Devil Contracts

Hello everyone, welcome to another rant of DxD lore settings, this time our topic is contracts, specifically Devil contracts. Now, when I say Devil contracts, I don't mean humans summoning Devils, no, what i am talking about is all kind of contracts that a Devil can get in, which include human related ones.

Now as far as the setting is concerned, we have seen 3 main type of contracts that all High-class Devils are expected to fulfill, they are: Summoning contracts, Familiar contracts and Magician contracts.

So let's start with them one at a time:

1-Summoning contract:

> Each Devil is given a certain territory in the human world, and they can only do their job within their territory.

>Our job is- in other words, we get summoned, make a contract, and then grant their wish.

>As a price, we receive an award fitting for the particular wish they make. It can be money, an object, and at times even their life.

>Well, it seems like there aren't any contractors who'll go as far as to use their life to make a wish.

>Even if there was someone like that, it usually gets cancelled since the price doesn't match up to their wish.

>According to Buchou, "People's values aren't equal".

>Yup, it's harsh.

>And the light flashing on the monitor shows the houses where people with a lot of greed live.

>So I go to these areas to hand out the magic circle leaflets.

>As long as there are lights flashing on the monitor, my work isn't finished.

>Because I turned into a Devil, other people and even the police don't pay attention to me. Humans don't realize my presence when I'm working.

>I've been pedaling my bicycle every day, but the light displayed on the monitor never disappears.

>That's just how much humans continue to have strong greed.

>Once you make a wish, it apparently becomes an addiction to keep on wishing for other ones.

>Making a contract is basically limited to night because Devils are only allowed to work at night. The daytime is a time for the Angels and God which is the part that I still don't understand.

>The leaflets can only be used once, so once they use it I'll have to hand it out again.--Volume 1, Life 2, Part 1.

As we can see, Devils are usually summoned by humans in the Dead of night to fulfill their wishes at a certain price. Each Devil is given a territory to manage and fulfill the wishes in. As for why they are doing this? Well, it used to be for power, as we can see here:

>"That's a Fallen Angel. They're former Angels who used to serve God, but have fallen to hell because they had evil intentions. They're also the enemy of us Devils."

>So now we're talking about Fallen Angels.

>Looks like we're entering a fantasy story.

>"We, the Devils, have been at war with the Fallen Angels since ancient times, fighting over the possession of the Underworld which is also known as Hell in the human world. The Underworld is split into two areas, one for Devils and one for Fallen Angels. The Devils form pacts with humans and receive their sacrifices to increase their strength while The Fallen Angels on the other hand control humans to eliminate Devils. The Angels come in to destroy these two races on God's orders, which created the three forces. This has been going on since ancient times."--Volume 1, Life 1, Part 8.

>We are devils. By the time the sky gets dark, that's when our real work begins. The job of devils is to be summoned by a summoning magic circle and to make contracts. By fulfilling their wish, we received a price. The price can be money, objects, and sometimes life. Lately there aren't many people who draw a magic circle to summon a devil. So current devils draw a magic circle on leaflets and give them out to humans with strong desires so they can do their business. Going back to the discussion from the meeting, it looks like the results from my work are bad. I still haven't made a single contract yet.... I feel so ashamed. No, I am getting jobs. That's not a problem. But every time I go to the client, weird things happen resulting in the contracts not being completed. I am getting close with the people who summon me.... Well devils are supposed to make contracts, so there's no meaning if I can't fulfill their wish even if I get friendly with them.--Volume 8, Life 1, Part 3.

I have to give it to Ishibumi, the man is gifted in the art of " Using many words yet describing so little". We have pretty much no solid reason on why some devils even fulfill this contracts. Well no, we do have, it's just not from a logical point of view.

See, for the Devils of old, fulfilling contracts almost always pays handsomely, they either are rewarded by souls, sacrifices, treasures, etc.... Things that would benefit them.

While this is still technically the case, the value and nature of both services and price has since changed. They no longer deal in souls and the like, well not officially anyways, and they have since expanded their services into more mundane type of tasks.

When people summoned devils in ancient times, it's almost guaranteed that the request they have involved death, jealousy, trickery, treachery, desperation. All in all, a sad affair for the human side.

Now? Devils are summoned to give BDSM massages, cook, be eye candy, play a game, be nerd buddies with you, etc... And the price also got ridiculously low, sometimes you can get paid 20 bucks or using a counterfeit painting sold on the street for 5 dollars.

See, not all deals of modern time are like this, devils can still get contacted for pretty heavy stuff, maybe save a life, maybe aid in business, etc... And they can get also worthy prices, a share in a human business, luxuries, treasures, influence, etc...

