Thousands upon thousands of questions buzzed in Adel's head, but something else overshadowed all that chaos.
A sick, twisted euphoria.
The feeling was so strong inside Adel that everything else faded into the background, and all his mind could think about was killing the being in front of him.
The figure before him was a demon, but not all demons were the same. Demons were divided into seven royal families according to the sin they practiced: Pride, Greed, Wrath, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, and Sloth.
Depending on the family a demon belonged to or served, it showed unique traits.
For example, the demon in front of Adel had red eyes, sharp canines, and pointed ears, typical of demons from the Greed family. But from its power and presence, it was clear it served one of the subfamilies.
The demon, for his part, looked oddly at Adel's reaction, but he didn't care if the human in front of him was strange. All he needed was to make a contract with him and satisfy him, so he could get what he wanted.
"Human, I doubt you know what I am, so let me explain. I am a demon, one of the higher races," he said with an air of superiority. "My servant managed to forge a bond with me, and my task was to form a pact with him. Since he is dead, I will give you that honor."
Hearing the demon act as if emphasizing his generosity, Adel almost burst out laughing.
Demons' pacts had only two goals: to make you their slave or take your soul.
Adel knew where the conversation was going, but he pretended not to, looking confused about what was happening.
"Demon? Higher race? And what do you mean by forming a pact?"
The demon seemed annoyed by Adel's questions and limited himself to answering only the last one.
"With a pact, we make an agreement in which you state a wish and I help you fulfill it, and of course, in return, you will serve me. A gift and an honor that someone of the lesser races could never have, but you have the opportunity."
With a snap of its fingers, a scroll materialized between them.
"Can you grant any wish?" Adel asked, sounding "suspicious" of the situation.
"Of course not, but if it is within my power, I will grant it. Now tell me what you want." The demon said impatiently.
The being present there was only in a spiritual form and could not remain long unless he secured the pact. Moreover, he would have to spend a huge amount of resources again to create a means to interact with someone in that world, in case he failed, and he couldn't afford that.
So, he had to make sure that Adel accepted that pact.
"Can you also… help me kill someone?" Adel asked slowly, fully aware of the demon's situation.
Slowly, the demon's lips curled slightly. Requests to kill were among the simplest, and given the Grade 2 strength radiating from the human in front of him, he didn't think it would be a problem.
"Of course."
"Even if it's someone at the peak of Grade 4?"
Adel's words froze the demon's smile. Even though he was also at that level, in his spiritual form, he could exert at most the force of the early Grade 4.
In his arrogance, however, he didn't think he would lose even in that state. The problem was that if, after making the pact, he failed to fulfill it, he would suffer a backlash equal to the difficulty of the request. The easier the request, the greater the consequences; the harder the request, the lighter the punishment.
According to these rules, demons created flexible contracts or special clauses to avoid such problems, and that was exactly what the demon wanted to do.
"That's more than an acceptable request. I, Aarol, promise to help, where possible, to kill the Grade 4 being you want, and if you should die, the agreement will be automatically fulfilled."
As he spoke, blood-red words written in the demonic tongue began to appear on the scroll.
"Now, human, you must only let a drop of your blood fall on the scroll and say your name."
But Adel did not move and let out a cold snort.
The demon's proposal did not guarantee the kill at all, and the phrase "where possible" emphasized that it would not act if he perceived danger.
"I would like to change the request slightly."
As soon as Adel said those words, the demon's gaze turned cold, and it unleashed all its presence onto Adel, which he might have resisted, but instead, he let it crush him to the ground.
"How dare you, inferior one, try to negotiate with me?" the demon said, looking down at him. "You should be proud that I allow you to speak and look at me. So hurry and sign the pact before I kill you."
As he spoke, he let loose his bloodlust to show he wasn't joking, but both Adel and the demon knew it was nonsense.
In the presence of the contract, neither of the two forces could attack directly, but it was possible to exert pressure, as the demon was doing.
"W-wait, let's talk!" Adel said quickly, as if stalling.
"I must admit you have guts to keep arguing, or maybe something is really wrong in your head." With a mocking laugh, he increased the pressure.
"So, do you accept or not?!" Aarol was at his limit and could not stay there much longer.
"I—!"
"You just have to say YES!" Aarol could no longer hold back and could already feel the scroll taking effect, limiting him, but he didn't care if it meant Adel would sign.
"H-How about you help me for only ten— no, actually only five minutes, and you will only need to deliver the killing blow, if and only if it's possible for you!"
Adel shouted everything at once, and for a moment, the atmosphere calmed. Aarol fell silent for a moment, reviewing the request. No matter how he looked at it, it was advantageous, perhaps too much. But in his arrogance and greed, the sin he followed, he ignored that feeling.
"I, Aarol, promise to help you in the five minutes after signing the contract to deliver the killing blow to the being you want to kill, IF AND ONLY IF it is possible for me." He took a breath and looked at Adel coldly. "Also, if, when the time expires, it is not possible to kill the being or the contracting party should die, the contract will still be considered fulfilled."
"Y-you won't kill me once I sign?"
"What a pain in the ass you are! Once signed, I cannot kill you, so sign NOW!"
The contract flew close to Adel, who pretended not to care as he read that the cost was his soul and not becoming a slave as Aarol had said, but he didn't worry. Slowly, he cut the tip of his finger, letting a drop of blood fall onto the scroll.
"Now say your name and that you accept the agreement," Aarol said quickly, feeling excitement rising.
"I am Adel and… I accept the agreement."
The moment those words left his mouth, the contract caught fire, and ethereal chains formed, sinking into both Adel and Aarol, then becoming invisible.
"What you saw were the chains of the vow. With those, I cannot kill you, but note well, we are not equals. I cannot kill you, but I can beat you and make you suffer pains worse than death."
Aarol threatened Adel to intimidate him, but was met with complete indifference.
"Before you said one of the higher races, does that mean there are others?"
"Yes, but they are nothing compared to us demons," Aarol replied, who had no problem wasting time, since he would respect the contract's terms anyway.
"So I suppose other races have managed to establish a connection with our world as well?"
"How should I know? We demons have only in recent years managed to create links with this world."
Aarol was only a minor demon, used as a guard for a noble family serving the royal family of Greed. The information he had gathered was scarce, and he had to use all his resources to establish a connection with this new world.
That's why he envied the noble demons, who, thanks to their resources, periodically established links with people from Arcadia to create slaves or reap souls, accelerating their strengthening process.
But now he, too, had managed to make a deal, and once he harvested Adel's soul, he would refine it to push himself to Grade 5… unfortunately for him, he had made a pact with Adel.
"I understand… so for now you guys can only materialize in spiritual form and dimensional bridges have not yet formed."
Aarol widened his eyes, hearing someone talk about such delicate matters that he had almost died to obtain.
"You… how do you know these things?!"