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Chapter 1

I could hear the intruder breaking into my house

Unfortunately, it was in the same instant that the demon appeared before me

The sound of shattering glass upstairs disrupted h for the arcane portal to shift from my control and leap away frorasp at the portal, cold sweat breaking out under led to wrench the power back into place My heart sla each strand to bind and anchor it My technique was raw and inelegant, but I didn’t give a crap I was only interested in surviving, not in how pretty it looked

It felt like an eternity, but it was merely several frenzied seconds before I had the wildly fluctuating potencies settled and calged breaths, struggling to slow theof my pulse That had been far too close for my peace of mind If that loss of focus had come just a few seconds earlier, I most likely would have been ripped apart—either by the maelstrom of the arcane portal I’d opened in the basement of h that portal

I exhaled a shuddering breath, finally releasing my hold on the portal as I looked with no small amount of triumph at the massive des tucked along his back He had rehout my battle with the portal, and I silently thanked whatever powers existed that I had already sealed the terrin spread across hest of the twelve levels of demons

I was officially a full-fledged summoner

The sharp crack of rin shifted to a scowl A burglar Just great If I went upstairs to deal with the idiot, I would have to abandona reyza orth more than a feordly possessions Besides, my wordly possessions weren’t worth very much

But the demon snapped his head up at the sound “Sorowled, deep voice resonating powerfully through the baseive a response or command, the demon bounded up the heavy wooden stairs of h the door that exited into the main hallway of my house

“Son of a bitch!” I swiftly anchored the potency that I hadn’t yet grounded Well, so ered up the stairs after the deue that slowedso, but this was more than I’d expected

I heard a panicked shriek co from the front ofed to summon him Now can I control him? The shriek of terror abruptly spiraled upward as I lurched down the hall

“Kehlirik! No har the demon with my voice even as I exerted s

I rounded the corner to the living roorateful that my house was “cozy” instead of palatial I wasn’t sure if I could haveon my face Ia twelfth-level demon!

The de ainst therootip brushed the co and yank hiood idea when I still wasn’t certain if the demon would abide by my will

“You should let me slay him, summoner,” the de boulders He held his captive dangling above the floor with no apparent effort and no strain showing in his heavilys the color of burnished copper extending several s, the demon would have been forced to crouch aardly and tuck in his wings in order to fit Fortunately for him, my Acadian-style house had the traditional fifteen-foot ceilings designed for the subtropical clis helped keep houses cool