Contractbound

Valentine was standing in front of the door with the sign "Hymes Detective Agency" on it. He realized that there hadn"t been any clients lately, but that was something to think another day. He grabbed the door handle and twisted it, but it was closed, which made him feel slightly relieved. It was how he had left the apartment. He unlocked the door and entered the dark office with his night vision already activated. There didn"t seem to be anyone waiting for him there, but there was something off about the room.

There was a mysterious yellowish mist covering the room, but he couldn"t tell that it was that color because everything was yellow in his night vision. It was floating weightlessly above his desk and between the shelves, but touching it didn"t make him feel anything. The mist seemed to be coming from the drop of blood in the corner that he had used as an anti-divination medium. Valentine approached the source of the mist and observed it.

The bloodstain was still dry, and there didn"t appear to be anything strange with it. However, the strange mist kept coming out of the dark-colored stain on the wooden floor. Valentine touched the stain and it felt normal. He then had an idea. He pulled out his knife and slit his palm, which strangely had no scar even though it had been purposefully injured many times. The cold feeling of the knife cut open his flesh and fresh blood came pouring out of the wound. He dropped some fresh blood on the dried bloodstain on the floor.

Drip...

The fresh blood touched the floor and it spread flat on it, creating a wide stain of crimson liquid. Then the mist in the room slowly moved and gathered on top of the fresh bloodstain. The mist floated on top of it for a while before finally, it solidified and fell on top of the blood. The congealed mist formed words that Valentine didn"t recognize. However, remembering Graham"s experience, that must be the message from his Deity. Valentine braced himself and said the words out loud.

"Eyesta nas Vine ca laris!"

The room went tranquil.

Swoosh...

A thick yellowish fog came out of the bloodstain on the floor and gradually enveloped the whole room. It was similar to the color of a foggy forest during sunset, and Valentine now could see the color clearly because his night vision got deactivated against his will. He looked around but there was nothing but thick fog around him. Not even the wall or the furniture in his apartment was present. He touched the fog and it felt cold in his skin and was strangely somewhat solid because of how thick it was; he could almost touch the fog, which felt like touching a very soft silk sheet.

Valentine tried to move from the spot where he was standing. He took a step forward and it was as if he was walking on a cloud; the floor had also turned into yellowish fog! He trod very carefully forward with his hands in front of him. The wall that was supposed to be preventing him from moving any further was gone and there was only a cold, thick fog around him. He lost his sense of direction and stopped right in his spot; it was too dangerous to move around blindly.

Tremble!

Suddenly, the surroundings shook violently. It was a much stronger tremor than the earthquake that had recently struck Sloten, but strangely, the thick fog was unmoved; it even became almost solid. Valentine fell to his knees amidst the brutal shaking. Then, in front of him, the fog became much denser and darker. It appeared to be solidifying into a mysterious ent.i.ty that was completely shrouded in the fog. Valentine couldn"t stand up even if he wanted to because of the shaking and the cotton-like footing beneath him. He was in pain; his brain felt like it had turned into a slushy inside his skull because of all the banging. The headache was almost unbearable.

The tremor lasted for which Valentine felt like forever and the whole time, the shrouded ent.i.ty, whose size appeared to be much, much bigger than him, was just standing there behind the thick fog. It didn"t seem to be affected by the horrible shaking. Perhaps, the ent.i.ty was even the cause of it. Valentine held his head tightly with both hands while writhing on the ground. His body was in pain all over, especially his head. On the bright side, however, the ground was soft.

Then it suddenly stopped. The thick, yellowish fog vanished into thin air, and he was lying on the floor panting. The bloodstain went back to normal, like before Valentine poured fresh blood on it. It was as if nothing had even happened. However, he knew it was real because there was now a new piece of knowledge in his head.

Valentine quickly controlled his breathing and got up from the floor. He sat in his soft office chair and concentrated on the new knowledge. His guess was indeed correct; it was a message from his Deity, who had been pleased by Valentine"s progress.

