“A contract?”
I chuckled.
It was not a bad proposition.
I had offered no sacrifices and worshiped no Evil God.
Yet a Demon—a high-ranking demon far above a Devil—was offering me a contract of his own accord.
For someone in my current position, there could hardly be a better opportunity....
“I refuse.”
And yet, I was not interested.
I had absolutely no intention of pledging my soul to a mere Samigina.
“Instead, how about making a wager with me?”
I raised my right hand as I spoke.
What? A wager?
“That’s right, a wager. If you win, I’ll give you my soul without any conditions. But if I win, you’ll surrender everything you possess to me.”
What? Khahahaha!
Samigina threw his mouth wide open and laughed.
His jawbone rattled loudly.
You continue to spout absurdities! You would challenge me, Samigina, who governs the dead and holds dominion over life and death? A mere human?
‘What unbearable arrogance.’
A mere demon had the audacity to speak as though he granted death itself.
I clicked my tongue inwardly and waved my hand impatiently.
“So, are you doing it or not?”
Very well.... Your soul is valuable enough to wager over.
As though agreeing with him, the donkey beneath Samigina gave a low cry.
What shall we wager on? In my generosity, I will allow you to choose.
“Fine. I’ll decide.”
‘Got him.’
I celebrated inwardly.
There was no way I could lose this wager.
When it came to demons, there was no human who knew more than I did.
“How about a riddle?”
Samigina gave an impressed exclamation.
Do you understand what that entails?
“Of course.”
A riddle.
It was the most basic form of contest used when wagering with a demon.
‘A riddle is exactly what it sounds like. One side asks a question, and the other has to give the correct answer.’
The question had to possess a definite answer, and that answer could not be something absurd or unreasonable.
That was precisely why the game was usually overwhelmingly advantageous to demons.
How could a human possibly defeat a demon that had lived for hundreds—no, thousands—of years in a contest of knowledge?
‘Under ordinary circumstances, that is.’
Very well. How many questions?
“One.”
You intend to defeat me, Samigina, with a single question?
Samigina opened his jaw again and burst into laughter.
Amusing. How very amusing! No matter how I consider it, there is simply no possibility of you defeating me!
CLOP. CLOP.
The donkey carrying Samigina slowly circled me.
Humans were the same in ancient times as they are now. They believe the knowledge they possess encompasses the entire world. Arrogant creatures. Arrogant beyond measure.
Tiny flames appeared like hoofprints wherever the donkey stepped.
I acknowledge your talent and the quality of your soul.... But even you cannot escape the limitations of that tiny vessel called humanity. From this moment onward, you will spend your life regretting your arrogance and your foolish choice.
Samigina stopped directly before me.
Who will ask the question?
“I will.”
Very well.
I grinned.
He was a skeleton and had no expression, but I could still tell.
Samigina was absolutely convinced he would win.
‘Things won’t go the way you expect.’
There was one thing he could never know.
But I did.
“Baal.”
What?
The flames inside Samigina’s eye sockets flickered.
“Baal’s contract conditions. That is my question.”
……!
Samigina’s jaw parted slightly.
You can’t answer that, can you?
Demons did not know the contract conditions of demons ranked above themselves.
Even if they possessed all the knowledge in the world, that alone remained beyond them.
‘I’m certain.’
Maurva himself had written it down.
And Baal was a peerless Great Demon.
No matter how powerful a Demon Samigina might be, there was no way he knew the terms of Baal’s contracts.
Only Black Mages personally chosen by Baal could know them.
CLATTER!
Samigina’s jawbone violently rattled.
Khahahahaha!
A booming laugh erupted along with the clattering of bone.
So you knew that I do not know Baal’s contract conditions. But you know one thing and remain ignorant of another!
Samigina pointed a skeletal finger at me.
One of the rules of a riddle is that the one asking the question must know its answer! But only those chosen by Baal know the terms of his contracts! And....
Samigina released a long breath before speaking in a low voice.
