"And how do I know you won't stab me in the back the first moment you get?"
If Leon wanted to risk his life by working with her, he was welcome. However, she wouldn't trust Leon farther than she could throw him; he was clearly a conniving devil.
"What? you can't trust me, even though I'm the one at a disadvantageous position here?" Leon asked with a visible irritation on his face. However, this irritation quickly vanished, as if it had never been there, in the next second.
"Hmmm," the blonde girl looked at Leon with disdain; he was trying to mess with her head.
"We can swear an oath," Leon spoke calmly. An oath was the only way trust could be established, and these oaths could not be broken without attracting dire consequences.
"Do you think I'm stupid? I'm not swearing a blood oath with a Warlock from the blood serpent clan" the blonde spat on the floor before tightly gripping the sword in her hand.
A blood oath with someone from the Blood Serpent Clan was the stupidest thing anyone could do. The Blood Serpent Clan was notorious for breaking blood oaths, which was one of the reasons people hated them so much. They could easily break blood oaths, and at the same time, they were proficient in making them. They could never be at a disadvantage when it came to oath-taking.
"Sigh, you're putting me in a tight corner here, lady. I'm putting my life in your hands, and you won't even take a simple oath... it's too much," Leon shook his head with some disappointment in his eyes. Of course, he didn't know about blood oaths being easily broken by his clansmen, but from her reaction, he was able to decipher it.
(Might be useful in the future), Leon thought to himself. Then he looked back up at the blonde.
"Okay, let's do something else. Have you heard about Fu Shu energy before?"
Leon placed his hands behind his back and said, looking at the corpse of the young hunter in the distant tree.
(Fu Shu? Isn't that old devil magic?)
She didn't know exactly what it was, but she remembered reading something about this vile energy. Fu Shu was magic from Devils, so bad that using it caused all it's practitioners to die with time, slowly fading into obscurity.
"Yes, so what? Don't tell me you're going to create a Fu Shu oath; you do realize that even using Fu Shu energy can kill you, right?"
She spoke with certainty, but of course, Leon didn't pay attention to her. He stretched his hand forward, and before her very eyes, a dark ominous aura rushed from the young hunter's body towards Leon's hand like fire to petrol.
This dark ominous energy was Fu Shu energy, also known as Negative energy.
Negative energy could be obtained from a variety of sources, sometimes from deep, dark regions, sometimes from the depths of the sea, and strangely, sometimes it could be obtained from corpses.
This world had seen negative energy before, but they lost it. They couldn't control it, but Badur could, and so could Leon. His arrival in this world marked the rebirth of negative energy. It embraced him like a child embraces its long-lost father.
"That's..." stepping backward, the blonde was a bit shaken. The long-lost art of Fu Shu... this crippled Warlock could use it?
"Don't be scared; we will write the contract togather."
Noticing her movements, Leon turned to her and smiled. Fu Shu energy was the safest type of energy to swear with because no one could manipulate it.
It was non-discriminatory; it would usually leach off the life-force of its own user sometimes. Some say it's an embodiment of death, and no one can cheat death. Once you swear on it, you gamble with your life.
"Okay, lets do it" the blonde lady nodded before pulling out a piece of paper. After which she sat on the ground and began writing.
It wasn't like she trusted Leon or anything, she just didn't want to die. There was no other option, it was either this or they both die here and now.
A few minutes later.
"Oh, you're called Arian?" Leon said, holding the piece of paper in his hand. The contract had been drawn; what remained was the swearing of oaths.
"I find the terms agreeable. Now let's begin," Leon said before tossing the paper into the ball of Negative energy in his hand.
"By the heavens, by the earth, by Death, I swear, my life on the line, I so declare... I, Arian Finlay... I, Leon, swear to abide by my oath, and if I break it or attempt to taint it, may death embrace me in ultimate despair."
A young man in tattered clothes and a lady in elegant battle armor echoed their oaths loudly by the side of the riverbank under the cover of the night.
Arian didn't know this, but she had just made a deal with a scheming thousand year Demon. One that had gained the name contract devil in this past incarnation.
the story line is unique and it's definitely not something you've read before. every question will be answered and every decision is well thought out. patience, if you have it you'll really enjoy the progression.