Chapter 255 - Long-awaited Pact

Cecil walked over to where Yuna and Silver were at and looked around.

There was a large ancient magic formation engraved on the ground with some sort of red liquid running inside the shallow engravings.

"What's all this?" Cecil asked curiously. There was a pool in the middle of the large formation that had a large concentration of the red liquid and when Cecil took a closer look, the moonlight shining down on the liquid had actually caused it to flash purple for some reason.

"This is the Ancient Rite's magic formation. This is needed for a person to establish a Master-Servant pact with a legendary Fenrir."

"Master-Servant?"

"Yes, it's the only kind of pact available for a Fenrir it seems, at least that's what Silver explained to me." Yuna replied. She then scrutinized Cecil once more and said, "Hmm... You seemed to have just lost...something..."

Cecil blushed in response to her words. Seeing this, Yuna nodded in approval. "It looks like Serilla did as I asked."

"Eh?"

"Rafu!"

'Hahaha! Finally, Master, you did it!'

"W-wait! What do you mean by that?!"

"Don't think so much into it. Serilla did it of her own accord and she wanted to do 'it'. Besides, the pact also requires you to lose 'that' first. And the blood..."

Yuna waved her hand and opened a Misty Gate. She stuck her hand in it and pulled out an all-too-familiar white piece of cloth with a red stain on it and tossed the cloth into the pool of red liquid in the middle of the formation.

It began to immediately dissolve and melded into the magic formation.

Cecil looked back at Serilla and saw the girl happily waving at him. He sighed helplessly and let it go. If she decided to do it in this way, then he shouldn't be the one complaining. Serilla was the one that lost something more important than him after all.

"Well, this weird ceremony better be worth all this. I hurt Seri because of this..."

"Really now? I think you made her into a much happier woman from what I'm seeing," Yuna stated plainly before she walked outside of the large formation and began chanting a cryptic incantation.

When Cecil looked back at Serilla, no matter how dense he was, it was indeed true. Serilla was practically glowing right now and was literally radiating with happiness. But Cecil still felt like he was at fault for some reason.

"Rafu!"

'Master, don't think so much about it. Look, Lady Serilla is happier now! Let's hurry up and get this Ancient Pact Rite over with. Step into the pool of blood and place a drop of Master's blood into it!'

"Wait...this red liquid is blood?! Who's blood?!"

"Rafu!"

'It's mine, Master...'

"Why?"

'It's necessary for the ritual, come now Master. The time is nigh.'

Silver let out one final bark in response to Cecil's question before raising his head and howling into the air. On the side, Yuna had finished her incantation and a large amount of mana had gathered on her palm. She lowered her hand onto the magic formation and the blood inside the engraved formation began to react to the mana and start bubbling out of control.

The blood rose into the air and the thin stream of blood suddenly formed blood walls all around Cecil and Silver who were in the center of the formation.

"!"

'Don't fret, Master. Come, stand in the blood pool and drop your blood into it to complete the Pact.'

Silver said directly into Cecil's head. The boy only nodded his head before walking up to the pool of blood, cut open a small wound on his thumb and squeezed out a single drop of blood into the blood pool before it closed up.

"Done, is that it?"

'Wait Master, let the blood react with the formation first. This is only the first step.'

"Okay, but man, I can see why Yuna wanted to do this in a place far from people. Just look at the commotion we're causing." Cecil said as he observed the tall walls of blood surrounding him and Silver.

He could somewhat see past the walls and could make out Lucia and Serilla who had rushed over just next to formation. Cecil waved a hand at them to signal that he was okay. The girls waved back worriedly, but were relieved to see nothing bad happening to him or Silver.

"So...what's Seri's blood used for in this ancient rite?"

'It is only a catalyst Master, we needed another source of pure Ki, and the Lucent Rabbitkin race is just what we needed. I have to say, Master is really lucky to have 2 mates who are both talented in Ki and Mana. Don't worry, Master, nothing will happen to Lady Serilla or Lady Lucia.'

"Wait, Lulu as well?"

'We asked Lady Lucia for a drop of her demon fox blood as well. Her race is that which holds a pure amount of mana in their blood so it'll act as the mana catalyst while Lady Serilla's acted as the Ki catalyst.'

"Why the need for that... Isn't my blood enough? More importantly...couldn't you have asked Seri for her blood the normal way as well?"

'Huhuhu~ it wasn't my call. Lady Serilla wanted to do 'that' with Master, so we let her be.'

"...Whatever, anyways, it's good that nothing will happen to them."

'They'll form a minor bond with me, so I'll have you as my primary master and Master's two wives will be the secondary masters.'

Cecil nodded in understanding and waited for the ritual to continue.

After a moment, the blood surrounding Cecil and Silver immediately crystalized and turned gold in color. Silver howled into the air and Cecil could somehow understand that what he was doing wasn't just simple howling, but instead Silver was chanting something.

