The first contract
Wangzar is ready. He is a bit stressed since he doesn't know what is going to appear. Perhaps a powerful beast like an elemental tiger or an awful monster like an Orc.
Thanks to his recent training, he can now summon 2 wolves and maintain them for quite some time. They stood at his side.
Wangzar is on his knees and with two hands of the floors, he begins to chant the incantation…
******
Earlier, inside a Black Castle, far away to the north-west of Wangzar's clearing. Gaemnihr, the brother of the current Demon King, is prepared to do a bloody sacrifice. That was his long-awaited plan. With that, he is going to outpower his brother and take over the Demon race. He is tired of living in the barren land and wanted to engage in war against the Humans to claim more territory.
Under Gaemnihr's room, in what you could call the shadiest room of the castle, both of Taenya's hands are shackled together. Her back leaning against the wall, she holds her hands against her knees.
'What an awful mistake I have made.' She thought. ' I shouldn't have believed Gaemnihr. I knew something was fishy when he wanted my help with restoring our prior glory. I don't know why I care about our race so much, maybe because my father is the current Demon King but he is so carefree. Our current lifestyle satisfies him but not me. I despise humans for that.'
She knows that today is the day. And she knows Gaemnihr is coming and no one is going to rescue her. With only a few friends, she has been focusing on her dark art and trained every day. She isn't liked but isn't hated either. You need to know that Demons were few and quite solitary. Her scheming mind, however, didn't foresee her uncle's plan.
'What are the uses of those patterns engraved on the floor. I know he will use me as a sacrifice. But what for? Does he want to overturn my father? But that's nonsense, my father is too strong...Urg' She jolted as the trap suddenly opened.
The dim shadow of a demon entered her sight. Maddened chuckles gave her cold sweats while cracking noise echoed from someone descending the stairs. This was Gaemnhir. He has a red skin. He was tall, about two and a half meters. His hairs were dark just like his eyes.
"You waited patiently Taenya, and now is the time for you to be the stepping stone to my success!"
"Why? Why are you doing this? I thought you needed my help…"
"That's exactly what it is, you're helping me get my revenge against brother. It should have been me with the title of Demon King, yet that useless demon is stronger than me so he succeeded father. Ahahah how foolish, you'll be the reason why your father will die! Using your blood for the ritual, my strength will increase by leaps and bounds."
"That can't be!"
'Even though I don't really like how my father is living… I don't want him to die… I don't want to die…' Despair started to take over Taenya's reason.
Gaemnhir approached her slowly. He had a short curved knife with a skull handle that was specially made for the ritual. That's how it worked. By taking out the blood of the direct descendant of the Demon King and pouring it on an empowering formation carved into black marble, one's own strength could increase significantly.
She gave up her proudness as she hanged her head with her hands, she called out in a low voice.
"Please someone, save me…"
"Be ready Taenya, daughter of Gaemozahl. Now shall be your demise."
Gaemnhir raised his dagger, but Unbeknownst to them, Wangzar activated his summoning circle. Faint blue lights appeared around Taenya.
"What happened, that magic… DAMN IT! We're not done!"
When Taenya disappeared right before his eyes, he hit the wall really hard. A shelf happened to be right on top of his head in the above room and it fell. The noises in the usually quiet Black Castle had brought a lot of people over. He now needed to hasten if he wanted the little room for the ritual to remain hidden...
Back at the other side. The summoning circle was already emitting light for a few seconds. Sweats slithered on Wangzar's face. He didn't understand. The summoning should be smoother. Unless a being too strong for his current strength was summoned? That was bad news for him, but he doesn't intend to give up.
On the middle of the circle, his first summon finally appeared. Wangzar is exhausted but happy. He was ready to fight. But when he saw who appeared before him, his surprise rose even more than before. She was a girl of a kind he had never seen before. Just like his hairs are blue, her hairs are silver. But the girl looked really frightened. She still hung her head, her previously scared eyes, however, are now looking dumbfounded.
