Contractor: The Legendary Contract of Vento

by Sai Prapanch A

  As they pushed past the glass door, Sora stopped dead in his tracks. It was the first time that he had entered a contract store and was taken aback.

  Numerous waist-height pedestals were scattered all over the place. Hovering above each of them was a stone class contract. A monitor, supported from the slightly low ceiling above each contract, showed the powers of the contracts, as well as its various uses and its ki limit. It also played video clips of contractors using those contracts.

  Sora had never seen so many contracts in one place. He had not been aware of the existence of many of them as well. He touched one of the fire stone contracts and sensed the ki inside it. He remembered that a contract’s ki could be felt only when it is touched. Sora felt extremely intrigued by the whole place.

  Sean grinned at Sora’s flabbergasted expression and said, “Go and have a look around. We still have around fifteen minutes before our appointment with the owner.”

  Sora nodded and said, “Thanks.”

  The room was filled with quite a number of customers, who were mainly just having a look at the contracts. Many hefty security guards were standing in the corners as well.

  There was also a crowd around the ki sensor, which was placed at one corner of the room. When one man stood in front of the sensor, the screen next to it showed one hundred and seven.

  He went ballistic. “Did you see that? One hundred and seven! I can choose a C rank contract!”

  He accepted everyone’s compliments with a smug look and ran to the counter at the other side of the room with a slip, which came out of the machine with his ki measurement, to place his order.

  Sora had never had his ki measured even once. But he figured that if one hundred and seven could come into the C rank level, then a ki measurement greater than two Z grade contracts would be off the charts. He skipped it and went to the staircase.

  A sign over the stairs leading to the basement read ‘Beast class contracts.’ With anticipation, he headed down the stairs and found himself in what looked like a sanctuary.

  The room was bigger than the previous one. The room was bright, despite being underground. Various beast class contracts were being held in artificial environments surrounded by glass walls. The walls separated species from each other.

  Sora walked towards a glass cage having Flame Wolves. The red wolves wagged their flaming tail and followed Sora with their charcoal-black eyes as he approached them.

  Sora glanced at the screen in front of the glass. It showed the C rank beast class contract’s powers, ki limit and various video clips of it using its powers.

  As he walked around, he spotted another ki sensor and a crowd around it. One man, who had just had his ki measured, ran to the counter and said, “I want a Flame Wolf.”

  The man at the counter said, “Could I please have your ki measurement slip?”

  After glancing at the slip of paper, the man said, “Yes, your ki does pass the ki limit of the Flame Wolf. The price would be ten thousand Zens.”

  The man handed a few notes from his wallet and the employee cashed it in and handed him a receipt.

  “Please head to the second floor and show the man in the counter your receipt. A Flame Wolf will be brought out and the blood contract will be supervised by us.” The man nodded and ran up the stairs.

  As Sora stared at an iron-fist gorilla digging its nose with its metal fingers a few minutes later, Sean arrived and said, “Time to go, Sora. The owner will see us now.”

  They took the stairs and went to the second floor, where customers were receiving their contracts. It was a big room with a lot of security and wide empty spaces. Sora noticed the same man, who had ordered a Flame Wolf a few minutes ago, standing with a man wearing a uniform bearing the logo of the Wayne contract store.

  From a door in the side, another employee walked the contract to him. The beast followed the man willingly and stood in front of its new master.

  One of the employees took out a small blade and asked the man to stick out his thumb. He did so and the employee used the blade to produce a small scar on it.

  A small bead of blood oozed out of the cut. The man nervously held his thumb over the Flame Wolf and watched anxiously as his blood slowly fell on the beast’s forehead.

  There was a flash of bright light, which blinded all the onlookers. The Flame Wolf’s wail could be distantly heard, and then like a radio abruptly turned off, it stopped. The flash of bright light disappeared.