"Hmm..." Valentine was a.n.a.lyzing his evolved abilities.

His night vision could now be used without his eyes turning yellow, but the yellowish hue wouldn"t disappear from his vision. Much like Graham"s, Valentine"s eyes could now stay permanently yellow or his natural light blue color with just a command from him. As a result, he didn"t need his contact lenses any more to hide the activation of his power, although he still needed it when switching back and forth with Graham because changing eye colors were still abnormal.

His Shroud of Secrecy, which was his anti-divination ability, had become more powerful. It would take a very strong divinator to get through his interference. The area of effect was also increased significantly, which was fully adjustable depending on his needs. That meant, when he wanted to place anti-divination in an area, he had to specify which part of the area he wanted it to be in effect; otherwise, it would cover the whole zone which was a radius of 50 meters. The shroud would hide any trace he might have left completely, while also preventing the area from appearing in divination. In the case of an item, the radius stayed the same; it only affected the thing that he placed the shroud on. The only difference was that it was stronger now.

His Secret Restriction had also evolved. If previously he had only been able to declare a word a secret, now he could declare an object a secret. The object would then be shrouded in Mist of Secrecy and couldn"t be discerned by the onlookers. Different from anti-divination, the restriction actually worked in the physical world. The area of the restriction had been increased significantly too, similar to the anti-divination area, which was a radius of 50 meters from the spot where he cast it. Once he went out of the radius, the restriction will be lifted. He was still limited by one restriction active at a time, however. Another thing was, Valentine still didn"t really understand how the ability would work, so he had to do some experiments first.

The limits of the times he could use his abilities had been increased as well, from ten to twenty. He had actually never had the need to use up all the limits for the day, unlike Graham with his divination, but the increase was a very welcome change.

Valentine was still a.n.a.lyzing his ability, and then there was a question that he couldn"t answer. He thought it out loud so Graham could hear it, along with his evolution of power, as well.

"My abilities have also evolved. Now I can make an object a secret. I have no idea how it works, so I need to do some experiments. The limit of my abilities has been increased to twenty."

"If the limit of my anti-divination is twenty times a day, and the duration is basically permanent, or until the medium is removed, does that mean technically I can put anti-divination over the whole city, given enough time?"

"There should be a limit of how many I can have active at the same time. I will need to experiment as well. But it will be a long-term project since it is the most troublesome to check. For now, let me see how my Secret Restriction works. That"s the name I decided to give it, by the way, G."

Valentine got up from his office chair and left his apartment. He needed someone to help him experiment, and his neighbor was the best person for it. He walked up to the door with the number 24 on it and rang the bell.

Ding... dong...

Since it was night time, Luuk was still wide awake, so it didn"t take long for him to answer the door. Valentine saw Luuk from the gap in the doorway and spoke his business.

"I need your help with something. Can I come in?" he said straightforwardly.

"Sure..." said Luuk with a mostly indifferent tone, but there was a hint of curiosity there.

He opened the door wider to allow his guest to enter, and Valentine went in without hesitation. He sat on the sofa in the living room that could be said tidy to some extent. He looked at his partner-in-crime who was sitting on the chair opposite him.

"I want to experiment with something. I need your co-operation," he explained.

"Sure. What"s in it for me?" asked Luuk. They had fought side by side a lot and did a lot of missions together, but their relationship was still a partnership.

"One free divination," said Valentine quickly as if he had expected the question.

Luuk pretended to think about it for a while. He actually would gladly accept the offer without a second thought because he had seen how useful divination was, but he didn"t want to look too eager.

"Hmm... that sounds good enough," he said, hiding the eagerness in his tone, then added, "So, what do I need to do?"

"You just need to watch and answer my questions," Valentine said shortly.

