The darkness that consumed his vision vanished and what appeared before him next was a small farmhouse.

On the porch, a familiar looking old man was sitting quietly next to another elderly lady.

Normally, seeing such a thing after all the things he was made to learn would have set alarm bells in Richard’s mind but this time he was calm.

He looked around and felt the air around him.

After he realized that everything was oddly real, he calmly made his way to the farmhouse.

"Took ya long enough kid"

"Kellin Kain and?"

Richard was familiar with the old man, he was the previous owner of the brass knuckle which meant that he had obviously sealed his own soul within the artifact he created.

But the old lady next to him... Richard had no clue who she was.

"Yarah- Yarah Kain"

The old lady was the one who answered, but that created more questions than answers.

"Necrophilia?"

Richard guessed the old lady was not part of any family document he had of Kellin Kain, if it was his son, Joshua Kain, then Richard would have known. Moreover, Kellin’s wife was-

"She’s the love of my life, I met her when I was a youth. If you wanna know, no- I didn’t kill her, hell, I only remembered her when she came drifting into this artifact because of my pact with her"

Kellin answered Richard, the young man squinted his eyes and observed the two old timers before letting out a sigh.

"She’s a lover you made in the middle east? So I’m going to assume you started making this artifact during your time as a soldier"

Richard was well aware of the Kellin’s storied past, there were lots of things that people could hide but few could hide the scars of war and awards of bravery.

"Hahaha! I expected nothing less from the descendant of Merlin!"

"Please stop, I’ve only awakened my bloodline recently, my knowledge of your background was limited by the things a "normal human" would know"

"Well, that’s painfully lacking"

"What?"

"Sit down kid, lemme tell you a story"

Richard didn’t accept the old man’s invitation, he was well aware of how old timers were-

"It won’t take long! If ya want this thing, then listening to an old man’s rambling is a small price to pay!"

While Richard was averse to wasting time sitting around and listening to an old man’s stories-

It wasn’t like he had anything important to do right?

"No... how about my body?"

He forgot about it but he was pulled into the artifact- was his body transported in or was it just his consciousness?

"Ya don’t hafta worry bout that, those two young ladies’ll take care of your body for ya!"

"... one of them’s a thousand year old gra-"

"If you ain’t gonna say something like granussy, then ya better shut yer mouth. I aint gon save ya if dat beautiful lady outside comes crashing in with intent to kill"

The words of the old man made Richard pause but his thoughts were more focused on one thing-

"How the hell do you know about granussy?"

"Hahaha! Kid, I aint got the best of vocabularies but my time in SOCOM gave me quite a bit of skill you see? But, if ya want me to start talkin all fancy with ya then forget it! Spent most of my life living with a mask, let me be mahself in the afterlife will ya?"

"..."

Richard didn’t know how to respond, first he got a boomer talking about "granussy" then he learned that the sack of bones was from the special forces!

But if that weren’t enough...

"I thought you were a sniper?"

"Ya think the army gun mark us bastards who do the dirty work publicly? Listing an operative as a medic is an easy way to give us madmen an easy way to move safely through danger zones’n take out the enemy commander"

Richard felt like he heard the old man admit to war crimes but he ignored it-

’Can’t really sue a dead man right? Or could they... I mean... it’s the American Justice- nah, it’s the international courts that would sue for war crimes. The American Justice System would protect him even in death’

He thought while letting out a sigh as he sat down on the empty chair in front of the two old timers.

"Let’s hear it"

He said while resting his body on the backrest, it was soft and comfortable, more than any of the luxurious pieces he sat on.

’Maybe it’s because it’s spiritual?’

Richard thought as he listened to the old man prattle along...

He thought that what he would hear was the love story of the old couple, maybe a few heroic tales that was "off the books".

What Richard didn’t expect was that he would spend maybe a couple of hours just listening to the old man tell his whole life story!

It was one thing for the old man to talk about how he met the old lady next to him who was the love of his life- but what does his childhood crush failing have to do with it?

Hell, his childhood crush married his best friend boohoo, but he quickly forgot about her and got into a relationship with a submissive alt-chick!

Richard didn’t need to know about what he did at "Lover’s point"!

