Airelia was deep in thought.
She was weighing her options.
'This promise,' she thought, 'means I'll be deeply bound to the human before me. In the future, it might drag me into a complex conflict I want no part of. But... he saved my child. This is a debt I must repay.'
Time ticked by, second by second, in the silent wait.
Just as Raylo felt his palms beginning to drip with sweat,
Airelia finally spoke.
"I accept. In the face of world-ending annihilation, I will take action for you once."
Airelia's voice resounded.
The moment her words fell,
Raylo felt as if an invisible, mystical connection had formed between him and the Catastrophe Level Giant Dragon before him.
It was a bond similar to a contract, yet transcending it—a tie that originated from the soul.
The pact was made.
The tension that had gripped Raylo's heart finally, completely, eased.
An overwhelming sense of relief, as if a great weight had been lifted, washed over him.
He had succeeded.
