Faykes' decision (1)

Upon reaching the dining room, Faykes was guided by Rosa to take a seat. Upon seating down, before Faykes could open his mouth, Esta quickly spoke up.

"Don't ask. You know who we are, little Faykes."

"Yeah, but I-" Before Faykes could continue speaking, Rosa snarled at him.

"Shut it. This is a mission assigned to us. That's all we can tell you."

"Now, we'll have to properly explain the rules in the villa. Listen carefully, because failing to follow the rules can lead to your inconsequential death." Esta said, her voice turning solemn, as if it really was a matter of life and death.

Seeing this, Faykes turned quiet as well and nodded in acquiesce to what they were saying. It seems… he had underestimated the so-called rules to follow.

Rosa began listing the rules, with Faykes nodding as he acknowledged each one. Both Esta and Rosa looked at him intently, and confirming his acknowledgment, both nodded before stepping back a step.

"Since you understand, write your full name in this contract and place a drop of blood. Don't ask, this is one of the items Master invented." Esta spoke, unfurling the parchment she had been holding.

Upon seeing the contents, Faykes was a bit surprised, as he knew that Magic binding contracts were quite rare because of the difficulty to produce it but as he continued reading, it slowly evolved to fear. He actually couldn't read the remaining runic writing in the contract! Seeing this, he couldn't help but have myriad of thoughts present. What if Xander put a perverted clause in the contract? Or worse, hidden in it was slave-master clause! At the thought of this, Faykes paled and began shaking in fear.

Seeing the changes on Faykes, the twins looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Rosa came closer to Faykes and knocked his head.

"Idiot, stop those thoughts right now! The unreadable runic part is actually the elemental signature of the contract! It isn't some hidden clause or whatnot. How do we know this? Because everyone in this compound, my current military team, has signed this contract as well! You should know that before each mission we are to sign a loyalty contract, which would immediately burst us into flames if there was a conflicting contract that we have signed. I'm still alive aren't I?" Rosa said to Faykes.

"Also, you also signed the same type of magic contract when you reached adulthood in your family." Esta added dryly. Adulthood in this planet was at the age of 16. From then on, one is considered to be paying taxes, and entering the military to do their mandatory 2 years of service is a must. They can enter the military no matter what age, but they must serve the 2 years completely.

Of course, the two didn't dare explain the whole situation about their own contract signing; they actually had the same reaction as Faykes, and it was quite embarrassing. Faykes looked at the contract again, making sure he understood every clause written in the contract. After a few seconds, he took a deep breath and gritted his teeth. He signed his name and finally placed a drop of blood.

Upon the blood's contact to the contract, the parchment glowed before dissolving into traces of light which then half moved towards his body, while the other half vanished. Immediately, Faykes felt something change inside him; there was power brewing. Slowly but surely, the elemental particles in the dining room and surrounding area moved towards Faykes.

Faykes was surprised with what was happening that he sat still for a few seconds until Esta snapped at him.

"You idiot, you're having a breakthrough! Quickly, compress the elemental particles into seeds!" Upon hearing this, Faykes snapped out of his stupor and began to sit comfortably and began channeling the elemental particles in his body to where the other magic seeds were located in, reinforcing the spell models that he pre-selected. After a few minutes, the wave of elemental particles stopped moving towards Faykes. He opened his eyes, and surprise and joy filled his mind: He broke through twice!

Faykes was already an Elite-6! Seeing his reaction, the twins smiled wryly before getting his attention.

"Now, since you have signed the contract, we can now tell you the consequences of breaking it." Esta took a deep breath, she and Rosa's face serious. Faykes solemnly listened.

"The moment you break any of the contract's clauses, your existence will disappear- meaning you will cease to exist in this universe as well as any traces of your life will disappear." Esta continued, her voice heavy. Faykes gravely nodded; the moment the light particles entered his body, this information appeared in his mind.

However, the desire to understand the mystery behind this kid was the fuse to his decision. He had a nagging feeling that if he decided to put his trust on this kid, there would be a significant change in his future.

Faykes wasn't wrong about this; almost all mages or those with potential to be mages have stronger souls. They were more sensitive passively to the stirrings of the soul. Although they do not currently have information about fate magic and the element, the souls are intrinsically linked to it, as the formation and existence of souls were quite linked to it, from Xander's own exploration and research over the past years.

Xander used a special combination to create the modified magic contracts, combining the Fate System under Life-Death elements, as well as Space-Time elements.

What the contract did was sever the threads of fate and causality of the target using both time and space elements to do it simultaneously in every point of existence in the past, present, and future.

The concept of existence has been widely debated by magicians, philosophers, and even scientists in that past thousands of years. Xander however, had a clearer grasp on the idea of existence: it is the threads of fate and causality, which when the two are combined, form karmic threads, and binds one's existence. Imagine this - every action you do has a cause and an effect. Every time it affects someone, a karmic thread appears between the two of you, very faint and very hard to discover.

The moment you were conceived, you were already forming karmic threads, from your parents and those that know of your existence. The moment you were born, these karmic threads solidified into the doll of life, which is a metaphysical representation of your life essence. Without the doll, your body will simply be an empty husk.

This was the same life essence that Xander had discovered in the special dimension, albeit without the threads, but rather a collective presence manifested into the form of an ocean, indistinguishable from one another, and interconnected. However, someone who can control the Fate system would have this capability of distinguishing their target doll of life, which is basically how Xander made the first part of the contract in the first place.

The moment you began to think and act, you extend a karmic thread from your doll to another being's doll of life linking the two of you.

The more threads you form between the two, the more metaphysically connected you are. But there's a problem here: You don't have infinite karmic threads, and the more you extend karmic threads, the more the doll unravels.

This is usually resolved when others extend their own karmic thread to you willingly, when they reciprocate to your interaction, does something related to you, etc. The resulting actions of their respective doll of life allows you to send more karmic threads to other beings.

It reaches to the point where you are just a bundle of karmic threads, and the doll beyond recognition, but its still there, alongside with other beings' doll of life, bundled up together and indistinguishable to others.

One could visualize this by imagining the ocean Xander saw, where instead of water molecules, its the dolls of life/life essences that are bonded to one another not by covalent, non-covalent bonds, but rather karmic threads. Some parts of the ocean would have a stickier, or more viscous feeling than the rest; some parts would be like the ocean foam formed on the tip of the waves, very fragile and spread about.