He then looked around the room. There were so many books in that room, and most of them were very thick. They were books on medicine, the major that he was studying at university. Valentine then grabbed a book that was closest to him without even checking what it was and placed it firmly on his lap. What the book was about didn"t matter; what mattered was its existence. He made sure that Luuk could see the book clearly. After that, he started chanting his Deity"s name, following his instinct.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the existence of this book a secret!"

A thick yellowish mist appeared out of thin air and started enveloping the whole book. The mist didn"t take the form of the book it enveloped, but just a random gathering fog. Valentine then turned to Luuk.

"What object is here?" asked Valentine while casting a glance at the gathering mist. He still remembered what it was hiding, but he couldn"t see the book at all, and he didn"t know how others perceived his power.

"What object?" asked Luuk in confusion. His eyes didn"t seem to be lying.

"This object on my lap," he said while observing Luuk closely.

Luuk seemed to be trying hard to look for the thing that Valentine was talking about, but it felt like something was actively trying to make him neglect the thing"s existence. Only when he concentrated hard could he see a strange yellowish mist gathering on Valentine"s lap. Although he had seen Valentine grabbing the object from the shelf, he had no recollection at all about what it was; it was as if the object"s existence had been kept a secret from him.

"I don"t know. I only see a yellow mist there. And that is only if I focus hard on that spot. Otherwise, I will keep ignoring that spot for some reason." he explained honestly.

Valentine now could somehow understand how his ability worked. With how the book"s existence was kept a secret from others, he could think of other applications of his evolved Secret Restriction. He then removed the restriction.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the existence of this book no longer a secret!"

With that, the yellowish mist dissipated and Luuk could clearly see the book again. He felt like he had always known that it was a book that Valentine had on his lap.

"Move on to the next one," he said firmly.

He had another idea that needed experimenting, which he got from seeing Graham"s and Luuk"s abilities. Their abilities were very versatile in their application, so he thought that his own should work in a similar manner.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the existence of my face a secret!"

Valentine could see a thin mist quickly gathering in front of his face, but it didn"t impede his vision; the mist was too thin to affect anything. He touched his face with both hands and it didn"t feel any different. However, Luuk in front of him looked stupefied.

"Tell me, what do you see?" he asked seriously.

"Your face is gone!" Luuk said in surprise and intrigue.

From his point of view, the spot where Valentine"s face had been was now completely covered in a thick yellowish mist. If Luuk didn"t focus hard on his face, he would just see a man with a completely common face without any distinguishable characteristics, which made him not even bother remembering it. However, when he focused on it, the mist was there, shrouding the whole face. Luuk knew it was Valentine because he remembered the person sitting in front of him, but he had completely forgotten what his face looked like.

"That is good enough," Valentine said. That ability would prove to be very useful when he needed to gather intelligence from his future target.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the existence of my face no longer a secret!"

Valentine then moved on to the next trial. He needed to see for himself how others perceived his power.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the existence of Luuk van der Meer"s face a secret!"

When he finished chanting, he saw a yellowish mist that was much thicker than what he saw when it covered his face quickly gathering in front of Luuk"s face. He then understood that for the target, the mist would look thin not to block their vision, but to the others, it was so thick that the whole face couldn"t be seen through it. The next thing he noticed was that although he knew the person before him was Luuk, he had forgotten Luuk"s facial features.

"How do you feel?" asked Valentine inquisitively.

"Nothing different except now there is this thin mist around me," explained Luuk. He kind of understood how Valentine"s power worked now.

"Okay. That was very useful," Valentine said, satisfied.

"I, in the name of the Deity of Secrets, hereby declare the existence of Luuk van der Meer"s face no longer a secret!"

"What"s next?" asked Luuk curiously.

The power display by Valentine was indeed very interesting to him, especially since he was new to the world of Contractbounds. Although he had faced more than one other Contractbounds, he couldn"t see their power being displayed in detail like this. He really admired the person in front of him for his brilliant ideas. It was also because of him that Luuk found out that his Theft power was more flexible than he initially thought.

"Just wait and see," said Valentine meaningfully.