"My soul," Ashley said.
"Oh, so you can talk?" The Beast gaped in mock surprise. But Ashley wasn't through.
"Why?.. Why do you contract people only to take their souls and turn them into monsters? Is there some kind of sick pleasure your kind enjoys in seeing others lose their loved ones? To see them in agony?" he asked under the immense pressure on his mind.
Ashley was quivering in his frozen shoes; never did he think he would have the mind to question such a being. Yet he asked, not knowing where such courage came from.
But that might have been the biggest mistake of his life.
The Beast didn't respond, carefully looking at him, then its expression darkened. "You do not know… your place… do you?" It slowly said.
Ashley felt his insides twist.
The Beast drew a sigil in the air, and an open, floating black scroll appeared. "This should shut you up," it grinned.
It then slightly cut its finger and pressed it against the scroll. The scroll glowed a bright purple. Then, intricate patterns flew from it and headed towards Ashley's chest.
Immediately it entered his body, Ashley fell weak. It was as if all life had been drained from him.
Ashley staggered, and would've fallen on one knee — if he wasn't frozen to the floor.
The Beast watched in pleasure as Ashley struggled, twisting and turning, resisting the foreign life sucker.
"Now, now… there's no need to resist," It said. "Let this answer your question, runt."
Ashley slowly began losing consciousness, his breathing labored. At that moment, a stray thought passed through his mind.
'I don't want to die.'
"I don't want to die." He muttered.
"Huh?" The Beast's brow arched.
"I don't want to die!" Ashley forcefully screamed at the top of his lungs. The Beast merely flinched before its eyes narrowed.
Suddenly, purple cracks appeared on Ashley's heart area. Purple sparks lit, some little, some bigger. The purple light began to contest with the dark energy in his body.
His body began radiating purple light that seemed to drain all the energy from its surroundings, restoring life to the boy.
"He is… resisting the contract!" The Beast stuttered, its eyes open wide in disbelief.
It was common for a few humans to resist a Nether Beast in the lesser triad, rare for the middle triad, but for a human to resist the contract of the highest triad…
"That's… impossible." The Beast whispered, its shock gradually turning into rage. "That's not possible!" It screamed.
The Beast dashed towards Ashley, with its only thought — to kill the boy.
Because, once a human successfully resists a contract implementation…
***
Ashley stood on an endless black sea, its waters calm, giving Ashley a feeling that nothing could perturb it.
"Where am I?" he asked, silence answering him back.
He looked around the dark space with no source of light, then, as if on cue, a faint purple light glowed, too dim but easy to see in the dark space.
Then Ashley began hearing sobbing sounds, which turned into wailing. The voice sounded like that of a child, and it sounded familiar.
"That's my voice," Ashley said, surprised.
'Mommy, please come back! Come back!' The child cried out.
Without thinking, Ashley ran through the dark sea, his feet sending out ripples that seemed to distort the light.
As he got closer, the outline was getting clearer and clearer, and soon he saw his five-year-old self kneeling before a woman.
Before he could reach them, the figures warped and wavered.
"No… no…" he shouted, the figures slowly fading away. "Wait, Mom… don't leave me!"
The figures turned into wisps, but Ashley heard a voice, this time from his mother.
"Live, Ashley… gain your powers and… avenge me."
Those were the last words he heard before the dark space crumbled, forcefully ejecting him.
***
Ashley's eyes shot wide open, a new resolve in his eyes.
"I'm not going to die…" he shouted, his eyes burning with bright purple flames that lit up the whole room, swallowing every other source of light. The purple light fully displaced the black light.
The Beast drove his black claws with full force towards Ashley's heart, pure murderous intent in his eyes.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl as Ashley's gaze met with the Nether Beast, causing the superior being to unconsciously shudder a little at the burning Will of the insignificant child.
"…not until I kill every one of those Divine bastards!"
The Beast grimaced as an unknown force slammed against its chest, sending it flying across the room, its body crashing with full force against the cracked walls.
Some moments later, gradually the room dimmed, as the glow from Ashley's eyes and body faded, leaving the now purple scroll the only source of light.
