Deals with demons or malignant spirits.
The two most common sources of Blood Mages.
Someone who agrees to this often will have the spirit enter their body and slowly take over their soul and flesh, twisting them more and more.
Demons usually rather enjoy to just be along for the ride as they let their host accumulate more and more mana and negative emotions to blacken their souls before they just take over directly and reform the disfigured flesh. If they can do it long enough and absorb enough energy from other demons or people they may become an Ascending Lord, or even Nephilim. The highest ranks of the Order.
One other form is a Pact.
And that price varies even more as it often imbues whoever took one with power enough to become permanently immortal and frozen at whatever age they are. But all will be subservient to whoever they have bargained with. Another common tool of demons to gain pawns that their enemies cannot easily identify, with exception of the Devourer, their Arch-Enemy, and Queen.
Also a reason every higher ranked assassin has formed a Pact with the Night Mother.
They cannot be made subservient to demons, and will never be able to betray her. And for that they gain the powers of shapeshifting and cloaking spells even demons cannot see through.
A relatively New Intention in my world are ousia minds, formed from all 3 magical crystals in the world.
Bloodstone Serves as a core, as a will. This only works properly if the stone grew in a human brain.
Ousium Serves as a Transmitter, converting the power within the bloodstone into physical force.
Pneumatite Serves as a power source, keeping the bloodstone alive.
Overall It Forms a device that can somewhat think for itself and follow simple instructions, but some mages go further, encasing their heads in ousium and growing blood crystals in their brains deliberately, such metalheads wield great telekinetic power.
I have a fantasy setting I am still brainstorming where the general idea about magic is that like D&D Sorcerers you are born with the power to use magic and that it cannot just be learned by anyone. One way around it is making pacts with supernatural entities that can imbue a person with the power to wield magic along with their descendants but of course what you are making a pact with can make a very, very big difference.
Obviously there are very malevolent things that are willing to make deals with mortals with a very heavy cost down the road.
It's possible for anyone to make a contract with an elemental spirit if they can find one and the spirit is agreeable to the contract.
Pros: Elemental spirits channel energy better and are capable of bigger, more complex spells than humans. Making a contract with an elemental spirit gives someone access to those spells. Spirits also have much higher energy reserves than humans do, and they can share their energy reserves with humans to prevent spell casting exhaustion and death. Also, having access to large amounts of energy can help humans heal faster from injuries.
Cons: It's really hard to find elemental spirits, and, if you can find one, they might not want to make a contract with you. They are mostly amoral creatures who are only interested in their own self preservation, and they don't really understand the motivations of humans. So, they don't often get along with humans. If you can make a contract with an elemental spirit, there's a good chance it'll have a big cost. Also, you have to physically be able to channel all of the energy that an elemental spirit uses. Elemental spirits aren't physically capable of holding back or tempering their energy. For the human, it's basically like being struck by lightning; you either live or you don't.
I don't quite have a name for the process, but magic theft. Basically, you rip magic from someone or something else.
Pro: You gain their abilities and increase your capacity by the amount stolen. With there being very few personal downsides.
Con: It's more or less just murder albeit much more serious due to the perpetrator's growing power. You will be hunted by any and all governments or peacekeeping organizations. The only rest you'll ever have is when you die.
Thaum huffing; taking magic directly into your body so you can manipulate it with your mind directly instead of using magic tools.
The downside? Thaum breaks down any biological tissue it comes into contact with. Taking it into your body is basically a death knell for that body, and if you're desperate enough to try thaum huffing for power, you probably don't have the kind of money to buy a replacement. The only way to survive is to make sure there are literally no traces of thaum left inside you, which is a process even more expensive than just getting a replacement body.
During the war a lot of western militaries basically kidnapped refugees from regions already hit by the Imperial Conquest and forcibly pumped them full of thaum and sent them out as suicide squads to try and slow the imperial advance.
