These were the hardest questions Will had ever had to answer. Because the moment he spoke, he would enter a path of no return. An extremely thorny path that was pyrrhic in nature.
"To answer your first question. I will use this." Will raised his gloved left hand.
Will did not wear a fingerless glove on his left hand to make a fashion statement. It was the last gift he got for clearing King Yama’s Gate. But it was a gift with a price. A steep price at that.
"I see, you realize that once you remove the seal, the Matrix will activate itself. Every second the Matrix is active shortens your body's lifespan by a month. Do you understand the risks?"
Will did not want to remove the glove, but he had no other way to move forward. He needed a way to process the complex spell he wanted to do. And the only way to do that was to use his 'gift'.
"Well as long as you understand the risks, but there is still the matter of, what's in it for me? What do I get out of it?" Odin slowly emphasized the word 'I', taking his sweet time enunciating it distinctly. As if he was intentionally enjoying Will's circumstances.
"Well, I don't have much to offer someone like you. But what I can offer you is something to give to someone else. I will give you a portion of my own essence once I evolve past level 125 and I will sign any type of contract of equals you choose with any being of your choosing."
Contract of equals. A contract that allows a higher being and a lower being to exchange benefits. Usually between a deity and a mortal. Mortals gain divine power and attributes while deities gain talents they originally didn't possess. But for a deity to benefit, the contracted mortal has to be a prodigy of the highest order. This was the main reason why deities were so desperate to find savants.
Under level 100 one can only sign a contract of equals with a single higher being. And the contract was irreversible for both parties. If a deity lost a contracted mortal under a contract of equals they would permanently lose a portion of divine power. Damage that would affect a deity's True body.
If for some reason a deity perished, the mortal they contracted would die and enter the cycle of reincarnation in a weakened state. Destined to have a weak soul for multiple cycles to come.
Hence this was not a choice to be made lightly. Be it for mortals or for deities.
"Not enough. I want you to sign a centralised tripartite soul brethren contract as well."
Will hissed and sucked in a breath of cold air. He knew Odin would drive a hard bargain but this was an incredibly painful demand. A Soul Brethren contract was the most binding contract possible between two beings of an equal state of existence.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Once you became Soul Brethren with others, especially in a Centralised Tripartite Partition, you would be tied down heavily for life.
"That means I can't have any Soul Sworn?" asked Will with hesitation. Will ignored all other demerits Odin's proposal had and zoomed in on one.
"Normally yes, but your mind is a bit...unique. You can have one for each vessel. That's three maximum. And they can't be talented. They have to be bottom of the barrel in terms of attributes of the vessel they are bound to but yes. Essentially you will now only have the ability to possess useless Soul Sworn."
Soul Sworn were an incredibly useful tool to any cultivator. A Soul Sworn was a person, who through a certain ritual, offers up their life in servitude to another. This bond would last until either the master or the Soul Sworn died. It was an unshakable bond that would bind both parties, and nothing could break or interfere with it except death.
Normally one would never want to become another person's Soul Sworn, because you would effectively become a slave for life. Becoming a Soul Sworn to a powerful person, let alone a savant, was different, very different. Even though you are essentially becoming that person's lifelong slave, being a Soul Sworn also had its advantages. For example, Soul Sworn were highly valued by their masters.
The master of a Soul Sworn was called a Meister. A Meister had complete control of his or her slave. Once one became a Soul Sworn, their personality was modified. They would start seeing the Meister in complete reverence. They would find it practically impossible to resist their master's orders. The rule was if a Soul Sworn disobeyed their master, their soul got destroyed, so they had even more of a reason to obey.
It is for this reason, that any Meister would completely trust any Soul Sworn they had. Another reason why Soul Sworn were valued was that the amount of Soul Sworn one can have was limited by the power of their vessels. An average person doesn't even have a powerful enough mind, soul and body to have even one Soul Sworn. To have more than one is already seen as being impressive.
Since the number of Soul Sworn one can have is limited, A Meister did not choose lightly. This number or capacity is determined at birth. It cannot be increased or decreased through any means.
Also the amount of times you can do the ritual as a Meister was limited as a result. So if you killed one of your own Soul Sworn and you had reached your limit, then you would have lost one more permanently and it would be impossible to replenish your numbers.
Thus if you became the Soul Sworn of a powerful person, they would most likely treat you with great value, especially if they have the capability to create only a few Soul Sworn.
A Soul Sworn was a highly trusted and valued servant. Since his/her fate was tied to their Meister, then the more powerful the Meister is, the better. Not to mention a savant.
Soul Brethren on the other hand were an even more overbearing form of the Soul Sworn contract.
Soul Sworn were beings bound together by a contract that links their souls. Less educated people assumed that only the relationship of Master and servant could be achieved, but there was a more complex relationship, where both parties were equals.
Meisters were able to share information between themselves and their servant, such as the servant's whereabouts.
With the Soul Brethren contract, you were able to share far more than just information. If a contract of equals between a deity and mortal was a share of talent, then a Soul Brethren Contract was no different from a permanent irreplaceable fusion.
One could not control what was shared easily. It depended on the nature of the contract between the 'brethren'.