Isle was still worried about how Caeruleus might react, But he felt as if knowing the reasoning behind Cassius leaving his two brothers was important enough to risk angering him.
"Stand still…" The crow put his hand against Isle's bare chest.
Isle squirmed a little when Cassius' cold hand touched his body, The uncomfortable chill caused him to shiver.
Vermilion took back his cloak when Isle and him were walking out of "Cassius' effective mana range." That left Isle with his pants as his last piece of clothing that wasn't in tatters.
His first pair of pants were mostly shredded when Vermilion did so with wind, So he convinced the dragon to make him new pants, He wasnt able to get a shirt though.
The dragon claimed, "Warriors should show their muscles with pride. You've got some nice ones after all this training, They aren't nearly as great as mine though…" Isle recalled the memory with a sigh.
Isle had found out that the dragon was wrong about the mana range when he saw the mana disruption at the chain tower.
With an anomaly like that forming around Cassius, There was no way that he could have any mana.
He didn't really mind the dragons mistake, It was most likely a result of his lack of knowledge on what happened on this layer of the prison.
Chances were, Cassius actually had an enormous amount of mana seeping out of him towards the beginning of his imprisonment.
Vermilion came down here once when Cassius was first imprisoned here, Apart from that he'd never came to this layer again so he wouldn't know anything changed, Because he hasn't seen this layer since the start.
Vermilion was only supposed to come here if Cassius was close to breaking out or in the worst case scenario, If Cassius really did break out.
This left Isle with a few questions like 'Why isn't Vermilion here?' or 'Who imprisoned Cassius?' but the most important one, The one he'd thought about from the instant that he found out this was a prison.
What did Cassius do?
Isle decided that he'd ponder on it a little later, Cassius would likely talk about it anyways.
Cassius wrapped one of his wings around Isle's waist to hold him still, It shocked him a little but he didn't try to break free at all.
"Really? Jeez." Isle huffed lightly.
"Well you won't stop squirming, So it's not my fault." The crow continued.
When Isle asked why Cassius had to do this just for a contract while Caeruleus didn't, He learned that most deities had unique methods of making contracts.
Like Caeruleus, Who could make one easily by just saying a word to the other person.
In the case of Cassius, Isle was told by the crow, He'd have to accept a gift from him for a contract to be made. This would only work if Cassius considered what he was giving to be a gift.
The gift that he was gonna give to Isle was one of his eyes. Before he just gave away one of his eyes, He'd need to give Isle some of his mana.
If Cassius was to give away a body part without thinking about the fact Isle was a human, He'd be crippled if not worse.
Isle could feel mana flowing from Cassius' hand into his body, The process was already fairly embarrassing for him, But when the wing wrapped around his waist, He felt even more embarrassed.
After a few more minutes, The crow pulled his hand away.
"There. Now time for the next part, You really can't move for this part, Okay?" Cassius smiled calmly.
Isle shook his head yes. He suddenly felt a finger hit his forehead.
"Ow… What was that for…?" Isle frowned.
"I said don't move." The wing tightened around him.
"Now stand still, I'd rather not get brain matter on my hand…" Cassius held his hand steady then took out Isle's right eyeball swiftly.
Cassius would've told Isle to be prepared but he'd only told him that about a million times beforehand so there wasn't much of a point.
Isle muffled his screams with a bundle of feathers the crow gave him some time before.
"Still…" Cassius' voice dragged on for a little, He put his right eye that he'd already taken out in Isle's eye socket.
Isle's panted lightly, His eyes were shut tightly.
The mana that Cassius gave to Isle quickly healed all the nerves and completely transplanted the eye.
Unlike other times that he'd healed with mana, This time was uncomfortable for Isle. He wasn't sure exactly why, But he assumed it had to do with the intricacies of the eyes nerves.
"How do you feel?" He looked at Isle's closed eyes while lightly tapping his foot on the ground patiently.
