Infinite Realm

"Hey. Let\'s make a deal. I will set you free from your seal, in exchange that you grant me the power to wield the sword."

The chained winged demon glanced at Sato in surprise before bursting out in a fit.

"Haha. You, a measly ant that I could easily squash at my prime, dare to think you can strike a deal with me? Don\'t make me laugh." The demon ridiculed Sato.

In its opinion, Sato bringing up the idea of a deal made it seem like the two parties were of equal strength. Usually, one would only perform deals with someone of similar stature or strength with them. As Sato was nowhere near it in comparison, the demon felt it beneath it to make a deal with Sato.

One should know that the previous \'deal\' of setting it free in exchange for magnificent power was a lie. The fiend never planned on making a deal with Sato as it felt that was beneath it. Even now that Sato presented this idea to the table, it was disinclined to bargain with Sato.

Despite seeing the demon\'s look of disdain, Sato remained calm and replied.

"Laugh while you can but last I checked, I\'m not the one with something to lose here. Compared to you who had to wait hundreds of years for my arrival, I\'m not the least bit bothered by your rejection."

The demon froze at Sato\'s response as it never expected him to retort. It wanted to throw a fit at Sato for his words but it realised that he spoke the truth. While it would surely regret it if it doesn\'t use this opportunity to finally escape the seal, Sato wouldn\'t be bothered about not getting the sword. It was just a sword and wielding it wasn\'t a matter of life or death. Worst case scenario, Sato would just visit a blacksmith and request for a copy of the sword while the demon would still be stuck in here.

"You think you can fool me?" The demon tried to throw a fit.

"Not really, that\'s why I\'m saying the truth." Sato calmly replied.

Seeing Sato facing it without any change in his expression, the demon began to consider the offer.

"What exactly do you want?"

The demon refused to believe that Sato, being after the sword, would decide to let it go. One should know that it had been sealed alongside the sword. Once it was set free, the quality of the sword would drop.

"The sword."

Sato then explained.

"You see, compared to putting my trust in you and setting you free for unimaginable power, I\'d rather do so and get the sword in exchange. The sword has a power of its own and the materials used in its forging are extremely precious. So not only does the sword have a practical value, but it also has its financial price tag. I would rather free you in exchange for it than do so for power that I can\'t be certain you will give me. Who knows whether you might fill your side of the deal or not. However, if you agree here and now, we both would depart with smiles on our faces."

Because of its strength and Life order, the sword -which functioned as the container for the seal- had become stronger.

While he couldn\'t leave this zone, Sato wasn\'t interested in doing so yet. He had a feeling that the trial wasn\'t that simple and leaving this dimension wouldn\'t mean that he would be able to make the sword his own. The only way to do so would be to gain the approval of the sword and with the demon dwelling within it, its approval automatically became the same as that of the sword to an extent.

"You have grabbed my attention, you measly ant. So, how do we go about it?" The demon asked. It wouldn\'t simply do as Sato said just because Sato promised to set it free. To it, promises are nothing more than flimsy words that can be broken at any moment.

"I\'m guessing that freeing you from your seal wouldn\'t be so easy and simple and would require a lot of preparations and materials. In that case, fulfilling your end of the bargain, which is to let me wield the sword, would make things easier for the both of us."

The demon nodded at Sato\'s words. It knew that the seal users to imprison it wasn\'t something that could be gotten rid of by saying \'abracadabra\'. A lot of preparations, materials, and runes were needed to break the seal even if it was just by a little.

"But how do I know that you won\'t trick me?" The fiend asked.

"Have any ideas?" Sato didn\'t offer his suggestions yet as he felt that the demon wanted to say something. He only opened and clenched his fist as if he was exercising his palms.

"Hehe. Of course. A blood contract. Using it, we can prevent any unnecessary tricks and scams." The demon glanced at Sato with a strange look.

"Okay. How do we use it?" Sato calmly questioned.

\'Hm?\' The demon was internally shocked at Sato\'s current personality. It was still of the idea that Sato was joking and wouldn\'t set it free but from the looks of things, it was no longer sure.

"Come closer." The demon said.

Sato grimaced his face at the request but the demon hurriedly explained.

"I don\'t plan on killing you, yet. For the blood contract to be pulled off, we need to be within 5 metres of each other."

The two were currently separated by more than 30 metres and from the words of the demon, this distance would affect the blood contract spell.

While he wasn\'t willing to trust the demon so easily, Sato didn\'t have a choice. He still went forward though, placing his hope in the chains that bound the creature.

The area Sato stood on was quite special. In this seal dimension, there was no land and Sato simply stood mid-air. However, the level at which he stood happened to correspond to the demon\'s chest. It was because of this that he was able to take in the full view of the fiend without any problem.

Moving forward, Sato began to approach the demon and the place he came close to happened to be its chest.

As Sato got closer, he was able to see clearly, the inscriptions on its body as well as the ones on the chains. When he glanced at these inscriptions, Sato realised that he couldn\'t understand them despite having a rudimentary knowledge of runes. The inscriptions on the demon\'s body looked familiar though, and as Sato tried to recall where he saw it, he realised that it was the same as the inscriptions on the body of the black sword.

