Myrrin arrived in front of the tower, his eyes could see the massive waves of mana swirling around the tower—the runic symbols seemingly controlling the flow of mana. As he stepped in he could sense the high density of mana in the area caused by the tower itself. He approached an elder at the front desk, inquiring about the [Ezark Contract]. The elder simply looked at Myrrin, his eyes turning a murky green. Myrrin saw a tendril of mana snake from the mans body, and arrive in front of Myrrin.
The internal alarm bells rang inside of Myrrin, this tendril of mana was dangerous! Myrrin immediately backed away. Myrrin glared at the elder in front of him, who now seemed to be smiling.
"Congradulations, you passed the test. Now that I know you have gone through [Awakening], lets go get you an [Ezark Contract]."
"Huh? That was a test? That clearly felt dangerous.."
"hmm? Oh yes, that attack was indeed fatal. If you had even slightly touched my mana you would have died."
"….!?!?!"
Myrrin looked at the elder in shock. He had tried to so casually kill Myrrin that there was no killing intent behind his attack.
"Don't worry, if you had an [Awakening], you probably would have dodged it. If you were lying about [Awakening] to me, you deserve death."
The elder nodded matter-of-factly before signaling Myrrin to come follow him. Myrrin was thoroughly confused at the elderly man's actions, but chose to follow him anyways. The elderly man took Myrrin to platform in the main lobby of the tower. His eyes once again turned murky green, much to Myrrin's horror. Before he could move away from the elder, the platform sped upward suddenly, nearly causing Myrrin to fall flat on his back. Just as fast as it started, the platform stopped.
"Hmmm, your room should be around here."
The elder motioned to Myrrin before finally pointing him towards a room not too far away.
"Just go in the room and meditate… or just sit really still and close your eyes. You know what an [Ezark Contract] is, and what its used for, correct?"
"Wait!"
The man turned to return to the platform when Myrrin suddenly stopped him.
"I don't know what an [Ezark Contract] is… or what its used for…"
The elder nearly choked. He had been working here for years and this was the first time that anyone had said that. 'What are the those schools teaching nowadays if they don't mention an [Ezark Contract]' thought the elder before he began explaining.
"Listen kid, long story short, Humans lost the ability absorb mana thousands of years ago. Before that happened, a powerful Human, much stronger than the strongest human today, named Ezark discovered a collection of lesser worlds known as the [Spirit World]. He used his body to form a bridge between our world and theirs, his soul forming the [Ezark Contract]— which allows humans to contract a spirit from the [Spirit World]. Humans who accomplish can this are called [Contractors] and can wield mana using their spirit."
Once he finished mechanically explaining the basic information, he simply told Myrrin that when he was ready to [Contract] a spirit he would have to say [Initiate Contract] while imagining the spirit he was contracting, after which the spirit needed to accept. The elderly man gave Myrrin a jade stick which would return the user's soul to the room before leaving Myrrin alone in the room. As Myrrin began mediating cross-legged in the center of the room with his eyes closed, he felt a slight influx of mana into the room, causing him to open his eyes.
The world before him was unimaginable, there were clusters of bright orbs swirling all around him. Taking a look at an individual orb caused the orb to clear, leaving behind images of various powerful spirits inhabiting that world. Most of the spirits here were not too strong, it required luck and mana perceptivity to locate stronger spirits. Awestruck, Myrrin began looking around ecstatically, before realizing how similar the orbs were to his keepsake. As soon as he took it out of his shirt, Myrrin could see a qualified change in his keepsake. The orbs floating in the stone were bright and rapidly intertwining. As soon as all the colors merged, a white light blasted through the keepsake, exploding into infinitesimal pieces. After being momentarily blinded, Myrrin rubbed his eyes, regaining his vision slowly. Before he realized, a black circle appeared before him, exuding a powerful and ancient aura that was painfully familiar to Myrrin. Opening his eyes wide, Myrrin recognized this aura as the one from his nightmare. Myrrin began to tremble as the trauma from the nightmares became real; however, a second idea in his head instantly dispersed all fears, replacing it with unbridled joy. The fact that it appeared now might mean that he could probably form an [Ezark Contract] with whatever was lurking in the darkness. Myrrin gulped. Although the nightmare was traumatic, Myrrin needed a spirit that was monstrously powerful to compensate for his lack of background at The Royal Academy.
Myrrin stepped into the portal, instantly drenched in darkness—a towering pressure slowly, but inevitably pressing down. Myrrin regulates his breathing, doing his best not to panic.
"KEKEKE... YOU... HAVE... COME!"
The voice boomed, causing Myrrin to vomit a bit of blood. Wide-eyed Myrrin looked around, he was slowly starting to make out shapes again. This time however, a dimlight was present on the back of Myrrin's right hand, a mysterious rune similar to those on the tower emitting a soft blue light. With the appearance of the blue light, all the aura that suppressed Myrrin was lifted.
"HMM.. WHAT.. A.. POWERFUL CONTRACT."
'Contract..? Is this the [Ezark Contract]?' Myrrin thought as he stared at the blue light radiating from his palm. He looked up towards the voice that become clear to Myrrin, he came into contact with a pair of crimson eyes. Although the contract negated the influence of the entity before him, Myrrin still got chills looking into those eyes.
