Victor cheered. He had escaped from his pact with the dark god. Suck it up, He Who Waits.

  The plan was simple, but insane. Long ago as a young mage, the archmage of blood found

  the records of a half-crazed seer of the past. In them, in addition to the already known

  information that around the world there is an underside from where the demons come. There

  was also a hypothesis that our world is not the only one of its kind. And the underside is

  more of an inter-world. The space between worlds. That's what the power of demons was

  for.

  To open a passageway between worlds. And already dying Victor gave a mental order to

  throw his soul as far away as possible to a random world.

  All that was needed was a world where people had mastered the magic of summoning. Yes,

  the prospect of being summoned by a spirit was not a happy one. But it was better than

  having your soul tortured and tormented by a dark lord for the rest of eternity. But it worked

  out even better. Here they were summoning another essence not into some spell circle, but

  directly into the body of a young boy.

  And now he had a new living body. But it felt wildly malnourished. Like after a long and

  severe illness. And the magical gift inside was pathetic and weak like a low-level student.

  The woman to whom he had asked the first question continued to stand silently as if

  something had gone wrong.

  There was only one woman in the room where the hemomancer had been summoned, but

  what a woman. She had a beautiful face, smooth and smooth skin, and large, shining eyes.

  Her blond hair fell in thick waves over her shoulders. She had a slim waist and an extremely

  graceful figure.

  The woman looked like a porcelain doll come to life. It was quite to Victor's taste, he had

  always preferred elegance in matters of female beauty. But the more Victor looked at the

  woman, the more discontent and even rejection grew inside. And the reason for such an

  emotion was not clear. As if the very nature of the host's body resisted to consider the

  woman in such a . What the hell is this?

  - Allow me to introduce myself as Archmage Victor Sangius.

  Inside the summoning circle, a guest from the other side could not lie directly to the

  summoner's questions. That's why demons of all stripes practiced to make tricky contracts

  to catch the magician without directly deceiving him. Demons never lie. Everyone knows

  that. But that doesn't stop them from manipulating mortals. And legends about knowing a

  name to control a demon are just silly stories. Knowing its true name means you can cast it

  to summon a specific entity. So Victor didn't see much point in hiding his identity. And even

  in a foreign world in an unknown place.

  -Alexandra Walpole, acting head of the Walpole family name. And my son Robert

  *************

  Alexandra.

  After the woman heard that she was speaking to a human spirit, she was finally able to

  exhale. Etiquette demanded that she identify herself in response. To indicate status at once.

  Until the last moment, there was the fear of summoning a demon or something. And what to

  do if the summoner turned out to be an unknown creature the woman in despair simply did

  not imagine. Though Alexandra was fond of the history of magic, but she could not say

  exactly who would be summoned during the almost forgotten ritual. Nor did knowledge of

  history answer what kind of person was now in the circle. There had always been a couple

  dozen recognized archmages at most. But the woman could not remember anyone with a

  similar name.

  Her husband and son were also into magical antiquities. That's what got them killed. During

  one of their archaeological expeditions, they discovered a strange bear statue.

  A piece from centuries past literally exuded an unexplainable power. And then there was an

  attack by unknown assailants. The husband was killed, and the son received an unknown

  curse. This weakening drove them out to the suburbs of the capital, where there was a

  country residence, the last refuge. Had it not been for such an emergency, the woman

  would never have ventured into the centuries-lost ritual of summoning. She explained all

  this briefly to the alien to discuss the terms of the contract. Victor would keep the heir alive

  in the body, and in return he would receive the fulfillment of one request.

  ************

  Victor.

  Oh, bugger. The archmage didn't like ancient curses himself. Not so much because of their

  power. It was more because of their strange working principles. Often the only way to heal a

  person is to kill the one who cast the curse. That's why you should be wise to avoid

  unknown . If the one who put the evil will in the object long ago feeds the grave worms, the

  victim is doomed. And the husband's killer is as unknown as where the statue went. Go to I

  don't know where, bring I don't know what. He wasn't going to say that to the woman, so as

  not to scare her. In any case, we should take a look at the patient first.

  Diving into the guy's consciousness was surprisingly easy. Now Victor and guy were

  connected. The inner world of the curse victim looked surprisingly good. A forest with

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  golden foliage in which a light breeze was blowing cozily, rippling the yellow leaves. In the

  center was a small hill, on top of which a guy sat on a wooden throne. The guy was asleep,

  shuddering in his sleep as if he was having nightmares, and there was something hanging

  over his head. Hanging was an inappropriate expression, there was a black nothingness

  that seemed to absorb any light. The curse in the victim's mind took on a similar image.