Wangzar thought he was the reason. He made his two wolves take a step back and sit while he walked forward. He leaned forward until he was about to enter the summoning circle and asked with a smile.
"Hello, young lady. Are you okay? You don't need to be afraid of me, even if my hairs are blue I'm not a bad guy. I'm the one who summoned you. But if I really frighten you that much, I can send you back to where I summoned you."
"Ah!? No, don't send me back! He'd kill me..." Taenya shivered as she thought of returning before Gaemnhir.
"Kill you? What do you mean?" Wangzar was perplexed.
"You just saved me from.. My uncle and.. What will I do now...."
"If you want to stay by my side, you can. But you have to accept the contract first."
When he said that, Taenya directly heard ancient words in her head.
'Thou, who heard the call from the summoner shalt accept him as your master.
When thou sayest thine vow. Thou art acknowledging the summoner as thy ruler. Until he allows otherwise, thine life will become his. Thou will obey his command.
Now kneelest before him and sayest the following vow.
'I have heard your summon. I deem you worthy of being my master.
From now on, I am at your command. For you my summoner, I shall overcome all barriers and defeat all enemies. Taenya is now yours.'
She hesitated. Taking a look at Wangzar, she found that he is different. He looked a bit like the human she despised, but his blue hairs made her think he wasn't. Where had she heard about it…
"So, what... do you want to do? I need to hear your answer soon..." Wangzar said with difficulty. His two wolves were already gone… He was obviously having a hard time maintaining the link with the summoning circle.
Seeing that he was struggling and with the fact that he just saved her, she made her choice. Serving this man would be far better than returning to her death. Moreover, she might be able to discuss with him and have her revenge. She thus made the vow.
"I have heard your summon. I deem you worthy of being my master.
From now on, I am at your command. For you my summoner, I shall overcome all barriers and defeat all enemies. Taenya is now yours."
Blinding light flew out from the magic circle. Wangzar almost fell on the floor if it was not for Taenya's quick reaction. She was really curious about her young master.
"So who are you, young master?" For her, the words young master came naturally.
"I am Wangzar, I'm the son of an earl and a noble. Well, I don't know why, but since my birth, my hairs are blue which kinda annoys me... So what about you Taenya. Can you tell me about you? You are strong, right? Summoning you really exhausted me..."
"I am Taenya. The daughter of the current Demon Lord. Or perhaps I should say one of his many daughters. He his so carefree and with his charm together with his status, he has many offsprings." Taenya wasn't really proud of her father, so she lowered her head a bit.
Wangzar slightly paled. 'In what have I entwined myself' he thought.
"I don't know if I can be considered strong since I haven't battled outside of Rabid Wasteland. But I am confident in my darkness ability. I can use spells to enhance my speed, for stealth and I can shoot javelins made of darkness." Wanting to display her abilities, dark energy rippled around her right arm. A dark javelin quickly formed. She aimed at a nearby boulder but…
Wangzar tackled her, she fell and the spell broke under the shock. He was now sitting on top of her, bending near her face. His right hand unexpectedly grabbed something soft.
"Are you okay? I don't want you to break this place, it's important to me…"
"I'm okay, but your hand…"
"Eh? ah!" Wangzar flushed, he quickly retracted his hand and retreated. His missteps made him fall on his back.
You must say that Taenya was beautiful. Since she was half-human and half-demon, her features were mostly human. Her size around 163cm was a bit small for a demon but reasonable for a human. She has silverish white, curled hairs that contrast well with her small dark, goat-like horns that she usually hides with an invisibility spell. Her left eye is hidden by a bang and her pupils are amber. They're giving a mysterious yet beautiful aura. Her skin has a different tone compared to her hairs, being dark brown. Her growth ended this year when she became fourteen making her body display beautiful curves.
"Why did you interrupt me, young master? I wanted to display my abilities to you..."
