Chapter 16: The Second Subject

     After several minutes of seemingly endless walking, they finally reached the destination that Alguis was referring to. Reika looked around the area, checking it out of curiosity.

     "This is..."

     Behind Alguis lies a steep cliff of rock. There are a miniscule number of shrubs sprouting in the crevices on the cliff's wall. Luscious trees surround them, fluttering as the gentle winds hit the leaves of the trees.

     "This place should be enough..." Alguis murmured.

     Seeing that the place was safe enough, Reika walked towards Alguis and confronted him. Surprised, Alguis got confused by Reika's seriousness.

     "Mister Alguis, I... need you to offer your soul to me as an exchange for my assistance," Reika told him bluntly.

     An eerie silence between them emerged following her sudden request. The former king was baffled.

     Alguis stared at her with a slight fear and disgust in his eyes.

     "Miss Reika, are you a witch, perhaps? It seems like you're practicing some sort of evil arts..."

     Reika heard him and immediately denied Alguis' accusations.

     "Wh-what are you talking about? D-do I look like a witch to you!?" Reika exclaimed while waving both of her hands.

     Reika remembered the appearances of those witches she saw in western cultures and movies.

     "Oh..." 

     Reika sighed when both of them fell silent.

     Reika, how stupid can you be sometimes? Just be specific, you moron!

     "Uh, if that's not the case, Miss Reika, may I know what you mean specifically?"

      Seeing that Alguis was confused, Reika explained to him her ability.

      "The thing is, I possess this certain ability named"Contract". This ability forms a contract through submission of the target."

     Alguis wanted to ask further questions but noticed that Reika had something to add. He remained silent and let her continue.

     "My contract wasn't bound on a physical body, but rather on the spiritual body of a contracted individual. That's the reason why offering your soul to me by your own volition is needed in order to fulfill the contract."

     Although Alguis was still puzzled by such a revelation, he understood just the gist of it.

     "That would mean I would be your slave... right?"

     Reika widened her eyes, but she smiled at him gently afterwards.

     "I know that this looks like a slave... contract to you, Mister Alguis, but I assure you that our status will be the same as before, and I won't harm you unless I am forced to do so..."

     Alguis went silent. Reika could see the doubts and hesitation filling Alguis' eyes.

     "Don't worry, sir. What I truly seek is the other function of this ability. You'll see once I make you one of my contracts..."

     "Other function...?"

     Alguis hesitantly looked into Reika's eyes.

     Despite being a human known for greed and lust for power, she seems to be a good-mannered woman. There are no lies in her words, and I doubt she's harboring any ill intention towards me...

     In the end, he accepted Reika's demand.

     I'll trust her words... It's not good if I doubt her, knowing that we'll become allies in the future.

     Alguis stood up and kneeled in front of her, bowing his head slowly. As a former ruler of the Dwarven Kingdom, a royal kneeling in front of a commoner is unheard of.

     "I, Alguis Fellad, will accept your demand to be one of your contracted subjects in exchange for your assistance."

     Reika was surprised at first, but she knew that what Alguis did was just an act of formality. She extended her palm over his head.

     "Subjective Control."

     A bright purple light shone between them, and a purple shackle emerged in the air, materializing around Alguis' neck. 

     "This is..."

     Alguis noticed the shackle that surrounds his neck. He felt a slight discomfort at first, feeling a restraining sensation from it. 

     "Don't worry. It will disappear any second now."

     Alguis saw the disappearance of the shackle on his neck, and the discomfort he felt before vanished along with it.

     "From now on, I have the authority of your soul. Your life and death are in the palm of my hand, and disobedience would have consequences."

     "Like... what?" Alguis asked.

     "Erm, your shackle will tighten a little bit."

     Alguis touched his neck and held it in discomfort.

     "Don't worry, Mister Alguis. I'm sure you won't think of any malicious thoughts that could pose harm to me. I know you're a good person," Reika said while smiling at him.

     Since Reika reassured him of all his worries, Alguis stood up slowly.

     "So, what's the 'other function' that you speak of?" Alguis asked.

     "Oh... Hang on a moment."

     Reika closed her eyes for a moment. 

     Hmmm... What ability should I use...

     "Sir Alguis, pick any random abilities that you possess," Reika said while her eyes closed.

     Wondering why Reika asked such a question out of the blue, Alguis answered her anyway.

     "Uhm... Surface Liquefaction...?"

     Surface Liquefaction is an earth-type ability that I painstakingly trained for many months. It is great for ambushes and area-of-effect attacks...