  The man who had performed the blood contract staggered and sat down, panting and staring in awe. He suddenly pulled down his sleeve and saw a tattoo of a wolf with a flaming tail on his shoulder. The shop employee took a look at it as well and said, “Congratulations sir. You are now a contractor.” Cheers erupted from all over the room as the man slowly got to his feet, grinning widely. The employee took him to a corner and started teaching him on how to summon his contract. With another flash, the Flame Wolf stood in front of the man and barked in a friendly tone.

  Sora watched as the man started patting his new contract on its head. Sean said, “I understand that it’s your first time seeing someone else perform a blood contract. But we really shouldn’t keep Mr. Wayne waiting anymore.”

  Sora said, “Sorry about that,” and followed Sean across the room to the staircase leading to the manager’s office. Two big and bulky guards stood outside and blocked the way as they approached.

  Sean took out his silver plated badge and held it up for them to see. With a glance, they stepped aside and let them pass.

  They walked up the wide staircase and stood in front of a resplendent wooden door. Sean knocked and they heard a voice from inside saying, “Enter.”

  The door swung open, revealing a big, yet inviting room. As Sora and Sean stepped in, they could see a small chandelier hanging from the ceiling, which brightened the whole room.

  A man wearing a brown suit sat at the far end of the room in front of a black table. He was tall and lean with an air of authority around him. His thick walrus moustache added to his intimidating appearance. There were stacks of books on the shelves behind him.

  He stood up and said, “Welcome. I am Arthur Wayne. You must be the contractors from Lucifer’s Fall. Please, sit down.”

  Sean said, “Hello. I’m Sean Murray and he is Sora. Nice to meet you.”

  Wayne beckoned them towards a comfortable leather couch in front of the table. As they sat down, Sora looked around at the antiques fixed on the walls. There were some weapons like staffs and bludgeons and also some strange stones.

  Arthur Wayne noticed Sora observing them and said, “You like my contract collection?”

  Sora looked back in surprise and said, “So they were contracts. I was wondering why they were not on sale.”

  Wayne smiled and said, “I never sell any of the weapon class contracts my explorers find. There is only one of each weapon in the world. And the stones here are all very rare ones as well. No collector in his right mind would ever sell them to the public.”

  Sean smiled and said, “Quite true, sir. That staff there with a purple orb is the Plasma Pole isn’t it?”

  Wayne seemed surprised. “How did you know?”

  Sean smiled and pointed at the sign right below the staff and said, “I read the sign.”

  As Wayne laughed, Sora struggled to read the sign from where they were sitting. But he couldn’t make out more than a black scribble from that distance. He wondered how Sean could read it.

  Sean then said, “Anyway, you seem to be quite an enthusiast.”

  Wayne nodded and said, “And it is for that hobby of mine that I hired you people.”

  He opened a drawer on his table and took out a picture. “Please take a look at this. One of my explorers, who went to Vulcan forest, took this picture. It was inside one of the volcanoes there.”

  Sora and Sean leaned over to have a look. It was a picture of a rocky wall beside a stream of magma. At the centre, a small spherical black stone could be seen sticking out of t
he wall.

  Wayne said, “I was going through these pictures and felt a bit intrigued by this one. So I put it on my computer and zoomed in. Have a look.”

  He pressed a switch below the table and a slot opened at the side and a screen appeared. The same picture was shown on the screen. Wayne touched the stone on the screen, which became enlarged. Now the spherical stone was clearly seen and on the side, they could make out a weird red mark.

  Sora suddenly held his breath. He remembered seeing such a stone before. His eyes went wide and cold sweat ran down his back. His left wrist seemed to itch.

  Arthur Wayne grinned widely and said, “This is the best find of them all. The Black Flames!”

  “That’s impossible!”

  Both Sean and Wayne turned and stared at Sora, who was still glaring at the screen. Wayne asked in a flustered tone, “What do you mean impossible?”

  Sora shook his head and seemed to come out of a trance. He said, “Sorry. I was just amazed that the legendary Black Flames is stuck in a wall in Vulcan forest. Are you sure it is authentic?”

  Wayne jumped to his feet and went to the bookshelf behind him. He took out a big book and slammed it in front of Sora.

