Divine Contract

Chapter 8 - The Older Twin

We had made too much of a disturbance in Satoru Village, so we left immediately, and tried to make it to Lenovo, the town closest to Astropia, before nightfall. Unfortunately, my three female companions were more preoccupied with chatting rather than walking at a fast pace, much to my chagrin, meaning that we had only travelled approximately two-thirds of the distance I had intended to before it got dark.

I stopped walking and sighed. “We’ll have to find somewhere nearby to camp,” I informed the others, not even trying to hide my annoyance. “It’s going to be too dark to continue soon.”

“What’s this? Are you afraid of the dark, Ross?” Fortuna teased. I only responded with a glare.

“We should be fine,” Highlander added, being more serious. “We have better ability to see in the dark than humans, which should also have been granted to you through the contract.”

“No, he’s right,” stated Fields, as I was about to object to what the Angels were saying. “It’s too dangerous at night, this far from town. We need a campfire.”

The Angels looked confused at the fact that Fields was agreeing with me. I sighed again.

“You two have clearly never had an encounter with any wild Demonic Beasts,” I started.

“They are dangerous creatures that only appear at night,” Fields continued. “They thrive in the dark, but will never approach a strong enough source of light. A large enough campfire will be enough to keep them at bay.”

“Then why didn’t we get attacked last night?” Highlander asked in confusion. “We didn’t have a campfire to keep them away.”

“They won’t go within a certain distance from the towns,” I answered. “I chose that spot knowing that we should have been safe from them, but there was no guarantee, which is why we took turns keeping watch.”

“I see,” the Angels answered in unison.

“But we should be able to beat any wild animals that attack us,” Fortuna said, unconvinced that stopping was necessary.

“These creatures are far more dangerous than your average Demon, Lia,” Fields stated. “They take full advantage of the darkness; strike with lightning fast speed and spot-on precision. With all of us working together, we could maybe take out a couple, but if they attack in a pack, we won’t survive more than a few minutes.”

Highlander and Fields opened their eyes wide. Fields seemed confident in her abilities, but even so, she knew all too well that the Demonic Beasts were not something you ever wanted to encounter.

Ending the conversation there, I walked off the path to find a spot where we could camp. The two Angels followed close behind, with Fields holding up the rear. Even from where I was, I could tell that Fields was on high alert, just like me, she must have seen first-hand exactly what the Demonic Beasts are capable of.

After a few minutes of searching, I found a clearing large enough for the four of us and a campfire to be situated. Fields and Fortuna went to find firewood nearby, while Highlander and I set up camp; I made a safe base for the campfire, and Highlander laid down some mats.

When Fields and Fortuna returned, I lit some tinder using a flint and steel that I kept in my satchel, ensured that it was going to stay lit, and then put some of the firewood over it. When I was satisfied that the fire was large enough to keep the Demonic Beasts at bay, I moved away and sat against the trunk of a nearby tree. I noticed Fields nod in satisfaction at the campfire, before doing the same at the other side of the fire.

After eating some rations from my satchel, the girls started talking. I wasn’t interested enough to pay attention to what they were talking about, but I made sure to answer them whenever they spoke to me.

After some time, they seemed to decide that it was time to get some rest, so they were discussing who should take first watch, because we needed to make sure that the fire remained lit.

“I’ll take the first watch!” Fortuna exclaimed jumping up from her previously seated position. “And I think Ross should join me.”

The rest of us looked at her in surprise, and then Fields exclaimed, “Absolutely not! Who knows what he might try?!”

I took serious offense at that. Just as I was about to argue back, “It’ll be fine,” Highlander interrupted. “I’ve been alone with him for the last two days, and he hasn’t done anything.”

“He’s been lulling you into a false sense of security!” Fields argued back. “There’s no telling when he might show his true colours!”

“Will you shut up?!” I yelled, unable to hold back any longer. “I don’t know why you distrust men so much, and, quite frankly, I don’t care, but, you can’t lump all men together and you know nothing about me personally, so unless you learn otherwise, I expect you to trust that I won’t force myself on anyone. Against my better judgement, I have decided to trust that you won’t shoot me in the back when I least expect it, so I expect the same level of trust in return.”

After my outburst, the girls just stared at me. After a few seconds, Fields turned away. “Fine, I’ll trust you... for now. Don’t do anything to make me regret it.” Then, she lay down on one of the mats, facing away from me.

“I didn’t know you were capable of being that emotional,” Highlander commented, smiling slightly.

“It happens from time to time,” I responded, slightly embarrassed after calming down.

Highlander’s smile grew in response, and then she said good night and lay down on the other mat. As such, I was left to take the first watch with Fortuna.

***

Fortuna and I sat in silence for a few minutes. During the journey here, I had discovered a few things about my new travelling companions. Fields is one year younger than me, and Fortuna is one year younger than Fields. I also learned that Highlander was the same age as me. I had never bothered to ask before, so I was only learning that now.

Every so often, I noticed that Fortuna tried to say something, but seemed to change her mind. I had no particular desire to converse, and would have been happy to keep sitting in silence, but after this happened for the fifth or sixth time, I decided to break the ice.

