\u201cI\u2019m home, Cherub!\u201d Angelica sighed against her door once more, letting the remains of her art supplies collapse to either side, and tearing off her outer layers. The cat immediately rushed over to her and began meowing incessantly. \u201cYes yes, I know you want your wets.\u201d She only fed him wet food once a day, though he had unlimited dry food the rest of the time. But the boy loved his meat. That was part of how she kept track of time throughout the day, since she rarely looked at the clock or out of her shaded window. Yet Cherub always knew exactly when it was time for dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAh, it\u2019s the last can.\u201d Her fingers scraped the bottom of the bulk box. Now she\u2019d definitely have to go shopping tomorrow. Angelica always put it off until her stocks were pitifully empty, and while she could sustain herself on whatever scraps she had around, the cat would not accept a day without his succulent wet meal. As the hand that fed him, she would never hear the end of it. And the bigger issue now was with what money she would buy all the food she needed. Another problem for tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The more immediate matter was her own dinner. All she\u2019d had that day was a single snack bar and a yummy sugary drink she\u2019d bought from a nearby stand during a lull in customers. While that certainly had plenty of calories, her body needed some proper sustenance so it didn\u2019t chew on itself overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Angelica hadn\u2019t really been paying attention to her food supplies recently, but knew she had to be low on everything. A quick check in the cabinets confirmed that\u2026 empty, unless she wanted to chow on dust clods. So she reached her hand back into that same snack bar box only to find herself grasping at nothing. Apparently, the one she\u2019d taken earlier was the last one. She pelted the empty cardboard over onto the bulging pile, but it didn\u2019t catch hold anywhere and bounced off, landing sadly on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So things were much worse than she expected. Oh no\u2026 she\u2019d have to resort to her treat cheese. Angelica opened the fridge, finding it essentially empty except for a decent number of stains, save for a few bottles of condiments with only a few drops left each, and a single bag of shredded cheese. It was something she\u2019d munch on only when she felt she deserved a proper treat and was too lazy to go anywhere or it was the dead of night. However, she hadn\u2019t allowed herself the indulgence for quite some time, feeling rather unworthy lately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The girl pulled out the bag and grinned at the heft when she picked it up, only to be met with unbridled despair when she looked inside. Mold. It was entirely covered in mold. And not the kind of mold that she could pick away and ignore, eating what was left even though she really shouldn\u2019t. No, the entire bag was spotted and fuzzy, utterly ruined to the point that it couldn\u2019t even be considered as edible. Not wanting to throw the rotting sack haphazardly in her apartment, having long lost sight of her trash can, she bunged it back into the fridge for now, holding back tears from the heartbreak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was then that her stomach decided to grumble, serving to torment her further. Maybe just a little\u2026<\/em> A crazy thought entered her mind as her eyes wandered over to Cherub, happily munching on his wets, with still over half left. Certainly he wouldn\u2019t mind if\u2026 No, nope, not doing it. Couldn\u2019t even consider myself human at that point.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n But even if she wasn\u2019t going to eat like a cat, it didn\u2019t mean she wouldn\u2019t stoop to raccoon behavior. It was time for her absolutely last ditch survival strat. Angelica reluctantly bundled herself up and headed back outside. It was later than she wanted to do this, pitch black already, and far colder than she wanted to be exposed to. So hopefully it would be a quick trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The woman hurried over to another apartment complex just a few blocks away and darted down the alley. This was not her first time dumpster diving, having reached a particularly bad point of desperation shortly after losing her internship. During that time, she\u2019d found the shining jewel amongst the literal rubbish. That particular apartment complex had a house husband that would throw out any food the moment it reached the expiration or \u201cbest by\u201d dates, even if it was still perfectly fine. Since trash pick up was still a few days away, their dumpster should be primed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAh, score!\u201d It barely took her a minute of rummaging to find the bag holding her hopes. The house husband used a particular green eco bag with some weird scent that no one else in that complex had even heard of, let alone would consider using. Just before she went to open it, to see what loot she\u2019d gotten, the dumpster diver heard what sounded like mumbled yelling above her head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh damn, did someone see me?!<\/em> Angelica was still leaning into the dumpster, so she craned her neck skyward, looking at the windows for judging faces, but didn\u2019t find any. What she didn\u2019t expect was for a dark object to be falling right toward her, faster than she could react.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Angelica was hit in the side of her skull with what felt like a brick, banging her head down straight into the trash. Ahhh, holy frits that hurts<\/em>! Angelica internalized her scream, not wanting her pain to leak out and draw attention. She quickly ran her fingers into her hair, along the injury, trying to feel for any blood, but it came back dry. The anguish was quickly fading, but it would definitely leave some kind of welt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cErm, a book?