  When Vladimir felt the guest, he woke up. The guy looked frankly , pale as a dead

  man and extremely emaciated. It was obvious that the curse was literally sucking the life out

  of him. But Victor liked the look. It remained bright and realized. Even on the threshold of a

  terrible death the boy retained the will to live.

  -I know about my mother's plan. And I agreed to the ritual. I thank the elements that I see a

  man before me and not a monster on the other side.

  — That's all very commendable. But I'd like to discuss the terms of our alliance. I'm in

  charge and have full control over the body, and you just stay out of my way, no matter what

  I do.

  — There are some things a nobleman can't do. I must have my say. And yes, I felt the way

  you looked at my mother.

  Oh, boy. Kid's got a temper. It's not exactly fair, but what if you scare him a little bit. Just as a

  precaution. I'm letting my aura kick in and letting my power come out. It smells like blood.

  Nauseating and crampy. The ground around me turned purple. The nearby trees were

  literally soaked in blood and began to distort at my will. In my part of the world, space turned

  into a bloody swamp.

  Creepy enough even for someone familiar with blood magic.

  — You're not human?? What kind of power is that?

  But to boy credit, he huddled in his wooden throne, but he didn't flinch. Though it was

  obvious that my magic had frightened him terribly. Oh, come on. I'm not some monster

  seriously hurting an innocent child. A clap of my hands and the obsession was gone.

  The test was passed.

  — I appreciate the strength of your spirit. I'll make some concessions to you. And if I feel

  it's really important to you, maybe I'll do what you want. But since you need me more than

  I need you, I'll call you sonny.

  I had already left my world and at most I could remain a ghost in the new universe. And the

  guy's in the abyss if he fails. So this kind of compensation in the form of a new nickname is a

  small price to pay for salvation. The boy expectedly grimaced from such treatment, but

  having estimated my strength agreed. After our agreement, the boy fell asleep again. And I

  left his inner world. And then there was a long conversation with his mother. I generally liked

  the family. Yes, a little bit arrogant, but straightforward in terms of morality people with whom

  you can deal.

  The new body's power was also tested at once. The fingers of my left hand clicked and blue

  sparks appeared above my palms, which grew into clots of small lightning bolts. I decided to

  fool around a bit and started juggling ball lightning. Hemomancer blood mage can not call to

  the natural elements. In my world, a mage elementalist could control all four basic elements

  and their derivatives. But specialist mages like me can't. That's why it was fun to chase

  lightning around in circles. I didn't feel much power in my body, but I was surprised to have

  full control over the lightning element. The ritual made me a full-fledged second master of

  the body. It would be fun to become a great mage of this element in the future. But that was

  offset by the fact that mages were strange in this world. Everything was tied to the ancestral

  magic, so if you were born in the Walpole family, you will strike with lightning, but you can't

  subdue flames. What you were born with was what you got. But I'm not used to the same

  kind of magic. Speaking of my native element.

  I created a small clot of lightning on the tip of my index finger and gently cut the skin on my

  arm. The blood, obeying my will, flew into the air in purple drople drops and swirled as if in a

  dance. And at the end of it hovered over my head in the form of a spiky nimbus. It was a

  good thing that I remained a blood mage and now had two schools in my arsenal, which

  already put me above the mages of this world in terms of flexibility of power. But the total

  amount of power was disappointing. I was much stronger in mana than any mage

  apprentice. And I could already fight with a full-fledged adult mage, and even come out

  victorious. But in my old body I was already an archmage, a peak could be reached by only

  a few of those endowed with the power. And considering that my teacher old man Wilhelm

  went to feed the worms, I was deservedly the strongest blood mage of my world. And here.

  Ah. How low I've fallen. From the top of the magical world straight down, and now I'm just a

  sturdy average mage. But this body is growing, and I will grow with it. So if the quest to

  break the curse goes on long enough, I may reach the level of my old power again.

  Especially since I've been through this before and know how to achieve it. But I was too

  caught up in my own thoughts. The woman next to me slumped into the couch with a look of

  horror on her face.

  In this world that doesn't know blood magic? Oops. I'm so screwed.