  It was the contractor encyclopedia, containing information on every known and researched contract in the world.

  Wayne hastily turned the pages and stopped when he reached the desired page. He banged his finger on a picture on the page and said, “Look at this.”

  Sora had a look and bit his lip. It was the picture of the Black Flames along with all known information about it. He looked at the picture taken by the explorer and noticed that they were very similar. Sora knew it better than anyone. And it wasn’t like there weren’t multiple stone class contracts of the same type but–

  “Most of the stone is covered by the walls, so we can’t be sure.”

  Just then, Sean pinched Sora on his side without Wayne noticing. Sora looked at Sean out of the corner of his eyes and then said, “But what do I know?” he said, despite his left fist itching under his glove.

  Wayne said coldly, “That’s right. You know nothing. This cursed contract is one of the most valuable and most sought after contracts for collectors. And I only hired you to retrieve it, not argue its authenticity.”

  Sora humbly replied, “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to do that.”

  Wayne then turned to Sean and said, “I would like you people to start off as soon as possible before some other collector gets the wind of–”

  The door suddenly burst open. Sora and Sean whirled around to find a man wearing the Wayne store uniform panting at the entrance.

  Wayne stood up and said, “What’s the matter, Jim?”

  The employee, Jim, spluttered, “Sir, we got word that Edward Cott has hired a couple of guild contractors from Aryan to go to Vulcan forest and retrieve some rare contract.”

  Wayne jumped and yelled, “How is that possible? How did Cott come to know about it? And he went to the Aryan guild of all people! DAMN!”

  Sean enquired, “You mean Edward Cott, owner of Cott Contracts?”

  Wayne replied, “Yes, and he is one of my biggest rivals. And he hates me as well. But I should say the feeling is mutual. And I will not accept Cott getting his hands on my prize.”

  He stared at Sora and Sean and said, “Let’s make a deal. If you guys get the stone before those Aryan contractors, then I’ll pay double the reward I promised earlier. But if you don’t, you don’t get even one Zen. Got that?”

  Sean said, “Understood sir. We’ll leave right away.”

  After departing, Sora turned angrily on Sean and demanded, “Why did you stop me then? Do you also believe that that was the Black Flames?”

  Sean replied coolly, “It doesn’t matter whether I believe it or not, but we were hired to retrieve it, and that’s the only thing that matters. But you were really obstinate in believing he was wrong.”

  Sora’s eye twitched when he said, “Nothing of that sort. I just found it hard to believe, that’s all.”

  Sean realized that it was a lie at once. But he didn’t persist. Instead he said, “Okay. We need to hurry now. Let’s rush back to the guild and get a fast hover craft to take us to Vulcan forest.”

  Sora asked curiously, “We have hover crafts in the guild?”

  He was answered around ten minutes later when they arrived at the guild and Sean explained the situation to Ms. Rita in the lobby. She nodded and took out a card from a draw in her counter and handed it to Sean.

  They went to the elevator, where Sean inserted the card in a slit right below the buttons. The card was sucked in and the lift started going down and crossed the last floor listed. After a few seconds, the door opened and Sora’s jaw dropped.

  He was standing in front of a hangar filled with various hovercrafts of every size he could imagine, each bearing the Lucifer’s Fall’s crest on both its sides.

  There were a few, which were big enough for only one person, parked along the black walls of the hangar.

  Most of the hovercrafts were as big as a bus. As they walked past one of them, Sora noticed a shiny black turret sticking out of the side.

  Just then, someone called out, “Well, if it isn’t Sean. Seems like you have brought another kid with you.”

  They turned to see a man in his mid-twenties come flying towards them on a hovering disc. He landed next to them and got off.

  Sean shook the man’s hand and said, “Yeah, this is Sora, a C rank. He’s assisting me on a job now. Sora, I want you to meet Roy Hallock. He’s the mechanic in the guild’s hangar. He’s also a pilot.”

