Just like Manuals, Covenants were graded from I to V in ascending order. And just like Manuals, the disparity between grades was immense.

You could borrow up to 80% of a Celestial’s or God’s power if you have a V-grade Covenant. Provided that you could handle it, of course.

For IV-grade, it was 40%.

The percentage of borrowable power would decrease by two times per grade, eventually reaching only 5% at grade I.

Since Celesitals of the same rank were roughly equal in power—regardless of the Gods or Goddesses they served, I would just strangle myself to death if I didn’t accept a V-graded bond with a Celestial Great General and instead be stubborn and try my chances with Zeus.

Anyways, I wasn’t at all planning for her to get so desperate as to offer me this much power, but I wasn’t going to let it go to waste.

“Celestial Great General Lyra Myrsky of the Storm Wyvern Legion, I—Astrape “Gray” Knovski, gracefully accept your Covenant.”

|I can’t believe I’m doing this…| Lyra muttered.

Then, she brought her lips closer to my face and kissed my forehead, finalizing our Covenant.

I immediately felt a surge of power coursing through my entire body and decided to check Status by ripping a piece of Blessed Parchment that I’d prepared beforehand.

===Status===

Name: Astrape “Gray” Knovski

Bloodline: Human (77%) | Vampire (3%) | Dragon (20%)

Overall Growth Rating: Rare+

Rank: F- (MAX: UNCHECKED)

Strength: G+ (Heroic-)

Agility: E- (Heroic+)

Stamina: G (Common+)

Intelligence: F+ (Heroic)

Mana capacity: G+ (Rare-)

Class: Crosslance Knight

--

Affinities:

[Mythic - Lightning]

[Legendary - Wind]

[Heroic - Space-Time]

[Rare - Blood]

--

Skills:

[Monarch of Storms] {S}
Temporarily changes the user’s Class to {Monarch of Storms}. The casting speed as well as damage of Lightning, Wind, and Water spells (if applicable) are greatly increased when the Skill is active. Also nullifies any and all damages to the user’s body by her own Lightning spells.
(WARNING: Excessive use can lead to the frying of the user’s brain.)
(WARNING: The user will fall into a Vulnerable state for 12 hours after the Skill ends.)

[Authority of Fear] {B}
The type of this ability has been changed to {Authority} due to the user’s assimilation with Pure Draconic bloodline.
Instills Fear in the user’s targets. If the targets are of higher rank than the user, the effect will be greatly diminished.
(BONUS: +50% Effectiveness on Monsters and Void Beasts)
(BONUS: +75% Effectiveness on creatures with lower purity of Pure Draconic blood) 

[Mana blood] {F}

A degraded version of the innate skill [Fertilus' Blood] {A} that every pure-blooded vampire has. Due to the user's barely sufficient concentration of Vampiric blood in her system, she is granted the inferior version of the skill.
Enables the user to recover Mana quicker than the average person.

===

I instantly broke through to rank F-. Not just that, my Lightning jumped from Heroic to Mythic; and Wind from Common to Legendary! T-This was amazing! I even obtained an S-ranked Skill that looked extremely powerful at a glance!

Lyra really didn’t want me to break off my Covenant any time soon, huh?

In fact, she didn’t want that to happen so much that she began tampering with my Status using her Divinity. 

|This is my final gift to you for now. Accept it and become my Champion.|

“With great pleasure.”

[Fusing “Affinity: Lightning”, “Affinity: Wind”, and “Affinity: Blood”]
[Fusion completed. 

Lost: Lightning | Wind | Blood

Gained: Blood Storm (Mythic)]

Before I could thank her for everything she’d done, Lyra suddenly stopped floating and fell down. Luckily, I caught her in time.

“What’s happening?”

|A-Ah, excuse me there. I’m feeling quite…lightheaded.|

It was only right. After all, she must’ve spent quite a lot of Divinity on giving me these great powers.

“Sleep well. Come back whenever you feel like it.”

