Payne Estate...

Gregory's study...

Just like many others in the city, Gregory knew of all that happened in the city on that day and while he had always suspected, NAY, being convinced of Hal's guilt, he was still surprised the Plebeian alliance would attack him.

Even worse, he won!

"It would seem, you really have something I want" Gregory said and a smile stretched over his face.

In less than a week, there was going to be an important event in the city, or more accurately, a very public event which has been made so by Marlon Edgar.

He was getting remarried to his wife.

Gregory did not know why they would pick such a precarious time to get hitched but he wished to have carried out his wishes by then.

"Burt" he called and the butler walked into the study barely a second later.

"Yes, Master" Burt bowed.

"I want a message delivered to my son" Gregory said as he pulled out a piece of parchment and after dipping his pen into ink, he began to write.

The letter was short and once he was done with it, having scribbled so fast Burt could not make anything out, he passed it on to the butter who looked puzzled as he left the study to have the message delivered.

However, before the letter even left the Estate, he was already relating all he could to his Master.

Laying emphasis on how confused he was that Gregory seemed to be taking a diplomatic approach. Hal, who was busy at the time terminated the connection the moment Burt was done.

Burt could feel it in the air, there was a storm brewing in the Payne Family. A story that had nothing to do with the war with the other families. This was purely within the family.

A familial affair if you will.

...

Meanwhile...

At the Mansion...

Hal had completely tired Melinda out and as much as he would have loved to hold her to sleep, there was something else he needed to do that was quite important.

Since the Time warped Chamber was usually occupied and he wanted privacy for what he was about to do next, Hal took another room.

Once he was in there, he opened the portal to the forest habitat and out of it slithered the Beautiful undulating green body of Sassy, the Toxic Viper.

When Sassy was out, she made to coil around Hal's arm as she usually did but Hal thrust his hand forward to stop her,

"Stay" he said and even though it was clear from her slit eyes that she was confused, Sassy did stay in place. Only occasionally flicking out her tongue.

Then he took a deep breath and thought about how to continue. How to heal her and enable her to form her pearl.

He had already searched through Grimoire's contents and while he could heal her, everyone one of those means were out of his range at the moment.

And he also lacked the resources which were not really abundant on this continent anyway since all things relating to Demon Beasts are shunned. Also, a method that would work to heal a human's pearl was bound not to work for Sassy.

Not that he could use that method either.

So he decided to circumvent the need for resources by drafting a different kind of contract.

A type he had never made to date.

A contract whose terms went as follows;

In exchange for Attendance servitude, he would share his Pearl with Sassy. In doing so, he would take away her necessity to cultivate and turn her into a cultivation base backup.

He had searched within the inheritance left in his bloodline and knew it was not only possible, but it was also something he could only do once. At least until Sassy died and left the attendant position free.

To a Devil or Demonic servant, this was the greatest honor that could be bestowed.

The Honor to become A Familiar.

Finding out about it in his bloodline, Hal had seen just how much experts fought to become Familiars of mighty Demon and Devil lords who would hold battle royals to select the most capable.

Once made into a Familiar, the Devil or Demon shares his cultivation realm with said familiar. The connection between the two would go further than a simple Master-servant relationship but even then, cultivation is the only thing that is shared.

And hence other attributes such as comprehension and plethora of battle skills are also looked into as well as purity of Bloodline.

After all, a Familiar is a Devil or Demon's most trusted and mediocrity was very frowned upon.

To become a familiar was to grant their master all they had in body and soul and would hence be bound until the death of that Familiar.

Unlike normal Devil contracts where the contracted are set free upon the death of the contracting Devil, a Familiar contract is binding even after death and in most cases, the familiar dies as well from what many refer to as heartache.

Normally Hal wouldn't care. For all the fuss around Familiar contracts, it was still servitude. Now, if it were possible to have more than one familiar in which case, one could possibly have a whole army of them, that would have been nice.

He sighed and began drafting the contract.

