Magic Apprentice

Chapter 3: Pact (2/6)

Crazy hadnt been interested in the legends at all. But she did however have a great desire to see the demon race. A long time ago, she tried to find and capture an elder demon, but the elder demons were intelligent beings and would not be fooled by her. All that she was able to find were some primal monsters and stygians. And so Elric had been given the arduous but illustrious missionbeing bait. Of course, Crazy had given Elric two weapons to protect himself. With that, she was already far better than Victor by a lot.

Before his entry into Nadirheim, Crazy gave him a long blade about a meter and nine inches long. At its thickest, the blade was a finger wide. The blade itself was long but slightly bent so that with each swing, a swishing sound could be heard as it traveled through the air. It was a light blade that was well suited for one-on-one battles where swiftness was emphasized. Flat and smooth was the blade with not a single inscription on it, and no hilt either, making it a sword that only the confident should use given enough faith in their sword skills. A drawback of the sword was that the hilt was very short and was barely long enough for Elric to grasp hold of with his forefinger, middle finger, and thumb. The ring finger and pinky were completely useless in holding the sword since all it would grab would be the air itself rather than the hilt. It was on the handle of the sword that an inscription could be seen in dark red runic script. According to what Crazy had said about this sword, it was a powerful one; a magical piece of equipment that could choose its owner even. With the name Crimson Teardrop, Crazy said that it could absorb the lifeforce of the enemy and transfer it over to its owner and would thus bring more and more power to its owner. 

There was no such thing as a free meal, however. There was a price to use the Crimson Teardrop in the form of the lifeforce of the owner itself with time. As a result of this terrible price, Crazy had no desire to use the sword, but at the same time, it would be a waste to toss it away. But fortunately for her, Elric was the perfect person to be used as bait and the Crimson Teardrop would perhaps help give him an opportunity to live, even if it was just by a little bit. Having known the facts, Elric had to debate with himself for a very long time before finally resigning himself to taking the blade. According to his logic, even a rice straw could be used to save his life, so he may as well use it. Following a single ritual to register himself as the owner of the Crimson Teardrop, the blade was now his to ownthough the ritual had nearly cost Elric his life. 

As things turned out, the ritual required a tremendous amount of blood from the owner as sacrifice for the sword. This sacrifice had caused Elric to fall into an anemic state of weakness, but before he could even recover, Crazy had thrown him into Nadirheim. If not for his other magical equipment to help him, Elric would have most likely become a decoration for Nadirheim and nothing more. 

The second piece of magical equipment had been a polished two-way piece of iron that shined like a mirror. Crazy had called this the Moonlight Lens, an item capable of absorbing moonlight and transforming it into mana. Crazy had not known about the effects of the Moonlight Lens and had given it to Elric. Furthermore did she not know the fact that in Nadirheim, the effects of the moonlight would be so much stronger than in the human world. On the very first usage of the lens, Elric had nearly exploded from all the mana flowing into him. 

So, this first attempt at magic had left Elric at a conundrum of whether he should be happy or concerned with himself. But still, the amount of mana within the Moonlight Lens had been enough for Elric to use at will. Even now, he was capable of casting fireballs and lightning bolts whenever he pleased. Even if he didnt want to use mana within the lens, he had no choice but to do so anyways since the moonlight that was being converted into mana would explode the lens should it take in too much. No matter how much Elric tried to stow away the lens, the intense rays of the moonlight would still find a way through to it. Thus, a continuous cycle of using it for three hours before resting for three hours and then repeating the cycle had started.

Unbeknownst to Elric, a small portion of that mana had infused itself with his body and flowed within his bloodstreams in a continuous loop. It had been something he didnt know about, and neither did Crazy. If not for the Moonlight Lens, then this wouldnt have been possible. If not for the weakened state of Elric at the beginning, then this wouldnt have happened either. If Elric could use magic like any other magus and used the normal ways to cast magic, then this wouldnt have happened either.

Under the harshness of the environment, Elric had managed to persist for three full days but his mind was already on the verge of snapping. The strain of maintaining the barrier around him had taken a toll on his mental state and forced his strength to dip as well. Furthermore, it was now day time where there was no moonlight to be absorbed into the lens for mana. So to survive under the harsh sunlight during this time would be a very challenging task. With the intense rays of sunlight reflecting off the surface of everything, Elric could only see the sunspots and a blur of red. But then a sudden black smoke had appeared right in front of his eyes at that very moment.

Smoke began to roll in from every direction as if it was being controlled by something. An intangible form slowly began to shift into view. From the smoke, a vague face began to form along with an animalistic claw, but besides from that, the rest of its body took no definite shape and roamed about freely.

Human, forboden is thine intrusion upon the realm of daemons. Rejoice, for sustenance thine flesh shalt provideth. Despair, for Nadirheim shalt provideth home eternal for thine soul. The voice of the smoke suddenly squeezed its way within Elrics mind.

Alarmed, Elric had immediately let out a magical signal that would alert Crazy in the other world. Originally, the two of them had agreed upon a signal that would notify Crazy when he encountered the demon race. Crazy would then prepare the entire barrier and array to the other world since Elric only needed to survive within this world for a certain time.

Repeatedly shouting out the signal, Elric grew even more panicked as he whirled his head around to look at the skies. Right now, he could only pray that the demon would slow to move his hand. If not, then there was no hope left. As a demon made from smoke, no physical attack would be able to harm it. Its the daytime right now, dont the demons love the darkness? So why isnt this demon sleeping right now? What an immoral demon! Elric had screamed to himself in his mind.

An interesting trap, The smoke praised, verily, it would appear thou art not to blame. A pitiful creature thou art, to be bait and nothing more.

The demon was surprisingly quick to grasp the truth. An outcome Elric began to fear the consequences of.

Very well. A choice thou wilt be given. A decision thou shalt give. Pitiful creature, surrender thine soul or thine flesh.

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