Became the Unjust Contract Slave of the Archamage’s Book

The air shimmered as unseen forces clashed, locked in a battle of sheer will and power.

‘One decisive strike. I have to end this in a single blow.’

Binaeril knew he couldn’t withstand another assault from Starfall’s dark energy. To settle the fight with one move, he would have to get close to Starfall.

‘Can I really do it?’

He was already struggling just to fend off Starfall’s relentless attacks. Could he really penetrate that dense dark energy and strike back? 

‘No, it’s not about whether I can or can’t.’

Binaeril shook off his doubts, clearing his mind of negativity.

‘I must do this.’

As his resolve solidified, the two pairs of wings on his back fluttered in response. With renewed determination, Binaeril charged toward Antero.

Antero, controlled by Starfall, swung the sword in an X-pattern. After several exchanges, Binaeril realized he couldn’t parry the attacks directly. Instead, he dropped into a slide, laying his body low to the ground. It was an unorthodox move in the middle of combat, exposing him to potential danger. 

But Antero didn’t react immediately. The very fact that Starfall was controlling his body made his responses sluggish and less effective against Binaeril’s sudden maneuver. Antero’s sword strike came too late, slashing through the air where Binaeril had just been. 

Binaeril used the momentum to propel himself upward, his wings lifting him into the sky. He locked eyes with Antero, though the gaze he met was empty, devoid of any trace of Antero’s soul. The presence behind those vacant eyes was Starfall’s.

With his blue wings against the backdrop of the encroaching darkness, Binaeril soared like an avenging angel descending to deliver judgment. The magical bullets hovering beside his head hummed with resonance, the telltale sign that they were charged to their limit.

As Binaeril closed in, his wings began to disintegrate, the very mana that formed them redirected into the bullets. The light from the bullets intensified, growing thicker and more powerful. Without his wings, he had no way to control his movement in the air. 

But Starfall wasn’t going to simply wait for him to fall. The sword swung in a short, lethal arc, aiming to cleave Binaeril in two. It was a strike that could only be blocked by expending all his gathered mana. Yet, Binaeril didn’t hesitate. 

He called out to the spirit.

[I’ll block it for you!]

The spirit, Eden, threw herself into the path of Starfall’s dark energy. The sight of the small spirit charging into such overwhelming power seemed almost pitiful, as if she could be obliterated at any moment. But Eden’s strength was far from insignificant. 

Starfall’s powerful energy beam was halted, caught in Eden’s tiny hands. It was only a brief reprieve, but it was exactly what Binaeril needed—an infinitesimal moment of time.

“Fire—!”

With Binaeril’s command, the compressed magic bullets shot forward. The humming ceased as they exploded from him, their force accompanied by a deafening roar. But that was as far as Eden could go. Her power reached its limit.

[Binaeril… I can’t hold it any longer…]

Eden, who had been holding back Starfall’s energy with her small hands, began to falter. Finally, the dark energy overpowered her resistance.

[Aah!]

Starfall’s energy slashed through Eden, tearing her small form in half.

The spirit did not flee, knowing that Binaeril was behind her. As Eden’s body split in two, time seemed to slow for Binaeril. He had hoped for her help, but never wanted her to sacrifice herself like this.

The spirit ring on Binaeril’s finger began to vibrate, cracking under the strain.

“Eden!!” Binaeril screamed her name, his voice filled with despair.

But there was no time to grieve. The deadly slash that had cut down Eden was now headed straight for him.

‘There’s no way to dodge…!’

He twisted his body at the last second, narrowly avoiding being cleaved in half. Still, a deep gash opened in his chest, and blood poured out. The searing pain followed immediately after, causing him to plummet to the ground.

At the same time, the magic bullet that Binaeril had launched hurtled toward Antero with terrifying force. Antero swung Starfall in a circular motion, trying to create a barrier of dark energy to neutralize the attack.

-What…!

Starfall was taken aback. Binaeril’s magic bullet pierced through the dark barrier, punching a massive hole through Antero’s chest. Not even Starfall’s immense power could keep a heartless human body moving. The damage to the host body directly impacted Starfall itself.

Losing control, Starfall’s influence over Antero waned, and the lifeless body collapsed backward. As he fell, the sword slipped from his grasp, soaring through the air before embedding itself into Antero’s abdomen.

-You…!

Starfall was both shocked and enraged. The very idea that a mere human could inflict such pain on a Fragment like itself was unthinkable!

-I’ll cut down this insolent sprout right here!

Starfall hadn’t expected Binaeril to resist this much. Without Yunnaeril, Starfall couldn’t consume the opposing Fragment. But it could still kill Veritas’s contractor—Binaeril.

That was the plan until Starfall tried to summon its power again.

-Huh?

But the power didn’t respond. The immense energy was still there, dormant within, but it wouldn’t budge, as if it were being held back by invisible chains, like a vast lake blocked by a massive dam.

Starfall recalled the frail spirit that had confronted its dark power.

-Could it be because of that spirit?

There was something odd about her strength. It wasn’t particularly overwhelming, yet she managed to hold back Starfall’s dark energy for several seconds. The moment Starfall cut her down, there had been a strange, unsettling sensation. Was this current inability to access power a result of that spirit’s sacrifice?