He didn’t need the explicit story of how the alt-chick created a "bondage swing" where she got herself tied into a suggestive pose and had the young Kellin take her from behind-

’No, that sounds kinda interesting’

But the moment Richard showed a bit of interest, the old man immediately showed him the memory-

FULL HD.

"She’s hot"

"But not as hot as my wife"

"You forgot about her though"

"..."

What followed was a long period of the two old timers showing Richard their memories. They were unbothered by sharing uncensored shit until it was related to their love life.

Kellin, the old man, was willing to show Richard full HD footage of his sexcapades during his youth and even in his adulthood.

Hell, Richard even got a good look at the MILF mother of the druggy who sold him the storage container!

"She’s a witch by the way"

"I expected as much"

"She’s like that young lady you brought with you, she’s twice as old as me but still retains her youth"

"Damn..."

"Want her contacts?"

"Please!"

Such a conversation occurred between Richard and the old Kellin as they watched the moment when the deceased druggie was conceived.

"By the way, where’s the kid?"

Richard asked, at this point, he already knew of how Yarah was able to get into the artifact.

Kellin was apparently quite the romantic as he made a pact with the "only woman who could understand him". It seems that the young Kellin did not believe that Yarah would survive the middle east and at that point of his life, he was not a decorated veteran, just a young man paying for the sins of old money.

But the young Kellin was already aware of the mystic arts, his family was one that followed its practice but his son with the witch had no talent.

It’s the reason why the witch left him apparently.

The kid couldn’t even sense a single one of the thousands of spirits that haunted his mom.

Even the most "normal" person would have felt some chills but the kid can’t even tell that a hundred ghosts were typing to possess him. Even when he was possessed, he didn’t feel anything wrong after he woke up from the possession.

He wasn’t only numb to the mystical forces, he was also dumb.

This became even more obvious when Kelliin tried to forcefully make him experience mystical powers through "getting high".

That- unfortunately backfired, the attempt turned the kid into a druggie and since then, Kellin gave up on his only son.

Even then, Richard could tell that the old man likely made a secret pact with his kid. Maybe he planned to make the kid suffer the knowledge of "what could have been" or just give him a beating in the afterlife.

But the answer the old man gave Richard made him freeze-

"He vanished"

"What?"

"He died not long after you bought the container, you talked to yourself while organizing this in the Junkyard, remember?"

Richard did recall mumbling to himself as he set everything up.

"I heard you talking about his death, but he never came here, I tried to look for him through the pact and found that it’s been severed."

"Damn... wouldn’t breaking a pact have some big rebound?"

"That only happens in fiction, maybe the God’s could but do you think a mortal’s fragile soul could take the strain of maintaining a direct connection with contractors?"

The old man explained things clearly, unlike the Goddess who just gave him half of the information and let him build up the other half like an AI generating pixels.

Kellin properly explained how pacts were direct soul links. It was possible to maintain a strong connection and monitor a contractor through the pact but doing so would be like controlling two bodies at once.

Increase the number of pacts and you’re basically multitasking control over multiple souls.

Such a situation would be an extreme strain on even the strongest mortal soul and so, the pacts made by mortals were made the same way automatic systems were made. A given set or rules would define what happens, if the contractor dies, depending on the stipulations of the pact, the soul would be dragged to the pact maker.

"Like a fire and forget missile"

"Yes, like a fire and forget missile"

Lock onto a target, hear the ping, press the button and wait for the boom.

For his pacts, all Kellin had to do was make a pact and sit quietly until the souls of his contractors appear before him.

Still, there were ways to trace pacts and using that method, Kellin found out that his pact with his son was broken which made him understand why the soul of his bastard offspring did not appear despite the fact that he had already died.

"So, what does all this have to do with getting control of this artifact?"

The tales of Kellin Kain had already reached its end, at this point, Richard and the old man were just talking.

"Heh- well, as you know-"

"Thought you weren’t gunna go formal with me?"

"Hmph! I’m not going to beat around the bush, if you wanted to, the Goddess you made a pact with could easily purify and fix this artifact for you."

"What’s gonna happen to the two of you?"

The old couple answered Richard with a smile.

"Maintaining life this way does me no good, the only reason I even did this was to get one last chance at beating up that bastard of a son- when that time came, I planned to turn you into a sorcerer"

"..."