Lyra chuckled and placed a hand on my cheek. She stared at me with those red eyes of hers. 

In my reflection in her eyes, I could see that my eyes were now…also molten-red, just like hers.

I had so many questions right now. Why did Status say that I was twenty-percent Dragon? Why did my eyes change color? Yet, I knew that it wasn’t the right time to ask. This Celestial had just spent a lot of what was essentially the thing that kept her alive, so it only made sense that I let her recover her power.

|I’m glad to have a Champion as caring as you, but I have to tell you something before I rest.|

“...Go on.”

|Spread the name of God Vihar. That’s all I ask for in exchange for these great powers.|

“...I’ll see what I can do.”

|That’s good enough,| she sighed.

Then, in a flash of molten-red Lightning, she disappeared, leaving me all alone in this Sanctuary.

.

.

.

.

.

|Storm Wyvern! Storm Wyvern! Storm Wyvern! Storm Wyvern!|

When Lyra said that she was going to rest, I’d expected it to be a few years or something, not a day! She literally came back right when I was sleep, AND with a flash of red Lightning at that.

Of course, the thunder alerted the inn owner, and when she went upstairs to check it out, she saw Lyra. 

Since I didn’t want anyone to know that I had a Celestial with me, I lied and said that Lyra was my friend. Though, it got me kicked out of the inn for obvious reasons.

Anyways, here we were, walking to the train station to try and get back to the Capital. Lyra was screaming “Storm Wyvern” over and over again into my ears. It was lucky that no one was really around in the streets to give us weird looks.

“Can you fucking stop? What about Storm Wyvern?”

Lyra laughed with an arrogant cross of her arms. |Fufu, I’m glad you asked. You’re the Storms Monarch now, so of course you have to have a Storm Wyvern as your steed!|

Well, the image of me riding a Wyvern and charring my enemies with spears of Lightning did indeed look badass, but I really didn’t want to do it now…

“Later. I have to go back home first.”

Eventually, I reached the train station and got on a train.

|Eh? What’s this metal thing?|

I closed my eyes and sighed, letting Lyra do her thing.

|It’s moving? Don’t tell me…| She suddenly glared at me. Her glare was so intense that I could feel it with my eyes closed. |Y-You! You abandoned the idea of taming Storm Wyvern just so that you can ride this inferior metal steed?!| 

I opened one eye and glanced around the train compartment. Luckily, it was totally empty.

“It’s just a train.”

|A…train?|

“It’ll be too annoying to explain, but just know that it’s not a steed.”

Lyra nodded, not entirely convinced.

But there was a bigger problem. If she was going to be amazed at everything like this, she’d be even more conspicuous than she currently was once we reached the Capital.

“Lyra, can you uhhh…turn into something else?”

|...?|

“I mean, this isn’t your real form, right?”

|What are you talking about? Of course this great and beautiful form is my true self!|

“So, your Divinity is currently being drained to maintain this form?”

|Fufu, thanks for your worries, but you needn’t. The drain rate is so slow that I can stay like this for thousands of years!|

“Still, isn’t it wasteful? Can’t you…turn into something else, like, a ring, perhaps?”

Lyra simply plopped down to the seat right next to me and sighed.

|Even I cannot turn into inanimate objects. However—| She abruptly stood up and snapped her fingers. In another flash of red Lightning, she turned into a gray Raven. Lyra, using her wings, flew up to me and landed on my head.

|How’s this?|

“It’s fine. But are you sure you want to stay like that?”

|Beside my true form, this is the most comfortable. And I’m just using this when we’re in public anyways. I can’t have anyone else find out about my great self—not right now.|

“Uh huh…”

‘She’s smarter than I thought.’

|By the way, only you can hear me while I’m in this form. And you don’t need to use your voice to speak to me.|

“...How?”

|Just focus your willpower on conversing with me. It’ll work.|

I closed my eyes again and focused on Lyra.

