Heroine Creation: All My Summons Are Custom Made

The Demons must have been very rebellious, disobedient children because they didn’t heed Spectra’s words at all. Or perhaps they did; when it came to the Mother of Demons, ’playing’ and ’killing’ were likely synonyms.

So the angry red monsters set out to kill her.

Spectra only smiled at her cute babies.

Then she lifted one hand and outstretched it toward them, her red smoke rolling and curling around her in lazy, hungry ribbons.

”Come out, my younglings,” she purred, her voice sweet with terrible amusement. ”If your siblings will not join you calmly, then bring me their ghosts.”

The smoke behind her thickened at once.

From within it, the Demons she had mass-tamed in Hebthej poured forward like a living tide.

They emerged in layers of red and black, their bodies no longer dull and earthbound but blazing with a crimson glow that pulsed through their limbs and eyes.

Smoke trailed from their backs, their shoulders, their jaws, as though they had been pulled straight out of a funeral pyre and given teeth. They were still Demons, still twisted things of claw and hunger, but under Spectra’s control they were more disciplined and stronger.

Rather than mindless monsters for Hellfyre, they were now a swarm of intent.

One of them shot upward with a shriek and clashed against a Winged Demon midair, both bodies colliding in a blur of red limbs and snapping jaws. Another leapt in from the side and tore through the Humanoid Demon’s throat before it could land.

The skittering one at street level was met by three of Spectra’s tamed Demons at once, their claws and teeth working in perfect coordination as if they had shared the same thought before the attack had even begun. The creature folded under the pressure, its back cracking against the cobbles.

And as the enemy Demons died, Spectra claimed them with a happy smile.

Black-red smoke rose from the corpses as if their souls were trying to flee, but she only tilted her chin and watched with bright, delighted eyes.

Their fading forms shuddered, then went still, and the smoke curling from them bent toward Spectra as if drawn by invisible strings.

As the only one on earth with Demon Necromancy, Spectra was the singular person who could achieve this.

If she couldn’t claim a living Demon, it was no problem. She could also claim a dead one.

This was why she wasn’t too opposed to Lancet and the others killing the Demons. Whatever the case, she was leaving this town with a new army of crimson children.

”Mine,” Spectra whispered.

The red haze around her deepened.

More of her children emerged.

The stronger her control became, the more her Demons seemed to change in the moment of battle. They moved in packs, then in wedges, then in precise, coordinated bursts that turned chaotic slaughter into a well-orchestrated massacre.

A Winged Demon dove for one of her children, only for two more to rush in beneath it and tear the creature apart while a third tore out its throat from the side.

A Slug Demon tried to spray corrosive bile across the street, but one of Spectra’s tamed Demons slammed into its flank and knocked the aim off just enough for the attack to splatter harmlessly into the stone wall.

A Humanoid Demon tried to retreat and was caught by something from her smoke that had been waiting for exactly that mistake.

Spectra laughed, and the sound rolled through the street with all the warmth of a knife laid gently against skin.

”Oh, yes,” she said, watching the battle bloom around her. ”That is much better.”

One of the Demons under her control ripped the head from an enemy with a snarl, and the moment the body hit the ground the smoke above it bowed toward Spectra.

She extended one clawed hand lazily and the Demon soul was hers before the remains had even begun to cool. Her fingers twitched once, almost delicately, and another of her children surged forward with a burst of crimson smoke, its movements made faster and more vicious by the growing strength of her command.

That was the secret of a true Demon Binder.

Not just control.

Improvement.

The more Demons she claimed, the more efficient the horde became. The more disciplined they grew, the more deadly each new movement became. Every dead monster fed the next strike. Every living one learned, in the crude way Demons understood learning, that there was a master above the chaos now.

A will. A mother.

Spectra watched one of her children rip through a Fallen Demon’s torso and smiled with open satisfaction.

Then she turned her attention to the Demons spilling in from corners behind her.

While her army held the rest at bay, Spectra floated above the broken road on her cloud of red smoke. ”Why hello there.”

