me - what in hells name is happening here?
in front of me was the city. within the few days I had left it, it somehow managed to become a warzone. most of the buildings were collapsed and the familiar clang of swords striking against shields emanated from deeper in the city. thunder lord was nowhere to be seen. all I could see was wolves sword, one of the third class and the leader of the noble guard. since this place had no nobles to speak of and I did not need protection, he was working with the army in battle preparation.
me - wolves sword, what the fuck is going on here. why has this city become a warzone? no, before that tell me. what are our losses?
wolves sword - commander, our losses are pretty heavy. we have lost most of our first class, about five remain. as for the second grade, about ten remain. as for third grades, I am the only one left.
me - what caused this, as for as I remember, nobody should have been able to cause this kind of damage to us.
wolves sword - it was the slavers, commander. they had hidden a part of their 'unbroken' in the city.
the 'unbroken' was a fancy term for slave soldiers. these guys had already lost their ability to form thoughts and could be considered to be the ideal soldiers. the slave traders shouldn't have kept such a precious commodity this close to destruction. it looks like I need to look into this, seriously.
me - how big of a group was it. the soldiers here are actually pretty experienced. they have no reason to suffer such losses.
wolves sword - we were betrayed my lord. it was that crazy brat, phantom snow. we found that kid, trying to damage the wall. no, it would be more accurate saying that he was trying to demolish it. we put him in prison temporarily and set his date of execution for today. we underestimated the popularity of that kid. almost all the citizens ended up participating in a rebellion. the unbroken hid in the crowd of protestors and struck us after that. after that it was pandemonium, everybody was fighting everybody. even the powerless citizens took to arms. I called out the retreat, but in the chaos, most of the soldiers did not notice it.
me - how is the situation in the city now, there still seems to be some kind of combat in the city.
wolves sword - that would be the ' unbroken, milord, they are rounding up the citizens for something. I am thinking it is some kind of blood sacrifice.
me - what about my manor, is it safe?
wolves sword - yes my lord, it was never the focus of the battle, so it has been relatively unscathed from this battle.
me - leave it be, what about the remaining forces that we have, are all of them in one place.
wolves sword - yes my lord, all of them are at the walls, making sure nothing happens to it.
me - okay, you go and direct them. I will deal with the unbroken, just make sure nothing happens to the wall.
while I am still not exactly sure what was happening, the thing is I am a careful man. the ant queen would take a long time to hatch And I could not wait for her to hatch. oh yeah, by the way, I will tell this before all the chaos begins. the puppeteer ant queen has already been released into the dragon child. it's advanced magic, a mixture of transformation magic and contractual magic. I had transformed the egg into a piece of metal, with the contract, that within a certain number of days, the transformation magic would be removed and the egg would begin to absorb life force in the corpse.
thankfully the bull dragons had a habit of burying their dead. naturally, with a magical species like the bull dragon, they could also preserve the life force, which was the only reason I made such a ballsy move.
as I was saying, the ant queen was not available for some time. thankfully I always have contingencies for every situation. to be honest I did not want to use the key yet. it was pretty risky to use it. anyway, the town was completely deserted.
due to that, I could easily sneak into the mansion.
it also helped that it was almost night and the darkening sun, meant that I had more places to hide in.
I might be immortal, but that would not help me against an army of normal people, let alone an army of unbroken.
anyways the journey to the mansion was very smooth. it was like I had somehow ended up in a ghost town. it was an eerie, but common sight for me. this was often the remains of a city, after a stampede of beasts passed through them. that's why this city was so important. if it fell, that was how most of the cities in the southern district would look like.
anyways I quickly reached my target building. this place was completely untouched, though that might have something to do with my magic seal. otherwise, the lord's mansion was the first place to fall in a revolt.
the magic seal I had placed in my room was still working. this was magic meant to block of the third emperor, naturally, I didn't expect it to go through so much strain. I am thankful that nobody was foolish enough to open the room. well, to be honest, they would not notice it's existence.
after all, this meant to be a seal that fools the third emperor. normal people will not notice the entire manor, that was how potent this magic.
wait a minute, there was somebody here. somebody was tripping the monitoring spell I had put up in this place.
luckily, he did not enter my room since there was no angry ex-emperor chasing after me. let's hope whoever or whatever he is, he is not dangerous. I had enough headaches as it is.
thankfully this was not the manors of those nobles who liked to live in miniature cities. really, man, it is easy to get lost in those manors of some lords, that most people are provided with maps whenever someone comes to stay over.
the mages have a proper reason at least. the magical machinery that some mages rely on are actually as big as cities. other than them, every other noble is just wasting land and money.
meanwhile, I was climbing to the second floor of my manor, which basically has two rooms.
the first room was naturally the bedroom. the second was a meeting room where I could meet my underlings, when I felt like staying in the second floor.
the other guy who was sitting in front of my door, attempting some kind of a summoning ritual, most likely for some kind of a God that was good into sneaking into places. coming closed I realise who he was summoning, fuck,
why am I so unlucky?
