I didn't remember if I had told her about my story or not, but if I did, she had almost certainly forgotten by now, so I've spent the next various minutes explaining the situation to Amity, from my past life, and how I was human before, up until this point. Amity placed that field around us that blocked sound and distorted our images to block lip reading as I told her. She was very interested in the story, so much so that she even lay down on the floor and started to wave her legs up in the air.

This was a loop, and she wouldn't remember anything in the next one, so I hid nothing from her. I told her about my skills, my titles, and even the encounters I've had with the Gods themselves. That had drawn a reaction from Amity. I though her jaw was going to hit the floor when I told her about the God of Time's lion form on that weirdly technological room, that I still didn't have a clue what it was, and when I told about the food the God of Light gave me, Amity lost it and began shaking me, shouting it was unfair, that she lived for so long and the only time she felt their presence was when she was recognized as an awakened calamity, whatever that was.

It took about half an hour after that for her to stop pouting and ignoring me. By that point, we already had a very large crowd around us made out of mostly citizens and a few guards. I saw the human guard that I spoke with before, the same one who escorted Amity and me to the mansion in the middle of the city. They couldn't cross the border Amity's spell created, whenever someone tried, they were thrown back by a strong wind.

"So I think you understand why I cannot go with you to this Athor?" I asked her. A small headache was pounding on my head, slowly but surely developing into a full migraine. My ability to keep my emotions locked was slipping through my fingers like dry sand.

"Yeah, yeah." She waved her hand dismissively. "I need to think a little… ᶜᵃⁿ'ᵗ ᵇᵉˡᶦᵉᵛᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ᴳᵒᵈˢ ᵃᵖᵖᵉᵃʳᵉᵈ ᵗᵒ ʸᵒᵘ, ᵗʰᵃᵗ ᶦˢ ˢᵒ ᵘⁿᶠᵃᶦʳ."

She mumbled the last part as she placed a hand over her chin and, very loudly, started humming to express that she was thinking. I honestly didn't know if it was a show or what, not that I cared at the moment anyway.

"Fine!" She eventually said, turning to me and extending her hand. "Just to be certain, let's make a contract. I, Amity, will reveal to you, Denaru, what was allowed to be revealed by Athorisnamor about Origin Magic. You, Denaru, will allow me, Amity, to follow you until your thingy about the Church of Space is dealt with, and then you will allow me to bring you to the Myriad Palace to meet face to face with Athorisnamor."

A white ring appeared floating around her extended hand. I didn't even need to feel how powerful that ring was. The sheer amount of magicules it contained was enough to distort the air around it and have a physical pressure emanating from it.

I looked at the ring, then at her hand, and finally looked in her face.

"What is this?" I asked, not understanding exactly what it was.

"It's a magical contract, obviously," she said as if that explained what that meant.

"And what is a 'magical contract'?" I asked again.

"What do you mean 'what is a'-" she paused, as if she just remembered what I've been telling her for the past hour or so. "Right, okay, okay. So, magical contract. Hummm, how to explain it?"

She hummed for herself a bit, all the while keeping her hand extended and, with it, the floating white ring that slowly pulsed with barely contained power.

Suddenly, she snapped.

"Right!" She exclaimed. "A contract is a mutual agreement between two or more individuals. It is similar to a curse, in a way. It creates a [contract] type skill, binding all of the parties included to honor it. After the contract is concluded, by either meeting the terms or all the parties consenting for it to end, the skill vanishes. Breaking a contract, from any party, causes it to be negated, and the skill vanishes as well, causing a blowback to the one who broke it. The damage is based on the overall power level of all parties."

I blinked, assimilating everything she had said.

"Did I say it right? I think so, maybe? No, no, that was right. Yeah, I explained like a true calamity. I'm amazing." I heard Amity's voice as my mind went to understand what she had told me.

It was basically what I imagined it to be, a literal contract, but instead of a legal system keeping them valid, it is the literal System that enforces them, and apparently breaking them is very bad for the one who does it… I would probably pop like a balloon if I tried, which brings me to.

"Wouldn't the loop reset erase it?" I asked her. If the loop erased the contract, it would be a win, but if the loop reset counted as an automatic contract break, I would probably just die from the blowback.

That gave Amity a pause, as she considered my question. It took her a minute or so before the white ring vanished and she started speaking again.

"I, Amity, will reveal to you, Denaru, what was allowed to be revealed by Athorisnamor about Origin Magic. You, Denaru, will allow me, Amity, to follow you until your thingy about the Church of Space is dealt with, and then you will allow me to bring you to the Myriad Palace to meet face to face with Athorisnamor. This contract shall be carried over through any temporal anomalies that diverge from the normal flow of time and, if not possible, shall be considered null and void with no penalties for both parties. " The white ring appeared again after she spoke, this time it had an even greater pressure.

