The cat fearlessly reappeared floating next to Angel Fangs with a serious face. Its paws were radiating an energy that threatened to make the entire room explode.

“Calm down, Graxx. They are friends.” Fangs ordered.

“We should kill him while he is still young. They are all dangerous. Didn’t you see what your father became every time he lost his mind?” Graxx frantically said.

“Look at him. Does he look crazy to you?” Fangs tapped the back of Graxx’s head.

The room slowly came back to its normal luster as the cat kept a safe distance from Nilus. It sized him up and down and then teleported in front of Nilus and booed. The poor Nilus fell on his own as he guarded himself against an incoming attack that never came.

Graxx was laughing too hard. He said:

“This is a soul eater? Look at how the most dreaded existence of all time fears a pitiful lesser-demon like me.” He continued on with his laughter.

Nilus was happy that he was being made fun of. His life was at least safe and it seemed that this black Bombay cat had a sense humor on top of its murderous episodes.

He thought for a moment and said: “I will take the telepathy vampire bloodline. My tracking ability is already good enough, there is no reason to just stop there. It is a good fit.”

The corresponding blood vial was brought over by the floating Graxx who opened it and handed it over to Nilus.

“I just drink it?” Nilus asked.

“Of course, but it is going to hurt for a while. Brace yourself.” Fangs reminded.

Nilus downed the entire vial.

It started by little needle stabs here and there until the feeling was spread all over the body.

He screamed for days until he almost looked like a skeleton.

A hunger for energy unlike anything he had ever felt before tormented him.

He had to wait for his soul energy to be completely absorbed past the threshold at which the soul core would take over.

The process was slow. Even Angel Fangs took note of it.

From Nilus’s point of view, the green aura was slowly fusing with the vampire blood. It was too slow of a process and unfortunately for him, he had to keep suffering.

It ended a week later as all that was left of his soul was a green rotating empty core.

Both his previous hunger as a soul eater and the new hunger as a vampire were assailing him. It was all he could think about.

Fangs had prepared enough aura crystals to see him through his first hunger. He said: “Congratulations. You barely arrived at the Pure blood stage. Your green aura was powerful enough to bring you there. You should eat the energy inside that gauntlet of yours. You do not need it anymore. The blood inside of you can be multiplied with the aura you feed it and can be solidified into a weapon. Your blood is your weapon now. Unless you want to keep playing human back home.”

Nilus understood himself perfectly. His blood could be called upon and be shaped in any form he wished for. It looked like a solidified version of aura as it could move around without physical contact but mind controlled.

Still, he decided to keep the gauntlet around just in case.

Next, they left for Fangs' hidden estate on the Darkcloud Continent. It was there that they were to learn magic. Even Cale showed an interest in it.

They were not home where the people were brainwashed into not really questioning what was right or wrong and just did what they were told.

If they found out that witchcraft was as detrimental as advertised, they had the choice to not give in to temptation.

“There are two known planes of existence. The one we live in and the one demons come from. They are called demons because the humans gave them that nickname a long time ago, but from their perspective, a person like you, a soul eater, is a demon to them. In their world, they live their lives just like we do here and there are even humans living there. It is almost the same kind of world but they lack in energy to train. They make pacts with us and we supply them with energy in exchange for sharing their powers. There is a barrier that separates the two worlds. Any being above the divine level cannot successfully enter this world. Demons and arch demons send an incarnation of themselves to be able to make deals with humans. Graxx here is a lesser demon and he can cross the barrier between the two worlds without a problem. ” Angel Fangs explained.

“Then what is it that we must do?” Nilus asked.

Graxx appeared sitting on a flying cushion and said: “Nothing. Since I am here, I will be the one to help you make your contracts. I know a few interested parties already. One of them is a demon. The other is a lesser demon just like me. What do you say? Am I not amazing?”

“Did you say it was for a soul eater?” Fangs asked Graxx who appeared to be retreating and said:

“I might have let it slip in a conversation.” He was retreating further and further.

Angel Fangs disappeared from his position and appeared next to Graxx as his punch connected with the black cat’s face.

Graxx had no choice but to break a few hundred branches and trees before he came to a stop yelling: “What’s wrong with you? You, madman. You think that I can hide from a demon reading my thoughts? It was a mistake that I met one. A mistake. There is no way I can resist a demon even if I wanted to.”

Fangs appeared once again next to the lying cat and punched: “I know you. You sold him out for a few bucks and I am the madman?”

This time Graxx used his pillow for protection but ended in the previous situation. He grew mad as his young voice grew deeper as he said: “I told you I had no fucking choice. If you do not want to see an Archdemon arriving, let’s get out of here. Fast.” He had transformed into a black horned humanoid that was two times bigger that Fangs. Graxx face still looked the same with two spiraling horns. He also had a three-meter long tail.

Fangs' third punch stopped mid air as he started shivering from head to toe: ”It was supposed to be a simple summoning of two normal familiars…yet you went to call for an Arch demon right off the bat? Even my own father isn’t that crazy.” He said with a trembling voice.

As he prepared to run away with Cale and Nilus, a gigantic rift opened above them and a humanoid figure dressed in a lavish blue attire came out of it.

The newcomer descended and only stayed a few meters above the ground.

As Fangs and the transformed Graxx hurried over, they felt an enormous pressure weighing down on them.

“Little Graxx…I was waiting for you to summon me but you found it was better to spar and make me lose a lot of energy in doing a reverse summon on my own. How will you account for that?” the man said.

