Chapter Three Sign an unequal magic contract.（one）

Cold, extreme cold.

Fear, an unstoppable fear.

Loneliness, a sense of loneliness that can drain one's soul.

Ryan found himself in this strange world, with various adverse reactions coming one after another.

This world is desolate and terrifying. Day and night alternate in a cycle of about three hours.

During the day, the surroundings become as hot as a steel furnace, with the huge, white-hot sun roasting the ground until it smokes. Streams of molten glass bubble and surge, forming a fiery river.

At night, the temperature drops suddenly to extreme cold. This coldness comes from the full moon hanging in mid-air. Wherever the blue moonlight shines, everything freezes instantly. The previously flowing river of molten glass becomes a hard, porous ground in an instant.

The extreme temperature changes between day and night fill the space with crisscrossing thunderbolts and rampaging hurricanes.

This is the space Ryan is in now. People call this space - the Demon Realm.

Since Magician Chris learned that Ryan was the disciple of her archenemy, Magician Victor, she arranged for Ryan to come here to train.

Chris is truly a powerful magician. She actually has the ability to tear open two spaces and set up a magic array at the interface of the two spaces as a bridge connecting them.

Although she also admits that if this place were not the ancient battlefield of the God - Demon War, and the large amount of magical energy gathered by the demons and gods during the war had not already cracked the two spaces innumerable times, she could not have opened the Demon Realm space out of thin air.

The black sphere she used in her battle with the old wolf was also made based on the same principle. It can be said that she is the only magician in the world who can manipulate space.

The magic array leading to the Demon Realm is controlled by the sorcerer in the center of the magic array. As long as one maintains a meditative state, a life-sustaining barrier can be maintained within the scope of the magic array.

Of course, the alternating climate of heat and cold and the thin air still make this place like hell on earth. If Ryan had not undergone long-term electric shock meditation training, he would probably not have been able to support this magic array, and this place would have become a real hell.

Ryan can only pray now that Chris will be merciful and remember to recall him to the original world in a relatively short time, and not forget him in this strange world for three days like last time. Of course, Chris said it was unintentional, and Ryan could only think that he was accidentally forgotten. What else could he do?

And Beena is just praying for Ryan to the gods in the human world. It's just unknown whether the power of the gods in the heavenly realm can save Ryan in the Demon Realm.

Although Oliver is a good friend and once reminded Chris to summon Ryan back, not long after, Oliver was seriously injured in the training personally presided over by Chris. He was unconscious for several days and thus was unable to do anything. Even if he woke up, he probably wouldn't have the courage.

In the Demon Realm, besides the bad environment, there is another thing that makes Ryan extremely nervous. That is, according to the legend, the demons who fled into the Demon Realm after the failure of the Glorious War.

According to the legend, the demons and gods originally lived together in this world. Their powers were the same but their personalities were opposite.

The gods love light, while the demons like darkness. The two sides had no disputes originally.

However, in order to fight for the control of humanity, the two sides launched a fierce war. Legend has it that humans were originally created by the gods as assistants and servants to manage the god's territory.

The demons also created various powerful monsters as their subordinates accordingly. However, after thousands of years, the relatively weak human race, which is not powerful in strength and has a relatively weak body, has unexpectedly prospered.

The territory of the demons has been greatly eroded. Although the powerful monsters created by the demons in large numbers caused great losses to humans for a while, in the end, humans will surely eliminate those monsters, and the power of humans will become stronger and stronger with continuous battles.

With the secret support of the gods, humans even dared to launch attacks on the real demons.

Under such circumstances, the demons and humans fought many wars. Although humans always ended up in a crushing defeat each time, under the protection of the gods, humans were always able to avoid total annihilation.

Therefore, under the instigation of the wise elders of the demons, a plan to seduce and guide humans was launched unconsciously.

The demons looked for agents among humans and instilled the power of the demons into humans. With the negligence of the gods, humans gradually came under the control of the demons.

When the gods woke up, humans had become uncontrollable. Therefore, the gods sent down disasters and eliminated most of the humans, but some humans were protected separately by the gods and the demons.

After the great catastrophe, humans continued to reproduce, and the control over humans eventually led to the outbreak of the War between Gods and Demons between gods and demons.

After the battle, powerful forces tore through space, forming many different worlds. Most of the demons were eliminated, and only a small number of them fled into a space with an extremely hostile environment. This space is called the "Demon Realm" by people. Although the gods won this war as victors in the War between Gods and Demons, the powers of gods and demons are comparable. The gods also paid a considerable price. Moreover, the huge energy collision in the battle triggered widespread disasters around the world.

The weakened gods were helpless in the face of this situation. Therefore, they chose a suitable space to live in and moved many beautiful things from this world into that space.

Of course, they also carefully selected some humans to enter that space with them. The ruined world was left to other humans.

