"So you were responsible for that vision? It only struck me when I made eye contact with you back in the Hall," Zenvix responded quietly. Misaki shook her head, her expression turning solemn. "I got that vision as well. It was a signal born from the higher entity to identify us to each other, for we are so few."

Zenvix closed his eyes, his thoughts still lingering on the vision. It made more sense now. I have not known this previously from the voice one year ago.

"I had a lurking suspicion that the vision was related to the Ritual of Keys. It showed Nox, Ceil and other establishments which I presumably thought must be the Keys themselves. But what I didn't know is that it was used as a means to identify another contract bearer. The voice, or what I believe you are referring to as the higher entity, didn't divulge this to me one year ago."

Misaki nodded. "And expectantly so. For a start, how did you become a contract bearer, Prince Nighvicto? And what do you know of the contract bearers?"

Zenvix took a deep breath as he revisited his past memories. "A little over a year ago, my personal regiment and I were out on a local military exercise when we received news from one of our scouts that a village of Nox nearby village was under bandit attack. Despite the scout's warning that the bandit force was immense and we'd be wiser to avoid it, I could not in my heart, choose to allow innocent civilians to be butchered by those crooks. It was my duty as heir to protect my people. There was no time to send for reinforcements, so we marched into the village and battled the bandits. Though we were outnumbered, we were able to distract the bandits enough to provide time for most of the civilians to escape. The price we had to pay, however, was that of being surrounded. I remember being back to back against a few of my soldiers before a strange seizure shook me. It was as if my body was being forcibly injected with a massive otherworldly power and during throes of pain, I heard a bizarre voice speak, declaring my bestowed status as a contract bearer and that my duty was to protect Nox, which was an important Key. That was all I knew. When I was myself again, the next thing I saw was Yurisviel, who came out of nowhere and single-handedly crushed the remaining bandits with her bare fists, her blows throwing bodies around like throwing ragged dolls. She told me she was contracted to me as my spiritual guardian due to a higher entity's orders. I was skeptical at first but eventually understood this as the power bequeathed to a contract bearer."

Misaki listened intently before she finally stood up. Pacing a few steps around her home, she finally turned her head towards Zenvix and nodded. "What I have heard from you and what I saw of your behaviour so far are aligned. You are just and your heart is in the right place, or you would not have stood up for me back in the Hall of the Seven, and neither would you have placed your life at stake to save mine. That was why the Spirit Sovereign chose you, Prince Nighvicto."

"The Spirit....Sovereign?" Zenvix questioned.

"Yes, though you would not have known at this point, but he was the one who gave you the responsibility of a contract bearer and contracted Yurisivel to you in an effort to help you complete the critical mission at hand."

"Wait...but how did you know that this entity is the Spirit Sovereign? All I knew was a mysterious voice. And who is this sovereign?"

"How did I know?" Misaki smiled wryly. "He told me, of course. But only during the second year of my tenure as a contract bearer. The Spirit Sovereign is the leading entity of the spiritual world. He lent you the power of a spirit, but it does not mean that he trusted you completely; he is waiting to see if you are the man he thought you to be before entrusting you with more information. That is why your knowledge of our common identity is still understandably little."

Zenvix shot a glance towards Yurisviel, his gaze somewhat accusatory in nature, but the lady retainer merely shrugged. "What do you expect? I am of his world, and so I am bound by his will not to reveal his identity to you."

Directing his next question at Misaki, Zenvix uttered. "But you can? If I am not supposed to know about his identity until he so chooses to reveal to me, wouldn't a powerful entity such as himself have thought to enforce consequences if another contract bearer divulges the information instead?"

Nodding her head, the Champion then responded, "Good question, one that I have also thought of in the past. The answer I learnt is this: every realm is governed by laws, Prince Nighvicto, including our mortal realm. Not the laws that were created by denizens to govern denizens; what I meant were the ancient laws that were structural to the realm. There are certain things that external entities will find exceedingly difficult, if not impossible to accomplish in our world. One of them is the notion of consequence dictatorship. For example, just because the Spirit Sovereign bestowed me with his power does not mean he can punish me in whatever ways he deems fit if I do something that fails to align with his personal beliefs. In short, he cannot exert immense foreign authority on our world and freely dictate consequences. I cannot imagine what would happen if this ancient law failed to exist in our world."

"What would happen?" Dylas asked, his eyes alight with interest.

