Nilus was trembling in both soul and body as he heard Angel Fangs’ words.

He had no choice but to accept such a good deal. It was just that he had no idea what his future would look like as a result.

The alternate world of demons was just a world in which many lifeforms had reached the peak of power and kept climbing. They fiercely fought for the right to rule the many territories of their world.

They had been able to thread into the void as well as terraforming the various neighboring planets with the use of magic.

The goal was to allow the colony to multiply as fast as possible so they could collect more aura crystals.

The more planets one controlled the stronger one would eventually become.

There were many lifeforms.

Humans were a minority but still had a few planets of their own.

A king was commonly called a Devil. They had reached the 60th stage and had to use that power to defend their territory.

As they climbed higher in power, they had to ask more aura crystals from the inhabitants of their territory.

Only lesser demons, divine stage and below, could effortlessly cross the dimensional border with the help of a lifeform from the other side that wanted to instigate a contract and vice versa.

All other lifeforms from the 13th stage and above could only create avatars of the 12th stage to be able to initiate a contract.

Magic was a common practice in both worlds. As well as the use of contracts.

A higher stage individual could sign a contract with a low-level individual.

The contents of the contract were agreed upon before the branding ceremony. Whether it was for lending power for a price or the exchange of services.

A higher stage individual, like the Marquis, could sign a contract to lend power to a low level individual, like Nilus, for a price or an exchange of services.

In the case of lending power, the contract ended when the receiver became stronger than the giver. Most found themselves on the border of slavery as becoming stronger than your contractor was more of an unrealizable dream.

As for exchanging services, it was an agreement between two equal parties.

Angel Fangs initial plan was to use as many contractors as possible for Nilus to use all kinds of borrowed powers as well as having external sources of aura to use while he practiced magic.

Fangs’ father had used the same method on lesser demons and demons. He grew stronger than his contractors over time and kept all the powers for himself.

If you could afford to pay the price, nothing stopped you from having as many contractors as possible.

It was tailor made for Nilus.

If Graxx had kept his mouth shut, there was no way an Archdemon like the Marquis of Deadwood would come on his own for Nilus if he wasn’t a soul eater.

“Can we help Cale make a contract?” Nilus asked. He had to think of something else.

“Cale and I will contract the same demon today. It is a darkness type demon at the 13th stage. Graxx here is the same but is too stingy to allow us to have his stealth powers. He only gave me his reality warping power.” Fangs said.

He drew a circle in the air with his almost invisible aura. He drew a character inside the circle and then powered the diagram with an almost endless amount of aura. He was panting at the end. He added a speck of a dark aura in the middle of the character that in turn seemed to be brimming with life.

Fangs explained: “This is a simplified way to call a demon. You draw a circle with your aura. Draw the demon’s brand inside it and give the brand a trace of the demon’s aura. The aura I just put into the diagram will help it act as a beacon and the demon will decide whether he takes the call or not.”

“It’s that unreliable? What if he doesn’t answer?” Cale asked.

Fangs answered: “He will know from my aura that I am at the divine level. He will at least give it some thought.”

Nilus asked: “How do you acquire his aura?”

As if Fangs knew the question was coming, he showed a hint of anger as he looked at Graxx and said: “I sent Graxx over there to buy them. The only thing I asked him to do is to look for the best 13th stage darkness demon in stealth. Anyone who wants to be a contractor and is well known will go to a Contractor’s guild and store his information and aura. The guild will advertise him for a price and any interested party can buy the aura from their catalog.”

A rift appeared in front of them. A beautiful young woman appeared and looked at them with interest.

She wore a stark red dress that matched her red eyes and had long black hair with brown skin.

An enchanting voice was heard: “ It is rare for a 12th stage to summon me. Chances are that you will soon surpass me. So, it’ll cost you a lot if you want my powers.”

Everybody stilled but Fangs was the first to say: “You must be Shara. I am Angel Fangs and my friend and I are the ones who want to borrow your powers.”

Shara laughed and said:“Now I have to split my soul two times? I hope you have something of more value than a few aura crystals.”

“It will be on my tab. Soul crystals. I imagine they must be useful to you.” Nilus said.

She looked surprised as she sized up Nilus. Shock struck her after a few seconds. She had started to retreat as fear assailed her.

“A…a…soul eater.” As she saw that no one had attacked her she returned to her previous position and bearing as nothing had happened she said: “The last soul eater used this method to call demons and then eat them. Even a king lost his clone because of her. Well,…you look too weak to do anything for now… How many soul crystals will I get for your friends.”

“Don’t know. Even my last contractor did not say a specific number.” Nilus said.

Graxx seemed to wake up from his fake sleep and said: “The Marquis wants a thousand soul crystals per month.”

“#&#&%” Angel Fangs was cursing and holding his head in helplessness as he released a murderous intent.

Graxx disappeared with his pillow as Fangs hit nothing but air.

