"Now that the playing field's even, let's start our conversation."
"…"
The silence in the room was deafening.
Even those who had been on the verge of lashing out after hearing how Evan had treated the spirits sent to contact him were left speechless.
Caeril, seated right opposite Evan, looked like his jaw might hit the floor.
He didn't even know what stunned him the most. Evan's boldness? His audacity? His ruthlessness?
The fire spirit was the first to recover. Slamming both palms on the table, he stood abruptly and pointed at Evan.
"You—!"
"Nuh uh."
Evan cut him off immediately, shaking his head while double-tapping the Arcanum beside him.
"We're here to talk, so let's keep it calm. No shouting."
The brief exchange pulled the rest out of their stupor, and Caeril quickly interjected to keep the situation from escalating.
"W-Wait… Sir Evan, that thing…"
"What about it?"
Evan asked, one brow raised, as if he genuinely couldn't see what the issue was.
He glanced around at the other spirits, then sighed and shook his head.
"I can see you all think I'm being unreasonable.
Then how about you witness the birth of a black hole, which blows up your spaceship and blasts you across space and time into an unknown planet in another dimension, and within thirty minutes of waking up in a tree with your limbs bent in the wrong directions, you meet an Infernal Archdevil Commander disguised as a Spirit who tries to kill you in your sleep. Just when you think she backed off, she shows up later with her friends and thirteen dragons, all bombarding you with breath attacks and magic inside an active volcano, and when you attempt a teleportation escape, it fails and blasts you across space-time again, hurling you through a spatial storm to the other half of a continent, where you meet a group of spirits who, surprise, surprise, turn out to be devils in disguise.
And guess what? They also try to kill you…and steal your body for some reason."
Leaning forward, Evan narrowed his eyes as he asked,
"Now, tell me, am I really being unreasonable? Especially when the ten of you are Transcendents, several times stronger than I, and could easily force me to do your bidding with sheer power?"
Again, a loud silence filled the room. Anyone with half a brain could see that Evan was simply levelling the playing field, protecting himself from being captured and exploited.
A few seconds ticked by before one of the spirits finally spoke.
"…Archdevil…Commander?"
Hearing that mutter, Evan turned toward the ice spirit who'd spoken and replied,
"Her name was Yujia. Ring any bells?"
"…Volcanic Halberd Yujia…!"
That reaction made Evan raise an eyebrow, mildly surprised.
"Oh? Seems like she's famous around here."
Some of the spirits glanced toward Caeril, but the man shook his head, clearly denying ever having told Evan about Yujia, or having prior knowledge of Evan's encounter with her.
"…you say she tried to kill you, then how…?"
How did you survive?—was what question Caeril wanted to ask.
To this, Evan responded calmly.
"I've got a pretty good sense for danger, you see. The tiniest bit of hostile intent rings in my head like a blaring alarm… kind of like when your fire buddy over there tried shouting at me earlier."
He double-tapped the Arcanum Eclipsor beside him before continuing.
"I noticed her intent, and she realised I did, so she stayed her hand. Who'd have thought she just went off to call her Infernal Archdevil friends so they could return with their dragons and try to kill my companions and me inside a volcano two days later?
Been here 6 days and I've nearly died 5 times. After all that, I think I'm at least allowed to strap a nuke to myself so I can drag down anyone else who tries to kill me, don't you think?"
Frankly, Evan deserved at least that much.
Another heavy silence followed, and at last, the ice spirit from earlier pressed her fingers to her temple before speaking again.
"I understand your circumstances have been rather… perilous. However, please know that we harbour no ill intent toward you. After all, we need your help."
To that, Evan simply shrugged and replied,
"And I have no intention of detonating this thing beside me."
The moment those words left his mouth, the ice spirit's expression visibly contorted, and seeing this, Evan added,
"See how that sounds? Exactly. Which is why, until I have a solid guarantee that neither you nor the millions of spirits under your command will harm my companions or me in any way, shape, or form, this guy, who can wipe out millions of the people you're fighting a war to protect, is gonna stick with me."