“(Like this?)”

|Yes! I can’t believe you got it first try!|

Okay, that took a lot more out of me than I’d thought. I had to massage my temples since just delivering that mere sentence gave me a migraine.

Anyways, since Lyra was here, time to ask questions.

“Why does Status say that I’m part-Dragon?”

|I have a feeling that you’re going to ask that. It’s because the Covenant gave a bit of the bloodline I had when I was still a Mortal to you.|

“T-Then—” I gulped. “—I-I can turn into a cool Dragon!?”

Lyra hissed through her teeth and shook her head bitterly.

|No, at least, not right now. You won’t be able to do it until you’re 80% Dragon. B-But, your Magic Eyes got upgraded since it coincidentally has the same properties as an Authority! Doesn’t that sound cool!?|

It did indeed sound cool, but not as much as turning into a cool Dragon and acting as a pretentious prick.

|Don’t look so down…| Lyra said as she patted my head. |...You can purify your bloodline even more if you can find some Wyrm blood.|

“But I thought all Wyrms were dead?”

At my words, Lyra simply smiled mysteriously.

|The world is bigger than you might think.|

I decided to put that problem aside for now and took out a mirror from my backpack. I looked into it and saw a pair of molten-red eyes—my eyes staring back. Aside from my eye color, something also changed; and it was my pupils. They were now vertical—just like Dragon’s.

That combined with my lack of a scaly tail was a dead giveaway that I was now a Half-kin.

Half-kin were looked down upon in the Empire. I didn’t know where all the hate came from, but if I had to guess, it was probably propaganda, propaganda, and propaganda.

Despite that, there were a few types of Half-kin that were actually respected. For example, Half-Voids were highly sought after. Half-Dragons like myself were also somewhat respected; though, you’d find more people that hated Half-Dragons than those that didn’t.

A fitting exchange for power, I suppose. 

Now, my only question left concerned Lyra herself.

“Why did you ask me to spread Vihar’s name?”

|T-That…|

“You don’t need to lie. I saw the state of Vihar’s Statue.”

It was the truth. On my way out, I noticed a Statue that was broken in half. And since there was literally no other Statue like that, I couldn’t help but look at the name plate.

‘God of Storms, Vihar.’

“Lyra…is he perhaps dea—”

|DON’T YOU DARE FINISH THAT SENTENCE!|

Lyra looked…mad. It was as if she’d tear me to shreds if I’d been so foolish as to put “dead” and “Vihar” into the same sentence. She wasn’t this mad even when I basically mocked and insulted her.

And…I was getting angry at myself. Not that I felt guilty about mentioning a sensitive subject. No, I could feel that the anger wasn’t my own. It was almost as if Lyra’s emotions were affecting me…

|S-Sorry!| Lyra apologized after quickly calming down. |V-Vihar’s not dead, he’s just…gravely injured.|

“...May I ask how did a God even get that injured in the first place?”

Lyra voice contained a tinge of anger and hatred. |In the Great Divine War, the bastard Zeus ran away like a coward and left my God to fend for himself…|

It explained why Lyra hated Zeus so much…

“So, that’s why you wanted to make a Covenant with me? You want Vihar’s name to spread so that he can gain enough Divinity to heal?”

|Y-Yes…with your potential, it’s just a matter of time before he’s fully healed. S-S-Sorry, for using you…I can’t blame you if you feel a—|

“Nonsense.” I laughed. “I don’t believe that anyone would just give me this amount of power without anything in return. I already had an inkling that you wanted to use me for something.”

|You…did?|

“Correct. And, it wouldn’t hurt to spread your God’s name when I’m strong enough, anyways. So—” I brought my hand close to the top of my head. “—Shall we keep using each other?”

Lyra stared at my hand for a few seconds before she extended her wing out. 

I grabbed it gently and shook it.

|Thank you,| she muttered with a grateful face.

Seriously, I didn’t know that a bird’s face could express so many emotions…