The sound of ragged breaths filled the church between the princess trying to collect herself, and the boy trying to scrape himself off the ground. By the time he accomplished getting to his feet, the princess and her guards were gone. The shirt and coat he had been wearing were reduced to ashes. He thought he would be cold, but instead felt no difference.

“Truly interesting.” The voice snickered. “Originally I thought you might have ended up like the rest, but it seems there was a griffin there to save you.”

“The rest? You mean dying? There was a large chance I would die?” Noctis was dazed from the pain and the news didn’t help anything.

“Oh, not just die. You’d turn into an empty vessel void of anything but thoughts of slaughter. Your body would last about an hour before imploding and taking everything you didn’t already manage to kill within around … let's say 100 miles, with you. Now then, we don’t need to speculate on all the ‘what ifs’. Because you managed to survive the reshaping of your body you can now hold approximately .5 percent of my power.” There wasn’t a hint of guilt in the voice, it was actually quite excited.

“You mean you would’ve sent me to my death if not for her highness contracting the griffin?” Noctis was in disbelief

“Precisely.”

“What is wrong with -”

“We have to get something straight here,” The voice became harsh. “You asked for power and I granted it, whether or not it was too much for you to handle was never a part of the agreement. Am I a selfish being who did it out of pure boredom? Yes, and there’s nothing you can do about it. You’re now dependent on me, being angry at me for allowing your body to host my power at a risk is something you can’t afford to do. Did you expect to become powerful without a price? Resent me all you want, boy, but in all the spirit realm, I am the most powerful being.”

After being harshly reprimanded for the first time in years, he simply looked down in embarrassment. “There’s good news and bad news. We’ll start with the bad news, you’ll go through a similar process again and again whenever you’re able to properly control the amount of power you’re given. The good news is that the risk of dying is zero now that your body contains the power of darkness.”

He began to shiver at the thought of going through that pain again. He quickly collected himself and asked a question through the mental connection. “Why me?”

“There’s no particular reason outside curiosity. You’re a poor orphan with no particular traits that could be considered above average in anything. You’re physically weak. You’re a small petty person, and incredibly selfish. Despite all that you’re not a bad person, just incredibly human. I’ve longed to see how such a person will be changed by power. Will you turn into a hero who fights for justice? Will you turn into a demon who kills everything in his path? Maybe you’ll do neither,” he felt the voice smiling, even though he had no idea what he was even contracted with, “ or maybe you’ll do both.”

The old priest looked on with shock. The boy not only had white hair now, but he had physically grown. He had been around 5’4 before, but now he stood at least 3 to 4 inches taller than before. Such events are unprecedented, usually a person simply has to endure getting a tattoo to symbolize the contract, not have their body restructured. And what was that darkness. It’s unnatural and... frightening.

There were 5 types of elements that one would be contracted with. Fire, water, earth, wind, and light. There were some that could be derived from the four main elements, such as Ice from water, and lightning from wind as well. The only element that was proven stronger than any other was light. It had no obvious weakness to any other element, but it also allowed for healing. Never before had the old priest seen in any records a smudge of information about a sixth element. There’s no doubt that if this is discovered he would fall prey to the curiosity of others, and be experimented on non-stop.

“What’s your name child?” The old priest stared at the dragon that encompassed his back. “I’m Father Julius.”

“Noctis”

“Noctis,” The old priest looked at him “You may never allow anyone to know about the power you have just received. Otherwise you’ll spend your days as nothing more than a lab rat. We’ll have to hope that the princess won’t reveal what happened today to anyone. If she were to tell those guards to keep quiet, only the king would be allowed to know what happened. Though that’s unlikely since the king rarely cares about anything these days. I will sponsor your acceptance to the academy if you promise to keep quiet.”

The Academy wouldn’t be accepting students until the end of summer, so it looked like he would have to lay low on the streets until then. “Thank you.” he turned and began to walk out of the church, back to his alley when the old priest called out to him.

“Why don’t you stay here until the academy starts?” he spun around and looked at the old priest in disbelief. “I’m in need of someone to help keep the place clean, and when nobody is around and my daily responsibilities are over, I can teach you about various things that you need to know.”

Noctis simply nodded, unsure of what to feel. He didn't know if the priest was doing it out of kindness, or so he could use him later due to his power. Either way he accepted because he truly didn't want to go back to living on the street for almost another half year.

The old priest sat him down and began talking about how contractors would be separated into lesser, mid, and greater users. These separations were based on the power of the contracted beast. A greater user would always be able to overpower a lesser user. A mid could go either way based on how well the contractor was able to use their power.

Contractors were then split into tiers based on how much power they had access to. A tier 1 would have between 1 to 10% of the spirit beast’s power, while a tier 2 would have access to between 11-20% and so on up to tier 10. Tiers weren’t an absolute in power, unlike the disparity between greater and less users.. For example a hellhound using 50% of its power would never be able to hold a candle to 1% of Cerberus’s true might. Those who held truly powerful beasts would become the most protected asset of the country. Noctis clearly had something more powerful than Father Julius had ever seen with a greater user, like the princess.

“That’s all you need to know for the day. Go get some rest, I’ll show you a spare room, that will be yours until you leave.”

He was guided down a corridor behind the altar that held the device and into a room. It was a simple room with little more than a bed and a desk. But it was more than Noctis had since his father died.

“I’ll be back with some clean clothes for you.” The old priest made his way down the hall. Noctis walked to the bed and sat down. How long had it been since he had a safe place to stay? He fell over and as soon as his head hit the pillow he fell sound asleep.