Chapter 177 - An Equal Contract

"Why in the fuck do you want to help me?"

The devil found it laughable that Oliver would ever suggest such a thing. He expressed his doubts, naturally, as no sane human would go ahead and make a deal with the devil, especially not one that reflected an equal understanding.

"Why the hell not? So, you better tell me what your plan is so that I could get a better understanding."

Baffled, the devil stood as he looked at Oliver. It didn't seem as if the human were trying to be indecent and lie. Oliver's sentiment somehow expressed sincerity.

"Are you nuts? There's nothing for you if you help me. Besides, I don't think a human could do much, especially not in your current state."

"Then, help me." Oliver's face remained straight as he expressed his thoughts. But, his eyes sparkled with determination. "An equal trade, yeah? I help you get what you want. You help me get stronger. I honestly don't think there's a better deal for either of us. I suggest you take it."

Having no idea what Oliver was thinking, the devil felt slightly nauseous. It was because of Oliver's rather odd behavior. Just thinking about working along with a human made the devil feel sick.

"What's your plan here, human?" the devil asked skeptically. There was no way it would agree with the human's suggestions, especially not with his distrust of humanity.

But Oliver didn't seem to care much for that.

Oliver's thought process was relatively simple. He didn't want to be left behind by anybody else any longer. He wanted to get stronger, more so than logically possible. And, after hearing the devil's rather upsetting origin, Oliver felt as though it would be better to cooperate.

"You've known me for eight months. So, you probably know where I'm going with this," Oliver explained by starting with the obvious. "You know better than anyone what I'm after. And, I think this is the way to do it."

It was an incredibly nondescript answer. Oliver had given the devil essentially nothing to work with, but the intention seemed clear. The devil somewhat knew what Oliver was referring to, even if it were just a ballpark estimate.

"Answer me one thing, though," Oliver suddenly pursued a different matter. "Is this why you wanted to destroy the Mana Crystal? So nobody else would have seen you flip out?"

The devil had also destroyed the equipment around the room and gave the gnome a scare. But, that was neither here nor there, at this point, as some things took more importance than others.

"No," the devil gave a straight-laced answer. "The Mana Crystal — no, this whole place wasn't something I expected to remain after all the time that had passed. But, seeing as how the Mana Crystal was still here, I came back to retrieve it."

"What for?" Oliver asked, "From what I can tell, the Mana Crystal's pretty useless. Otherwise, the other scientists would've taken it away, right?"

"Take back control of your body, and I'll show you," the devil answered as his body faded from Oliver's view.

Letting out a sigh, Oliver closed his eyes and reopened them not long after.

He was now back at the laboratory. And, looking around, the place seemed wrecked. The black whips that lashed about from the devil's attacks seemed to damage things much more than Oliver had expected.

Regardless, looking forward, the Mana Crystal that had been tall enough to reach both the floor and ceiling now shrunk. It was now on the palm of Oliver's hand and appeared different.

What Oliver would've guessed to be a smaller version of this Mana Crystal was now something else. Well, at least the color of it was different.

The original clear-looking crystal was no more as it was replaced with one of a darker tint. Oliver could tell that this was the same crystal like the one he first saw. But why had it appeared so differently now?

"It's corrupted," the devil explained as its voice rang in Oliver's head. "As you saw in the visions, I attacked this Mana Crystal as a last resort before my capture. I never really planned to break the thing. It was impossible from where I stood, and destroying a Mana Crystal of this caliber would need a lot of time and effort.

"Regardless, the Mana I sent to this crystal back then was meant to lock it for further use, which is why the other scientists abandoned it. The only way to get this Mana Crystal back was for me to unlock it. Which, by the time they figured it out, I was already long gone."

"But, how am I compatible with this thing?" Oliver asked once more as he inspected the Mana Crystal more intently.

"Because your Mana's already attuned to mine," the devil answered with a frustrated tone to its voice. "For us devils to assimilate with a vessel, we would first conduct the sublimation of the vessel's Mana to ours. It takes a lot of time to succeed, during which the vessel can interrupt the process and stop it altogether."

"You're telling me all of this intentionally? So, I'll take that as an agreement of our deal earlier, right?"

"Don't get cocky, human," the devil rebutted, "You're going to need to be a lot stronger than you are now to make a contract with me."

Hearing the response, Oliver scoffed. He then smiled and threw the crystal into his inventory.

"Well," Oliver sighed and shook his head, "That's a lot better than nothing, I guess. Anyway, I'm going to need a way out of here. Any ideas?"

As Oliver and the devil discussed these things, the gnome peered its head over the stone barricade he made. A face of terror still could be seen on the gnome's face as it stared at Oliver, who was standing next to where the Mana Crystal used to be.

Upon realizing things had calmed down, however, the gnome decidedly took a look at Oliver. The gnome then saw Oliver standing still as an air of omen surrounded him.

Knowing full well that it had to protect itself, the gnome cast Earth Magic to trap Oliver once more. It took this opportunity of Oliver standing completely still as the ground swallowed his feet.