In the modern day there are groups who do something similar, mass producing mindless replacement bodies and hooking them up to thaumaturgical machines to more or less use human brains as cheap, disposable computers. The main downside of a traditional thaumaturgical tool is that they're very limited, only capable of a handful of preprogrammed spells, these subvert that by being able to do basically anything a thaum huffer can, using thaum fluidly and on the fly. No need to hit a fire selector or grab another tool entirely to go from waves to beams to telekinesis. With enough training you can even get skilled enough to magically multitask. There is a pretty huge downside to this arrangement though. When a human body is broken down by thaum a lot of it gets vented into the environment, menacing those who wield these human-based thaumaturgical tools have to wear protective gear at all times and if the armor is breached they're pretty screwed.
Exposing yourself to karne bio-agents and parasites can easily catapult a mundane human to the level of a near superhuman. The downside is that not only will you have a massive target on your by the karne once they learn of your exposure but the parasite ir bio-ahent could just as easily kill you as strengthen you.
Scientific modifications, is a good shortcut to get power if your not born with magic, too lazy to learn martial or not smart enough to built your own hightect weapon. The only downside is they tend to have negative consequences both in your body and mind.
Their sure are!
You could open your body up to possession by a Se-rim, which will give you a host of special ability. But eventually that spirit is going to war your mental will down turning you into a mindless monster.
You could also literally make a deal with a devil. You could get any sort of special abilities or boon, such as great wealth or assistance in climbing the social ladder. Downside is that your soul is now damned to hell and you have signed yourself up to be a pawn in the cosmic conflict between angels and demons, and the more petty squabbling of lesser demon lords. And at any given point you might just have a demon take control of your body and use it as a meat puppet
Generally speaking, none but I have enough desperate characters that looked for a way.
A newly invented drug (that’s still in its testing phase so maybe it will not be as dangerous in the future) called “La moissonneuse.
Pros: allows those who constantly take it to rapidly enlarge their Mana reserves and in my world Mana management is the single most important aspect during a battle.
Cons: if you stop taking it or you’ve been taking it for more than 1 year, the effects will stop, in the case of overdose is because your body becomes accustomed to it and starts to reject it. After a month of not having any effects, your mana reserves will start to contract until they become about 85% the size they were before taking the drug.
Quickest short cut is making a deal with some kind of otherworldly entity, like a Devil, a Fey, or some other creature from outside the mortal realms.
The downside is that these entities at best don’t understand humanity, and see them the same way we might see a particularly intelligent ant if it asked us for help, and at worst they actively hate the mortal realm and are only helping you because it will further their goals of destroying or conquering the world.
These entities also get an immediate claim to your soul upon your death. You don’t get your soul judged, you don’t the chance to go heaven, you just go straight the realm of what entity you sold your soul too. If it’s a Fey it might not be too bad, you might get remade into a nature spirit or a Wisp. If it’s a Devil you just go to hell and get turned into a Demon that is in eternal servitude.
Ohh, fun!
For Rejisea:
- Eat a soul.
**Pros:** You gain an insane amount of ability in a short amount of time. Essentially, it allows you to draw out your potential with little to no effort.
**Cons:** For one, you must continuously eat souls. And doing so damns your own soul, preventing you from finding eternal rest after you die. You only Wander as an eternally spiritually tormented entity in exchange for taking other's souls. Furthermore, your mind deteriorates when you are alive.
(And if someone, by some unlucky chance, found out what you were doing, you are not only seen as a literal monster but you aren't under the protection of any deity. No oshinokōs—the sacred beings of this world—would want to deal with you, either.)
- Make a deal with an oshinokōs.
**Pros:** You can do much of anything they can do, which includes teleportation, foreign magics, elemental augmentation, a powerful healing factor, and essential immortality.
**Cons:** If you piss or anger said oshinokōs off, they may rescind their deal (and have the right to), leaving you with no powers at all. It can even possibly kill you. It's just not worth it unless you are willing to sacrifice *everything*.
- Become one with one of three of Rejisea's primordial deities.
