It had been a few months since the boys won over the first time. Over the past few months each side got a few wins over the other, pushing themselves further and further. Their power had increased by a lot. They were able to take out minotaurs by themselves, in under 5 seconds. Whether they were able to take on an orc by themselves was another matter. In the meantime, Lux and Noctis had already broken into the A rank. In around 5 short months, they went from F rank adventurers to A rank. That was an unbelievable time table. Normally it was impossible for someone to become an A rank within 4 years.

The group wasn’t even surprised anymore, what they cared about was proving themselves to their contracted beast. Whenever one of them went on their trial, they would be escorted by either Noctis or Lux. Their purpose was to attempt to defeat the orc, not get killed by it. Even if they couldn’t succeed the first time, they could always try again.

First was Virgil. He was taken by Noctis to the Labyrinth and would hunt for an orc on his own. It didn’t take long for them to encounter an orc. The 10 foot tall pig headed creature was alone about 40 feet away. Virgil approached in a calm manner, with his scythe ready.

He closed the gap between them and provoked it. All he had to do for that was yell. “HEY!” hearing him, the ugly beast looked at him and was already ready to swing a giant lump of something that looked like a club. Virgil nimbly dodged the club by stepping to the side, and then lodged the curved blade into the elbow of the orc. After another smooth motion, the arm holding the club fell to the ground, along with a lot of blood.

It began to scream in agony, but it didn’t last long. The scythe found it’s way into the neck of the orc, cutting the scream short. It wasn’t there for long, before it passed through like a ghost, taking it’s throat and jugular with it.

Moments later the orc fell over dead. A smile crossed Noctis’ face in light of his pupil’s success. Virgil was also smiling, but that didn’t last long at all. He fell to the ground in agony, as the contract mark on his right shoulder began to burn. The burning pain wouldn’t leave him any time soon, so Noctis picked him up and took him out of the labyrinth.

The contract mark, was no longer the size of a coin, like most of them were. Virgil’s arms, shoulders, and around the base of his neck were now all covered in scale-like marks. Scattered around the scales, there were 7 sets of eyes. It was the sign that he had grown stronger. It was nowhere near the scale of Noctis’ full body tattoo that resembled the entirety of the might of the dragon, but it was also slightly more than what Lux had. However, if he were to fight Lux at full strength, he still wouldn’t be able to do as much as to catch her shadow. It was a matter of her being in almost full control of close to the entirety of her power, which was still growing.

Ruby was actually undergoing the trial at the same time with Lux. When they encountered the orc, there was little time for it to react. In 3 swift movements, she cut behind both the knees, and made the shoulder of the arm that was holding it’s weapon useless. Immobilized and unable to fight back, she stabbed it in the jugular, ending it’s life before it had a chance to do anything.

She fainted in a similar fashion, with the contract mark that was on her back was burning like a hellfire. It turned into something much more beautiful though. It was a set of red wings, perfectly imprinted onto her back. They were almost like real flames, seeming to flicker.

The other two also passed their tests. Maximus had beaten the orc to death with the gauntlets. Easily shattering it’s bones and ultimately crushed it’s throat, making it die a painful slow death of suffocation. Amethyst took out the orc in almost the exact same way that Ruby did, only she opted to cut it’s throat rather than stab it in the jugular.

Maximus manifested the full contract along the entirety of his chest, a lion with it’s mane was depicted. The lion was roaring, baring it’s teeth to whoever or whatever tried to oppose it. Amethyst had icy blue wings on her back, exactly like Ruby. Only her was mesmerizing, due to their crystal-like appearance.

None of them woke up until the next day. While they were passed out, they were each meeting with the beast that they had contracted. None of them had their own realm, like Exidium did, but they could still communicate with them whenever they wanted. They each learned of their newfound powers.

The twins could summon wings, and had the amount of magic they could control, was increased by a monumental amount. They were also both now technically immortal. Of course, they would still die of old age, but never to wounds. That wasn’t any reason they would throw themselves at enemies recklessly, because pain sucked. If Ruby took a fatal amount of damage, and had enough magic left, she could turn herself into ashes and be reborn from them. While Amethyst would be able to freeze her entire body, and then the ice would be able to close any type of wound. This took about a quarter of their magic, so doing it multiple times would be extremely strenuous.

Maximus could summon a suite of completely golden armor at will. The Nemean Lion lived up to it’s name and even Noctis had a hard time damaging the armor. That’s not to say he couldn’t, but it’s defensive strength was far above the armor that Noctis or Lux summoned.

Last, Virgil got the most unfair power out of any of them. As long as he was left with at least a single cell, he could regenerate back to full strength. He inherited the full vitality of the Hydra, as well as a newfound flexibility, that would allow him to wield his scythe to a terrifying degree.

Noctis, however, found it strange that they would gain bigger contract marks than Lux, when she was levels of power above them. Control wasn’t all that caused the gap of power. The light magic that she used was something that had domain over many other types of magic. How could a beast of light be less powerful than anything else? He decided to ask someone who always had the answer, Exidium.

Does Lux have an incomplete contract as well? Within seconds, Exidium responded. “Yes, I didn’t think you’d catch on so ‘quickly’.” He was mocking Noctis. After all, Lux had been this way since he saw her contract the griffin. Salus was a being that could almost rival Exidium in power, it would be strange if there was such a large difference in the size of the contract mark. “Salus has her reasons for not giving Lux all her power, what that reason is, only she knows.”

Is there anything we can do? Noctis wanted to help her if it was possible. “Pull her into the Starless World, and we’ll see.”

Noctis went to try and find Lux, who was in her room in the middle of thought about the exact same question. She felt it more and more as she got stronger. That Salus was holding something back from her, that there was something missing from her contract. A hand reached out and touched her shoulder, startling her. But when she turned around, there was nothing there. Only darkness, and she recognized where she had been taken.

She looked around and saw a dragon that still scared her. On top of one of his claws that were firmly planted on the ground, was Noctis. A figure with the body of a lion, and wings and head of an eagle descended next to her. Salus was there with an aura of holiness around her.

“Why have you called me back here Exidium?” Impatience was saturated in her voice. It was clear that she had no interest in being here with them.

“I guess we’ll skip pleasantries. Why are you limiting the amount of power you’re giving to Lux.” Exidium’s voice didn’t expose anything. It was completely neutral, close to lacking emotion.

“I have a few reasons, one being that I wasn’t sure at first how much power she could handle or control. As well as if she would ever use my power to harm innocents. If she did that there was no way I could ever give her my full strength. But the biggest issue is that if I do, there’s a large chance that it could kill her.”

Noctis’ heart sunk. He didn’t want her doing anything that had a high chance of death, but he instinctively knew that Lux wasn’t the type of person to turn away from danger, if it meant bettering the world.

Lux was scared, but she knew that she had to accept that risk. There was no easy way to obtain power. If she had to risk her life, then so be it. But she did want to know why there could be a danger to her life, when the rest of the group, and Noctis, didn’t have any issues with the full contract.

But before she could raise the question herself, the dragon spoke. “What is the risk?” It was no longer the empty voice, it was one of worry. Exidium cared for Noctis, and in turn cared for Lux. It was the type of familiarity one would have with a daughter-in-law.

“If I give her my full power, there’s a large chance it could awaken the blood of the Archangel that sleeps in her. If that happens there would be the same reaction that the boy went through.”