Chapter 2
We descended down the stairs into Joel's lair. It was less impressive than dad's, but was still well-stocked, as far as I could tell. It was filled with shelves of potions, mixtures, and books. His demon-binding circle was in the middle of the room. There was dried blood on the floor. Hoping that it wasn't his, I asked him about it. "Joel? Whose blood is that?" "Oh, tha'? Tha' ain't blood, silly filly. It's cranberry juice!" he said with an upbeat attitude. "I forga' tuh clean it before ya' woke up." I smiled. The first time in a while. That's uncle Joel for you. Always making jokes and being a little kooky. I figured that's what his wife saw in him.
"Wheres aunt Sally?" I said, remembering her. A grim expression appeared on his face. "Well, tha's the problem. I've not a clue where she is." I could tell that he truly loved her. "Is there anything I can do to help you find her?" I said seriously. "Maybe. I could use a trackin' spell on one of her hairbrushes to find out where she is." Suddenly I realized that the "cranberry juice" was probably her blood. I gulped.
"Alright." I said. "Let's do it. It would be good training for me to practice some spells with you, right?" Just then, I remembered he was an earth pony. "Tha' it would, but I'm sorry to say tha' Sally was tha' caster of us two." I sighed. Why was it never easy. "However," Joel continued. "I do have some of her books layin' around, maybe ya' can read 'em and see if ya' can learn some somethin'." Overjoyed, I ran to the bookshelf to start reading. I grabbed a tome with a thick binding and a cover that suggested demon magic.
"Since I posses no magical powa, Sally used me as a tahget of her spells." I nodded. So, not only were they husband and wife, Sally used him for spell practice. They were partners in Demon Hunting. I looked up from the book briefly to look at my uncle. Even though she had practiced her magic ability on him, I saw no scars or magic residue. Somepony must be really good at healing wounds.
I looked at the book again, casually glancing through pages. Nothing on tracking spells. I telekinetically grasped another book from the shelf, casting the first book aside, on a spare table. Flipping through the second book, I found similar graphs, spells, and diagrams, but nothing directly helpful.
"Ahem," Joel interrupted, pointing to a book in his hoof, labeled "How to Cast a Tracking Spell". "Oh, that's helpfully specific." I said, a little curious at how long he was standing there holding the book. Grasping it with my magic, I pulled it close to me. I opened the book to the front page and started to study the mechanics of the spell. After about five minutes I had the book read.
"Okay, this spell seems easy enough, but I need some ingredients. Mind getting them for me please?" I asked Joel, who nodded and said "Sure thang sweetie." "Alright, I need..." Pausing at the line where the ingredients were listed, my hoof gliding over the text. "Some of her hair, powdered flameroot, a demon eye, and a phoenix feather." He gathered all the ingredients necessary as I called them out, pausing slightly at the demon eye, then completely skipped it. Joel set all the parts onto the table and looked at me with a sour expression.
"We have to get a demon eye, don't we?" I asked cautiously. "Yup, fresh out. They don't keep long and Sally just used the last bit in practice." "Well, crap. How do we get a demon eye then?" I blurted. Joel sighed. "I guess we have to walk the plane and go kill a demon 'ahselves." "Do you think I can take a demon by myself?" I asked him. "You won' be by ya'self, silly filly, you'll have me wit' ya'." Joel winked as he said it.
"Alright then, how do we walk the plane then? Is there a spell of some sort that I have to find like the last one?" Joel chuckled slightly. "No, that won't be ah problem, Sally always has a back-up plan." Then he walked to a shelf in the back and gave me a piece of paper with runes on it. "I'm guessing this is some kind of magic portal?" I said sarcastically. "Exactly. All you have to do is channel some of yer magic into it and it will teleport us on over to the Nether-Plane."
I shrugged and took the slip of paper. Closing my eyes and concentrating on the paper, I fed my power into it. "Spellflash, you also gotta concentrate on me too, or el-" He got cut off as the spell finished.
I couldn't hear what he said, but he wasn't with me now. Joel had said it would teleport "us" to the Nether-Plane. I wonder why he isn't here. Maybe I should have included him in the spell. That was probably what he had said.
