A Summoning: Part I

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I

~Magician~

It was a starry night under the full moon, the time nearing midnight. Out in the middle of a dense forest, in an acre-wide clearing, a curious concrete structure had been erected: A circle with eight tall, rectangular pillars around the rim, facing the center. Inside that circle was a circle of people, all wearing dark robes and milling around, getting into position; the time was nigh, their leader had proclaimed. And in the center of both circles, limbs bound with tight ropes, was Zeke.

He watched them getting the final touches for the ritual ready, wondering how a brief, idle if persistent curiosity had turned so quickly into this. He'd just wanted to know what this weird secret society at the college was all about, and he'd gone through all their initiation rituals and tests and everything else just to find that out. But oh, now that he knew about their big, secret fake rituals he wasn't allowed to just leave their crazy demon cult. Instead some of the guys had broken into his dorm room earlier that night, tied him up after a disappointingly brief struggle, and carried him off to the "ritual center" for...this.

He'd never been here before; he was only an "initiate" before trying to quit and not that for long enough to even be taken here blindfolded for a ritual one time. But since they had him right where they wanted him, their leader was kind enough to gloat to Zeke's face about what he was here for: Evidently since he wouldn't willingly remain a member of the cult, they had a "use" for him as a body for their great and powerful demonic leader, who the group had been preparing to summon since its inception, but hadn't quite gotten around to picking out a "vessel" for until now—until Zeke more or less fell into their laps, that is. Apparently the demon lord was going to descend to the earth as a result of their ritual (which sounded backwards to Zeke, but whatever) and inhabit his body; his mind would either be consumed or maybe the demon would be gracious enough to let him see the great things it would do with his body after taking it over.

Obviously, he didn't believe in any of it. This was a bunch of insane people as far as Zeke was concerned, and they were going to waste their time and energy chanting and dancing around and maybe cutting themselves out of desperation after the first hour, and when it inevitably didn't work they were going to blame a "poor choice of vessel" and then probably he'd wind up dead in a ditch somewhere. This was a fine way to go out, he mused, watching them gather themselves together into the ritual formation.

Their leader announced that it was two minutes till midnight, time to begin; he emphasized (like the demon-obsessed bunch needed reminding) that the ritual must reach its conclusion exactly at midnight. Then he started their weird call-and-response stuff in that gibberish language that supposedly channeled their demon leader's amazing powers or whatever, and Zeke sighed to himself, thinking at least he'd have some schadenfreude during his final hours from seeing them do their silly dance and listening to their gibberish. And for the first minute or so, sure, it was all gibberish and nonsense dancing, as expected. But then...

It was the strangest thing: One second it was just a bunch of random syllables he was hearing, and then the next...he felt he could almost understand them. The meaning was...ineffable somehow, and yet still palpably present. It was as if something had clicked in his head, and a language that he'd learned long ago, but mostly forgotten, was now coming back to him. Whatever the meaning was, he understood it to be centered entirely on himself—which made a strange kind of sense, considering what he knew to be the ritual's supposed purpose. He raised his head slightly, watching their dance with more interest; the pattern of that, too, seemed to mean something he was certain he could never put into words—at least not English ones, anyway.

The chanting and dancing grew more energetic as the ritual clearly began to approach its advertised climax. At this point Zeke looked around, and noticed the glow of a pale light around him, something like the moonlight from above but brighter, concentrated into the shape of a cylindrical pillar extending upward into the sky, seemingly pointing toward where the moon itself would soon hit its zenith. Was he really going to more or less die, he wondered, his consciousness subsumed by that of a demon? At the very least he had begun to believe that some magic really was happening around him, and he struggled against the ropes fruitlessly in apprehension at whatever may be about to occur.

Just as planned, right on the stroke of midnight the ritual came to an abrupt halt, the final syllable of the chanting a single, unified shout from the collective of cultists. The pillar of light brightened to a flash briefly, and Zeke found an unaccountable rush of adrenaline and energy seemingly pouring into him through the light—but also from all of the words of the chant and the meaning of the dancing. It was as if he could feel the hope, the fear, the desire—the very belief of the collection of people surrounding him in what they had just been doing, and it felt...good. It seemed to pour into his deepest, inmost being and bury itself there like a warm fire.

The light faded, and the cultists stood still, watching with anticipation. Zeke shuddered at a sudden tingling all the way down his spine which rapidly spread forward across the rest of his body. Then he found himself shrinking, the cultists and pillars around him moving upward as he remained kneeling there on the ground. He turned his head back and forth, astonished to be feeling the effects of some kind of real magic and increasingly fearful at what was supposedly coming next.

The ropes binding him grew looser and looser, and soon slipped entirely off, revealing a slim, smooth body with narrow shoulders and a slender waist; his boxers and open nightshirt were also feeling quite loose, and he pulled his arms together awkwardly to prevent the latter from slipping off of him entirely, keenly aware of just how many people were staring at him and feeling rather modest about his upper body all of a sudden. He looked down to now see just how smooth and soft his skin looked; every trace of muscle was gone from his arms and legs, and even his hands were delicate little things. He wondered: Why would a demon lord be so...small?

