that gem was akin to temporarily severing a part of his soul, and if Jake failed, the outcome wouldn’t be good for the Demon Prince.

Ending up with a broken Path that resulted in him never being able to level up again with debilitating soul damage would be him getting lucky. The far more likely outcome was just death. On second thought, maybe death would be the preferable outcome to getting your soul fucked up…

”What do you think about the ritual?” the Cerulean Demon asked. ”I worked on a lot of it myself with some of the best experts I could find in the field, and this was the best we could come up with. I will also admit it was made after we became aware of your existence, as you gave me and my clan hope to pull something like this off. The entire concept is based on an old ritual that was attempted a long time ago but has never once succeeded. I hope to make today a first because someone like you has never existed before.”

Jake looked at the circle closely, making sure everything matched what the disc had said. It did, and Jake nodded as he looked at he demon, also finally doing a quick Identify.

[Demon – lvl 280]

”This ritual of yours indeed isn’t feasible at all,” Jake answered, seeing the Demon Prince’s smile quickly fade. ”For anyone else but me, that is. But you already knew that.”

”Yes,” the Demon Prince readily admitted. ”If rituals like these were possible with our current means, we would be doing them far more often. If we succeed for the very first time, the gains would be unimaginable. Perhaps it’s foolish of me, but I’m willing to take this gamble and believe in you. Also, to clarify... my elders are very much against this, which is the primary reason we are doing it here in Nevermore City.”

Jake slowly nodded, a few things making more sense now. He also wouldn’t want some junior to pull off a massively risky ritual performed by some virtual stranger. It was peak-gambling. The gains if Jake somehow succeeded could be immense, as the demon said, though.

He understood the mentality of the Demon Prince. It reminded Jake a bit of his own. The demon was willing to take massive risks for a small chance to grow stronger, and he was clearly not willing to just be another demon who would become an elite mortal. He was aiming for the peak, even if it killed him, and Jake could respect that. Jake could also respect that the higher-ups among the Demon Prince’s clan wouldn’t like this, so it was good he had come prepared.

”Speaking of lacking approval from your higher-ups…” Jake said as he waved his hand, and a parchment appeared. A contract.

The Demon Prince quickly scanned it, unsurprised, and nodded. ”A contract between two individuals… personal choice… knowledge of risk… karmic separation… this is a liability waiver and an agreement this ritual does not include either faction in any official capacity?”

”That is what I believe it says,” Jake responded, having to fully admit he hadn’t read the massive contract that thoroughly himself. Seriously, it was so overly long it made no sense it could be on a single piece of paper. However, he had been assured by the Viper this was what he needed, and from what Jake had read, the contract didn’t include some joke clause. Because he could totally see the Viper include a joke clause.

”Well, this is also to be expected,” the Demon Prince said as he, funnily enough, waved his own hand as a contract appeared. ”I will admit mine is a bit less thorough, though. I do not have the authority to declare that should any vengeance be sought due to the outcome of the ritual, the Fourth Hell will officially be declared an enemy of the Order of the Malefic Viper, and the two factions will be at war.”

”Gotta be thorough,” Jake just smiled.

”Indeed,” the Demon Prince said as he made a small cut on his finger and pressed it against Jake’s contract. There was no magic mumbo-jumbo or anything, but Jake did feel a tiny bit of energy get infused into the contract. ”Now, my excitement and anxiety for what is to come next is beginning to overflow… does the Chosen need any more preparation time? If not, I will go fetch the team.”

”Give me an hour,” Jake said as he looked at the ritual. ”I will need to make some very minor adjustments to prime everything for my arcane affinity. It won’t be invasive, more like an extra layer on top that will assist me and keep everything under control more easily.”

”You do not have to explain yourself to me,” the Demon Prince said. ”I’m already leaving my life in your hands, and if you wished me harm, I would have no recourse.”

Quite the pressure, Jake mentally joked as he just nodded and got to work on the circle. The Demon Prince left to fetch the others who would assist him, leaving Jake to do his slight modifications. As he told the demon, he didn’t need to do much, just add some strings of stable arcane mana here and there that more or less functioned like wires. This was one of the great things about his arcane affinity: he could easily mix it with other stuff without it ever interfering with anything. Meanwhile, with a slight mental command, he could activate the strings and use them to channel energy. He had even done something a bit similar with the Twinhead Emperor ritual, and that had worked out well.

Jake ended up taking a bit over an hour to get everything ready, with the Demon Prince having already returned with ten other demons by the time he was done.

”So these will be the ones assisting me during the ritual?” Jake asked as he went over.

”Indeed. All of them are highly skilled mages and ritualists who I’m sure will be of great help,” the Demon Prince said proudly as Jake scanned them.

All the demons assisting him were all between level 275 to 285. Jake’s level 275 was actually on the lower end of the scale, but that didn’t bother him particularly much. When it came to pure power, these demons were… okay at most. However, he could also feel a severe lack of bloodlust from most of them, making him believe they were all more crafters than fighters.

”Well, It’s a pleasure to meet you all,” Jake said, as he looked at the ten clearly nervous demons, half of whom seemed to think this entire ritual was a horrible idea but were still going to do it because a Demon Prince ordered it. ”Before we begin, I would personally advise you to shake off some of that nervousness. While your roles aren’t the hardest, I would be very miffed if one of you ended up fucking shit up for the rest of us.”

Jake said the last part in a slightly threatening tone, as he decided also to apply a bit of the carrot. ”Meanwhile, if you all help make this a success, you will have been part of a ritual to do something likely never done before, all while working together with the Malefic Viper. Seeing as we’re all smart people here, hope I don’t have to explain the significance of that. Oh, and dispel all thoughts of this ritual being impossible. It may be to you, but I don’t see why that should make it impossible for me. I’m pretty good at doing what others believe impossible.”

Were Jake’s words extremely arrogant? Yes, definitely. But he also had to make it clear to the group that he was not there just to fuck around. Based on the feeling he got from the ten demons, his words did seem to have some effect. He wasn’t wrong either… Jake did have a history of pulling off seemingly impossible feats.

”Alright, get in position, everyone, and make sure you’re in peak condition. Let’s make history,” Jake said encouragingly as everyone did as he said with resolute nods. He also exchanged gazes with the Demon Prince, who smiled and walked by him while patting him on the shoulder.

”Let’s make history indeed.”

Jake took a deep breath as he was fully mentally prepared for the ritual. Everything was planned out, and surely… surely nothing unforeseen could go wrong when messing with the ancient fragment of a heart full of Records left by a powerful devil of the past, right?