Graxx almost seemed to bow a thousand times as he said: ”Apologies, your highness. I was about to cast the spell.”

“Where is that Soul eater?” the man asked. He looked around the area and saw two humans looking in his direction. He stopped on Nilus for a moment and thought:” So it is you…To weak for a soul eater…that is even rare…well it’s a good thing…he is useful to me as he thirsts for more power…” He disappeared and instantly appeared a few meters before Nilus without the slightest ripple in the air.

“I am the Marquis of Deadwood. I need soul crystals. As many as you can produce. In exchange, you can use a limited version of my powers.” The Marquis of Deadwood said.

Nilus and Cale still did not know what was happening. They had come outside of the estate to see how a ceremony to contract familiars was conducted and then contract their own familiars.

Before Graxx could do anything, he was attacked by Angel Fangs for unknown reasons and both disappeared hundreds of meters away as they fought. It was all followed by the arrival of the Marquis of Deadwood who appeared out of nowhere and was making weird demands.

The first thing Cale said was :

“Who are you?”

They were both frightened after seeing how this man had appeared out of nowhere.

They knew they could not fight him on their own and were stalling for time. Fangs and Graxx would soon arrive and sort this out.

The two fighters arrived immediately after Cale's question but they both wore unsightly looks. They appeared scared of this Marquis. Even the monstrous Graxx did not look as monstrous as he should be with the fear inscribed on his face.

“He is the Marquis of deadwood your new contractor.” Graxx managed to say as his deep voice had reverted to the young voice of before his transformation.

Nilus did not ask any other questions as he understood the situation they were in. He said:

“He is asking for soul crystals. Are they like aura crystals?”

The Marquis said: “It is something that only you can produce. There are spells to compress and crystalize souls but a soul eater is needed to call the soul into the spell. I suggest you learn magic as fast as you can. We will both benefit from it.”

Nilus said: “Where is the difference? They sound the same as aura crystals.”

The Marquis showed an unusual patience: “Do not think that you what you eat is a true soul, it is just an avatar that acts as relay for the true soul and the human body. When a living being dies, the avatar just dissipates and the connection to the true soul is lost probably to reincarnate somewhere else. As we become stronger, the avatar draws upon the true soul and eventually at the last possible stage we can contain that true soul and all its power. You are still too weak to draw upon a true soul directly, but the avatar is made of an infinitesimal amount of the true soul’s energy. That is the energy that you eat for now. The difference, as I am sure you know, is that soul energy is purer than any kind of energy out there. Compressing it and crystalizing it makes it even purer and can be used in innumerable ways. When you reach the 12th stage, you can do all that without the use of magic.” His face turned serious as he frowned and asked: “Now. Is the contract going to be signed or what?” 

Nilus immediately accepted: “Yes.”

Just as soon as he accepted, a red burning mark appeared on his left arm. It was a mark in the form of a dead tree. The same mark suddenly flashed on the Marquis’s forehead.

Both marks later disappeared.

“I am proficient in pyrokinesis, telekinesis as well as reality warping. You can use them all. I see that you gained telepathy from that vampire virus. I am not that good at telepathy but it is still better that what you will get at the true vampire level. Feel free to use it as well. Graxx will be the middleman from now on. Give him the soul crystals in the future.” The Marquis said before he entered a rift and disappeared.

“He exchanged all his powers…My uncle is never this generous…He is planning something behind our backs for sure.” Graxx said as he was back to his cat like appearance.

Many veins were threatening to pop on Fangs’s face: “You’re the one who called him here…Do you understand what kind of calamity you just dumped on us?”

“Relax Fangs. I just got a bunch of abilities for free.” Nilus said as he played with a ball of fire.

He could use pyrokinesis as soon as the tattoo appeared. He could even feel that he was immune to fire as his hands were writhing in flames and felt no pain.

Nilus asked Fangs: “What was the point of turning into a vampire if contracting with a demon gives you more for less?”

“Do you not understand what just happened? You are lucky and unlucky at the same time. That was an archdemon. The weakest archdemon is a stage 30 and Graxx’s uncle is at the 36th stage. When demons contract with humans, they split a part of their soul and turn it into a seal that they brand on their contractors. It’s a painful process and the strongest a demon is the harder it is to split one’s soul. The brand takes care of the energy you need to use the demon’s power. It creates aura to be used like a normal soul would do or you can feed it you own aura to get more power out of it.” He added:

“He just unlocked all of his powers for you. That means that you are too valuable and the brand he gave you must not be a normal brand. He must’ve been preparing it since Graxx told him about you.”

Nilus closed his eyes and concentrated on the brand and said : “I feel nothing.”

Fangs showed his shoulder and a brand appeared. It was a tattoo of a moon dagger that looked like actual fangs. He said: “When your soul is stronger than the demon you contracted with, you can override his grasp over you and remake his brand as your own. His powers will be completely yours after that and they will grow according to your own growth. It will be even easier to learn magic that way as you will have an external source of energy to squander. The reason every sane magician contracts with a lesser demon is to later win the power to free themselves form the contract when their souls reach the divine level.” He paused then continued : “You are basically his slave now. He is at the 36th stage and you may never reach that stage in your lifetime, soul eater or not. He knows that you need power to protect yourself as the entire world will be against a monster like you. You have to keep killing and create soul crystals for him for the right to keep those powers forever.”