Chapter 1072: Contract of Fealty

With Alexia’s Aspect of Time accelerating the Race Conversion process, the Hydra’s transformation quickly reached completion, its dragon factors fusing seamlessly with the Anti-Divine factors Arthur had infused into its body.

Arthur wasn’t surprised by this development, as he’d already discovered that Dragon factors and Anti-Divine factors possessed excellent compatibility when he first discovered the godslayer-dragons in Valmone.

The Hydra didn’t possess scales on its body like most existences possessing Dragon factors, and that didn’t change even after the conversion process.

It also broke through to the Intermediate Stage of the Monarch Realm during the conversion process, largely because of the immense energy infusion and the fact that it had already spent a very long time at the peak of the Inferior Stage.

This was a creature that was over 170,000 years old, after all.

It had accumulated an immense amount of energy throughout that time, meaning it would likely have reached much higher realms if it hadn’t been stuck under a mountain of boulders for more than a hundred millennia.

The Hydra didn’t gain any additional Unique Authorities from the conversion besides the ones it already possessed, but godsbane had still affected those existing Authorities by increasing their efficiency and potency against divine factors.

The biggest change, however, was the addition of an entirely new energy within the Hydra’s energy cores, infusing a new energy flow into its circuits.

During the conversion process, Arthur discovered that the Hydra didn’t possess a single heart, but instead had nine separate hearts, something that didn’t surprise him much considering the enormous size of its body.

A creature of its size either needed one extraordinarily large heart capable of circulating blood throughout its entire body, or multiple hearts capable of sharing that immense burden, making the Hydra’s nine hearts perfectly understandable.

Its nine hearts and energy cores were both affected by the Anti-Divine factors, causing them to gain the ability to generate Anti-Divinity within the Hydra’s body alongside its existing magic power.

This process also helped Arthur confirm more of Alexia’s experimental results regarding the nature of the Anti-Divine factor, specifically that it was essentially an inversion of the Divine factor itself.

Despite being born an Ophidian Dragon, the Hydra still possessed traces of the Divine factor because, if its ancestry was traced back far enough, it was technically related to Arthur through its grandmother, Typhon’s mother and a Protogenoi of Olympus, Gaia.

Anyway, the Race Conversion process had been successful, and Arthur now possessed a powerful Ophidian godslayer-dragon under his control.

However, there was still one final matter that needed to be addressed before he could truly claim the Hydra was his subordinate.

Although the Hydra now possessed Anti-Divine factors that made it susceptible to Arthur’s ’Progenitor Authority: Race Command’, that alone wasn’t enough to completely solidify its subordinate status beneath Arthur.

Unlike Stelan, with whom Arthur had established a mutually beneficial contract, Esna, who was his friend, or Elaine, who viewed him as a parental or guardian figure, Arthur had absolutely no relationship with the Hydra.

The only connection between them was the fact that Arthur had just beaten the creature within an inch of its life, meaning there was nothing resembling loyalty, trust, or mutual understanding between them.

Therefore, if Arthur wanted to properly cement the Hydra’s subordinate status, something extra would have to be done.

Arthur jumped off the Hydra’s head and landed on the ground, taking a deep breath and absorbing ambient cosmic energy to replenish his depleted reserves.

Behind him, the Hydra’s enormous body had collapsed on the ground, with all its heads drooping downwards from sheer exhaustion.

Its body had suffered severe damage against Arthur, and although all of that damage had been regenerated, its physical and spiritual exhaustion was still overwhelming, especially after undergoing a Race Conversion.

Nevertheless, the Hydra was still conscious, its eyes following Arthur as he turned around and began speaking.

"Now then, Hydra."

Arthur raised one hand, and a large magic circle composed of cosmic energy slowly manifested beneath them, its intricate patterns spreading across the ground.

The Hydra’s eyes immediately narrowed in confusion as it stared at the unfamiliar formation, but Arthur soon began adding Olympian alphabets into the circle, one after another, causing the Hydra’s confusion to gradually become shock before finally turning into realisation.

"Remember why I came here? To make you my subordinate?"

Arthur lowered his palm toward the ground, causing the magic circle to expand beneath both himself and the Hydra.

He then glanced toward Alexia, who understood his intent without needing an explanation and silently teleported outside the circle’s range so she wouldn’t interfere with the magic.

A moment later, Alexia noticed something within the magic circle that made her expression change, and she immediately teleported completely away from the planet, an action that made Arthur nod in satisfaction.

Arthur turned his gaze back toward the Hydra before speaking with an almost casual expression. "So, shall we begin?"

The Hydra struggled to raise one of its heads, its exhausted body barely responding as it stared at Arthur with a mixture of fear and suspicion.

"You—"

"You don’t really think I’m going to simply accept you yielding as proof that you’ll faithfully serve as my subordinate, do you?" Arthur interrupted, an eyebrow raised.

