Divine Emperor of Death

Davis hesitatingly moved his hand and placed it on top of her head...

'In any case, it wouldn't hurt to try since she is my magical beast mount...'

With a precarious thought like this, he shook and patted her head before caressing her brownish-black hair, roaming his fingers over her head.

It really felt not much different than a human's...

Nadia instantly changed her expression, but it was one of content as she closed her eyes, feeling the caress on her head and scalp to be of immense comfort.

In her magical beast form, almost every place with fur needed caressing, but in this human form, Nadia found out that her head gives the best pleasure when caressed. It almost had the effect of putting her to sleep on top of making her comfortable.

'Woah... She's really enjoying it...' 

Davis had to revise his thought of this wild wolf woman. 

'She's no better than a dog that's cuddling with its owner... Oh right, she's a wolf...'

'Although different, they're from the same lineage...'

He took his hand away as he mused and smiled, "Well, do you want to accept a soul contract, or do you prefer staying like this without any restrictions? However, if you choose the latter, I will have to actively restrict your movements since I don't believe anyone easily..."

Nadia blinked her eyes, "Soul contract? Is it the slave beast taming technique which humans use to enslave us forcefully?"

Davis thought for a moment before answering, "It is similar, but it's not a slave contract since you can break it anytime you want to..."

This soul technique was something that he did not possess before. He gained it after using a chance remaining our of the four, asking Fallen Heaven for a beast taming technique. As usual, he added conditions and the like to obtain a suitable technique advantageous to him.

He did not ask for a binding contract that treated both members as equal, but the caster as the master and the acceptor as the servant. He had already told Nadia what kind of magical beast mount that he had expected, an obedient one.

So, Nadia nodded her head after considering for a short while, "I accept your soul contract..."

Davis smirked in satisfaction, but he still asked for one last time. A reluctant soul is a soul that he did not need beside him.

"Are you sure? I mean, isn't the latter more suitable for you?"

Nadia inclined her head as she gazed at the bright moon while her yellow pupils shimmered in a complex light. She looked at the full moon for a while before her lips opened.

"The first time I agreed to become your magical beast mount, master instantly rewarded me with that precious Crimson Darkness Condor carcass..."

"That made me what I am today..."

"Furthermore, master didn't treat me as badly as I thought in the past... The stories of humans cruelly treating their magical beast mounts are well known yet master is clearly different from what I've seen..."

Nadia looked back at Davis and smiled with a genuine expression on her face.

"Besides, can't I break this soul contract whenever I want?"

"You really believe my words?" Davis possessed an amused expression on his face.

Nadia blinked.

"Master, I have not seen you lie to me, not even once..."

Davis's lips twitched.

Is that right? He didn't remember...

"What if I'm purposefully lying to make you my magical beast mount?" 

Nadia furrowed her eyebrows, "Then... Master will not mistreat me..."

"Besides, if you wanted to make me your magical beast mount due to my prowess, master would have clearly preferred the alpha over me since the alpha is a King-Tier Magical Beast that can cross two levels to fight!"

Davis became speechless at her answer.

But indeed, the alpha seemed like a better option than Nadia, but in this First Layer, he didn't specifically need a superior species as he felt that he could make whichever magical beast mount an Immortal in the future.

The sole reason he chose her on top of her entire species was that Nadia was more to his liking and preference! She was the only magical beast he found to possess a sympathetic mind as far as he searched!

The other magical beasts he had found were mostly aggressive, arrogant, or indifferent.

Besides, Evelynn liked her too!

If he didn't bring Nadia home, she would be sad. After all, Evelynn had once expressed her intentions to make Nadia her magical beast mount only to be flatly rejected.

Davis chuckled and pointed his finger at her, "Transitory Beast Taming Pact!"

Instantly, his soul force swirled and created a square-shaped mold in his soul sea, almost like a shelter. Patterns appeared over it and squirmed as if it were alive before disappearing or melding inside, leaving only the square-shaped house like structure swirling in his soul sea.

It shot out of his soul sea and floated in front of him while the soul force conjured from his finger flew to Nadia's forehead as it tried to enter her glabella, and then tried to penetrate into her soul sea.

"Don't resist, and try to accept..." He warned.

Despite her momentary shudder, Nadia relaxed and was inviting of him as she took away all defenses. She vaguely felt a strange power entering her glabella before it turned clear in her soul sea.

It was almost as if she could feel his intent and emotions up close!

Nadia trembled while Davis sensed that she was rejecting him.

"What's wrong? Should I stop?" Davis narrowed his eyes, thinking if this technique was harmful.

After all, he got it from Fallen Heaven and only knew the description from the information granted to him. For all he knew, this technique could be as well as dangerous to the acceptor's soul since it had harmful elements regarding the process.

Nadia shook her head, "Keep going... I just felt uncomfortable, that's all..."

Davis pursed his lips and nodded his head, "I need to harvest a single percent of your soul essence and bind it with this rather crass house like structure..."

"I... I don't know how to give my s-soul essence..." Nadia stuttered in both fear and nervousness.

Actually, she didn't even know what soul essence is...

Different from the slave contract, which she heard that it entirely chains the magical beast's soul, it seemed that this technique required something known as soul essence to make a master-servant connection.

"Relax... I'm rather skilled in dealing with soul essences, so just let me into you..." Davis whispered and tried to assure her.

"Don't worry... You'll only feel like you've been stung a bit and feel dizzy for less than ten seconds... As a Lord Beast Stage Magical Beast, losing one percent of your soul essence is nothing..."

Nadia bit her lips and stayed silent for a few seconds before nodding her head, "... Alright..."

Davis licked his lips and took a deep breath as he tried to concentrate. He did not intend to use Fallen Heaven's death-like energy since that would scare her to death and even not use that pure healing energy since her soul is intrinsically darkness attributed.

If the pure healing energy adversely affects her soul due to the contrasting elements, he wouldn't know what to do then... and besides, he felt that it's used for healing and not severing.

His attribute-less soul force invaded her soul sea, and he got to see that it was more or less the same as any human's soul sea, elliptical-shaped and extending to the horizons, except it wasn't as there was limited space.

His soul force moved like a translucent tentacle, searching for her soul essence that would be hidden deep inside, at the very center of her soul sea unless she was able to move it around.

Soul essences weren't detectable until one reached a level in Soul Forging Cultivation, but since Davis possessed Fallen Heaven, he was rather privy to the existence of soul essence.

Nadia, who was a Seventh Stage Magical Beast, could actually find the soul essence if she was talented in the soul system or regularly trained her soul and reached a certain level in controlling it.

Magical Beasts do tend to neglect their soul as it was not needed much in their endeavor to stomp or rip the other party to death with their claws and maws. Some don't even care or know that soul is incredibly useful as they stuck to brute force.

Davis's soul force moved in deep before finally finding her soul essence at the very center of her soul sea.