'Something is off about his golden ring, kid.' Azolla's voice echoed inside his head.
'Any guess?' Abium closed the glass window with a silk curtain, moved towards the sofa-like chair, and asked.
'No. But it might be an intellectual artifact.' Azolla's words caused him to ponder deeply.
'I'm also feeling a little off about that girl Nina Williams. I feel like she approached us with some hidden intention.' Although Abium didn't feel any abnormality around his surroundings, he felt something was off.
'Well, pondering won't give me any answers anyway.' He shook his head and sat on the sofa-like chair.
As more passengers entered the airship, the leading crew member announced takeoff at precisely 3 A.M.
Then, the magic propellers began to spin fiercely, and slowly, the airship started to lift in the air. Meanwhile, Abium and other passengers buckled up their seatbelts and patiently waited for further instructions. Gradually, the airship flew up thousands of meters in the sky and soon disappeared into the black clouds.
After an hour, footsteps appeared out of his room, and Abium heard a knocking sound.
'A guest?' He raised his eyebrows.
He stood up from the chair and walked near the door with light footsteps. Once he arrived near the entrance, he grabbed the doorknob and asked in a calm voice.
"Who is it?"
"It's Nina, Mister." A familiar voice came from the outside, making Abium a little wary. Hiding his wariness, he opened the door and invited her in.
With an elegant bow, she took a step forward and walked in.
"Please take your seat, Miss Nina." As they moved inside, Abium spoke while pointing his hand toward the nearby chair. At the same time, he took out a wooden chair from his spatial ring and placed it opposite her.
"Thank you, Mr. Jeeves. Please take this gift as my token of gratitude." Saying so, she tapped her spatial ring, took out a wooden box at the size of 20x20 cm, and gave it to him.
On the other hand, Abium caught the gift with a confused expression and gave her a questionable gaze.
Meanwhile, Nina let out a wry smile and spoke.
"I know no mage will help me without getting something in return, so this gift is my payment. Please help me if a dangerous situation arises."
'She is smart.'
Abium nodded his head and shifted his attention toward the gift box.
"What is it?" He asked curiously.
Hearing his question, she gave a smile and spoke.
"It's an expensive gift. I bought it from the Wadel Kingdom's auction, Mr. Jeeves. Please open it with your hand."
Abium narrowed his eyes, took the gift box from her hand, and tore the outer cover without putting much thought into it.
But the next instant, his heart skipped a beat.
What he saw was not some ornamental gift but a palm-sized emerald gem-embedded coin. The outer side of the gem was covered in gold, and a few peculiar symbols and letters were inscribed on the gold layer.
"Emerald Gold coin!" He said in a deep tone.
'What the heck? Is this the artifact Empress Athena mentioned about?!' His mind went chaos inside.
"It's not just a normal emerald but a precious gem called 'Helix Emerald' and also a hundred times more expensive than the normal one. There is also a rumor about this crystal saying that it is capable of storing divine energy."
As Nina was explaining, Abium felt like he was carrying a ticking alchemic bomb on his palm and began to sweat all over. He got anxious as he remembered Empress Athena's words, and his hand began to tremble.
'Damn it, she even warned me not to think of it often, saying that it will come and look for me on its own.' At that moment, the only thought that he had in his mind was how to survive from this artifact.
'Kid, don't get nervous. Although this artifact is indeed terrifying, you also have that terrifying power to suppress it. For now, send her away. Then, we can inspect this artifact and think of a plan to control it.' A reassuring voice came from his mind. Only then did he let out a deep sigh and leaned on his chair.
'I'm really scared now.' Abium drew a deep breath and soon thanked Nina.
"I'll do my best to protect you if a danger arrives."
"I'll be taking my leave then, Mister." Saying so, Nina stood up from her seat and left the room reserved for him.
As Nina walked out of the room, the metallic door suddenly shut on its own, causing Abium's face to stiffen.
At the same time, a creepy green smoke suddenly came from the Emerald gold coin and tried to enter his soul.