\'There has to be a relationship between the two.\' Sato thought as he opened and clenched his fist. Within it was a bottle cap that had appeared from nowhere.

When Sato was about 15 metres away from the demon, he suddenly paused.

"What\'s wrong? Don\'t tell me you\'re scared?" The demon chuckled.

"Not really." Sato responded.

"I just finally got the hang of it."

The demon was confused by Sato\'s words but before it could even ponder on them, it saw Sato lift his right hand and open it. Following that, a gigantic broadsword created from light formed in the air, and Sato hurriedly gripped the hilt tightly with both hands.

"Die."

*Whoosh*

With the sound of air being cut apart, Sato brought the sword down at the demon. Because it was never expecting that, the demon couldn\'t react in time and got slashed by the sword. Strangely though, the sword didn\'t cause any harm to chains and simply went through them like they didn\'t exist, only causing harm to the creature.

"Ahhhh!!!"

-498 (???/??? ???)

\'As I thought. There\'s no way this trial would be one without a battle.\' Sato smiled.

"You!!!" The demon was enraged. It couldn\'t understand why Sato suddenly attacked it or how he pulled it off. The change was too sudden and it had never expected this to happen at all.

Back after Sato had ignored the demon\'s first round of curses, he began thinking of a way to not only leave this place but also gain the recognition of the sword. However, as he realised that this demon chained up in front of him might be the sword spirit, he discovered that this would be a difficult task.

With that in mind, Sato began questioning the nature of the trial.

At first, he had thought that all he needed to do was to reject the demon\'s provocation but he discovered that it wasn\'t that simple. From there, Sato believed that the goal might be to make the demon willing to serve him or at the very least, grant him control over the sword.

With a direction of thought, Sato began thinking of how to make that possible. He first thought of tricking the demon but Sato realised that that was too impractical, if not impossible. This was a crafty being that had tried to deceive him immediately he appeared, what were the chances that he would succeed with his own scheme?

Just when he was running out of ideas, an inconceivable plot appeared in Sato\'s head; why not beat the shit out of the demon? After all, this was a game and almost all of the trials he had faced required him to defeat someone or something.

However, after recalling that he had no weapon with him here, neither could he use his skills, Sato doubted that this was the way. This was until he thought of something inconceivable again. Why not conjure up his own sword. It was then that Sato decided to try it out because he had a gut feeling that it would work out. However, with the demon\'s eyes set on him, it would be difficult to test that out. Hence, Sato requested to strike a deal with it while he tested out the \'creation ability\' silently with his palms, forming very small objects like bottle caps and so on.

The idea of striking a deal with the demon turned out to work well as not only did it direct its attention elsewhere, but it also enabled Sato to get closer to the fiend without seeming suspicious. While Sato guessed that the demon couldn\'t attack him, he didn\'t know whether it was due to a distance limitation. So, Sato needed to get closer to the demon without it suspecting him and this scheme of his came in handy.

When he finally got the hang out of the creation ability, Sato decided to drop all pretenses and formed a huge broadsword immediately. With the shock of the appearance from such a large weapon, the demon wouldn\'t be able to react in time and Sato was able to land the first hit. The first hit was the most critical as it was meant to severely injure the demon and force it to be unable to do much to the following ones.

Luckily for Sato, everything turned out well and he currently had the upper hand in Thai confrontation.

Staring at the indignant face of the demon, Sato emotionlessly brought down his sword.

"No more talking. Just hurry and die."

Even though it was able to see the sword coming down, the demon couldn\'t do anything against it. That last slash had left a deep wound on it and had forced it to use the last dregs of its energy to suppress the injury. Currently, its energy tank was empty, and with the chains binding it, the demon couldn\'t do anything about it neither could it dodge the attack. It was a sitting duck in regards to this.

"Ahhhh!!!!"

-450 (???/??? ???)

Another blood-curdling scream resounded in this dimension.

"You...you bastard! Once I escape this seal, I swear I will finish you off. I won\'t let you die so easily but will torture your soul for thousands of years."

"Too much noise." Sato hacked down again.

-476 (???/??? ???)

"Ahhhh!!!!"

\'Who knows how long I will have to keep this going.\' Sato frowned before increasing the frequency of his attacks.

For the demon, this sealed dimension became hell as Sato unleashed slash after slash on it, causing it to experience pain like no other.

"Do you concede?" Sato glanced at the weary demon.

"Never." The demon spat out one word.

"Okay." Sato nodded before he attacked again.

-479 (???/??? ???)

"Ah!!!"

No one knew how many seconds had gone by or how many times Sato had attacked. Even Sato himself didn\'t know. He only finally stopped when a system notification sounded within his ears. Opening his interface, he glanced at the system notification and stopped attacking the demon as a smile formed on his lips.

[[ System notification :

Congratulations to player, Sky Blade, for completing the mission [Lord Worrus\' Test].

Rewarding player…]]