“I should’ve known it was you, Pact.”

 

“You’re pretty observant for a human, boy. As a reward, give me 100 push-ups.”

 

“Seriously?”

 

“Make it 150 then.”

 

Delta sighed, getting down to start doing as he had been ordered. 

 

“Actually no. I’d like you to do 200.”

 

“You don’t need to assert dominance on me, you know. I’m not foolish enough to fight a battle I can’t win.”

 

“Can you hear that? Sounds like someone’s asking for 250.”

 

Wordlessly, Delta began effortlessly doing the push-ups, avoiding anything that might make Pact add more pushups. 

 

About 5 minutes later, Delta stood up. He was sweating slightly, but otherwise, it had been nothing compared to what he was used to. 

 

“What now?” 

 

“See. Look how much more respectful you are now.” 

 

In reality, Delta simply wanted the dragon to stop talking and start training him properly, but for the sake of his sanity, he didn’t say anything.

  

“Now let’s get down to business. Using Pact Magic is a lot more difficult than you might think. It requires absolute focus and a bond between you and the beast you form your pact with. There are a few types of pacts that can be made between a caster and their beast. 

 

The first is a Supremacy Pact. A Supremacy Pact is a contract made when the contractor completely defeats and conquers the beast through either a battle of power or a contest of skills. The pact is made by forcefully channelling your Pact energy into the body of the beast you have defeated and then leaving a brand on their core, turning them into your puppet until death or until you wish to free them. There are, of course, ways to break these contracts, however they require you to be many times stronger than the pact being made. Although it is typically the most used type of contract, it is also the weakest as the beast being branded is not willingly giving up its power, so you can never use the true essence of the beast and you’ll never be able to synergise with it.”

 

Delta thought to himself for a moment, before saying, “The way you said that suggests the beast still retains some kind of power that lies outside of the Pact’s control. What is that power?”

 

“Hmm… I think a sage once said, “You can take away a man’s freedom, but you can never take away his will”. Even if you force the beast to obey you, you won’t be able to activate all of its inherent power if it doesn’t serve you willingly. Did you get all that? It is, however, possible for the beast you have dominated to accept you later, in which case it can choose to synergise with you, however the choice is always with the beast.”

 

Delta nodded. 

 

“You’re quicker than I thought, boy. Very well then. Next, we have the Equality Pact.”

 

“One second. You still haven’t told me what this synergy is.”

 

“Slow bastard. Synergy is when the qualities and characteristics of the beast cross over with that of the Pact User, and they mix their power temporarily. For example, if you were to have a Pact with a shark, you’d have an increased bloodlust and sharper fangs, along with being generally tougher and being able to breathe underwater as well as improved swimming abilities. Most importantly, however, your magic levels would spike as the beast’s magic has been added to your own.”

 

“Have you ever synergised?”

 

“Boy, I can count the number of people worthy of Synergising with me on a single claw of a Dragon Serpent,” he said proudly.

 

Delta looked at him in confusion.

 

“Ugh, I forget you humans are so uneducated. They have no claws…”

 

“...”

 

“100 more pushups.”

 

“...”

 

A few more minutes later, Delta stood up again.

 

“Moving on, Equality Pacts are contracts which place the caster and beast on the same level of importance, meaning they share power and have equal levels of freedom. These are only done when there is an incredibly large level of trust between the beast and caster, such as when they grew up together. They are much rarer because strong beasts will avoid weaker casters, and stronger casters will avoid weaker beasts, so unless the caster gets lucky, they’ll probably never achieve one of these bonds with a strong beast. One way of achieving these bonds is to try Egg Hatching. It’s when you purchase an egg and hatch it from scratch, then you get to keep whatever you hatch, usually however the shops will make it so that the egg cannot be easily checked or distinguished, forcing you to essentially gamble on getting a strong and compatible  beast egg. There have been some pretty impressive results from these, but also some massive fails. It might be worth trying out though... if you’re feeling lucky.”

 

The dragon paused for a moment, before saying, “I don’t get that long with you during training, and I’m going to need to awaken your Pact Energy, as well as introduce you to the Spirit Realm, so I’ll finish off with something important. Don’t you ever, EVER accept a contract from a being more powerful than you, unless the terms are written on a soul binding contract. A verbal agreement with a higher power is the fastest way to become a slave to their ambitions, so no matter what it’s for, never accept one. If a contract seems fishy or has even a single loophole, avoid it. If you even feel like it might be a trick, avoid it.”

 

Delta nodded, thinking to himself, “Corruption and Evil lies in every world, huh…”

 

“That’s all I have to say. Now sit down in front of me, it’s time you entered the Spirit Realm.”

 

Delta sat down in front of the dragon, crossing his legs and breathing slowly and powerfully, preparing himself for what was to come. 

 

“Don’t stress yourself, boy. This isn’t going to hurt at all.”

“...”

 

The dragon blew some smoke out of his mouth, forming it into a ball before solidifying it into a solid form. 

 

“Eat this.”

 

He roughly stuffed it into Delta’s mouth, watching as he swallowed it and the energy spread through his body, entering his blood and heading towards his core.

 

Once it arrived, it formed its own array of stars that seemed to flicker between the forms of beasts, appearing as a wolf before changing to a turtle, a dragon, a phoenix and an ant. It seemed to be wilder than the other types of magic as if it were a living beast. 

 

“I was right. You have an incredible affinity for Pact Energy. You should pick up on my lessons especially quickly. Look deep into the array until you can see a doorway. Once you find it, let me know.”

 

A few seconds later, Delta said, “I found it, but it’s more like a palace gate than a doorway. Is it meant to be so big?”

 

“It changes depending on the person,” Pact said, trying to hide his shock towards the ridiculous size of the doorway. 

 

‘The size of the represents the Caster’s affinity to the Spirit Realm. A Caster with a low affinity won’t be able to remain very long in the Spirit Realm, but this boy looks like he could probably live there! What kind of monster has Athena raised this time...’

 

Caught up in research and trying to forget about her previous failure to control the chip, Athena sneezed. 

 

“That damn bastard must have cursed me…”

 

Looking at his doorway, Delta said, “The gate seems to be opening… do I go in?”

 

“That fast? I’m impressed. Yes, head on in… but be careful. If you even look into the eyes of a beast, it will take it as a challenge and start a battle. You aren’t ready for that yet, so control yourself.”

 

“Noted.”

 

With that, Delta entered, and the sight that awaited him made him gasp in shock.