You have never contracted with any demon. In your desperation to create a question I could not answer, you asked one whose answer you do not know yourself, you fool!
Samigina radiated triumph.
I merely tilted my head.
“So you’re saying you don’t know the answer?”
Hmph. I do not. But that is no longer relevant. The first rule is that you must ask a question whose answer you know. Now, your soul will.... Hmm?
Certain of his victory, Samigina reached out his right hand to seize my soul.
At that moment, the Contract Circle beneath my feet lit up, and white smoke surged upward.
The smoke slowly began wrapping around Samigina’s body.
……!
“Seems pretty relevant to me.”
Samigina raised his right hand and stared down at it.
Violet energy began surging from his entire body and flowing toward me.
* I-impossible! That human knows Baal’s contract conditions?! This—this cannot be!
Samigina roared in horror.
Something is wrong! This is wrong...!
He could not finish.
The donkey’s legs had already begun dissolving into violet smoke and flowing toward me.
“…….”
I had demanded everything Samigina possessed.
His soul.
His power.
His Demonic Energy.
Every last part of him.
And at this very moment, all of Samigina was flowing into me.
‘Now it begins.’
I focused my mind.
I had realized it the instant Samigina’s power first entered me.
This was far too much power for my current soul to endure.
“……!”
Sure enough, pain struck me as though a thousand needles had pierced every part of my body at once.
‘I have to endure it...!’
My soul’s stature was still too low for me to absorb all of Samigina’s power.
Even if the spiritual stature from my previous life remained with me, I was still nothing more than a human.
‘Far too insignificant to contain the full power of a Demon.’
But that did not mean there was no solution.
I needed to make Samigina’s soul settle within me first.
Rather than focusing on his power, absorbing his soul had to take priority.
Once his soul had settled, I would be able to accept the power without overburdening myself.
Besides, he had already lost the wager.
The contract had determined that he would be bound to me.
“…….”
I concentrated with everything I had.
I could not allow myself to be consumed by either the pain or the overwhelming power.
You! Give it back! How—how did you...?!
Apparently realizing that his soul itself was being devoured, Samigina screamed.
Ignoring him, I began carefully separating his soul from his power.
‘The soul comes first.’
I delicately divided Samigina’s soul and power.
At first, the resistance was violent.
Gradually, however, it began to stabilize.
‘Good. This is going well.’
If I continued slowly separating them, then absorbed only the soul—
* Give it back!
“……!”
At Samigina’s roar, the soul and power I had been separating convulsed.
‘Damn it.’
Separating a soul and its power while both were pouring into me at once required extraordinary precision.
But Samigina was resisting the contract itself.
‘So a Demon really is still a Demon...?’
A contract was not something one could resist so easily.
Magic functioned according to the great laws governing this world.
Black Magic was no exception.
‘Damn...!’
I focused harder.
His resistance was far stronger than I had anticipated.
* Kgh...!
Samigina was probably suffering even more than I was.
He was simultaneously resisting me and the laws of the world.
Yet even suppressing that tiny act of defiance was pushing me to my limit.
‘Damn it. Is this as far as I can go?’
I could not continue.
I was no longer confident that I could overcome Samigina’s resistance.
But Samigina himself seemed incapable of resisting any further.
His soul and power remained half-separated, locked in a stalemate.
‘Then I only have one option!’
My original plan had been to absorb his soul completely, raise my own spiritual stature, and then wield Samigina’s power as my own.
Of course, I was still inexperienced and would not immediately be capable of using everything he possessed.
But once my soul’s stature had increased, absorbing the rest of his power would merely be a matter of time.
However, completely absorbing his soul was currently impossible.
‘Which leaves only one method.’
I would bind Samigina’s soul and power together, intact, directly to my own soul.
If I did that, I would still be able to use a certain amount of Samigina’s authority and Demonic Energy.
But they would not truly become my own powers.
They would remain Samigina’s power, merely subordinated to me.
And furthermore....
‘Samigina’s consciousness will remain.’
Once subordinated, he would have no choice but to obey my orders.
But that did not mean he could not resist.
