The Second Spirit

Ray looked up at Katarina with surprise. Katarina was standing in front of him and was reaching out to him with her hands. Ray looked behind Katarina and saw the puppeteer on his knees, squirming in pain while holding the pierced part of his stomach.

Katarina said, her tone sounding demanding, "Ray Foster. Forge a contract with me right now if you don't want everyone else here to die too in the hands of that moster."

Ray was still really confused. He looked back at Katarina. He said, "But... But how? I already have Yuki. We also don't know if we're compatible. I…"

Katarina interrupted him. She was sounding annoyed as she said, "Listen to me. I'll explain everything later. Just forge a contract with me now. If you don't, the puppeteer will just annihilate us all. We're the only ones who can fight right now."

Ray had many questions storming his mind, but he couldn't stand the pressure and said, "Ok. Ok, I'll do it."

Ray stood up and started the contract forging process. He said, "O holy spirit. I, Ray Foster, hereby request you to forge a contract with me and help me to cleanse the world."

Katarina extended her hand, and they locked each other's hands. As they did, Katarina said, "I accept you as my contractor."

The moment Katarina said that, Ray felt a storm in the spirit lines in his body. He felt like his body was burning. Ray started screaming in uncontrollable pain and fell down. But Katarina didn't let go of his hand. Katarina said, "Calm down, Ray. Let the spirit energy flow freely. Don't constrict them. Your body is just making new spirit lines to connect your spirit lines with me. Just hang on."

Ray kept lying on the ground and kept on screaming. He felt like something was cutting a line through his meat and lit a fire in the cut area.

After almost four to five minutes, Ray finally began to calm down as the pain began to subside. Almost a minute more later, the pain totally disappeared, and Ray finally felt at ease.

Ray slowly got up. Katarina was still holding on to Ray's hand, and there were visible signs of relief on her face. She asked, "Can you feel the new spirit lines in your body?"

Ray nodded silently. Katarina smiled and said, "Awesome. It worked. Now try to flow spirit energy through these new lines and let me tap onto them."

Ray closed his eyes, and in a few seconds, Katarina began to change forms.

She turned into a beautiful sword. The sword had a pristine blue tint on the blade, and there was a sapphire imbued to the hilt.

Ray looked at the sword with awe in his eyes. Katarina said, "My base form is supposed to be according to the purity of your spirit energy. I've never seen such a pristine and pure blue colour before. Your spirit energy is really pure."

Ray was going to say something, but he got interrupted by the puppeteer. He said, "Are you done? I'm getting bored here."

Ray took a sharp turn and looked towards the voice and saw the puppeteer standing ten to eleven meters away in a very leisurely manner. The puppeteer said, "I'm getting sleepy here, waiting for your shenanigans to end. Are you done? Can we resume the play again?"

Ray felt oddly calm this time. He didn't feel scared about fighting; the puppeteer's words didn't annoy and anger him. He just… He just stayed calm.

The puppeteer stood straight up and took a fighting stance. He said, "Come on now. I've waited too long."

Ray replied, "Sure. Time for you to die."

Ray ran towards the puppeteer in full speed. As he got close, he swung his sword, aiming at the puppeteer's neck. But the puppeteer blocked the attack with his cane. But Ray didn't stop and landed a powerful kick on the side of the puppeteer's stomach. The kick sent the puppeteer flying.

Thanks to Yuri, Ray had regained all the blood he had lost, which allowed him to go back in blood pact mode. He thanked Yuri in his mind and Ran after the puppeteer. He grabbed the puppeteer by his coat before he could regain control of his body and threw him towards some trees. The throw was so hard that he broke three trees and then fell to the ground.

The puppeteer tried to get up, but Ray reached him before he was able to. Ray stomped on the puppeteer's stomach and said, "You've taken a lot from me. No more. Go burn in the deepest corners of hell."

Before the puppeteer could retaliate in any way, Ray pierced his heart through with his sword. Black blood of the puppeteer stained the sword as the puppeteer grabbed on the sword to try to pull it out. But he didn't have enough strength left in his body to do so. Once he realised he couldn't retaliate anymore, he gave up. That's when the puppeteer started seeing someone behind Ray.

Seeing the person, the puppeter's eyes lit up. He said, in a sudden sweet voice, "Oh. Now I get it. It was you all along, my liege. I'm sorry, I left your side when I pledged not to do so for eternity. I'm sorry, my liege. Thank you, boy. No. Thank you, young liege, for freeing me of this curse."

Silk was seeing all this from behind some trees. She left as the puppeteer let out his last breath.

Once Ray was sure that the puppeteer had died, he took the sword out of the puppeteer's body and cleaned the blood with his sleeves. There were a thousand new questions in his mind. Who did the puppeteer see behind him? What's this curse he was talking about? Why did the puppeteer suddenly call him young liege? The questions were clouding his mind.

Ray went to the place where he had put down Yuki and Sakura and sat down, leaning against the other side of the tree. Katarina switched back to his human form and sat down next to him.

Katarina said, "Thanks for letting me avenge the death of Conrad. Sorry for being selfish. I wasn't really sure that we could forge a contract. I just wanted to take revenge in my own hands. But.."

Katarina looked at Ray as he wasn't saying anything and saw that Ray had fallen asleep.

Katarina smiled and said, "Thank you," as she took Ray's head and put it on her lap. She started running her fingers through Ray's hair.

When Ray woke up, he found out it was already nighttime. As he felt softness under his head, he put his hand to look for what it was. He soon realised that he was sleeping with his head on Katarina's lap.

He frantically got up and turned around as he said, "I'm soo sorry. I didn't realise." But he saw that Katarina was sleeping, leaning to the tree.

He couldn't figure out what to do, so he decided to check on Yuki and Sakura. He got up and was going to check after Yuki, but he quickly realised that he didn't have to as he saw Yuki calmly sleeping next to him.

Just then, Sakura came and stood in front of him. She asked, "Are you OK?"

Ray nodded and said, "Yeah. I am. What about you?"

Sakura nodded. She said, "I received new orders from Lost Eden. You're going to have to come with me. You're to be present in your court trial for the Delhi incident next week."

Ray didn't react against it and said, "Ok." He had faith in Mrs. Karim.

Somewhere in the wastelands

Silk frantically entered what seemed like a cave and started yelling, "The prince has started to regain his full power. The prince has started to regain his full power."

A huge human-like man with six arms and what looked like two antennas on his head came to Silk and said, "What? Stop screaming."

A harsh, rugged voice came in from the shadows. "Calm down, Anton. You too, Silk. No matter how strong he gets, he won't be powerful enough to stop us this time."