This was half-answered by a sudden tug between his legs, drawing a surprised "Aaah!" and a reflexive backwards jerk of his head. He felt hair spilling down across his shoulders and cheeks as though it had been piled up on top of his head somehow and thrown off of it by the sudden motion, but knew full well it had actually grown out during that very second. The blush in his cheeks got worse as he understood the meaning of all of these changes: Evidently the demon lord wanted a woman's body for some reason, so Zeke was experiencing a change of sex. But, the thought came unbidden, at least it feels good...

Before Zeke could wonder why he'd thought that, another sharp tug came between his legs, drawing a louder, longer "AaAA~Aaa~aaah!" which began in his usual voice but rapidly rose in pitch as it continued, terminating in a high, feminine tone. He felt hair fall down the back of his waist this time, and looked down to also see his boxers shrinking, brightening in shade and gaining a red tint as the leggings disappeared. This was...really happening, he was being transformed into a girl! But somehow the fear he'd felt a moment ago was dissipating, being replaced by a giddy excitement. There was the curious sense that the fire of belief that had buried itself deep inside of him was blazing itself outward to the rest of his body and expressing itself in the...natural way? How this was any kind of natural Zeke didn't know, but his confidence that it was so only grew as he felt a gentle push from his hips, and looked down to see his bottom widening and plumping out, his thighs regaining some of their lost thickness and leaving him with some wonderfully shapely legs.

"Aaaah...!" Zeke's grip on his own body tightened for a moment at a sudden, sharp pressure from his back. "Mngh..aah, AAH!" It built rapidly, and then with that louder girlish cry it seemed to 'pop', something shoving its way out from just behind each of his shoulder blades, pushing his nightshirt down out of the way in the process. He could feel the air rushing across short hairs on the broad new appendages, which spread wide behind him, and with a quick look back he confirmed: It was a pair of gigantic, bat-like wings. They were as easy to move around as his own limbs, and somehow their presence seemed quite comfortable to him already.

His arms pulled reflexively tighter once again as the tugging resumed between his legs. "Oh...Oooh..." It seemed that his body had had quite enough of being male; he squirmed and struggled back and forth, half fighting the sensation of this change and half enjoying it. "OOOoo~ooOOhhh..!" And...there it went, as the fighting side of his—her mind lost soundly. Zeke's cheeks were white-hot as she felt a deeply pleasant sensation down there, as well as that of the soft, now-quite-girly underwear pulling flat between her legs. Being a woman felt...great. Wonderful, even! She was beginning to have trouble understanding why she hadn't wanted it sooner. Especially since she could now feel her chest tingling with the anticipation of some much-needed growth.

"Mnn~nh." The new girl closed her eyes, a smile crossing her lips as a strange sort of confidence began to fill her. Her hair grew still more, sliding across her hips and a little of it pooling on the ground, as she felt a gentle push from her lower back and another from each corner of her head. A long, slim black tail snaked its way out back there, and once it reached its full length the tip spread out into a flat, spade-like shape. Her head gained a pair of small, curly shiny black horns. Despite her closed eyes, she felt intensely aware of these changes, her tail flicking around excitedly as the understanding surfaced in her mind that she was now a demon, and a suitably dark power was steadily growing within her.

Soon that would not be the only thing rising. She let out a soft "Aah~" as a pressure built in her sensitive, flat chest not unlike the one that had come before the wings. But this one resolved much more quickly, all of her resistance to the change replaced with eager readiness, and as it released itself her nipples rose, growing small bumps of flesh out with them. The demon-girl let out another sexy, womanly "Ooh~" in response to the feeling of new, sensitive skin brushing against her shirt. Then it was a deep, feminine "Mm~mmmnh" as another push came, drawing out the bumps into a small pair of globes threatening to push the shirt apart completely. She was mentally encouraging her breasts to keep growing now, and seemingly as a result the third push was all the more intense and pleasurable, her mouth opening in a loud, high "AaaAA~AAaahh!" as the little breasts exploded out into a nice, big, unmistakably womanly bosom, making the top third of a lovely hourglass figure for the new demon and completing the transformation of her body.

Slowly, Zeke opened her eyes as she tried in vain to push the shirt back over her huge breasts; they glowed a bright pure yellow as she looked over the cultists gathered around her. The leader, especially, seemed to be watching her for a sign that the demon lord had taken over. But it was...just Zeke, the same person as before; no new consciousness had entered her. What had entered her was a deep appreciation for her newfound womanhood, and all of that belief the cultists had poured into the ritual now converted into immense, pure power fully at her disposal, which her head was quickly filling with the knowledge of how to use.

