The horrifying Mandrake looked calm as it believed that it had evaded certain death.
They were now bound to the rules of the contract, and breaking them would result in their death.
Five years later, Elliot needed to release him if he didn't want to suffer a backlash from the magic contract and die; that's what the memories of the girl it devoured told the Mandrake, causing it to smirk. However, its expression fell almost immediately. For five years, it needed to serve him obediently. That is something it would reluctantly do as it wanted to live, sigh!
"Of course," Elliot replied to Hope in his mind.
[-50 units of the essence of life]
[Congratulations! You've broken free from the rules of the contract]
Of course, it wasn't aware that the rules no longer had any effect on Elliot.
It was a one-sided trade from the very start, and it fell from the devil's whispers, the devil being Elliot.