Became the Unjust Contract Slave of the Archamage’s Book

*Brrrrrrr!*  

The intense trembling of Starfall subsided, but that was where the phenomenon ended. Despite Bala II’s shouts, the sword remained unresponsive, as if it had never moved at all.

“Why did it stop?” Bala II asked, bewildered.

“Yunnaeril, could your assumption have been wrong?” Priya suggested.

Yunnaeril sheathed Starfall, though clearly reluctant. “But there was a reaction… something did happen.”

“So, what exactly is the Cardinal looking for?” Priya inquired, sensing Yunnaeril’s hesitation to answer.

The object that Cardinal Cristopho sought was something called a “fragment.” Ten years ago, during a power struggle within the Order, the Cardinal had accidentally discovered the existence of these fragments. Since then, he had been secretly tracking them down, without revealing his intentions to anyone.

During his investigations, he uncovered a critical piece of information: the holy sword Starfall, the symbol of honor bestowed upon the Order’s First Sword, was one of the fragments he had been searching for. However, being of advanced age, the Cardinal could not hope to claim that position for himself. Instead, he had taken a young boy he encountered during the internal strife—Yunnaeril—and groomed him to become the Order’s First Sword.

When Yunnaeril Dalheim was finally appointed as the First Sword, the Cardinal felt the time was ripe to set his long-held plans into motion. Bound by an oath not to reveal the Cardinal’s true motives, Yunnaeril was unable to speak of the fragments to anyone.

“Later, Priya. I’ll tell you everything later,” he muttered, but Priya learned nothing more.

“Bala, did you recite it correctly?”

“I did. Just as you told me to.”

“Earlier, I felt something… a tingling sensation, but now, I don’t feel it anymore.”

“What do you mean by a ‘tingling sensation’?” Priya asked.

Yunnaeril then explained the peculiar feeling he had experienced when the Inya warriors had chanted their incantations while fighting the Snow Serpent.

“So you sensed something from their chant?” Priya asked, now more curious.

She too had felt the swirling magical energy in their words during the battle. Comparing the current situation to what had happened before, Priya offered a suggestion.

“What if we gather the other tribesmen and try again?”

Late that night, the Inya warriors were summoned. Though they were reluctant, especially Bala II, they could not refuse Yunnaeril, to whom they owed their lives.

“Sing as you did when you were hunting the demons,” Yunnaeril instructed.

“That’s… not a song,” one of the warriors corrected him. “It’s a form of ‘Word Spirit.'”

“Is it different from magic?”  

“A bit different.”

Magic is a force that draws upon one’s will and imagination, shaping it into reality through spoken words. However, the ‘Word Spirit’ is similar yet distinct in that it draws its power from the ancestral spirits of a clan. The strength of the spell lies in the shared lineage of a common ancestry. That is the secret behind the incantation.

Priya had heard of this before but had never witnessed it firsthand.

As Yunnaeril listened to Priya’s explanation, Bala II led the warriors in chanting the incantation. Yunnaeril unsheathed Starfall and planted it into the ground, waiting.

“…Do you feel anything?”

Simply chanting together wasn’t enough. Something more was needed. Priya recalled the peculiar magic she had sensed when they had faced the demons earlier, when the warriors’ spirits were heightened.

Here, within the safe confines of the Inya tribe’s village, there was no threat to stir their emotions. So Priya decided to add a little something to intensify their feelings.

As she exhaled, smoke from her pipe mingled with the swirling snowstorm. It was as if the night had shed a layer of its veil, revealing something hidden within. The snowstorm began to take on a new shape.

*Screeeeeech!*

A Snow Serpent.

The cursed creature they had encountered earlier in the day appeared as an illusion, emitting a menacing cry. The other villagers, who had come out to observe the warriors, screamed in alarm, their voices filled with fear and confusion.

The serpent, its sharp fangs gleaming, lunged toward the chanting warriors, its maw wide open. Bala II was startled by the sudden appearance of the creature, but there was no room for retreat. This was their homeland.

*Bang! Bang!* *Clang—!*  

The warriors clashed their bracers together, suppressing their fear and steeling their resolve. Bala II looked around at the other warriors and shouted again.

Yunnaeril felt Starfall begin to vibrate once more in his grasp.

As Bala II led the chant, the other warriors struck their bracers in unison, their voices rising in intensity. A scorching wind, strong enough to melt the frigid northern snow, radiated from the gathered warriors. The spirits of the Inya tribe flowed into their arms and legs.

