Chapter 65: Run!
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Some things are like having a big meal.
The first time you eat, you enjoy it and think about coming back for more another day.
The second time you eat, it’s still pretty good. By the third time, you might start to get a little tired of it, but you still find it enjoyable because you discover some new dishes. However, as you eat for the fourth, tenth, twentieth time, and you’ve tried every dish in the restaurant multiple times, you start to feel like it’s all the same.
You might even feel like throwing up if you eat it again.
And right now,
Renji was in a similar state.
He was about to throw up.
Renji realized he was wrong; he had grossly underestimated either the extent of Suthia’s madness or the love that had accumulated over five hundred years.
Under the influence of the Dark Corruption, the nun may not have been Suthia’s intention, but every time they engaged in it, Renji felt his life force draining away.
During this time, Renji tried to use words to stop Suthia, but unfortunately, the nun was completely deaf to anything he said. She seemed to have fallen into a state of madness, completely controlled by the Tainted energy.
What was even scarier was that even though Renji was exhausted and couldn’t continue, the next moment, Suthia’s Holy Healing would be cast, resurrecting him to full health.
However, this resurrection only revived the surface. The inner essence was gradually depleted with each repetition.
Right now, he was just weak all over.
But if this continued, Renji feared that even if Suthia released him from her bondage, he wouldn’t even have the strength to lift a finger. .𝒎
‘No!’
‘I have to do something!’
Even though his strength was vastly inferior to Suthia’s, even though all his limbs were bound, Renji still had his trump card, his greatest hope for a comeback.
The Contract.
When he leveled up to Level 5, Renji gained an additional contract slot, but he hadn’t rushed to use it, keeping it as a trump card. As it turns out, this decision was incredibly wise.
As long as he could successfully place the Contract on Suthia, he could turn the tables instantly, making a complete reversal of the situation.
But this premise required the contract to succeed.
In the game’s settings, the success of the protagonist’s contract depended on factors such as the level difference between the parties, the Eclipse rank and star rating of the contractor, as well as the contractor’s willingness and current state.
If it were Suthia’s original self, a level 90 max-level and max-star “Calamity Rank” Eclipse, then with Renji’s current level of 7, there probably wouldn’t even be a 0.01% chance of success.
Fortunately, Suthia was using the body of a Light Bringer named Maria. Renji could sense that Maria’s strength was at the peak of the ‘Danger Rank’, not having broken through to the five-star ‘Disaster Rank’. Renji estimated that this would at least increase the probability to around 10%.
Of course, for Renji, 10% was still far from enough. So his real opportunity lay in the third aspect of the contract criteria.
The ‘will’ and ‘state’ of the contracted.
In other words, for Renji to succeed, he had to seize the moment when Suthia was most relaxed and least guarded, and release the contract at that instant.
Renji opened his built-in panel, and through the status bar on it, he could well grasp this timing.
[Maria (Light Bringer) – Seeking]
[Maria (Light Bringer) – Pleasure]
[Maria (Light Bringer) – Blank]
‘Now!’
The only condition for the contract was that both parties had to be in contact, and this was not a concern for Renji at all.
Having been trapped by Suthia’s shackles for so long, it was finally Renji’s turn for his chains to come into play. These chains had no physical form but were mental illusions in the sea of consciousness. They took advantage of Suthia’s blank moment, when her defenses were down and she was unable to think, and effortlessly broke through the defenses, entangling and sealing the nun’s consciousness.
“Ah!”
Suthia let out a scream, but it was only at this moment that she finally realized what Renji had done, but it was too late.
The nun clutched her head tightly, staggering back several steps in an attempt to get away from Renji. However, at this moment, the handcuffs she had originally used to lock herself and Renji together had become the straw that broke the camel’s back, making it impossible for her to escape.
Finally, in futile struggle, a contract seal rapidly formed around the back of Suthia’s neck.
[Ding, you have successfully established a contract with “Light Bringer – Maria.”]