The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

I took a few moments to consider it. The terms were good enough in my opinion, and the only thing I would have to worry about was having the nuclear weapon called Amity breathing on my neck until I was able to find my friends again, then meet the guy she wants me to meet. She even added a clause that the contract would be nullified if it didn't carry over through the loops.

Not seeing any reason not to accept, I grabbed Amity's hand with my own and shook it. Immediately, I felt a portion of my magicules being drained and added into the white ring. The ring then broke into two pieces and shot towards Amity and me, disappearing inside both our chests.

[ A contract has been made. Individual, Denaru Theris, has made the [Contract] with individual, Amity Kerahlis ]

Immediately, I checked my skills, and sure enough, it was there.

[Racial] Elemental Breath Lv. 4

[Racial] Dragon Scales Lv. 1

[Racial] Passive Growth [100% Remaining]

[Racial] Time Manipulation Lv. 5

[Unique] Knowledge Library Lv. 3

[Unique] Genetic Dysphoria Lv. 2

[Unique] Magical Programming Language

[Unique] Mathematical Cortex

[Unique] Liquid Quantum Flux Matrix

[Normal] Appraisal Lv. 4

[Normal] Spatial Manipulation Lv. 1

[Normal] Magicule Detection Lv. 5

[Normal] Magicule Manipulation Lv. 7

[Normal] Soul Damage Resistance Lv. 7

[Normal] Multi-Layered Barrier Lv. 2

[Normal] Automatic MP Regeneration Lv. 1

[Extra] Pain Resistance Lv. 3

[Extra] Humania Language Lv. 10

[Contract] Amity Kerahlis

The last skill on the list was the contract I had just made with Amity. I could also feel it, it was like something attached itself to my soul rather than become part of it like a normal skill. It was a strange sensation. I could also pull the terms of the contract if I focused on it. They were the exact terms Amity had said out loud in front of me.

Unfortunately, there was also a problem. The contract had drawn too many magicules from me, and I was losing control of [Mathematical Cortex]. The skill was deactivating, and with it, the lock I had on my emotions. I also noted that the contract had disturbed the temporal strand, and it was starting to resonate with the loop. It was only a matter of minutes until the loop restarted.

I looked at Amity, who was smiling and nodding to herself with her eyes closed.

"I lost control of the strand," I told her. "The loop will reset in a few minutes at most."

"Oh, oh?" She opened her eyes and looked at me. "But that's so soon! We didn't even go explore the city!"

"It is what it is," was my answer for her.

"Fine…" She pouted. She then created a small sphere of magicules in a shape I couldn't quite understand. It was very complicated, I could tell that with just a glance. "You have that cheater skill that gave you an entire language skill at level 10. Use that on this."

I did as she told me. Using [Knowledge Library] on the magicule sphere in front of me instantly dropped my magicule far too low, and the flood gates of my emotions came like a tidal wave that engulfed me.

[Downloading…]

The shock was so great that it even caused my soul to shake just enough to disturb the temporal strand wrapped on it, causing the loop to reset in that exact moment.

When I was able to feel myself again inside the inn's room and on top of the bed, the first thing I felt was as if someone had pulled out a steel pole and driven it through my chest. I screamed in pain, not physical, but emotional pain. My eyes filled with tears that I couldn't contain even if I wanted to. Tears rolled down my face, falling onto the bed's sheet.

Every single face of the people I killed stared at me with cold fury in their faces. The amount of time I held those emotions locked away made them resonate with each other and grow even stronger than if I had chosen to feel them at the moment.

Every death, every detail was replayed inside my mind over and over. Their faces were filled with pain and anguish. Then it came.

The elf's face when the icicle skewered him flashed on my mind. Their pain, their fear, and the horror I saw painted on their faces as they looked at the icicle coming out of their chest and then directly into my eyes.

I cried. I wailed. Everything I was avoiding came to hit me like a truck. More than once, my mind thought about using [Mathematical Cortex] to stop the pain, to do the same thing again, and lock my emotions behind a secondary thought process, but I resisted the urge.

I wouldn't take the easy way out. Even if their deaths had been reversed and they were once again alive, this pain I was feeling was the least I could do for them. I knew using the skill was a slippery slope, I knew it even before the loops started. I couldn't let myself fall onto that slope. If I did, where would I end up?

No, Killing shouldn't be that easy. I couldn't ignore my-

I threw up to the side, interrupting my thoughts. I was gasping for air, tears still streaming down my face. Between each gasp, there was a cry of pain and sorrow that would not fade for a very long time.

A sharp pain in my chest made me realize that, during my cries, I had actually hurt myself. My claws had left some deep cuts on my own chest, and I hadn't even noticed. My blood fell onto the sheets, aging them by years in a matter of seconds.

I didn't know what was hurting more, my emotions or the cuts I had accidentally carved on myself.

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