Chapter 5 - The second oath
The battlefield no longer groaned. But its breath clung to them still.
Lilith stepped forward first. Her heels sank slightly into the scorched soil, and yet her voice did not waver.
"Master," she said, not quite softly. "Perhaps... you should form a contract with him as well."
Her eyes fell upon Valtor, still kneeling, still fierce. There was no admiration in her gaze — only sharp analysis. A tactician considering a weapon yet to be sharpened.
Valtor, though battered and burned, did not falter. Pride held his spine upright, even as pain pulled at every breath.
"That's great," he muttered, tasting blood and conviction in equal asure. "With a master like you... I'll only grow stronger. I feel it. It's already inside ."
The elf did not speak.
His gaze rested on Valtor, unmoving. But within, tension shifted. Not hesitation — no. He did not doubt his power. He doubted the implications of sharing it.
His power rivals mine. Not quite equal... but close.
Too close. If bound, he cannot betray. But if he does...
Lilith, sensing the pause, tilted her head.
"When a contract is sealed," she said, her voice cutting through the stillness, "betrayal is no longer a possibility. It is erased."
Her words fell like law — not to convince him, but to affirm what she already believed. Valtor raised his head. His eyes, clouded by pain, locked on the figure above him — tall, unmoved, untouched by the battle's cost.
"I acknowledge your strength," he said. Each word laid down like a vow.
Lilith's lips curled slightly. Not a smile — no, sothing more wicked. A satisfaction born not of surprise, but of calculation.
The elf's voice followed at last, calm and cold.
"Not yet."
No elaboration. Just a verdict.. The bond waits. We return to the village."
Lilith blinked once. Then shifted her gaze.
"And him?"
He stepped forward without answering. Raised a hand.
A strand of pale gold erged from his palm, neither warm nor cruel — simply resolute. It wove itself into the cracks of Valtor's body, pulling flesh together, erasing pain, binding matter.
And in that mont — as power flowed outward — sothing moved inward.
A voice. Not heard, but felt. Cold. Distant. Familiar.
"Lysanthir..."
The na passed through him like a fragnt of a forgotten truth.
It did not echo in his mind — it reverberated in his soul.
He staggered internally.
Not from pain. From mory that wasn't mory.
That na... mine? A title? A curse?
Why does it feel like I've heard it before fire... before silence... before now?
The light faded.
Valtor rose, taller than before — fire beneath his skin, reverence in his eyes. But then, without hesitation, he knelt again.
"For now and forever," he said. "My claws. My fla. Yours."
And for the first ti, the vow felt heavier than words.
It tasted of choice — not fear.
> I've followed no one, Valtor thought. Not the warlords who bled for glory, not the kings who demanded worship. But this... this feels different. Not weakness — direction.
Lilith watched the mont unfold. And for the first ti since she had offered her own loyalty, she did not calculate. She felt. She had sworn fealty before — once. And it had left her scarred, burned, humiliated. But this wasn't the sa. This wasn't surrender to a tyrant. This was surrender to purpose.
This was real. And he — this elf — was not just a force. He was a center. The elf let the smallest flicker touch his lips. A movent so slight it might not have happened at all.
Lilith stepped closer, voice low.
"What shall we do next, Master?"
He looked at them — no longer strangers. No longer uncertain. They were his. That was clear now.
But with that clarity ca weight.
They bowed not from fear, not from desperation. They bowed because sothing in them recognized sothing in .
"The village," he said. "It rots."
His voice was quiet, but not soft.
"No roofs. Children in filth. The very air repels birds. The stench of fear has soaked into the walls."
A pause. He saw the mory of a world that once cared for him — a world now forgotten.
"We'll speak to whoever still claims control."
His hand lowered slowly to his side.
"If no one answers... we take it."
Lilith bowed her head. Her voice was steady.
"I will follow."
Valtor's clawed fist t the ground.
"I will burn whatever stands in our way."
The elf turned, cloak shifting behind him, gaze forward.
And without command, the words fell from their lips like scripture.
"You walk ahead master. we will walk behind.
"always."
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