So to make a conclusion, even as they are now, devils lose nothing from holding up on contract fulfillment, even if most of them tend to be weird, but that's probably just the case for lower ranking devils, I'm sure High and Ultimate-class devils, and I mean the Status wise not power wise, fulfill only serious summons and shit.

Now, the reason why these low class devils would still go in this pretty much useless contracts, is "Status" so to speak.

See, old Devils are suckers for tradition, and since its those said old devils that are in power, fulfilling contracts is viewed as a duty for every Devil, and a way to show their worth. You can get promoted from a low class Devil by fulfilling enough contracts, or merits for the Underworld, but that's rare since that requires solving a problem for said Underworld, which is way more cumbersome and very rare to even find one.

But anyways, that is the most common kind of contract a devil would encounter. Let's move on shall we.

2-Magician contract:

>Now, everyone, there is only one reason why I called all of you here today. –From today on, we will be entering the time where we will start the work that we have been talking about, the pact with the Magicians."

>–The pact with a Devil. I swallowed my saliva, and then remembered. The relationship between Devils and Magicians was old and deep. It's a totally different thing compared to the one where a human makes a wish to a Devil by making a pact. People that were Magicians were basically those that polished their research on magic for their entire lives. There was magic such as black magic, white magic, summoning magic, spirit magic, rune symbols, casting from different locations, and many others. They chose the theme of their magic among them, and put everything they had in there for the rest of their lives. Each person had different ways of attaining it and mastering it.--Volume 14, Life 1,Part 2.

See, a Magician pact is a bit different than the usual Human-Devil contract. Usually, a devil summon is just a one off service where the Devil gets paid to perform something.

In the case of Magicians however, the pact is more long term usually, as it is a serious business for Devils. Here:

>There are three main reasons why a Magician makes a pact with a Devil. One is to use them as their bodyguard. When the time comes, having a powerful Devil behind their back will allow them to talk with opponents if they are caught up in a quarrel."

>"They sound like yakuza."

>When I said that, Rias answered by saying 'I agree' while smiling.

>Rias then put two fingers up.

>"Secondly, they make a pact because they want to attain the techniques and knowledge of Devils. To make it clear, the technique standards of the Underworld. These things will play a big role when Magicians do their research."

>If that's the reason, they could just go to the Underworld personally to get the things they want, or they could also get it through different routes. However, it seems like those methods had high risks. For the former one, it's risky because there were very limited ways to go to the Underworld. Those like me can go to the Underworld easily, but that's because I'm a servant of the 'High-class Devil Gremory'. Going to the Underworld was not an easy journey for Magicians, who weren't Devils.

>"The last reason is a simple one. They make a pact with a Devil for their own status. Making a pact with a powerful Devil will be a big fortune for them. My Otou-sama and Okaa-sama also have a pact with a Magician, you know? If something happens, they will respond to being summoned to hear their words. For a High-class Devil and their servants, that is one of their duties."--Volume 14, Life 1, Part 2.

If you look at this, you can understand that the actual benefiting side is the human one, as for Devils, this is more of a Status thing.

Now this isn't to say that devils gain nothing, they do get paid after all, they can also ask their Magicians for help in all kinds of Magic fields, for example making a tailor made spell matrix, preparing a ritual, lifting a curse, etc... This was the case with Issei, as he had his contracted Magician, Le Fay, unseal the Alphecca Tryant nail that was sealing away his perversion A.K.A. his powers in general.

But anyways, a pact isn't just a handshake and their you go, it is actually quite a powerful binding ritual:

>"Yes, if you are a human that is related to special powers, then normally you will be the one summoning. The ones who will get summoned are Devils and monsters after all. That is the reason why I want all of you to take importance with this pact. You won't be able to break off a pact that easily once you make one. If you make a pact, then you will have to work seriously. But if you make a pact with someone with low calibre, then people will question our quality. So choose the best trading partner there is. For Magicians, this is something to further improve their research on special powers, but for us Devils, this is business. The pact with a normal human and the pact with a Magician, doing both of them makes us Devils."--Volume 14, Life 1, Part 2.

So, when a Devil and a Magician aer entering a pact, they will need 2 steps, A contract and a ritual, here they are:

☆Paper contract:

>The document, which will be our contract, is written in Devil's symbols. Quickly explaining the context of it, it's written like one of those contracts you often see in the human world which goes: "I will make a pact with this person. After the pact, these are the sort of things I am allowed to do. And these are the things which I am not allowed to do".

>I spill my blood by cutting my palm with a knife. I use that blood to write my name in Devil's symbols. Le Fay also uses her own blood to write her name in magical symbols. With this, our pact is complete document wise.--Volume 17, Life 2, Part 1.

☆Binding Ritual:

>What's left is the official ritual. Le Fay and I enter the pact-purpose magic-circle that is written with animal's blood. We then chant the spell for the pact.

