Contracts are Absolute! [Chapter 1]

Lear wasn't sure how much time had passed but he had stopped resisting and accepted he already had or would die here. Funnily enough, once he had resigned himself and stopped trying to struggle, his numb mind felt as if it was being gently cradled. He began to warm up and the pressure that was suffocating him now brought him a peculiar sense of comfort as his sense of reason started to dwindle. He soon felt weightless almost as though he was floating.

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Lear was baffled. He didn't know how long he'd been there, suspended in place in the middle of nowhere and unable to percieve anything, let alone sensations. "Am I still alive..? How long have I been here like this? It feels like it has been centuries. Why am I still here?! Will I be stuck here forever?!" These were the sorts of thoughts that would flood through his panicked mind from time to time like crashing waves. Not knowing whether seconds or years had passed was a horrendous feeling and it had begun to take its toll upon him, causing him bouts of panic, frustration and mental agony. The idea he may be stuck like this forever especially bothered him. He was sure this must be hell. No feeling, no sense of time or direction. Only lonely panic and endlessly wresting with his own thoughts awaited him for who knows how long. And amidst these thoughts, which caused seconds to stretch and feel like years, a century passed, then a millenium. Of course, Lear had no way of knowing this.

All the while, Lear had been thinking. He continuously reflected on himself. By then he had recalled each and every battle he partook in thousands of times. His mind continued to cycle furiously between disbelief, denial and acceptance of his circumstances. And at the end of it all, regret for not being able to save anyone dear to him or completing his revenge. Little did he know, his clear, structured thoughts, as well as conviction and his attempts to renew his identity had accidentally prevented his soul from dissipating. Thus, the usual loss of consciousness, namely death, hadn't truly taken place. Instead, his existence was becoming more and more well defined once again.

All of a sudden, a strange occurrence took place. Lear heard a voice. It was so quiet that the first time that he heard it, he simply mistook it as static in his ears and potentially the coming of insanity. However, the distant voice rung out again, seemingly too far to make out words. Knowing he was unable to investigate its origin in his current state, he ignored the voice and returned to his own thoughts, recalling weapon motions to distract himself as he often did. Instead of dying down though, the voice seemed to gradually get louder with each repetition, but not any closer or any clearer. The sounds recurred without a moment of rest, as if a recording had been played on repeat. But even after the ten thousandth repetition, it seemed no matter how he tried, he wouldn't be able to decipher or comprehend the strange mutterings that ceaselessly continued, growing deafening.

Out of the blue, a burst of pain flared up and ripped through him to his very core. It coursed through his mind and his spiritual body began to rapidly burn up, to the point of boiling. This pain didn't end nor subside, it just continued to burn, as if he was swimming in molten lava. His mind was, without a doubt, subjected to the most intense of agony, going blank at times. Burning alive, or dead in this case was an unpleasant affair to say the least.

Excruciating days later, he slowly became accustomed to the pain that had rendered his mind largely immobile until then. As he regained his ability to think, he noticed the previously intangible sentences were now comprehensible. No sooner than he had noticed, he felt his spirit lurch violently. When he finally came to a stop, he felt it immediately.

He visualised opening his eyes and as he had expected, his eyes really did open. He was able to see again and so, he looked around, bewildered. The first thing he noticed is he was floating above clouds. He was in a vast space, stretching as far as he could see in all directions. It was as if he was in a painting. The predominant baby pink was perfectly blended with an array of orange and yellow hues running in the distance in swathes. As he looked down, he finally saw his feet and then the rest of his body. While he didn't have an actual body, his soul had regained its human appearance from before the soul separation ritual he had performed. Lastly, he inspected the strange glass pane situated in front of him, with it's lustrous sheen. It wasn't transparent, didn't reflect anything, nor was he able to touch it. It greatly resembled a portal, but none of the functions were there.

As he arranged his thoughts, the mantra that had been drilled into his head constantly surfaced. Since the recent developments seemed to have been initiated by this voice, he decided to recite the words to the glasslike surface. As he began to recite the words, the glass began to shimmer, but then cracks started to appear, branching out from the corners.

"Ye, who faced adversity alone and prevailed. You shall stand up once more, rise again. Learn the meaning of adversity, ye who blaspheme against Gods. Thine affable saviour, Hades, shall give you a chance once more. Squirm well, and delighted he shall be".