  Roy Hallock had a rough face covered with patches of grease. He had long black hair tied to a ponytail. He wore a navy blue uniform bearing the guild’s crest.

  He stretched out his hand to Sora and said, “Pleasure to meet you, Sora. You must be as old as that kid, Jake, who Sean brought the last time.”

  Sora asked Sean, “You’ve done jobs with Jake?”

  Sean, much to Sora’s surprise, looked annoyed and said, “Yeah, about a month ago. It was a few days before you joined. But it was nothing worth mentioning.”

  Roy laughed loudly and said, “Yeah, right. Both of you were arguing the whole way, even after you completed the job.”

  Sora was about to enquire more when Sean cut in and said, “We can gossip after the job is done. Now Roy, will you be able to give us a lift to Vulcan forest or should we find someone else?”

  Roy grinned and said, “Yeah, don’t sweat it. Just give me a minute till I get clearance. Why don’t you hop on to this beauty right here?”

  He patted the bus-sized hovercraft next to them.

  “This girl is an N-2. N stands for nefarious.” He winked and left on his hover disc.

  Sean held down the handle, pushed the door back and slid it to the right. Long leather seats were lined against the opposite walls, similar to the army choppers.

  There were also special cockpits connected to the turrets at the corners.

  Sora and Sean took a seat inside the N-2. After a moment of silence, Sora said, “You know, when Mr. Wayne said that Edward Cott had hired Aryan contractors, did he mean that famous guild in Bharata city?”

  Sean nodded grimly and said, “Their base in Bharata city is situated at the dead center of the South continent. And Vulcan forest is at the eastern part of South continent. They’re situated closer to the destination than we are, as Gildartz city is in the north part of the continent. We need to hurry now.”

  Sora asked, “Have you ever fought anyone from Aryan?”

  Sean answered, “No. But I heard that the S ranks in Aryans are as strong if not stronger than our guild’s S ranks. And Master Lightshield and Aryan’s guild master seem to be old rivals as well.”

  Sora grinned and said, “No wonder Lucifer’s Fall and Aryan don’t get along well. The whole world knows about it.”

  Sean said, “Yeah. So that means that if we face them, we’ll be fighting for the honour of our g
uild as well. We cannot lose.”

  Just then, Roy entered and said, “Sorry for the wait. We’ll be departing to Vulcan forest now.”

  He used the door in the front to enter the cockpit.

  Sora suddenly asked a question that had been bothering him, “We are underground, aren’t we? How do we lift off?”

  Sean grinned and said, “You’ll see.”

  The N-2’s engine came to life. Sora could feel the aircraft hovering. He looked out of the window behind him and noticed a big door sliding open. The hovercraft exited through the door and whizzed into the tunnel behind it.

  Small lights on the floor and ceiling guided the N-2. Sora could spot an exit from the rays of light streaming in.

  The N-2 picked up speed and burst out of the tunnel. Sora craned his neck and recognized the landscape below him.

  “This is Stone Hedge Valley!”

  Sean smirked and said, “That’s right. Now get ready. In a few minutes, you’ll be up against two of the strongest adversaries you have ever faced since you became a contractor. There is no chickening out of this fight.”

  As the N-2 sailed through the skies of the South continent, Sora said to Sean, “You know, I heard that your contract powers are really unique. What’s so different about it?”

  Sean said, “Yeah, it’s about time you know, since we need to understand each other’s powers while fighting together.”

  He held out his palm. Sora felt a sudden surge of ki flowing through Sean.

  There was a glow of yellow light, followed by a small crackling sound. Instantly, small bolts of lightning erupted from his palms.

  Sora watched the bolts of lightning dance on Sean’s palm and said, “So, your contract is the stone class lightning contract. So what? That’s just a normal B rank contract.”

  Sean smirked and said, “Well, it’s not the contract itself but how I use the power of lightning along with a special ability of mine, which makes it unique.”

  Sora asked curiously, “Special ability? What do you mean?”

  Sean beckoned Sora to look out of the window. Sora noticed that they were flying over a valley.