"For the record, I’m going to keep up my end of the deal. I’ll attack Olympus and give you the opportunity to have Heracles at your feet."

Pointing at the Hydra, Arthur spoke with a serious tone.

"But you also have to uphold your end of the deal by serving as my faithful subordinate, and for me to become completely assured that you’ll fulfil that obligation, certain measures have to be taken."

Arthur paused for a moment before continuing, his tone becoming almost conversational once more.

"If you want guarantees that I’ll fulfil my end of the deal, I’m very willing to give you as many as you’d like..."

He trailed off, then shrugged and corrected himself. "Well, obviously, as many as exist, but yes, I’ll give you every guarantee that you want.

The mere existence of the war currently taking place in this region of the multiverse is already a guarantee, but if that doesn’t satisfy you, I’m willing to provide more, because I also want a guarantee that you’ll hold up your end of the deal."

Arthur then tapped his foot on the ground once, cosmic energy flowing into his tongue as he began a declaration.

|By the covenant of the law of contracts, let fealty bind soul to soul, and let our True Names become the foundation of this vow.|

Per the terms of this Contract of Fealty, both the one swearing fealty and the one to whom fealty was being sworn had to speak a portion of their True Names.

That was what truly created the binding effect of the contract, and it was for this reason that Alexia left after noticing it, because she knew there was no way Arthur would speak a portion of his True Name while she was around.

The glowing inscriptions of the spell circle brightened up in response to Arthur’s short chant, and he raised his gaze to meet the eyes of the Hydra’s middle head.

"..."

The creature didn’t immediately speak, staying silent for a few seconds, and as he stared at it, Arthur’s neutral expression slowly changed as his eyes narrowed.

That tiny change in his expression was enough to make the Hydra flinch, and after several moments, the Hydra finally opened its mouth and spoke the portion of the chant required from its side.

|Hydra Typhonion Lernaion...pledges to serve.|

A stream of runes extended from the area under the Hydra’s feet towards Arthur, and the moment it formed a ring around his feet, Arthur spoke the portion of his true name required by the spell.

|Arthurius Vaughnheim receives your fealty, and pledges to rule.|

The instant those words were spoken, the entire spell circle illuminated with brilliant cosmic light, confirming that both names were genuine True Names belonging to the individuals within its boundaries.

A connection formed between Arthur and the Hydra, a link that bound their souls before the spell circle slowly faded away, leaving no trace of the magic behind.

Arthur nodded in satisfaction as he felt the link between them, raising his finger and pointing it toward the sky and imbuing his intent into it.

Suddenly, one of the Hydra’s heads turned toward the sky and unleashed a breath of poisonous flames into the clouds.

At the sight of this, Arthur muttered, "Good. It works."

The contract of fealty between them required True Names because of what Arthur had just demonstrated.

Per the contract’s nature, Arthur became recognised as the Hydra’s ’Master’, gaining a direct connection to it through which he could enforce the Hydra’s obedience towards him.

Of course, deliberately violating Arthur’s commands came with penalties.

The Hydra retained its complete personality, intelligence, memories, and Unique Authorities, but through the link now existing between it and Arthur, Arthur could temporarily supply magic or cosmic energy to strengthen the Hydra in battle, while also potentially accessing or utilising facets of the Hydra’s abilities through the connection.

The Hydra’s power could also slightly increase as Arthur’s power increased, and overall, the contract, its effects, and its penalties would all become stronger as genuine trust and loyalty developed between them.

After running his little test, Arthur clapped his hands together and looked up to the Hydra, ignoring the look in its eyes as he said, "Now then, time to pay your mother a visit."

The moment after he said that, his expression suddenly changed as another thought crossed his mind.

"Wait a second, if we’re going to do that, you’re going to have to follow us in the spaceship."

Glancing towards his side, he spoke. "Alexia, this guy can’t fit into the spaceship, can he?"

Just as he finished speaking, space in the direction of his gaze warped slightly, and Alexia appeared from the distorted space, immediately looking towards the enormous Hydra, her eyes travelling across its massive body and nine serpentine heads.

"It’d be possible with some spatial expansion, but can’t you make yourself smaller?"

The question was directed toward the Hydra, which was about to respond when Arthur spoke before it could even open its mouth.

"Yeah, true, can’t you make yourself a little more compact?"

Arthur gestured with both hands as he spoke, and after a moment of silence, the Hydra finally answered.

"I am capable of reducing my size."

The moment those words left its mouth, cosmic energy wrapped around the Hydra’s enormous body, and the massive creature began shrinking. Deep crunching noises echoed as its enormous body compressed inward, its pale hide contracting as its immense mass was condensed into a significantly smaller space.

Arthur immediately noticed the difference as the Hydra’s personal gravity suddenly increased by a ridiculous amount.

’Gravity’ was essentially the result of spacetime curving around objects with mass, meaning every individual possessed their own personal gravitational field.

’Its physical strength should have increased a lot more due to the compression of mass,’ Arthur thought.