Once Silver's long howl finished, the walls broke apart and the gold crystals began shooting towards Cecil and Silver.

Cecil was surprised to see this, but just as he was about to pull out one of his swords, Silver stopped him.

The crystals slammed into his and Silver's body, but he didn't feel any pain. When the crystals came into contact with him, they had dissolved into a golden liquid and melded into his body.

Once all the crystals finished merging with him, Cecil was able to find a small change from within him. He felt some sort of bridge connecting him with Silver in his mind.

"Master, with this the pact is formed. All that's left is for you to bestow me a name and tie the pact together."

"A name? But don't you already have one?"

"Yes, however this time, bestow me a name that's bounded by the pact."

"Silver...from this day forward, bounded by our Ancient Pact, you shall be called Silver."

Once Cecil recited the words that had suddenly popped into his mind when he made his decision, Silver's forehead began to glow with a golden light and a pattern formed on his pristine white fur.

When he saw the fully formed 8-star pattern on top of Silver's head, Cecil suddenly felt a stinging sensation on his right hand. When he looked down, he noticed that a crest with the same shape as Silver's pattern had formed on the back of his hand.

Cecil was just about to ask Silver whether or not the Ancient Pact Rite ceremony was over, but he noticed that his partner was staring straight up into the sky, right at the moon hanging above their heads.

Cecil looked up as well and noticed that the moon had somehow...turned gold? It wasn't long before a large golden ray of light struck down on top of Cecil and his party.

Cecil was able to feel a stinging sensation on his skin when the ray of light came into contact with him. He immediately grew worried for the girls and rushed over to where they were.

"Lulu! Seri?!"

"Don't worry Master, this is a blessing. It'll sting a little, but this will help everyone advance their cultivation levels." Silver called out to him from behind.

"Eh?"

Now that he took a better look at it...Silver was able to talk now.

"W-when did you learn how to talk?!"

"When Master and I formed a pact, I gained some new abilities of my own. Talking is but one of the few. Hehe~ sure feels nice being able to talk with Master instead of just communicating through telepathy."

"...Say, can you turn human just like Yuna?"

"Hm? Sure I can Master, but I think I'll save that for later. I don't want to appear n.a.k.e.d in front of big sis Yuna, Lady Lucia, and Lady Serilla..."

"Oh...yeah, you're right. That would be a problem."

"Hm~"

It was uncanny to see his large wolf 'talking' with him. Cecil could see his mouth open and close, but it felt weird to see words come out of that large snout.

When the golden ray of light died down, the stinging sensation on his skin subsided and he quickly checked up on the girls. They were alright, except for the fact that their skins were all red, like they had been scalded by hot water or something.

Cecil noticed that his skin was also in a similar state. He tried using his healing arts to see if he could heal it, but it didn't work. Silver, alongside Yuna, walked over to him and spoke,

"Master, the redness on your skin signifies that your bodies have taken in a large amount of ether. Currently, that ether is being processed by your bodies to change into Ki and Mana."

"Woah, where'd you learn all that Silv?" Cecil asked in amazement.

"I don't know Master. One day, all this information just appeared in my head like it was there all along."

"Heh, that's pretty cool, but ether huh...so that golden ray of light from the moon was a large beam of ether?"

"Exactly, once the ether's been processed, your cultivations will experience a large rise in power. The Ancient Rite was performed spectacularly. Master's blood that had an abundant amount of pure Mana and Ki coupled with the Ladies' blood were able to call down the largest Moon Pillar in all of history! Muhehehe~ as expected of my Master and his wives!"

Behind Cecil, the girls were staring in amazement at Silver who was now able to talk. He had a youthful and slightly mischievous voice which made him sound like a cute little kid.

"Wow! Silvy can talk now!" Lucia rushed up and began hugging Silver's large head. Serilla walked over as well and began stroking Silver's head gently.

"You did a good job, Silvy, you too darling~"

"Uhm, yeah..."

The party immediately walked back to the wagon since Yuna urged them to quickly leave this area right now. The large amount of pure Ether that shot down from the moon would attract monsters to their area.

Also, even if they were currently in the middle of nowhere, they couldn't be 100 percent sure that there were no humans nearby.

When Cecil turned around to check the Ancient Rite's formation, he noticed that the pillar of ether had destroyed all traces of it and only a lush patch of grass was what replaced the previous area they had used to perform the ceremony.

"Let's get going then, Silv, you'll be okay to run throughout the night, right?"

"Don't worry Master. I'm fully energized after receiving that huge amount of Ether."

"Alright, then, I'll leave it to you."

Cecil quickly fastened Silver's harness and the large wolf evoked a magic spell on the carriage that levitated it off the ground, then Silver began sprinting and suddenly clouds began to gather around his feet and he stepped into the air.

"WOAH!"

"ARAHAHAHAHAR~ how do you like my Aero Step, Master?!"

"Awesome!"