“The circle of salt thing is a myth,” the devil scoffed, “and even if it wasn’t, putting it on a bed like this would be a bad idea.
Can you guess why?”
When he didn’t say anything, she stomped her foot down on the bed, sending the salt flying in every direction and making him feel stupid.
“Oh shit!” Harry exclaimed, reaching for his wand.
“Don’t,” Rias said harshly, her hand suddenly enveloped in bright red light.
“I don’t intend to hurt you, but that will change if you threaten me.
Now, I am Rias Gremory, magician.
Why have you summoned me?”
“I…please sit down first,” Harry said, relaxing a little when she did so.
“I’m doomed.”
“How so?” Rias asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“I was entered into this lethal tournament against my will,” Harry said.
“In two days, I’m going to have to face a dragon that I need to get past to steal something.
I have no real way of fighting the damn thing, and the best plan I’ve come up with so far is to fly around it.”
“You intend to outfly a dragon?” Rias asked.
“I didn’t say it was a good plan,” Harry said dryly.
“Hmm, and you clearly can’t just forfeit, or you would have already,” Rias said.
“I’d lose my magic, apparently,” Harry said.
“I don’t even want to be part of this thing, but someone managed to force me into it, and now I’m bound to a magical contract against my will.”
“I know something about that,” Rias said, sounding suddenly angry.
She looked at him like she was assessing him in some way and started twisting a ring around her right ring finger.
“Stand up,” she after a moment.
“Why?” Harry asked, though when she gave him a blank stare, he decided to do as she asked.
“Turn around,” Rias said.
“All the way, that’s it.”
“Am I to make the dragon dizzy?” Harry asked sarcastically.
“It might be a better plan than trying to outfly a creature with wings,” Rias bit back.
“You can sit back down.”
“In my defense, the man who gave that might plan might actually be insane,” Harry said.
“I just figured that an insane plan was better than none.”
“That’s debatable,” Rias said, reaching out to him.
When he tensed up, she said, “relax.
I just want to get a feel for what I’m dealing with here.”
In the palm of her hand, a red glyph appeared, and she hovered it over him, moving all over his body without touching him.
“Hmm, you’re powerful, that’s for sure,” Rias commented.
“Not terribly trained, it would seem.
You have far more potential than the other two magicians I’ve met, and…oh, there’s something very strange up here.”
“That was where I was hit by the killing curse as a baby,” Harry said.
Rias’ eyes shot to his, and she said, “explain.”
“To make a long story short, some powerful dickhead decided to kill my parents and me when I was a year old,” Harry said.
“He killed them, but when he tried to kill me, his spell failed and his body was destroyed.
No one knows what happened except that I lived and got an annoyingly conspicuous scar from it.”
“Well, whatever happened, it left some lingering magic,” Rias said.
“Regardless, I think that I can help you.”
“What’s it going to cost?” Harry asked, sounding every bit as nervous as he felt.
“Not your soul, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Rias laughed.
“No, your soul would remain right in here where it belongs.
You would become my servant for life, a life that will last potentially thousands of years, by the way.”
“Huh?” Harry asked.
Rias waved her hand and summoned a small bag containing what looked like chess pieces, though they were missing the king and queen.
“These are evil pieces,” Rias said.
“When bestowed upon a human, they make him into a devil.”
“I…I could become a devil?” Harry asked.
“Mmhmm,” Rias said.
“Is that what happened to you?” Harry asked.
“No,” Rias replied.
“I was born a devil.
My people are very long-lived but have very poor fertility rates.
With the number of enemies that we have, an inability to replicate our numbers left us at a severe disadvantage.
To get around that, my brother’s best friend invented the evil pieces, allowing us to take regular humans and make them like us.”
“Aside from living longer, what would that mean for me?” Harry asked.
“You would become stronger, faster, and more durable,” Rias said.
“Your magical abilities would increase exponentially as well.
In short, you would be more than a match for your dragon.”
“Um, there’s something I should tell you,” Harry said.
“That madman who killed my parents, his body was destroyed that night, but he’s not fully dead.”
“What?” Rias asked, confused.
“Somehow he managed to stick around,” Harry said.
“He’s a wraith now, but he nearly came back entirely a few years ago.”
“Strange, but irrelevant,” Rias said dismissively.
“You would likely become stronger than him in short order after becoming my servant, and even if he was a threat to the two of us, my brother could tear his very soul apart.”
“Your brother’s that powerful?” Harry asked.
“Immensely so,” Rias replied.
“You would be quite safe with us.”
Harry had already been considering her offer, but that last point sealed it.
Surviving the dragon was his current concern, but if he could find a way to get rid of Voldemort for good and ensure that neither he nor anyone else would ever end up in the lunatic’s crosshairs again as well, there was no way that he wasn’t going to take that deal.
“So the deal is that I become your servant in exchange for the power to deal with the dragon?” Harry asked.
“No,” Rias said.
“Becoming my servant would give you that power.
In exchange for that gift, I want something else.”