     But I wonder why she asked me that, though...

     Alguis was surprised when Reika placed both of her hands on the ground.

    "Surface Liquefaction."

     "Huh...?"

     The ground began to transform into a viscous state. Shocked by the outcome of the ability, Reika was glad that she made Alguis one of her contracted subjects.

     While she was in awe, one thing that Reika overlooked was the effect of the ability. Alguis noticed it beforehand and notified her immediately.

     "Miss Reika! The ground!"

     Reika heard Alguis and immediately looked below. To her surprise, both of them were slowly sinking to the ground. She tried to tug her legs out, but her body sank even faster.

     "Miss Reika, deactivate this ability before we'd sink on the ground further!" Alguis exclaimed.

     Reika immediately cancelled the ability, and the ground returned to its former state. But even though the liquefaction came to a halt, both of them were still stuck on the hardened ground.

     "Ugh... I messed up!" Reika exclaimed.

     Alguis looked towards Reika and noticed that she had sunk deeper into the ground. Only her head, neck, and a small portion of her shoulders were visible, while the rest of her body was buried on the ground.

     "Miss Reika...!"

     Both of them struggled to get out by trying several methods to escape.

     "Ugh... I can't believe that the ground was too compact for me to get loose..!" Reika exclaimed.

     Since Alguis didn't move during the ground's liquefaction process, he wasn't buried that deep compared to Reika. He got buried up to his waist only, and escaping was just a matter of time for him.

     On the other side, Reika was still trying to move her body. But the soil around her won't budge at all.

     "Urghh! Hngggh!" 

     Alguis managed to free himself and immediately headed towards Reika. He checked if he could pull her out, but due to Reika's small and frail body, tugging her out with his strength might pose a risk to her.

     Alguis noticed that Reika panted heavily. He realized that, due to the compactness of the ground, Reika was experiencing a shortness of breath.

     "Hahhh... Hahh... I..."

     "Miss Reika! Just wait for a moment, and I'll think of a solution!"

     Alguis looked around him, searching for something that could help Reika get off the ground.

     I don't have any tools or abilities that could help her unstuck from the ground... What should I do...?

     Alguis paused for a moment.

     Should I manually dig her way out...?

     He looked directly at his hammeraxe, the Gotheimmer. 

     "Maybe if I used the axe side, I could possibly dig the soil out around her..!"

     Alguis looked back and saw that Reika's condition was getting worse.

     "Ghh! There's no time to hesitate!" 

     Without any second thoughts, Alguis rushed towards his hammeraxe and raised it in the air.

     "Miss Reika! Don't close your eyes and try to stay awake as much as possible! I will help you!"

     Reika couldn't speak anymore as she was losing her strength slowly. When Alguis was about to swing his hammeraxe, a familiar voice spoke from behind and asked him.

     "What are you doing?"

     Alguis paused for a moment and noticed that it was Reika's companion, Soru.

     Soru noticed that Reika was buried deep in the ground. Reika also saw Soru standing away from them.

     "Soru... This..."

     Reika couldn't finish her sentence when she finally passed out due to the shortness of breath. Soru, who doesn't know the actual situation, misunderstood it as intentional rather than an accident.

     Without any delay, he immediately raised his hand.

     Alguis noticed Soru's actions and sensed something ominous. He tried to explain his way out.

     "Kid... It's not what you-"

     Suddenly, he found himself floating in the sky and descended immediately. The weapon in his hands was gone, and Reika was nowhere to be seen.

     "Huh..?"

     He immediately looked around for Soru and Reika's whereabouts. In a distance, he quickly saw Soru was still standing without moving a single inch, staring at him as he fell to the ground.

     Seconds later, a loud thud could be heard as Alguis fell to the ground. He was hurt by the fall, and he groaned in pain as he slowly stood up from the ground.

     "Urghhh..."

     Alguis noticed that Reika wasn't stuck on the ground anymore, but rather was on a tree behind Soru, sitting while still unconscious.

     What...? How did it happen?

     "Veylir. Help her out," Soru said in a calm tone.

     Suddenly, Veylir popped out of nowhere.

     "Urk... Okay..."

     "Breath of the Wind."

     While Veylir was busy helping Reika regain her consciousness, Soru confronted Alguis.

     A confused Alguis fell silent. It was all too sudden for him, and he couldn't react in time in order to understand what was happening around him.

     Alguis snapped out when he noticed that something was approaching from above. He looked up and saw his hammeraxe falling directly towards him. 

     With his quick reflexes, he dodged it and grabbed the weapon swiftly. He was about to make a stance when several shadows appeared on the ground.