At the moment when their incantation reached its peak, the stars vanished from the sky. All that remained was a suffocating darkness that engulfed their vision.

The monstrous roar, which had seemed poised to strike at any moment, was swallowed up by the darkness, and the creature vanished entirely. 

‘What is happening?’ Bala II’s question didn’t linger long in his mind before a scream shattered the silence. He immediately recognized the voice—it belonged to a close friend. But where his friend had stood moments before, there was now only an abyss of deep, impenetrable darkness.

“VACHTA!” he shouted, trying to warn the other warriors. But warning them was futile. No amount of vigilance could prepare them for what lay within the darkness. Even the most seasoned warriors had no idea how to combat this all-consuming void.

“What is this!?” Yunnaeril gasped, his voice betraying his shock and fear.

Priya, too, felt an overwhelming sense of dread as she watched the black shapes emerge from Starfall. She had never felt anything like this before. 

Was this mana? No, it couldn’t be. Could such a dense, malevolent force even be called mana?

The darkness that spread from Starfall engulfed the Inya warriors with a voracious hunger, as though it intended to devour everything in its path. Neither Yunnaeril nor Priya had time to react. The blackness moved over the warriors like a suffocating shroud, its movements grotesque and methodical, like the chewing of food.

When the darkness finally receded, what remained in its wake were monsters.

“Screeeech!” A newborn demon shrieked, its cry piercing the night.

Priya, eyes wide with terror, searched for Yunnaeril. She found him collapsed, his head resting against the hilt of Starfall, which was still embedded in the ground. He was gasping for breath, but even in his weakened state, the blackness continued to pour from the sword.

As the night continued its ghastly feast, people were torn apart, some losing their heads, others their legs, while some were swallowed whole by the darkness. And in each spot where someone had been consumed, a demon was born.

“What is this…!?” Priya whispered in horror. The idea of a power that could transform humans into monsters was beyond anything she had ever heard of.

Priya knew she had to stop this madness. Starfall, still clutched in Yunnaeril’s hand, was the source of the spreading darkness. It trembled, as if alive, continuing to spew the black night into the world.

“Yunnaeril, let go!” Priya cried as she rushed to his side, placing a hand on his shoulder. But the moment she touched him, the fragments of night lashed out at her.

Instinctively, Priya summoned a barrier of mana to protect herself from the assault.

Priya’s mana barrier held firm, but the fragments of darkness clung to it stubbornly, refusing to be repelled. Instead, they began to consume her mana, gnawing away at her defenses. Quickly, Priya shifted her focus, firing off an attack toward the dark fragments. After several strikes, the shadowy remnants dissipated into the snow.

“I have to protect Yunnaeril,” Priya muttered, catching her breath as she rose to her feet.

Yunnaeril remained slumped against the sword, seemingly unconscious.

“Yunnaeril, wake up!” Priya called out, wary of touching him directly this time. Her voice echoed through the eerie silence, but the problem still remained—the sword.

Priya inhaled deeply from her pipe and exhaled a long, slow breath. The smoke lazily drifted toward Starfall, wrapping around it and slowly pushing it away from Yunnaeril’s grasp. Only then did she feel a momentary relief as she rushed to Yunnaeril’s side.

He was in a dire state—his eyes rolled back, froth spilling from his mouth. “It hurts…” he groaned, his face and neck blooming with angry red welts that spread like fire across his skin. His body trembled violently as he writhed in pain.

Priya, alarmed by the burning heat emanating from his forehead, quickly slipped her arms under his knees and neck, intending to lift him to safety.

But then, the sword she had just cast aside began to float, its tip rising until it was level with Priya’s eyes. She was startled as Starfall seemed to lock its gaze onto her.

‘Is it… looking at me?’ The very thought sent a chill down her spine. In the center of the blade was a large gemstone, shaped like an eye, which now glared at Priya with unnerving clarity.

“Put him down. He belongs to me.” A voice resonated within Priya’s mind, cold and commanding.

Priya’s mouth fell open in shock. A talking sword, an *Ego Sword*! Such things were supposed to exist only in myths and legends.

Starfall once again unleashed a wave of that suffocating darkness. Priya finally understood what it was—the overwhelming power that she had mistaken for night was, in fact, the sword’s mana. Starfall, having flung Priya aside, shot towards Yunnaeril with terrifying speed, aiming to impale him and reclaim its place in his grip.

When Priya managed to steady herself and look up again, Yunnaeril was already encased within a perfectly spherical mass of darkness.