At the moment when the notification sound rang in his mind, Renji finally breathed a sigh of relief, and a weak smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. He had won the gamble.
“No! Nooooo!!” Suthia reached out to her neck, feeling the formed contract seal, and let out an unwilling shout.
“What’s wrong, Thia? Don’t you want my ‘Contract’?”
“Thia… Thia of course wants it.”
After mentioning the esteemed Contract, the nun’s eyes regained some clarity, but in the next moment, they were once again filled with the Tainted Miasma.
“No, no, no. This isn’t the Contract Thia wants. What Thia wants… is a Contract belonging only to Thia. Yes, that’s right, this Contract is wrong, it’s shared with someone else! Thia cannot accept it, Thia won’t recognize it!!”
The Tainted Miasma forced Suthia to hypnotize herself, defining her actions correctly. The nun greedily wanted to continue demanding from Renji, but this time, she was no longer in control of her own body.
“Release the handcuffs, Thia.”
Under Renji’s command, even though Suthia had no such intention and resisted fiercely, with the contract seal shimmering on the back of her neck, she lost control of her body and, obediently following Renji’s orders, unlocked the handcuffs between them.
Click!
“And these chains too.”
Click!
Finally free from all the constraints on his body, Renji was able to stand up, although he almost stumbled due to the weakness and exhaustion that had taken over him.
But Renji knew it wasn’t time to relax yet. The crisis was far from over because he noticed on the interface that the object he had contracted with was “Maria” and not “Suthia.” 𝘪𝘦.𝘤𝑜
This meant that…
“I’m going to lose you again, aren’t I? Thia will lose Lord Ashen again. No, Thia won’t allow it. Absolutely not! I will keep Lord Ashen by my side, no one can stop me, not even Lord Ashen himself!”
As the nun’s muttering grew louder, Suthia’s consciousness within Maria’s body began to resist violently. It was clear that she still couldn’t escape the contract. The nun continued to perform actions as if frozen in place, but they were not entirely without effect.
Buzz!
Renji’s mind suddenly shook, as if struck by a huge hammer. Intense discomfort and dizziness began to surge from his head. This was all due to Suthia, who was at the other end of the contract.
A contract could control an Eclipse, but it required mental energy. If the Eclipse resisted, the mental energy consumption would double. Clearly, Suthia was exploiting this loophole, trying to wear Renji down in a self-destructive manner.
The contract acted as a lever, allowing Renji to leverage his strength against a stronger opponent. However, this lever also had its limits. Once it broke, he would fall into a state of unconsciousness.
Unconsciousness meant surrender. Once back in Suthia’s hands, Renji couldn’t bear to think about what the completely deranged Suthia might do to keep him. So, at this moment, there was only one word in the young man’s mind.
Run!
But before that, Renji gritted his teeth and continued to use the contract to restrict Suthia’s movements with all his might. He endured the overwhelming dizziness and weakness that filled his head and quickly ran to the altar, retrieving the set of two pieces of “Brands” on it.
[Ding, you have obtained the ‘Danger Rank’ Brands ‘Raise a Glass! (Upper)’, ‘Raise a Glass! (Lower)’]
With a flash of light and shadow, the two Brands merged into Renji’s body, and without hesitation, he turned and dashed towards the exit.
Just as he had left the area of the underground altar, after only a few breaths.
A strong surge of Tainted Miasma erupted from the altar, causing all the tainted corpses in the abandoned sewer to riot. They no longer wandered aimlessly, but all the tainted corpses simultaneously twisted their heads, directing their rotting, mutated faces toward Renji’s fleeing location, and the next second
“Roarrrrrrrrr!”
Every Tainted Corpse in the sewer began to madly charge towards him.
Accompanying them was the terrifying voice of the nun, magnified countless times by the Tainted Miasma, echoing through the sewer.
“Lord Ashen… heh… hehehe.”
“You can’t escape!!”
Updated from 𝘪.𝘤𝑜𝘮