     He looked once again at the night sky, and what he saw surprised him.

     Several boulders were descending from above, heading towards him like a hail of stones falling from the sky. He quickly concluded that it was Soru's doing.

     With no time to hesitate, he quickly dodged every single one of them. As the boulders fell to the ground one by one, several slight tremors could be felt on the ground.

     Alguis swiftly dodged as many boulders as he could. He did all he could to avoid each one of them.

     When he tried to avoid the boulder, he assumed that it was the final one. To his surprise, a boulder suddenly appeared out of nowhere and fell from the sky. But this time, he couldn't dodge it in time because he was still in mid-air.

      Tch! I don't have a foothold to dodge that boulder! 

     Alguis tightened his grip on his weapon.

     In that case...!

     Alguis prepared his hammeraxe to break the incoming boulder with it. With a single breath, he swung the hammeraxe with his might.

     "Hyaaa--GHUUUUKKK!?"

     All of his strength was lost in an instant when he felt an extreme blow from his side as the hammer side of his hammeraxe made contact with the boulder's surface.

     What was that?

     That blow knocked him several meters away from the falling boulder, and he got slammed on the cliff's wall.

     "GHHAAAKKK!"

     When Alguis fell to the ground, he writhed in pain as the mysterious blow hit him too hard and managed to injure him.

     What is happening...? How did I- Bleurgh!

     Alguis spat his own blood while holding his hand on the part where he felt the blow.

     Urk... A few of my ribs seem to be broken...

     Still confused, Alguis looked around and noticed that the boulder that he was about to break hadn't shattered at all. Instead, it was still intact with no signs of damage.

     Alguis got confused even more and immediately fixed his gaze on Soru, who walked towards him with a blank face.

     That... That kid had such power?

     "What... did you do?" Alguis asked Soru while trying to suppress the pain he felt from the mysterious attack.

     "You human! What do you think you're doing to our majesty!?" A familiar female voice shouted out of nowhere. 

     Soru looked behind him and saw Aeden and Völun charging towards him.

     "Kid! I don't know what happened, but harming a royal is an act of treason!" Völun shouted as he charged towards him with his large hammer.

     "No! Don't attack-"

     Due to their rage, they didn't hear Alguis' plea and continued without knowing the hidden danger they were facing.

     Völun's weapon was the first one to manage to reach Soru, but what happened after was something they didn't expect.

     In an instant, Aeden and Völun felt a blow at their backs at the same time, pinning their bodies to the ground. The impact was so strong that they were immobilized in a flash.

     Both of them groaned in pain while lying on the ground, puzzled.

     "Ugghhhh...!"

     "What... Was that!? I didn't see the attack at all!"

     They were about to stand up when they noticed that the weapons in their hands were nowhere to be seen. They froze for a moment, wondering how their weapons had lost their grip.

     Both of them looked around, frantically searching for their weapon's whereabouts. They saw their weapons just lying in front of them. 

     Our weapons..!

     Aeden and Völun tried to grab their weapons and continue the fight. But out of nowhere, their hands and legs mysteriously got stuck on the ground.

     "My hand wasn't stuck just a second ago!" Völun said, surprised.

     "Why!? When did this happen?" Aeden exclaimed in confusion.

     Puzzled by the consecutive confusing events, it was added by another one when they noticed that the ground was dimming out. Both of them looked above in unison and saw a large boulder approaching towards them.

     "What!?" Aeden and Völun shouted in harmony.

     They immediately tugged their hands and legs off the ground in panic. They managed to pull some of their hands and legs, but there wasn't that much time to escape the descending boulder that was about to crush them to death.

     Alguis watched all of it and realized how terrifying the young individual was. He began to plead for his subordinates' lives.

     "I plead for your mercy, Mister Soru—"

     Alguis paused upon taking his glance towards Soru. In that moment, he finally realized one thing as he looked directly into Soru's grayish eyes.

     As the eyes of a man were the window of its soul, what Alguis saw was nothing but emptiness, devoid of any emotions or sympathy. 

     It is an eye that doesn't feel any remorse at all as it stares at the life or death of others; it is a person who would do anything he wants without evoking a single emotion.

     And in that fleeting moment, Alguis reached a single conclusion: They provoked the wrong individual.

     Alguis lowered his head and contemplated his incorrect approach to him. Because of his actions and words, it leads to this point of no return.

     Just when he thought that all hope was lost, Alguis heard someone yell Soru's name.

     "MASTER SORU! HEAR ME OUT JUST ONCE!"