The nightmare dissolved. Alp let out a long, deflated exhale and sat with what had just happened.

Raphael’s inner conviction had reached a degree that was almost beyond reason, a quality deeply tied to the Superbia he’d been born with. Fear alone could never change the outcome of this contract. There was nothing left to exploit.

He voluntarily surrendered his final round. The trial ended. Both consciousnesses surfaced quickly back into the real.

Raphael looked thoughtfully at the black robe on his body. Something had been present in the trial that didn’t feel like his own mind, but the trial’s details didn’t come back with him, he had no way of knowing who or what it had been.

The trial became a seal that pressed itself into the contract’s closing section. The function was similar to the System’s default witnessing seal in the First Hunting Ground, a record of terms, a guarantee of enforcement. The difference was that this one bound both souls directly. Violate the contract, and the punishment arrived at the soul level.

[Demon Contract.]

[Demon Level: 4.]

[Cardinal Sin: Avaritia.]

[Contracting Party: Raphael Alanster.]

[Contracting Party Terms: After the contract concludes, the Contracted Party must be permitted to leave freely. During the contract period, no investigation of any kind may be conducted into the Contracted Party’s intentions or destination. For one month following the contract’s conclusion, no harm may be caused to the Contracted Party by any means.]

[Contracted Party: Alp’s Shadow.]

[Contracted Party Terms: Absolute honesty is guaranteed for the duration. No lies of any kind. No deliberately vague or obfuscatory answers. Every question posed by the Contracting Party must be answered. No harm will be attempted against the Contracting Party during the contract period. Within the capacity of this contract, cooperation will be provided when cooperation is possible, passive observation is not acceptable.]

[Additionally: the Contracted Party will provide all mutation skills transferable under contract terms.]

By the time Raphael finished reading, Alp had already entered the contract state. Without waiting to be asked, the Demon demonstrated what cooperation looked like:

"Some of my abilities can’t have their usage rights transferred by contract, they’re bound to my current form, specifically to what I am rather than what you are. The shadow immersion, for example. Unless you become something structurally similar to me, you can’t use it.

The thrall was able to because by that point I’d stopped caring and done a degree of physical integration with him, it changed his body enough that I could bring him along. As long as you remain human, that particular path is closed."

Raphael worked through this without difficulty. The ability would have been useful. It wasn’t available.

The Demon wouldn’t be withholding it out of unwillingness, the contract was already in effect, and absolute honesty was one of its terms. If Alp said the transfer wasn’t possible, it wasn’t possible.

"I remember there’s another method besides Demon contracts, direct integration. Extract your Core, merge it with my body, alter the physical structure from there. That’s how fusion-type transcendents operate, isn’t it? They take enough Demon material into themselves that the body partially becomes something else, and then the structural compatibility opens up."

Alp made a sound like a sharp intake of breath. His tone took on an odd quality.

"I’m warning you. Under this contract we can’t cause harm to each other. Yes, that method is convenient, but if you killed me the remnant of my consciousness would be forced to take up permanent residence in your head, and you’d spend the rest of your life fighting for control of your own body. Trust me, that’s not pleasant."

Raphael made a dismissive sound.

"I was making a point, not a plan. Look, the contract didn’t react, and I wasn’t punished, which means whatever I just said was genuinely offhand. I hadn’t actually thought it through as a course of action."

He paused.

"Though you’re right that I have no interest in hosting two sets of thoughts, or in spending my life fighting my own instability."

He turned back to the mutation skills section of the contract.

Unlike System records, this section wasn’t the First Hunting Ground’s characteristic flat documentation, it was in Alp’s own words, and the descriptions were detailed.

Most of Alp’s mutation skills were bound to his cloth-form body, the shadow immersion being the obvious example. That left seven skills transferable under contract terms.

Four of them weren’t individually powerful, but their combined effect on his capability was real. They came from a single series that Alp had labeled in his own shorthand as Demonic Senses, covering four distinct augmentations.

The principle was dual-directional enhancement, each ability elevated a specific sense while also sharpening the corresponding vulnerability. Gain and cost in the same package.

[Mutation Skill 1, Demon’s Eyes: The ability to see fine details, footprints, near-invisible traces, at close range approaching microscopic resolution. Can also see targets at extreme distances with the clarity of a bird of prey.

Downside: visual fatigue accumulates rapidly under heavy use, causing incremental damage to eyesight over time. Long-term use carries the risk of severe myopia or blindness.]

[Mutation Skill 2, Demon’s Ears: Crisp, high-acuity hearing at all times without entering a meditative state. Highly precise distance and detail discrimination. Capable of registering sounds above the human auditory ceiling, and detecting sub-threshold detail that human ears cannot resolve.

Downside: wraith-type shrieks deal significantly increased damage. Heightened sensitivity to sonic attacks. Loud, high-frequency sounds become significantly harder to endure, irritability and disorientation under exposure.]

[Mutation Skill 3, Demon’s Nose: Acute olfactory sense capable of identifying the components of a smell on contact. Can track targets by scent like a hunting animal. Can locate concealed objects or analyze the composition of liquids and chemical vapors through smell alone.

Downside: strong or foul odors are intolerable. Like Demon’s Ears, the reaction is amplified compared to normal, severe nausea, more intense and less controllable than a standard human response.]

[Mutation Skill 4, Demonic Sense: Functions as a walking arcane detector, capable of registering residual arcane energy, detecting active arcane fluctuations within range, and perceiving the general location of arcane concentrations.

Note: this only applies to unclaimed or uncontrolled arcane energy. Transcendents carry large reserves internally, but because these are actively held and not externally projected, they cannot be detected through this ability.]