"Well, if unknown external entities were allowed to freely and greatly influence our mortal plane from their foreign realms, I reckon our world could eventually become a proxy battleground of divine, apocalyptic powers seeking to dominate. You will have multiple factions that make war against each other, with each faction hailing their own puissant entity as the greatest. The outcome? Ruin, carnage, and most possibly...Armageddon." Misaki intoned gravely, her delicate fingers stroking her chin in deep thought.

"But we digress. I mentioned that the Spirit Sovereign cannot freely dictate any consequences he likes, but he is able to strip a contract bearer of his powers; that being the only consequence he can enforce because it is after all, his power."

"And I suppose it's just plain stupid and unbecoming of him should he enforce such a strict consequence on contract bearers who only wanted to relay some intelligence to their fellow compatriots?" Zenvix asked with a wry smile.

Misaki laughed. "Well, if I am to guess his thoughts, I can't say you are off the mark there. That is why I am able to freely tell you what I know; it's a choice that contract bearers can make for those whom they trust. However, do know that the Spirit Sovereign will strip you of your power should he find that you are contravening the principles of a contract bearer."

"And they are?" Zenvix prompted, his eyebrows slightly raised.

"Number one: contract bearers must not betray their mission; that is, to protect the Keys and do all in their power to stop anyone from destroying them. Number two: contract bearers must uphold goodness of heart and abstain from unconscionable acts," Misaki responded.

"Seems reasonable enough. Though I would almost say that number two seemed to be more of a measure of a good man or woman, rather than fitting a contract bearer principle per se," Yurisviel remarked, while Dyas nodded slowly.

"Fair point. But it is hugely important as well. The implications are potentially severe should the second principle be absent," Misaki responded, as she turned her head at the grunt of assent from Zenvix. "I take it, that you already guessed what these implications are?"

"Well, it isn't hard to imagine. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. History is littered with the skulls of men who were drunk on power and committed acts of unthinkable atrocity. King Vladimos of Nox is one; with the power he wielded, he trampled flagrantly on morality through his diabolical acts on the nation of Kefla. If the second principle is absent, contract bearers who wielded immense power could theoretically protect the Keys because they have to, then slaughter dozens the next day because they want to. Abuse of power at its finest." Zenvix mused out loud.

Misaki considered the prince for a moment, maintaining her silence. "Why, did I say something wrong?" Zenvix uttered, feeling slightly self-conscious under Misaki's unfathomable gaze.

"Oh, nothing. You are right, of course. I just felt...weird that you criticized Nox's forefather like that. I thought as the sole Prince of Nox, you would be proud of your Kush'tarian lineage and voluntarily avoid the parts of history that besmirched its glory. I expected you to choose another example to illustrate the corruptive nature of power. Instead, you readily condemned King Vladimos, the ancestor whose very blood runs in your veins. You are a strange man Prince Nighvicto...though I must say, that peculiarity is far from unpleasant," Misaki smiled.

Zenvix didn't know how to respond to the last part, so he cleared his throat abruptly. "The difference between pride and arrogance is but a thin line. I am proud of our values and our strength, but defending King Vladmios's actions would be admitting arrogance; the arrogance of believing that with power, one could do anything one wishes to those born with less."

"Since when did our dear prince start to talk like that? Even I was just very slightly impressed by his speech at the Hall of the Seven," Yurisviel spoke, feigning a look of shock and disbelief. "I must have been having a wonderful dream. God, please don't wake me up."

Dylas chuckled and even Misaki tittered. "Well then...now that you know the principles that all contract bearers ought to abide by, you should also understand the greater lore behind our identity and the Ritual of Keys. Though I cannot guarantee that I know everything, it would still be sufficient to give you a reasonable framework," Misaki said.

"Records in history have loosely attributed the beginnings of contract bearers to as early as the Age of Legends. It was said that a few of the Great Heroes who founded the current prominent powers in Elaria were contract bearers themselves. Aviduz the Ambitious, Founder of Nox, was supposedly one of them, though scholars have not found conclusive evidence of the same. Regardless, the sole purpose of contract bearers stemmed from the need to protect five Keys or five establishments in the mortal realm. Should the protectors fail and the Keys destroyed, it would cause rampant death, hence marking the completion of the Ritual of Keys. Naturally, once this happens, there would be a sudden spike in the number of souls crossing towards the Spiritual Realm, which in turn causes a dead-choke in the passageway between the two worlds, since the passageway would not be able to accommodate a sudden surge of footfall. The result is a colossal horde of souls who are trapped in a realm they don't belong to."