\u201d She knelt down and picked up the object that had bounced off her dome and landed on the ground. Angelica pulled out her phone, using it as a light to examine the object. The tome looked brand new, like it had never been opened even once, not a single page turned. And since she couldn\u2019t read the title\u2014similar in text to the graffiti she\u2019d been seeing around the city\u2014she took the liberty of cracking the seal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Angelica was staggeringly underwhelmed at first. The book was frontloaded with more indecipherable text. But as she flipped, like a child with a poor attention span, her eyes lit up when she came across pictures. \u201cHuh, monsters? Or demons, maybe?\u201d She gazed at the unusual beings that steadily got more intricate and intense as she skimmed through. It looked like they were divided into tiers, by her best guess. If this really was the work of bored teens, they had some interesting tastes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, now these are cool.\u201d After getting past the beasties, she came across weird circles. Well, since she often dabbled in fantastical intrigue, she immediately recognized them as magic circles, probably something for intense spells or summoning. They had the usual pentagrams and sigils, but there were many other squiggles unlike any she\u2019d seen before, the same unreadable text. Given the earlier creatures, demon summoning was likely the point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI can use this.\u201d While Angelica had no interest in anything demonic or creepy, she could certainly use the circles as reference material for other magical depictions. A wave of inspiration hit her, and she suddenly really wanted to draw one herself. So after picking back up her scavenged bag of trash, the girl\u2014more of a vermin at this point\u2014skittered back to her nest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBack again, Cherub!\u201d The apartment dweller, happy to be back in her lair for good, called to her cat who was enjoying a post-meal nap on Angelica\u2019s pillow. \u201cAlright, let\u2019s see what we got first.\u201d She dug into the trash bag, only to be hit with more crushing disappointment. It was almost all linens. Thankfully, they weren\u2019t soiled, and smelled like they\u2019d actually been washed, probably just no longer wanted. Maybe she\u2019d actually keep them\u2014undoubtedly cleaner than her own at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, there was one saving grace, a single morsel of food. It was a bag of cheese-flavored rice crackers, \u201cexpired\u201d as of yesterday, and it looked like only maybe two had ever been eaten before the bag was tossed. She threw one in her mouth without hesitation. They were pretty bland, definitely a bit stale, but her stomach immediately unclenched the moment the first bite hit it. And at least she was getting a cheese-adjacent treat in some form after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Angelica got to work devouring the entire bag as she flipped through the book that had attempted to bash in her brains. Now that she looked more closely and in better lighting, some of the earlier monster-demon-things actually looked kind of cute, in a bizarre way. After that, they definitely shifted out of her tastes for a while until they got toward the end. While many remained monstrous and beast-like, some turned significantly more humanoid, even looking a little cool, one maybe a bit attractive, if she was honest with herself. Perhaps she would make a character based on them after all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She then flipped back to the magic circles, scanning through them more intimately, looking at the way they were built. Each of them were pretty unique, ranging from fairly basic to extraordinarily complex. \u201cOh, damn, now this one\u2019s crazy cool!\u201d Angelica couldn\u2019t help herself from uttering when she got to the last one in the book. It outright eclipsed all the others in both scope and design, complicated beyond measure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wanna make it!\u201d The creative bug nabbed her, and now there\u2019s no way it would let her rest until she\u2019d perfectly recreated the piece. But how to do so? It was a bit of a logistical problem. Since it was so intricate, even sketching it on her easel would be difficult to make sure she got all the details correct. She could draw it digitally, but that wouldn\u2019t have the same feel. Might as well just take a picture at that point, and she kind of wanted to display it. No, she needed a large canvas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was when Angelica was struck with a devilish idea, looking at her floor, or what little of it she could see. There was no way she\u2019d be getting her security deposit back at this point, and given the events of the day, part of her definitely wanted to spite her landlord. Plus, such a thing would really add to the witchy vibe she always wanted but was too poor to pull off properly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So to an extent, she did what Ms. Gate had commanded and began cleaning her apartment. It wasn\u2019t thorough by any means, mostly pushing things off to the edges. But what could be considered outright trash, she did actually properly bag for disposal. Eventually, that pile got a bit too much, so she reluctantly once more made a few quick trips outside to her own complex\u2019s dumpster, which had been laying bare for some time, not even bothering to throw on more layers for the quick sprints, shivering all the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And then finally, her canvas was ready. While she\u2019d absolutely ravaged what remained of her already sparse art supplies that day, there was something she could use, pulling out a large pail from the corner that had sat there idly as a crude piece of furniture. It was a five-gallon bucket of paint that she\u2019d gotten from a local hardware store. They were just giving it away one day, so she couldn\u2019t resist, even if it was a pain to lug back home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When she popped open the lid and tried to use it, the reason became quickly evident why. The color was