[A few hours before]
Staring down at his opponent laying there, her mauled soul rapidly fading away as she faced the consequences of her stupidity he could only look upon her with a small hint of pity. Still, he had other things to do, Emrys crouched down and placed a hand onto her head in attempt to get the truth out of her mind but there was a problem, everything was broken to bits, fading away and in massive disarray due to her soul fading away.
Although something he was capable of fixing, Emrys did not have anywhere near the motivation needed to do such a thing just to find out if he was being framed or not, it didn't matter that much really but maybe he could leave something else to do it for him when the tournament ends and everyone is restored back to their full living selves.
[Present]
"Hmm".
Crouched before her head was a being cloaked in dakness leaving just his face open, his eyes were a starry crimson with a black sclera and his hair was of a silvery white cascading down his back. His face was divinely beautiful and young with a hint of childish cuteness, perfectly resembling that of Emrys when he was but a nine year old as was his height and stature.
"Much too defenseless".
He mused to himself watching Isla still remaining perfectly asleep even as he stood before her, it seemed the lady's mental exhaustion ran much deeper than he thought, might even be down to her very soul itself.
"But, it makes thing's much easier".
"Now I can check for what master wanted me to as she's whole now".
He gently placed two fingers onto her head and began digging deep into her memories, he witnessed everything she had ever seen and experienced, those she had forgotten and those too vividly impactful to forget, all her thoughts, all her pain and everything else, even how she came to receive the artifact capable of creating a false and incomplete domain.
But he dismissed them all just to find the one that shone the very brightest in it's intensity, the beginning of her hell and that was when he saw it. Long flowing void black hair of a being descending from the skies above onto a particularly peaceful village where her kind lived, he was clad in darkness and behind him were four pitch black ethereal wings.
From the very moment he arrived every last person present could sense it, Isla and the other children looking up in both fear, awe and curiosity as to whom this strange visitor might be, the adults feeling a primal fear down to their very soul as the tension built up by mounds in the eerie silence that persisted following the passing seconds.
And then.....Hell.
A thin pillar of darkness shot down from the skies onto the village and bringing with it a powerful dark pulse that ripped everything apart and uprooted the very ground beneath them causing a disaster.
But just moments before it hit, her father who was the village chief and her mother had moved to protect her, making use of their rare aptitude of synchronization to cast a most powerful protection spell at the cost of their lives and even then it had barely been able to mitigate most of it's power before the last vestiges of it broke through leaving a deep gash across her stomach, through the girl's eyes he watched as she saw her bisected parents drop down dead in a pool of their own blood and just right before she fell unconscious he could see the pillar of darkness pulling out something from deep below and could have sworn it looked like a....a shard?
Removing his hand from her head the being stood up and fell into contemplation about what he had seen, at this point it was very much impossible to deny it, that feel, that power and those looks, that was definitely his master who was him also.
But...when taking into account when that happened, wasn't the master.....much stronger compared to the power he had four years ago? This version seemed strong, perhaps stronger than he was today which makes no sense at all.
"Still, I have to warn the master that there exists a second personality within him".
"I might be compromised too since I am a piece of his soul".
The being sighed in exasperation, this seemed like it would be troublesome but he couldn't worry about that now. With his thoughts sorted out he turned his attention back to the sleeping Isla, having confirmed all he wanted with her he could think of nothing further to do.
"Now, what do I do with her" he wondered.
"Do I kill her?".
"Her existence is misery and I don't understand people that well but, won't it be a mercy for her?".
"Hmm"....
"Maybe I should rewrite her memories and make her loyal to the master and I?".
"Our movements are quite limited after all so.....".
He sighed once again in exasperation, the plan was a good one but there were too many caveats, a strong trigger could undo everything and over time the control would weaken as he wasn't so proficient yet in this field to achieve permanent control, at least not by pure skills alone to say the least.
