Even a Mastermind Has a Story (3)
It was the only ability I had possessed in my past life, and the talent whose existence I confirmed all over again upon being born into Eustonia.
Power engraved upon my very soul ran the length of my slender arm and unfurled into the world. Mana dissolved within the Spirit Stones came unbound and began to tangle together in the empty air. Flash and afterglow, gleam and radiance collided, breathing life into the vacant cage.
Created Spirit of Subordination, Arthes (Supreme-Grade).
Spirit Creation cannot be used for 72 hours.
When at last the light that had flooded the laboratory died away entirely, an unfamiliar voice rang through the room.
The thing I had wanted most, in my past life. The moment a vast spirit synthesis, fed by a great quantity of Spirit Stones, succeeded.
"......Supreme-grade?"
I could not help my astonishment once Spirit Creation took. Had I, in that past life, ever spent twenty-one Spirit Stones in a single casting? All I remembered was scraping together one stone no larger than a fingernail, and only with enormous difficulty, before attempting the creation at all. The artificial spirits born of those attempts were lower-grade when they turned out well, and on a very lucky day, occasionally intermediate-grade. Even that failed from time to time, when fortune ran dry.
And now, for the first time, I had made a supreme-grade spirit.
The seventy-two-hour wait meant I could not yet tell how often a supreme-grade result would appear. Even measured against Eustonia, though, a supreme-grade spirit was unquestionably a rare existence.
"You. Are you the one who created me?"
When I lifted the cage that held the supreme-grade spirit, a glittering black-and-white light addressed me from within. The Spirit of Subordination—Arthes, was it? Glowing with an ominous light inside the cage, the thing seemed, as befitted a supreme-grade spirit, to possess a self.
"You mean me? Yeah. That's me."
"To bring forth a new spirit of your own will... a remarkable human."
"Naturally. Hardly needs saying."
The people of Earth, in my past life, would have known I was a remarkable human as well. There was no way left to prove it now, but it would have been true all the same. The spirit paid my answer no mind whatsoever and offered me a proposal.
"So. Will you contract with me?"
A proposal for a Spirit Contract.
A Spirit Contract is the fundamental threshold one must cross to become a Spirit Master and wield a spirit's power. Simply by contracting with a mighty spirit, a person can handle tremendous strength without the slightest effort. Power, so-called, without a price.
"You want to contract?"
"Was that not your intent in making me?"
Spirit Creation had been nothing more than curiosity about what might come of it. I had not made a spirit with any thought of contracting on the spot, and to begin with I doubted this body could properly draw out a spirit's power even if I did. Still, a contract with a supreme-grade spirit—ranked among the very highest of spirits that actually existed—was a temptation I could not quite deny.
"Not really."
"I see."
"Before we talk about contracts and the rest of it, who are you?"
Even if I meant to contract, I first needed to learn about the spirit in detail. All I knew was that it was the Spirit of Subordination, and that it bore the name Arthes. So I asked it what it was. I wanted to hear what kind of spirit it was, and what it could do.
"......I do not know who I am."
"You don't?"
What came back was not the answer I had expected. It looked as though it possessed a self, so I had assumed its identity as a spirit would be settled as well. I had been entirely wrong.
"I am a being made artificially, by you. By rights I am an irregular, one whose existence ought never to have been permitted. Therefore I do not know who I am."
"......For someone who doesn't know, you talk like you know plenty. So what can you actually do?"
"The subordination of a Spirit Contract."
"Subordination?"
"I was born the Spirit of Subordination, and so I was made. Contract with other spirits, and subordinate them to me."
Fortunately, it seemed I would at least learn what it could do. Arthes called its power subordination.
"And what's the benefit?"
"Do that, and you shall wield their power without any constraint."
In short, contract with this one and I could use the power of other spirits without shouldering the backlash of multiple contracts. Looked at that way, it was a better spirit than I had expected. No—this went past decent and straight into the realm of the absurdly broken. The very nature Arthes possessed as a spirit did not seem to belong to any concept that could arise on its own. Without my Spirit Creation, it might never have been born into the world at all.
"How do I subordinate them?"
"I need only devour that one's contract."
"Can you eat just anything?"
"Spirits whose selves are too strong, I have no confidence I can digest. Better, if you can, to bring me spirits only just born, their consciousness still faint."
"So you want me to keep making spirits and feeding them to you."
In the end, it was telling me to offer it tribute on a regular schedule. Whether Arthes could stomach whatever I handed over, I did not know, but in theory, so long as the Spirit Stones held out, I could feed it once every three days. I had only just used Spirit Creation, so a new spirit would not be possible until three days had passed. Feeding it whatever was born then, and judging from the result, would not be a bad approach.
"Or do you intend to hoard that talent?"
"Wasn't planning on it. Fine. Let's contract. What do I do?"
"First, I would have you do something about this cumbersome thing that confines me."
Light flared from Arthes, and the cage holding it trembled. A cage is a tool meant to restrain a spirit effectively. Supreme-grade or not, barring the exception of a spirit's rampage, a spirit that had not even formed a contract could not leave a cage under its own power. Having decided I meant to contract, I opened the door and let Arthes out.
Once free, Arthes poured light toward me and spoke.
"Only now do I feel as though I might live."
"Satisfied?"
"Of course. I shall proceed with the contract. Extend your hand."
"All right."
Chains of light took shape from Arthes's body and, in the next moment, wound entirely around my arm. Light streamed in along those chains and began to seep slowly through my whole body.
Ten minutes and more. A single minute. Or only a few dozen seconds. My sense of time had gone dull, and I could not say how long had actually passed. But after a span that was not very long, the inflowing light swallowed my body all at once and vanished together with the chains.
"It is done."
With that, a binding—like being fastened hard to something—rose in my chest. I could not see it, yet I knew Arthes was beside me.
"Didn't take long."
"It is no difficult matter."
Come to think of it, something I wanted to ask had occurred to me while the contract was underway. A question only possible because this one possessed a self.
"Arthes."
"What is it?"
"Mind if I ask you something?"
"Ask what you will."
"You don't regret contracting with me right away?"
"Why would you think so?"
A Spirit Contract, at its foundation, holds permanent effect upon a human. Unless something truly exceptional occurs, it does not break. Spirits who live through eternity might not feel the weight of that, but for the humans of Eustonia a Spirit Contract is a decision large enough to sway a life. Then what was a Spirit Contract to a spirit? If they hurried into a pact with a human and later found the contractor wanting, would that not be a considerable problem for them as well? That was the thought that had occurred to me.
"Even a spirit, if it has a will, might have convictions of its own, right? Wanting to do certain things alongside a certain person. Wanting to be of help to someone."
"Is that so?"
"Think it through. You might meet someone later who suits you better as a contractor, and regret this."
"A strange question."
"Is it really that strange?"
"I am a being made to be used by you. However you use me, that is nothing but your freedom. There is no need whatsoever to respect a will such as mine."
Only then did I understand. Putting a question like that to this one was meaningless.
The strange one was Arthes, there before my eyes.