"I'm fine… It just hurts a little." Isle blinked a few times before completely opening his eyes.
While the pain wasn't comparable to when he had an eye forcefully taken by Sandrone, It still hurt quite a bit.
Isle could see with his right eye now, Earlier he had the ability to see nothing but mana with it, Though it wasnt something that he knew how to capitalize on so he didn't mind losing it.
His vision with his new eye was much sharper than it was with the left, The contrast between the two made him slightly uncomfortable but it was just something he'd have to get used to.
A terrible fist came flying at Isle's chest much faster than he ever could've possibly reacted normally.
Yet he still managed to block it with Rene and dash back. Had he not blocked it, His ribs would've been shattered if not ground into a fine dust.
"What the hell?! You could've killed me!" Isle glared daggers at Cassius.
"Just testing that the eye works, You thought that attack would've hit you right? My eyes can naturally observe anythi-"
"Blah blah blah…"
Isle didn't really care to know how Cassius' eyes worked in detail, He already had a rough idea based on the crows prior test.
"Just make the contract and tell me the story now."
The requirements for the contract were now filled. Isle already had a slight idea as to the true nature of Cassius' contract method so he simply waited.
The Deity of Crows looked straight into Isle's eyes, Isle couldn't help but shiver slightly as when he did.
When Cassius' mouth opened, An unfamiliar language came out. Isle would've questioned it, But with the other odd events that'd transpired in this realm, He didn't even bother.
After awhile the crow stopped and looked at Isle, His head tilted.
Isle was confused as to what the Crow wanted for a moment, His mouth opened up when he realized.
"Ohhh… Yes, I agree to your contract."
A few moment went by and Isle didn't feel much different. He asked Cassius about his hair and eyes, But he said they hadn't.
Though it was pretty hard to tell, Cassius confirmed that the contract was made with no problems at all. With that done, Isle would finally get the answers he wanted.
"Jeez, Did you even give me anything? You stingy… Whatever, Just tell me wh-" Isle's sentence was cut short, He had no clue why, Until his view fell to the ground.
His perception of the world rolled a little before his eyes landed on his now headless body. The slash that decapitated him was clean, Like it's been performed enough that it was mastered.
The cut left his head with only a bit of its neck, Isle didn't know what could silently slice through his neck like that, But he assumed it was generated by one of Cassius' severed wings.
"Sorry… I really mean it, But I can't tell you, Not yet atleast… We'll meet again, And when we do I'll tell you everything but now isn't the time." Cassius lavender eyes dimmed a little, He closed them with an expression of melancholy.
Isle tried to speak to Cassius one more time. No words came out, Not even a murmur. It was trivial to even attempt speaking with no voice box but the despair made it impossible for him to think straight.
He looked at Cassius' pitiful expression for his last few seconds. He grit his teeth and closed his eyes.
In total, Isle had lived for roughly 12 seconds after he was decapitated. During those 12 seconds there wasn't any pain, Only shock at Cassius' action.
'This is it. Death. I-i didn't think it'd be so soon, I just wanted to…' Isle's cheeks were completely covered with tears.
His voice broke, It was getting hard to breath, All his breathes came out choked. His face was contorted and his nose began to run, If Val was there he would've teased him a little then hugged him, But he wasn't. No one was.
'It's not real, I don't want to die. Please… someone save me.' Isle pleaded hysterically to no one.
'I didn't even get to say goodbye… W-why? Why…'
He wiped his face, But the tears just wouldn't stop, Infact they'd grown even worse as he thought back to all the memories he'd made with his friends and family.
His eyes were still completely shut, As if looking away and ignoring the truth would make it disappear.
Sobs of anguish rang through the realm.
A gentle voice cut through the sobs and announced.
[Isle Calamitas, You've dueled with 2 deities and one pseudo-homunculus, Contracted with 2 deities, And partially awakened the Grimoire amongst other achievements. Rewards are being allocated.]