Destroying it is so much easier in comparison, even building it was easier too, overall Isla might be weak but that mind of hers along with her will is most definitely of an elite tier, she possesses perfect hatred and it's warped her to an insane level giving her the strongest of defenses so to rewrite an 'ego' that powerful he would need to put in a level of effort that just was not worth it for such a simple thing.
Taking a look at the sleeping Isla once more, the events of the fight between her and the master replayed through his mind. That artifact capable of creating a domain no matter how false and incomparable it was to the real thing was indeed impressive. From her memories of the dark mage who took her in due to her crazy high aptitude for unorthodox magic, trained her and also warped her even further with his methods, he could see that there was an entire collection of such an artifact, like enough to build a tower with.
Something like that, one enough is revolutionary to have an impact on the status quo, the hierarchy of power in this world let alone a whole collection like that. For anyone else in a position of power and responsibility their first thoughts would be the dangers of what such an artifact could bring if it floods the market or how terribly it could shift the war between both sides, the greed that could ensue and the oceans of blood that could be spilled, it would be pure chaos.
Domains were the most unfair thing in existence and made it absolutely impossible for a being at your level to defeat you without possessing one themselves, not unless you were an existence like Emrys, Hope or their peers of which there existed none bar them.
But none of this concerned him, instead it was something else entirely. That the mage would hand something like that to Isla for her to use in an event which would be broadcasted on such a large scale, with the greatest powers of the world in attendance, it meant that without a doubt he and the rest of whomever he had backing them up were prepared for imminent war.
And now back to the core of all this, Isla. That he was just realising this now meant that both the four emperors and the Pope were aware long before and the fact that they seemed all too calm, having not made a move yet to apprehend her and the fact the audience themselves haven't unravelled in chaos at the weight of what they had just witnessed meant only thing also.
Action had been taken, a great magic had been cast on the largest scale and for such an action to have been taken so quickly and so quietly...'The tower master'.
"Quite impressive".
A voice suddenly rang out in the empty hall but he seemed quite unfazed by it as he just calmly looked to the side of him where the vague form of a figure was steadily coming into view. A most handsome man with ears half as pointy as that of an elf's, raven black hair reaching all the way down to his waist with green eyes looking so full of life and possessing vertical pupils, then a fair and unblemished skin with a sickly hint of paleness and an innate dim heavenly glow to it's feel.
He looked almost exactly as he did in the paintings of him, that sickly hint of paleness was new and yet took nothing from the overall grace he exuded.
"You're a piece of his soul aren't you, the fourteenth anomaly".
"The haze surrounding your mind should have lasted a terribly long while".
"Very impressive it cleared this fast".
"Or maybe you weren't as affected when taking into account your odd nature".
"Hmm, curious indeed".
Japheth seemed to just ramble on for a bit which made him grow bored very quickly and soon enough his attention moved away from the tower master back the sleeping Isla, that was until a question was suddenly thrown at him.
"Did he grant you a name to call you by".
He looked up to meet the tower master's gaze and silence reigned between them for a few seconds before uttering a single word-
"Elias".
Japheth smiled and then chuckled in amusement "you're not even scared are you".
"Even my own people in the tower still get jittery around me, at least most of them".
"And here you are, a soul fragment who knows no fear upon our first time meeting".
"Heh, it's a bit refreshing for once".
An awkward silence soon passed between them both as Japheth recieved no further input from the boy who seemed just fine with the silence while he suffered inside, soon it was broken by a fake cough from him as he muttered to himself.
'Man, I'm 1 out of 3 with my first impressions'.
Japheth heaved a sigh in his heart and looked to the sleeping Isla, with a small gesture she was enveloped in a sphere of mana.
"Do you know who they are".
Elias suddenly hit him with a question earning a small look of surprise from him before pulling himself together and responding with a small nod- "mhm".
"Then you don't need to take her with you".
Japheth raised a brow in amusement "hoh? Why, i wonder".
"You can read my thoughts freely"
Elias countered but the tower master just chuckled in response, amusement still within his tone as he replied - "true, but I don't abuse it too much unless for very specific reasons...mostly".
