Amid a shrill alarm, Adam forced his eyes open. The first thing he saw was an enormous head watching him from close by. He opened his mouth, wanting to salute Mage Victor, but he had gone far too long without proper food, and he had just decisively severed most of his own cell tissue on top of it. He was so weak that no sound would come out at all.
Mage Victor didn't seem to mind. He reached out and beckoned, and a bottle of nutrient solution flew to Adam. Adam drained it in a single gulp, and the gentle, high-grade energy began slowly repairing his ruined body.
"A clever move—but this time it isn't free. You'll have to hand over at least five years of earnings before it offsets the value you took from me," Mage Victor grumbled.
Adam recovered a bit of strength and pushed himself up off the floor. "Of course. Very reasonable, respected Mage Victor."
Adam looked around at his surroundings and understood that he must be in the laboratory of someone with higher authority. Clearly that person was the headmaster, which was also why he and the devil hadn't been destroyed by the tower enforcers the moment they appeared.
Adam politely asked leave to continue with his own affairs, and Mage Victor gestured for him to go ahead.
The devil's energy digestion was nearly complete. Standard-grade negative energy hadn't been enough to advance it, but it had greatly boosted its power. Adam could see that the devil's chaotic form now had mass; it was no longer a pure being of will. Only, with a Mage standing right there the devil couldn't display its might, but from the energy leaking off it Adam could sense that this power had already caught up with—even surpassed—the presently weakened Adam.
Whff.
The devil opened its "eyes": two beams of gray energy shot out of the eye-like spots on its irregular body. It forgot the agony it had just endured almost instantly, happily shifted into human form, patted and slapped itself all over, and only then noticed Adam standing in front of it.
"Master, I really do seem to have gotten stronger. Mas—, hm?"
Snapping back to itself, the devil discovered at once that the chain binding its soul had vanished, and that its sense of existence had never felt so real. Uncertainly, it fired a weak energy attack at Adam.
The energy was so feeble that even a direct hit would have little killing power, so Adam simply didn't block it.
The devil watched the energy strike Adam, and its expression turned to wild joy. It threw back its head and laughed: "Hahahaha, I'm free! Adam, you damned tyrant, I'm going to make you my slave and torture you for ten thousand years!"
"Ten thousand years?"
"That's right, ten thousand years. You're going to pay for what you did!"
"Do you know how to sign a master-servant contract?"
The devil went blank. It seemed it really didn't know how. It stayed stubborn anyway: "I... I can learn sooner or later."
"All right. Then do you know where you are right now?"
"Of course I know, I'm in—" The devil's face went white. The Mage Continent. It was on the Mage Continent, not some backwater little plane.
"So you do know. Then do you know what kind of energy is circulating in your body right now?"
The devil's face went whiter still.
"Do you know what happens when a masterless other-plane creature carrying a body full of negative energy turns up on the Mage Continent?"
The devil's face went dead white. It didn't take a genius to work out what kind of miserable end was waiting for it.
Adam gently drove in the last nail: "Turn around and look."
The devil turned its head stiffly, its neck creaking, and saw Mage Victor standing behind it.
The devil's human form collapsed on the spot. With a swoosh it darted behind Adam and said in a trembling voice, "M-Master, I was joking just now, I'll always be your most loyal servant, how would I dare betray you? Quick, sign the contract with me!"
The devil was a sensible creature. Once the heady joy cleared from its mind, it recognized reality at once: in this world it could not survive away from Adam's side. It could, of course, choose to sign a contract with another Mage, but Adam probably wouldn't give it the chance.
Even though Adam now looked weak enough for a gust of wind to blow him away, reason still made it choose Adam. It knew better than anyone how terrifying this boy was.
Adam sketched out the runes of the master-servant contract with practiced ease. The devil offered no resistance whatsoever; with tears in its eyes it felt freedom slip away from it once again, then dove into Adam's mind and refused to come out.
Only after all that did Adam formally thank Mage Victor. "Thank you for your help, respected Mage Victor, sir."
"Mm, it was a fair trade. What happened inside your soul is very valuable knowledge. As for the end of it—you'll need to pay me the fee, and of course, you're allowed to pay in installments."
Having said that, Mage Victor gestured for Adam to leave on his own. Not only because he had no time to waste chatting with Adam, but also because, with the laboratory's isolation and restraints gone, Adam's frail body was once again in danger of being assimilated by a Mage's will.
