"F-False realm?"
The little girl nodded and began explaining again. Turned out there was a catch for the curse to work. The curse of the twelve witches was powerful indeed, but it was also a form of ultimatum that disturbed the balance of the world since it required twelve sacrifices. This little disruption had caused a scar in the timeline, which was a loophole that would lead to the realization of a vortex.
Therefore, in order to heal the scar, the witches involved had to transfer the victim's soul and incarcerated it in the False Realm, the realm outside the timeline. The False Realm existence was sort of like between an illusion and reality. In order to maintain this realm as the place for the curse, the coven had to constantly transfer their spiritual essence of different elements every month.
Li Fei felt a headache coming as she listened to her explanation. "But that would mean that..," she stopped and pinched the spot between her eyebrows, "I'm not real."
"No. You're real enough. The difference is all the things that you did and all the lives that you've lived don't result in anything. It doesn't impact your future," she said, then she spread her hands, "In short, this is just a realm to imprison your soul."
Li Fei clenched her fist. All the things that she did and had been through didn't mean anything. Even though she had lived her life like a beggar, she did have friends and people that she genuinely wanted to help. She thought that even if she died or was quite unfortunate in life, at least she could help others to have a chance for a better life.
Yet, all of it turned out to be a nonsense. Her effort was in vain. She had not saved anyone.
"How do we get out now?" Li Fei asked. Her voice sounded calm, but inside, the fire was slowly spreading.
"First, we'll make a contract. I'm going to be honest here. My power had diminished a lot because I was being hunted not long ago. They managed to shatter a part of my soul. That inflicts a significant damage to my spiritual power. In order to transfer your soul, I need to consume a lot of energy. Therefore, I need your soul and the contract is the way to make it happens."
Huh?
Huh???
Li Fei raised her hand in front of the little girl face. "Whoa.. Hold on a second. You need my soul?" She raised her tone as she stressed her sentence word by word.
The little girl clicked her tongue. How troublesome!
"It's not how you imagine it. I told you, you'll be my Master. What I mean by needing your soul is that we merge together."
The little girl continued, "We're going to do that by establishing a contract. There are several types of contracts, but there are only three that can bind us together. Master and Servant Contract, Blood Contract, and Soul Binding Contract."
Li Fei felt another headache listening to her. She didn't want to bind her soul or make whatever contract. She always ran solo, carrying someone was too much of a burden. And now that the little girl was telling her that this was the only way?
(sigh) She thought that this 'demon' was the greatest with godlike power. Wasn't that supposed to be like that when demon could live up to thousands of years? Now she had to attach herself with this little girl.
"Okay. So, we're going to do Master and Servant Contract? Oh by the way, I don't like being called Master. Let's just go with our names."
There was no way she was going to call a certain demon, her junior or student, okay. It would be way too awkward and she herself was still a young girl, how the heck she got called 'Master' all of the sudden.
"That's fine with me. But, you're wrong, we're not going to do Master and Servant Contract. It's the lowest kind of contract. It holds little power. We're going for Soul Binding Contract."
Umm... that sounds...
"How does it work?"
"Well, after we make the contract, our soul will merge together. I will come into your body and I will stay as half of your soul. You'll be the dominant part of course since you're the original host. I'll be just like a guest."
Basically, unlike the other two contracts where the two parties were still living as two separate souls, Soul Binding Contract, like the name suggested, it bind the two parties into one soul. Half of the soul will be occupied by the visitor and the other half by the original host. The original host would be the dominant part and could control the visitor's soul, power, and mind.
However, if the host permitted it, the visitor could take control of the body. The downside of this contract was unlike master and servant or blood contract where the two parties' ties could still be severed and only suffered from injuries, in Soul Binding Contract, if she or he was killed then, both the host and the visitor would perish together.
The bright side was since it was two souls who became one, the person would be stronger, faster, and of course more intelligent since both souls would be sharing their mind together. In Li Fei's case, the visitor was a demon so, it would change the whole game. She would be beyond powerful than the people who did the same contract.
Unless, they also merged with a demon as powerful as the little girl. However, this case rarely happened because it would deal a huge damage to the host and even to the point of death, if his or her soul was not powerful enough to withstand the demon as the visitor.
"Ugh..that would mean...I'll be half demon?" Li Fei asked.