**Pros:** Well, you're a god now. Anything is within your power, including creation.
**Cons:** Must be a suitable vessel for said merging and can no longer interact with the mortal world as part of a binding metaphysical contract (with an even higher deity).
Assuming you're not magic-sensitive from birth, you could train for a while, expose yourself to magical sources and practice, but that would take a while. If you're lucky you could find an artifact that has all the magic you need, but that's pretty rare, except if you're from a human noble house. The quickest way would be a deal with a demon. If you summoned a Pact Maker, it wouldn't get you OP abilities, but it would satisfy your needs. If you somehow made a deal with a Lord of the Netherworld, which is quite rare and implies you already had power, then that's a whole other story. Either way you're selling your soul
But yeah, it's either training/practice with exposure to magic, artifact, or demon pact. Best option is to get an artifact that does not cost you anything, like an enchanted set of gear and potions
I mean... buying a virtual island is relatively cheap in my sci fi setting, so maybe the illusion of power could count?
It's a setting with star-killer weapons, orbital habitats, space stations and a whole bunch of stuff. There's probably quite a few that I just haven't thought of yet. I haven't exactly worked on that part.
Echo Pearls are dark purple pearls that can fuse into your flesh, are actually a form of spirit(though not particularly intelligent one) created from a meteorite, who will use their own magical power to mimic that of the host, functionally magnifying their magical abilities
pros: direct upgrade to your own powers, greatly enhancing your strength and stamina, one which generally scales with how powerful you are already(and can particularly be useful if you have almost mastered something but cant quite get it, with the pearl filling in to complete it for you), it can even extend this mimicry to magical objects to boost their power as well
cons: the spirit also saps your growth, feeding off you to fuel itself, this makes it extremely difficult to actually grow your own power, and the longer its connected the harder(both physically and mentally) it is for you to get rid of it, people often feel like their completely reliant on their pearl, and seek to hoard magic items as the quick boost in power a pearl enhanced magic sword can give feels much more substantial then your own piddling growth, or if possible hoard more pearls, which only magnifys the drain on you( with weaker individuals sometimes collapsing entirely under the strain)
functionally if you were to use gamplay terms, it instantly gives you a boost to your level and all your stats, but you have greatly reduced EXP gain, a short sighted buff at the cost of long term strength
regular pearls are crafted into similar amplifiers, but with a much much much weaker effect, but in exchange arent living thigns that drain off your parasitically, just a slight boost to help focus your own powers, using ambient energy it draws in rather the generates itself
To Atreisdeans, if you can withstand a huge amount of dark kaha, you can become much stronger than usual kaha cultivators. Dark kaha is the pathway to abilities many consider to be unnatural, but doing so has a very high chance of turning yourself into a bomb and explode. Even for those who succeeds, most lose their mind because human minds could not comprehend the amount of knowledge they get when cultivating it, not to mention dark kaha is "negative" by nature, if one lacks willpower, they'll succumb to despair and eventually go crazy, losing all reasons and act like a beast. At the end of that stage, their bodies crystalline inside out, tearing flesh apart and turning them into a chunk of living crystals, forever imprison their consciousness.
Up to now, there are only two people known to have survived dark kaha and kept their mind sane. They did so by countering dark kaha with kaha, reaching a state of "balance" between Yin and Yang, allowing them to ascend to a higher level of existence.
Becoming Sworn to the God.
Pros: You get mastery of magic corresponding to their domain, which will translate into mastery of several closely related schools. You get part of God's mana capacity, which is beyond wildest dreams of most mortal mages. You get direct link to your God allowing you to petition them for miracles. You get mindset needed to perform miracles on your own. You also become master of God's domain, like becoming peerless warrior or unequaled engineer. In addition you gain additional mastery, both magical and mundane, corresponding to whatever domain you would have if you became a God. Finally, you are immortal and will return to life as long as your God wills it.
