"So you've never done anything like this before either." In his heart, Chaoyang felt both the satisfaction of a confirmed suspicion and a trace of melancholy. There were no peers of his in this world; he remained a singular entity. "All your knowledge comes from the Demonic Awakening, yet you've never had the opportunity to verify whether it's correct."
"I am not a demo--" Elodie started to retort, but seeing Chaoyang reach into the flour sack, she promptly corrected herself. "I certainly lack experience, but that doesn't mean other hea... companions do."
Chaoyang's heart gave a slight jolt.
Other companions?
This fellow was not alone?
This was truly extraordinary news!
His thoughts raced. Controlling Elodie had originally been merely an optional choice, but at this moment, the necessity of that option had suddenly increased significantly. After all, he could not stay in another world forever; he eventually had to return to Earth. In the event that some natural enemy targeted him at that time, his situation would become quite dangerous.
Moreover, an angel in a state of cooperative alliance might dispel the hostility of other companions.
After a moment of silence, Chaoyang turned to look at Dane and Judy. "The final stage of the ritual is about to begin. Since it requires the assistance of My Lord's power, I must ask the two of you to step outside for a while."
"Um, am I not allowed to pay respects to your deity..." Judy seemed somewhat reluctant.
Dane, however, was quite adept at reading the room. "This is the Divine Emissary's work. Which church casually allows outsiders to audience with a god? Let's not make trouble for our benefactor."
Once the two of them left the room, Elodie still could not help revealing a sarcastic expression. "A deity? What do you take yourself for? Only those fellows with ulterior motives portray themselves as incomparably lofty. You really are..."
"Really am what?"
Elodie stared at the flour bag beside him, ultimately failing to voice it out.
"If I were you, upon arriving in a brand-new world, my phrasing would certainly be much more cautious." Chaoyang fished a dagger from his tunic, slowly bringing it close to the girl. "Because there are beings in this world no different from gods. You know nothing of them, yet I have briefly touched upon them."
The latter's expression changed, but she quickly bit her lip and tightly closed her eyes.
Clearly threatened by a flour bag, she did not utter a single plea for mercy at this moment.
"I don't know if you've ever considered a question: why are you still alive? The moment you unleashed your ability, you were at the end of your tether, and the result of exhausting your strength is death... On this point, you and I are no different."
Elodie could not help but be stunned.
At that very moment, Chaoyang lowered the dagger and cut the ropes binding her right hand.
The instant she realized she had regained her freedom, she could not help asking, "...Why?"
"Because I saved you," Chaoyang said calmly. "I fed you a drop of Wish Force blood."
Elodie's expression froze.
"I didn't know if doing this would be effective, but it seems it worked—so I can understand why angels chase after and hack apart demons, because that's the only way to bathe in the most demon blood. In a sense, you lot are no different from a bunch of vampires, merely yielding to your own desires!"
"It's not like that... Eliminating demons is about striking down evil..."
"Including launching a lethal attack on your own savior?" Chaoyang sneered.
Elodie was left speechless.
He pressed his advantage. "By the way, let me tell you a not-so-secret secret. In the past, demons signing contracts truly targeted the devouring of souls, but that obviously wasn't a long-term profitable venture, and the risk was also very high. So later Awakeners optimized the contract process, changing it to collecting Wish Force—in other words, an installment-plan form of the soul. Although the yield per instance dropped, the cost and risk decreased correspondingly by a lot. Did your companions not tell you about this string of changes?"
"In-, installment plan?"
"To survive, one naturally must keep pace with the times." With a flip of his hand, the dagger in Chaoyang's grip instantly transformed into a sheet of A4 paper. "Now it's time to talk about the matter of repaying the favor. Pray tell, in the naive value system of the angel miss, shouldn't someone whose life was saved also give something back to make things fair?"
"I never pray for rewards when I save people." Touching upon this, the girl seemed to regain a sliver of courage. She looked straight at Chaoyang and said word for word, "Don't even think about using your words to bewitch me."
"Won't you take a look before discussing it?"
"No need! The code of our forebears tells us that any contract with a demon is a trap. You can kill me, but don't harbor delusions of enslaving my soul!" She paused, then added, "Installment plans won't do either!"
"No, I couldn't be bothered to kill you, because unlike you lot, I don't take lives indiscriminately. At most, I'll just banish you from this world." Chaoyang feigned pulling back the contract. "Of course, the first time I can chalk it up to a mistake committed out of your ignorance, but the next time I won't be nearly so polite."
"Are you really... going to let me go?" Elodie still found it somewhat hard to believe.
"Why ever not? You can't accomplish anything anyway. Even if you saw someone truly in need of help, all you could do is gaze from afar, ultimately tasting nothing but the bitterness of failure."
"What are you talking about?" She frowned.