It took thousands of years for the world to stabilize. Humans rebuilt civilization and became the masters of this world. However, due to the loss of faith, barbarism and bloodshed filled this period of history.

After maintaining this state for a long time, someone retrieved the original civilized faith from the ruins scattered around the world, and magic was also rediscovered during this period.

Thanks to the prayers of those who had regained their faith, the gods in the other world finally sensed the changes in this world. Messengers sent by the gods re - spread civilization among those with faith. The current world order was thus established. The world where the gods reside is called the "Heavenly Realm" by people.

Chris has no interest in legends at all. Instead, she has an extremely strong impulse towards the existence of demons. A long time ago, she wanted to try to capture a real demon.

However, real demons are highly intelligent beings and will not be deceived. What she can catch are only some ancient magic beasts and dark spiritual bodies.

Therefore, now Ryan has been given a difficult but glorious task - to act as bait. Of course, Chris has also prepared two weapons for Ryan's self - defense. In this regard, she is much better than that Victor.

Before going to the Demon Realm, Chris threw a long sword to Ryan. The sword is three feet and nine inches long, a bit too long. The widest part of the blade is only one and a half inches wide. The blade is slender and curved, only two - tenths of an inch thick. With a light swing, the blade vibrates and cuts through the air, making a hissing sound as it breaks the air.

The edge of the blade is extremely light, indicating that this is a fast sword for one - on - one combat. The blade is smooth, without any blood grooves or inscriptions. There is no guard at the hilt, obviously the former owner of this sword was a highly confident and excellent swordsman.

The hilt is extremely short. Ryan can't even hold the whole hand on it. He can only tightly grip the hilt with his thumb, index finger and middle finger. The ring finger and little finger can neither exert force nor have enough length of the hilt to hold firmly, so they can only be loosely held.

There is a circle of dark red spiral patterns winding around the hilt. According to Chris, this sword is very powerful.

And it is a kind of magic equipment that can choose its master. This sword is called the "Dark Red Tear", which has the ability to absorb the vitality of enemies and transform it into the master's own.

Therefore, the person who gets this sword will become more and more courageous in battle. However, there is no such thing as a free lunch in the world. Although the "Dark Red Tear" is powerful, it needs to absorb a part of the master's vitality every once in a while.

Therefore, Chris doesn't really want this sword, but it's a pity to throw it away. It just so happens that Ryan is going to act as bait now, and this sword can increase his chance of survival a little bit.

After thinking hard for a long time, Ryan finally accepted the sword. After all, when a person is in a desperate situation, it is good to have a straw to clutch at.

After a simple ceremony of recognizing the master, the "Dark Red Tear" finally became Ryan's sword. However, that ceremony almost cost Ryan his life.

It turns out that in order to make the "Dark Red Tear" recognize oneself as its master, one must provide it with enough blood. Ryan, who suffered severe anemia due to the loss of a large amount of blood and had no time to recover at all, was thrown into the Demon Realm by Chris.

If it weren't for the support of another piece of equipment, Ryan would probably have become an ornament in the Demon Realm long ago.

The second piece of equipment is a piece of black iron polished shiny on both sides like a mirror. Chris calls it the "Moonlight Mirror". It can absorb moonlight and convert it into magical power. If Chris hadn't found its effect too insignificant after testing it, she wouldn't have given it to Ryan.

However, unexpectedly, the energy of the moonlight radiated from the moon in the Demon Realm is so great that the magical energy converted by the "Moonlight Mirror" almost made Ryan burst.

For the first time, Ryan, who had magical power, didn't know whether to be happy or worried. The uncontrollable magical power was wasted by Ryan casually. Now, he could easily use large fireballs and lightning bolts continuously.

In fact, even if he didn't want to cast spells, he couldn't do it because the large amount of magical power that had nowhere to vent and kept surging in might burst him.

Even if he hid the "Moonlight Mirror", the huge energy of the moonlight in the Demon Realm still kept pouring in. Cast spells continuously for three hours, then rest for three hours, and then cast spells continuously for another three hours...

Ryan didn't know that without realizing it, a part of the magical power had gradually merged into his body and circulated with his blood and meridians again and again. This was something he hadn't expected, nor had Chris.

If there had been no "Moonlight Mirror", this wouldn't have happened; if Ryan hadn't been in an extremely weakened state, this wouldn't have happened either; if Ryan had been a magician who could cast spells in the normal way, this still wouldn't have happened.

In this difficult environment, Ryan had persevered for three days, and his mental state was on the verge of collapse. With the decline of his mental power, the power of the magic array decreased a lot. It was daytime now, and without the support of moonlight magical power, it was already quite difficult to endure the scorching day.

The scenery in front of him reflected the scorching and dazzling sunlight, which had turned into a blur of red in Ryan's eyes. Suddenly, a puff of black smoke emerged in front of Ryan.

