"Hmph, disappointing," the obscure physical representation of the constellation snorted in disdain.
"Even after more than two decades, you are still at this level," he said. Zayden was confused as he didn't understand a thing that the constellation was saying. And how was it able to ascertain Zayden's age? But the constellation didn't care as it continued to berate Zayden like an elder scolding a young one.
"At this age, others of your kind should have devoured their fifth star, but you don't even have the power to leave that measly planet of weak beings on your own," the constellation continued, "how utterly disappointing."
Zayden was at a loss for words. 'Devour a star? What does that mean?' Zayden thought in confusion but just decided to let it go. This was a constellation with strength that surpassed even his wildest imagination.
Sighing in depression, the constellation turned to look at Zayden.
"You want to make a contract with me, don't you?" The constellation asked
"Yes, I do," Zayden said as quickly as he could, a hint of reverence in his voice.
"You do, but do you think that your soul is strong enough to handle the contracting process?" The constellation asked again
"I believe so," Zayden said
"Well, you're wrong," The constellation answered very quickly. "Although your soul is strong by your standards, by my standards, your soul is not even as strong as an infant"
Zayden was surprised. A soul power of about two thousand was only as strong as an infant to the constellation. Zayden thought he had made some progress with his soul power in four digits, but the constellation dashed all his hopes like toppling over a castle made of cards.
Zayden was speechless.
The constellation had its hand on its shin in contemplation as if thinking very hardly about something. He suddenly floated in front of Zayden and was only a hairs breath away from Zayden
At this point Zayden could finally see the eyes of the constellation, or at least what should have been a pair of eyes.
All he saw were two swirling masses of space that seemed to come from the depth of the abyss and was drawing Zayden into them. Zayden could feel his vision get blurry and his mind was swirling. He was about to fall unconscious.
The constellation quickly pulled away as Zayden slowly came back to his senses.
"This could work" the constellation said
"I have found a way to form the contract, and give you the powers that you seek but since your soul is unable to handle it at the moment, I'll have to seal ninety nine percent of the powers or you'll explode" The constellation said
There was a slight look of disappointment on the face of Zayden hearing that most of the powers would be sealed but he was still happy that the contract could still happen.
Seeing the look on Zayden's face, the constellation couldn't help but chuckle slightly.
"No need to worry, one percent is enough for you at the moment. And I'll also help you to gradually unseal the powers as you grow stronger" the constellation said.
Zayden's face brightened. At least, there was a way.
"Well, inscribing the constellation and the seal directly on your soul will be slightly painful, you just have to bear it" the constellation said
Zayden vigorously nodded his head. What is slight pain in exchange for unimaginable power.
The constellation stretched out his hand and touched the ball of energy that was Zayden. A dark purplish golden glow covered its body wholly before spreading to the body of Zayden.
It started like a slight itch that kept growing more unbearable as the dark purplish golden light covered Zayden's soul. It grew to the pain of a bunch of bugs with sharp exoskeleton wriggling under his skin. Then they sudden started biting through his skin as if burrowing multiple tiny holes in an attempt to reach his bones.
"Arrrrrrrgggggghhhhhh!!!"
Zayden's blood curling scream managed to reach the ends of space were sound wave were supposed to be unable to pass through. Anyone hearing the scream would wince at the kind of pain someone had to go through to let out that kind of scream.
But it wasn't over. The bugs managed to reach his bones and they suddenly transformed into nails that seemed to be writing on Zayden's bones. One has to remember that all of this was happening on the souls of Zayden so the pain was magnified by many degrees.
After about what felt like years of this torture, the pain finally died down.
The snot nosed teary eyed ball of soul power that was Zayden glared at the constellation with a chilly gaze filled with killing intent.
What slight pain. This was the most pain that he had felt in both of his lifetimes.
"Why are you looking at me like that? It wasn't even painful at all" the constellation chuckled making Zayden almost cough blood in anger.
"we are done here, you can go" the constellation waved his hand and the soul of Zayden disappeared.
One Zayden disappeared, the whole place was eerily quiet. "you need to become as strong as you can young master, if not you will not be able to face them in the future" the constellation sighed slightly before disappearing too.
Yes it disappeared, fading from existence. This only happen when a constellation had done its work and the constellation did its work which was transferring all of its powers to Zayden.
****
Meanwhile, in another part of space, in the opposite direction of where Zayden had gone, there was a cluster of constellation, amounting to thousands.
One of the very inconspicuos constellation glowed with a purple light. It was in the shape of a human assassin. An obscure voice rang out. It was neither male nor female, it was like a mixture of different voice textures overlapping in some kind of beautiful crescendo
"A lowly human really dares to ignore me, the Phantom Warlock Constellation" it said disdainfully "we shall see"
****
Back at the rooftop of the male dorm, the three cocoons were still glowing, but this time, something about them had change.
On Zayden's cocoon, the dark purplish gold glow replaced the previous gold glow as it shown a few meters round Zayden's cocoon. On the surface of the cocoon, the constellation that Zayden contracted appeared, its form shifting at every point in time.
Not just that, but an oppressive aura spread out from the body of the cocoon, able to suppress anybody that came within a few meters of the cocoon.
"Crack!!"
A crack appeared in Zayden's cocoon and like a chain reaction, cracks spread along the body of the cocoon like webs until the cocoon finally shattered revealing a curled up naked Zayden.
On his back was what looked like a spiral constellation made out of about eighty one stars. It looked beautiful. The only thing was that out of the eighty one stars only one of them had a faint silver glow.
"Argh"
With a low groan, Zayden straightened up as multiple pings rank out in his head, multiple system notifications appearing in front of him but Zayden ignored them.
Like a new man, he straightened his back and walked into the dorm. Without slowing down his steps, he entered into a random room and into the shower. Thankfully, water was still running even after the apocalypse.
He took a long cold shower for about thirty minutes. In the bathroom was a mirror and looking at his reflection in the mirror, Zayden couldn't help but show a slight grin.
He wasn't considered ugly before, but not handsome either. He was relatively average. But now, thanks to the constellation,it was like he had been reborn.
His curly long hair that reached his shoulders was black in color, with the tips having some kind of dark purplish gold color. His jawline was defined, like the artwork of a sculptor, sculpted to perfection. His irises had a dark purplish hue with a golden outer ring.
He was like a demonic beauty that could induce lust into the body of any woman at the mere sight of him.
After a few seconds of admiring himself, he pulled some clothes from his spatial ring. He put them on and went back to the rooftop.
Back on the rooftop, nothing had changed. The two cocoons still had the golden glow, while Dare was no where to be found. But Zayden wasn't worried.
With nothing to do, Zayden decided to go through the multiple system messages.