"A-Are you a spirit..?"
"SPIRIT..? NO, I AM AN IMMORTAL CULTIVATOR…OR I WAS… NOW I AM A FALLEN SOUL.. IMPRISONED HERE… YOU.. WHO ARE YOU..? ARE YOU ANARACH.. NO… YOU MUST FROM THE MENG."
"Meng..?"
Myrrin remembered that his mother's maiden name happened to be Meng. In that case, this keepsake that he had mistaken for his fathers, was actually connected to his mother's side.
"What is your connection to my mother, and why did her keepsake open up this space?"
With the protection of the rune, Myrrin became more bold, as he directly asked the entity questions to relieve his confusion.
"BRAT… YOU HAVE THE SYMBOL OF MY FRIEND EZARK ON YOUR HAND… YOU ARE BECOMING BOLD BECAUSE OF HIS POWER… KEKEKE WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT… I GAVE YOUR ANCESTORS A KEY INTO THIS SPACE, AS I DID WITH MY OTHER CLOSE FRIENDS… IF THEY WERE TO FIND A WAY TO FREE ME.. THESE KEYS WOULD LEAD THEM TO ME.."
Myrrin was shaken, the fallen soul in front of him knew Ezark himself. Although fallen souls were souls that have not entered the cycle of rebirth, they still retained a good amount of their power, not to mention their memories. Then this fallen soul was once friends with someone from the legends, how could he possible be weak. His mind began racing, if he could form a contract with the fallen soul in front of him, he could technically bring it out. He was just unsure if it would work, but if it did…
"Sir, I have a method of bringing you out of this prison."
Myrrin's tone changed immediately, talking both confidently and politely— a skill he had obtained peddling on the streets. He raised the hand with the rune and pointed it towards the soul.
"This contract made from Ezark will allow me to seal you within myself before i leave this realm and return to the world of Kallos."
The fallen soul's eyes shook as he heard the name Kallos. The glow in his eyes seemed to sharpen drastically. Despite the runic protection, Myrrin began to feel cold steel pressed against his neck.
"YOU… BETTER NOT BE LYING BRAT…"
Myrrin was afraid gulping would split his throat, yet alone speaking. The fallen soul seemed to have realized and noticeably decreased the sharp intent exuding out of his eyes, but did not remove it.
"It is risky.. since it was originally meant for spirits, but since you seemed to know Ezark, maybe it was designed to let you escape?"
Myrrin had been processing information in his head the entire time; the timing of the events seemed fated, like it was meant to happen. With powerful cultivators of the past working together, it would not be surprising if it went as they planned. Up to this point, Myrrin was confident in his plan; however, he was unsure if a fallen soul would strengthen him as much as a powerful spirit could. Myrrin made up his mind, he rejected mediocrity. There was no free lunch in this world, he would need conviction to become powerful.
The fallen soul was a cultivator who had reached the pinnacle of human power, to get to this point, he was definitely no ordinary character. Before Myrrin could activate his contract, the fallen soul forcibly grabbed his hand and began the contract without Myrrin's consent.
"W-What are you doing..?"
"LIKE YOU SAID.. THIS WAS MEANT FOR SPIRITS… I AM MODIFYING THE CONTRACT TO BETTER FIT ME… KEKE DO NOT WORRY… WITH ME YOU HAVE NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT POWER."
Myrrin stared wide-eyed at the fallen soul that was modifying the [Ezark Contract] that had stood unchanged for ages. Various runes were floating from the original rune, rearranging themselves systematically before retuning to Myrrin's hand.
"NOW… BEGIN.."
Without a choice, Myrrin raised his hand and imagined forming a contract with the fallen spirit in front of him.
"[Initiate Contract]"
A bright light bursted from his hand and enveloped the fallen soul. Unlike what the elder man had explained, the fallen soul began to shrink until it formed a sword that floated in front of Myrrin. There were dense runic markings on an otherwise very normal longsword. Confused Myrrin reached his hand and touched the sword. The sword immediately warped and entered the rune on his hand, which was now replaced by small sword-like emblem.
"Hey brat, lets quickly leave this place, I don't want to be here any longer!"
"Huh? the fallen soul..? That was it?"
"Are you comparing me to a dumbass spirit? Did you want it to be harder?? Besides I was known as the Paragon of the Sword, Antebellum. Call me Paragon if you need me brat, I need to recover some strength. Your vessel is way too weak so I had to compress and seal most of my powers."
"…"
Myrrin grew regretful knowing that a fallen soul was inhabiting his body and could hear his inner thoughts. Left with no choice, Myrrin broke the jade talisman that was given to him by the crazy elder, distorting his sense before returning him to his body back in the tower.
Although it seemed instantaneous to Myrrin, his return was anything but. The fallen soul of a Paragon-class cultivator was much stronger than the usual elementary spirits; before their arrival to the tower with Antebellum, Antebellum's soul that had yet to stabilize in the presence of mana began to greedily devour the mana in the vicinity in order to sustain his mana-less soul when .
Of course, all the mana being devoured was directly from the tower itself, which most certainly was panicking. Within five minutes, Myrrin's return created the biggest pandemonium in the Divine Spirit Hall's history.