"This level of control over such a power you've shown should be impossible for creatures of a lower plane of existence," said the little golden-haired girl as she enjoyed eating the sweet little squares of colorful sugar known as candy, something Xero pulled out from his storage rings. She was commenting about the realm that was once a pitch-black void but was now resembling a simple yet wide livingroom.

After being thoroughly beaten, she accepted defeat without any qualms and tossed away her haughty attitude.

"For a creation of a goddess, you sure do act like a child, got the sweet tooth of one for sure," commented Xero who was laying on a couch reading a small book---it was the handbook that was given to all beginner Ether Gate players, containing basic information over the world, it's inhabitants and other such information.

"Don't call me a child, it's degrading. Despite my appearance I'm more than 3000 years old, an original creation of the Goddess Nivina, the divine sword Scherza, you can call me Seira, Mr. Overlord," replied the girl with a proud voice, tapping her small chest with pride.

"Sure okay," Xero half-heartedly responded as his focus was drawn towards the book in his hand.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Silith was preparing tea with her guard still up.

Reaching the final page of the book, Xero shut it close. "Where am I anyway?" he asked Seira.

"Hmm?" Seira looked up at Xero with confusion before speaking, "didn't you already know that we are at my realm, or what had previously been my realm before you took over."

"Not that, tell me about this world, the continent, the country I'm in, the geography, anything beyond this wasteland, anything useful," explained Xero. It was all because after reading through the beginner handbook and looking at several maps for the world Ether Gate took place in, he concluded that wherever he was, it was clearly not somewhere the game took place in, it was plausible especially because of the results he had gotten when he used [Analyze] on the soil earlier, and found out how different it's composition.

"What!? You don't even know where you are, just why are you here then!?" exclaimed Seira.

"Circumstances and curiosity, now, answers," Xero replied.

Looking like she was contemplating about something in her mind, Seira moved closer towards Xero and with a smug look and a wide grin on her childish face and spoke, "promise me... promise me I'll be yours!"

The sound of shattered porcelain echoed in the room from the far corner.

Xero turned to look at the smug Seira with squinted eyes, a single word escaped his lips, "what?"

= 0 = 0 = 0 =

It'd been days since he'd been assigned to do practically nothing.

Perhaps the order wouldn't have been so difficult if he wasn't in the middle of an ancient tomb deep underground, that was dusty if nothing else, and of course it also had a lingering smell of death around it.

He groaned in displeasure as he continued sharpening his sword, hoping to get to use it soon, because even demons got bored. 'Well... at least most of us do,' he thought, eyeing the demon to his far right.

He was a skinny male that was quite young as demons go. Possessing red skin that was a common trait among most demons, black colored eyes and black body markings that were also shared by the majority of demonkind---the boy was basically the image of what an average demon would look like, that was if it wasn't for his horns---a feature now very rare among the demon race, it was a sign of his noble blood and more importantly, it was a symbol of the power he held.

Although they were small enough that hey barely poked out of his forehead through his messy black hair, the horns allowed him to gain capabilities in magic far beyond what normal demons could achieve.

Sure the boy was a genius and of noble bloodline, but he couldn't understand how he could keep doing nothing but study old dusty structures and runes for days. This strange character was the eccentric leader of their little tomb raiding group---Rohlik, an expert mage and a scholar to his very core, another trait that was extremely rare for demons.

And for the first time in the two weeks they've been here, trying to figure out how to remove a seal on the coffin of a mythical demon lord which may or may not be alive, Rohlik actually averted his eyes away from the runes he was so in love with and turned to his team, specifically towards his direction.

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"Lirikah, we lost contact with the second group," he said as he adjusted his glasses.

Lirikah raised an eyebrow at his words. "You mean the group assigned to recover the artifact those humans from the empire were so keen to retrieve?" he asked slightly amused, he'd remember how there was a human expedition sent to retrieve the said artifact and in a stroke of luck, a sudden outbreak of mana poisoning killed off nearly half of them as reported by scouts, though he was somewhat disappointed that he couldn't deal with them herself.

"Yes, it happened just now," his leader answered. "Make a group of five and check for what happened, make sure to wipe out any possible dangers to our operation," Rohlik ordered him as he quickly returned to inspecting runes.

Lirikah stretched his arms and swung his blade. With a wicked grin, he moved to carry out the order.

= 0 = 0 = 0 =

Ana Wendley, once the daughter of a secluded town's chieftain, she was now known as a witch and is a slave to the empire, all because of her body's unique physiology.