She pressed her chest forward, breasts bouncing with the thrust as her hands clawed at her sides. Threads quickly erupted from her chest, spilling outward in a form more intimate and more terrible than a simple attack.

The threads spread with unnatural speed, dozens of them, each one glittering with dark-red Grace and a predatory sheen. They lanced across the battlefield and pierced straight into the bodies and cores of the living Demons charging towards her.

Almost instantly, her magic took effect.

They all stopped moving, freezing like time had stopped. Their eyes glowed crimson once and their entire core was changed. The Demons that had been rushing her an instant ago now became hers, one after another, their bodies laced with red smoke as they fell under her binding.

Spectra smiled with obvious satisfaction. The battlefield around her was becoming an army.

”Go!” she called, her voice sweet and commanding. ”Find your brethren and bring that back to mummy.”

The newly bound Demons roared, a sound that was deep, rough, and loyal in the ugliest possible way.

Then they scattered through the streets and over the rooftops, hunting and snarling as they went, each one trailing a faint ribbon of red smoke behind it.

Spectra floated after them for a moment, her smile pleased and full of dangerous motherly delight.

But behind her, something came from above.

A muscular humanoid Demon crashed downward from one of the higher buildings with a giant hammer raised high. It had a broad and scarred body, built in a way that made it immediately distinct from the mindless horde around it.

The hammer came down toward the back of Spectra’s head, but she didn’t even mind to turn.

She simply extended one arm behind her and somehow caught the Demon on its neck. The force of the strike stopped dead before it could touch her head, and the Demon’s momentum was dissolved instantly without moving her an inch.

”Trying to blindside a Demoness?”

Suddenly, Spectra’s head twisted and turned on top of her neck while her body remained in place. Her smile was evil.

”Impossible,” she said wickedly. ”I have no blind sides.”

The Demon looked like a human that had seen another Demon.

Then her whole body twisted like a plastic doll until she was fully facing the Demon now. Her hand was still on its neck, but it pressed higher now.

The humanoid strained, its jaw clenched, its eyes hard and alert, but Spectra only leaned in closer.

Her grip pressed against its jaw, cracking the jawbone just a tiny bit.

”Hmmm,” she murmured, studying it with open interest. ”Isn’t this interesting.”

The Demon Scout’s eyes flickered.

Spectra’s own gaze sharpened with sudden, delighted intelligence. This was a semi-sentient Demon.

”You are a scout,” she said with a sing-song tone. ”But there should not be a Demon Scout if this is an inactive Demon Break, should there?”

Her smile turned wicked.

”Unless...”

The word trailed off, and then her eyes widened in exaggerated, thrilled realization.

She gasped. ”Oh! Naughty, naughty Demon Lords.”

The grip on the Demon’s jaw tightened by a fraction, and the thing grunted in pain.

”They never truly stopped, did they?” Spectra said, her expression bright with malicious amusement. ”And humans, as stupid and self-assured as they are, walked right into your little traps.”

The Demon Scout groaned under her hand, and Spectra inspected it curiously, thoughts playing in her mind.

”Hmmm,” she said. ”Should I make an example of you? Hurt you in my most creative way and send you back to Baal as a warning?”

The scout snarled and drove its hammer sideways.

Spectra moved away, as though she had been expecting the attack.

The hammer burst with a shockwave that split two of her nearby children apart and sent another tumbling across the street in a cloud of red smoke.

Spectra released her hold at once, drifting backward through the force of the blast with elegant, weightless ease. The Demon Scout tore past her and crashed hard into the side of a nearby building, stone exploding outward in a shower of dust and broken masonry.

For a moment it stayed there, half embedded in the wall, then began dragging itself free with a deep, furious growl.

Spectra watched it rise. And it seemed, her smile was far gone now.

”Oh,” she said softly, almost regretfully. ”Your answer is yes.” The Demoness sighed. ”Very well then.”

With a loud roar, the scout raised its hammer, coiled its body, and launched itself toward her with murderous speed. Spectra lifted one hand and extended her fingers toward it, summoning something red, demonic and dangerous.