While he was chanting a string of syllables much longer and largely comprised of a series of high and low pitched sounds, the gibberish roughly translated as so. It was alarming that he may have to face something he'd never seen before from the glass portal, but if it was his ticket to returning to Earth or escaping this life experiencing nothingness, he decided he wouldn't miss out no matter what. The cracks by now had almost arrived at the centre and continued to propagate in every direction, until finally the mirror broke. That very moment he lunged in, trying to swipe a shard of glass on the way in. Unfortunately, his hand passed through the glass shards. In response, he immediately proceeded to fluidly switch posture to continue his charge to sucker punch whatever might come out to face him.

To his astonishment, instead, his fist made contact with another clear glass portal. But what had surprised him was not the portal itself, nor was it the fact that he could feel this portal. What was surprising was the new portal was not clear. Instead, a young man who looked to be barely 16 was standing face to face with him. But the biggest surprise still wasn't amongst these realisations, it was that the face looking back at him intently, resembled him perfectly in the past, albeit wearing a fancy suit he wouldn't be caught dead in. The young man had neat, combed hair tucked under some kind of a flat cap contrary to his own wild, jet black hair. His prehnite-green coloured eyes and the small mole under his left eye had been replicated perfectly. The biggest difference was definitely in their attire. While Lear wore tattered rags derived from cloth armours, his young clone wore long, stifling leather boots and what seemed to be some past era's long suit jacket and trousers.

The staredown between them prolonged as Lear refused to take his eyes off this entity, ready for any attack it might throw, but the entity just looked back in confusion. Eventually, the young duplicate decided to break the silence.

"Who are you? Are you a grim reaper?" he confidently enquired.

This confused Lear even more. Wasn't he meant to face adversity, or some opponent. Why was a young, confused child brought in front of him instead. After deliberating, he dropped his stance and faced the boy warily. "I don't know, who are you even?" Lear responded aggressively. The boy calmly replied, "I had just consumed drugs in an attempt to end my life".

"Why would you do that to yourself, are you stupid? You seem to be me from a different world, you should live properly" Lear blurted out in disdain. "Life is precious, and you dare take your own so lightly? Will your family or friends be happy you're gone?!" he continued angrily. The boy countered, emotion showing over his face for the first time since they met. "Of course not! I hate it, but to live at the top, I'd have to take many lives along the way. And for my family to live peacefully I had to act as a disgrace all my life! Even then, those useless turds continued to scheme against my parents and me! I'M BEST OFF DEAD!" and then he burst out crying.

Lear calmly listened, adopting a cross-legged, seated position and rested his head on his arm. He quietly said to himself regretfully, "Damn! He even thinks like I might have before awakening... What is this situation? Do I need to solve his dilemma or something stupid like that. I ain't some therapist or something". Then he looked the boy in the eyes blankly and said, "ok... I hope you don't regret it now you're dead". A look of shock fell over the boy's face and in an attempt to hide it, he began to walk away and shouted "Then we're done here, old man". As he watched the younger him walk away, the only thing Lear could think was it was a shame the boy hadn't trained himself and taken hold of his fate. He had a strong mindset and the willpower to go through with his acting to this extent, not even cowering in the face of his impending death. He loudly added, "34 is still young, you rude brat" and then laughed noisily at his trembling voice when insulting him. He then thought, "Seriously though, I've been around way too long. When will I die properly now? No way I'm giving advice to people forever more, ain't my job after all".

An instant later, Lear was pulled violently into the glass pane and once again, in front of him, a clone of him stood. This time however, it looked to be almost the same age as him and the resemblance was more uncanny than before. There was no medium between the two of them this time however. Lear asked the lethargic man in front of him, "Is it you again...? Or are you someone else?" The man replied "Oh.. it's you again. Yes, it's me." Lear proceeded to ask, "Why did you age so quickly?" The man in turn said "Why didn't you age at all. Of course I'd look like crap. I've watched my parents suffer the days following my death over and over again for almost fifteen years. I regret it now, perhaps you were right. Everyone died terrible deaths". Lear was tired of his sulking and thought that now he had some kind of body, he could find a way back to Earth.

