Book 2: Chapter 105: Live or Die and True Name
"What are you?!" Sheelda screamed as her mind raced. 'He feels like a C-ranker but my attacks are doing nothing to his armour!'
That shouldn't have been possible. Sure, she had earned most of her levels and rank-ups peacefully, but she could still best nigh almost any C-ranker in existence just based on the stat difference alone.
Hell, even most B-rankers didn't stand a chance against her unless they were hyper-combat-oriented. It was only when it came to A-rankers that was she likely to lose a fight.
This wasn't even a fight. This was a one-sided beatdown but the victim was acting like a toddler was slapping him, not a powerful S-ranker.
Sheelda felt certain that even if she had her trusted warhammer with her, it, too, would struggle to damage this creature offering her a deal.
"I'm the motherfucker your stupid scripture wants you to kill. That seems pretty obvious to me," the bone-covered foxkin answered.
His calmness reminded her of the Arch Devil and that terrified her. As she rained blow after blow pointlessly upon him, she asked, "What do you mean you can remove the scripture?! You're just going to die for me?!"
"No, don't be stupid. I plan to use a unique skill to rewrite your soul, removing the scripture. This will extend the seal on my magic for, oh, fuck, months? It better fuckin' be just months. If it's years, I'll make the contract even worse than Hamish's," The foxkin said, not making a lick of sense.
"What're you even saying?" Sheelda asked in confusion. "Unique skill? You expect me to believe you're a summoned hero?"
Of course, she could see the writing on the wall. A unique skill would explain how she wasn't harming him even slightly. It would also make sense of the fact a C-ranked human was able to effortlessly capture and kidnap her.
Under his ridiculously powerful armour, the foxkin sighed. "I don't expect you to believe anything. You have two choices. One, you do what I say and live. Two, you keep attacking me pointlessly and die when the scripture magic realises it is impossible for you to end my life. Why does it even want me dead anyway? I can tell it relates to Ewan at the very least but that's about it."
'Why is he so calm?! How does he know about Arch Devil Zel, the Seventh King of all Demonkin?!' Sheelda mentally screamed. 'What the fook is goin' on?!'
First, she got ripped from her office by a human woman in fullplate armour. She was then immediately wrapped in a seemingly unbreakable magical barrier before she was teleported countless times.
She had escaped her magical confines twice after immense effort only to be recaptured instantly by a lowly human C-ranker. After three days of sleepless and foodless travel, she was deposited at the feet of the beastkin her bindings had decided needed to die.
And now what? now the man was apparently claiming to be able to free her and somehow knew of her deal with an Arch Devil and how it had tricked her.
The real question at the forefront of her mind, however, wasn't about this foxkin's abilities or apparently unkillable status.
No. The most pressing question was: did she want to put her faith in the man she had attempted to have killed three times now over the faith she had placed in an Arch Devil?
"Explain. How can you help me?" At this point, Sheelda would do anything to free herself of the inevitable death that seemed to be waiting just around the corner for her.
'She's not a high chancellor for no reason,' Lone thought. 'Even though she's hungry, exhausted, stressed out, and so close to death's door, she's wise enough to at least listen to my offer since all other paths lead to dead ends.'
"I have many unique skills," he said. "One is what makes me so hard to kill. Another allows me to create unbreakable, unbendable, unavoidable contracts. The most important one right now is a unique type of magic. It lets me create anything that has, does, or could, exist on Altros."
Sheelda's eyes widened as she processed Lone's words. While she punched his armoured face, she said, "You can change my body to be one without a contract?"
"Your soul, more accurately, but yes, I can," he replied.
"How? You have no MP. I can feel it even now. You're just an ordinary C-ranker with no awakened mana organs," Sheelda pointed out.
Lone shook his head dismissively. "The skill seals my MP if I use more than I have. The time varies based on how much I overdraft. I can forcefully use it though with a mana orb as a conduit. It does extend the seal which is a huge negative I'm willing to burden in this instance."
Lone raised one of his armoured hands and put up two fingers. "These are your options. First, the one I think will ultimately benefit us both: agree to a lot of things that'll help me and I'll make sure you live. Second, and fuckin' stupid, but I'm nothing if not an advocate for choice: keep attacking me until the scripture eventually kills you. I can sit here for days and it doesn't impact me negatively if you expire on your own. I'm sure that'll fuck Zel over royally, and while I'm not keen to make an enemy out of an Arch Devil, he is forbidden from interacting with me outside of a questioning session, so I'll deal with it if you choose option number two."
"I obviously don't want to die," Sheelda answered. "What kind of things would I need to agree to?"
Lone reached into his Dimensional Storage and pulled out a contract he had finished preparing two days ago.
Contract of Survival Guarantee and Extended Cooperation
Participants: Lone Immortus | Sheelda McStuderson.
Terms:
Lone Immortus will recreate Sheelda McStuderson's body to be free of any and all lingering magical effects, including but not limited to scripture magic, unwanted contract magic, and any hidden demonic bindings. Lone Immortus shall also consider Sheelda McStuderson to be a valued companion so as to include her within the protection of his contract with the being commonly referred to as the Seventh King of all Demonkin, Arch Devil Zel.
