Free Web NovelChapter 9: The Contract [1]
(Author: I rewrote the previous Chapter, please read it before this one. )
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The crimson and Blue light of the moons painted the gore in surreal hues as it splashed across Mikael’s face.
Thomas’s aberrant body, which had been looming over him, finally convulsed, dropped to its knees, and toppled forward, crashing onto Mikael.
The impact drove the air from Mikael’s lungs as he felt another one of his ribs shattering.
For a long moment, he just lay there beneath the massive body of an Aberrant.
His mind had gone blank from exhaustion, but slowly the weight on him was becoming unbearable.
And the stench of rotten meat was making it hard for him to collect his breath.
Aargh!
With a hoarse cry, he used all his remaining strength in his palms and shoved the body aside.
He gasped heavily.
All the adrenaline that was coursing through his veins had gone, leaving behind nothing but waves of pure agony.
His ribs screamed with each shallow breath he took; his left arm was bent at a wrong angle.
His entire body was painted red.
It felt as if every bone in his body was broken-- even moving a finger was too much for him now.
He just lay there for some time, his back pressed against the cold ground as his blood pooled beneath him.
He stared at the Twin Moons that hung above the thick canopy of trees as red and blue strips of light threaded through the branches.
His heart was beating wildly.
Slowly, his heart rate began to settle, and the purple scale that had been creeping towards his cheeks also stopped.
It would likely take some time for them to fade away.
His vision started to swim as the forest blurred.
’Crap.’
He was about to lose consciousness.
But he snapped his eyes open, biting the insides of his cheeks.
He couldn’t just lose consciousness here. He needed to do what he came here for -- otherwise, everything he had done would be in vain.
His hands instinctively moved to his waist as he patted it, checking for the satchel that held the ingredients he’d bought from the city. Even that gentle touch of patting sent the waves of agony through him.
He gasped as his fingers met nothing; the satchel wasn’t there anymore.
He quickly looked around, ignoring the pain as his gaze fell on the satchel a few meters from the carriage.
The leather belt must have torn when the first attack connected with him.
It took him a lot of effort to stand up.
His legs wobbled beneath him, struggling to stand upright. But he forced himself as he walked to the satchel with shaky steps.
By the time he reached there, his legs finally gave out as he slumped down.
He fumbled the satchel open with shaky fingers.
He sighed in relief.
Thankfully, only the powdered void salt vials were cracked.
’I can still use it.’
He dug deeper and pulled out a small, translucent blue crystal with green veins--it was a healing crystal.
He had also bought this just in case.
He placed them between his molars and bit hard.
Crack!
The crystal cracked, releasing a bitter liquid that flooded his mouth.
This was just a temporary solution.
Healing crystals and potions work differently in this world; they didn’t heal you instantaneously like other fantasy novels he had read.
Instead, it released a compound that speeds blood clotting, temporarily boosts the body’s natural healing responses, and reduces pain.
It couldn’t knit his bones together and heal him immediately, like in game. Only healing magic could heal someone immediately.
And taking more than one crystal at a time was also extremely risky.
After some time, the pain subsided, and he felt the bleeding stop.
He looked up again at the Twin Moons. They hung directly above him, perfectly aligned at their Zenith.
This was the precise moment he wanted, the window when the veil between the Mortal World and the Spirit World would grow thin in this Mournwood Forest.
It was the perfect time to perform the ritual to contract with the creature of the spirit world.
Yes, the thing that led him to his last desperate gamble was contracting with the Spirit.
In Eclipsed Realms, the spirits weren’t the tiny, fairy-like creatures from children’s bedtime stories.
They were something far older, far crueler, and infinitely more dangerous.
They were vile creatures.
Some of the spirits were twisted remnants of souls that refused to move on, held here by an unfulfilled final wish that had soured into obsession.
A mother who died searching for her lost child could became a spirit, luring infants from their cradles with a voice that mimicked love.
But not all souls with an unfulfilled wish turn into spirits; there were other hidden conditions that even Mikael wasn’t aware of.
Just like how not all spirits are born from human souls, not all of them are overly malicious. Some originate purely in the spirit world and maintain neutrality, yet they still carry the same level of danger.
Mikael remembered that there was one of the endings of ’Kyle Umbralis’ route in which the Spirit World breaks into the Mortal World, bringing a massive catastrophe.
That was one of the bad endings of Eclipsed Realm, which alone spoke volumes about just how dangerous spirits could be.
In-game, Players can seek a contract with the spirits. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
It was a hidden mechanic that went unnoticed until someone finally found it and posted about it on the forums.
But the chances of successfully forming a contract were extremely low.
Most of the time, the Spirit killed the contractor before any agreement could be reached— or in the worst case, they simply possessed their body to fulfill their own dying wish.
And if a player was possessed, it came with a brutal penalty— the player couldn’t respawn.