The contract scroll levitated in front of Ashley, having left the Beast.
Ashley let out a shaky breath, his body slowly recovering. His gaze slowly moved towards the scroll.
Ashley was confused. He might have just had a moment of breakthrough, but that didn't mean he could suddenly understand the ancient text in front of him.
"What… just…"
Suddenly, the ancient texts, as if being decrypted, broke down and reconstructed themselves into his known language.
The scroll read:
[Nether Contract Scroll]
[As per failed contract implementation, the subject may enact the contract on the invoker, or cancel it and achieve a Mark of Passing that would prevent any other NetherBeast from contracting them.]
[Contract Terms:]
•Take full control of the subject's soul(former)
•Take over subject's body(former)
[Duration: Till demise of host ]
[Type: One sided(former)]
That was a lot of information for someone like Ashley to process. As someone who didn't go through formal education, there were some terms he couldn't understand.
Though he was smart enough to know that this was a method of contracting humans—and Beasts.
Ashley's gaze moved towards the Beast, finally being able to fully notice its other features since he couldn't earlier due to fear.
The Nether Beast had pale feathers running up its pale, sickly white skin. Its arms were mainly skinny with long, sharp black nails slightly curving from its fingers. Its legs and feet were covered in feathers, though that did not stop the black toenails from protruding from the sickly white feathers.
The feathers continued up its body, stopping just shy of its shoulder blade. Its three pairs of wings were full of the same pale, sickly white feathers, with some random black and dark purple feathers sticking in unnoticeable areas.
'I'm able to contract him?' Ashley thought, bewildered at the thought of having this monstrosity within him. 'But Mom told me to gain power… and avenge her.'
Suddenly, his eyes shifted from fear to determination.
He opened his mouth, but closed it. He couldn't call it "Beast", then remembering a specific part of the Nether Contract scroll…
[Invoker: Calcifer]
[Subject: Ashley]
"Cal… Calcifer…" he called out to the Beast— or fallen angel, since it looked more like that.
Calcifer slowly looked up, meeting Ashley's determined eyes, which wavered as they would collapse at any second.
"What…?" He seethed.
Ashley tried to speak again, but Calcifer interrupted. "You resisted the contraction… now you're free to go… so what else do you want?!"
There was a palpable rage and regret in his heart that Ashley could weirdly sense.
Ashley awkwardly cleared his throat, closed his eyes, gritted his teeth, and then swallowed hard at the thought of what he was about to say.
"I want us to work together." He blurted.
Disbelief painted the fallen angel's face. Not only was the kid not trying to free himself, but he also wanted to contract him… but on a mutual ground.
Calcifer suddenly burst out in screeching laughter. "Work together? You must be either dumb and stupid, more of both, to propose that… just who the hell do you think I am?"
"Uhm… you're some strong Nether Beast… that er… failed to contract me," Ashley replied, the situation already turning more awkward than deadly.
Calcifer's face dropped. "Tch… let me guess, you're after my power," he grinned. "Well, sad notice, runt… You can't use it because you'll burn from the inside out and die a miserable death. On a second note, you could just do that and free me of the agony of being with you."
There was a hint of almost relief on Calcifer's face; now the kid should be afraid of his power and let him go. There were still other humans he could contract after all.
"But if I die… don't you too?" Ashley slightly tilted his head.
Calcifer's face darkened. This kid was smarter than he thought. Sure, everybody knew that when a human turned monster gets killed, the contracted NetherBeast dies too.
But for Ashley to use that…
"Kekeke… you're one cocky runt, I'll give you that." Calcifer dryly laughed.
Ashley lingered for a moment, then slowly walked towards Calcifer, his legs not shaking as much as before. Though still shaking.
It wasn't every day you got to have the power to make such a powerful and feared Creature your own.
"What are you doing?" Calcifer frowned.
Stopping not so close to him and not minding his attitude, Ashley stretched out his hand.
And uttered the most stupid thing that one could ever say to a Nether Beast.
"Let's… be friends."