If I ever became weak enough, he might sever the bond and escape.
In the worst case, a liberated Samigina could turn around and kill me instead.
But I had no other choice.
And I certainly had no intention of letting him go.
* How dare you! How dare a mere human do this to me!
Samigina began resisting even more violently.
I immediately circulated every trace of Demonic Energy that had entered me before his resistance began.
It was barely more than a speck compared to his full power, but it was enough to cast the Black Magic I intended to use.
‘Stigma.’
An indelible brand carved directly onto the soul.
Originally, it was Black Magic used by one human to subjugate another human’s soul.
But I intended to use it to subjugate a demon’s.
* ……!
A crimson brand ignited across my body.
At the same time, a magic circle appeared over my chest, depicting a pentagram behind an inverted cross.
* No... You cannot...!
With that final scream, the exact same symbol branded itself onto Samigina’s forehead.
Proof that the Black Magic had activated successfully.
* ……!
Samigina froze with his jaw hanging open.
The flames in his eyes, which had seemed as though they would burn forever, slowly faded.
CRACK. CRACK!
Countless fractures spread across Samigina’s body like a spiderweb.
“...It’s over.”
FLASH!
With those final words, Samigina shattered into countless fragments that dispersed into particles of light.
“At last...!”
Prochi’s eyes trembled uncontrollably.
Even the final sacrifice had been prepared.
“At last, I can contract with Lord Samigina...!”
CRACKLE.
“Hmm?”
At the crucial moment when the demon would soon arrive, flames suddenly flared around the Crystal Orb carefully displayed in one corner of the room.
The corner of Prochi’s right eye twitched.
“Of all times....”
Prochi muttered under his breath and glanced toward the Summoning Circle.
Summoning a demon required time.
And the higher the demon’s rank, the longer the process took.
The Summoning Circle was engulfed in violet radiance, with Kano floating at its center.
“There should still be time.”
If Prochi had been free to do as he pleased, he would have remained prostrated before the formation until the demon manifested.
Unfortunately, he could not.
That Crystal Orb carried a message from ‘them’—the ones who had led him onto the path of a Black Mage.
Prochi slowly approached the Crystal Orb, raised his right hand, and infused it with mana.
HUM—
The Crystal Orb vibrated.
Then someone’s voice emerged.
[Was the summoning successful?]
“……Yes. He will soon descend upon this land. I’ll contact you again once the contract has been completed.”
[…I see. Do not forget. It was we who granted someone incapable of properly contracting with even a single Evil the opportunity to contract with a Demon.]
“I know.”
Prochi answered without so much as blinking.
Of course he knew.
Samigina would not lend his power unless someone with magical talent was offered as a sacrifice.
Prochi had not initially pursued talented people for that specific purpose, but demons naturally coveted souls of high spiritual value.
And so, Prochi had spent years pretending to be a virtuous man, discovering talented individuals, accepting them as disciples, harvesting their souls, and eventually earning entry into an organization of Black Mages.
[Contact us when the contract is complete. All for the Fractured Faith.]
“...All for the Fractured Faith.”
Prochi murmured quietly.
The light within the Crystal Orb went out with a flash.
“Bastards who do nothing but doubt everyone.”
Without changing his expression, Prochi muttered to himself and walked back toward the Summoning Circle.
“……!”
His eyes widened.
The light had faded.
The Summoning Circle had burned, filling the chamber with thick smoke.
And in its center, a child floated silently in midair.
“Ohhh...!”
Prochi staggered toward him and fell to his knees.
This was the moment the demon descended.
But what unfolded before his eyes was nothing like what he had expected.
Tap.
Kano’s body, which had been floating in the air as a sacrifice, slowly began descending.
Upright.
“……?”
He landed perfectly on his feet.
Kano’s drifting hair slowly settled around him.
A moment later, Kano opened his eyes.
“Haah....”
His left eye remained the same brilliant blue as always.
His right eye, however, glowed violet.
“Refreshing.”
Kano murmured with a serene expression.