Sheelda McStuderson will provide Lone Immortus with a full list of every single skill that she is aware exists. Sheelda McStuderson will use all skills she owns that can be used on a target on Lone Immortus. Sheelda McStuderson will inform Lone Immortus of Arch Devil Zel's true name (this will happen before anything else in the contract). Sheelda McStuderston will use her full influence as a high chancellor of the greater council to push for equal rights for all species within the Farwinds.
This contract is existence-binding and cannot be broken, tampered with, or evaded.
This contract is eternal.
Intended Contract Level: 1
Required Contract Level: 2
Signed: Lone Immortus
Signed:
Considering she was busy trying to end Lone's life, it took Sheelda a good five minutes to actually finish reading the contract's details. Lone immediately recognised the confused look on her face so he began listing off his pre-loaded answers before she could even ask anything of him.
"The companion bit is to stop Zel from killing you the second you're away from me. I can learn skills very easily and currently have well over a hundred, so that's why those two conditions are on your side. I need his name for leverage. Don't worry about it, you'll still forget it once your scripture magic is gone. I know that's what you have over him because what the fuck else could an S-ranker offer to an Arch Devil to get them to act? The equality thing is because its fuckin' dumb that you idiotic dwarves are letting yourselves slowly die to the eldritch monstrosities below when there's a whole continent of able-bodied fighters above you. Independence does not always equal strength. I wanted the contract to be as weak as possible - which is still eternal and unbreakable, by the way - but it seems the number of clauses and matters pertaining to such a powerful being forced it up to being a level two one. Thankfully that level is off cooldown. Now, do you wanna live or die? If the former, sign your name with your blood," Lone rapid-fire explained.
The exhausted S-ranker looked confused and overwhelmed. She asked, "... Are you a devil too?"
Lone looked right into her eyes and calmly replied, "Do you want to live, or do you want to die?"
The seventh king of all demonkin flipped his desk as he stormed to his feet.
"There is no world in which I allow my true name to be transmitted to yet another mortal when I'm this close to freeing myself of that burden!" he screamed as summoned up his infernal powers to create a portal to the mortal plane this very instant.
"Infernal Gateway!" Nothing happened.
He had said the correct words and gestured perfectly. His power reserves had even dipped appropriately as if to indicate the skill had worked.
"Really?!" he yelled before trying again. "Infernal Gateway!"
Once more, nothing changed in his humble study except his power reserves dipping even further. "How?! How can a mere unique skill bar my entry to the mortal plane?! I will accept any backlash that comes with breaking the terms! Allow me passage to erase those arrogant mortals right this instant!"
Nothing answered his cries. With no other choice, he anxiously split his consciousness once more to watch Lone and Sheelda.
For perhaps the first time in his life, Zel prayed to whoever might be listening that something might happen. Anything, really. He just wanted the contract between the two mortals to never be established.
Now alone in the camp, Lone looked down at his hand as he clenched and unclenched it, fascination plain to see on his expression.
He didn't even so much as twitch when a fiery doorway from hell appeared next to him and a black-skinned many-horned demon stepped out of it and took a seat next to him.
"Were you watching?" Lone asked.
"I was," Zel replied, his pure red eyes drifting down to look at Lone's hand as well. "You did well to outplay an Arch Devil. Was it worth it?"
"I don't know, you'll need to be more specific," Lone replied. "Are you upset?"
"Yes, very," Zel stated, anger spewing forth from both words. "Was it worth making an enemy out of an Arch Devil when all you needed to do was kill one dwarf to avoid that?"
"You made yourself my enemy, not the other way around. I would be perfectly happy never interacting with you ever again, but if you want to die, I won't try to stop you from throwing yourself atop my blade. Considering what I got out of all of this and what little you can do to me, yes, it was worth it," Lone answered. "Were you able to kill her?"
A look of indescribable rage consumed Zel's face. "No. I cannot even approach her as she is now your 'companion'. Laughable that a unique skill can enforce such a relationship."
'So an Arch Devil's rules can supersede specific effects of certain unique skills? That wasn't in the book at all. Good to know True Contract Magic is powerful enough to override that. Maybe because of my and Soph's particular situation with the god that summoned us?' Lone wondered.
"Why do you think you can kill me? Even had you the ability, your contract forbids you just as it does for me when killing you," Zel asked.
Lone shook his head, still clenching and unclenching his fist slowly. "My faith stems from the same origin as yours. You did notice the loophole I left in the contract for this, right?"
"Of course I did, but if you think your companions can ever kill me, then you are a fool. What will you do now?" Zel asked.
"Serve my sentence, reclaiming urds and kriegs as I wait for my mana organs to unseal," Lone answered. "If you asked an Emperor Devil or Omni Devil to kill me for you, would they?"
"No. I don't have the right to meet such lofty beings," Zel stated, hatred accompanying his words. "What are you doing with your hand?"
"Imagining your neck being placed within it," Lone answered emotionlessly. "How exactly do you plan to kill me and were you me, how would you overcome your own plans?"
Zel remained perfectly silent for ten seconds and then vanished through a portal, returning to wherever it was he came from.
Lone smirked. He clenched his fist hard enough to draw his own blood before he whispered, "You should have killed me when you had the chance, Tidsear g."
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