"A deal?"
"Yes. You want shiny things, don't you? In the future, I will go to many places containing precious and brilliant items that you can seize."
"In exchange for what?"
"Cooperation. You will cooperate with me, help me, and never betray me. You know as well as I do—while I cannot control your actions, you cannot leave me. We are stuck together in this, and it is better that we cooperate."
As I began putting on my clothes, Mammon remained silent, lost in his thoughts for a few minutes. If I didn't know his true nature, I would have thought he was actually considering my offer.
Stupid chicken. He's just trying to annoy me.
Finally, he raised his head, laughing as he said:
"Hahahaha! Fine, a deal is a deal. But if I don't get precious things, I'll steal your precious things."
As he said this, he stared into my eyes with clear greed.
He wants them.
Tsk. I ignored him and started walking out; soon, I felt him returning to my Soul Sea.
In the training hall, I stood in the center and began conducting tests on my abilities.
First, I tried the simplest thing possible: summoning the power in a general way. Suddenly, pressure formed in front of me. It felt as if gravity had increased several times over in an instant. Naturally, I was the first person to fall from this sudden change.
After canceling it and standing up again, I tried to nullify gravity. Once more, before I knew it, my head slammed into the ceiling with force. I deactivated it, watching the chaos unfold. I stood in the middle, staring at the destruction. All the equipment had fallen, and many things were broken.
I didn't care and continued my experiments. This time, I tried to control the pressure. I felt it doubling. This time I was prepared, and it wasn't too intense. I focused and tried to increase it.
It increased. Threefold. Fourfold. Sevenfold. Tenfold.
It soon stopped at that number. In fact, if my guess was correct, it likely only reached tenfold because I am a Titan with seven cores. Perhaps if I had only one core, I could only have increased gravity by double.
I stopped the gravity and focused this time on weakening it slightly. Soon, I felt lighter, while other objects in the room began to float. I lightened it further, and soon I began hovering in the air. Well, that's if we ignore the fact that I could only fly upwards.
I stopped it and returned to the ground. Of course, things fell around me again. I must request a specialized private room, or perhaps experiment in an open courtyard. Unfortunately, there are too many spies and curious eyes.
Well, I'll return to Raven's Heart tonight and ask my mother to lend me one of the ice halls beneath the castle. For now, let's see what else we can do.
This time, I focused on myself. Sunny had his shadows to wrap around himself to double his strength. Nephis had her flames. So, what would I wrap around myself?
Actually, I didn't need to think much. All I did was sense my ability while thinking of it as if I were wrapping it around my own body. Soon, the space in front of me flickered. My strength doubled. The feeling was... magnificent.
I focused again on that same sensation and did it.
Three times my strength.
Four.
Seven times my strength.
In that moment, I felt invincible.
I stepped forward and threw my fist with everything I had at the training dummy in front of me.
I immediately regretted it.
The first thing I felt was the sound of snapping. Then came the pain. Due to my rapid momentum, I began falling to the ground. I raised my hands to stop the fall, and before I realized it, my broken hand touched the ground again. This time, I couldn't help myself and let out a loud scream.
"Daaaaamn it!"
Pain gnawed at every part of my mind as I wondered why I had failed like this. Ah. I soon realized the reason. This was one of my sisters' training rooms. That meant every training dummy here could withstand the strength of a Saint at least.
At that moment, my guard appeared and stood quietly over me. I raised my hand as she helped me up.
"Thank you."
"It is alright, my Prince. Let me help you to the healer."
Unfortunately, I wasn't entirely focused on her. It wasn't because I was ignoring her, nor was it the pain—I've been hit with worse things than a mere fracture. The reason was the loud voice in my ear.
"Haaaahaaa! Hahahahaha! Did you feel invincible? Hahahaha! If you humble yourself and ask me, maybe I'll consider helping you!"
Cursed chicken. Unfortunately, as I was leaving the training room and reached the vicinity of the healer's room, I froze in place. My sister was in front of me.
Jet.
Dammit. For a few seconds, we stared at each other in silence. Then her gaze drifted to my broken hand and returned to my face. For the next few seconds, she moved silently between my hand and my face. Then, she exploded.
"Hahaha! Hahaha! Did you get injured within the first hour of your return?"
"Thank you, sister, for your concern. I am fine," I answered her, praying to the gods that she would go on her way. The sound of one person laughing in my head was already enough.
Unfortunately, the gods did not answer my prayer because they are dead.
"Alright, alright, I'm sorry. Come, let me go with you," Jet said as we entered the healer's room together.
The healer was a man in his forties, stout with a light beard. He was an Awakened with healing abilities. His Dormant ability gave a sense of comfort to the injured area and helped increase self-healing capacity. As for his Awakened ability, it was a green light that helped heal wounds and injuries. Simple but useful.
When he looked into my eyes, he froze in place, and I felt a shiver run through his body. However, he soon returned to his professionalism, standing up and pulling a chair to help me sit as he began examining my hand.