Raith’s eyes were brimming with resolve.
Perhaps he had thought deeply about it and made up his mind. After his experience with the abyss, it was only plausible that he loathed primordials and everything about them.
Allowing relations of any sort with another primordial whom he had no tangible information on was dangerous... at the very least to him.
Which was why he had to weigh what he had to gain and what he had to lose.
And sadly, he had everything to lose.
After the abyss left, he was reduced to stage one. Luckily, Thard-Harl swooped in from nowhere and began training him.
He had grown in raw strength, and it was not by sheer coincidence but hard work.
He could lose all of that just by playing it wrongly with this woman in front of him.
’She’s not to be trusted, but I don’t think I have any other choice right now...’
Raith frowned while a little grin crawled across her face.
"What’s funny...?" he asked.
"I just find humans an amusing subject."
Raith’s eyes thinned, his head cocking to the side. ’No, forget I don’t have a choice right now. I will dump her ass and leave her to rot.’
He was not having it at all! Why in the first place was he even feeling like he had no choice about it?
’Yes. Let’s bla that darned thing that is happening to my chest. She must be using so kind of primordial abilities on ,’ Raith postulated.
That had to be the case, because what else would make this bunch of nonsense he was feeling make any sense?
He thought deeply for a while, his eyes lingering on the lady who, after his words, had suddenly grown gravely silent.
As his eyes seed to co out of the chamber of his thoughts, refocusing back on reality, the lady’s ethereal voice rang, singing lodies of sparrows.
"Have you given it enough thought?"
He shook his hand at her. "I’m sorry, I can’t help you. Get your BS out of my soul plane right now."
The lady, slightly shocked, raised her head a bit, revealing her enchanting eyes.
"How can you say that? You have so much to gain from being my sponsor."
Raith paused, his expression blank. He looked like he was thinking at first; the lady thought he was. But the next beat, he responded.
"Yeah. No thanks."
"Do not do this!"
"Primordial, no thanks. I don’t need a sponsor. Leave my soul plane."
"But but... you were about to accept right now. You just said we should make the contract. What is wrong?"
"Yes, exactly. I was about to, then I started having thoughts like I have no choice. I hate that—never again will I be helpless against your kind."
The lady was silently, secretly gritting her teeth.
"You arrogant thing. What do you want?"
An ear-to-ear grin parted Raith’s lips. "Looks like we are just beginning to speak the sa language."
The lady made a slight frown, looking at Raith who continued.
"Well, it’s nothing important and much. What I just want to say is: I will make the contract myself."
The primordial raised her head, crimson eyes piercing from beneath her bamboo hat.
Her eyes were glaring with a dangerous light, one that Raith was acutely aware of.
But in a situation like this, he had hit the nail on the mark by discovering that the Primordial needed him more than he needed her.
He was not about to make himself get played twice.
"A player writing the terms of the contract is unheard of..."
Raith watched her mouth as she paused.
She hesitated, swallowing her spit, and continued.
"...but because of how special you are, I will make an exception. But do not take this for granted."
The lady extended her hand; above it, a white paper and feathered ink pen appeared.
She pointed to Raith, and the paper and pen slowly floated towards him.
"You can just command it," she instructed.
Raith nodded and looked at the ink pen, licking his lips. The primordial’s gaze stayed on him, keenly observing what he was going to do.
Before he started, she rembered to add, "Once the contract starts being written, it cannot be stopped, so think carefully about what you want to write."
Raith nodded, a delighted smile playing on his lips. "Yes yes, I get it, I understand well."
He continued to stare down at the paper and pen for a while, then his voice finally ca out, starting the contract.
"For starters, we will go over the basics. This is a contract of agreent between..." He looked at the lady.
"Forsaken Star."
"Forsaken Star, who is the Sponsor, and Raven Raith, who is the Player, that is ."
As if the pen had a mind of its own, it stopped for a brief second as Raith ntioned his na, then continued nonetheless.
Raith continued:
"This contract is a witness that Forsaken Star will give Raven Raith, , all the privileges that are expected and required as a Sponsored player without hiding anything. She will also reveal every information about the past as she promised that she would.
"In return, Player Raven Raith, , will protect Forsaken Star with everything he has, and prevent her from dying. This contract cannot be annulled unless Player Raven Raith says so, and in a case where Forsaken Star betrays Player Raven Raith, Player Raven shall still maintain all the benefits of this contract."
Throughout, Forsaken Star was staring with an astounded gaze.
"Then that’s all."
The pen finally stopped writing. The inked writing on the paper began to glow with a faint golden light, and the paper floated to the Primordial.
She flicked her hand, then imprinted her fingerprint on the contract with her blue, starry blood.
The paper floated over to Raith; he instantly brought out a dagger, placed his index finger on its tip, then also stamped the contract with his own blood.
With that, the contract was effective imdiately. What neither Raith nor Forsaken Star expected, however:
[Congratulations]
[You have beco a Sponsored Player]
[Several Privileges Have been unlocked]
[Your body serves as a vessel to host a primordial]
[Being bound to a Primordial by contract, your body shall beco a Vessel for its consciousness and powers]
"Eh?"
Raith raised his head, mouth opened.
Forsaken Star frowned. "What is going on?"
Raith slowly shook his head, his eyes sincerely conveying the ssage of his words.
"I’m sorry."
Forsaken Star widened her eyes, but in that instant, about a hundred pitch-black tal chains shot out of Raith’s body and wrapped around her.
"What insolence is this?!" she scread.
Raith shook his head, disarrayed.
"I too have no idea what is happening."
The more she resisted, the stronger the darkness chains wrapped around her body and pulled her closer to Raith.
"Do sothing about this, you damned human!"
"I’m sorry, I don’t think I can control it at all!"
Raith was seriously trying, but he felt equally helpless with this strange power as she did.
"Are you not a Primordial? Break yourself free or sothing!"
"Damn human, these are chains forged by Baal to capture specifically a Primordial! I cannot do anything about it!"
She scread as she got pulled closer inch by inch; her resistance continued, but the chains’ stubbornness only grew by leaps and bounds with her resistance.
Raith’s body shimred with an ethereal darkness; he felt like his entire body was opening up.
His soul plane suddenly beca very dark; the darkness that retreated to the corners crawled further and shot out extra chains that went around the Primordial, forcing her to her knees and binding her from all sides.
The chains, oozing with darkness, wrapped her hands and pulled them apart as she was being dragged forcibly closer to Raith.
A realization ignited her eyes as this continued.
’I should have never let him write the contract.’
She had not taken into account—rather, she was uninford really—of how strong a vessel Raith was. Even though she had the idea of how strong, she didn’t think a re formality like this would suck her into his soul.
All she wanted to do was beco a sponsor and manage to live through all this.
Not just the players had to gain from the sponsorship. The primordial also had to gain a lot.
When sponsored players face off against sponsored players, not just the players are facing off. The primordials too are.
The primordial becos untouchable by other primordials, protected by the set of rules that primordials themselves have created to preserve and protect themselves.
And having a player like Raith on her side was a boon—a ruler and a vessel created by Baal and Broken Moon to entrap the Abyss.
What was happening now was telling her that indeed she had made the right decision. Raith was that powerful. However, she did not like this at all.
Her plan didn’t include being trapped in the soul of so damned guy.
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