25 Decision (1/2)
Xander has exactly a few hours to decide whether or not he should intervene with Faykes' future. He pondered whether or not it was worth it at all.
The two sprites had asked Xander to place them in a temporal field like they were in before for a total of 7 outside days, and he did so before returning to his room. Of course, he adjusted the time flow to 1 second: 100 days, meaning after 7 days, they would be 211,000 years of age, their powers growing to Mythic-2 class.
Looking at the time, he had 7 hours before he could still reverse the situation. How did he know the exact time? Divination. He saw the absolute future of that path, and it begins with Faykes withdrawing from class and leaving the country the very next day.
His experience was a thorny one, meeting many friends and foes along the way, before reaching Legendary-9 class. Using his established connections and information he had on the Valentine Clan, he finds out who is handling the bloodline curse.
The bloodline curse was actually established 2,000 years ago, and 50 years after the Valentine clan experienced one of the largest civil war within their family, and tens of powerhouses at the Mythic class and above died at the hands of their brethren, along with hundreds of civilians and magicians of the clan.
One of the survivors that led the Valentine clan back to its glory was said to have established the bloodline curse with the help of the other surviving powerhouses. To avoid the events that happened to the clan, this was a way for them to confidently take control of the rising geniuses of their clan. The bloodline curse isn't powerful, until you plan to do something extremely disadvantageous for the clan. Basically, it is used as a last resort to ensure the safety of the clan.
The ones who were currently holding the curses were the ancient ancestors that survived the civil war; there were only 5 of them left right now from the original 10. Three of them were at the peak of Demigod class while 2 of them had surpassed it according to the information he read, and 1 of the 2 people was in charge of his bloodline curse.
His name has been lost in the documents, and has only been referred to as ”Ancestor Shadowgrace”. Faykes spent 10 years attempting to locate this ancestor, while improving his comprehension of the rules he had ”replicated” in his Magic Sphere.
By time he found this Ancestor, his comprehension of Water and Air elements were already at 95 and 96% respectively, causing his power to be comparable to a Mythic-3 magician at most. Although he had a relatively high class magic circles, with all of them ranging from 67-72th class, it was still not enough.
During the divination, he had seen that Ancestor Shadowgrace use 2 moves, the first one to nullify Faykes' attacks, and the second one to reap his life.
Ancestor Shadowgrace was actually grieving when he dealt the final blow; after all, who wanted to kill their own kin, especially a talented one?
Even then, he tried to explain that upon reaching Divine class, the bloodline curse's control over oneself will unravel, the young man didn't bother listening.
All in all, the amount of time Faykes had lived for was just a mere 50 years. By age 20 he had reached Master class, and by age 38, he was already a Legendary-9. At age 48, he was already half-step at the Mythic class, already attempting to create his own rule. By age 50, he finally met Ancestor Shadowgrace and began the life and death fight.
With his talent, if Xander interfered with his predicament, It was possible for Faykes to reach Master class by 18, Legendary-9 by age 30, Mythic class by 40, and Demigod class by 110 years. It wouldn't have been cut short, his life, if he didn't interfere with the plans of the Ancestor Shadowgrace.
Xander realized he had a part to his demise as well, so he needed to rectify that. One way would be to reverse the time of Faykes, making sure he didn't remember anything that had happened whatsoever in the villa, except for the contract signing.
Xander could solve this problem by reversing the cultivation level Faykes had as well, and then holding the ritual to break the specific runic writings on ”control”, ”binding”, ”command”, and ”death”, the problem would be solved. Heck, he didn't even had to hold the ritual, Faykes could do it to himself, he just needed Pan to hand the ingredients. This doesn't resolve the second problem though, because the instability would depend on Faykes' as well. But this absolves him of any wrongdoings, no matter what the ending result is, right?
Xander began to calculate the chances of Faykes betraying him. According to the System, if he does manage to help Faykes, with the psychological profile the child currently has, it is at 0.002% chance of happening.
Xander pondered a bit more before sighing, and then removed the time acceleration field in the room. He opened up his watch and contacted Faykes, telling him these words: ”I can help you solve this problem. Come back to the villa.”
After a few minutes, the villa's doorbell was rang; it was Faykes. He was led in by Esta, while Rosa prepared tea for the two.
Xander sniffed at the tea, before drinking it slowly. After having his fill, he already cut straight to the chase.
”Faykes, I'm offering you a solution to the problem; 2 solutions actually. I need you to choose.”
Faykes merely nodded, a bit listless, but as his eyes stared at Xander, there was hope present. Xander nodded in response, before saying,
”The first solution is I eradicate the curse. There would be no backlash, no lowering of cultivation level. but you can never return to your clan as a result, since the one who set it up and is in control of it is one of your Ancestors who had broken through to the Divine level. I can easily change your physical body as well as mask your doll of life from any form of tracking or divination, making sure you won't be recognized by anyone below Demigod class even if they had a drop of blood to locate you. Simply put, I will transform you into a whole new person. But the thing is, are you ready to give up the things you had from the Valentine Clan?”
Upon hearing this, Faykes was still silent, but in his eyes, Xander could see fiery determination and at the same time, a struggle of some sort.
”I can see you are hesitating. This is the second solution: You will proceed with the assimilation process. I have a way for you to solve the issue on the rituals. However, before I can explain more, I need you to sign a more strict and binding magic contract. No one, not even my maids and bodyguards, have signed this contract.”
A piece of parchment appeared in Xander's hands, and he handed it to Faykes. The latter opened the the parchment and began reading it.
[Contract of submission: Rank SSS
This contract between party A and B is a partnership contract, with party A being in the slightly more dominant position than party B.
Party B cannot divulge any information about this contract with party A.
Party B cannot divulge any information about party A that has not be verbally agreed by party A.
Party B cannot disobey party A if it involves the life and death of both parties, unless party A has revoked this section verbally.
Party B can ask party A information concerning party A's abilities, but he cannot do any form of recording or transmission to any parties beside party A and party B.
Party B will receive a random reward from party A whenever party B completes a voluntary mission from party A, with the reward being within party A's abilities.
Party B will emphasize protecting party A than him/herself, as long as party A is not doing it to put party B's life on the line on purpose.
Party A will not interfere with Party B's life unless it is to issue a voluntary mission, or it is a matter of life and death for party A, or if party B gave verbal consent to do so.
Party A can easily add more clauses in the contract without the consent of party B.