The Girl Who Hacked The Magic System

"Lovelace, what exactly is that spell you said they are chanting? It sure looks very long, as they haven't stopped yet."

"Yeah, You called it a 'summoning' spell, and I've never heard anything about something like that. Is it another new school of magic?"

"No, it's not new. On the contrary, it's very ancient, and humans have simply forgotten completely about it. The only references to it are in tomes forbidden by the Church."

"And what exactly does it do?"

"It's similar to that spatial magic, but at the same time different, as it actually connects with another dimension and not to another place in this same world. I think you'll understand soon."

Lovelace moves her finger to her lips, prompting the other two to silence themselves as they reach what seems to be the source of the chant.

The door they just crossed leads to a hall. They are on a balcony that stands over what looks like a macabre chapel.

On the floor below, a group of people in dark brown robes are in a circle, chanting.

Inside the circle there is a pentagram painted in red. On each point of the pentagram, a young maiden lies, stripped naked, motionless.

In the middle of the pentagram, there is an altar, over which a dark reddish-purple fog is taking form as the chant reaches a sharp crescendo.

"That's disgusting..."

"What the fuck is this place?"

"We need to stop this!"

While Lovelace and Ingela stop, struck by the scene, Yaci springs into motion, jumping over the railing to the floor below, spear in hand.

Lovelace quickly snaps back, as she senses another presence further inside.

"The vampire is in that direction."

"Yeah, but we can't allow this to continue."

"Indeed, let's help Yaci and resume the chase."

:::

Yaci strikes the first robed man, perforating his chest with the spear, but he makes no motion to stop or flee.

Instead, his scream joins the chorus of the infernal chant, pushing the tempo up. And his death seems to make the fog in the center even thicker.

"Killing them only empowers the spell, Yaci. As it counts as more blood sacrifices."

"What do we do, then?"

Lovelace joins Yaci and strikes at the next cultist, but instead of killing him, she hits the back of his head with a swift motion of the hand, downing him.

"We just need to render them unconscious, without killing them. That's the only thing that can actually stop the summoning."

Ingela is the last one to arrive, but before she can do anything, a deep and low voice booms through the place.

"Too late. I'm here already."

"Fuck!"

"Yaci, watch out!"

Yaci has barely any time to react, managing only to twist her body while trying to dodge the attack. The claws of the being that just appeared only brush her skin, but the impact sends her flying.

"Yaci!"

Ingela rushes to her fallen comrade, while Lovelace faces their new adversary.

A middle-aged man with bright red skin, bat-like wings, two big horns in his forehead, and a long and thin tail that ends in a trident. His hands are eagle-like talons, and his legs resemble those of goats.

His eyes are two bottomless pits of darkness, and his frame is muscular and ripped. Everything on his body screams of danger and pain.

"Well, well... what have we here? This is just an interesting find. ■■■■■■, what are you doing in this plane?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about. Nor do I want to know!"

Lovelace creates tentacles of shadow that come out of her body towards the demon. He doesn't even try to dodge or block, and the tentacles hit him harmlessly.

"You weren't expecting those things to do anything to me... were you? If you did, you're more stupid than I thought."

"Ugh."

The two barrage each other with a myriad of spells. While Lovelace's are always aimed to only hit him, he doesn't have the same care, and soon all the cultists that were present are dead.

After a few minutes, the demon stops again and takes a moment to inhale. Something comes from the dead bodies to him, like a smattering of shining particles flying in his direction.

"Ahhh... this is good. It's been so long since the last time I've felt so alive..."

:::

"Yaci!"

"I'm okay, Ingela. We need to help Lov-"

"WHA-"

"Agh!"

The floor below the two of them caves in, revealing a shaft right below their feet.

They fall for long seconds before they land again. The only reason they survive such a fall is the lightness of their bodies, added to the strengthening spell.

"Where the hell are we?"

"This looks like a... throne room? Ingela, you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm alright. How far did we fall?"

"I have no idea. I only know that it's quite some distance from the surface. What the... the hole we fell in is already closed!"

"And we have company."

"Already? Can't they cut us some slack?"

"I don't think these ones have much choice."

A group of skeletons and undead slowly enters from all the doors that lead to the throne room. Most of them are unarmed, but some seem to be well equipped.

"This is weird... I've never seen mentions of unarmed undead in the monster compendiums."

"You can complain about it later, Ingela. Can you cover me as I take on them?"

"Of course!"

The two have sparred against each other during training, but they haven't had any training where they fought together.

Gladly, the undead aren't very strong, so the two slowly work their way into finding a good way to sync their movements.

"Yaci, left!"

Yaci jumps to the left, striking a zombie, cutting his head with the sword, while a ball of fire hits a skeleton, passing through the spot where Yaci was just an instant ago.

"There's no end to them!"

"Ugh, this is getting ugly. Where are all of them coming from? Is there a spawner around here somewhere?"

"Maybe that vampire is creating them?"

"I would normally say that that's impossible, but after all that I've seen..."