She was ordered to retrieve a holy artifact that the empire desperately wanted---it was an object forged by the hands of a god, and so it was something prized by many, not only humans.

Only being roughly 20 miles out from the expedition camp, she had already met opposition---demons, a small squad of them, and based on the direction they were heading, it seemed like they were also after the artifact. 

Before ambushing them, she placed a talisman on the tree next to her, it would effectively make any type of communication spell unusable for a short time.

Quickly springing to action, Ana quickly started casting a [Holy Pillar] spell underneath the demon's feet as they still remained unaware of her existence.

As the spell's name suggested, a bright pillar of holy light erupted from beneath the demons. Several cries of pain echoed from inside the spell and once its effect ended, three shriveled up and lifeless demon corpses were laying on the ground.

One of the five remaining demons seemed to have been a mage and was able to cast a barrier to protect him and two others, while the other two had simply tanked the spell and seemed a little weakened.

The demons acted fast and already, the mage was already shooting at her with fire spells, whilst the other four charged forward from two different sides in the attempt of performing a pincer attack.

Ana rolled to the right and evaded the firebolts the mage was tossing out, she then drew the two daggers strapped on her hips as she got back on her feet and used magic to manipulate the earth.

A thick slab of rock bursts forth from the ground, extending vertically it slammed into one of the demons that tried swinging an axe at her, flinging him towards some trees.

Dashing forward, she swung her daggers at the second demon with her body strengthened by mana. Sparks were created as she traded blows with the demon, unable to hit anything but steel, Ana focused mana in her eyes and slowed her perception of time in an attempt to find an opening.

Her bout with the demon was interrupted as another entered the fray, bringing his blade down on her wide open back.

Unable to move fast enough, the demon's sword made a long cut on her back as she tried to dodge.

Looking unphased by the injury, Ana with a burst of speed, kicked off the ground and got behind the demon that wounded her and in a quick blur, she separated its head from its shoulders in a spray of black blood.

Not given the opportunity to relish her kill, three red fiery projectiles shot at her.

With nowhere to evade the incoming attack, Ana instinctively erected a wall of earth in front of her.

Jumping high up, she injected mana into one of her daggers and in reply, runes on the blade lit up in a holy glow. Seeing the target in her sights, she threw the dagger towards the mage demon.

The demon's eyes widened and tried avoiding the dagger, but it suddenly changing trajectory mid-air, the dagger swerved and stabbed him in the shoulder. There was a loud scream and the dagger lit up, and in the next moment demon's corpse fell to the ground all shriveled up.

Ana reached out towards the dagger and it flew back into her hand.

Then, a wide tree trunk suddenly came to her vision and slammed into her with incredible force.

There was a loud crunching sound in her ears as her bones broke, her body was sent flying through the air like a tossed rag doll.

Ana felt something very hard hit her head, turning her vision red before passing out.

= 0 = 0 = 0 =

"No," said Xero as he flicked the forehead of the smug-faced Seira.

Holding her red forehead, Seira glared at Xero with tears at the edge of her gold-colored eyes.

"That's not what I meant!" shouted Seira. "I want to make a contract with you as your artifact!" she explained, trying to be clear on what she meant.

Looking at the girl glaring at him, Xero tapped his finger on the couch cushion, contemplating.

Behind the two, Silith was cleaning up pieces of a broken teacup while staring daggers at the golden-haired girl.

"I see... it must've been boring being trapped inside this pathetic inanimate form for so long, I've also only seen a little more than a dozen of artifacts with intelligence such as yours, well you still act childishly for a 3000-year-old sword, or so you claim to be," Xero said.

"More than a dozen!?" Seira exclaimed in surprise. "There were only four of us created by the divine beings, there can't possibly more!"

"Your gods aren't the only ones that have real power," Xero replied.

After pausing for a second upon hearing Xero's words, Seira nodded in acceptance, "I guess meeting someone like you proves it."

"Now that I confirmed that your intelligence meets the minimum requirements, I guess it'd be fine." With those words the entire room disappeared like a fading dream, leaving only a vast expanse of darkness and of course Xero, Seira, and Silith.

'Tch, minimum intelligence my ass!' Seira grumbled in her mind.

Silith took several steps backward and Xero created a magic circle beneath Seira's feet.

Xero used the nail of his forefinger and slit his wrist. "[Soul Contract] start."