The old man revealed his true intentions and the plans he had made without any hesitation. But Richard wasn’t at all bothered.

"You planned to pass on your knowledge and techniques to me huh?"

"Yesterday... I would have- today? You got a better teacher"

"So- is this all you wanted? To have me acknowledge your existence?"

For the living, death was the end, some craved for it, others feared it. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

But to the dead, the true dead, people who had already passed but somehow still maintained a conscious existence in the world but are unable to affect it-

The potential eternity they have was only a momentary joy, the longer they live on this way, the more regrets would consume them.

But was that all? Did Kellin just want someone to remember him?

"No, you could forget me, I don’t mind. But... although this may be too much to ask... Yarah... she left a daughter"

Richard quickly understood but his answer was clear and blunt-

"Do I need to go to the middle east? If so, no... sorry, as much as I would like to thank you for keeping the few valuable I have left safe-"

But Kellin shook his head as he cut Richard off-

"No no no, my daughter with Yarah... Kyla Kain. She’s in New York..."

At that point, it was Yarah who came to explain.

After Kellin was transferred, he had left Yarah with money and made some calls to help her get out of the middle east.

At that point, neither Yarah nor Kellin knew that their love had already bore fruit.

Yarah was quickly able to settle in the big apple but not more than a few months later, her stomach began to grow and the small part time jobs that allowed her to support herself slowly became harder to do and what was more worrying was the rising cost in her living.

Before she was able to even give birth, the money she needed for medicine, check-ups and her eventual delivery became a looming storm threatening to destroy her life.

"That’s the American Healthcare system for you"

Although it was untimely, Richard joked a bit to lighten the mood which wasn’t bad as Yarah did not die of childbirth.

Kellin’s associates were aware of her plight and they had secretly supported her. Of course, Kellin was not informed of any of it as he was out on a rather special mission.

Whatever it was that caused such a shitty situation though, it all ended up well.

Yarah was provided child support and other things by Kellin’s associates under his name.

Aware of Kellin’s job, Yarah did not question it, of course, all she knew was that Kellin is some important leader in the military. Not that he was part of SOCOM.

Later on, when Kellin finally retired, Yarah was informed of his death and she was sent the help provided to family members of deceased servicemen.

In actuality, Kellin had a "fake death", his identity was compromised and he had to take on another name as he retired.

Moreover, since Yarah was the last string to his previous identity, Kellin was never informed of her fate and the man, now jaded by the things he’s seen and done, was too messed up in the head to actually think of those things.

From then on, Kellin built a business- a funeral home which he used to mask his jump into magic.

Occasionally he would get called in back to service to do things like instructing "new blood" and all that. But he never saw active combat and just worked as a teacher, a mentor.

Then as time passed, he lived the rest of his life indulging in the mystical arts before he died and now he was just an old man who found himself getting chased by his own past.

"Kyla Kain, is that her name?"

"No... Kyla Bell, that’s her current name", Yarah answered Richard which made the young man turn towards Kellin and ask-

"So Bell was your real surname? What was your real name?"

"Old news, I’m Kellin Kain, my wife is Yarah Kain and our daughter is Kyla Kain"

Kellin answered while Yarah showed an image of Kyla.

"How am I supposed to approach her? You think she’ll believe me if I said told her, "Your father left you a fortune! Follow me and I’ll show you!", she’s likely going to call the cops on me if I did that"

Even if Richard was willing to help out Kyla Kain, the problem was that he’s not the billionaire Damien Dixon anymore. He’s nothing more than a nobody, Robert Rex. Yes, he had a few riches with him but giving someone wealth and leaving would do more harm than good.

Kellin’s son is a classic example of that.

"Kyla’s not like Joshua... but your right- she won’t just accept money from strangers..."

Kellin muttered but when he had nothing to say, it was Yarah who came to save the day!

"Kyla and I have a secret code, we made it when she was young and the lock to the apartment was broken so Kyla had to open the door for me for a few days"

"She’s not going to remember that"

"Isn’t it worth a try?"

"..."

"Fine, but until then, this artifact would remain as is. I need more insurance in case this "secret code" doesn’t work".

Richard told the couple with a sigh making the old timers give the young man bright smiles in response.