an orangish-pink. While not super appealing at first glance, it wasn\u2019t horrible and had some charm. However, after it dried, the color had an odd tinge to it, making it look a bit like barf. While probably not the color that the artist envisioned, especially for something that would be a long-term display in her room, it would do for now, and she could color over it later with the pattern in place once she had spending-money again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Angelica toiled on the magic circle for hours, ensuring every inch was perfect. Getting the overall shape and construction done was simple enough, but there were so many little complex and entangled tidbits that she had to be very careful\u2014not a drop out of place. There was one major hiccup, though, when Cherub got curious and came to inspect, walking right through it. While his painted pawprints were adorable, they clashed with the overall design, so she was quick to scrub them up. And the cat quickly got the hint and returned to his nap after she threatened to put him in his carrier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was probably the dead of night by the time Angelica finished the circle. She was undoubtedly covered in splotches, both her skin and clothes, but she didn\u2019t care. Angelica took a good step back to admire her work, grinning from ear to ear. She compared it to the one in the book and it was absolute perfection, an identical recreation. One part did still bother her a bit, a weird blank stretch in the pattern that undoubtedly looked like something was missing. But she\u2019d elected to ignore it, not wanting to fiddle with the piece, and she wouldn\u2019t let it hamper her joy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the initial bubbliness and pride dwindled, a new impulse took over, and Angelica grabbed a toy scepter off her wall. It was from one of her favorite animations as a kid, one that her mother undoubtedly hated because she\u2019d watched it so many times, but still bought her a bunch of merch from. \u201cMagic, go!\u201d She did a little shimmy and pointed the small plastic staff at the circle, giggling to herself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cCome forth elements abound, rain down on my enemies!\u201d Like a kid again, she continued to spout phrases from shows she\u2019d seen, even coming up with a few nonsense ones of her own. It was a good thing that she didn\u2019t have any neighbors, or they\u2019d be very annoyed by her noisy antics right about now. And then one last super cringeworthy magical whim came to mind. With book in one hand and scepter in the other, she spouted the nonsense without an ounce of shame like a proper mage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI call upon the demons of hell, the angels of heaven, the spirits between the planes! I beseech thee! Lend me thine power, smite my foes, answer my prayers, and I\u2019ll give you my soul!\u201d Angelica flicked the tip of the scepter toward the summoning circle and pressed the button on the side. While the internal, irreplaceable batteries had long since died, she remembered exactly how it sounded, how the lights that would flash, the magic still real in her heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And to her mind-shattering surprise, the magic was also real in her room. At her feet, the circle erupted with light, every inch glowing brightly with raw power. A torrent of force exploded upward from the floor, causing everything in her apartment to shift and the light scraps to swirl around. What could only be called magic trickled in the open air in front of her, the particles of energy forming into a figure in the circle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet, Angelica didn\u2019t really have time to appreciate it, or be bewildered by it, or properly deal with any of the overwhelming surge of emotions that were flooding her mind. Because her own body had started to tingle. Not from the outside forces, though the pulses of energy were making it hard to stand still. Rather, it was like her very being was starting to dissolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It began at the tip of her head and worked her way down. From what she could see, it was like those same magic particles were emanating from her. Right when she started to panic, the eroding light devoured her eyes. But they didn\u2019t vanish, no they just moved, shifted a few feet in the room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The next thing she knew, Angelica was looking at herself, or what remained of herself, still standing outside the summoning circle. Down to her neck had dissolved away, and then it ate at her shoulders, taking her arms with it. When her hands vanished, the scepter and book thumped to the ground, followed by her shirt flung to the wall. Soon all that was left was her disembodied legs, and they too faded away quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As she watched the last of her body vanish in front of her eyes. Her new body, her new form, however it could be described, was suddenly hit with an explosion of energy, feeling like the essence of her existence was being ripped to shreds. And that was the last thing she remembered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Soulbound Contract Forged]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [Demon Rank: Imp Lv.1]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n [Summoner Rank: Initiate Lv.1]<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAngelica!\u201d \u201cAngelica. You never leave. So I know you\u2019re in there!\u201d The girl in question grumbled awake in her bed. Since her apartment was only a single room, there was no escape from the cantankerous rapping at her front door. \u201cAnswer the door, Angelica. If I have to use my master key and find you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tak-berkategori"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4180,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179\/revisions\/4180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"image\"\/](\"https:\/\/i.ibb.co\/4x8ydDf\/Final-File.jpg\")
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