476 Another Contracted Beas

Inside the room, a fox was sleeping on the floor as light enveloped her. To the left of the fox was a woman with neatly arranged books on her desk, writing something on a paper.

"Sherry, Anya, I am back." Alex smiled as he looked at these two with a gentle face, waking up the two from their tasks.

"Master!" Sherry was the first one to leap toward Alex.

"Haha…" He laughed. "You have become a 6-Star Martial King now."

On the contrary, Anya did not come to him despite missing him.

Alex found a troubled look in Anya's face, starting to worry. "What happened?"

"I will tell you later." She said, looking at Kyle and Stina.

"It seems I am not very welcomed…" Stina made a complicated expression. "I am not going to stay for long since I am just accompanying Kyle here.

"However, I do need to tell you about the Angel Race before I leave, so you can think about it first."

Alex exchanged looks with Anya, agreeing to let her stay for a while. "Alright."

Kyle was having a conversation with Sherry while Alex and the others had a serious conversation. After visiting this place a few times, Stina had known the existence of Anya.

"First of all, I would need to know when you are going there. I can have a messenger to inform them, so we can have a smooth journey. Of course, we can suddenly appear on their continent, but I feel they might become hostile. If you don't know the precise time, a range is fine too."

Alex's expression darkened, knowing the exact reason why they needed that. He pondered for a while, calculating the time he needed. "Two to three months, I guess."

"Alright. I will arrange a visit at that time. After all, you are pretty lucky to meet me back then, especially with Kyle. If you are not with him, I might need to be careful against you, considering you have a Celestial Fox. However, if I made a prior arrangement, we would not have a troublesome situation and they also would escort us to their ruler."

"Sorry about that." Alex sighed.

"It's fine. I have decided to go together with you and Kyle and with you having the ancestor's scepter, it has cleared my last doubt." Stina said as she kneeled in front of Alex. She said with a pacifying tone. "I, Stina Blaze, With the blessing of my ancestors, offer up my life to become the contracted beast of Alexander Sirius. If he dies, I shall follow him together to the underworld while if I die, may Heaven only take my life. Hence, I, Stina Blaze, shall have a Life and Death Contract with Alexander Sirius."

"You-!" Alex opened his eyes wide, not believing what just happened. In an instant, the Phoenix Queen, a 7-Star Martial Emperor, became his contracted beast like Sherry and Kyle.

Alex's Pure Fire suddenly came out of his body, starting to envelop Stina's body with warmth. She also released the fire from her body before starting to fuse with Alex's flame.

A few minutes later, the intense flame started calming down, creating a new form of fire.

'Break Through'

8-Star Martial Emperor

Her abdomen started glowing before the light slowly turned into a symbol. It was a flame symbol with a crown on top of it.

She slowly opened her eyes, greeting her new master. "Stina Blaze greets Master."

Alex was taken aback, not knowing what to do.

"This is just my selfishness. My hus- Kyle wants to follow you and I want to follow Kyle. The best way to do it is to become your contracted beast."

"No. How can it be the best way to do it?"

"I have just increased my strength…" Stina looked at Alex with a weird expression, believing he should know about it too.

"I mean… There must be another way." Alex sighed.

Stina simply shook her head, explaining her reason to him. "He has forged a life and death contract with you. That means he is leaving his life in your hand. If I don't enter a life and death contract, then the moment you die, I will be alone again.

"I am not saying or cursing you to die… I am just telling you I have enough resolve to follow you and him. Besides, I have abdicated the throne and my daughter does not need my support again, especially with the scepter you gave."

"..." Alex wanted to throw another argument but refrained himself, knowing that was useless. "Alright. I won't say anything about it since you have resolved yourself. In fact, it is good to have a powerful ally like you.

"However, I need to warn you beforehand. My journey is treacherous… and I might make enemies every now and then whether I want it or not."

"I am aware. Kyle loves to tell your tales." She nodded.

"Alright. I shall continue my explanation about Angel Race. Their trial involves the mind. I don't know the exact reason, but this test might be the most dangerous or the hardest. Even the strongest person might not have the strongest mind.

"In the trial, you would not die no matter if you take the dragon race trial or our trial. However, the Angel Race trial has its own danger.

"If you get swallowed by the trial, you might not be able to advance your strength again. In the worst case, you will go insane," said Stina with a serious tone.

Alex closed his eyes, pondering what she meant. 'Unable to advance again… Ah, it must be a Heart Demon.'

"I should be fine," Alex assured her, knowing he could bypass the illusion with his Spirit Eyes.

"Confidence is good, but please be careful," advised Stina, understanding how confidence could ruin someone. According to the record, there was once a young man who challenged the trial. He was powerful and gentle. However, upon meeting the trial, he stumbled and all of his ugly sides came out.