"You know very well what I am talking about." Chaoyang smiled. "Without the demons' Wish Force, you lot accomplish nothing in the end—because benevolence without power can only exist on the lips, isn't that so?"
Elodie's eyes instantly turned sharp as thorns.
Chaoyang knew he had guessed correctly.
This was the source of that gloomy emotion hidden deep in her heart.
Actually, this flaw was not difficult to spot. Given her age of sixteen, she had participated in far too many organizations and activities, which could only indicate one thing: she never lingered long in any organization. She kept trying, yet kept failing, simply because she lacked "power."
In an era where demons were nearly extinct, how much better could angels fare? Lacking a source of Wish Force, people like Elodie were merely ordinary individuals. An ordinary person might manage to help an old lady cross the street, but upon encountering anything slightly tricky, they would discover that the things they could actually do were quite limited.
And this kind of frustration would only become more common as she grew older.
"Now you finally have an opportunity for change, yet you've given it up due to your own shortsightedness." Chaoyang stood up and said in a regretful tone, "What does it matter if a good-for-nothing person is let go?"
"...Wait a minute." Seeing him about to leave, Elodie could not help blurting out, "Could it be that you want to continue providing me with Wish Force?"
Chaoyang did not speak; instead, he flicked the contract in his hand.
"Fine, hand it over..."
"Is this normally how you speak to your savior? I think you ought to be more polite."
Elodie hesitated for a moment before finally repeating, "Please let me take a look."
Seeing when to stop, Chaoyang handed the contract to her once more. "I believe the most important thing about a contract is fairness—considering your concerns, I won't exact compensation like souls or Wish Force. On the contrary, I will even pay you in Wish Force blood for you to use in another world. You should understand better than I what the power bestowed by talent awakening represents."
This time, Elodie read through the entire contract earnestly. "And what I must do... is protect your safety? I also have to cooperate with the identity you grant me, and provide you with assistance when necessary? That is simply utterly absurd..."
"But its essence lies in the termination clause, isn't it?" Chaoyang said unconcernedly. "What you worry about is nothing more than being unable to stop me from doing evil or becoming my accomplice, which is why I specifically wrote down the conditions for ending the contract. The moment my actions lean toward evil and cease to be benevolent, the contract automatically terminates."
"...Who judges that?"
"Naturally, the contracting party." Chaoyang chuckled lightly. "That is to say, you—Miss Elodie. However, you must pay attention to one thing: a contract is not determined by mere words. Once signed, it is the most solid guarantee in the world. Even if you immediately renege and verbally brand me as evil, the contract will not be interrupted—because it measures your inner heart."
"If what you are doing has nothing to do with a benevolent act, I can ignore it?"
"Correct."
Elodie was silent for a moment. "What if I attack you without terminating the contract?"
"Your soul will shatter to pieces the very instant you make a move." Chaoyang spread his hands. "Trust me, the power of constraint is matchless. In fact, not only can you not attack me, but you also cannot conspire with others to harm me. Likewise, I cannot harm you either; the constraint is equally valid for me."
Seeing her eyes flicker, Chaoyang knew success was just a final step away. "I don't need you to trust me, just as I don't trust angels. A contract is the only reliable guarantee. Let's look at it from another angle: even if I hadn't saved you and you hadn't come here, could we not have formed this kind of mutually beneficial relationship? It is precisely because both sides stand to gain that cooperation can transcend identities and exist."
Lowering his voice, Chaoyang softly tempted her. "You need power too, right? On Earth, although you've sustained your life through various benevolent deeds, that is merely all there is to it. Depleted Wish Force restricts you from showing your true prowess; in the face of genuine evil, you, unable to wield your innate abilities, stand absolutely zero chance of winning."
This time, Elodie was silent for a very long time.
Through the minute changes in her facial expressions, Chaoyang could feel her internal struggle, as if the haze beneath the sunlight had become somewhat more pronounced.
After a long while, she slowly asked, "Wish Force... how much is there?"
"Naturally, it is calculated based on the volume of Wish Force I acquire. The more people I help, the more Wish Force I reap."
"I cannot stay here all the time."
Hearing this, Chaoyang knew the matter was settled. "You needn't worry about the time issue. Even if you stay in the other world for three or four days, only a few minutes will have passed over here... Wait, the situation this time is probably rather special."
"What do you mean?"
"Nothing. This time was merely an accident; from now on, I'll try to minimize the impact of the time difference." He directly skipped over the topic. "Besides... if you don't accompany me, how else can you judge whether what I do counts as evil or not? Don't forget, that point is the key to the contract's validity."
Elodie gazed at him for a long while before finally taking a deep breath. "If you cross the boundary, I will never let you off easily."
"Mmm-hmm," Chaoyang handed her the pen. "I look forward to that day."
Before you continue