"This place is dear to me, it is beautiful and also the place I'm always taking refuge to in order to have free time. I don't want you to destroy it. Well, let's talk about the contract now. Since you accepted to pledge to me you are now considered mine. Since you don't want to return to your side, I will have to keep you with me. Also, since my proficiency in summoning isn't high enough yet we will only be able to sense each other when we are apart, we can't communicate yet. I can share my intent with you for now if you are near me."
"I understand, this was my mistake."
"So we will need to return to my castle and explain this to my parents… I don't know where I will start. I'll try to convince them to give me a status plate to see your status and to track my progress."
Status plates are able to display the status of a person when someone holds one with their hands but they are really expensive. Hundreds of years ago, someone managed to discover that the laws of this world allowed people to see their abilities skills and strengths displayed with statistics and levels he then created the first status plate. The only downside of the status plates is that they are really expensive, there's only one of them at the castle.
"I intended to ask, young master. Since you have blue hairs, is the castle you are talking about a human settlement?"
"That's right. The castle is in a human country so its inhabitants are all humans."
Doubts are displaying on Taenya's face. She still has her hatred for humans deeply rooted in her heart.
"So you are a human with blue hair and this is a human country…"
"Don't worry Taenya. Since you became my summon I will naturally take good care of you. And you'll discover that not all humans are bad."
"About that… Young master! There is a monster nearby it probably discovered the summoning Aura and is heading here to check!"
In this forest close to the castle there was rarely any monster, Wangzar hasn't seen one since he began to use the clearing as his escape place so this occurrence is really strange.
Suddenly a deep howl was heard from nearby, Wangzar and Taenya rushed out of the clearing because Wangzar didn't want a disaster to ruin his loved place. It is not long after that they encountered the beast.
The beast was hard to describe. From what Wangzar understood it looked like a lion with an ape head, its size really big. The beast with its really scary aura made Wangzar blemish. He doesn't have much mana remaining, even if he recovered a bit it is only enough to summon one wolf.
Taenya frowned. She doesn't know about the monster but she understood how powerful the monster is. She is not sure if her strength will be enough to defeat it more so protecting her young master.
Wangzar recovered a bit of reason after blanking out for a moment.
"Okay… This is bad news if you don't think you can win against the monster we should flee because I won't be useful in a battle, my man is low and I can only summon a wolf for a short amount of time."
"I'm not sure if I can win against that monster but I will definitely protect you."
They didn't have more time to talk because the beast was already on them. Taenya summoned her dark javelin and threw it when the beast pounced, she then jumped on the side, pushing Wangzar into a bush and made a roll to regain her stance.
She didn't wait to see if the javelin made any damage. She summoned too while turning to face the beast and threw them again.
The javelin she previously shot collided with the monster's flank leaving a deep line from which the beast is losing blood. For the beast however this amount of damage was almost nothing.
Her second and third throws were aimed to the head, one hurting the monster's eyes and enraged it. This girl hurted his pride so he jumped on her to try and take her down, but when he was rushing she suddenly disappeared. Perplexed the monster took some time to try and find the girl. But little did it know that she already went to the bush, took her young master and ran away at full speed. When the monster saw it was tricked, he made a furious howl, scaring all the animals from a few kilometers around.
Taenya ran with Wangzar until they reached the end of the forest and left it. Only then did she calm herself and let Wangzar go, she was really out of breath. They stayed still on the ground for a moment until Wangzar finally broke the silence.
"Thank you for saving me Taenya you're really strong! Having you as my first contract is really a great thing. This monster really scared me... I've never read about this kind of monster before. Why was it here? We need to report to my dad soon."
When she heard the praise, Taenya couldn't help but blush a little. She didn't really know why. She quickly redressed herself.
"I've never heard about it either. You're right, if your father has authority around here we need to tell him."
Thaenya and Wangzar returned to the castle after a short rest. They didn't dally on their way and quickly found Earl Sidik.