What had begun as suspicion was quickly solidifying into certainty. Unlike Veritas, Starfall wasn’t a Fragment that could move freely. It was now stuck, embedded in Antero’s lifeless body, unable to do anything but wait until Binaeril regained consciousness.

-Damn it…!

Among Binaeril’s companions was the nymph woman who knew what Starfall was. If Starfall fell into her hands, there was a real risk it might never return to Yunnaeril or the Order.

As if in answer to Starfall’s silent scream, someone approached Antero’s body and the sword embedded in it.

-You…!

The man carefully picked up Starfall, his movements silent and deliberate. Normally, Starfall would have resisted, but with its power sealed, all it could do was speak to the man.

-What are you planning?

The man didn’t respond. Instead, he wiped the blood from Starfall with his clothes and scanned the area. His eyes settled on the fallen form of Binaeril, who lay bleeding heavily from his chest. The darkness that had blanketed the area was gradually lifting, a direct consequence of Starfall’s sealed power.

Binaeril was unconscious, his life slipping away with every drop of blood that pooled beneath him.

“No need to leave any loose ends,” the man, known as Scylla, the shadow of the Cardinal, muttered to himself. He drew a dagger and hurled it at Binaeril with deadly precision. With the wind stilled, there was no chance of the dagger missing its mark.

But just as it was about to strike, a sudden mist surged forward, knocking the dagger off course.

“What do you think you’re doing? Who are you?” Priya demanded, her eyes narrowed in fierce determination as she glared at Scylla. She was unfamiliar with him, as his covert operations under the Cardinal had kept him hidden from those less involved in the Order’s internal affairs.

‘Should I bother fighting the Enchantress here?’ Scylla pondered. ‘But Binaeril is a threat. He could become a problem for the Cardinal in the future.’

After weighing his options, Scylla decided. Securing Starfall was his priority. 

Priya, sensing his intent, moved to intercept him. Her mist swirled like a living creature, trying to ensnare Scylla, but he dodged with fluid, almost inhuman agility, slipping through the mist like an eel. In an instant, he bolted from the scene, his speed far too great for Priya to catch.

Scylla was a master of stealth and assassination, and even the Enchantress would have difficulty catching him once he decided to flee.

‘I must return to the Holy Kingdom,’ Scylla thought as he sped across the frozen wasteland of Barbaroana. The darkness spread by Starfall was dissipating, and with its retreat, the battle between the barbarians and the Order’s soldiers was abruptly over. The alliance, hastily formed in the face of a sudden monster attack, found themselves unexpectedly victorious.

With Starfall’s power receding, the creation of new monsters ceased, and the allied forces managed to put down the last of the creatures.

“We won!”

“We survived!”

The soldiers and barbarians, who had been fighting together moments ago, embraced one another in celebration, their differences momentarily forgotten in the joy of survival. But as the initial euphoria faded, an awkward silence fell over them. The same people who had been cheering together now found it difficult to know where they stood.

“What should we do now?”

The confusion was more pronounced among the Order’s soldiers. Their commander, Paladin Antero, was dead, and the other Paladins lay unconscious, having been defeated by Inyakan and Priya.

“What about the Paladins…?”

“Are we all going to die now?”

All eyes turned to Inyakan. The fate of the soldiers lay in his hands.

“Why are you all looking at me?”

“Inyakan, should we kill them all?” asked Cherokee, one of the barbarians. The barbarians had supported Inyakan at his request, but most of them had no idea what the Order even was.

Of course, there was no resentment among the surviving soldiers; they were simply relieved to be alive. Naturally, all eyes turned to Inyakan, realizing that he was now the one who would decide their fate with the other Paladins down.

“For now… let them live,” Inyakan finally said. He knew he couldn’t make this decision alone; he needed Binaeril’s input.

A collective sigh of relief swept through the soldiers.

“Hey, the mage woman!”

“My name is Priya.”

“Where’s Binaeril?”

“I can’t see well. It looked like someone was targeting him….”

Priya had instinctively deflected Scylla’s dagger, but she wasn’t yet certain of Binaeril’s condition. Inyakan, with his heightened senses, caught the faint scent of blood on the wind. In a battlefield, the ability to detect such a scent was more animalistic than human.

Following the scent, he found Binaeril lying on the snow, his blood staining the white ground red. Inyakan hurriedly lifted him, alarmed. Binaeril’s face was deathly pale, and he was on the brink of death.

“…Is it really true?”

“All the Paladins who went on the expedition have been defeated?”

“We have confirmed the death of Paladin Antero. The status of the others is uncertain.”

As soon as Scylla returned to the Holy Kingdom, he sought out Cardinal Cristopho.

“How long until this news reaches the capital?”

“If they decide to massacre the remaining soldiers of the Order in Barbaroana, it could take some time before the news reaches us.”

The Cardinal reclined deeply in his chair, his large frame sinking into the cushions. The situation had become more complicated. He had intended to use Antero to keep Yunnaeril in check while also recovering the Fragment from his younger brother, but everything had gone wrong.

“Is this Binaeril Dalheim really that strong?”

The Cardinal had dispatched four Paladins, a third of the Order’s elite Twelve Knights, and yet they had failed. It was an outcome he found almost impossible to believe.