The black smoke spreading around seemed to gather consciously, and an ethereal form appeared. Only a face made of smoke and a claw also formed from the dust were clearly visible. The rest of the parts merged and separated with the fluctuations of the smoke.

"Human, you have actually intruded into the Demon Realm without permission. Your flesh and blood will become the best sacrifice for me, and your soul will stay in the Demon Realm forever and never be reincarnated." The words spoken by the smoke directly penetrated into Ryan's brain.

Panicked Ryan continuously sent out magic signals to urge the Magician Chris in the other world.

Originally, he had agreed with Chris that once a demon was found, he would notify Chris through magic signals. Chris would then get ready and move the entire magic array to that world. Therefore, all Ryan had to do was to make sure he didn't die during this period.

Ryan, who was continuously sending out signals, nervously awaited the flipping of space.

Now, he could only pray that the demon in front of him would act slowly. Fighting was hopeless. The demon was made of smoke and clearly wouldn't be affected by physical attacks. Moreover, it had come out during the day. Didn't demons like darkness? Why wasn't it going to sleep now? It was really an unscrupulous demon, Ryan cursed inwardly.

"An interesting trap," the smoke praised. "It seems that you are not in charge but just a poor bait."

Seeing that the demon had guessed the truth so quickly and even guessed the role assignment exactly, Ryan felt nothing but fear.

"Alright, seeing that you are a poor thing, I'll give you a choice: offer your soul or your flesh and blood." The demon said.

Hearing that there was a choice, Ryan was of course very happy. Having a choice meant that he could bargain, and being able to bargain meant that he could stay alive.

"If you sign a soul contract with me, offer your spirit to me, and entrust your soul entirely to me for disposal, I will spare your life." The demon said.

When it came to making a single-choice question between survival and destruction, Ryan was best at it.

Therefore, after a brief ceremony, the demon suddenly disappeared in front of him.

Ryan finally let out a long sigh of relief because he had just escaped the greatest crisis in his life, although he didn't know how great the price he had paid was.

However, soon, he found that he would face the second greatest crisis in his life.

With successive tremors, the huge magic array slowly gathered sufficient energy. The space reversal spell was about to be activated. If just now Ryan had prayed to return to his own world quickly, now, what he must be praying for was surely not to return to his own world.

However, the magic had already been activated and in a moment he would face Chris. Therefore, Ryan prayed to the gods that Chris would be in a better mood now.

The tremors stopped. When Chris appeared before him looking sleepy-eyed, Ryan knew that the gods in the Heavenly Realm had not heard his prayer.

When Magician Chris, who had forced herself to be spirited up, saw that there was nothing in the magic array except Ryan, the great magician casually summoned a high-level lightning storm and enveloped Ryan along with the magic array, and then turned around and went back to sleep.

In the following decades, whenever Ryan heard thunder or saw lightning, he would become panicked and lapse into a berserk state.

The next day, after Oliver and the others dragged Ryan out of the magic array, a sentence from Jestan pushed Ryan, whose miserable body had already collapsed, to the verge of mental collapse again. "Magician Chris asks you to go over for an inquiry."

Before Chris asked any questions, Ryan blurted out everything that had happened. After finishing speaking, Ryan looked as if he was waiting for death.

"Hehehe, hehehe." A series of high-pitched laughs indicated that Chris was either extremely happy or about to fly into a rage.

Chris waved her hand and a magic array emerged from the ceiling. A cluster of silver light wrapped several smoky forms and descended.

"Are they the same as these?" Chris asked with a smile.

"Yes."

"Hehehe, hehehe, you signed a contract with the dark spiritual bodies, hehehe, hehehe." Chris was extremely happy as if she had found a treasure.

"Dark spiritual bodies are the lowest - level demons. Because their abilities are too low, they can only aggregate simply and are weak guys without even a form. Apart from intimidation, they have no power at all. By the way, what kind of contract did you sign, a master - servant, an equal one, or a servant - master one?" Chris asked.

"It seems to be called something like... a soul contract?" Ryan replied.

"Hehehe, cough cough cough..." Chris laughed so hard that she couldn't catch her breath this time. She leaned on the table and coughed continuously, "It's actually a soul contract. I really didn't expect it. Ryan, you are really a very easily - intimidated guy."

Seeing the four trial students looking confused, she explained, "The soul contract is a very rarely used contract method because it is almost a one - sided profit - making contract, so the signing conditions are extremely harsh."

Seeing that everyone seemed to understand but not quite, Chris continued, "A contract is a way for humans to establish a connection with gods or demons. The difficulty of signing a contract is related to the benefits humans can get from it. As long as a god or demon is willing, a master - servant relationship with the human as the master can be signed, and the person who signs the contract can use the power of the contracting god at will."