The energy it released was of such a different kind. Unlike his usual Devil servant contracts which were usually intimidating, the Familiar contract was mild and ensnaring.

The kind of feeling that made the contracted feel special.

'Oy, you are making a Familiar?' Tiberius' voice suddenly sounded from out of his soul world.

'Yes. Yes, I am" Hal replied without stopping.

'For a viper?' The fiend sounded incredulous.

'It would seem so, yes' Hal replied.

'You do know that choosing a familiar is a big deal right? You are supposed to select the most capable. You are picking the first one you see' Tiberius cautioned.

Hal sighed. Even though he did not stop, he understood what Tiberius was talking about. He just did not give a crap.

Maybe this was not very advantageous for him but it was what felt right at the moment.

'What makes you so sure that she's not the most capable?' Hal asked.

'Well, for one thing, she's just a sensing beast. A creature whose existence is inconsequential in the grand scheme of things' Tiberius grunted.

'So what? I'm a Cosmic Armament Realm cultivator and even on this continent alone, I'm considered inconsequential and I am sure the strongest in this world would still not hold a candle to you.

As such, aren't your standards a little too high?

By your logic, I should only look for the most powerful to fill my forces and I on the other hand believe in building them up into becoming the most powerful.

Sassy will share my Cultivation, that is all. For all others, including her Bloodline, she has time to grow. Also, she has me."

Tiberius grunted but said nothing.

'Well, I think it's great' Myra said.

Hal smiled,

'Care to share how you chose your Familiars?' Hal asked and the two went suddenly quiet.

'Maybe some other time' Myra eventually said before Hal could no longer sense her energy in his Soul world.

Hal narrowed his eyes and gritted his teeth. There were too many things those two were hiding. But oh well, all in due time.

He completed the contract but did not hold it out for Sassy to sign, instead, his skin turned scarlet and was only marred by red lines as he infiltrated Sassy with his Devil energy so as to initiate {Mind Meld}.

While the ability was mostly designed for intercourse, Hal just needed it to connect their minds so he could converse with her directly.

The serpent did not even squirm or act difficult, merely allowing the infiltration.

At that point, despite his eyes being open, Hal was no longer conscious as his consciousness had passed into Sassy's.

In there, it was beautiful and colorful, even though Green was the most predominant of the colors.

"Is that you?" Sounded a timid voice emanating throughout the consciousness, a definitely female voice, a voice that was definitely Sassy's.

"Yes" was all Hal said.

"Hmmm. Can I have more blood?" The voice asked again. Still timid but a little bolder.

"Maybe later, I'm here to talk to you about something else..." Hal said and explained everything concerning the Familiar contract.

He wanted to hear her input.

"It's the only way you can help me?" She asked.

"Yes. It's the only way for now. I could get the resources needed for other means in the future but I cannot guarantee that I will get it before you reach the end of your lifespan" Hal said.

He knew he could definitely try and most likely succeed in finding it but since at the early stages of cultivation, Demon beast lifespan is a little inconsistent and mostly short, he did not want to give false hope.

The reason for the inconsistency was because, as wild beasts, they all usually had different lifespans and once they become Demon beasts, this becomes a factor.

Sassy seemed to think for a while before she asked,

"If I sign that contract, can I have more Blood?"

Hal chuckled at her one-track mind before nodding,

"Sure, but I don't think you will need it all that much as a familiar"

He retreated to the outside to see the serpent cause herself to bleed and then splatter the contract with it.

The contract then seemed to duplicate, with one copy rolling up and disappearing into Hal's right palm.

The other copy sunk into Sassy's body and right at the top of her head where her Cosmic pearl should form, the contract imitated it and formed an immaculate Pearl that was the same size as Hal's.

Which meant the advantages of the Primordial Cosmic Art (Bigger pearls than normal) would also be shared.

Once the Pearl was completely formed, Sassy proceeded to the Natured Beast realm which was equivalent to Hal's Early stage of the Cosmic Armament realm and her size suddenly enlarged...

*Bang!!*

...and broke free of the Room she and Hal were in.