Her mouth hung open for those few seconds, her cheeks still blushing at all that had happened, and not least of all her present state of dress. She snapped it shut again, looking around at the cultists with an exaggeratedly angry glare. "What am I doing i-in this state of dress?!" she demanded, holding her arms together to try and keep her chest a little covered by the nightshirt as she stood herself up. Now that she wasn't crying out in response to..things, her voice naturally settled on a deep, mature tone, but the heights it had reached a moment ago revealed she actually had quite the range now. "One of you, toss me your robe!"

She probably should have expected what came next: The demon-girl was inundated by a shower of nearly everyone's long dark robes, and had to wave her arms and flap her wings and flex a little of her power to shield some of them off of her just to keep from being knocked over by the sheer weight of so many. "Just one! You—you fools!" she yelled, snatching one while the rest fell away and pulling it around her upper body. It was going to be annoying to find clothes that were properly cut for those wings and still covered her decently, she thought. But with a little bit of magic to 'glue' the robe together around her, she at least regained the use of her arms for now.

Looking around, Zeke now saw what most of the cultists looked like without their robes. They...just looked like normal people, fellow college kids; she even recognized their leader as a senior from one of her classes. All of them were watching her with anticipation; a fair portion of them with fear. Certainly some of the higher-ups were passionate about worshiping their demon lord—they would have to be, to have gone so far as kidnapping for the ritual—but she had the feeling that many of those present had simply remained in the cult and behaved as they did out of fear, not wanting to wind up—say—tied up and used as a sacrifice or a "vessel for the demon lord" or something like that.

"Well, what is it that you desire so?" she said after considering for a moment how to play this.

"M-my lord?" the leader said, trembling slightly. "We desire only to serve you."

"Come now. You went to all the trouble of preparing a ritual to summon me, and even sacrificed one of your own kind to do so. You risk great retribution from others for the kidnapping I see in his mind. So—surely you must each want something," she said.

"Our only wish is to serve you," the leader repeated, everyone else—including the other higher-ups—too terrified to speak. They clearly thought she was going to inflict ironic punishment on the first person to ask for something, which was pretty hilarious, she thought. It was almost a shame she was planning to disappoint them on that regard.

"Really?" She strode up to him, placed an index finger gently on the bottom of his chin; his eyes widened even more than they already were in response, and she could feel him trembling. "You had no aspirations of, say, becoming a powerful second-in-command to a demon queen or something?" Then she drew the hand away slightly and swept the outstretched arm around, looking at the rest of the group. "And not one of the rest of you did this out of a selfish desire? Your energetic summoning was sufficient to grant me a great deal of power. There are many wishes well within my reach to readily grant," she said with a mischievous smile.

There was silence for a moment; as expected, this speech wasn't inspiring much confidence in anyone. "Hmmn." She placed a finger up to her lip. "I suppose this setting is a little bit formal. I imagine the sort of things you want from demonic power would be a little difficult to admit in front of so many peers." Then she moved the hand forward, still pointing up with its finger. "No matter! We shall have plenty of time to play later~. For now we must make haste to ensure that your crimes against my vessel go unnoticed. Take me to his abode!" she ordered toward their leader.

"O-of course, my lord," he said with a deep, but quick, bow. "I shall h-handle it personally. Please, follow your servant."

He turned around, and the crowd parted for him; the demoness followed him out for a moment, and then paused. "Perhaps the rest of you should return as well, to allay suspicion?" she suggested. "Rest assured, I know who each one of you is, and I promise to reward you soon~." With that and a little wave (and a mental note that some of them trembled while others actually seemed encouraged), she continued on her way out of the crowd, following the cult's leader out into the forest, to where he'd parked his car.

He was, she reasoned, smart enough to build an entire demon cult, build the ritual site (which involved the clandestine clearing of trees and use of concrete), and somehow find a real ritual for them all to do which did...almost exactly what he thought it did. She couldn't bluff him out forever, and to be honest, she didn't want to. Her newfound power was born from the beliefs and desires of her new "followers", and at least eventual honesty seemed like the best way to maintain that, as well as gain more. Anyway, there was no longer a single thing to fear from him; she was fully aware of her power by now, and also possessed a sense for the powers of others—and he had none. But the cult was also in need of some serious reorganization—no more fear tactics, and especially kidnapping simply would not do! She would have to find a way to convince the leadership to do that, and that started with the head honcho.

They reached his car after a surprisingly brief walk through the woods, and he dutifully opened the passenger seat for her, eyeing her nervously still. She smiled cheerfully to him, got in, and let him drive her back to the dorm. It was good Zeke didn't have a roommate this semester; getting him alone for a little while (and both of them not in a car which he still might could seriously injure her by crashing) was crucial. Now to find out just what this guy was all about.

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So, this is a...I'm not sure what this is honestly. It started out as one caption, and then it was two, and now it's a two-part story instead, sooo, here's part one! I think (and this will be clearer after part two probably) the idea has the potential to go on for a few parts beyond what I have written now, but I doubt it'll ultimately be a seriously "long-running" story. I'm happy to just post what I have for now and see what (if anything) happens afterward.

Anyway, look forward to part 2.