Transmigrated as a Ghost

Finally, taking the contract from the Archdevil, Marcus began going over it and scrutinizing every detail.

Going through it he found that it was full of confusing and superfluous langue and even more absurd than most of the contracts he had ever read in his past life.

However, as long as he was careful and put his knowledge and experience to use, he was able to understand what was written. Though it did take him quite a few rereads of many sentences to grasp the meaning.

Ultimately the contract did detail what the devil had already described, but Marcus found some clauses that had not been mentioned.

One of them that especially caught his attention. It was the one that described the amount of time they had to complete the contract.

Yes, they had five years before all their souls would be taken by the demon if they failed, but every year they delayed one of their souls at random would be rewarded to the demon even if they did deliver the necessary hundred thousand souls.

It was also a bit unclear if beast or monster souls would work from the langue of contract which stated that the beings must be intelligent.

'If this is what I think it means we would only be able to offer up cognizant souls. His discontent earlier was likely an act then. He almost certainly wants us to fail.'

Continuing on, Marcus found more and more details that while the Archdevil had never lied about were not exactly as he wanted them to believe. Everything about the contract was written to be in favor of the demon, and one misstep would have one or more of their souls forfeit.

Then at the very end Marcus found that there was a hidden section that he could not make out as it was hidden with magic of some kind. For all he knew anything could be there.

'He never even considered making a fair deal with us. I made a mistake even entertaining the idea. This devil is a grand actor. I truly thought he was desperate to get out of here and was willing to make a reasonable deal. No, in the end he always wanted to trick us into losing our souls one way or another, without having to lift a finger.'

Internally Marcus was raging at how he had been toyed with. Of course, any normal person that was not used to reading contracts likely would have been dupped by at least a few of the clauses written. Yet, Marcus was not going to let anything get by him when not only his soul, but the souls of his friends and family were on the line.

However, as much as he was angry, he did not let it show on his face.

It was clear now that no deal he could accept was going to be made. The Archdevil did not just leave in a few disadvantageous conditions, the entire contract was riddled with them.

Practically nothing about it benefited them other than that the devil would lead them to the exit of the special dungeon.

Still, Marcus was wary of showing his true displeasure in this situation. As far as the Archdevil knew he was just reading over the contract and would not know that Marcus actually had plenty of experience from his former life dealing with this sort of thing. Anyone who did not could easily have signed this contract without knowing exactly what they were getting into.

'I wish I could contact the others and tell them what I have learned, but I cannot allow any of them to show hostility. I need to turn this around into an advantageous situation for us.'

Marcus knew that he was going to shock everyone and that they might be a bit slow to back him up if he did not inform them, but there was simply no way he was not going to use this chance to try and strike back against the devil that thought it could fool him.

'I will point out one of the clauses I have a problem with and pretend to negotiate new terms. Then when he is distracted still thinking he had us in the palm of his hands, I will strike.'

Putting on a worried frown Marcus stared at one point on the contract, before looking up at the Archdevil.

"I believe I have found one area that is not exactly as we discussed. The part about the time limit seems to have extra details. It seems we will be penalized every year we do not deliver. I would like to make sure that is changed so we have the full five years as we talked about." Marcus said while holding out the contract to the devil.

He had chosen this particular clause since it was the easiest to spot and he did not want the Archdevil to catch onto the fact that he knew just how one sided the contract really was.

"Ah, so you spotted that. Well, I suppose it was expected, but you cannot blame me for trying. It is in my nature. Allow me to change it since you caught me." The devil said while feigning disappointment.

However, while he thought Marcus had just found the one easy to spot advantage he had left in the contract. It was actually Marcus who was laying a trap.

The second the Archdevil took the contract back from him, Marcus did not pull his hand back and summoned his scythe.

With a swift motion he plunged it right towards the Archdevil's chest with as much force as he could in the moment.

At the same time, he also threw his other arm back and opened up a darkness portal that's other end appeared right behind the devil.

'Blades of darkness.'

With the swipe of his hand, he cast his tier three darkness magic spell with as much power as he could muster and threw it into the darkness portal he had created.

The devil was actually caught off guard by Marcus' attack. As were all of his companions.

As far as they knew the deal was still on, when Marcus had suddenly attacked.

Of course, a powerful entity like this Archdevil was not wholly unable to react to Marcus' sneak attack and managed to move at the last moment to have the scythe pierce his stomach instead of his chest.

Nevertheless, Marcus' second attack which came from behind and was even more unexpected hit home, and three powerful blades of darkness sliced deep into the Archdevil.

Black blood began pouring out of his body where he had been hit and the corroding properties of Marcus' darkness magic began eating away at his body.

It seemed that the sneak attack Marcus had gotten off would be enough to do in the powerful devil despite how tough he was.

"Actually, I can blame you for trying to trick us even if it is in your nature. Did you really think you would get away with it?" Marcus said as he pushed his scythe in deeper.

Yet right when it seemed the Archdevil would take his last breath, his body distorted, and in its place a different person appeared.

It was clearly another devil by the wings on its back and the horns on its head, but he was only eight feet tall and had a bald head.

Chapter 758 No Deal