Lucas frowned. Even though part of him had already planned what to do to that old hag, seeing Layla speak so cheerfully about killing her own parents unsettled him in a way he didn't like.
There was something wrong with how light her voice sounded, how easy it all seemed to her.
"Alright. It's perfect," Layla said, clapping her hands once. "Let's see the Ars Goetia."
She moved toward the bed. "Help me move this."
Lucas nodded and ended up doing most of the work himself. When the bed shifted, he saw it. An old book hidden underneath, its cover etched with strange symbols that seemed to crawl when he looked too long.
Layla picked it up and handed it to him. "You need to be the one who summons her."
Lucas blinked. "What? Why me? Why not you? You're the one who wants the power."
Layla shrugged. "I learned from my mistake when I summoned Molok. Every demon has its own nature. Molok is infamous for demanding the sacrifice of children."
She tilted her head. "I forgot one detail. I should have burned the child instead of killing her first."
Lucas swallowed hard. "You really killed your sister? I heard she was just injured."
"Oh, she's dead," Layla replied lightly. "I don't know what's inside her body now." She chuckled, as if she were talking about a broken toy.
"You're really sick in the head," Lucas muttered.
Layla smirked. "Aren't we the same? You're here for the same reason I am." Her eyes narrowed. "Don't act holier than me just because you're a victim."
She pointed at the book. "Now move and read."
The Ars Goetia was infamous. A book said to contain the names of devils from the abyss and the rituals to summon them. Even Lucas, someone who never followed any religion, had heard of it.
Most versions were fake. The instructions were wrong, deliberately so. If even half of them worked, the world would already be in ruins.
But this book felt different.
The moment he touched it, Lucas felt something crawl under his skin. The texture of the cover was wrong.
The texture feels almost like leather, but not quite. Like it had been made from skin that did not belong to any animal he knew.
"It's real," Layla said calmly, sitting on the bed. "My father bought it at an auction. Highest bid. It was found in the tomb of the prophet Somes."
"Who?"
She sighed. "You're not religious, are you? Somes was assigned to spread religion in this part of the world. The hardest region."
She swung her legs lightly. "No one knows why the book ended up in his tomb. But I summoned Molok with it, and now something is living inside my sister's body."
"So… it's real," Lucas said slowly. "Just not specific enough."
Layla hummed in agreement, as if she hadn't just admitted to murder and possession.
Lucas opened the book.
Pain flared across his palm. He hissed and nearly dropped it, but the empty pages began to burn on their own.
Fire traced symbols across the paper, forming a pentagram as the book flipped by itself, stopping on a page marked with a single name.
Asmodei.
"Oh," Layla said, standing up with a wide grin. "That's new."
She leaned closer, clearly pleased. "Looks like my precognition was right after all."
"About you getting revenge?" Lucas asked.
"No," she replied. "About you being chosen by Asmodei." She crossed her arms, then looked down at the glowing page.
"I read everything already. I followed the instructions exactly. Even the pentagram belongs to Asmodei."
Her gaze sharpened as she looked back at him.
"But since you're the one chosen, some things will be different. Don't just read it, Lucas." She paused. "Understand it."
Lucas read slowly, word by word, page by page. Layla had been right about the pentagram.
It had to be drawn using the corpse of the tainted, a person despised deeply enough that even death felt like justice rather than loss.
His throat tightened as he continued reading.
Asmodei was described as a devil with three heads, a chimera of wrath, lust, and destruction. According to the text, the sacrifice had to reflect that nature. Three faces.
Lucas glanced toward Jordan's corpse, his mind racing. How was he supposed to give a dead man three faces?
Then something clicked.
He remembered the cafeteria. The gossip he overheard when nurses and doctors gathered to eat, laughing too loudly because they never noticed him sitting nearby.
He had been invisible then. So invisible that they never bothered to lower their voices.
"I heard a patient got pregnant."
"Oh god, don't tell me it's Jordan again."
"What's his excuse this time?"
"He'll just pressure her into an abortion. His father's the hospital director anyway. What can the guardian do?"
"Especially when the woman's mute. No one will dare say anything."
"At least we'll get our bonus again."
They had laughed.
Lucas closed the book slowly. The memory burned hotter than the ritual fire.
This hospital really was full of demons wearing human skins.The patients didn't deserve to be sacrificed. They were broken, abandoned, forgotten.
The staff, on the other hand, were a different story.
"What is it, Lucas?" Layla asked, tilting her head lazily. "Hesitating again? Be a man and get a hold of yourself."
Lucas exhaled and shook his head. She was right. Hesitation had brought him nothing but suffering.
If he wanted revenge for his parents, if he wanted his house and his life back, then he couldn't afford to stop now.
An idea settled into place.
Three faces didn't have to mean carving a man's face into three pieces.
It could mean the face Jordan showed to society. The charming doctor, the director's son.
The face he wore when committing sin, hidden behind locked doors and silence.
And the face reflected in the eyes of his victims.
All three had to be offered to Asmodei.
Lucas stepped forward. "Layla. You have a knife, right?"
She nodded without hesitation. "I'll help. Just say the word."
He leaned closer and whispered his plan.
Layla's eyes widened slightly before her lips curled into a grin.
"Oh, you're smarter than I thought."
She glanced at the corpse again. "It's risky and tricky. But it's a bet worth taking."
Her smile faded just a little as she added, "Asmodei is stronger than I expected. This ritual isn't as simple as I thought."
She looked back at Lucas, her expression suddenly serious.
"You need to be ready. Once this starts, there's no turning back. You could die tonight if you're careless." She paused. "And if it happens, you'll be alone. I won't be able to save you."
Layla stepped closer.
"Power demands a price, Lucas. And to become a vessel for something like Asmodei, you'll need more than anger. You'll need sanity strong enough to survive it."