He firmly said. "I've decided! Contract with me and come watch how I return home and live a decent life. We may both be spirits now but I am certain I can manage somehow. Will you trust me and join me for this leg of my adventure, pitiful kiddo?". The man, who had a defeated look in his eye asked, "If I do so, will my parents be safe? Is there even a point?". Lear abruptly responded no, and that he wouldn't even be trying anything foolish again. Saying that the only thing that would change is the man wouldn't have to watch that, not until he died at least. With that, the man agreed reluctantly and so, Lear initiated the contracting procedure.

"I, Lear Knight, hereby declare this rogue spirit mine. State thy name and swear allegiance unto me". As he spoke, he used the dense mana swirling around him to weave mana threads and swore an oath in his name out of mana as a substitute for blood in the ritual. As he did so, a large magic circle, ten metres squared in size appeared under the target corresponding to his potential according to the universe.

The young man said, "My name is Leon Starfallen. I accept Lear Knight as my master". As he concluded, the mana threads Lear had scattered began to coil around his limbs and neck, suggesting a successful contract.

The moment the mana wrapped around him, the contract should've finalised. Instead, the mana threads snapped abruptly and a husky voice rasped all around them, "I, the God of Contracts, invalidate this contract and sentence the object of this summons to instantaneous destruction. Contract with yourself you may not. Do not overstep your boundaries, mortal." Before Lear could even move to protect himself or Leon using the dense mana around them, he saw Leon smiling absently at nothing and watched as he vanished instantaneously, as if he'd never been there to begin with. And in that moment, a white flash of light blinded him as he lost consciousness...

When he woke up, he felt something strange. He felt blades of grass poking into his back, and a breeze blowing upon him. In his hand, he was hugging some sort of glass decanter to his chest. "It feels good" Lear said quietly. As he spoke, he heard the fluttering of birds that took off. Lear was annoyed, he took pity upon that kid yet he wasn't able to protect him. He cursed at the God of Contracts and internally screamed, "You're damn lucky I have no intention to pursue another dang God you *******. If you get in my way again, I swear I'll screw you over and place a contract with your name on it on Hades' desk".

"LEEOOON!!" a scream sounded in the distance. The high-pitched voice sounded well in the distance. It seemed to belong to a girl, maybe thirteen or fourteen years old. As he batted his eyes to accustom himself to the natural light he hadn't seen for so long, a shadow fell over his face and a curtain of long, silken hair fell on top of him. The girl's crimson red eyes seemed to glint even in the shadow she had cast and she swiftly proceeded to grab him by the ear, dragging him across the floor. Lear was too shocked to react. Not only was he being called Leon, but the familiarity he felt from this brash little girl was concerning. He certainly hadn't met anybody that looked like her all his life. The girl seemed to be extremely strong judging by the lack of effort she displayed in pulling him. Also, the speed at which she was moving and had moved to approach him after screaming from so far away was obviously unnatural. On the other hand, he could barely muster any strength, and it was becoming harder to breathe. If he was Leon now, perhaps it was due to the 'drugs' Leon had mentioned. "Erm, mind telling me where the heck you're dragging me? Also, I know how to walk just so you know." Lear said with his voice raised, slight discontent could be heard from his voice. As he looked around, he saw he was in a vast plains, and he realised he was still holding the bottle in his other hand. He looked at the label which read "Laudanum Conc. 150mL" and sighed. "It seems I've really entered his body, is this some side effect of the intervention in the contract?" he thought. His thoughts were broken by the girl's voice, "Is that so? I wonder why I always have to drag your lazy bum back then" she said as she turned to face him. "And what's with that bottle you're holding, are you drunk so early in the morning again".

Seeing her reaction, he twisted his hand secretly in an attempt to hide the label as he had a feeling it would only bring more trouble his way. "Aren't you going to answer you dang drunkard?" she aggressively followed up. Instead of answering, he began to walk behind the girl, trying to recall a name to address her with if possible. They continued silently, but with each step he found it more and more difficult to breathe as time passed. Is this the effect of the drug? Isn't it too strong? he internally cursed as he struggled to keep pace. Within a minute though, he could barely breathe and as he collapsed, the last thing he saw before losing consciousness is the girl rushing back towards him. As he fell, he murmured, "That red really is beautiful though".