"Else how would I enjoy a normal conversation with anyone".
"Now, tell me why you want the girl".
Elias took some time to organize his thoughts and once he finally felt things were ordered enough he began explaining.
"She is.....resourceful and can potentially be a problem for the master".
Japheth raised a brow "oh, so you want to kill her before that happens?".
The boy gently shook his head confusing him further-
"No, I want her to be problem for the master".
"....Huh?"
At those words he was stunned to say the least, stunned and yet somehow not surprised considering the family this piece comes from, in the end he could only shake his head in amusement.
"Most people don't like making enemies, yet here you are once again not just wanting but also planning to cultivate said enemy into what you want".
"What a crazy guy, what a crazy family".
"Are you even sure this is what your master would want".
Elias nod his head in confirmation to his question and Japheth could only sigh within his heart.
"There's still something you're not telling me yet but, ah what the hell".
"I owe Hestia a very big favour so I guess this is an opportunity to start repaying a small part of it".
"You are a very connected part of her nephew after all so it counts".
"You can have her kid, I'll deal with the four grumpy ones and his Holiness".
At that last sentence he giggled to himself absentmindedly before releasing the sphere of mana surrounding her and slowly began fading away into the void.
"Ah, but I'll be taking a copy of this".
He flexed his index and near instantly a golden orb flew out of Isla's head into his hands which faded along with the rest of him, in this way the surprise but short meeting between Elias and the tower master had come to an end leaving him with just the sleeping Isla once more.
Elias covered her in a sphere of mana and teleported them both to an empty grassland thousands of miles away from the arena then levitated himself a meter off the ground and got seated into a cross legged position mid-air with his hands resting easy on his thighs as he closed his eyes and fell into a mild state of meditation, a change began occurring all around him as his hair turned a luminous silvery white and the ethereal darkness around him turned a crystal white with rising embers emanating off his form, he looked like a most divine of beings.
Hours passed and he remained in this state, steadily honing his powers even further, by now he judged that the rewards were already done being distributed to the contestants and the arena should have long been cleared of it's visitors truly marking the tournaments end.
Night had finally come, the silent grasslands had come alive with the awakening of it's sleeping inhabitants, little orbs of light numbering in the hundreds were steadily floating about illuminating the fields with a peaceful dim glow while the little furballs hidden underground began scurrying about searching for chitinous delicacies.
"Mhm~".
Moments later Isla began stirring from her deep sleep, she opened her eyes feeling groggy and a little dazed but still forcing herself to try sitting upright, something felt wrong about her environment but she wasn't anywhere near cognizant enough yet to process why as things were stil so blurry and dull.
Seconds later the fog was lifted and now she had come to realize just what was wrong with her environment, grasslands for miles one and the beautiful stars shining above in the night sky with the four celestial satellites of this world illuminating in all of it's lunar grace.
And levitating before her was a being cloaked in an ethereal white almost similar in behavior to that of a flame, wisps of mana emanating off his form and his silver white long hair cascading down his shoulders. The moment he opened his eyes she was met with a sea of black in his eyes embedded with countless little bright stars bearing down upon her.
Danger, unprecedented like she had ever felt before since coming to this place coursed through her body in waves forcing her to instinctively push her mana and senses to the highest level in preparation.
"I will be giving you an offer, you can only answer a yes or a no with no option to rethink or rescind your decision".
Her eyes narrowed at his words already not feeling too good about this but the being before her did not seem to care and carried on with his words anyway.
"I will tell you now, everything you can ever possibly hope to achieve with your revenge".
"You only have a one year timeframe before it becomes an impossible dream".
"For the very moment he steps into the next path and begins his true journey to the arcane....you've lost".
"And he is close, very close".
"This is the most vulnerable you will ever find him to be".
"So I ask you, the power to truly contend against him, do you want it or not".