"Well then, that sucks." I said aloud. I had no idea how to get back to the farmhouse. I looked at the smoking piece of paper. Thankfully, the runes on the paper were faded, probably meaning I could use it once more before turning into just another sheet of paper. I guess it was my round trip ticket. Knowing I had a way back made me a little bit more confident. I took my first look around the Nether-Plane.
It was a huge open landscape, fire instead of grass, and black metal spires spread throughout. I hoped I wasn't near any kind of demon capitol city where the more powerful demons hung out. I gulped and walked forward. Soon, I came across a small hut made of a the same strange glowing metal as the spires, but it seemed to be runed with some demonic spell. I walked up to the hut cautiously and peered inside the door.
Inside was a small demon boy. (I knew this from my brief readings on demon anatomy) He peered up at me, looking frightened. His skin was a shiny black, with a spiky tail and a pincer-like mouth. His flaming emerald demon eyes continued to study me as I did him. Forgetting that I left my stuff back at the house, I leaped back in surprise when he shot some strange green fluid at me, barely missing my neck. I guess demon babies are as aggressive as their adult counterparts.
"Spellflash, you can do this..." A voice echoed in my mind. "You must kill the demon, it doesn't matter if it's a child, it is still the offspring of a full-fledged demon!" The voice continued. "I feel the compassion for children in your heart, you have to get rid of it if you wish to survive this fight!" It was my father's voice, I was sure of it. This would be my first fair fight against a demon of similar age, I suspect. "Well, I don't really have any means of combating this demon..." I thought. Suddenly, an image of a book appeared in my mind, slowly at first, then quickly flipping pages to stop at a page with the words "Activate Arm-Blades" in the demonic tongue. There was a picture on the page showing a colt with bracelets almost identical to mine, with corresponding words of power. It seemed that the spell had three stages, "Fi'iiotu" dagger, "Uyy'tf" sword, then a two-hoofed sword, "I'toiv Uyy'tf" that combined the bracelets together.
I suddenly realized that these bracelets were my demon hunting weapons. The book faded and I snapped back to reality. I hummed the first word of power and sent power into my bracelets. They shined for a moment, before sinking down to my front hooves and turning sideways. After they had moved into position, the glow dulled, the gems set into the bracelets, then sharpened into magnificent, gleaming daggers. Now, I had a shot.
I turned to face my opponent, who was now in position to shoot another glob of acid at me. Cartwheeling towards him and dodging the blob at the same time, I swung my hooves down at his head, but missed by barely an inch. Clearly, this opponent was craftier than I thought. His razor-spiked tail shot forward at my face, but managed to slice a deep cut in my right cheek. There was no way I was this good without having any training with these weapons. I guess my father's expertise in demon slaying was shining through somewhat. At least I dodged his tail instead of taking it to the face.
The blood streaming from my cheek was starting to drip to the floor. I calmed myself in a sort of combat meditation. I focused my power and said the second word of the Demon Weapon incantation. A ruby light shined forth from my bracelets as they shifted again, this time settling on the front of my hooves, and growing to a decent sword length. At this point, it looked as if I was dual-wielding two swords forged out of rubies. They gave off an eerie light that gave me a red aura, like some sort of armor. I no longer felt blood or pain coming from my cheek, it was completely healed.
I guess the more power words that are said, the more abilities the user are granted. I supposed that this level was a regenerative aura. With a feeling of overwhelming power, sprinted towards the demon and brought both blades down across his front in an "X" pattern, causing him to stumble backwards limply, hit the ground, and fall apart.
Remembering that I need a demon eye to complete the tracking spell, I shifted the swords back into daggers, and carefully cut out both his eyes. I went into the shack where the demon lived, and checked for supplies. On a shelf I found several bowls and jars of unknown contents and picked them up, deciding that anything a demon kept around should be useful. Deeper into the house, I found a couple of beds and a chest. I went to the chest and opened it, inside I found several important looking demonic artifacts. I didn't know anything about them, but figured that Joel might know, and took them too. There was something hideously evil about the artifacts though. Something about them seemed...off. It's hard to explain, but there was a feeling of dread whenever I touched them.
Deciding that my work was done here and the mother of whatever I had just killed was probably pissed off, I brought out the runed piece of paper and channeled my energy into it, this time focusing on everything I carried as well. The spell went off successfully and I fell two yards to the floor with a clang inside the farmhouse.