I Only Want To Kill-Chapter 85: Collection of Planes

"Hello, Francois. I am Blaze. I can accept the thirty percent cut if you can answer my question."

Francois growls in a low tone.

"No questions. It is our policy."

"Alright. One percent then."

Francois is dumbfounded, rolling his eyes to the back of his head.

"Are you crazy? Who does extraction for one percent?

One question. Twenty percent."

Francois raises his index finger.

"One question, one percent."

Blaze calmly answers.

"What kind of price is this? You don’t even raise the percentage!"

"One question is not worth raising the percentage."

Francois grinds his teeth, holding the Snake’s Core like a precious baby in his arms.

"Twenty-five percent. You can ask five questions."

"Maximum ten percent.

Ten percent for ten questions, but you have to answer every single one truthfully."

"Deal!"

Francois reaches his hand out for a handshake.

Blaze doesn’t grab it, instead swiping on the screen of the Diametric Cube again, taking out a Celestial Contract.

The Contract reacts differently this time and immediately shines brightly, filling the room with golden light.

Francois gasps in disbelief and yells out in panic.

"A Celestial Contract?! No! I am not signing those!

Put it away before they come!"

"They?"

Blaze holds the scroll in front. Its light illuminates Francois, but he hides from it like a vampire scared of sunlight.

"Ten percent! Ten percent! I’ll answer everything you want to know!

Please put it away before it is too late!"

The scroll disappears from Blaze’s hand and returns to the Cube.

Francois’s head emerges cautiously from behind the counter. His eyes dart around the room to make sure that everything is still intact.

He lets out a relieved breath.

"You just gave me a heart attack, boy! Where did you even obtain that Contract?"

"From my father."

"Your father? How did he get it?"

"I don’t know. But I know he died because of a Blood Oath. I’m trying to figure out why."

"Only demons deal in blood. Your father dipped his hand in very dangerous territory there."

Francois says in a low tone, as if he’s afraid someone may hear it even though they are the only two in the room.

"Demon? What are they?"

He hears the term the second time. The first was when Blaze met the Bunny Man.

"That I can’t tell you. I’m not trying to play games, kid. But beings like them can sense us if we even talk about them.

This is the most that I can tell you."

"I understand."

At least Blaze has a trace to follow. Blood Oath, Demon and the Moonlight. These are the only clues his father left behind.

Francois steps out from the counter.

"Come, sit down at my table. This is going to take a while."

Francois leads Blaze to the wooden table from the side. Its legs are short and accompanied by also very short chairs.

Blaze has no reason to refuse and sit beside the old man.

With one flick of Francois’s finger, a wood teapot and two small wood cups appear. Clean white steam is flowing out from the spout of the pot.

"Woah? Did you just create that out of thin air?"

Francois rolls his eyes.

"What do you think I am, boy? A god? This is Object Displacement, a B-rank power. It simply teleports objects around."

"I see."

Francois rolls up his long sleeves to pick up the pot and pour the two of them some tea. The tea is boiling hot and has a greenish color.

"Tea?"

"I don’t drink from a stranger’s cup."

"Haha."

Francois laughs stiffly. The boy is too cautious for his age.

"Well. Ask away. I have all afternoon for you."

"It’s actually evening where I’m from."

Francois laughs again, he just slipped up another time. Talking with sharp people like Blaze is really a chore.

"Alright. I won’t ask whatever it is you can’t answer. We all know that there are forces in this world that we can’t resist.

Let me start with something simple. What actually is the Pocket Center?"

Francois crosses his arms and bites his lips, carefully thinking about the answer.

One wrong word and he can be in big trouble.

"Here’s what I can tell you.

You are correct to think that the Pocket Center is not a pocket dimension. The door that you entered is, in fact, a portal.

We are the neutral force that exists everywhere, and we don’t take sides. What we do is only business.

We help you extract the Core. You give us some of the Extraction. A win-win situation for both.

Anything more than that I cannot say."

"Fair enough.

What do you know about the demons and Blood Oath?"

"That I can answer wholeheartedly. Blood Oath is created by the demons.

While the gods take hold of us via our very own essence of being. The demons do not have this much power.

They are prohibited from forcefully taking one soul and one body.

That is why you always hear stories about some demon tricking you into selling your soul.

The Blood Oath, on the other hand, is a permanent mark left in a mortal bloodline. Once you have a Blood Oath, you and all your offspring from then on are dictated by it.

You know the Void, correct?

I mean, what am I even saying? Of course you know the Void. It is where you got the Core.

People know that there are seven layers to the Void. The common and safest one is the Mirror Layer.

A reflection of the real physical world.

The demons reside in the deeper layer of the Void, near the bottom of this endless collection of planes."

"Deeper than the Abyss?"

"You are more knowledgeable than I thought. And yes, it is deeper than the Abyss. But I have no idea where it is exactly and what its name is.

Now I don’t know what your father has gotten himself into. But a Blood Oath is no joking matter.

If you want to free yourself and all your from this curse. You have to go find the demon that made the deal with your father."

Blaze stays silent. He encountered an indescribable being at the fourth layer, the Abyss. Now he learns that his father is even bolder, reaching deeper layers and in contact with a demon.

Blaze and the Void really have a special connection.

"Thank you. That’s all I want to know."

"That’s it? I thought you wanted to ask at least ten questions."

"That was just bluffing. My mother taught me to respect the elderly."

Francois’s mouth corner twitches slightly. The boy lies without any shame.

"I’m hoping that we will establish a long-lasting and beneficial partnership from now, Sir Francois. If I have any Core, I will come to you first."

"Spare me your lies. Just tell me if the extraction of this Core is everything you need."

"I only have that one Core."

"Broke-ass kid. Scaring and bothering me for only one simple Core. Stay here. I’ll be right back."

Francois takes the Snake’s Core and exits through the door behind the counter.

Blaze has no intention of following him. He was truthful when he said that he wanted to establish a partnership with Francois.

It’s just that he won’t be the only one Blaze will try to get close to. He is not going to extract all the Core with one Conductor.

Blaze intends to use the other doors to see what the other Conductors are like.