Isla's mind absorbed the weight of his words, understanding truly what this being meant. With this new clarity that had been brought to her mind, she realized a truth she hadn't ever thoroughly considered, even in her endless hatred of him she could not deny now what kind of existence he was, what kind of existence he was meant to be and just how hopeless of a situation it would be if allowed to be achieved.
She wished so dearly that it wasn't so but reality told of a different truth, and right now with being given this seemingly one and final opportunity to cut down such a calamity before it matures, she was all too tempted to grab onto it with her life but still a piece of rationality remained within her.
For an offer this good to suddenly be given unto her, unlike that day four years ago when she was at the peak of her agony Isla would not just readily jump at it like so, there existed almost nothing truly free in this word and that lesson rang all too true for a situation such as this one.
"And you?".
"What exactly do you get out of this".
Elias smiled "just two things".
"The power of fate is on his side, the favour of the world is on his side".
"And he has a divine destiny written unto him".
"How fun it would be to experiment just how far a mortal existence can go in cracking these layers of protection".
"What if a mortal using just their own strength alone was able to facilitate the fall of a god before it's rise".
"It would be legendary, absolutely unheard of and perhaps confirm that there exists a chance no matter how minute, to go against the divine providence".
"Or would it just confirm once again that indeed, only the divine can go against the divine itself either directly or in an indirect way".
"That, is what I wish to know. And for this is no better test subject than you, the one in a pact of eternal hatred against a divine being".
Isla was utterly flabbergasted at the declaration of his desire, so undeniably insane and yet so genuine and almost innocent in the way his eyes shone- 'What a crazy guy' she muttered to herself under her breath.
"As for the second one, well I guess it's just my wish to understand and experience the social life and nature of mortals".
"It's quite mundane really, very harmless".
She raised a brow at his words, already expecting something outrageous from his words of before this was as he said, very mundane and so unexpected in a strange way that she could help but ask "why?".
"To see how deep my heart goes".
Now Isla was the most confused she had ever been as she could not grasp the truth of what he meant by this, but she had an inkling that if she were to ask for an explanation he would be offering no further replies so she could only choose to abandon it and instead focus on this deal she had been offered.
She took a long, hard look at him while contemplating the prospects. It still felt way too good to be true but somehow in a very ironic way the honesty within the madness of his desires brought to her an almost trustworthy feeling. Isla knew this made no sense but her mind had long since been warped away from the notion of normal, she herself had changed and perhaps right now this was what brought more solace to her than the words of a saint.
Closing her eyes and heaving a sigh, a new wave of determination flowed through her. She looked him straight in the eye, noticing a blurry similarity between this entity and her fated enemy but shook away that absurdity, letting it get to the point where she could start seeing everyone as that guy wasn't something she could allow in the slightest, it would be her undoing without a doubt.
"Yes".
Elias smiled "wonderful".
An obsidian like tablet with a mixture of deep sea blue and wisps of a jet black aura emanating off it was summoned between them with the conditions of their arrangement enscribed in gold and a compartment asking for the signatures of both individuals at the bottom.
'So he can do this too huh'.
She noted to herself mentally while looking over the conditions written onto the tablet, the power to manifest a contract was quite a rare gift and each individual always has a slight or visible difference between how theirs and that of anothers looks but it was almost always in the form of a scroll, this much she knew.
And unlike a blood vow or almost any other form of pact magic it was possible to rescind the agreement if both parties agreed to it, or if the contract owner were to die with no specified agreement on what were to happen after. There was some more to it's capabilities but, these were just the basics she had bothered to learn about
Finding herself at peace with the outlined conditions, she bit her fangs into her thumb drawing blood and pressing it onto the tablet which absorbed it and returned back to Elias who did just the same.
Once completed a crystal white magic circle was summoned above the tablet marking the completion of the contract and on the back of their hands were three pairs of pitch black wings extending from a cirlce ring with a vertical line drawn across at the very centre of it and extending beyond both ends.
"Congratulations, this is going to be quite fun".
EnD.