He slowly fell to darkness, plundering and raping women from all races until finally, he died under the joint operation of Dragon, Angel, and Naga Races.

Picturing that scene sent chills down her spine. Using this chance, she said, "No one is perfect. Everyone has a good side and an ugly side. One should accept both sides as they are part of them.

"This is just my personal opinion… I find no fault when it comes to standing against your strength with confidence. However, very few have the courage to sheathe their sword once it is out. The ugly side is not evil… it tells you what your weakness is. And once you know your weakness, you can become stronger as well as kinder. It's necessary in order to become the strongest."

Alex nodded his head, thanking her for the advice.

"As for the trial itself… You will be thrown into the Tower of Sins. You will get tested by Seven Deadly Sins."

"..." Alex pondered for a moment and nodded. "As long as I am prepared, I should be fine."

"Then, I shall go back first." She nodded, wanting to leave since Anya wanted to speak something important.

"Wait." Stopping her, Alex said, "You can stay."

He gave her permission to stay and heard the important discussion, telling her that he trusted her. Anya did not say anything, understanding his decision. If she were in her position, she would not hesitate to make that contract too just to follow Alex. Seeing such a resolve, she could not say no.

"You are going to be one of us after this. I know that you might only want to follow Kyle, but there might be a case where I need your strength. That's why stay here."

"Thank you… Master." She humbly bowed to him, making him feel weird for having a far stronger person act like this.

"Anya," said Alex, ignoring the uncomfortable feeling.

"Yes." Taking out a map of the Upper World, she started explaining. "Firstly, our biggest problem would be Letizia. Ngina has searched the entire Willow Continent, Nelson has searched both Nilis and Sacred Continents. As for the Northern Continent, there is not a single trace about her. We can safely assume that she might be taken to Heavenly Continent.

"There are two possibilities in this case. Because she has a Pure Ice Element, she might be nurtured by an influence."

"That is good then. In fact, I can relieve the full loyalty oath from her as long as she does not run her mouth again. But watching her growth, I am sure she would not say anything about it." Alex nodded.

"If that is the case, then it would be good. After all, we have the strength to protect our life for the time being. But it will be different if she is taken by an influence from the Heavenly Continent.

"If they are nurturing her and somehow find about this oath, they would surely try to destroy it. The first thing they would do is to kill you, not asking you to relieve her contract. The reason is simple, you are only an ant in their eyes.

"She might also decide to tell them your secret to protect you. But it will also lead to many problems afterward. That's why this is a dangerous situation.

"The second possibility is for her to get stronger or get to another world. The oath she takes is from this world. If she is in this world, she can do whatever she wants. Telling the others about the oath and might even make them force you to make an oath.

"I don't know what is in her heart, but in case she decides to humiliate you to release her hatred of her suffering. I… We won't be able to bear watching this." Anna explained before unknowingly releasing her killing intent.

Even the 'We' in her mouth was not only the spirits in this world but all the spirits from the Spirit World, Eulja. If she did something like that, they might destroy her along with the entire planet.

Noticing her anger, he assured her. "Don't worry. These eyes of mine, I should know if someone is coming to me. Or at least if they are hostile to me."

What he meant was his eyes' ability from Gacha Sovereign Title, not his Spirit Eyes. If they came truly with a bad intention, he would know and flee from that place.

"Anyway, send someone to scout the Heavenly Continent," Alex ordered.

"That is the plan. I am planning to send Njomo and follow her in her shadow. We have somehow established many things in the Northern Continent within these ten months."

He closed his eyes, realizing that he had been staying in this place for ten months. The first three months were in Empyrean Guild, six months inside the trial, while the rest was the travel time.

"It's good then. After all, Martial Monarch or Martial Saint is not an opponent we can fight at the moment."

"Martial Monarch? Martial Saint? What is that?" Stina suddenly asked.

His eyes intertwined with Anya's eyes, realizing they forgot about this basic thing. Alex said, "This world has a different concept than the other world. You can say Tier 1 to Tier 6 in this world, but in another world, we say Foundation Stage, Martial Master, Grandmaster, Lord, King, and Emperor, thus the Tier 1 to 6.

Above them are Martial Monarch and Martial Saint. Meanwhile, Rune is called Array and magic is called Element Art. And another art for weapons is called Martial Art. I myself use weapons, Sword and Spear. This is the basics. As for details, you can ask Anya."

Stina nodded, trying to understand what he meant.

"Anyway. We should have finished the discussion about Letizia for now. Give me an update if there is something more." Alex looked at Anya.

She nodded. "Moving on to the second matter."