Legal Consultation Services (Seeking Investment! Seeking Bookmarks!)

Although the Summoning Circle brimmed with another kind of magic and an unknown demon had already reached a hand through, Salomon showed no sign of panic. Though the demon had paid the magical cost of being summoned itself, the Summoning Circle Salomon had drawn was merely a second-circle summoning spell. No matter how powerful a demon was, it could not squeeze through such a narrow exit and reach the Prime Material Plane.

That Hideous demon had already reached its limit by passing through the Summoning Circle. Any demon even slightly stronger would not tolerate the sensation of crawling through a water pipe. Unless that demon was named Mario, and that layer of the Abyss was called Nintendo.

This was experience he had gained from his memories: a small precaution against summoned creatures using the Summoning Circle to summon even more demons. If it were a wizard specializing in conjuration, there would be even more measures arranged in the summoning chamber, including but not limited to installing sprinklers above the Summoning Circle to spray holy water when necessary; or inscribing a teleportation circle in the summoning chamber with Mount Olympus as its destination. Teleportation circles were anonymous, after all, and Mount Olympus would not know who had tossed the demon over there.

Ignoring the trembling Hideous demon that had been pushed aside by that hand, Salomon extended his right hand, which bore three rings. As he spoke, the sapphire, orange sapphire, and pink diamond lit up in turn.

"By the name of Vishanti, I command you: depart from this realm!" As he spoke, vast pink, blue, and orange magic surged into the Summoning Circle, rapidly forcing the crimson magic aside. Salomon had learned this method of using magic from the guardian of the British Museum. Rather than channeling magic through his own body, he directly called upon Vishanti's inexhaustible power. Though crude, this method was extremely useful in the current situation.

Seeing Vishanti's magic about to fill the Summoning Circle, the Hideous demon howled as the magic scorched it black. The crimson hand hurriedly waved, signaling that it had not resisted. Salomon slightly paused his output of magic and glanced at Bayonetta. The Witch nodded, agreeing to let Salomon temporarily refrain from seizing control of the magic circle. However, Bayonetta still kept her gun raised, aimed at that hand.

Then the crimson hand gave a thumbs-up.

A yellowed parchment scroll appeared out of thin air in its palm, with metal rods at both ends. The hand pinched one end, unrolled the scroll, and used magic to send it toward Salomon.

"So this is the contract?" Salomon stretched out a hand and used Mage Hand to stop the scroll from coming any closer. He took a magnifying glass from his pocket and began examining the scroll carefully. The parchment had some age to it, with cracks around the edges. Although Salomon could understand the language written upon it, the contract was simply too long, so he could only read it slowly, line by line.

He had to make sure there were no improper ink dots, no decorative borders, no punctuation marks of unclear meaning, no misspellings, no annotations, and no overlapping sheets. Salomon scanned every inch of the parchment with his magnifying glass, yet found no tricks whatsoever. This contract could be said to be plain to the extreme.

Salomon even pulled Bayonetta, who had been standing guard nearby, over to review the contract with him, because the Witch's Enochian was far superior to Salomon's. What the Arcanist feared most was misinterpreting the phrasing.

But after reading it from beginning to end, the contract was exceptionally rigorous. Even a lawyer would not be able to find a single ambiguous clause.

Salomon spent nearly an hour examining the contract, yet the crimson hand showed no impatience. It remained raised there, amusing itself by shaping animal shadows in the moonlight. Only when Salomon looked over would it give him a thumbs-up. He did not know whether it was simply that confident the contract would be signed, or whether it did not care at all.

"This doesn't look like a devil's contract at all," Salomon said. "There aren't any tricks in it, which makes me even more uneasy."

"This is a demon contract, Boya." Bayonetta frowned. "You connected to the Abyss, not Hell. Only devils like to play tricks with contracts."

"Then I'm even more worried." Salomon looked at the fingers entertaining themselves. The hand, which could easily pierce a human body, was trying its hardest to twist its shadow into the shape of a rabbit. "Compared to devils, demons worry me more. Not every demon is willing to honor a contract. Some demons are more cunning than devils."

For example, Graz'zt, Lord of the Threefold Realm, a renowned demon lord. That demon was quite willing to abide by contracts, and he would also tamper with them like a devil. One had to be extremely cautious when dealing with creatures from the Lower Planes. The moment you believed your wisdom surpassed theirs was the moment you had fallen into their trap.

"More importantly," Salomon said, pointing at the contract and whispering to Bayonetta, "this contract doesn't even have a place for a signature."

Yes, this was an already signed contract. It defined the true names of seventy-two demons that could be commanded, and the signatory was named Solomon. The other party was a string of countless names. All of them were true names. Though human throats could not pronounce these names, Salomon still did his best to remember a few.

"This isn't my contract, Belial." Salomon pulled Bayonetta back several steps and shouted at the crimson hand. "And I won't give you my soul. I'm not Solomon either!"

The hand opened, and a line of writing appeared in midair like letters left after paper had burned: "Our party maintains the relevant position and reserves the right to pursue legal action."

"I don't acknowledge it, Belial. I haven't even touched the contract." Salomon was also somewhat curious. Wasn't Belial a Fallen Angel, one of the Seven Princes of Hell? What was he doing in the Abyss? Could it be that the one seeking to make a contract with him was not Belial?

The hand visibly became dejected, then another line appeared: "This is a fair transaction. This is for the reaffirmation of the contract."

"Unless the contract is amended, I will not sign it," the Arcanist said, taking another step back. "Never. I think using a sacrifice to summon a willing demon would count as a fair transaction."

The owner of the hand seemed to ponder for a while. It snapped its fingers, and several lines on the contract ignited and vanished. The clause was precisely the one concerning the sale of a soul. Salomon stepped forward again, examined it carefully with his magnifying glass, then used a minor trick to summon a quill pen and began adding conditions to the contract.

Clauses such as: "Should additional provisions be added, the consent of the contract's signatory must be obtained, and the signatory must be of sound mind. If consent to amend the terms is obtained through magic, drugs, supernatural abilities, coercion, and so on, the contract shall be void." Salomon also kept an eye out and wrote down certain terms that were difficult to define legally.

For example, the phrase "and so on" was an extremely vague expression, indicating that the list was not exhaustive. But the owner of the hand saw through this little trick immediately and pointed a sharp fingernail at those words. Salomon merely shrugged and offered no further explanation. He could not be sure whether the demon would honor the contract anyway, so it was better to be more cautious.

Though he did not know why Belial insisted on making a contract with him, Salomon could still summon demons without one; the process was merely a little more troublesome. Therefore, no matter what Belial wanted from him, he had to sign a contract with Salomon—now, Salomon was the stronger party.

The crimson hand raised its middle finger, casually slapped the Hideous demon cowering nearby to death, then grabbed the contract and crawled back into the Summoning Circle. This left Salomon deeply puzzled, because he had only added a few clauses and had not signed anything at all. He thought back carefully. He had not left behind any blood, hair, or anything else on the contract or the magic circle either.

"What was that supposed to be? Legal consultation services? Why didn't he pay to hire a lawyer?" the Arcanist asked, spreading his hands.

But Bayonetta did not know what had happened either. As for knowledge of the Lower Planes, she only knew about the layer where Madame Butterfly resided. She had long forgotten the knowledge of the Witch clan.

"So, can you summon demons now?" the Witch asked.

"I don't know," the Arcanist replied. "But I think that thing can."

The center of the magic circle, from which wisps of smoke rose, was covered in grayish-white ashes. In the middle of those ashes lay a ring.

Salomon suddenly had a feeling that this might also be one of the Sorcerer Supreme's arrangements.

Smoking, smoking.