Contract With Pride

"WHAT DID YOU SAY??!!"

Evan's voice filled with pure rage rang out, and the air trembled with each word, as for the one being spoken to, she felt fear.

'Me? This me? Is scared of a child who's still wet behind the ears?'

She couldn't understand it, she was nonplussed, she was someone who was not scared when she was ambushed by dozens of beings over level 700, she was someone who wasn't scared even when the demon king attacked her.

Yet she was sure the emotion she currently felt was fear, she could not comprehend why.

Evan on the other hand felt indescribable rage towards Pride, or rather the words Pride just said.

If Wrath was present, then he would have considered Evan's rage as a full-course meal. That was just how angry he was.

Rage towards the phrase 'Puppet of the gods' bloomed from the depths of his heart, his thought process was clouded by it and he could not see or hear anything else.

It was at that point in time that a familiar light blue notification board appeared in front of Pride.

[The goddess 'Artemisia' demands you do apologize immediately]

[The goddess 'Artemisia' warns you to never imply that the entity – Evan ###### is a servant or puppet of any and every divine being.]

[The goddess 'Artemisia' requests you change the topic to draw his attention away from your earlier words.]

[The goddess 'Artemisia' DEMANDS you change the subject of discussion immediately!]

[The goddess 'Artemisia' ...]

She was shocked once again.

Pride possessed some knowledge of how the system of the gods worked, knowing fully well that sending messages of any kind to beings not from a world under their control, or beings who were not their believers, cost a lot of energy.

More than three times the amount required to send a message to a being who was from a world under their control or their believer.

Yet, Artemisia was continuously spamming her with messages telling her to change the topic or apologize to Evan immediately.

She instantly understood that her action of calling him a 'puppet of the gods' was the trigger for the change in attitude she just witnessed.

In order to prevent getting on a god's bad side, especially when she was at her weakest, she did not hesitate in doing as Artemisia said.

"So, what about Altrishia, where is she?"

To her surprise, Evan returned to normal instantly, not even realizing that the way he just acted was clearly irregular and abnormal.

He also did not notice the censored words on his status, reveal themselves before being covered up once again by Artemisia.

He answered her normally like before.

"She's probably wandering the continents at regular intervals."

Pride just stared at Evan in shock, not understanding how a person's attitude could change at the drop of a hat.

Meanwhile, Evan who was wondering why his hand was on his sword, let go of it as he recalled the information about the strongest beings in Aidos.

The beings over level 800 in Aidos numbered very few, not more than a few hundred, and as for level 900s, they were just 5.

'Dragon Lord' Altrishia,

'Elven Emperor' Zaos,

'Beast King' Kolvar,

'Smith Master' Vulwin, and

'Strongest Human' Rathal.

They were the only beings in all of Aidos who were over level 900, however, none of them was over level 950.

Even so, they were still strong enough to be counted as natural disasters.

There were two inhabitable continents in Aidos, the Alpha and Beta continents. They were divided by a large river and some small groups of islands.

These five beings came together and decided to not reside in one continent, splitting themselves between the two.

The Elven Emperor Zaos and the Smith Master Vulwin resided on the Beta continent. They founded their countries there.

The Beast King Kolvar and the 'Strongest Human' Rathal resided in the Alpha continent.

Kolvar was the king of the Beast man kingdom in the south of the Alpha continent, his existence was the reason why many did not dare discriminate against the beast kin like they did hundreds of years ago.

A country that enslaved beastkin and advocated human supremacy and enslaved beastkin was destroyed by him single-handedly before.

That struck fear into the hearts of the highest continental powers at the time, even the Great Eastern and Western empires. They left a message to their descendants.

'Never go against the Beast King.'

As for Altrishia, she wandered the continents at regular intervals, never staying on one for too long. Most of the time, she stayed on one of the islands in between the two continents.

"She should be on her island now right?"

