The contracts kept burning through the chamber, each one like a thread of shadow tying to another restless soul. The amulet against my chest had grown so hot I could feel it even through my shirt, its surface shifting beneath the fabric like sothing alive.
"This amulet’s being unusually loud, is it because of the ritual, or is it because of the spirits?"
[Contract Established: 2,104/3,746]
Nyx lingered at the edges of my perception, her amusent a quiet hum beneath the weight of the dead. She didn’t speak again, but I could feel her watching , asuring, waiting to see what I would do with the army I was gathering.
The hydra’s minds moved faster now, their calculations smoother, their processing nearly effortless. Three thousand contracts would have taken weeks to establish on my own. With their help, I’d be finished in hours.
Maybe even less.
[Contract Established: 2,687/3,746]
The shadows beneath the slabs had grown thicker and darker, spreading together until they beca a single mass across the floor like spilled ink. The torchlight couldn’t pierce it. It couldn’t even seem to touch it. There was only darkness, absolute and complete, stretching from wall to wall.
I stood at its center, my feet sohow still finding the stone beneath.
"Impressive."
Nyx’s voice ca from directly behind . I didn’t turn.
"You’re still here."
"I’m always here, child. This is my cathedral. My domain." She moved in a slow circle around , her borrowed features sharp against the dark. "Those bodies you’re claiming? They’ve been resting in my soil for months. Years, so of them. The church thought they were hiding their cris beneath my nose."
"They were."
"Yes." Her smile was thin and cold. "But they forgot that I see everything that happens in the dark."
[Contract Established: 3,012/3,746]
The last of the contracts slipped into place more easily than the others, the remaining souls almost eager to be claid. They had been waiting down here for so long, forgotten and alone, their deaths unavenged, their sacrifices unmourned.
Now they had a purpose.
[Contract Established: 3,746/3,746]
The shadows drew back, retreating from the edges of the chamber until they gathered at my feet like a loyal hound. Torchlight returned, flickering over the faces of the dead, and for a mont I could have sworn that so of them were smiling.
"Three thousand seven hundred and forty-six souls," Nyx said, counting them off on her fingers. "That’s quite an army you’ve collected."
"They’re not an army. Not yet."
"What do you an?"
"I’ll call them an army once I actually use them."
"I see."
"You’re fine with enslaving the souls of the dead?"
"If I’m being honest, three thousand is barely anything to . Besides, you’re going to use them to deal with Elion’s pests, so I’m willing to look the other way this ti."
"What a benevolent goddess..."
The chamber felt different now. Lighter, sohow, even with the shadows still pooled at my feet. The weight of three thousand restless souls pressed against my consciousness, but it wasn’t the suffocating burden I had expected. If anything, it felt almost comfortable.
Like wearing a coat made of mories.
[Contract Established: 3,746/3,746]
The system panel flickered once, then widened, showing the breakdown of what I had just acquired. Categories. Strengths. Weaknesses. Possible uses for each soul, from the freshly dead to those who had been resting in Nyx’s soil for decades.
Most of them were ordinary. Farrs, rchants, craftsn. People who had lived simple lives and died terrible deaths, their only cri being that they were in the wrong place when the church needed bodies.
But so...
So were different.
[Notable Entities Detected]
The hydra’s minds drew two souls from the collective and held them apart from the rest. I could feel them through the contract, brighter than the others, sharper sohow, like stars against a night sky.
The first had been a knight. Not the ceremonial sort, the kind who wore polished armor for parades and never saw real combat. This one had fought. Killed. Died with a sword in her hand and the church’s na on her lips, betrayed by the very priests she had sworn to protect.
The second had been a mage. Her magical signature was faint now, worn down by death and ti, but I could still feel the echo of what she had once been. Fire magic, mostly. The kind that could level buildings and lt stone.
"How useful."
[Dark Fla Recovery]
I cast across my entire body, gauging the casting speed using the newly gained souls. And the difference definitely wasn’t anything to joke about.
The mont I thought about it, I imdiately cast it without any issue.
[Malignant Heavenly Eclipse]
Another spell, this ti, the miniature black hole-like orb ford above my palm without any issue. It took at least one second, but considering how long it usually takes to cast it myself,
it was incredible.
With this, I don’t think anything can touch Jayden while I’m protecting him. In fact, I think I can even multitask, help Marcellus with the main assault while protecting our biggest asset.
"I have to thank Elion’s church for their senseless murder. The number of restless spirits they created is enough to be worth hundreds of months of training."
[Adept: Lvl 4]
"Look at that... it even increased in level."
The system panel flickered and settled, the new level sitting comfortably in the corner of my vision.
Still adept.
Not quite master, not yet, but closer than I’d been this morning.
Three thousand seven hundred and forty-six souls would do that.
"You’re glowing," Nyx observed, her head tilted at an angle that made her look like a bird of prey. "Literally. There’s light coming out of your eyes."
I blinked, and the glow faded. "It’s just the contract settling."
"Mmm." She didn’t sound convinced. "If you say so."
The shadows at my feet stirred, stretching toward the exits of the chamber like they were testing the boundaries of their new ho. I reined them in with a thought, pulling them back until they were nothing more than a dark halo around my boots.
"Are you going to tell the other gods about this?"
"About the bodies?" Nyx shrugged, her borrowed features shifting through expressions that didn’t quite belong together. "They’ll find out eventually. The church wasn’t exactly subtle about their disposal thods. But your little collection..."
She smiled, sharp and knowing. "That I’ll keep to myself. Consider it a gift."
"I didn’t ask for a gift."
"You didn’t have to."
She faded into the shadows before I could respond, her presence evaporating like mist in morning light. The chamber felt emptier without her, even with three thousand souls pressing against my consciousness.
Ti to go.
[Darkfire Step]
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