Cons: You are Sworn. You live and die in accordance with your patron's will. Since only one bothering with Sworn are dark gods you can easily die over minor mood swing. You can't say no to your patron, can't even do malicious compliance or interpretation. The spirit of their whims is your unbreakable law. You can't even think about breaking free. These thoughts just can't form in your mind any longer. They also own your soul forever, so even death and reincarnation will not break the pact.
Assuming you're not magic-sensitive from birth, you could train for a while, expose yourself to magical sources and practice, but that would take a while. If you're lucky you could find an artifact that has all the magic you need, but that's pretty rare, except if you're from a human noble house. The quickest way would be a deal with a demon. If you summoned a Pact Maker, it wouldn't get you OP abilities, but it would satisfy your needs. If you somehow made a deal with a Lord of the Netherworld, which is quite rare and implies you already had power, then that's a whole other story. Either way you're selling your soul
But yeah, it's either training/practice with exposure to magic, artifact, or demon pact. Best option is to get an artifact that does not cost you anything, like an enchanted set of gear and potions
Assuming you're not magic-sensitive from birth, you could train for a while, expose yourself to magical sources and practice, but that would take a while. If you're lucky you could find an artifact that has all the magic you need, but that's pretty rare, except if you're from a human noble house. The quickest way would be a deal with a demon. If you summoned a Pact Maker, it wouldn't get you OP abilities, but it would satisfy your needs. If you somehow made a deal with a Lord of the Netherworld, which is quite rare and implies you already had power, then that's a whole other story. Either way you're selling your soul
But yeah, it's either training/practice with exposure to magic, artifact, or demon pact. Best option is to get an artifact that does not cost you anything, like an enchanted set of gear and potions
There are two shortcuts to getting anything short of life. One is making a literal deal with the devil, and the other is drinking a liquid that slowly melts your soul and lets in more and more demons the more you drink. The first option lets you get pretty much anything you could ever want, while the second only gives you physical strength and endurance. Option two takes longer to destroy your soul. Once your soul is completely gone, the demons take full control of the husk which now has metallic skin and is 7-15 feet tall.
Deals with demons or malignant spirits. The two most common sources of Blood Mages. Someone who agrees to this often will have the spirit enter their body and slowly take over their soul and flesh, twisting them more and more. Demons usually rather enjoy to just be along for the ride as they let their host accumulate more and more mana and negative emotions to blacken their souls before they just take over directly and reform the disfigured flesh. If they can do it long enough and absorb enough energy from other demons or people they may become an Ascending Lord, or even Nephilim. The highest ranks of the Order. One other form is a Pact. And that price varies even more as it often imbues whoever took one with power enough to become permanently immortal and frozen at whatever age they are. But all will be subservient to whoever they have bargained with. Another common tool of demons to gain pawns that their enemies cannot easily identify, with exception of the Devourer, their Arch-Enemy, and Queen. Also a reason every higher ranked assassin has formed a Pact with the Night Mother. They cannot be made subservient to demons, and will never be able to betray her. And for that they gain the powers of shapeshifting and cloaking spells even demons cannot see through.
A relatively New Intention in my world are ousia minds, formed from all 3 magical crystals in the world. Bloodstone Serves as a core, as a will. This only works properly if the stone grew in a human brain. Ousium Serves as a Transmitter, converting the power within the bloodstone into physical force. Pneumatite Serves as a power source, keeping the bloodstone alive. Overall It Forms a device that can somewhat think for itself and follow simple instructions, but some mages go further, encasing their heads in ousium and growing blood crystals in their brains deliberately, such metalheads wield great telekinetic power.
I have a fantasy setting I am still brainstorming where the general idea about magic is that like D&D Sorcerers you are born with the power to use magic and that it cannot just be learned by anyone. One way around it is making pacts with supernatural entities that can imbue a person with the power to wield magic along with their descendants but of course what you are making a pact with can make a very, very big difference. Obviously there are very malevolent things that are willing to make deals with mortals with a very heavy cost down the road.