>The magic-circle starts to emit a mysterious shine.

>"In the name of I, Le Fay Pendragon, I shall make a wish to the "Pawn" of the Gremory-group, Hyoudou Issei. You shall make a pact with me, and become my sworn friend."

>The chants have been simplified quite a bit. Depending on the situation, you need to chant things like how we resulted in making the pact as well as the content of it. But this is a pact which is being done after Le Fay and I built trust between us, which in turn resulted in it being simplified.

>I also chant out the words I had memorised.

>"In the name of Hyoudou Issei, the "Pawn" of Rias Gremory's group, I shall promise to make a pact with you, Le Fay Pendragon, right here. And umm, let's get along from now as well."

>I bow my head down at the end like a Japanese person! Le Fay chuckles and also bows her head.

>"Yes, let's do get along."

>The Gremory's symbol appears on mine and Le Fay's cheek while the magic-circle disappears while emitting out light due to fulfilling its duty.

>...We really, really, did end this quite plainly, but was it really okay to end like this? I look towards Ravel and she is nodding her head. Looks like this is a success. Possibly due to the documents which have our signatures gaining some kind of power, the document is giving out a red light.

>"...Can I presume that this has finished?"

>I try to get Ravel's confirmation just in case.

>"Yes, you certainly can. With this, Ise-sama and Le Fay-san are partners in terms of business."

>Ravel tells me like that.

>So this is it huh. We went through many documents, but it ended immediately when I found the person who I will make a pact with.

>Now then, it's okay that our pact is completed, but...

>"So then, what should Le Fay and I do now?"

>Our pact is completed, so should we research about magic like how a partner should?

>Ravel then says after making a cough.

>"That will depend on Le Fay-san. If she chooses to do experiments on magic from now, she will need to summon you after this, but if she chooses to do the experiment tomorrow, she can just summon you tomorrow."

>So it's up to Le Fay then.

>Ravel then adds.

>"It's a five year pact. If she shows good results within five years, then it will be a win-win situation for you, Ise-sama."

>"In other words we don't have to do anything immediately."--Volume 17, Life 2, Part 1.

So that's that, a pact can be tailor made as much as both parties want, with all details often needed to thoroughly checked, as you don't want one side to scam the other.

As far as Human-Magician pacts we know, we have : The infamous pact between the ancient devil Mephisto Pheles and Johann Georg Faust, founder of the Grey Magicians(Grauzauberer) organisation, said magic organisation was entrusted then to Mephisto Pheles who is now it's Chairman, and has been since who knows how long.

We also have Zoeticus and Venelana Gremory, Rias' Father and mother for those who don't know. They were said to have contracted Magicians:

>"My Otou-sama and Okaa-sama also have a pact with a Magician, you know? If something happens, they will respond to being summoned to hear their words. For a High-class Devil and their servants, that is one of their duties."

Yes, since Rias, who is the daughter of the High-class Devil Gremory, has reached the appropriate age, it was decided for the Gremory group lead by Rias to enter the time for making a pact with a Magician.--Volume 14, Life 1, Part 2.

Moving on, we have the final contract.

3-Familiar Contract:

>Familiar. An existence which becomes the hand and foot of us devils. I was also told that they become handy for the devils job. Normally, handing out the leaflets are the jobs of a familiar. It was also the job for newcomers as well. I also handed out leaflets like mad at night while pedalling a bicycle…..--Volume 8, Life 2, Part 3.

Familiars are basically a devil's magical pet, they are usually a Devil's messenger and sometimes' partner in fight. Usually, devils get their Familiars from the Familiar forest.

Now something to understand before we continue. For whatever reason, some people think that the Familiar Forest is a public ground, or that it is accessible for all factions. That is quite not the case, the Familiar Forest is a private ground of the Devil Faction, Fallen angels, Angels, Yōkai, etc... can't really just waltz in and take ones, that's simply not possible.

But anyways, continuing on:

>"…..In the name of A-Asia Argento, I order you! Y-You shall become my familiar and respond to my contract!"

>We returned to the entrance of the forest. Asia opened a green magic-circle in front of us. The Sprite Dragon is located in the middle of the magic-circle, and the contract ceremony between Asia and the familiar is about to take place.

>Of course, since Asia is a beginner, Akeno-san is supporting her. But it seems like the ceremony is progressing very well. Akeno-san also seems relieved. Asia is very talented at being a devil, unlike me.--Volume 8, Life 2, Part 7.

As we can see, making a Familiar pact is quite easier, as it involves just a basic Contract and Summoning type magic. This contract allows a Master to summon their Familiars to their side anywhere, it also allows a telepathic link between the 2 parties.

Well that's the end of this rant, hope you guys got some useful information from this. Adios.