Going over the terms of a contract was essential regardless of how tempting the offer may have been. Who the hell would just sign off without even doing that?
Leo looked the three sections over and over, making sure he understood what he'd just been told. In particular, the first and last section caught his attention a little too much.
To start off with, the terms of the contract only now just hit him, for real this time, not the dreamy trance he was under when he first signed off. His brain was nearly melting with heat as he realised the thing that weighed down on his heart was nothing over than the contract bind, everything that happened wasn't some bad dream, it was all real!
'The fifteen continents...'
His face started to sweat profusely, a feverish feeling overcame him as he lost the strength in his muscle to even speak or stand.
'That means — Medius too...'
That's right, not only did he have to eliminate every single monarch on the fifteen continets, but he had to also eliminate the supreme ruler of the Medius Empire. A being described as a demi god, and often times described as 'the one closest to the gods'. The ruler of Medius was nothing short of extraordinary, it is said their rule is undisputable, the royal court describes this person as one of greatest authority.
But despite that, even if he could reach the level where he could defeat the fifteen continets, Medius' ruler was not someone reachable by normal means.
'The ruler of Medius never shows themselves... not even to the public or their closest advisors. The only way their rule is enforced is through the court and their subordinates, the royal family is really just a really privileged group able to succeed the emperor, only some of the royals are part of the direct line of descent.'
The direct line simply refers to the longest living line of the royals, as long as that line is kept alive, regardless of who is emepror, the sucession will almost always end up back in their hands. The current Emperor was one such person.
But that's what bugged Leo, not only was the emperor this enigmatic figure hardly accessible by even the top authority in the empire, but as a direct descendant they held and passed down the devastating architecture, the Heralds Sun, which was the biggest problem of them all. The only thing known about it was that it was one of the fundamental architectures, one of the scarce few that did not have a magical counterpart.
So in a sense, there was no way for Leo to possibly prepare for something like that. Going in there without something at least five times stronger would be almost certain suicide.
'I can't back out of it now, can I?'
There was no one to answer that anymore, the runes had long left his side. And that's what brought him to the third section, completely dismissing the second as it didn't tell him much other than what he already knew, though the time limit was useful to know. And using its words, Leo couldn't help but wonder to himself.
'Does that mean Luna can live for another fifteen years without a cure? That has to be it... surely.'
It didn't make sense for that not to be the case, otherwise how could the rewards be given out? Either way, his attention drew to the third section, detailing the enrgaving on his hand that hed been so desperately trying to decipher this whole time.
'A measuring tool, huh.'
He looked at it intensely, caressing the pits drawn across his hand as he got a feel for the texture.
'Measures enemy power and attack danger? So that's what that was... six of them must be the most dangerous, and one or none are low danger. It all makes sense now! The names, the numbers, this thing on my hand. They're all measurements of something.'
A quite interesting tool, one Leo had never heard of. By the looks of it, it could measure any property of an object, but it also seemed to have its limitations – as implied by the letter sent from the caster. Though, there were still some parts to be uncovered by himself. For example, what exactly did the prowess measurement... well, measure?
'Is it a rank? Going up or down? Does it mean how much magic something has? Maybe a bigger number means stronger...'
At his current level Leo wasn't in much of a position to uncover all of its secrets, just as the letter had decreed – all will be revealed in due time. However, his current questions could all be easily answered as he recalled his encounter with them.
'It has to be a rank, one being the strongest and anything higher gets weaker. The eagle wasn't as strong as the wolf and their numbers are very different. Hmm...'
Again, his lacking qualities couldn't affirm it at this time, but this deduction made sense and there was no time to ponder further, if anything this was a good deduction that could help him – as the letter said – 'pick his battles wisely'. Only as long as his guess is somewhat right.
Then there was the issue of activation. Since he completely lacked magic affinity, and a source at that, there was no way for him to activate this tool in any meaningful way, unless he spent hours on end gathering residue magic from the air.
In reality, magic or architectures didn't really need a source to function, because the universe itself was a source all around. But that was slow and tedious to work with, in a practical scenario, only after hours of background gathering could a basic spell be cast, and even the most basic architectures required at least 2x the essence to function once.
Sources acted as a catalyst, one that would speed up the process drastically, and when all was done and finished, it would dissipate into space, sometimes adding to the magic present in the air, and often times disappearing in the depths of the deep dark void.
Of course some were more gifted than others, being able to gather magic in a matter of minutes and sometimes seconds. But that didn't change the fact that a source was still the best of the two. Even if someone could gather all the magic in the air, it would all eventually run out. Either way, a person of that talent more than likely could afford a source dense enough to carry in their pocket where gathering would become obsolete.
For our dear Leo however, he sat nowhere on this scale. He was so laughably bad at it that the scale didn't even hold a level so low. That's why his architecture could never activate. But there was still hope, because despite him having hardly any magic to his disposal, the sword sure was radiating a hell of a lot of it.
Even at this very moment the two rivers were clashing togheter, so before he had to place some sand over the two, he got one last idea before it happened.
'Let's see how well it can "measure".'
Hunched over on his sword, Leo straightened himself out as he began walking over to the memory whirling on the floor. His idea was quite simple, using the magic from the two sides clashing, he would use that as the catalyst of activation.
Feeling the energy course up his arm he held his sword forward along with his hand, up to this point the writings did the work for him, but now it was time for Leo to learn its functions.
In his mind the same incantation recited as the one he used to gather magic, but in this one, instead of repeating the whole thing, only the end was spoken:
"... then praise the king of the world!"
An incomplete incantation!
Spark, spark!
Electricity pummeled the air as a huge sum of energy left his hand, in turn flowing through his hand and activating the tool that sat on it's surface.
'It worked!'
Since Leo could not control any of the essence flowing through his body, he resorted to a dangerous technique. One which was even a technique, rather a failure of one. When any incantation failed, a tax would be enforced on the body equivalent to the spells complexity and product. But because Leo was so awful at it, that tax was incredibly small. As a result, enough energy leaked out to activate the tool, which seemed like it didn't require a lot to begin with.
Cryptic writings flew far and away, enveloping the dear memory sat on the floor. His eyes went large in awe, he couldn't believe it, it actually worked. But what was more important, was what spelled out infront of him:
[Memory of a Puppet and it's Master]
[Circular Memory]
[A memory digged from a land far away, one so distant its mere usher is said to be comforting.
A grotesque twist of fate, the body of a beast and the brain of a worm. These parasitic worms instilled fear in every being they came across. A long and ancient line of monster that preyed on anything and anyone, eventually being eradicated by one particular kingdom in the age of ancients.
Their memory long forgotten and their traces no longer found, their extinction brought the world's first recorded age of peace.]