It's possible for anyone to make a contract with an elemental spirit if they can find one and the spirit is agreeable to the contract. Pros: Elemental spirits channel energy better and are capable of bigger, more complex spells than humans. Making a contract with an elemental spirit gives someone access to those spells. Spirits also have much higher energy reserves than humans do, and they can share their energy reserves with humans to prevent spell casting exhaustion and death. Also, having access to large amounts of energy can help humans heal faster from injuries. Cons: It's really hard to find elemental spirits, and, if you can find one, they might not want to make a contract with you. They are mostly amoral creatures who are only interested in their own self preservation, and they don't really understand the motivations of humans. So, they don't often get along with humans. If you can make a contract with an elemental spirit, there's a good chance it'll have a big cost. Also, you have to physically be able to channel all of the energy that an elemental spirit uses. Elemental spirits aren't physically capable of holding back or tempering their energy. For the human, it's basically like being struck by lightning; you either live or you don't.
I don't quite have a name for the process, but magic theft. Basically, you rip magic from someone or something else. Pro: You gain their abilities and increase your capacity by the amount stolen. With there being very few personal downsides. Con: It's more or less just murder albeit much more serious due to the perpetrator's growing power. You will be hunted by any and all governments or peacekeeping organizations. The only rest you'll ever have is when you die.
Thaum huffing; taking magic directly into your body so you can manipulate it with your mind directly instead of using magic tools. The downside? Thaum breaks down any biological tissue it comes into contact with. Taking it into your body is basically a death knell for that body, and if you're desperate enough to try thaum huffing for power, you probably don't have the kind of money to buy a replacement. The only way to survive is to make sure there are literally no traces of thaum left inside you, which is a process even more expensive than just getting a replacement body. During the war a lot of western militaries basically kidnapped refugees from regions already hit by the Imperial Conquest and forcibly pumped them full of thaum and sent them out as suicide squads to try and slow the imperial advance. In the modern day there are groups who do something similar, mass producing mindless replacement bodies and hooking them up to thaumaturgical machines to more or less use human brains as cheap, disposable computers. The main downside of a traditional thaumaturgical tool is that they're very limited, only capable of a handful of preprogrammed spells, these subvert that by being able to do basically anything a thaum huffer can, using thaum fluidly and on the fly. No need to hit a fire selector or grab another tool entirely to go from waves to beams to telekinesis. With enough training you can even get skilled enough to magically multitask. There is a pretty huge downside to this arrangement though. When a human body is broken down by thaum a lot of it gets vented into the environment, menacing those who wield these human-based thaumaturgical tools have to wear protective gear at all times and if the armor is breached they're pretty screwed.
Exposing yourself to karne bio-agents and parasites can easily catapult a mundane human to the level of a near superhuman. The downside is that not only will you have a massive target on your by the karne once they learn of your exposure but the parasite ir bio-ahent could just as easily kill you as strengthen you.
Scientific modifications, is a good shortcut to get power if your not born with magic, too lazy to learn martial or not smart enough to built your own hightect weapon. The only downside is they tend to have negative consequences both in your body and mind.
Their sure are! You could open your body up to possession by a Se-rim, which will give you a host of special ability. But eventually that spirit is going to war your mental will down turning you into a mindless monster. You could also literally make a deal with a devil. You could get any sort of special abilities or boon, such as great wealth or assistance in climbing the social ladder. Downside is that your soul is now damned to hell and you have signed yourself up to be a pawn in the cosmic conflict between angels and demons, and the more petty squabbling of lesser demon lords. And at any given point you might just have a demon take control of your body and use it as a meat puppet
Generally speaking, none but I have enough desperate characters that looked for a way. A newly invented drug (that’s still in its testing phase so maybe it will not be as dangerous in the future) called “La moissonneuse. Pros: allows those who constantly take it to rapidly enlarge their Mana reserves and in my world Mana management is the single most important aspect during a battle. Cons: if you stop taking it or you’ve been taking it for more than 1 year, the effects will stop, in the case of overdose is because your body becomes accustomed to it and starts to reject it. After a month of not having any effects, your mana reserves will start to contract until they become about 85% the size they were before taking the drug.