'Hmm, you have an endless desire for money and power... Mortal, let me help you become the World's richest ruler!' The eerie voice of a young child echoed inside his hand, causing his whole body to freeze stiff.
"Humph, I won't let you manipulate me easily," Abium said angrily. He sensed a strange disturbance in his inner emotions and let his consciousness enter the Mysterious Throne Hall, where his other soul form was sitting on the golden throne.
A moment later, He opened his eyes and pulled the Emerald Gold Coin through the mysterious link.
He soon caught the palm-sized Emerald Gold coin and noticed a powerful force creeping out all of a sudden.
"D-Divine Power? What are you doing?! Where is this place? Who are you?!" A panicking young boy's voice echoed through the hall.
At that moment, it was vibrating non-stop, releasing strange spiritual power and trying to take complete control over his soul.
But all of a sudden, the Golden Throne released powerful divine power and nullified the attacking force.
Not only that, Abium sensed that the Golden Throne's mysterious power had completely suppressed the Emerald Coin artifact's movement itself.
"No, it feels like that mysterious divine power actually froze the time around this Emerald Coin. What a terrifying ability!" Saying so, he stood up from his seat and started walking towards the Mysterious Fountain.
He soon approached the 'Time' divinity attached to one of the five branches and looked at the pure, crystalline white cloud-like essences floating in the fountain pool.
Abium instantly extended his hand towards the pool, grabbed a head-sized cloud-like essence, and shrunk it into a small pebble-shaped one.
After that, he infused his spiritual power into it and created a spiritual imprint.
Just as he did that, the pebble-like energy core burst into pure energy particles and turned into a crystalline blank page!
"A contract page... It's like a high-class contract paper I've seen in Judgement Church. Haa, I knew you weren't some motionless fountain but an intelligent artifact!" His gaze sharpened towards the fountain.
Unfortunately, no response came from the other side, causing him to frown deeply.
'Tsk, I need to subdue this artifact before my spirit power depletes.' Muttering inwardly, he turned his attention toward the blank page and was at a loss for words.
'But how should I write here? Using my spiritual power? Or thoughts?' Just as he thought of writing contract conditions, words started to appear at the top of the blank page.
'Hmm, I now understand how this works... But this artifact is an intellectual one and might be twisted too. If I put too many conditions, it might retaliate, and scheme behind my back like Azolla mentioned before. I also need to put a time limit. After all, no intelligent being will be willing to remain a slave for the rest of its life.'
"Contract Agreement: From 27th November 10292 Easica Year to 27th November 11292 Easica Year."
"Contractor: Abium Lufiel
Contracted Soul: Sin of Greed
Type: One-Sided Forced Contract.
Conditions:
→ Contracted Soul must never harm the Contractor and his allies.
→ Contract Soul must help the Contractor in any way possible to increase his strength for the next 1000 years. Once the contract period is over, the Contractor must help the Contract Soul three times.
→ The Contracted Soul must not scheme or plot against the Contractor, directly or indirectly.
→ The Contracted Soul must provide knowledge, advice, and guidance to the Contractor as requested, within the limits of its capabilities. [Note: The request can't exceed the level of extremely dangerous to the Contractor or impossible.]
→ The Contractor has the right to call upon the Contracted Soul's power in times of dire need, but the Contracted Soul may refuse if it deems the request unreasonable or unnecessary.
→ The Contracted Soul must maintain discretion and not reveal its existence to others, especially not to those who may seek to exploit the Contractor.
→ The Contracted Soul must not attempt to escape or break the contract, as doing so will terminate its existence.
→ The Contractor has the right to renegotiate the terms of the contract upon its expiration.
→ The Contracted Soul must provide a detailed account of any attempts to breach the contract by itself or any external parties...]
Abium wrote the contracted page without making any big loopholes and finally pushed the page toward the Emerald Gold Coin.
A second later, Abium noticed that the contract page had transformed into a pure crystalline particle and disappeared.