"When you become my Anchor, my shrine ceases to be the place I return to and I...
I... return to you instead."
The moment Aevrienne said those words, one of the silver fragments touched Naomi’s chest and then—
It sank inside.
Naomi’s face changed, she felt a strange coldness spreading through her entire body, and it wasn’t over. One by one, more and more of these fragments started entering her body.
The silver magical power around her became so strong that it lifted her body in the air, her hair floated, silver light moved under her skin like thin rivers.
"Whoa..."
Naomi blinked in disbelief as she stared at her own hands.
She could feel something forming inside her, she couldn’t exactly explain it, but whatever it was—
’It is awesome!’
She thought with a big smile on her face.
Just then, everything around her changed. Hundreds of thousands of roads leading to different places appeared around her.
One led to her house, another to her street, to a mountain, forest, places she always dreamed of visiting, places she didn’t even know existed, she saw them all.
She continued looking around, looking at the numerous roads but...
The more she watched, the more overwhelming it all became, she even started feeling a slight tinge of pain in her head, as if the amount of information she was absorbing was overwhelming her mind.
"Do not stop looking."
That was when Naomi heard a voice.
It was Aevrienne.
The strange part was that the voice came from... inside her.
For now, however, Naomi did not question that, she was more concerned about what she said.
"W-Why is that?"
She asked.
"The longer you watch, the higher your potential becomes."
Aevrienne informed her and Naomi did not require any more explanation.
She had read a similar trope thousands of times and now that it was happening to her—
She had no intention of backing down, no matter how intense the pain in her head became.
So Naomi started watching.
She watched how different paths took her to different places, the more she watched, the more pain she felt.
However, she did not dislike the pain itself.
Whatever it was, she could tell it was related to her potential, it was just a test.
A real test, different from the Trial.
And Naomi was correct, the pain was directly linked to her potential as Aevrienne’s contractor. Right now, Naomi was inside Aevrienne’s domain. She wasn’t just watching the paths, Aevrienne’s domain was forcing her mind to understand these paths and that understanding was being stored in Naomi’s mind.
This was the reason she was feeling the pain she was.
This was actually the only time Naomi would be able to learn certain paths and their complications this quickly. Aevrienne’s previous contractors had constantly begged to enter the domain again, but once a contractor left this place, they could not return, so yes, this was the only chance for a contractor to determine what level they would reach.
This was also the reason Aevrienne chose younger contractors, those who had already reached their potential had developed minds, their minds were far less efficient at storing this information compared to a youth’s mind.
And Naomi was actually doing quite fine.
Despite her being put on the spot almost instantly just like the previous contractors were, she put all her trust in Aevrienne’s words and stared at the paths in front of her, storing all the information in her head while bearing the pain that had now started to become unbearable.
Her mind constantly thought about Lucian, how much he had given up for her to be here, that made her force herself up, the pain did not matter.
She had to help Lucian.
She needed to be strong enough to be of use to him, to... protect him.
And for that, she needed to keep watching.
So she did.
Naomi kept watching.
More mountains, oceans, buildings, places she did not recognise, places that... didn’t even seem like they were on Earth.
Space, the Moon, other known planets, unknown planets.
Magical places, places with people creating flames in their bare hands, places with dragons, places with elves, places with... beasts she did not recognise, beings she did not recognise.
Then, a place with... demons.
The Demon Realm.
Naomi watched it all.
Her eyes burned from watching too much, her head felt like it might explode at any moment now, the veins on her temples became much, much more visible, her body began to shake, even Aevrienne, who was watching this, looked... worried.
Naomi’s head was being filled with information and...
The human brain isn’t supposed to be filled like this.
She needed to stop, she needed to look away.
"Naomi! I said that’s enough!"
Aevrienne even screamed, telling her to stop for the nth time.
Naomi did not.
She could not even hear her.
Her mind only cared about two things.
Watching what was being shown to her...
And Lucian.
So she continued watching.
Where most of Aevrienne’s normal candidates lasted ten minutes and the exceptional ones lasted thirty equivalent minutes in human terms, Naomi was already at forty-five and she would continue forward—
Or at least, that’s what she intended to do, but—
Thud
The next second, Naomi’s body fell.
She lost consciousness.
And Aevrienne... she watched the girl and... she couldn’t be prouder.
Just as she thought, she truly was... a perfect choice.
She looked forward to what she would grow into.
And as she stared at the passed-out girl in front of her, more particularly at the symbol that appeared on her wrist—
Two intersecting roads inside an incomplete circle.
Aevrienne smiled.
The Contract was formed.
From now on, she would live together with Naomi.
And they could talk all they desired.
The only problem Aevrienne needed to think about now was that the winner of the Trial had passed out, so...
What was she supposed to do?
End the Trial?
That didn’t seem like a good idea, she would rather Naomi be awake so she doesn’t get taken advantage of the moment she leaves.
She looked at Lucian, he didn’t seem like he was in a condition to protect her either, so...
Aevrienne decided to wait.
And since she did not want to stay here and wait all alone, she waved her hand and an injured Lucian appeared in front of her.
"Welcome."
She smiled.
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