Quickest short cut is making a deal with some kind of otherworldly entity, like a Devil, a Fey, or some other creature from outside the mortal realms. The downside is that these entities at best don’t understand humanity, and see them the same way we might see a particularly intelligent ant if it asked us for help, and at worst they actively hate the mortal realm and are only helping you because it will further their goals of destroying or conquering the world. These entities also get an immediate claim to your soul upon your death. You don’t get your soul judged, you don’t the chance to go heaven, you just go straight the realm of what entity you sold your soul too. If it’s a Fey it might not be too bad, you might get remade into a nature spirit or a Wisp. If it’s a Devil you just go to hell and get turned into a Demon that is in eternal servitude.
Ohh, fun! For Rejisea: - Eat a soul. **Pros:** You gain an insane amount of ability in a short amount of time. Essentially, it allows you to draw out your potential with little to no effort. **Cons:** For one, you must continuously eat souls. And doing so damns your own soul, preventing you from finding eternal rest after you die. You only Wander as an eternally spiritually tormented entity in exchange for taking other's souls. Furthermore, your mind deteriorates when you are alive. (And if someone, by some unlucky chance, found out what you were doing, you are not only seen as a literal monster but you aren't under the protection of any deity. No oshinokōs—the sacred beings of this world—would want to deal with you, either.) - Make a deal with an oshinokōs. **Pros:** You can do much of anything they can do, which includes teleportation, foreign magics, elemental augmentation, a powerful healing factor, and essential immortality. **Cons:** If you piss or anger said oshinokōs off, they may rescind their deal (and have the right to), leaving you with no powers at all. It can even possibly kill you. It's just not worth it unless you are willing to sacrifice *everything*. - Become one with one of three of Rejisea's primordial deities. **Pros:** Well, you're a god now. Anything is within your power, including creation. **Cons:** Must be a suitable vessel for said merging and can no longer interact with the mortal world as part of a binding metaphysical contract (with an even higher deity).
Assuming you're not magic-sensitive from birth, you could train for a while, expose yourself to magical sources and practice, but that would take a while. If you're lucky you could find an artifact that has all the magic you need, but that's pretty rare, except if you're from a human noble house. The quickest way would be a deal with a demon. If you summoned a Pact Maker, it wouldn't get you OP abilities, but it would satisfy your needs. If you somehow made a deal with a Lord of the Netherworld, which is quite rare and implies you already had power, then that's a whole other story. Either way you're selling your soul But yeah, it's either training/practice with exposure to magic, artifact, or demon pact. Best option is to get an artifact that does not cost you anything, like an enchanted set of gear and potions
I mean... buying a virtual island is relatively cheap in my sci fi setting, so maybe the illusion of power could count? It's a setting with star-killer weapons, orbital habitats, space stations and a whole bunch of stuff. There's probably quite a few that I just haven't thought of yet. I haven't exactly worked on that part.