[The goddess 'Artemisia' says you are not allowed to know that information, as you are still too weak]

"Wtf?! It's just someone's location?"

[The goddess 'Artemisia' says it is the location of a transcendent being, one with a higher ###### ###### than you.]

[The goddess 'Artemisia' says you are too weak to even know 'what' she has higher than you. She sighs and implores you to get stronger]

"Level 900 isn't exactly something I can achieve easily you know?"

He sighed and looked back at Pride and asked.

"The contract? Still up for it?"

Pride who was still shocked at his change in atmosphere nodded absent-mindedly.

The moment she gave her consent, the ground glowed and a six-ringed magic circle filled with more runic symbols than the current Evan's brain could compute made its appearance.

It was the sealing magic that the Previous second used to seal Pride.

And it was doing its job of trying to prevent her from moving from that spot.

Before Pride could tell Evan to do something about it, they heard a voice.

[Break]

And it broke, the tier 6 magic circles shattered instantly, leaving only one behind. The last circle then slightly changed in structure.

"Artemisia? Was that you?"

Silence.

He received no reply, he then remembered her saying she was not allowed to interfere in this world.

'Perhaps she broke a rule just now?'

Deciding to think about it later, he hurriedly activated the contract magic on Pride. The contract was established with a magical chain binding the two.

It was a 50/50 contract of mutual cooperation.

Even if she was weakened, it was simply impossible for Evan to place a demon like Pride under his control, as such he had to settle for this.

The information about the contract flowed into his mind, allowing him to understand the benefits and drawbacks of the contract.

'Shared experience, huh?'

One of the effects of the contract, was shared experience between him and Pride.

Their levels were tied together and any experience points gotten by one of them was shared between the two.

So even if Pride was the one who killed the monster, Evan would receive half the experience and vice versa.

The good part was that Evan's extra experience boosts also applied to Pride so the experience she would get upon killing any creature would be higher than normal.

Besides that, the two now had a connection that they could use to talk telepathically and a few other minor effects.

A magic crest appeared on the back of his palm. It was the crest of a sword inscribed in a circle.

The moment the contract was finalized, Pride's incorporeal form made by condensed magic disappeared and her real body manifested itself.

"It's a refreshing feeling."

She picked up the sword in front of her a swung it slightly.

"Tch...last time I did that, a level 600 died, now I can barely cut the air."

"You've got to recover your strength, you can re-enter the sword to sleep you know?

Artemisia didn't destroy the magic circle that put you in it, she even modified it so you could enter and come out at will."

"Yes, but I want to be outside for now. I've been in that sword for a thousand years, don't exactly have any happy memories of it."

"Makes sense"

Evan chuckled as he appraised the sword in Pride's hand. The details of the weapon were the same as in the game, along with its effects.

|Sword of Pride (Vanitas)

Type; One-handed Sword.

Woe to those who dare to stand against the wielder of this sword.

As the weapon wielded by the High Demon Pride, this blade is capable of cutting down whoever has the gall to antagonize its wielder.

While the primary effects of this sword can be used by those given permission to wield it by the Demon of Pride herself, Its true ability can only be manifested when wielded in the hands of the incarnation of Pride.

Effect;

All shall fall by this sword. It matters not whether one is incorporeal or possesses a physical body, this sword deals damage to them regardless.

Infusing this blade with energy increases its wielder's overall attack power by 10%, and by 20% if the energy infused into the blade is demonic in nature.

[Locked Effect] |

Evan couldn't help but heave an exasperated sigh at how he missed out on such a good weapon in the game.

It was a pity that the true power of the sword could not be used by him as he did not possess Pride's 'Incarnation Series Skill'.

He looked the weapon over again before turning around and beginning to leave the room, gesturing for Pride to follow suit.

When they got outside, they were met with the scene of Ralphie lying unconscious and Laurene seated beside him, struggling to stay awake. Evan laughed at her and spoke.

"Laurene, wake up. It's time to go."