That was the entire point behind Evan bringing out the Arcanum Eclipsor. It wasn't to kill the Transcendents in front of him. It couldn't do that anyway.
Evan's real goal was to hold every living being in Tír Síorghlas hostage.
As for how he planned to survive if things went south, he'd break out the Akashic Page's World Magic Spells, even if it meant risking Causality trying to tear it apart.
'I suppose a combination of Spells Number 4 and 7 can work…'
As that thought crossed his mind, Evan pulled out the phone-like communication device from Denerth Prime, its screen lighting up as he began scrolling through its gallery without sparing the spirits a single glance.
Whatever he was looking at, none of them could tell, and frankly, none of them had the peace of mind to ask.
They exchanged glances, some uncertain about how to proceed, while others visibly showed their displeasure with the current situation.
However, they could all sense the immense magic power within the Arcanum, and they also reasoned that Evan wouldn't be acting this boldly unless he had a way to survive the blast himself.
'This boy doesn't strike me as someone who would willingly die with his enemies. He definitely has some method of escaping safely even if he sets that thing off…'
With that thought in mind, one of the spirits created a wind barrier around their section of the table, sealing off sound to ensure Evan wouldn't hear the conversation that followed.
There was a lot of shouting and table-slamming, but though Evan noticed all this, he said nothing, continuing to idly scroll through his device as if he were waiting for a train rather than sitting in the middle of a tense negotiation.
It took several minutes before a compromise was finally reached, largely thanks to Caeril and a few others pushing to conclude the matter quickly so as not to give the impression that they were indecisive or unable to adapt to unexpected situations.
Eventually, the wind barrier was dispelled, and Caeril, looking directly at Evan, spoke.
"We understand your situation, and your… caution. Once again, we would like to state that we mean you no harm."
Evan finally looked up from the device in his hands, leaning slightly to his right as he said,
"I've already stated my condition. Until I have a guarantee that no harm, direct or indirect, will come to me or my companions, this guy sticks with me."
He tapped the Arcanum Eclipsor as he spoke, and at that, Caeril silently stared at him.
'He wants me to ask him what that guarantee would be…'
Caeril immediately understood Evan's intention, and he wasn't the only one. One of the other spirits turned toward him with a look that clearly said, I told you so.
After a moment, Caeril finally asked.
"…And what exactly can we do to provide that guarantee?"
At this, Evan locked the device in his hand, set it down on the table, and retrieved a cardboard box from his inventory.
He glanced around the room, as though counting the number of spirits present, then pulled out ten papers from the box and set them down, sliding the small stack toward the table centre.
"These," he said, tapping the box in front of him, "are magically binding contracts. Violation of these can result in anything from loss of skills, levels, and power… to limbs, organs, your life… or possibly your soul after death."
He then returned the box to his inventory and continued.
"Let's use them to outline the terms of our alliance. What I'll do for you, and what you'll do for me, will be clearly detailed.
We'll also define mutual non-aggression terms.
None of you are allowed to harm me or my companions in any way, and with no threat to me, I naturally won't have any reason to detonate my friendly neighbourhood bomb over here."
"You're including that in the contract too," one of the spirits said with narrowed eyes.
Evan gave him a look that asked why he was stating the obvious, then replied,
"Of course I am. It's called 'mutual non-aggression' for a reason.
I can't harm you, you can't harm me.
If you breach it, the restriction preventing me from turning your citizens to ashes gets lifted. If I breach it, then the restriction keeping you from harming me disappears.
Not that it'll get to that anyway. The contract's backlash would take care of either party long before detonation or retaliation even becomes a factor."
Gesturing towards the contracts, Evan asked.
"Now then, shall we begin?"
The spirits fell silent, and one of them reached out, pulling all the contracts towards himself before scanning them, most likely using a skill to detect any foul play.
He found nothing, of course, as Evan hadn't tampered with the contracts. They were exactly as they had been when he got them from Kasteblum.