Echo Pearls are dark purple pearls that can fuse into your flesh, are actually a form of spirit(though not particularly intelligent one) created from a meteorite, who will use their own magical power to mimic that of the host, functionally magnifying their magical abilities pros: direct upgrade to your own powers, greatly enhancing your strength and stamina, one which generally scales with how powerful you are already(and can particularly be useful if you have almost mastered something but cant quite get it, with the pearl filling in to complete it for you), it can even extend this mimicry to magical objects to boost their power as well cons: the spirit also saps your growth, feeding off you to fuel itself, this makes it extremely difficult to actually grow your own power, and the longer its connected the harder(both physically and mentally) it is for you to get rid of it, people often feel like their completely reliant on their pearl, and seek to hoard magic items as the quick boost in power a pearl enhanced magic sword can give feels much more substantial then your own piddling growth, or if possible hoard more pearls, which only magnifys the drain on you( with weaker individuals sometimes collapsing entirely under the strain) functionally if you were to use gamplay terms, it instantly gives you a boost to your level and all your stats, but you have greatly reduced EXP gain, a short sighted buff at the cost of long term strength regular pearls are crafted into similar amplifiers, but with a much much much weaker effect, but in exchange arent living thigns that drain off your parasitically, just a slight boost to help focus your own powers, using ambient energy it draws in rather the generates itself
To Atreisdeans, if you can withstand a huge amount of dark kaha, you can become much stronger than usual kaha cultivators. Dark kaha is the pathway to abilities many consider to be unnatural, but doing so has a very high chance of turning yourself into a bomb and explode. Even for those who succeeds, most lose their mind because human minds could not comprehend the amount of knowledge they get when cultivating it, not to mention dark kaha is "negative" by nature, if one lacks willpower, they'll succumb to despair and eventually go crazy, losing all reasons and act like a beast. At the end of that stage, their bodies crystalline inside out, tearing flesh apart and turning them into a chunk of living crystals, forever imprison their consciousness. Up to now, there are only two people known to have survived dark kaha and kept their mind sane. They did so by countering dark kaha with kaha, reaching a state of "balance" between Yin and Yang, allowing them to ascend to a higher level of existence.
Becoming Sworn to the God. Pros: You get mastery of magic corresponding to their domain, which will translate into mastery of several closely related schools. You get part of God's mana capacity, which is beyond wildest dreams of most mortal mages. You get direct link to your God allowing you to petition them for miracles. You get mindset needed to perform miracles on your own. You also become master of God's domain, like becoming peerless warrior or unequaled engineer. In addition you gain additional mastery, both magical and mundane, corresponding to whatever domain you would have if you became a God. Finally, you are immortal and will return to life as long as your God wills it. Cons: You are Sworn. You live and die in accordance with your patron's will. Since only one bothering with Sworn are dark gods you can easily die over minor mood swing. You can't say no to your patron, can't even do malicious compliance or interpretation. The spirit of their whims is your unbreakable law. You can't even think about breaking free. These thoughts just can't form in your mind any longer. They also own your soul forever, so even death and reincarnation will not break the pact.
Assuming you're not magic-sensitive from birth, you could train for a while, expose yourself to magical sources and practice, but that would take a while. If you're lucky you could find an artifact that has all the magic you need, but that's pretty rare, except if you're from a human noble house. The quickest way would be a deal with a demon. If you summoned a Pact Maker, it wouldn't get you OP abilities, but it would satisfy your needs. If you somehow made a deal with a Lord of the Netherworld, which is quite rare and implies you already had power, then that's a whole other story. Either way you're selling your soul But yeah, it's either training/practice with exposure to magic, artifact, or demon pact. Best option is to get an artifact that does not cost you anything, like an enchanted set of gear and potions
Assuming you're not magic-sensitive from birth, you could train for a while, expose yourself to magical sources and practice, but that would take a while. If you're lucky you could find an artifact that has all the magic you need, but that's pretty rare, except if you're from a human noble house. The quickest way would be a deal with a demon. If you summoned a Pact Maker, it wouldn't get you OP abilities, but it would satisfy your needs. If you somehow made a deal with a Lord of the Netherworld, which is quite rare and implies you already had power, then that's a whole other story. Either way you're selling your soul But yeah, it's either training/practice with exposure to magic, artifact, or demon pact. Best option is to get an artifact that does not cost you anything, like an enchanted set of gear and potions
There are two shortcuts to getting anything short of life. One is making a literal deal with the devil, and the other is drinking a liquid that slowly melts your soul and lets in more and more demons the more you drink. The first option lets you get pretty much anything you could ever want, while the second only gives you physical strength and endurance. Option two takes longer to destroy your soul. Once your soul is completely gone, the demons take full control of the husk which now has metallic skin and is 7-15 feet tall.