“So...” I started. “Why did you want me to be on first watch with you?”

“Well...” She seemed to think about her answer for a few seconds. “I wanted to get to know you a bit better.” I was slightly taken aback by her answer. “I mean, I’ve known Sylvie since we were little kids, she’s like a big sister to us, so I wanted to learn about the person she formed a contract with.”

“I see,” I responded. “By ‘us’, do you mean you and your sister?”

“You know about Mia?” Fortuna asked in surprise.

“If that’s your sister’s name, then yes,” I answered. “Highlander mentioned earlier that you have a sister, but that’s all I know.”

Lia nodded. “Yeah, the two of us are practically inseparable. That said, we had to split up to go find our respective Contractors.”

“So your sister is also attempting to form a contract?”

“Not attempting, she’s succeeded.”

“How do you know that?”

“We Angels can speak telepathically to anyone that we have formed a bond with. Did Sylvie not tell you that?”

“She mentioned forming a ‘link’ with others, but I pushed that to the back of my mind, since I haven’t had any reason to use it yet.”

“We can also show each other what we see, so Mia knows what you and Aya look like, that way she knows that you can both be trusted. She’s really timid, so that should help her a bit. Also, she’s already at Lenovo, so we’ll be able to meet up with her tomorrow.”

I nodded to myself, “This link seems like a useful thing to have... when working in a team, anyway. I’ve been working alone for most of my life, so I may have trouble getting used to it.”

“Hold on,” I started, realising something. “Then, wouldn’t Highlander have told you stuff about me already?”

Understanding what I was implying, Fortuna placed her hand on her chin, “She did, but she only said so much. I want to know more about you and determine if you are truly fit to be Sylvie’s Contractor.”

“So, that’s it.” I thought, realising that Fortuna wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to be a bad influence on her older sister figure.

“Well, what are your thoughts so far?” I asked.

“So far, I approve, but I need to learn more before I make my final decision.” Lia smiled innocently at me.

“Well, I don’t particularly like talking about myself, so would it be alright if you just watch me and determine what I’m like through my actions?”

Fortuna thought for a moment before smiling again, “That’s fine.”

I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to answer any personal questions. I preferred to keep that information private, especially working as a thief, where various people would take such information about you to try and exploit any and all weaknesses that you may have.

The conversation had died down and we just watched the fire.

“I wonder what tomorrow’s going to be like,” Fortuna said, to no one in particular.

“Tomorrow, huh?” I wondered. “That reminds me, the Glass Globe’s prediction came true again. Maybe I should see if it has another one.”

As I was reaching for my satchel, but stopped. Something was wrong. I slowly looked towards the darkness, outside the light produced by the campfire. Confused, Fortuna followed my gaze. What we saw was two blood red eyes staring back at us. A creature of pure darkness was staring directly at us. The demonic aura exuding from it could be felt from where we were, a mere thirty feet away. A Demonic Beast, the very creature we were hoping to stay away from.

I looked between the rest of the group. Fortuna was preparing to summon her relic, if the need arose, while Highlander and Fields were also watching the Beast from where they lay, having clearly sensed the danger present.

“It wouldn’t be a good idea for us to fight it.”I rationalised, mentally. “We can probably defeat this one without too much trouble, but if it calls for more, we will be screwed.”

Having reached that conclusion, I slowly reached for a nearby log, picked it up, and threw it on the campfire. This caused the fire to grow in intensity, giving off more light, which caused the Beast to recoil slightly. That seemed to be enough for it to decide that we weren’t worth attacking, because it only let out a low growl before walking away.

Once we could no longer see it, we all let out a collective breath.

“Is that what you were talking about before?” asked Fortuna, clearly shaken.

“Yeah,” I answered, calming my breathing. “That was a Demonic Beast.”

“That demonic aura,” Highlander started. “Average Demons don’t even begin to compare to that.”

The two Angels were clearly shocked, only just having realised the danger that the Demonic Beasts posed. I wanted to say something to calm them down, but nothing was coming to mind.

“That was a hunter-type Demonic Beast,” Aya interjected, relatively calm. “They search for targets, picking off small groups, and marking larger ones for a herd to attack. Fortunately, with the fire, we are too large a group for it to attack on its own, but two small for it to mark for a herd attack. It must have decided that it would be better to search elsewhere.” She then looked over at me. “That was a good decision you made, throwing the log into the fire. That’s probably what made it decide to leave.”

“This isn’t the first time I have encountered Demonic Beasts while camping,” I replied, surprised that Fields was praising my judgement. “And I had a good teacher who showed me what to do at times like that.”

Fields, seemingly satisfied, nodded and lay back down. Highlander, seemingly unaware of anything else to do, decided to follow suit. Fortuna leaned back against the tree and stared at the campfire, clearly no longer in the mood to converse. I, however...

“While I may have been in a similar situation in the past, it was only Alicia and I back then.” I thought, uneasy about what had just happened. “A hunter-type might approach a group of two, but they tend to avoid groups of three or more, unless they are large enough to be marked. So, why did it approach us just now?”

I considered various possibilities, dismissing them one by one... until I reached a possibility that I couldn’t dismiss. “Could it be that... it was drawn to the Angels?”