Shara seemed amused as she said: “I wonder how you will get so many soul crystals year after year on this small planet. That Marquis also cut off your path to power by asking so much of you. You must be the most pitiful soul eater ever. Well, I will only ask for one thousand soul crystals per year. That should be more than enough.” She took advantage of Nilus as well.

She asked Fangs and Cale: “You heard me. Are we signing the contract?”

They said: ”Yes.” At the same time.

A flower like brand was engraved on their chests before Shara started to dissipate saying: “Soul eater I used Half my soul energy to make those brands. I cannot maintain this clone nor open a rift back home. You have a few choices to make. Eat the remaining soul energy or get my brand as well but I see that darkness type auras do not suit you. Hurry up before I completely dissipate.”

Nilus did not think twice as he opened his mouth and ate her soul.

He had grown impervious to the aura crystals that Angels Fangs had given him after the turn. He had not killed anyone as learning magic was a priority before he started a massacre on the Darkcloud continent.

Half a soul of a divine stage augmented his stats in an unprecedented manner.

He instantly became an Asura level both in body and soul. As for the vampire blood, it also reached the same level as a vampire prince.

Aura : Stage 10

Body : Stage 10

Weapon : Stage 6

Vampire blood : Vampire prince (Asura level)

The soul core was now distributing the converted energy to the three areas.

Fangs was gloomily walking to his room as he thought of a way to help Nilus get rid of the Marquis.

“Only father can help. This planet belongs to him as well as all the moons around it. He is not of the caliber of a Duke nor of a Marquis but he’s just as strong and can keep the Marquis of Deadwood away for a long time. At least, until Nilus reaches the unreachable 36th stage. ”

“Well my father has long surpassed that stage. Will he even accept to babysit Nilus? Knowing him, he will just kill him and be done with it. Why let another soul eater seize his territory that he worked so hard on for centuries?”

“If only Graxx could keep his mouth shut. We wouldn’t be in this situation.”

“There is no way in hell that we can create so many soul crystals on this planet. Shara was right.”

“We will eliminate all these creatures of the dark on these three small continents and then head for the Blackmist continent and plead father to teleport us to other distant colonies. He will be open to let a soul eater go to his enemy’s territories and be a problem there…. sigh”

The following days were spent on magic theory. With Graxx as the assistant, Fangs was talking for hours about the dangers of magic.

From the huge amount of aura that it required as a power source and the introduction of simple spells.

It was mainly pseudo contracts.

It was a hassle.

They needed to use the aura of a demon or human that possessed the power they needed.

They then had to draw with their aura in the air a circle and the brand of the demon. The aura of the targeted demon was the key to the spell.

The aura was obviously bought with aura crystal beforehand.

The more proficient and faster you were at automatically drawing the diagram the faster your spell was released.

The contractor’s guild on their planet was Fangs’ family’s business. The Fallen Angel factory

They sold grimoires with the diagrams of known spells as well as the corresponding aura required for the spells.

There were both demon’s and human’s diagrams.

It was a profitable business that was present in both worlds.

Angel Fangs sent Graxx in the alternate world to buy two more grimoires and the corresponding auras. He wanted to maintain anonymity from his own family living on both sides. He had fled home for a long time and was thought to be dead. He wanted to keep it that way.

“Why not just complete a contract? Buying these auras will really bankrupt us. Throwing these pseudo spells around during a fight is completely insane.” Cale was the first to offer his standpoint.

“True. But if you have enough aura crystals to feed a spell, you can fight individuals stronger than you. That is the whole point of this. No one has enough time to be a slave hoping to reach a higher level than his contractor to keep his powers. It is a perpetual fight. The contract might end if you become stronger but as soon as the contractor catches up or surpasses you, you will be hard pressed to try and have him killed or surpass him and keep your borrowed powers with a tranquil mind.” Fangs said.

“If my uncle dies, Nilus will be free to keep his powers. For now, he better try and hold his end of the bargain.” Graxx reminded.

“Or else?” Nilus asked.

“There’s no ‘or else’. He knows that you have no choice.” Graxx said matter-of-factly.

Cale had long wanted to kill this cat. Everything had happened because of it yet it acted as if it had nothing to do with the whole situation.

Graxx was surprised to feel such malice directed at him from the puny little human being in front of it, Cale.

Graxx said: “Want to fight? Hehe…I will not kill you but I am sure that you will end up in a pretty bad shape. ” the black cat was teasingly boxing around Cale in a provocative manner with a evil grin.

Cale backed up from the fight. He was not crazy enough to fight a divine stage. Even if it looked like a harmless cat. He would remember it in the future when he became strong enough.

“Weird…Fangs used to fight me when his anger had reached its limits even if I was stronger than him. Fangs should learn from him. I just created a dangerous enemy for myself. Even that harmless soul eater doesn’t release an aura as dreadful as this guy.” Graxx thought.