'- after which I stole her knickers,' Brimstone concluded with a look of satisfaction. The confession had taken longer than he thought, largely due to that business with the seven imps, but the effort would be worth it. Mindset was everything in this sort of magic. You could ditch almost all the other preparations – and even some of the safeguards – once you got it right.
He trotted back down the aisle, picked up the bag containing the black cockerel – parrot, indeed! – and began to wrestle with the drawstring. Once he had bitten the head off the bird, he could use the blood to draw the necessary circle and mark out the protections. The human blood from the Blood Bank would come into the picture a little later.
The bag sprang open suddenly and the cockerel exploded out of it in a frenzy of squawks and feathers. Brimstone grabbed for it and missed. The bird took off across the broken pews. Brimstone hared after it but ran out of breath after several paces. He stopped, panting. He'd have to do without the damn cock. At least he still had the bag of human blood. If he used it properly, it would work almost like a sacrifice.
Brimstone began to shift pews to give himself a clear working space. When he had finished, he took a piece of chalk from his bag and, with the expertise of long practice, drew a large equilateral triangle on the floor, its apex pointing towards the altar. He sketched the symbolic fortifications quickly, then stood with one arm upraised while his free hand held the grimoire.
'"Save us from the fear of Hell",' he intoned, using the orison from the book. '"Allow not the devils to destroy my soul when I conjure them from the Pit and when I order them to accomplish that which I desire. Let the day be light, let the sun and moon shine, as I call them. They are indeed terrible and of monstrous deformity: but let them be restored to pleasing and familiar forms when they come to do my bidding. Save me from those who have frightful faces and permit them to obey me when I call them from Hell!"'
He put the book to one side – fearfully windy, like most Analogue World grimoires. Who cared what they looked like? Demons were demons and just as dangerous in their spindly little natural form than they were when they took on hideous shapes.
He sighed philosophically, then searched out the bag of blood and set it in the middle of the triangle. Astonishing really: blood-in-a-bag – the Analogue World was a creepy place.
There was an athame somewhere in his standard equipment, useless in the Realm (unless you wanted to stab somebody) but perfect here in the Analogue World. He found it eventually and used it to draw the outlines of the opening sigils in the air above the triangle. At home they would actually have appeared. Here you had to visualise them, imagining a trail of blue fire oozing from the tip of the athame. It was a bit tricky working this way, but he took his time and managed it effectively enough.
As he finished, he stabbed the blood bag through the centre, pinning it to the floor of the church. 'Trinitas,' he called out loudly, 'Sother, Messias, Sabahot, Athanatos, Pentagna, Agragon – The words of power went on and on. Within minutes their vibrations began to strain the fabric of reality beyond the triangle. '- Ischiros, Otbeos, Visio, Flos -
The blood flow from the punctured bag started to crawl across the floor towards the tip of the triangle, then reared up like a snake. Brimstone was chanting now, intoning the words in a steady hammer beat. ' – Origo, Salvator, Novissimus -' The blood snake began to sway in time to the rhythm.
He was approaching the climax of the operation. He could feel the power like trapped lightning all around him. For the first time he had a twinge of doubt about short-cutting the safeguards and preparations, but there was nothing he could do about that now. ' – Primogenitus, Sapientia, Virtus, Paraclitus – The blood snake reared to its fullest extent, then pulled back as if about to strike. The familiar Orchestra of Beleth struck up all around him, quietly at first, then swelling like a symphony to fill the church. ' – Via, Mediator, Medicus, Salus, Agnus, Ovis, Vitulus, Spes!' Brimstone screamed. The blood snake struck.
With an audible snap, a portal opened up before the altar. Demon forms swarmed through it in a gibbering horde.