“That’s impressive.” Pultris admitted begrudgingly, as Aurelius writhed jerkily all over the place.

  There were around 5 moles running up and down Aurelius like their own personal scratching post. Their strong forearms dug into Aurelius’s skin and clung to his clothes with magical amounts of vitality.

  “Whoosh.” The fistful of hurt from Seraphine raced against his skull, barely missing his poor, beautiful face, as he dodged for his life.

  “DO SOMETHING!” Aurelius yelled at Pultris, dodging another fierce attack from Seraphine. It had become impossible for him to wield his spear properly, given the distraction that the moles were causing him.

  “...Do you really want mole blood on your hands?” Pultris replied blandly.

  “You’re going to KILL THEM?” Aurelius asked, appalled by the suggestion.

  “It’s usually harder to bind non-sentient creatures with wind magic, and they’re being controlled by your friend right now. So yes. It would be much easier to kill them.” Pultris explained, irritation clear in his voice now.

  “Whoosh.” Seraphine punched and missed, this time grazing for Aurelius’s abdomen. Her metal golems had attached themselves to her shoes at this point, creating a shoe with metallic soles.

  “Haa… It seems that my contractor is… hopeless.” Pultris muttered critically, observing Seraphine with an unamused tone.

  Seraphine was making up for the reduction in speed from Pultris’s song by using her golems to give her extra mobility.

  As a mage of the second layer, she had broken through some of the angel’s spell by concentrating her soul around her body to partially block off the effects of the angelic song.

  Given that wind magic affected the body, reinforcing the body through the soul was an ingenious move, showing her adaptability and intelligence.

  “This girl… She’s far too similar to her.” He muttered.

  However, even though her rank gave her the ability to move herself in the face of the angel’s song, she had still reached her limit at around a 30% reduction in agility. The golems on her feet now were being used to boost her speed instead, with her using its capacity to float as some sort of a ‘roller skate’.

  “Why are you so useless if you’re an angel?!” Aurelius muttered in frustration, managing to finally tear off the second last mole from his body.

  “Ha, if you knew anything about wind magic, you would not be saying such demeaning things to me.” Pultris scoffed, his tone slightly more impatient than usual.

  “I am simultaneously buffing your physicality, debuffing her speed and giving your spear the ability to split even the strongest boulders in a single strike. That is the power of my song.” He spat warily.

  “Then how about you give up on one? Clearly I’m not splitting boulders here!” Aurelius pointed out irritably.

  “...Fine.” Pultris declared, his hint of anger now running through his voice. His declaration sent the vibrations of the spear dampen itself along its entire length.

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Why the hell are you so pissed off now?” Aurelius bickered, unable to understand Pultris’s current mood fully.

  “...” Pultris silently mused, letting another song overlap onto the spear.

  The music was calming, introspective and bland, giving a glimpse into a dark abyss in its texture.

  …Aurelius had already lasted 5 minutes longer against Seraphine than 3 weeks ago, where his longest battle had taken place.

  However, this feat was far from impressive, and more depressing if you considered the fact that he was fighting against a newly minted second layer mage with the help of a literal angel.

  “Contractor.” Pultris called out creepily and emotionlessly, scratching at his contractor’s brain silently.

  Aurelius did not reply.

  The thought of struggling against Seraphine now made Aurelius grit his teeth bitterly. Mr. Tona being untouchable in their duel was one thing, but fighting against someone who was barely 3 years older than him was embarrassing, and frustrating beyond measure.

  While he had always felt comfortable in his mediocrity compared to his peers, since starting his loop, he had become a pawn, always being dragged along by the powerful, and the will of others. And like a pawn, he had been robbed of agency, and then killed in his choice to submit to power.

  “...Contractor?” Pultris asked again. This time, his voice sounded… closer, more ancient, and more… stable.

  If he could not even beat Seraphine here with the help of an angel, how could he even hope to claw himself out of Quetzalcoatl’s grasp, or become… more than his stupid, talentless self?

  It was endlessly depressing.

  “I see that you are… frustrated, contractor.” Pultris commented, the darkness in his words unconcealable now.

  Aurelius’s face darkened, as he thrust his spear into a dodging Seraphine.

  “...I can give you the power to win.” He suggested seductively, whispering into Aurelius’s cranium with his divine will.

  Win? What a joke.

  “You can prove yourself to those who seek to make you… submit.” Pultris sounded, insanely.

  …To need help from an angel just to prove that he wasn’t completely useless and pathetic. How lowly was his existence?

  “We merely need to make a… contract.” Pultris smiled through his words kindly, reaching his tendrils of amoral divinity digging into the skin of his temples.

  A contract…

  “Yes, a contract.” Pultris echoed his thoughts, all the music around Aurelius coming to a slow crawl.

  “…” Aurelius paused. And he felt his mouth quiver.

  “A contract.” He said out aloud.

  “I will carry out your command. Simply… allow me to let her blood spill.” Pultris whispered softly, gently, seductively, gravely.

  “Let me paint a beautiful picture for you, contractor. The picture of love, death, and lust.” He suggested, the intensity of his godhood slowly overtaking Aurelius’s eyes.

  And out of the corner of his eyes, Aurelius saw a blur of his blood, seeping from its sockets.

  He felt his body slip from his grasp, fallen under the command of… something… something… someth… som…

  ???

  “...I fucking knew it.” Mr. Tona cursed triumphantly, a rarity for someone like him.

  “...” Sage Yeltz stood motionless, her eyes simply tracking the slowly increasing rate of Aurelius’s movement.

  “Do you remember ‘Marionette’?” Mr. Tona asked Sage Yeltz, sighing at the ugliness that was about to unfold.

  “That was one of my favourite original spells.” He said nostalgically, nodding his head to his memories.

  “...” Sage Yeltz remained silent, unbothered by Mr. Tona’s lecture.

  “It’s always hard to bring the spell of another element into your own. But it wasn’t like that with Marionette.” He continued rambling.

  “You see, its effective output was… large enough that I could get away with half-assing the spell engineering.”

  “That must be why I don’t like it.” Sage Yeltz replied, scoffing at Mr. Tona’s explanation.

  Aurelius continued to increase in his intensity and speed, becoming more refined, sharp, and melding with the magic flowing around him.

  “Pragmatic mages are sometimes more capable than perfectionists like you, Yeltz.” He retorted, letting out a puff of smoke into the air.

  “Wha-” Seraphine coughed, the air around her slowly twisting and turning into chains of gold.

  “On three.” Sage Yeltz declared seriously, finally taking action.

  “Sure.” Mr. Tona responded leisurely.

  “But you should know that I will have questions for you after this, my apprentice.” Mr. Tona enunciated dangerously.

  “You will answer me why.” He said, a thin layer of ice appearing between the ground and the soles of his shoes.

  “Why that youngling is special.”