Zenvix nodded in acknowledgement. These words from Misaki, though somewhat more detailed than Alvaro's explanation, nonetheless still tallied. "Actually, I am curious about one thing though," Yurisviel said slowly. "Based on your explanation, it seems to me that rampant death is the ultimate cause of the dead-choke, which then produces the undesirable scenario of trapped souls. Why must rampant death be linked to the destruction of those specific five Keys then? I mean, if I am Aderis, why can't I find villages, small towns, weaker nations with high populations, the list goes on, and just destroy those instead? Heck, I might even have an easier time doing that rather than hatching grand schemes trying to vanquish Great Powers such as Nox, Ceil and The Guild."

In a rare display, the prince feigned a sagely nod. "An uncommon demonstration of your intellectual capacity, Lady Yaleheart. I see you have finally put on your mouldy thinking hat," he said. The warrior lady narrowed her eyes with a grudging half-smile. "Don't make me punch you through the roof, princeling."

Folding her arms, Misaki responded thoughtfully. "Good question. I don't know that either. Your guess is as good as mine, but I would speculate that these five establishments are linked to the same spiritual passageway. Hence, if a flood of souls tried to cross the same passageway, that's how a dead-choke happens. You may get better answers asking the scholar-mages from the Guild or the monks from the Temple of Elaria. They delve deep, whereas we know enough to protect."

"Well, if your guess is on point, it possibly implies the existence of more than one spiritual passageway. Destroying other establishments apart from the five Keys will only create unnecessary deaths since those souls would traverse other passageways instead," Zenvix analysed, to which Misaki nodded in affirmation.

The prince recalled the words shared by Alvaro at Merchant's Hill. "What about the Demon's Seduction, Misaki? A friend of mine, who was the First Key's guardian, mentioned that this dark artifact was also required to complete the Ritual of Keys. Meaning to say, just the physical destruction of the Keys alone would not be sufficient for the Ritual's success."

A look of puzzlement crossed Misaki's scarlet eyes as she pondered over Zenvix's words. "I heard tell of it from your story back in the Hall of the Seven. While it is indeed a most insidious artifact, nothing in my knowledge so far tells me that it is a prerequisite of the Ritual. Was your friend a contract bearer as well, since you said that he was the First Key's guardian?"

Zenvix shook his head. "No, Alvaro mentioned that his brother was the chosen one for that responsibility. He merely held the title in spirit after his brother perished in battle."

"Well, then I guess it was most likely the case that your friend's brother shared this information with him. Perhaps his brother received that information directly from the Spirit Sovereign himself, having gained his trust after some time. Regardless, if this is true, then Aderis is made all the more dangerous by the fact that he already possessed the dreaded artifact," Misaki mused.

All the more reason we should get cracking, before it is too late. The Champion of Ceil thought. She clapped her hands in a business-like way. "Alright, alright, enough talking for now. We'd best get start-"

Zenvix held out his hand to silence the pink-haired lady. "Noises, Misaki. From your door." The group's attention turned towards the entrance of the house, where a suspicious thud sound was heard in mechanical succession. If it was a visitor, a greeting should have been called out by now. Zenvix thought.

As the prince took a step towards the door, Misaki placed a hand on his shoulder. "Allow me. I am your Protector by the laws of Ishva. Can't have my ward dying on his first day under my eyes, can I?"

"As I said before Misaki, I don't need your-"

"I know, but it's not a risk I am willing to take," Misaki responded with an eye-smile. "not with your life anyway."

With one hand on her katana hilt, the Champion of Ceil placed the other on the door handle and swung it apart cautiously.

There was a flutter of wings as a black raven took flight; a sudden sound which almost provoked the swordswoman's katana draw. A tightly bound scroll was laid on the floor before the ajar door.

Misaki picked up the scroll gingerly, turning it over in her palm. She then swivelled towards Zenvix, her scarlet eyes alight with curiosity. "It's for you. Your name was scrawled across the scroll."

"What if it's a trap?" Dylas asked hesitantly. The swordswoman shook her head. "I don't think so. I can't sense any hostile magical signatures from it," she said.

A sudden thought came to Zenvix's mind. "Pass it here. I think...I know who it's from." Unfurling the scroll, the prince's eyes scanned its contents briefly.

"Speak of the devil. A message from Alvaro, our friend from the First Key."