An unknown location near the northern pole of Solarith(the planet's name, in case you forgot) where only Blizzard could be seen, only tall glaciers were barely visible. Some would say it's beautiful while some would call it cold, like death. There was a grand cave entrance in a big mountain of ice.
In a vast, towering icy cave, where the chill permeates every corner, the breathtaking sight of shimmering icicles drapes from the ceiling, creating a mesmerizing spectacle of nature's frozen beauty. The ice around the place shone green for many seconds and went away and after some time it shone again.
A few hundred metres inside the unfathomable cave, where a temple lies, the place was totally frozen in such a way that words written in ancient forgotten languages were visible. The whole place was shining with green colour all over with a whole other level of intensity.
A man with his back on a certain stone lay there motionless, he was pale while his body was battered and soaked in blood, breaths shallow in the icy air. Dark streaks ran down his face, pooling at his lips before dripping onto his torn, blood-soaked clothes. His hands, stained and trembling, lay limp at his sides, fingers stiffening from the cold. Frost crept along the edges of his clothes, freezing the blood in patches, sealing him to the stone like an unwilling prisoner of the cave. His gaze, dim and unfocused, stared into the shadows, his pain numbed by the relentless chill that wrapped around him like a shroud.
His life was slipping past him, every second was a near death experience. His eyes though looked lifeless told a different story they were burning with resolve and focus, he knew he was not ready to die in such a place. He clenched his fist and looked up at a wall in front of him, which was shrouded in darkness that even the green light illuminating the cave couldn't reach.
He asked, " One chance, just give me one chance" His mouth was couching out more and more blood.
That was when a voice came, "If you ask for anything, you should know there is always a price... an equivalent exchange is something I call it." The voice came from that dark wall where it formed eyes with dark green fire on that darkened wall. That heavy voice felt like that of a ghost as if it could send shivers down the spine of a person listening to it. The voice wasn't of a person, a god, a deity or even a demi god, it wasn't even a demon but a devil... He had no emotions, those burning eyes were like the eyes of that fallen man, but nothing held them, they had no bonds. They were burning yet empty, " If you want something... I ask you, what can you give me"
"Anything... Anything the lord asks for" He breathed heavily, used all of his energy and mumbled, "If I can live another day, I can give the lord anything"
" Can you give your soul with which you can ask for power in place. The only valuable asset one possesses is the soul, it is the singular contribution that one can truly offer.
His instincts were making him remember the voices of people who told him, never to make a contract with the devil, never trade with your soul while he was hesitating on whether to accept it or not, that creepy ghostly voice echoed the place once more," Do you have the courage to place your soul in exchange for power, will you form a contract?"
He started shivering and with a little more thought he nodded in agreement.
His body brimmed with the same green light that of the eyes of the devil. His wounds started to heal, and his eyes on the other hand turned black. He was not wielding a blessing but a curse, in exchange for his soul. He was no longer human.
---
At the same time, near the capital city of Stormwold, Astradhal. Inside a cave where an ancient city was discovered by Aldric and his friends-
"Everything is alright but why did we only get... the... like... I thought it would be like..." Mukesh was hesitating, they were kind of robbed of their dreams as they wanted all the artefacts to be grade B but the three idiots only got one each and the rest were grade C.
"What is the problem? I said you mention every single artefact you want and now look at all three of you" Aldric shouted even though he didn't know the real reason for their hesitation.
"Captain, they thought that they would get every single grade B artefacts but they only got one." Mohan gave the clarification.
"What? You wanted all grade B artefacts... like seriously. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to just take out artefacts from the lab and give them to someone without anybody noticing... It is only possible because of Dr Einstein or we were just cooked... So, I don't want to hear any complaints now." He was kind of pissed.
"We got the artefacts and that military card, so now what? We are setting off?" Mohan asked.
"We will, tomorrow," Aldric said.
All of them got new artefacts, and Aldric got what he wanted the most, Magniflux.
It is a ring which is normally looking, it has a small gem in the middle except that nothing much about the looks, it is just a plane silver ring but besides that plane look, there is overwhelming potential, just as the name suggests it could magnify the quantity artificially, making the powers of catalyst better and bigger for a few seconds. If this artefact gets out it will be considered one of the best artefacts in the whole world.
This ring may not be so important for other catalysts like that of wind, fire and geo but it is most important for water catalysts as it could allow them to create more water while using a lot of vi-shakti-tejas, as catalysts can't make up matter they relay on the nature and nature can still cap them but for someone like Aldric who is a user of long forgotten Phantom Path, this becomes beyond valuation. Most of the time he uses Phantom hands, which are made by converting his unique vi-shakti-tejas into positive energy naturally which in turn gives him Phantom hands or anything he can make up with the help of his imagination. The Phantom hands are almost indestructible to normally attract but if enchanted swords or catalysts attack them, they can get unstable and soon get dissolved in air.
The other artefact that he got was the Mindflare prism, it is just a tiny prism that can be fit in the pocket easily. It was necessary to him so that he could feel the flow of vi-shakti-tejas more easily. It mainly makes the control over his Phantom hands many times better. He can even create a lot of them.
Some people thought if they could use two artefacts at the same time they could get better results but it is not that simple, even though two artefacts acted better than one but the increment in performance they got was not that satisfactory, so the artefacts researchers created the brand new artefact that lets you use two and even three at the same time without losing much value for the money of artefacts and it even reduced the amount of vi-shakti-tejas required for activation of two same artefacts at the same time. This artefact was known as Fusion Halo.
Another artefact that Aldric got was, an angular resonator, it was a resonator class artefact which is too costly for even grade B. Resonator artefacts let users switch the frequency of vi-shakti-tejas from the original negative to positive. When the frequency is positive, it takes almost no resistance when used in the atmosphere.
Aldric on the other hand could naturally convert the negative frequency of vi-shakti-tejas into positive, he still couldn't maintain the stability of one Phantom hand for a very long period of time, he had to keep on switching over and over again in order to maintain the strength that phantom hand. If he used the angular resonator, he could maintain the stability of any hand for a very long time without losing almost no strength.
Aldric needed a lot more artefacts but he could not make the doctor do the illegal activity too obviously, the last artefact that he got was a pinpointer artefact, he got one for himself and one for Suresh. This artefact is considered mid in the market as it only gives the user the ability to make his/her projectiles more pointy, mainly used to make wind bullets and with a few other artefacts it was very useful for geomancers.
With this artefact, Aldric can make his Phantom hands pointy which can be useful for stabbing his enemies. This artefact was just a normal-looking plastic bracelet on the outside but in reality, it is heavy.
The creator of all of these artefacts was the world's best artefact designer, Dr Einstein, he was not the one who could make the artefacts look good, like a piece of jewellery rather he made the best artefacts customisation, all of his artefacts outside looked basic though.