They would have to restart the game from the start. It was such a punishing mechanic that most players didn’t dare risk contracting a spirit.
Besides, most protagonists didn’t even need a spirit’s aid.
The cost far outweighed any possible gain.
Mikael, however, had no such luxury.
He possessed neither affinity nor any special ability.
As for why he was still taking such a huge gamble, even though the chances of successfully contracting a neutral spirit were extremely low?
Because he knew a way to increase the probability of contracting with a spirit —a way that no one else knew except him.
A method that he had never shared on forums, unlike other players.
Eclipsed Realm didn’t really hand you the game’s lore.
Instead, it encourages you to discover the lore on your own.
You had to piece together item descriptions, boss loot drop lore, NPC interactions, and much more to understand the lore completely.
Yet even after years of game release, no one had managed to put it all together; that was how vast the lore and game mechanics of Eclipsed Realm were.
Every month, players kept discovering new things, and that continued right up to the present day.
After completing multiple protagonist routes and cross-referencing the clues hidden in item descriptions, Mikael had found a way that dramatically increased the likelihood of successfully contracting a spirit.
One of the key factors was location.
The ritual had to be performed where the veil between the two worlds was thinnest. And this forest was one of such places, the deeper one went, the thinner the veil became.
Mikael had planned to venture a little further inside, but with his current condition and his lowly rank.
He couldn’t really afford to go inside. He needed to perform the ritual here only.
He dragged his body upright.
’Thanks to the healing crystal, the pain has dulled to a manageable ache.’
He began to clear the patch of ground in front of him as he tore away the wild grass, swept aside the loose stone, and smoothed the dirt with his palms.
Then, He used his index finger as a brush and began to draw a massive magic circle with his own blood.
His blood carries his essence. It would also help him find the spirit that was compatible with him.
In-game, you just needed to press a button, and boom, the magic circle would appear in an instant.
Here, though, he needed to draw it himself from his memory.
His hand moved perfectly without pausing even for a moment.
It was strange how he remembered every node, internodes, and pattern perfectly.
It had been more than a year since he last played the game, and he had forgotten most of the stuff about it.
Yet, for some unknown reason, when he tried to recall this magic circle, it came back to him clear as day.
He couldn’t explain it, but it felt like that magic circle had always been there, tucked away in the back of his mind.
He drew the stabilization ring, nine anchor points, resonance spirals, and an ancient seal of a deity that he didn’t know anything about.
It was not from any of the seven major gods.
After some time, the magic circle was complete as it sprawled across the cleared earth.
Mikael examined it again, looking for any possible mistake.
’It’s perfect.’
Next, he took out seven candles and placed them on the outer ring of the magic circle and lit them up.
The candles burned with purple light.
He set up a makeshift altar and arranged the ingredients perfectly, as he had seen in the game.
Mikael knelt before the altar as the purple flames of candles cast strange shadows across his bloodied face.
The second thing that increased the likelihood of contracting the spirit was praying to a deity while chanting.
Since Mikael’s family was followers of Goddess Sableth, one of the seven major Gods in the Eclipsed Realm.
He would pray to ’Her’. freeweɓnovel.cѳm
’She’ was also one of the Gods who maintained their neutrality, so praying to ’Her’ would be the best.
"Nacht, die nie endet. Leere, die nie spricht. Ich rufe dich, Goddess Sableth, di Träge Nacht, die Träumerin zwischen den Sternen. Hüterin der Dämmerung, Herrin des stillen Vergessens. Öffne den Schleier, der die Welten trennt. Lass das Reich der Geister einen Spalt weit offenstehen."
The language rolled perfectly off his tongue, which he had no idea how he still remembered the chant.
"Goddess Sableth, Keeper of the Starless Veil, Lady of Night and Darkness, Sovereign of the Unseen Silence, She Who Drapes the World in Shadow..."
"In exchange for a chance to forge a contract with a creature of the spirit world."
He stopped taking a deep breath.
The last thing that increased the likelihood of contracting the spirit was one ’Sacrifice’.
He’d thought about it endlessly, weighing what he could offer.
In-game, the other routes he had played, he would always sacrifice one of the abilities of the chosen protagonist.
But Mikael didn’t have any abilities, nor any affinity to sacrifice.
He did see an ability in his status — the one with the question mark — but he didn’t know what it was.
If it accidentally turned out to be some low-level ability, it would ruin his chances.
So he couldn’t do that.
And sacrificing his curse? The World’s Will would not allow it.
He had tried that once in a game, and ’The World’s Will’ had given him another crippling curse which was much stronger than the previous one.
So that was out of the question, too.
And he couldn’t possibly sacrifice his Divine Grade Talent. He needed that fight back with his Curse.
That left him with only one thing to sacrifice.
He had made his decision as he released the breath he had been holding.
"I’ll sacrifice..."
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(Support with Power Stones)