"For an equal relationship, it's roughly the same, but a god or demon can terminate this contract at any time. For a servant - master contract, the consent of the human must be obtained. After the contract is established, the human can use the part of the power permitted by the contracting god and pay the corresponding price for the obtained power."

"And the soul contract is the most unequal contract. Humans can get no benefits from it, and everything of themselves belongs to the contracting god. As long as the contracting god is willing, they can occupy the human's body or take away the human's soul at any time. However, correspondingly, to sign such an unequal contract, the person must be absolutely willing. If, during the ceremony, the contracting person has the slightest regret, the contract cannot be established. Got it?"

Looking at Ryan, who was stunned like a wooden chicken, Chris revealed a sinister smile and said cunningly, "Lovely little Ryan, your crime of waking me up yesterday is really great. If you don't sign a contract that satisfies me..."

After Ryan, whose mind had collapsed, signed more than a dozen agreements drafted by Magician Chris casually, he finally fainted.

When Beena wanted to treat Ryan's injuries, Magician Chris stopped her and told her that for Ryan, who had signed a contract with the demons, Beena's light healing magic was the most fatal.

When Ryan woke up from his coma, he found himself covered with various herbs. The pungent smell of the herbs filled the entire room.

He struggled to climb out of the pile of herbs. There must have been some components among these herbs that had a numbing effect on muscles, making Ryan feel as if he was walking in a pile of cotton, with each step either too deep or too shallow, and the ground feeling so soft that he couldn't get a foothold.

He pushed open the door and saw that in the middle of the hall, there was a huge magic array. Oliver was sweating profusely as he dodged from side to side. There were several bloodstains on his body. However, there was not a single person in front of him.

Beena and Jestan were sitting on one side watching.

"Oliver," Ryan greeted his friend.

Oliver was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly, a bolt of lightning appeared out of nowhere and struck Oliver's left ribs, giving him a hard shock. With an additional wound, Oliver dared not be distracted anymore.

Seeing that his disturbance had interfered with Oliver's training, Ryan could only walk gently to the two onlookers and ask, "Hey! What kind of training is Oliver doing?"

"Don't bother me. I need to concentrate on controlling this magic array," Jestan warned.

Beena pulled Ryan, and the two of them moved to the other end of the magic array. Beena whispered gently in Ryan's ear, "During your coma, Oliver has already started formal training in combining magic and martial arts. Now he has to dodge lightning magic attacks while maintaining the state of reading the wind spell. Jestan is in charge of operating this lightning magic array."

Looking at his companion's growth, Ryan was excited but also felt a bit melancholy.

Feeling embarrassed and bored, Ryan slowly walked back to his own room. Feeling weak all over for the first time, he began to doubt his initial choice. Maybe that grocery store was really the most suitable place for him.

"I may not be suitable to be a magician," Ryan muttered to himself.

"It depends on how you view magic," an unexpected strange voice said.

"Who, who is it?!" Ryan shouted sharply.

"A person? I'm not a person. How could you forget your master so quickly?" With a dull low moan, a wisp of smoke appeared in front of him. As the smoke spread, the eternal pain in Ryan's heart, the most successful swindler, that unknown demon beast, appeared in front of him.

Ryan looked fearfully at this demon beast from the Demon Realm. Although Magician Chris said that this thing had no strength, based on the fear of such inter - worldly creatures by humans over thousands of years, Ryan, an ordinary person, still felt extremely scared.

"How did you come out?" Ryan asked bravely.

"After signing the contract with you, of course I can travel freely between the two spaces."

Hearing the demon beast mention that contract again, which made him extremely heartbroken, Ryan was speechless for a long time.

Regarding this demon beast from the other world in front of him, Ryan knew only from Chris that it had no power and from the contract between them that its name was Moster. Other than that, he could be said to know nothing.

"Why did you come out?" Although Ryan knew that this demon beast was not dangerous, releasing a demon beast from the Demon Realm might have an adverse impact on this peaceful world.

Ryan was even more worried that perhaps this demon beast would threaten him with his own soul to rescue those inter - worldly creatures captured by Chris.

Thinking of Chris's terribleness, Ryan shivered all over. It was safer to figure out its intention first.

"Weren't you troubled by being unable to use magic? I can help you," the demon beast said.

With a mixture of surprise and doubt, Ryan asked, "Can you make me able to use magic?" After all, no matter how powerful Chris's magic was, her understanding of the essence of magic might not be as good as that of gods and demons who were composed of magical power itself.

"I can't give you magical power, but I can enable you to master the use of magic. Whether you can change your constitution because of this and further possess your own magical power depends on your luck."

When it came to luck, Ryan's confidence was greatly shaken. It seemed that he was destined by birth to be favored by the goddess of misfortune. Ryan had to face this fact.

However, since participating in this trial journey, he had developed a deeper and deeper affection for magic. Now it was no longer feasible to ask him to give it up.