'What the..?'

As the ground beneath his feet lowered, Oliver turned his head to the gnome. Upon making eye contact, however, Oliver saw how scared the small creature was.

The expression wasn't anything surprising, though. Oliver would have probably felt the same way if he were in the gnome's shoes.

Regardless, Oliver quicky relieved the gnome of its worries.

"Sorry about that," Oliver hurriedly apologized with a genuine expression on his face. "Lost control for a second there."

Oliver hoped that the gnome wouldn't pry too much about what had just happened. Unfortunately, the gnome needed a much more detailed explanation than Oliver's half-assed apology.

"W-what was that?!" the gnome expressed its disdain as it kept its distance from Oliver. "Humans are much more terrifying than the literature! Perhaps extending a peaceful hand was a mistake! No, it undoubtedly was a mistake!"

The gnome was too terrified to listen to Oliver.

Its experience with humans were non-existent. It only relied on the literature and the scattered signs of humanity in this room.

From meeting Oliver to this very moment, all of it felt bizzare to the gnome. At this point, the word terror wouldn't even begin to cover the fear that the gnome was feeling.

"My inner demons just let loose is all."

With an overly casual tone, Oliver proceeded to explain to the gnome what had happened. However, the explanation wasn't as detailed as how it happened. Oliver intentionally removed some details pertaining to the devil that resided within him.

Despite the glaring holes in Oliver's storytelling though, the gnome seemed to believe his explanation. Not without any doubts, of course.

Regardless, they could finally move on from this rather strange series of events. But, with the lab destroyed, Oliver felt slightly lost as to what they needed to do next.

With nothing else to do, Oliver attempted to summon Strider once more. He whistled in a high pitch that Strider would immediately recognize. However, there was no response.

'Damn it.'

As Oliver inwardly cursed, the gnome shuffled some things around the room. It tried to salvage whatever pieces the room had left but was having trouble doing so.

'What now?'

"Are you some kind of idiot?" the devil suddenly piped in as Oliver became deep in thought.

"Shut up," he dismissed, "I'm trying to find a way to bring Strider back and get out of here. There's something I have to do in the morning. And being stuck in this place doesn't help."

Oliver was normally quite calm. But, after all that had happened, he was bound to get a little pissed off.

He had to find Strider and soon. Otherwise, his absence would be problematic for Jack and the others.

"You're thinking about this the wrong way," the devil reiterated, "There's no way out of here except from the way you came in. I mean that literally."

"You want me to climb the damned hole from before? There's no way I could do something like that," Oliver expressed his doubts, "How am I supposed to climb something that steep and tall?"

Hearing Oliver's complaints, the devil couldn't help but snicker.

Suddenly, something within Oliver swelled up. Oliver couldn't explain it as he saw his arms pulsate with a dark light.

"What the hell are you doing?" Oliver asked at the only creature capable of doing this to him.

"Lending you my strength, jackass. You keep complaining how you can't do shit that I felt bad for you."

In response, Oliver scoffed and gave his thanks to the devil. He hadn't known it at the time, but Oliver was forming a sense of kinship with the devil.

[Secret Conditions Complete!]

[Calculating...]

Reading the windows that popped up, Oliver felt something in his chest throb. It was painful, but not so much that would make Oliver curl in pain.

[Calculation Complete!]

[You have obtained The Foolish Devil's Favor! Implementation sequence will begin shortly.]

'Implementation sequence?' Oliver asked cluelessly.

Suddnely, the pain in his chest started to grow. From a small pulse of pain to an indescribable feeling, Oliver felt as if he had been kicked in the balls twenty times in the matter of seconds.

'Shit!'

Falling to the ground, Oliver could hear himself wince from the pain. The gnome, taking notice of this, immediately sought shelter.

Oliver was too busy dealing with pain to see what the gnome did. Even if he did, though, he wouldn't blame the small creature for doing so. That's because even Oliver himself was caught off-guard by how sudden this all was.

Fortunately, the pain didn't last as long as it needed to.

Struggling to catch his breath, Oliver stayed completely still as the dark pulse surrounding him dissipated. His complexion turned pale from the pain, however, but it was a worthwhile consequence for what happened next.

[Implementation successful! Congratulations for forming an equal contract with the Foolish Devil!]

"Care to explain what the fuck was all that for?"

Oliver was still slightly disoriented as he stood up. Nothing seems to have changed from the 'implementation,' but Oliver still wanted to make sure.

"You got what you wanted, human. An equal contract. I didn't think that it would have such a backlash on you, but all seems well."

"If that's the case," Oliver answered as he wiped the sweat from his brow, "You need to stop calling me human. Oliver. But you probably know that by now."

"Fair enough, Oliver," the devil answered as it agreed smugly. "My name's been lost when I became a devil so you can call me how the others do."

"What? You want me to call you the Fool?" Oliver said in disbelief, "How about Xiled?"

"Whatever," the devil answered uncaringly.