What do I want? I want to be warm, I want to have food, I want to be…

“I want power, I want power to be myself and provide for myself without having to worry if I’ll die a stray dog’s death the next day.” Noctis said this while clenching his left hand, the right being glued to the black device. As the sunlight found its way back into the room, it revealed the black orb.

What’s going on? The priest had never seen anything like this. Never before has the device gone dark. It would glow a multitude of colors, but black was never something anyone had witnessed before.

“Very well, I will grant you my power, but first you must survive.” the voice chuckled in his head. “I hope you’re prepared, boy. It’d be a shame for the first human in ages to interest me to just die.”

Survive? SURVIVE? This was never supposed to be a dangerous process! Noctis had never heard of someone dying during the contract creation, but the voice just confirmed that he very well could die.

A sudden pain in his right hand snapped him back to reality. At first it felt like something was gnawing at it, but then it quickly escalated. It felt like his hand was starting to break down, and just as he was about to pull his hand away, the pain started to move up his arm. It traveled slowly but only as a pulse. It wasn’t enveloping his arm. The feeling of his arm being pulled apart by thousands of ants was enough to make him cry already, but he bit down on his lip and placed his left arm on wherever the pain was located and squeezed.

As he felt his arm the scars, cuts, and bruises all faded away as the pain passed by. Once it reached his shoulder it ramped up again, and spread to his back. Just when he was getting used to the pain spreading across his back, another pulse began at his hand, and when the second pulse reached his elbow, another pulse began. By the time the third pulse began, Noctis was screaming in agony.

The others looked on, horrified by the sight of someone’s skin coming to life and writhing around like there was worms underneath. Yet they could do nothing but watch. The princess looked on for 30 seconds before forcing herself to look away. Then a voice in her head commanded that she once again looked on. “You must continue to witness the birth of this demon, for all of us. If he loses consciousness you must do everything you can to wake him back up. Otherwise, at the very least, your life and everyone within a 100 mile radius will perish.”

The pulses became more and more frequent, and were spreading throughout his entire body. Noctis had already collapsed from the pain, trying to make himself as small as possible in hopes of minimizing what he felt. After about 5 minutes the pain began to subside and the pulses died down. “ No! He must remain vigilant!” At the sight of him beginning to relax, the voice in the princess’s head began to scream.

After panicking for a few seconds she was finally able to force some words out “It-It’s not over!”

After hearing that he began to tense back up, readying himself for the next round. But what came next was far beyond his expectations. The black energy seemed like it was leaking out from the device and into his hand, turning it completely black. The pain was ten times worse than what he experienced when it got to his shoulder. The other noticeable change was that it was no longer a pulse, but continuous pain that was filling his body, little by little.

Once it reached his back, the sound of searing flesh was all that could be heard other than the screaming of the poor boy. Noctis was reaching his limit on how much more he could take, and his mind began to fade due to shock.

“Girl you must balance the energy in his body, now. It’s being filled with pure darkness, only your light can save him, and you. The destruction that will follow will wipe the capitol off the map.” The words of the griffin were cryptic and the princess didn’t know what to do, so she just stood there in shock for a few more seconds. “Why do you remain idle? Do you want to die? I said NOW!”

With that she finally got the nerve to move towards the boy. She broke out into a sprint and before the guards realized what was going on she was already within arms reach of both him and the device.

“Put both your hands on top of his right and and concentrate. Visualize the light inside your body and try to let it flow into your hands and then into his hand.” Carefully following the instructions she was able to let some light energy into his body.

The effects were seen almost immediately, while the pain was only slightly dulled, Noctis was able to keep his consciousness intact. It was almost like his skin was boiling, and it was still spreading like a wildfire across his body. But he was able to hold on, because for the first time since his father died, he didn’t feel alone.

His entire body including his head was covered in the darkness. Rather than being unable to spread to the princess, it almost seemed as if it wasn’t interested in doing so. After about 30 seconds of being completely covered, the blackness began to recede. After uncovering his head, it seemed to take the pigment of his hair with it, leaving it completely white. Any previous injury or marks that were on his body were now gone. He was still scrawny from being unable to eat on a regular basis, but all his muscles were now tighter and more chiseled.

The princess had just forged her contract and was using it almost immediately, while it wasn’t unusual, it would leave the body strained for a while, since a new type of energy was rampaging through her body. She had no way of fine tuning how much she should have been using, so it was akin to her being able to direct a river, but letting it flood everything in that area. She was simply exhausted and in pain.

Seeing the situation starting to stabilize the voice in the princess’s mind began to speak once again, “Well done child, you may stop now.” the blackness was finally only in his arm again, but it revealed the image of a dragon that was the same color as what was on his arm, with red eyes. The tattoo covered the entirety of his back. “It’s exactly what I thought it was. Child you must do your best to either become this boy’s friend, or stay far, far away from him.”

“What is this spirit beast? I’ve never seen it before, and why are you so scared of it?” she asked through the mental connection that was established by the contract.

“You humans haven’t the pleasure of officially meeting this spirit beast, because he’s caused a disaster every other time he went to forge a contract with one. We spirit beasts on the other hand know him all too well.” her voice got heavy as she continued on. “That boy is now contracted with the Sovereign of Midnight.”