Adam walked slowly down the tower. He didn't rush to fly back to the laboratory; instead he strolled through the academy step by step. The buildings hadn't changed in the slightest. What had changed was the people.
Adam had a photographic memory. He had no interest in associating with the people from before, but he never forgot a face. Yet now he found that everyone walking the academy grounds was a new apprentice he had never seen before.
"How long has it been?"
The devil answered from inside his mind, muffled and nasal: "Almost two years now."
Adam fell silent. Has it really been that long?
The apprentices walking among the students stared at Adam with curious eyes too. The previous two recruitments had both been special cases: one an emergency replenishment after the defeat in the tower war, the other an extra opportunity that had come about because of Adam. Normal academy recruitment ran on a ten-year cycle, and it was nowhere near time yet. By rights there shouldn't be any unfamiliar talents in the academy.
But before they could step forward to ask, they heard the previous batch of apprentices blurt out in astonishment: "Adam?!"
Adam? That name sounds familiar.
Adam paid them no attention, didn't even look back, and kept walking on into the academy. Those who knew his temperament didn't mind his attitude; still, the astonishment in their hearts wouldn't fade. Every one of them had learned through their own channels what had happened to Adam. No one had thought he could survive, and yet now Adam had appeared before them again. He might not look to be in good shape, but—
Adam was actually still alive?
In the laboratory, everyone was still silently cultivating the meditation method. No one spoke, because the problems they had run into could no longer be solved by discussion.
Suddenly William opened his mouth: "Everyone, I..."
Clack. The laboratory door slid open automatically, cutting William off mid-sentence and wiping James's and Frank's minds blank.
"A-Adam?!"
Adam walked into the laboratory, and for once a smile appeared on his face. After flinging the devil out of his mind, he said softly: "I'm back."
Early the next morning, James, the first to arrive at the laboratory, pushed open the door. Whether it was an illusion or not, he felt that the laboratory was full of life—a sense that the road ahead was no longer aimless and bewildered.
Of the three, he bore the most pressure. With little lifespan left, he already showed an old age he could no longer suppress. If his relationship with Elliot hadn't been decent lately, letting James buy quality potions cheaply from him, James probably couldn't have maintained even his current state.
He spoke to the Adam who was sweeping the floor: "Hello there, Mr. Devil."
The Adam sweeping the floor was the devil in disguise. James knew perfectly well that Adam would never do such chores himself. The devil glanced up at him, couldn't be bothered to say anything, lowered its head and went on muttering curses at the real Adam.
James knocked on the door of Adam's room and found Adam sitting quietly in a chair, staring blankly into space.
He didn't disturb him; he just stood to one side and waited. Nearly an hour later, Adam's voice came: "Good morning, James. Is something the matter?"
James had brought along every question he'd accumulated over the past year and more, meaning to ask Adam for guidance, but after what he'd just seen, he asked with concern instead: "Is it that bad?"
Adam nodded and said indifferently, "Right now it looks bad. First, the damage to my body—it'll need a long recovery period, and during that time I'll have to keep consuming high-quality energy potions. But the worst of it is the soul damage."
Adam had defeated the mutated Soul Rend spell, but the aftereffects of forcibly cutting his advancement short and forcibly separating the energy gave him a severe headache. Like his body, he had essentially torn apart part of his soul; but unlike the body, soul damage was far harder to heal. By Adam's calculations,
"to recover, I'd estimate it will take more than ten years."
James clicked his tongue. Ten years was only a brief stretch to ordinary apprentices like them—perhaps just enough to grasp the meditation method at a basic level, learn some necessary knowledge, and pick up a few common spells. But at Adam's rate of progress, he had no doubt that Adam could advance within ten years.
Of course, he still didn't know that Adam had already advanced—and then given it up himself.
Adam didn't care much about that, though. After this whole affair, the very concept of giving up had been utterly abandoned in both his logical and his emotional mode of thought.
Just a little more time, that's all. Compared with death, it's nothing.
Just as James was about to step forward and ask his questions, the devil came in wearing Elliot's appearance and said sourly: "Master, Elliot is here to see you."
James smiled bitterly and put his questions away. He knew he probably wouldn't get a chance today, but it didn't matter. As long as Adam was back, there would be plenty of time.