I pulled out a knife I had, making a cut on my hand. with that blood-stained knife I began to draw on the ground. it was an anti summoning rune. thankfully I could use my blood as a substitute for the ink that is required to draw it.
me - don't try to summon a servant of darkness, fool. anyway who are you?
the guy in front of me had pale white skin, rare even among the fair-skinned mountain dwellers who populated these lands. I already had a guess as to who it was. after all, there was only one guy in this town who was this white.
phantom snow - my lord, my name would be phantom snow. why should I not summon the servant of darkness, what exactly are you hiding in there.
this one seemed to be a bit slow. after a few moments, his face lit up in realization.
phantom snow - the God of darkness hates kings. especially, the magical kind. there is something related to a king inside.
me - you are not supposed to use summoning spells that easily. even the safest summon holds a certain amount of risk, young man.
why the hell was I being so chatty with this kid? normally by now I should have already got down to the killing. there was a possibility, but that was not common magic. thankfully I could easily resist the effect of such magic.
I did not bother to talk to the young man anymore as I whipped out the knife I had and jumped towards him. it was almost like he did not expect it. within a few instants, I was holding him by his throat with my knife held at his throat.
me - first of all, dispel that charm spell you have all over you and do not try to make any funny movements.
I have lived for a very long time. I was old enough to be someone's grandpa, so there were a few things that I would find surprising in this world.
the thing that was happening was one of those few. the young man in front of me was visibly shrinking, with his face becoming younger with each second.
finally, the end result in front of me was a young boy, barely in his teenage.
me - speak, kid. who are you? who gave you that kind of charm magic?
the kid - I can't say that to you, I am under a contract. if I answer any of your questions, my head will become ashes.
after releasing that kid, who was pretty cooperating, I sat down. the last few days have been pretty stressful for me.
you see I am considered a high magic being, which is kind of clear from the way I have been using my blood the last few days.
anyway, the amount of mana in my body made me resistant to certain kinds of magic, namely magic related to the mind, such as illusion and charm. that kid managed to temporarily charm me, which meant that most humans would not be able to deal with that kind of charm.
most people will treat that kid in front of me as their kid, son, lover, etc.
to be honest, I was thankful that I did not kill the kid instantly. killing a kid leaves me very uncomfortable.
me - kid, first of all, I can't allow you to leave this place, so you have three options. first, I kill you now and here. second, I will seal you in the room next to me. the seal will open in a couple of weeks, you can leave then. the third, you can sign a contract with me.
the kid - I want to sign a contract. before that I want your help. to get into a contract with me, you need to offer something to me right.
the kid was scared, a lot. he couldn't seem to handle my killing intent. but he managed to keep himself calm.
me - as long as it's not impossible, after signing the contract, I must do it.
I removed a sheet of paper I had. making a cut on my hand, I began to draw a long and complicated rune on the sheet of paper. after a few minutes it was complete.
As soon as I completed the rune, it began to fade away leaving me with blank paper. I had learnt how to make contracts a very long time ago. it tends to come useful in this type of situation.
me - this the sheet for a contract kid, write in your condition and bleed on it. since I am the one who made it, It will directly come into effect.
as I handed my knife and the paper to him. after a few minutes of searching for his pen he began to write on it. Finally making a cut on his hand.
the paper began to go burn in an oddly greenish hue as soon as the blood touched the paper. the kid had dropped the paper, which meant that he was not really that experienced in magical affairs. after all magic was a dangerous business. burning paper was the least worries we had.
as soon as the paper got completely burnt, from the ashes of the paper two chains appeared from the ashes, almost as if it had grown there in a few seconds. looking at the kid that had jumped back in shock. the chain followed the kid, and entered his chest, wrapping around his and my heart.
me - these are the chains of balance kids. they will be coiled around our hearts, they will not affect you until you break the rules you have agreed to in the contract. once you do break the rules the chains will be pulled, coiled around your heart, by the lord of contracts.
the kid showed a flicker of understanding. I think he was a narrow mage. the narrow mages were the guys that hid their capabilities in magic, often being pretty skilled, but they had no experience with respect to their fellow mages. as for why they chose to do so, there were plenty of reasons.
me - what was your request kid, anyways.